SOURCE SECTION: cyril_scholia_incarnation_01_text.htm
Cyril of Alexandria, Scholia on the incarnation of the Only-Begotten. Oxford (1881) pp.185-236.
Cyril of Alexandria, Scholia on the incarnation of the Only-Begotten. LFC 47, Oxford (1881) pp.185-236.
A library of fathers of the holy Catholic church: anterior to the division of the East and West, vol. 47
1. What is Christ?
2. How we must understand Emmanuel.
3. What is Jesus.
4. Why the Word of God was called Man.
5. In what way the Word of God is said to have been emptied.
6. How Christ is One.
7. How Emmanuel is One.
8. What we say the union is.
9. Of the coal.
10. That the flesh having a reasonable soul hath become the Body of the unembodied Godhead, and that by severing them one from another, we shall wholly and surely undo the plan of the economy in Christ.
11. That the Word being co-brought to true union with the human nature, the things united have remained unconfused.
12. That the Word being God was made Man, and that not man merely honoured with bare connection was called to equal Dignity or Authority with God the Word, as some suppose.
13. That the Word of God made Man is called Christ Jesus.
14. Proofs of Divine Scripture, that the Word of God even when made Man remained God.
15. Another.
16. Another.
17. That Christ was not a God-clad man, nor did the Word of God merely dwell in a man, but rather that He was made Flesh, or Perfect Man, according to the Scriptures.
18. Ideas or thoughts.
19. Apostolic sayings wherein Christ is called God.
20. Another.
21. Another.
22. Another.
23. Another.
24. Another.
25. Another.
26. [This number break found in Syriac only; Latin continues chapter 25]
27. How we must understand The Word was made Flesh and dwelt in us, and how the Word is sent which is God, and how the Body is said to be His own.
28. How the holy Virgin is conceived of as Mother of God.
29. Sayings about Christ.
30. Another.
31. Another.
32. That the Only-Begotten is called God even when appearing as Man.
33. Another.
34. Another.
35. Another.
36. Of the Passion of Christ, and that it is profitable that we speak in one manner and another of One and the Same, nor do we divide Him into twain.
37. Against those who say the human befit God the Word by reference only.
S. CYRIL
BISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA
SCHOLIA ON THE INCARNATION OF THE ONLY-BEGOTTEN.
[Translated by P.E. Pusey]
1. What is Christ?
The name Christ hath neither the force of a definition, nor does it denote the essence of any of what kind it is, as for example a man or a horse or an ox, but it rather makes declaration of a thing wrought. For some of them of old were anointed with oil, as then pleased God, and the anointing was a token to them of kingdom: Prophets too were spiritually anointed with the Holy Ghost, so as thence too to be named christs (and 1 the blessed David sings in the Person of God and says, Touch not Mine anointed and do My Prophets no harm: the Prophet Habuccuc too says, Thou wentest forth for the salvation of Thy people, to save Thy christs): but in regard of Christ the Saviour of all we say that an anointing took place, yet neither symbolic, as though done with oil, nor as for the grace of Prophet's office, nor yet that which is understood as in destination for the achievement of ought, such as we say took place in the case of Cyrus, who reigned over the Persians and Medes, for he led an army against the land of the Babylonians, God Almighty over all instigating him thereto. For it was said, Thus saith the Lord to Cyrus My christ, whose right hand I held. Albeit the man was an idolater, he was called christ, by reason of being as it were anointed king by the decree from above and fore-ordained by God to mightily |186 subdue the land of the Babylonians:----but this rather do we say 2.
Since on account of the transgression in Adam, sin hath reigned against all, and then the Holy Ghost fled away from the human nature and it came therefore to be in all ill, and it needed that by the Mercy of God, it mounting up to its pristine condition should be accounted worthy of the Spirit:----the Only-Begotten Word of God became Man, and appeared to them on earth with Body of earth, and was made free from sin, that in Him Alone the nature of man crowned with the glories of sinlessness, should be rich in the Holy Ghost, and thus be re-formed unto God through holiness: for thus does the grace pass through to us too, having for its beginning Christ the First-born among us. And therefore does the blessed David teaching us sing to the Son, Thou lovedst righteousness and hatedst wickedness, therefore God, Thy God anointed Thee with the oil of gladness.
The Son therefore has been anointed like us in human wise 3 with the praises of sinlessness, as I said: the nature of man having in Him been made illustrious and now become worthy of partaking of the Holy Ghost, no more departing, as at the beginning, but delighting to dwell therein. Wherefore it is also written that the Spirit soared down upon Christ and hath abode upon Him. Christ therefore is the Word of God called Who because of us and as we is Man and in servant's form: both anointed as Man after the Flesh, and anointing Divinely with His own Spirit them that believe on Him.
2. How we must understand Emmanuel.
God the Word is named Emmanuel, because He laid hold of the seed of Abraham and like as partook of flesh and blood. Now Emmanuel is interpreted, With us is God. But we confess that the Word of God was with us, not |187 locally (for in what place is God not, Who fills all things?) nor because He is seen to come to us by way of aid (for thus was it said to Jesus, As I was with Moses, so I will be, with thee too), but because He was made in our condition, i. e. in human nature, without forsaking His own Nature, for the Word of God is Unchangeable in Nature.
But why was it, when it was said to Jesus, As I was with Moses, so I will be with thee, that he was nevertheless not called Emmanuel? this is the reason, even though He be said to be with any of the saints. We therefore say that He God the Word became with us, at that time of which Baruch says, He did shew Himself upon earth and conversed with men, and found out all the way of instruction and gave it to Jacob His servant and to Israel His beloved, for He is our God and there shall none other be accounted of in comparison with Him. As far then as pertained to His being God by Nature, He was not with us; for incomparable is the difference between Godhead and manhood and exceeding great the difference of the natures.
And therefore was the Divine David calling to Mystic relationship God the Word Who had not as yet come to us and saying in spirit, Why hast Thou departed far from us, O Lord, despisest us in season in tribulation? Therefore He departed not 4 from us, but was with us, Who while He remained what He was, took hold of the seed of Abraham, as I said; received moreover the form of a servant, and was beheld as Man upon the earth.
But Christ and Emmanuel signify to us the Same Son, the one, because He was anointed as we in human wise, receiving the Spirit for the nature of man in Himself first (for He is set forth as the first beginning of the race), |188 Himself again anointing, as God, with the Holy Ghost those who believe in Him; the other, because He was with us in the way I have explained, whereof the Prophet Isaiah tells us saying, Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son and shall call His Name Immanuel. For when the holy Virgin conceived out of the Holy Ghost, but bare according to the flesh a Son, then too was He called Emmanuel; for the Incorporeal was with us by carnal birth, and that took place which was told by David, God shall appear openly, our God and shall not be silent, and that (I deem), I Who speak am at hand. For the Word spake through the Prophets as yet Unembodied, He came Embodied.
3. What is Jesus.
By the force of the ideas 5 whereby we are bound to speak of One Son of God, Christ and Emmanuel and Jesus are the Same, and this name too from the fact, for He shall save (it says) His people from their sins. For just as the name Emmanuel meant, that the Word of God through His Birth of a woman was made with us; and Christ again, that made Man. He is said to be anointed as we in human wise; so too Jesus, that He saved us His people, which specially proves Him to be truly God and by Nature Lord of all. For the creature is not said to belong to a mere man 6, but rather it will befit to say that all things are the Only-Begotten's even though He was made Man.
Some one haply will say, Yet the people of Israel were called Moses'.
To this we will say, The people was called God's and that was true; but because they passed into revolt, and made a calf in the desert, they were dishonoured of God, He vouchsafed not any more to call them His people, but made them over to a man. Not so we, for we are Jesus' own, in that He is God and all things created through Him. For so saith David, For He hath made us and not we ourselves, we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His |189 Hand. And Himself again says of us, My sheep hear My voice and they follow Me, and again, And other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring and there shall be one fold, one Shepherd. And He bade too the blessed Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me? feed My lambs.
4. Why the Word of God was called Man.
The Word out of God the Father was called Man, albeit by Nature God, in that He partook of blood and flesh like we. For thus was He seen of those on the earth, and not letting go what He was, but assuming human nature like us, perfect as regards itself; yet in human nature too hath He remained God and Lord of all, by Nature and in truth Begotten of God the Father. And this the most wise Paul most clearly shews us, for he says, The first man is of the earth earthy, the second Man the Lord 7 out of Heaven. Albeit the holy Virgin hath borne the Temple united to the Word, yet is Emmanuel said to be (and rightly) out of heaven, for from above and out of the Essence of God the Father was His Word begotten. Yet He descended unto us when He was made Man; yet thus too is He from above. And John testified, saying of Him, He that cometh from above is above all, and Christ Himself saith to the people of the Jews, Ye are from beneath, I am from above, and again, I am not of this world, albeit He was as Man. called part of the world; yet therewith also was He above: the world as God. For we remember that He plainly says, And no man hath ascended up to heaven but He That came down from Heaven, the Son of man. But we say that the |190 Son of Man came down from Heaven by an economic union, the Word allotting to His own Flesh the endowments of His glory and God-befitting Excellency.
5. In what way the Word of God is said to have been emptied.
God the Word full by nature and in every way Perfect, and distributing out of His own Fullness His own goods to the creature, we say was emptied: in no wise wronged in His own Proper Nature, nor changed so as to become otherwise, nor made in ought inferior, for inconvertible and unchangeable is Himself also even as He Who begat Him, and never may He be capable of passion. But when He was made Flesh, i.e. Man, He made (as He said, I will pour forth of My Spirit upon all flesh) the poverty of human nature His own; first, in that He was once made man, albeit He remained God; next in that He took the form of a servant, Who is in His own Nature free, as Son, and while He is Himself the Lord of glory He is said to receive glory: Himself Life, He is said to be quickened: and receives power over all, Himself King of all and with God, and Ho was obedient to the Father, suffered the Cross and so on. But these things befit the measure of the human nature, yet He makes them His own with flesh and fulfils the economy, remaining what He was.
6. How Christ is One.
The Divine Paul writes, Though there be gods many and lords many in heaven and in earth, yet to us One God the Father of Whom all things and we of Him, and One Lord Jesus Christ through Whom all things and we through Him. Yea and the very wise John said of God the Word, that All things were made through Him, and without Him was nothing made, and the blessed Gabriel declared the Gospel to the Holy Virgin saying, Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb and, bear a Son, and shalt call His Name Jesus. Since then the Divine Paul declares that all things were made through Jesus Christ, and the Divine Evangelist confirms the force of the sentence and preaches that He |191 was God the Maker of all things, speaking truly, and the Angel's voice too points out that Jesus Christ was truly born of the Holy Virgin: yet we do not say that Jesus Christ was mere man 8, nor do we conceive of God the Word apart from His human nature but, we say that He was made One out of both, as God made Man, the Same begotten Divinely out of the Father as Word, and humanly out of woman as Man: not as though called to a second beginning of being then when He is said to have been born after the flesh: but begotten indeed before all ages, yet when the time came wherein He must fulfil the economy, born also of a woman after the flesh. Therefore, albeit others are called by like name christs, yet is there One Jesus Christ through Whom are all things, not that a man was made Maker of all things, but that God the Word, through Whom all things were made, like as we took part of flesh and blood, and was called Man, yet lost not what He was; for so, so made in flesh is He rightly understood to be Maker of all.
7. How Emmanuel is One.
Once for all in the last ages is God the Word said to have been made Man, and (as Paul saith) was manifested by the Sacrifice of Himself. And what is the Sacrifice? He offered His own Body for us for an odour of a sweet savour to God the Father, and entered in once into the holy place not by the blood of goats and hulls, but by His own Blood, for so to them who believe on Him obtained He eternal redemption. Therefore very many before Him were saints but no one of them was called Emmanuel. Why? For not yet had the time come, when He was to be with us, i.e., to come in our nature through flesh, Who is superior to every creature. One therefore is Emmanuel, for once was the Only-Begotten made Man, when He underwent fleshly Birth through the holy Virgin. For it was said to Jesus too, I |192 will be with thee, yet was he not Emmanuel; He was also with Moses, yet neither was he called Emmanuel. As often therefore as we hear the name, With us is God, given to the Son, let us wisely conceive that not so was He with us in the last times, as He is sometimes said to have been with the saints, for with them He was as a helper only: but with us He was, because He was made like us, not losing His own nature, for He is unchangeable as God.
8. What we say the union is.
Union is arrived at in many ways: for some severed in disposition and mind and at variance one with another are said to be united in friendly agreement, laying aside their differences. And we say that things are united which are joined to one another or brought together in other ways, either by juxta-position or mixture or composition. When therefore we say that the Word of God was united to our nature, the mode of union is clearly above man's understanding; for it is not like one of those mentioned, but wholly ineffable and known to no one of those who are, save only to God Who knoweth all things.
And no marvel, if we are overcome by such ideas, when if we accurately investigate our own matters how they be, we confess that the grasp of them is beyond the understanding that is in us. For after what mode we conceive that the soul of man is united to his body, who can tell? But if we, who are wont to conceive and avail to speak scantly and with difficulty must form our judgement of things so subtil and beyond understanding and speech; we say that it will befit to conceive (yet altogether less than the truth is our word) that of such sort is the union 9 of |193 Emmanuel, as one reckons that the soul of man too has with its own body. For the soul makes its own the things of the body although in its own nature imparticipate of its sufferings, both physical and those brought on it from without. For the body is moved to natural desires and the soul which is in it shares the perception thereof by reason of the union, but participates in no way, yet thinks that the achievement of the desire is its own enjoyment. And even though the body be struck by any or be cut with steel, it co-grieves, its own body suffering, yet will itself in its own nature suffer nought of the things inflicted.
Nevertheless above this too do we say that the union is in the case of Emmanuel. For it were necessary that the soul united thereto should grieve along with its own body, that so, fleeing the disgrace, it might submit a tractable neck to God. But of God the Word, it were absurd to say that He were co-percipient of the contumelies (for free from passion is the Godhead and not in our condition), yet has He been united to flesh possessed of a reasonable soul, and when it suffered, He was impassibly in cognizance of what befell it and brought to naught as God the infirmities of the flesh, yet made them His own as belonging to His own Body: thus is He said both to hunger and be weary and suffer for us.
Hence the union of the Word with the human nature may be not unaptly compared with our condition. For as the body is of other nature than the soul, yet is one man |194 produced and said to be of both; so too out of the Perfect Person of God the Word, and of manhood perfect in its own mode, is One Christ, the Same God and Man in the Same. And the Word (as I said) makes its own the sufferings of Its own Flesh, because Its own is the Body and not another's: and It shares with Its own Flesh the operation of the God-befitting might that is within It; so that it should be able both to quicken the dead and to heal the sick.
But if we must, using examples out of the God-inspired Scripture, shew as in type the mode of the union, come let us say it, as we are able.
9. Of the coal.
The Prophet Isaiah says, There was sent unto me one of the Seraphim and in his hand a live coal which he took with the tongs from off the altar and he said to me, Lo this touched thy lips and shall take away thine iniquities and purge thy sins. But we say that the live coal fulfils to us the type and image of the Incarnate Word, Who, if He touch our lips, i. e., when we confess the faith Him-ward, doth then both make us pure from every sin and free us from the pristine charges against us.
Natheless one may see in the coal, as in an image, the Word of God united to the human nature, yet not losing the being what He is, but rather trans-elementing what He had taken, or united, unto His own glory and operation. For as fire having to do with wood and entering into it, seizes hold of it, and removes it not from being wood, but transmutes it rather into the appearance and force of fire, and inworks all its own property therein, and it is now reckoned one with it, so shall you conceive of Christ too. For God united ineffably with the manhood, hath kept it what we say that it is, and Himself hath remained what He was; but once united, is accounted one with it, making His own what is its, and Himself too introducing into it the operation of His own Nature. |195
10. That the flesh having a reasonable soul hath become the Body of the unembodied Godhead, and that by severing them one from another, we shall wholly and surely undo the plan of the economy in Christ.
In the Song of Songs our Lord Jesus Christ Himself has been introduced to us saying, I am the flower of the plain, the lily of the vallies. As then the smell is something unembodied, for it uses as its own body that wherein it is, yet is the lily conceived of as one out of both, and the failing of one utterly destroys the plan thereof, for in the object is the smell and the object is its body: so shall we conceive of the Nature of the Godhead in Christ too, that it sheds forth on the world the savour of His own more than earthly Excellence 10, as in the object His human Nature, and that the unembodied by Nature became by economic union all-but embodied also, because It willed to be recognized through the Body; for It hath wrought therein things God-befitting. Hence will the Unembodied be rightly conceived of as in His own Body, even as in the flower too, the object, is the scent, yet both together is called lily.
11. That the Word being co-brought to true union with the human nature, the things united 11 have remained unconfused.
The holy Tabernacle was reared by the will of God in the wilderness and in it was manifoldly typified Emmanuel. The God of all said therefore to the divine Moses, And thou shalt make an ark of incorruptible wood, two cubits and a half its length, and a cubit and half its breadth and a cubit and a half its height, and thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, within and without shalt thou overlay it. But the wood that will not rot will be a type of the incorruptible Body (for cedar does not rot); gold as matter surpassing all others will indicate to us the Excellence of the Divine Essence. |196
But observe how the whole ark 12 was overlaid with pure gold within and without. For God the Word was united to the holy Flesh, and this (I deem) is it that the ark was overlaid without. But that He made His own the reasonable Soul also that was within the Body, will this shew, viz., that He bade that it should be overlaid within also. And that the Natures or Hypostases have remained unconfused, shall we see hence. For the gold that was spread upon the wood, remained what it was, and the wood was rich in the glory of the gold; yet it ceased not from being wood.
But that the ark is taken as a type of Christ one may be assured of through many proofs. For it used to precede them of Israel, seeking rest for them; Christ too somewhere says, I go to prepare a place for you.
12. That the Word being God was made Man, and that not man merely honoured with bare connection was called to equal Dignity or Authority with God the Word, as some suppose.
The Divine Paul says that great is the Mystery of godliness. And this is true, for the Word was manifested in the flesh, since He is God; justified in Spirit, for in no wise is He seen to be holden by our infirmities, albeit for us made Man, for He did no sin; seen moreover of angels, for neither were they ignorant of His generation after the Flesh; He was preached moreover unto the Gentiles, as God made Man; and thus believed on in the world. And this the Divine Paul proved thus writing, Wherefore remember that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands, that at that time ye were without Christ, aliened from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without |197 God in the world. The Gentiles were therefore without God in the world, when they were without Christ; but when they acknowledged Him to be truly and by Nature God, themselves too were acknowledged by Him confessing the faith. And He was received up into glory, Divine glory that is; for blessed David sings, God is gone up in joy. For He went up verily with Body, not in bare Godhead, for God was Incarnate.
We believe therefore, not in one like us honoured with Godhead by grace, lest we be caught worshippers of a man, but rather in the Lord Who appeared in servant's form, and Who was truly like us and in human nature, yet remained God, for God the Word, when He took flesh, laid not down what He was, but is conceived of the Same God alike and Man.
Thus is the faith and rightly. But if any say, What harm if a man like us be conceived of as laying hold on Godhead and not God rather be made man? we shall answer that there are a thousand things which may be brought to bear against this, and which all but tell us that we ought firmly to strive against it and not thus to believe.
For come before ought else, let us look at the mode of the economy with Flesh and thoroughly investigate the nature of our condition; the nature of man was perilled and was brought down to the extreme of ill, condemned to curse and death and involved in the toils of sin, was straying and was in darkness, it knew not Him Who is by Nature and truly God, it worshipped the creature more than the Creator. How then could it be freed from such ills? Or do we say that it was lawful for it to lay hold on the Divine Nature, albeit it did not at all know what the Dignity of the Supreme Nature is, it which was holden of unlearning and darkness, and denied by the soil of sin? how was it like that it could mount up to the All-Pure Nature and lay hold on glory which none can lay hold of, except he receive it? For let it be supposed that by knowledge for example, and through knowing we say that it lays hold thereof: who is to teach it? For how shall they believe |198 except they hear? But this is not at all to take hold of Godhead, and to seize the glory that beseems It.
Hence it will be more meet (and reasonably so) to conceive that God the Word through Whom are all things, desiring to save that which was lost; by co-abasement unto us, lowered Himself to what He was not, in order that the nature of man too might become what it was not, eminent in the Dignities of the Divine Supremacy by union with Him, and should be rather brought up to what was above nature, than bring down unto what was alien from His Nature, the Unchangeable, as God. It behoved that the Incorruptible should lay hold on the nature subject to corruption, that He might free it from the corruption, it behoved that He Who knew not to sin should be made conformal with those who were under sin, that He might make sin to cease: for as where is light, there surely darkness will have no work, so where incorruption is present, is all necessity that corruption flee, and that, since He Who knew not sin hath made His own that which was under sin, sin should come to nought.
But that the Word, being God, was made Man, and not rather that Christ was Man deified, I will endeavour to shew from the Holy Scriptures also. Blessed Paul says therefore of the Only-Begotten, Who being in the Form of God thought not the being equal with God a thing to seize, but emptied Himself taking servant's form, made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross; wherefore God also highly exalted Him and gave Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus Christ every knee should bow of heavenly and earthly and infernal and every tongue confess Lord Jesus Christ to the glory of God the Father.
Whom therefore shall we say was in the Form of God and Equality of the Father, and thought these things not a thing to seize; but descended rather into emptiness and into servant's form, and humbleth Himself and was made in our likeness? If man made of a woman bare and sole, |199 how was he in the Form and Equality of the Father? or how has he fulness that he may be conceived of as emptied? or in what height placed afore, is he said to have humbled himself? or how was he made in the likeness of men, who was so formerly too by nature, even though haply he were not said to be so made? yea where was he emptied, taking the fulness of the Godhead? or how was he not made most high who mounted up into glory supernal?
Therefore we say that not man was made God, but rather that the Word of God Who was in Equality and Form of the Father was made in emptiness because of: the human nature, for He was emptied in this way, by reason of our likeness, being Full, as God: He was humbled on account of the Flesh, while He departeth not from the Throne of the Divine Majesty, for He hath His Seat Most High: He was made in the likeness of men, being of the Same Form with the Father, of Whose Essence He is the Form. Yet since He was once made as we, He is said to have ascended with Flesh too into the glory of the Godhead, which indeed He had evident as His own, yet was He in it after another sort, on account of the Human Nature, for He is believed to be Lord of all, even with Flesh.
But to Him boweth every knee, and that not to the grief or dishonour of the Father, but rather to His glory: for He rejoiceth and is glorified when the Son is adored by all, albeit made like us; for it is written again, For He took not on Him angels but He took on Him the seed of Abraham, wherefore in all things it behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren. Lo the Word took hold of the seed of Abraham, in that He is God, not some man like us took hold of Godhead, and He is Himself made like unto us, and is called our Brother as Man, not we to Him as regards the Nature of the Godhead. And again: Forasmuch then as the children partook of blood and flesh, He also Himself likewise partook of them, that through death He might destroy him who holdeth the power of death, that is, the devil, and might deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. Lo again Himself just as |200 we partook of blood and flesh; and this hath a reason most closely united and kin, for it is written, For what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of flesh of sin and for sin condemned sin in the flesh. Observe again that not man is shewn to be affecting the Divine Nature, and mounting up to His Dignity; but God the Father sending rather His Son in the likeness of flesh of sin to destroy sin. Therefore the Word, being God, made Man let Himself down into emptiness; and Christ is seen to be no mere man, affecting the Divine Glory.
13. That the Word of God made Man is called Christ Jesus.
Desiring to investigate the Mystery of the economy with flesh of the Only Begotten, we say this, holding true doctrine and right faith, that the Word Himself out of God the Father, Very God out of Very God, the Light That is out of Light, was Incarnate and made Man, descended suffered rose from the dead: for thus defined the holy and great Synod the Symbol of the Faith;
But investigating and desiring to learn what is the true meaning of the Word being Incarnate and made Man; we see that it is not to take man in connection in regard of equality of dignity or authority or of mere community of name of sonship; but rather to be made man as we, together with His preserving to His own Nature Its being unchanged and without turn, Who economically became in assumption of flesh and blood.
One therefore is He Who before the Incarnation is called by the God-inspired Scripture, Only-Begotten, Word, God, Image, Brightness, Impress of the Person of the Father, Life, Glory, Light, Wisdom, Power, Arm, Right Hand, Most Highest, Magnificence, Lord of Sabaoth, and other like names, truly most God-befitting; and after the Incarnation, Man, Christ Jesus, Propitiation, Mediator, Firstfruits of them that slept, First-begotten of the dead, Second Adam, Head of the Body the Church; the first |201 names also following Him: for all are His, both the first and those in the last times of the world.
One therefore is He Who both before the Incarnation was Very God and in the human nature hath remained That He was and is and shall be. We must not then sever the One Lord Jesus Christ into Man separately and into God separately, but we say that Jesus Christ is One and the Same, yet knowing the distinction of the Natures and keeping them unconfused with one another.
When therefore Holy Writ says that in Christ dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, we do not therefore say that the Word by Himself dwelt in another, the man Christ, nor plucking asunder one from another things united do we conceive of two sons, but this rather, that holy Writ calls by the name Christ sometimes separately the human nature of the Word of God which He having as His own, used as a Temple. And it has been written somewhere of human souls also, Them that dwell in houses of clay, whereof we too are of the same clay. Do we then, since he calls the bodies of men houses of clay, and affirms that their souls dwell in them, sever one man into two? yet how is it not wholly without blame 13, that in a man should be said to dwell his spirit? so that even though the form of speech passes through this mode, unable to do otherwise, it does not beseem that the natures of things are therefore injured, but rather we must conceive that they hasten the straight way of the truth.
When then any of those things which do not possess like nature one with another, are seen brought together to unity by composition, and the one (for example) is said to dwell within the other; we must not sunder them into two, seeing that the concurrence unto unity is in no wise injured, even though one of the things united be separately called by us what the two together are. For in man too (as I said) is said to dwell his spirit; yet both the spirit separately and likewise the body are called man. |202 And some such thing as this doth the most wise Paul indicate to us saying, For though our outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day. When then any saith that our inward man dwelleth in our outward man, he speaks true, yet he does not sever the one into two. The Prophet Isaiah too somewhere saith, By night does my spirit rise early unto Thee, O God. Is then his spirit said to rise early to God, as being other than himself? albeit how is it not absurd to say any thing of this kind? Therefore we must know figures of speech, yet not depart from what is reasonable, but fetch about the force of the things signified to the aim befitting each.
And although Jesus be said to advance in age and wisdom and grace, this will pertain to the economy. For the Word of God permitted His Humanity to advance by reason of the habits of its proper nature, and willed as it were by little and little to extend the illustriousness of His own Godhead, and along with the age of the Body to put out therewith what is Its own; so that nought strange should be seen and terrify any with its overmuch unwontedness: while even so they spake, How knoweth this man letters having never learned? Therefore bodily is the increase; and the advance in grace and wisdom will befit the measures of the Human nature: yet we say that the Word out of God is Himself in His own Nature All-Perfect, not lacking advance, nor wisdom, nor grace, but that He imparts rather to the creature wisdom and grace and the things whereby it is in good case.
And though Jesus be said also to suffer, the suffering will belong to the economy; but is said to be His, and with all reason, because His too is that which suffered, and He was in the suffering Body, He unknowing to suffer (for He is Impassible as God); yet as far as pertained to the daring of those who raged against Him, He would have suffered, if He could have suffered.
Therefore since the Only-Begotten has been made as we, as often as He is called Man by the God-inspired Scripture, considering the economy, let us confess that even so is He God by Nature. |203
14. Proofs of Divine Scripture, that the Word of God even when made Man remained God.
God says somewhere to the hierophant Moses, And thou shalt make a mercy seat, by inlaying of pure gold: two cubits: and a half the length thereof and a cubit and a half the breadth thereof, and thou shalt make two cherubim of gold, of beaten work, and shalt put them on either side, one cherub on this end the other cherub on that end of the mercy seat, and, thou shalt make the two cherubim on the two ends thereof. The cherubim shall stretch forth their wings on high, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings and, their faces one to another, looking to the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be. A most sure image will this be that God the Word even in the human nature remained God and in His own Glory and Majesty even though for the economy's sake made like unto us; for a propitiation through faith was Emmanuel made unto us. And this the most wise John proved saying to us, My little children, these things write I unto you that ye sin not; and if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous, and He is the Propitiation for our sins; so too Paul says, Whom God set forth a propitiation through faith in His Blood.
But see the Cherubim standing round about the Mercy seat and overshadowing it with their wings, but turned toward the Mercy seat and all but fixing their eye on their Lord's beck. For to the will of God alone looketh the whole multitude of the heavenly spirits, and is never sated with the sight of God. So doth the Prophet Isaiah say that he saw the Son on a throne high and lifted up, the Seraphin standing around and waiting on Him as God.
15. Another.
The Divine Moses was of old appointed to free Israel from the violence of the Egyptians. But since it was needful that they who were under the yoke of an unwonted servitude, should first learn that God was now reconciled to them, He bade him work miracles: for a miracle |204 oft-time brings us to belief. Moses therefore says to God Almighty, But if they shall not believe me nor hearken to my voice, saying, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee, what shall I say to them? the Lord then said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod: and He said to him, Cast it on the ground: and he cast it on the ground 14 and it became a serpent and Moses fled from before it: and the Lord said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail; and he put forth his hand and took it by the tail and it became a rod in his hand. And He said to him, That they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob hath appeared unto thee. Observe herein 15 the Son of God by Nature and in truth, as a Rod of the Father (but the Rod is the ensign of Kingdom), for in the Son hath He power over all. Whence Divine David also saith, Thy Throne, O God is for ever and ever, a Rod of Equity the Rod of Thy Kingdom. But He cast it on the ground, i. e., surrounded it with an earthly Body, or through the human nature sent it upon the earth, for then, then was it made in likeness of the wicked, men that is, for of wickedness is the serpent a token.
And that this is true, thou wilt hence know. For our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, in image and figure of the economy wrought with flesh is taken for the brazen serpent which Moses reared to cure the serpents' bites. For He says, And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For as the serpent made of brass was an occasion of salvation to those in peril (for looking on it they were saved), so our Lord Jesus Christ too to those who see Him in the likeness of bad men in that He was made Man, yet are |205 not ignorant that He is God Who quickens, will be the Bestower of Life and the power of escaping bitter and venomous beasts, I mean the powers that oppose us.
It will be a figure too of this that Moses' Rod devoured the other rods, which the Magi had cast on the ground. The Rod therefore was indeed cast on the earth, yet did not abide a serpent, but taken again it was what it had been; for although the Father's Rod, i.e., the Son, through Whom He hath power over all was made (as I said before) in our likeness: yet when the economy was fulfilled He hastened back into Heaven and was again as in the Father's Hand a Rod of Righteousness and of Rule; for He sitteth at the Right Hand of His Father in His own Majesty, possessing the Supreme Throne even with Flesh.
16. Another.
And the Lord God said again to him, Put thine hand into thy bosom, and he put his hand into his bosom and took forth his hand out of his bosom and his hand became as snow. And He said again, Put thine hand into thy bosom, and he put his hand into his bosom and brought it forth of his bosom, and it was turned again to the colour of his flesh. The Hand and the Right Hand of God the Father the Divine Scripture calls His Very Son. For it introduces Him saying, I by Mine Hand founded the Heaven, and the Divine David too singeth, By the Word of the Lord the Heavens were stablished. See therefore that Moses' hand was as yet hidden in his bosom and had not yet become leprous; brought forth and immediately it became leprous; then after a while put in and again brought forth, and for the future not leprous; for it was restored (it says) to the colour of his flesh. Therefore as long as God the Word was in the Bosom of the Father, He shone with the brightness of Godhead, but when He was in a manner forth of it because of the Incarnation or being made Man, He became in the likeness of flesh of sin and was numbered among the wicked: for the Divine Paul saith, Him who knew not sin |206 He made sin for us, that we might he made the Righteousness of God in Him. This I think is what the leprosy means, for the leper was unclean according to the Law. But when He was again in the Bosom of the Father (for He was taken up at the Resurrection from the dead), the Hand again brought forth was seen clean; for our Lord Jesus Christ will come, He will come in His season in the brightness and glory of the Godhead, although He have not cast away our likeness. For blessed Paul too saith of Christ, For He once died to take away the sins of many, and unto them that look for Him unto salvation shall He appear the second time without sin.
Therefore as often as the Divine Scripture names Christ Jesus, do not think of man by himself, but think rather that Jesus Christ is the Very Word out of God the Father, even 16 when He became Man.
17. That Christ was not a God-clad man, nor did the Word of God merely dwell in a man, but rather that He was made Flesh, or Perfect Man, according to the Scriptures.
They who have their faith in Christ undefiled, and approved by right votes of all men, will say that God the Word Himself out of God the Father descended into emptiness, taking servant's form and, making His own the Body which was born of the Virgin, was made as we and called Son of Man. He is indeed God according to the Spirit, yet the Same Man according to the flesh 17. And the Divine Paul also addressed the people of the Jews saying, God Who manifoldly and in many ways of old spake to the fathers in the prophets, in these last days spake to us in the Son. And how is God the Father understood to have spoken in the last days in His Son? For He spake to them of old the Law through Him; and hence the Son Himself says that they are His Words through the most wise |207 Moses. For He says, Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets, I am not come to destroy but to fulfil: for I say unto you that one jot or one tittle shall not pass from the Law till all be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away but My words shall not pass away: there is also the Prophet's voice, I that speak am at hand. Hence when He was made in flesh, then spake to us the Father through Him, as saith blessed Paul, in the last days. But lest we should not believe that He it is Who before the ages also was Son, he added immediately, Through Whom He made the worlds too: he also mentions that He is the brightness of the glory and the Impress of the Person of the Father.
Man therefore was He truly made, through Whom God the Father made the worlds too; and was not (as some suppose) in a man, so as to be conceived of by us as a man who has God indwelling in him. For if they believe that these things are really so, superfluous will seem to be the blessed Evangelist John, saying, And the Word was made Flesh. For where the need of being made man? or why is God the Word said to be Incarnate, unless was made flesh means that He was made like us, and the force of the being made man declares that He was made like us, yet remained even so above us, yea also above the whole creation?
But I think it due by instances also to prove what I have said and to persuade that the Only-Begotten has been made Man and is God even with Flesh and hath not rather indwelt in a man, rendering him God-clad, like others too who have been made partakers of His Godhead.
18. Ideas or thoughts 18.
God says somewhere of us, I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be to them a God and they shall be to Me a people. And our Lord Jesus Christ Himself too saith, Lo I am coming and if any man open to Me, I will enter both I and the Father and we will dwell with him and sup with him. We are also called temples of God, for Ye (he |208 says) are the Temples of the Living God, and again, Know ye not that your bodies are the Temples of the Holy Ghost Which is in you Which ye have of God? But if they say that He is Emmanuel, as each one of us has had God indwelling in him, let them confess it openly, that when they see Him worshipped as well by us as by the Angels, in Heaven alike and upon earth, they may blush as thinking otherwise, and ignorant of the drift of the holy Scriptures, and not having in them the faith which they delivered to us, who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word.
But if they say that He is therefore God and glorified as God because the Word of God the Father merely dwelt in Him, and not because He was made Man, let them hear again from us, If to them who had God indwelling in them, it suffices that they might therefore be truly gods and adored by all, all are gods and to be adored, for He dwelleth in the holy Angels, and we have Him ourselves too in us through the Spirit; but this is not enough to shew that they are by nature gods and to be adored who have the Spirit in them. Not therefore for this is Emmanuel. God and to be worshipped because the Word of God dwelt in Him as in a mere man, to be considered by himself and apart, but because He was made flesh, i. e. Man, for He remained therefore God who is to be worshipped.
19. Apostolic sayings wherein Christ is called God.
Speaking of the Mystery Christward, he says, Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto His saints, unto whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles which is Christ in you the hope of glory, Whom we preach. If 19 therefore He is God-clad and not truly God, how is Himself the riches of the glory of the Mystery which is proclaimed to the Gentiles? or how is God at all proclaimed? |209
20. Another.
For I would that ye knew what conflict I have for you and for them at Laodicea and as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, that their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgement of the Mystery of God of Christ 20. Lo he calls the Mystery of God the Mystery of Christ, and wishes certain to have full understanding unto the acknowledgement of it. Of what understanding therefore was there need to those who would learn the Mystery of Christ, if they were to hear that God dwelt in a man? for there would be need of exceeding understanding to know on the other hand that the Word being God was made Man.
21. Another.
For from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith to Godward is gone forth. Lo again he makes mention that their faith was Godward, while Christ too saith, He that believeth in Me hath everlasting Life: and the word of the Lord he calls the preaching of Him.
22. Another.
For yourselves know our entrance in unto you that it was not in vain, but after that we had suffered many things before and been reviled as ye know in Philippi, we were bold in our God to speak unto you the Gospel of God. Lo speaking in God, he made mention of the Gospel of God, who preaches Christ to the Gentiles.
23. Another.
Call to mind, brethren, our labour and travail, labouring |210 night and day that we might not be burdensome to any of you, we preached the Gospel of God among you: and again, For this cause we too thank God without ceasing, because when ye received, from us the word of hearing of God, ye received it not as the word of men but as it is in truth the Word of God which worketh in you which have believed. Does he not plainly call the preaching about Christ the Gospel of God and word of God? this surely is plain to all.
24. Another 21.
For the grace of God our Saviour 22 hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly and uprightly and piously in this world awaiting the blessed hope and coming of the glory of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. Lo our Lord Jesus Christ is most openly called God and Great: for He it is Whose coming of glory we awaiting, are diligent to live soberly and unblameably. But if He be a God-clad man, how is He also great God? or how is the hope in Him a blessed one? if so be that the Prophet Jeremiah is true in saying, Cursed the man that putteth his trust in man. For neither could his bearing God (as I said before) render him God Himself: next let them teach us what hinders that all others be gods and to be worshipped who have God in them? But blessed Paul calls Christ God and Great and that hath a blessed coming, he who is found saying of the Jews, and of Emmanuel, Whose are the fathers and the covenant and the promises and of whom as concerning the flesh, Christ Who is over all God 23 blessed for ever. Amen.
But that by Divine revelation he did make his preaching, is clear in that himself saith, Then fourteen years after I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas and took Titus with me also; but I went up by revelation and set forth to them the Gospel which I preach to the Gentiles, but privately to them who seemed to be somewhat, lest haply I should run or had run in vain. He preaching Christ to the Gentiles |211 as God, every where calls His Mystery Divine 24. He went up to Jerusalem by revelation and set forth to them who seemed to be somewhat, i. e., to the holy Apostles and Disciples, lest perchance he should run in vain or had run. But when he had gone down from Jerusalem and was again among the multitude of the Gentiles, did he correct ought of his former [teaching]? did he not persevere in confessing that Christ is God? and indeed he writes to certain, I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him who called you, unto another gospel which is not another, save there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the Gospel of Christ: and he says again, But though we or an Angel from Heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be anathema. For what reason therefore leaving all else albeit they had God indwelling, did he preach Jesus Alone as God?
25. Another.
It is written of Christ, But when He was at Jerusalem in the feast day many believed in His Name, when they saw the signs which He was doing, but Jesus Himself trusted not Himself to them, because He knew all men and because He needed not that any one should bear witness of a man, for Himself knew what was in man. If He were a God-clad man, how were not the many deceived who at Jerusalem believed on His Name? or how doth He Alone know the things which are in man when none else knoweth them 25? for God is said to have fashioned our hearts one by one. Or why doth He Alone forgive sins? for He saith, That the Son of Man hath power upon earth to forgive sins. Why is He Alone apart from others the Co-sessor of God the Father? why do the Angels worship Him Alone, and did He teach us to deem of the Father as our common Father which is in Heaven, but ascribeth Him in special manner to Himself?
But perchance you will say that words of this sort are to be attributed to the indwelling Word. Ought He not |212 therefore, according to the measure beseeming Prophets, Himself too to have said, Thus saith the Lord 26? But when He would ordain the things that are above the Law, taking to Himself authority befitting a Legislator, He used to say, I say to you.
How says He that He is free and not indebted 27 to God? It is because He is Son in truth. And if He were a God-clad man, would He be also free by Nature? For God Alone is free and unbound: for He Alone exacts as it were tribute from all, and receives from all as from debtors due observance. And if Christ is the end of the Law and the Prophets, yet is a God-clad man, might one not say that the end of the prophetic preachings has brought upon us the charge of man-worship?
Again, the Law set forth, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou serve. By which teaching it led us unto Christ, as unto a knowledge more excellent than they had who were in the shadow: shall we therefore, making light of worshipping God, worship a man who has God indwelling? for where were it best that God be conceived to be? in heaven or in a man? in Seraphim or in earthly body?
If therefore He were God-clad man, how partook He like as we in flesh and blood? For if because He indwelt him, this were enough for Him that He should partake of ours like as we, and if His so participating is the being made man: He indwelt in many saints too: He was therefore not once but full often made man. Why therefore is He said once in the end of the world to have appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself? how do the Divine Scriptures preach to us one Coming of the Word?
26. If 28 He were a God-clad man, He too (it seems) was made the Temple of God, and how is Christ in us also? as a Temple in temples? or rather as God in the temples through |213 the Spirit? If He were a God-clad man, why is His Body alone Life-giving? for such should have been the bodies of others also, wherein indwelt Almighty God.
And the Divine Paul also wrote somewhere, He that despised Moses' Law died without any mercy at the hands of two or three witnesses; of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God and hath deemed polluted the Blood of the Covenant? Yet Divine was the Law, and the Commandments spoken through Angels: how then will he be thought worthy of sorer punishment who hath deemed polluted the Blood of Christ? or how is the faith Christ-ward better than the worship after the Law? But (as we have already said) Christ is not as other saints, a God-clad man, but rather God in truth and He possesses glory higher than all the world, because, being the Word of God by Nature, God was made flesh or perfect man; for we believe that the Body which was united to Him is ensouled and endowed with reason, and wholly true is the union.
27. How we must understand The Word was made Flesh and dwelt in us, and how the Word is sent which is God, and how the Body is said to be His own.
The blessed Paul makes mention that the Only-Begotten Word of God took hold of Abraham's seed and also that He partook of flesh and blood as we. We remember too the voice of John, for he says, And the Word was made Flesh and dwelt in us. Was it therefore the aim of these men, being spiritual, to teach that the Word of God suffers change, or that it is right that He should undergo the mutation which belongs rather to the creature? so that that too which He was not, He should haply either come to of His own will, or another against His will drive Him into another nature? God forbid: for He remains the Same, excluding from His Nature every change, unknowing to suffer a shadow of turning: for That Supreme and Heavenly Nature is ever fixed in Its own.
How then the Word has been made Flesh it is needful to see. First then the Divine Scripture full often calls man |214 flesh and as it were from part makes declaration of the whole animal, and does the same sometimes no less from the soul alone, for it is written that all flesh shall see the salvation of God, and moreover the Divine-uttering Paul saith, I conferred not with flesh and blood, and the hierophant Moses addressed them of Israel, Thy fathers went down into Egypt in threescore and fifteen souls. And one would not therefore say that bare and fleshless souls made their descent into Egypt, nor again that to soulless bodies and mere flesh God gave bounteously of His salvation.
As often therefore as we hear that the Word was made Flesh, let us conceive of man made out of soul and body. But the Word being God was made perfect man taking a body endowed with soul and mind, and having united this to Himself in truth, as He knows (for thoughts of this kind are utterly unattainable by our mind), was called son of man. Yet if one must say somewhat, looking as in a mirror, the human mind defines that the Word was united to the Body having a reasonable soul, much as is the soul of man too to its own body, which is of other nature than it, yet obtains even thus participation and union with the body, so as to appear not other than it, in that by composition one living thing is effected out of both, it nevertheless remaining (as I mentioned before) in its own nature. Hence we say that not by mutation or change has the Word of God been made Man, nor yet that It recked not of being God (how could it be so?) but that taking flesh of a woman and united to it from the womb, He proceeded forth, the Same, Man and God, for not as casting away the Ineffable Generation out of God the Father, did He endure that of a woman, inviting Him to a beginning so to say of being, but rather permitted to His own Flesh to be called into being by means of the laws of its own nature, in regard I mean to the mode of its birth: nevertheless the human nature hath in Him something special, for He was born of a Virgin and hath Alone a mother incognizant of marriage. And he says that made Flesh He also tabernacled in us, that through both he might shew that He both was made Man |215 and let not go His own, for He hath remained what He was.
For that which dwelleth is full surely conceived of as one thing in another, to wit, the Divine Nature in the human, not undergoing mixture or any commingling or passing into what it was not. For that which indwells in another, becomes not that which it is wherein it dwells; but is conceived of rather as one thing in another. But in respect of the Nature of the Word and of the Manhood, the diversity herein indicates to us only the difference [of natures]. For One Christ is conceived of out of both. Preserving well therefore (as I said before) the inconfusion, he says that the Word tabernacled in us. For he knows that the Only-Begotten Incarnate and made Man is One Son.
But see (I pray) that the Divine Evangelist is wisely crowning the whole nature of men, for he says that the Word dwelt in us, not saying that the Incarnation of the Word took place for any other reason (as seems to me) save that we too, enriched by the participation of Himself through the Holy Ghost might gain the benefit of adoption. Therefore we believe that in Christ took place an union most complete and true: but in us even though He be said to dwell, He will make His Indwelling non-essential 29. For in Him dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, i. e., not by participance or relation only, as when light shineth in or fire infuseth into other things its innate heat, but (so to say) that Very Divine and Untaint Nature is to be understood as that which is making for Itself an Indwelling by means of a true (as we said before) Union in the Temple which is born of the Virgin: for thus Christ Jesus both is and is conceived of as One.
And that our speech is overcome in its utmost possible expression, I will not deny, but let not the Mystery of Christ be therefore disbelieved, but let it be deservedly |216 more marvellous: for the more it overpasses all mind and speech, the more must it be put beyond all marvel.
But we do not say that the Word made Flesh, i. e., Perfect man, is comprehended by the limit of the body (for that were most silly), but we believe that thus too It fills (as It useth) Heaven and earth and the things below: for all things are full of God, and all things little to Him. But how is He wholly both in each and in all, is hard to understand and say, yea rather is even impossible.
And He possesses this too (as I suppose) that He is without Body and Unportioned; yet is the Body called by us the own of the Word, not in the same way as laughing is proper to a man or neighing to a horse, but because it was made His by true union, accomplishing the use of an instrument unto whatever was its nature to work, save only what belongs to sin.
Yea and if God the Word be haply said to have been sent, let not any one of you be terrified, thinking, Whither shall the Unembodied advance? or whither He withdraw of Whom all things are full? but let him know that the mode of mission is of another kind: not that He Who is sent should change from place to place but rather that He should take on Him a sacred ministry, which we learn was also enjoined to the disciples by Christ the Saviour of all. Again, the Divine Paul too says of Christ, Wherefore, holy brethren partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Jesus Christ, Note that when he shews Him ministering in human wise albeit He is by nature God, then does he also attribute to Him the office of the Apostolate: but it is nought unreasonable (as we said before) if God the Word be said to be sent by the Father, for He most surely fills all things and in no place at all is He absent: but we interpreting things Divine by human words, are wont to understand economies of the Immortal Nature by bodily outlines.
Again though the Holy Ghost fills all things, the blessed Paul writes and says, And because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, wherein we cry Abba, |217 Father: and the Saviour Himself too saith, It is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you, but when I depart I will send Him to you 30. We must therefore referring all things to the Rule of piety, follow sure knowledge, for so doing shall we best profit ourselves.
28. How the holy Virgin is conceived of as Mother of God.
The Word out of God the Father was begotten in some ineffable way (for beyond all understanding is His Generation, and as befits the Unembodied Nature): yet is That which is begotten conceived of as the Own Offspring of the Generator and Consubstantial with Him, for therefore is It called also Son: the Name indicating to us the Verity of the (so to say) Birth and Parturition. And since the Father ever liveth and hath being, it must needs be that He on account of Whom He is Father co-live and have co-Being Eternally with Him. The Word therefore was in the beginning and was God and, was with God (as saith the most wise Evangelist), but in the last times of the world for us men and for our salvation was made flesh and was made Man: and not at all letting go what He was, but having His own Nature unchanged and existing ever in the excellences of Godhead, yet undergoing for us economically the emptiness and not despising the poverty that belongs to the human measures. For being Rich He became poor (as it is written), that we by His poverty might become rich. He was made therefore Man and is said to have endured Generation after the flesh of a woman, because of His taking of the holy Virgin the Body that was united to Him of a truth: whence we say that the holy Virgin is Mother of God, as having borne Him in fleshly or human wise, albeit that He hath His Generation before the ages out of the Father 31. |218
And this, that some suppose that the Word was then called to a beginning of being when He became Man, is utterly impious and exceeding discordant. For the Saviour Himself shews them to be most unwise, saying in regard to Himself, Verily I say unto you, Before Abraham was I am: for how was He before Abraham Who was born after the flesh many ages after him? The Divine-uttering John too will I deem suffice to convict them saying, This was He of Whom I said, After me cometh a Man Who was made before me, for He was before me.
Leaving therefore as exceeding foolish to contend about what is superfluous, come let us rather go on to what is beyond, I mean unto what is profitable. Let not any be troubled, hearing the holy Virgin called Mother of God, nor let them fill their souls with Jewish unbelief, yea rather with Gentile impiety. For the Jews attacked Christ saying, For a good work we stone Thee not but for blasphemy because Thou, being a Man, makest Thyself God: and the children of the Greeks, hearing the doctrines of the Church that God hath been born of a woman, laugh.
But they shall eat the fruit of their own impiety, and shall hear of us, The fool will utter folly and his heart imagine vain things. But the plan of our Mystery, albeit to the Jews it be an offence, to the Gentiles folly, yet to us who know it, verily admirable is it and saving and far removed from being to be disbelieved by any. For if there were any whatever who should dare to say that this flesh made of earth had become mother of the bare Godhead, and that she bare out of her own self the Nature which is over the whole creation, the thing would be madness and nothing else: for not of earth has the Divine Nature been made, nor will that which is subject to decay become the root of immortality nor that which is subject to death bear the Life of all things, nor yet the Unembodied be the fruit of the palpable body, that which is subject to birth [bear] that which is superior to birth, that which hath its beginning in time, that which is without beginning.
But since we affirm that the Word became as we and |219 took a body like to our bodies and united this of a truth unto Himself, in a way namely beyond understanding and speech, and that He was thus too made Man and born after the flesh, what is there incredible therein or worthy of disbelief? albeit the human soul (as we have already full often said) being of other nature than the body, is yet born with it, just as we say that it too has been united therewith. Yet will no one (I deem) suppose that the soul has the nature of the body as the beginning of its own existence, but God inplaces it ineffably in the body and it is born along with it; yet do we define as one the animal that is made up out of both, i. e., man. Therefore the Word was God but was made Man too, and since He has been born after the flesh by reason of the human nature, she who bare Him is necessarily Mother of God. For if she have not borne God, let not Him Who is born of her be called God; but if the God-inspired Scriptures call Him God, as God Incarnate and made Flesh, and it be not possible in any other way to be Incarnate, save through birth of a woman, how is she not Mother of God, who bare Him?
But that He is truly God Who was born, we shall know from the God-inspired Scripture too.
29. Sayings about Christ.
Behold a Virgin shall conceive in the womb and bear a Son and they shall call His Name Emmanuel. How then (tell me) is that which is born of the holy Virgin called Emmanuel? Emmanuel (as I already said) signifying, that the Word out of God which is in truth God was made by reason of the Flesh in nature as we. But He is Emmanuel, for He emptied Himself, having undergone a generation like to ours, and so had His conversation with us. Hence He is God in flesh and she truly Mother of God, who bare Him carnally or after the flesh.
30. Another.
For they shall lay down every robe that was gathered by guile and garment with its change and shall be willing if |220 they shall have been burnt with fire; for a boy has been born to us and a son given unto us whose rule is upon His Shoulder and His Name is called The Messenger of the great Counsel. Hearest thou that He was called a Boy because He underwent a birth like us? But Him a Boy by brightest star did the sky point out, did the Magi worship coming from the uttermost limits of the earth, did the Angels bear good tidings of to the Shepherds saying that a Saviour was born, and proclaiming Peace and the Good will of the Father. He is also the Messenger of the Great Counsel: for He made known to us the Good-will of the Father, Who in Him was pleased to save the earth, and through Him and in Him to reconcile the world unto Himself: for being reconciled to Christ, we are reconciled to God: for God and truly Son of God the Father is He 32. That He is therefore the Counsel of the Father Whose Messenger He has been to us, Himself will teach saying, For so God loved the world that He gave His Only-Begotten Son, that every one that believeth in Him should not perish but should have everlasting life. But the Only-Begotten Son is He Who was born of the holy Virgin, for the Word Himself was made Man, Who was God in the flesh and thus appeared to those on earth. Finally He says, He that believeth on Me hath everlasting life. And that through Him and in Him we believe on the Father, He hath set forth saying, He that believeth on Me believeth not on Me but on Him That sent Me and he that seeth Me seeth Him that sent Me.
31. Another.
Hear Me, ye isles, and give ear, ye nations: after long time shall He stand, saying, The Lord from the womb of My mother shall they call My Name. The Word being God, was not ignorant that He should undergo birth, Incarnate of a woman for our sakes: He knew that He shall be called Christ Jesus, God the Father afore proclaiming unto us the New Name of His Son which is blessed in the |221 earth 33. And note how He mentions His own Mother who bare His Body. Hence if He knows that He is Very God, she who bare Him after the flesh is called Mother of God, and rightly so: but if He be not God, as some daringly, yea rather wickedly, think: let them deprive the holy Virgin herself of this name, that she be not called Mother of God.
32. That the Only-Begotten is called God even when appearing as Man.
Solomon praying says, And now, O Lord God of Israel, let Thy word be credible which Thou spakest unto Thy servant David: shall God in very deed dwell with men on earth? Observe that he marvels at the Incarnation of the Word, for it seemed a thing incredible: for then did He dwell with men upon the earth when He was made Man. Else how is this anything special or how worthy of marvel, that God should not depart from these things which Himself had created, cherishing them that is, and holding together the things which had been already made, creating those which have not been yet made? But verily it is a special miracle that God made Man should have dwelt on earth with men, according to the promises long before given to the Divine David. For it is written, The Lord sware unto |222 David and will not reject him, Of the fruit of thy belly shall I set upon thy seat. But verily he, albeit he believed that the Almighty God would never deny His Promise, yet did more carefully search out the place itself of the Birth and say, If I go up upon my bed, if I give sleep to mine eyes or slumber to mine eyelids or rest to my temples, until I find a place for the Lord, a tabernacle for the God of Jacob. At length when he had found out this too through the Spirit, and knew the place of the Birth after the flesh of the Only-Begotten, then did he preach it and say, Lo we heard of it at Ephratah, that is, in Bethlehem, we found it in the fields of the wood. And that in saying Ephratah, he means Bethlehem, the Prophet hath proved, And thou, Bethlehem, house of Ephratah. But note that Him, Whom he believed to have been created 34 as we in Ephratah, he names the God of Jacob, Whose dwelling was in the Tabernacle: for there did the holy Virgin bear Jesus.
Elsewhere too does he call Him the God of Abraham, saying, The princes of the people are gathered together with the God of Abraham. For well-nigh, instructed in the knowledge of things to come, did he see with the eyes of his mind and the illumination of the Holy Ghost, the princes of the people, i. e., the holy Apostles, in the obedience of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Seeing therefore that He is named God of Abraham and God of Jacob, Who is born of a woman, why is not the holy Virgin Mother of God?
33. Another.
The Prophet Habaccuc says, O Lord, I have heard Thy hearing and feared, I have thought on Thy works and shuddered. In the midst of the two living creatures shalt Thou be known, in the coming of the times shalt Thou be shewn, while my soul was troubled, shalt Thou in anger remember mercy. God shall come from Teman, the Holy One from mount Paran. How shall He be known in the midst of the two living creatures? for when He had been born of a woman and had |223 lived even unto the time of the Precious Cross, by the grace of God (as saith blessed Paul) did He by His Body taste death for every man. But since He was by Nature God, He rose again unto everlasting life. He therefore is known, Who for us endured the Precious Cross, in the midst of the two living creatures. And Himself says somewhere to the Jews, When ye have lifted up the son of man, then shall ye know that I am. But how, calling Him also God, does he fore-announce that He shall come from Teman and from mount Paran? Teman is interpreted South: for Christ was manifested, not from northern regions, but from the southern Judaea, wherein Bethlehem is.
Since therefore He Who has been named Lord and God, cometh out of the southern Judea, for He was born in Bethlehem, how is not the holy Virgin Mother of God?
34. Another.
In 35 Genesis it is written, And Jacob was left alone, and there wrestled with him a Man until the morning: but he saw that he was not prevailing against him and he touched the flat of his thigh as he was wrestling with him 36 and said to him, Let me go for the morning ascendeth. But he said, I do not let thee go, except thou bless me. And after more, And He blessed him there: and he called the name of that place, The Face of God: for I saw (he said) God face to face and my life is preserved. And the sun rose when he passed the face of God: and he hailed on his thigh. Mystic is the sense of that which is written, for it appears to hint at the wrestling of the Jews which they used in regard to Christ, well-nigh wrestling with Him, nevertheless they were overcome and will themselves implore His Blessing, if through faith they turn them to Him at the last times. But note this, it was a man who was wrestling, and Jacob called him The Face of God: nor that alone, for he knew that He is God in truth. For I have seen (he said) God face to face and my life is preserved. For |224 Emmanuel is by Nature God, yet is He called also The Face of God: for He is the Image of the Father's Substance: thus did He call Himself to the Jews, saying respecting God the Father, Nor have ye seen His Face and ye have not His Word abiding in you, for Whom He sent, Him ye believe not.
But that Very God is that Man Who was wrestling with Jacob, holy Writ will again give proof, for it says, And the Lord said unto Jacob, Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there, and make there an Altar to God that appeared unto thee when thou fleddest from the face of Esau thy brother. For returning from Mesopotamia and being then in fear of Esau, he sent over Jabok his children and all his stuff, and he was left alone and there wrestled a man with him.
35. Another.
Blessed Daniel setting forth to us a dread vision says, I was seeing in a night vision, and lo with the clouds of Heaven came as it were the Son of Man and came even unto the Ancient of Days and they brought Him, into His Presence and there was given Him dominion and honour and a kingdom, and all peoples nations and languages shall serve Him: His Power a Power for ever which shall not pass, and His Kingdom shall not be destroyed. Hearest thou how he does not mention that he had seen simply a man, lest Emmanuel should be believed to be one of us and like as we, but as it were the Son of Man? For the Word being by Nature God was made in the likeness of men and was found in fashion as a Man, in order that in the Same might Both be conceived of, neither bare man nor yet the Word apart from manhood and flesh. Yet does he tell that to Him was given the princedom and honour which He ever had; for he says that all peoples nations and languages shall serve Him. Since therefore even when in the human nature the Only-Begotten Word of God hath the creature serving Him and the Princedom of His Father and Himself, and the holy Virgin bare Him after the flesh: how is not the holy Virgin conceived of as Mother of God? |225
36. Of the Passion of Christ, and that it is profitable that we speak in one manner and another of One and the Same, nor do we divide Him into twain.
Saint Paul sets forth to us the Saving Passion, for he saith at one time, By the Grace of God for all tasted He death and also, For I delivered to you in the first place that which I too received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures and that He was buried and that He rose again the third day: moreover the most wise Peter also saith, Forasmuch as Christ suffered for us in the Flesh. Seeing therefore we believe that One is our Lord Jesus Christ, i. e. God the Word beheld in human form or made man as we, in what manner can we attribute Passion to Him and still hold Him impassible, as God?
The Passion therefore will belong to the Economy, God the Word esteeming as His own the things which pertain to His own Flesh, by reason of the Ineffable Union, and remaining external to suffering as far as pertains to His own Nature, for God is Impassible. And no wonder, since we see that the soul itself of a man, if its body suffer somewhat, remains external to the suffering as far as belongs to its own nature, yet is it not conceived of as external to suffering, in that the body which suffers is its very own: and albeit it be impalpable and simple, yet is that which suffers not foreign to it. Thus will you understand of Christ too the Saviour of all.
But I will make use of examples which may shew us by way of shadow, that the Only-Begotten shared in the suffering as far as belongs to the ownness of His Body, yet remained free from suffering, as God. Almighty God then was bidding the most wise Moses to work miracles, that Israel might believe him that he was sent from God, and that they should be set free from violence: He says, And thou shalt take of the water of the river, and pour it upon the earth, and the water which thou shalt take from the river, shall he blood upon the earth. But we say that the water is an image of life, and that the Son proceeding out of the Father as out of a river, by reason of being of the |226 Same Essence, is by Nature Life, and therefore quickens all things. But when (He says) thou shalt have poured forth the water, it shall be blood upon the earth. Hence, when He was made flesh of the earth, i. e., when He girt Himself with flesh from the earth, then is He said to have suffered death in it like to our death, albeit He is by Nature Life.
In Leviticus God intimates that the leper is polluted and impure and therefore bids that he should be put forth of the camp, and that if the disease be healed, he should thus be cleansed. And they shall take for him that is cleansed two clean birds and cedar wood and scarlet wool and hyssop, and the priest shall command and they shall hill one of the birds in an earthen vessel in living water, and the living bird shall he take and shall bathe it in the blood of the bird that was killed in the living water and he shall sprinkle upon him who is cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and he shall be clean. Us there rendereth clean and washeth away the soils of our uncleanness and driveth off the mortality of fleshly desire the Most Precious Blood of Christ and the purification of all-holy Baptism. But note this (for letting alone subtil search into the force of the Scriptures, we will for the present make mention of what helps to the mystery): he compares Christ to two birds 37, not as though there were two sons, but rather one out of two, the Godhead and the manhood, gathered together into union. The birds are clean, for our Lord Jesus Christ did no sin, but the Word was holy, in Godhead and in Manhood: He is likened again to flying things, by reason of His being high above the earth and from above, for Christ is the Man out of Heaven, albeit the holy Virgin bare His Flesh 38. |227 How then is He from above and out of Heaven? God the Word from above and out of the Father, taking flesh from the holy Virgin and manifesting it as His own, as though He had brought it down from above and out of Heaven, said, No man hath ascended up into Heaven, save He That came down from Heaven, the Son of Man: for He ever allotteth to His own Flesh that which is His own, and once united to it is accounted one with it.
Yet see, when the one bird is slain, the other is dipped in his blood, yet died not. And what is this? The Word lived, even though His Flesh died, and He was participant in the Passion, through ownness and union with it. Therefore the Same was living, as God, but like as He made His Body His own, so did He receive into Himself in all ownness the sufferings too of His Body, Himself suffering nought in His own Nature. It is therefore helpful and necessary unto profit that in regard to Christ we should admit the after one manner and another, as belonging to one and the same person, yet should not permit Him to be severed into two sons, albeit the things done be said to be of diverse kind and in no ways harmonizing with one another.
This is what I mean: we say that God the Word is born out of a woman after the flesh, albeit Himself give to all to be born, and call to the birth the things which are not yet |228 born. How then doth the Same both undergo birth and call to being? After one manner and another. For He was born, in that He is conceived of as Man like us, He calleth into being the things that are not, in that He is God by Nature; for it is written of Him, The Little one waxed and grew strong, filled with wisdom and grace, albeit He is by Nature all-Perfect as God, and out of His own Fulness imparteth spiritual gifts to the saints, and is Himself Wisdom and the Giver of grace. How then waxeth the Little one and is filled with wisdom and grace? After one manner and another. For the Same, Man alike and God, makes His own the human, by reason of the union, and is all-Perfect and Giver of wisdom and grace as God.
He is called First-born and Only-Begotten, but if one should examine the force of the words, the First-born will be He Who is First-born among many brethren, the Only-Begotten as Sole, no longer First-born among many brethren. Yet is the Same one and other; how then? After one manner and another. First-born among many brethren by reason of the human nature, the Same again Only-Begotten, as Alone Begotten of the Alone God the Father. He is said to have been sanctified through the Spirit and moreover to sanctify 39 those who come to Him; He was baptized according to the Flesh and was baptizing in the Holy Ghost; how then doth the Same both sanctify and is sanctified, baptizeth and is baptized? After one manner and another; for He is sanctified humanly, and thus is He baptized: He sanctifies Divinely and baptizeth in the Holy Ghost.
Himself raising the dead was raised from the dead, and being Life by Nature is said to quicken. And how again? After one manner and another. For the Same was raised from the dead and is said to be quickened after the Flesh, yet quickens and raises the dead as God. He suffers and does not suffer 40, after one manner and another: for He |229 suffers humanly in the Flesh as Man, He is impassible Divinely as God.
Himself hath adored with us, for Ye worship (He says) what ye know not, we worship what we know: yet is He to be adored also, for to Him every knee boweth: and this again after one manner and another. For He worshippeth as having assumed the nature that payeth worship, He again the Same is worshipped as surpassing the nature that worshippeth in that He is conceived of as God. Yet must we not sever the worship unto man by himself and God by Himself, nor yet as connected with God by equality of dignity, while the Persons are dissevered, do we say that the man is worshipped with Him (for it were replete with the uttermost impiety): but we must worship One Word of God Incarnate and made man, and at the same time believe that the Body united to Him was ensouled with a reasonable soul like ours. For neither did God Almighty bid two first-borns to be worshipped as well by us as by the holy Angels (for One is He Who was brought into the world): and if we look more carefully into the mode of this bringing in, we find it to be the mystery of the Economy with flesh. But He was brought into the world then when He was made Man, albeit He be seen to be in His own Nature most far removed from the earth and be believed to be truly in the Excellence of Godhead: for Other than the elements is their Maker. Therefore above the things which Himself made is He by Nature in that He is God by Nature. Yet is One (as I said before) to be worshipped then too when He is among many brethren: for then is He for that reason called First-born.
One 41 did the blind from the birth when wondrously healed worship: for Jesus (it says) finding him in the temple said, Dost thou believe on the Son of God, and he said, Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on Him? Christ |230 manifesting Himself embodied to him says, Thou had both seen Him and He That speaketh with thee is He. Seest thou how He used the singular number, not permitting God and man to be conceived of separately? yea rather if one were to call Emmanuel man, it signifies not bare man (far from it) but the Word of God united to our nature. As One did the Divine disciples worship Him, when beholding Him wondrously borne on the waters they worshipped saying, Truly 42 Thou art the Son of God.
When therefore Ave say that man is co-worshipped with God, we have brought in a gross severance. For the word, With, except it be said of one by composition, will always full surely persuade us to conceive of two. For like as no one will be said to live with himself nor again to eat with to pray with and to walk with himself (for the with prefixed to the word introduces a declaration of two persons): so if one say that the man is co-worshipped with God, he will without question say two sons and severed one from another: for the plan of union, if it be |231 conceived of in regard to mere equality of dignity or authority, is convicted of being untrue. And this has been shewn by us in many words.
37. Against those who say the human befit God the Word by reference only.
Some prate concerning the Economy with flesh of the Only-Begotten and, bringing down to our frail perceptions the Mystery venerable and great and most dear to the Spirits above, whereby also we are saved, pollute the comeliness and beauty of the Truth, whereas they ought, not to try and prop up whatever seems to them right, but rather with subtil and keen eye of the mind to look into the aim of the Sacred Writings and thus to go on the right road, following what the most holy fathers have searched out, who taught by the illuminings of the Holy Ghost, denned for us the Symbol of faith, saying that the God the Word Himself Which was in mode ineffable 43 begotten out of the Essence of the Father, by Whom all things were made which are in Heaven and which are in earth, for us men and for our salvation came down, was made flesh, was made man, suffered, ascended into heaven, will in his season come to judge quick and dead.
But there are certain who deem that they are learned and knowing and are puffed up with pride and swelling, who if they hear these words, mock, and deem that those things which are so rightly said, are mad ravings: while we specially believe that the knowledge of the Truth lay open through the illumination of the Holy Ghost to the holy Fathers. But they, as if they alone could think what is better, deem that not the Only-Begotten Son of God Himself, God the Word Which is out of His Essence, suffered in His own Flesh for us humanly, albeit conceived of as God He have in His own Nature the inability to suffer; but putting as man separately and by himself him that was born of the holy Virgin, and attributing to him to what extent it seems good to them, a kind of glory, they say that he was united to the Word of God the Father. And |232 explaining the mode of the union, they say that there was given him by God equality of dignity or authority and to be called by like name both Christ and Son and Lord. But if the man who is invented by them be said to suffer ought, it must (they say) be referred to God the Word Himself, in that he is connected to Him by equality of worth, while in their severed natures each is what he is.
I will open the force of their opinions, so far as I can, bringing forward instances from the Sacred Writings. Christ hungered, was wearied with the journey, slept, entered into the boat, was stricken with blows by the attendants, was scourged by Pilate, received the spittle of the soldiers, who piercing with the spear His Side, offered vinegar mingled with gall to His Mouth: yea and He tasted death, suffering the Cross and other contumelies of the Jews. All these things they declare to have befallen indeed the man, but to be referred to the Person of the Very Son. But we believe, as in One God the Father Almighty, Maker of all things visible and invisible, so too in One our Lord Jesus Christ His Son. And we refuse to divide Emmanuel into man by himself and into the Word by Himself: but knowing that the Word became truly Man too as we, we say that Himself the Same is God of God, and in human wise Man as we of a woman. And we assert that by reason of the ownness of the flesh He suffered indeed infirmities, yet reserved to His Nature its impassibility, in that He was not Man alone but the Same therewith also God by Nature. And like as the Body was His own, so too the natural and blameless passions of the body and the things which by the frowardness of some were put upon Him.
He suffered without suffering Who did not therefore humble Himself that He might only be like us, but because (as I said before) He had reserved to His Nature superiority to all these things. But if we should say that through conversion or mutation of His own Nature He had passed into the nature of the flesh 44, it would be in all ways |233 necessary for us even against our will to confess that the Hidden and Divine Nature was passible. But if He have remained unchanged albeit He have been made man as we, and it be a property of the Heavenly Nature that It cannot suffer, and the passible body have become His own through the union:----He suffers when the Body suffers, in that it is said to be His own body. He remains Impassible in that it is truly His property to be unable to suffer.
And if Emmanuel have been glorified through suffering, as Himself says when about to suffer for us the Precious Cross, Now is the son of man glorified, why do they not blush, attributing the glory of the Passion to a man having connection only with Him in Equality of dignity? for as they deem, He connected with Himself according to the Will and Good-pleasure of the Father a man only and made him equal to His own glory, and permitted that by like name he should be styled both Christ and Son and God and Lord:----hence neither is the Word truly Incarnate nor was He at all made man. And haply to call the holy doctors of the whole world false and liars, will do no harm? for either let them say, yea rather come forward and prove that the mode of connection which is brought in by |234 them has the force of incarnation and that that is that the Word was made flesh; or if they think that these things are not so, why do they invent for us a mode of unconnected connection, the truth being neglected? whereas it would be fitting that they should say that the Word of God the Father was united to our humanity, for thus in His own flesh is He conceived to have suffered what belongs to man, but so far as pertains to the Nature of the Godhead, He is free from all that disturbs, as God.
And that by speaking of reference 45, which I know not how they invented, they withdraw Emmanuel from His Glory and make Him barely one of the Prophets, and set Him amid the measure of the many, and are full surely caught thus doing, I will prove, giving examples from the Divine Scripture.
There once murmured 46 in the wilderness against Moses and Aaron the people of Israel saying, Would we had died, stricken by the Lord in Egypt when we were sitting at the flesh pots and were eating bread even to fulness. Therefore the most wise Moses says (for it were like that he should reply to men so rashly impatient), But who are we? for neither against us is your murmuring but against God. And in those times even God Almighty used to reign through the holy Prophets over the people of Israel, but they in this too, slack of courage approached the Divine Samuel saying, Lo THOU hast grown old and thy sons walk not in thy ways and now set over us a king which may judge us even as the other nations. The Prophet felt this grievously but Almighty God said, Hear the voice of the people even as they have spoken to thee, for not thee have they rejected but Me they have rejected that I should not reign over them.
And elsewhere too has Christ said to the holy Apostles, He who receiveth you hath received Me: and He promiseth that He will address the merciful before His Tribunal, Come, ye blessed of My Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. And |235 acknowledging as His own their righteous ways towards those to whom they had dealt kindly, He says, In that ye did it to one of these least, to Me did ye it.
Lo in these instances is clearly recognized the mode of reference of what kind it is. The people of Israel were murmuring against Moses and Aaron and the matter had reference to God, yet were Moses and Aaron men as we. In the same way too will you conceive as to the others whereof we have just made mention, yet were some (as I said before) holy men and worthy of admiration, yet men as we. Is it then in this way that the man too who is connected (as they call it) with God the Word, will have reference of his sufferings to Himward? And how will he not now be mere man and apart and nought else? Hence Emmanuel is not truly God, is not Only-Begotten Son, is not God by Nature.
Why then was no one of the rest honoured by God the Word with equality of dignity or of sway, but they contend that this man alone obtained all things equal? specially seeing that God, the Saviour of all men, judgeth not according to the person hut righteous judgement, as Himself maketh mention. Why then doth He co-sit Alone? how will He come as Judge, with Angels waiting on Him? why is He Alone worshipped as well by us as by the spirits above?
But in good truth it is so (says he), for we find that thou also dost the same, for thou confessest that He suffered, in that thou attributest to Him the sufferings of the flesh, albeit thou keepest Him impassible as God.
But we, good sirs, (shall I say) having first united to the Word the human, have to the flesh allotted the sufferings, have kept Him impassible as God: for though He hath become as we, yet are we cognizant of His God-befitting Excellence and of His Supreme Endowments.
Hence first putting the Union as a basis and foundation to the Faith, we confess that He suffered in the flesh, that He remained again superior to suffering in that He possesses Impassibility in His own Nature. But if we are |236 diligent to put apart God and Man, severing the Natures one from another, and then say that in reference only does the Word of God make His own what have befallen His Body; He That is born of the holy Virgin, Emmanuel, which is, interpreted, With us is God, will haply have but the measure of Moses and Aaron.
Thus even though He say through the holy Prophets, My Back have I given to scourges, My Cheeks to blows, My Face I turned not from the shame of spittings, and again, They dug My Hands and My Feet, they told all My Bones, and again, They gave for My meat gall and for My thirst they gave Me to drink vinegar: we shall allot all these things to the Only-Begotten Himself, Who suffered Economically in the flesh according to the Scriptures (for with His wheal were we healed, and Himself hath been weakened because of our sins), yet do we know that He is Impassible by Nature. For if (as I just said) Himself is Man alike and God, with reason do the Sufferings belong to His Manhood, His own as God is it to be conceived of as superior to suffering.
Thus minded shall we be pious and through such right thoughts advancing, we shall attain unto the prize of our high calling in Christ Jesus, through Whom, and with Whom to God the Father be glory with the Holy Ghost unto ages of ages, Amen.
[Footnotes moved to the end and numbered. Biblical references (in the margins) omitted.]
1. a See Ep. 1 to the Monks, pp. 6 e, 7, 10.
2. b The Latin translation of Marius Mercator here adds (to fill up the sense) de christo, of christ, which is not in the Greek or Syriac.
3. c ἀνθρωπίνως, and so Syr. The Lat. version omits this word.
4. d In his first Paschal homily, some fifteen years before (A. D. 414) S. Cyril had quoted this verse and explained it, "For the Saviour having not vet assumed our likeness, was departed far from us, as regards the plan of the Incarnation: since much is the interval between the nature of man and that of God the Word: for of us says one of the saints, I am earth and ashes, of the Being of the Only-Begotten the prophet Isaiah says, who shall declare His Generation? Seasonably therefore on us in our much affliction beamed the Saviour made of a woman after the flesh, in order to save man who is out of woman, and that, loosing him from the bonds of death, He might teach him to say rejoicing, where thy victory death, where thy sting o grave?" Hom. Pasch. i. pp. e 5 a.
5. e intentionum = θεωρημάτων.
6. f "He is therefore God who has the angels His own." de recta fide to the Princesses p. 82 a.
7. g I have retained the words, the Lord, on the authority of John of Caesarea (who has preserved us the Greek in his Apology for the Council of Chalcedon; of this John nothing else seems to be known, his Defence exists in Rome in a syriac translation as mentioned by Card. Mai, Nova Bibl. Patr. ii. 415, and anonymously in Greek in ms, both at Venice and at Cairo), and of the syriac translation of these scholia. In the ecumenic Epistle to John, Archbishop of Antioch, the syriac translation has the words. On the other hand in S. Cyril's Apology for his 11th chapter against the Eastern Bishops, p. 194 c, the principal mss., the syriac translation (the manuscript of which is as old as the century after S. Cyril) and Mercator all omit the words, as does Mercator here. In the two citations of these words in the Quod Unus Christus (to be given below), the syriac version likewise omits the words. See also below, p. 226.
8. h The words, yet we do not say that Jesus Christ was mere man, are wanting in the Latin, apparently from omission by homoeoteleuton, but the Syriac has supplied them.
9. i "Paul somewhere says of the Son of God, Who being in the form of God deemed not the being Equal with God a thing to seize but emptied Himself, taking servant's form and found in fashion as a man. The Word of God therefore hath been made man; He came not into a man like as He was in the Prophets [comp. dial. i. p. 398 c, hom. pasch. x, A.D. 423, p. 159 c] but has been made in truth this which we too are, without only sin. He is therefore God in that He is Word of the Father, and the own of His Essence; man, in that He hath been made flesh as it is written, and put about Him our flesh. The faith respecting our Lord Jesus Christ having this definition, let the words [spoken] of Him be discerned according to the ratio befitting them; and if thou hear, I and the Father are One, view the One Godhead of the Son and of the
Father and conceive of the Son as God out of the Essence of the Father; if again thou hear of Him that He wept and was grieved and was in fear and began to be in sore distress, conceive of Him again as being man along with being also God and attribute to the human nature what is due thereto. For since He took a Body mortal and subject to decay and liable to such like passions, needs does He with the flesh make His own its sufferings, and when it endures them, Himself is said to be enduring them. For thus do we say that He was both crucified and died, the flesh suffering this, not the Word apart and by Himself, for He is Impassible and Immortal. Hence we shall orthodoxly receive what is said, allotting to the Godhead the God-befitting, attributing to the flesh the things spoken of because of it and as it were forth of it through the natural motions that are in us: of which the mind having the perception, gushes up through the tongue the things voicelessly whispered in the depth out of sight." Thes. cap. 24 p. 232 b c d e. Near the close too of his th Paschal homily (A. D. 417) S. Cyril says, "The Word makes His own (full rightly) the Suffering (for His was the Body and none other's), seeing that when the Body was scourged, and besides spat on by the all-daring Jews, Himself through the Prophet Isaiah says, My Back I have given to scourges, My cheeks to blows." Hom. Pasch. 4 p. 58 d.
10. j "Being therefore the savour of God the Father, He will not be of other Essence than He; but as the scent naturally and essentially issuing forth from flowers, is indicative of the species which begat it, thus the Son too, being as it were a savour of the Father's Essence whence Himself is, makes known Him That begat Him: hence no creature is He, seeing that the Father is not." Thes. cap. 32, p. 274 d.
11. k τὰ ἡνωμένα. substantiae, Lat. αἱ ὑποστάσεις, syr.
12. l The idea that the Ark was a type of Christ's Body is very ancient, see the fragment preserved to us of S. Irenaeus (p.558 O.T.). S. Irenaeus speaks of the pure gold, somewhat similarly, "For as the Ark was gilded with pure gold both within and without, so was the Body of Christ too pure and resplendent: within adorned by the "Word and without kept by the Spirit." [The latter part of the note ought to be cancelled, for S. Irenaeus (as Severus understood him) followed 2 Sam. vi. 1. in the LXX which gives 70,000 as the number which David gathered.]
13. m ἀμώμητον, and so also the Syriac translation; the Latin version gives inrationabile, as though it had read ἀνόητον in place of ἀμώμητον.
14. n The words and he cast it on the ground, omitted in the Latin, are given in the Syriac version.
15. ° See a most interesting chapter on the two miracles mentioned in this and the next section, in S. Cyril's Glaphyra pp. 298 sqq. In the Glaphyra, S. Cyril goes on to speak of the third miracle, the water turned into blood, see below § 30 p. 225. In his second Paschal homily (A.D. 415) S. Cyril speaks of the rod become a serpent, but there likens God's own people to a rod springing up from the earth, but becoming a serpent when it fell away from its lawgiver, and again becoming fair and good (p. 28 fin.).
16. p I have supplied even from the Syriac; καὶ ὅτε ἄνθρωπος being S. Cyril's usual way of stating this.
17. q See a very similar expression in a little treatise of S. Athariasius on the Incarnation, quoted by S. Cyril, de recta fide to the Princesses Arcadia and Marina, p. 48 a c, and in S. Cyril's Defence of his eighth chapter against the strictures of the Eastern Bishops, p. 178 b and c.
18. r The Syriac gives a very similar title, Cogitationes ad fidem aptae.
19. s see de recta fide to the Princesses, p. 71 fin.
20. t of God, of Christ. The word and is omitted in the Latin (and there is great manuscriptal variation in these words of S. Paul). The syriac translation gives, of God and of Christ. In Thes. 287 c, the best manuscript gives, τοῦ θεοῦ πατρὸς τοῦ χριστοῦ; the Cod. Coislin 248 written in the year 1066, has τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ πατρὸς καὶ χριστοῦ: the syriac translation of the Thesaurus curiously has, of God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the Thesaurus too S. Cyril cites the text to prove that the Son is God.
21. u This title I have introduced from the Syriac The Latin goes straight on.
22. v The Syriac translates as we, for salvatoris, salutaris, saving, or, quickening.
23. x I have added God from the Syriac.
24. y The Syriac reads nomino for nominat, i. e. had run in vain who preach Christ as God to the Gentiles and everywhere call His Mystery Divine.
25. z See S. Cyril's commentary on this verse, on S. John, pp. 165 fin., 166 O.T., and above, p 56.
26. a see above, p. 57 and note x.
27. b obnoxium = ἔνοχον. The syriac translation has, owes the tribute-money: see above p. 53 note t.
28. c The syriac supplies the fresh section-number 26 here; the Latin gives no break.
29. d σχετικὴν the Greek word is retained in the Latin translation. The reasoning is, Christ made Man was thoroughly and essentially united to His own Body: that was a habitation of real union, His inhabitation of our souls is of grace only. See the careful explanation of Col. ii. 9 in p. 35.
30. e The words, but when I depart, I will send Him to you, are omitted, from homoeoteleuton, by the latin; but given in the syriac translation, and are necessary, since S. Cyril's whole argument turns on the word, sent, as used of God, although He fill all things.
31. f See S. Cyril's first Chapter and defence of it against Andrew, above p. 24 note q.
32. g "God therefore is Christ, to whom we reconciled, are reconciled to God (2 Cor. v. 20)." de recta fide to the Princesses p. 67 b.
33. h Either Immanuel, With us is God, or, Jesus, Saviour, are new names, as specially belonging to the time of the Incarnation. S. Cyril elsewhere speaks of each: in his Thesaurus he had said, "Except the Son were God by Nature, He would not have been called, With us is God, which took place when He was born through a woman, assuming likeness with us. Not at all of an angel or of any other generate being is the word, Emmanuel, the invention, but the Father thus named the Son. And the holy Prophet will be our witness, saying of the Divine Offspring, And they shall call His name that new Name which the Lord shall give Him (Isa. lxii. 2 LXX). For a new name verily to the Son is Emmanuel, that is, With us is God. For before His Presence in the world with flesh, He was and was called merely God; after the Birth from the Virgin, no longer merely God, but, with us, i. e. God made man. Since therefore the Father calls His own Son God, let them blush who impiously and unlearnedly say that He was made. For what is by Nature God, is not a creature," cap. 32 p. 303 b c. "This new Name (Jesus) we say has been given to the Word through the Angel's voice." de recta fide to the Emperor, p. p d. "Before the times of the Incarnation no one is found naming the Word out of God, Jesus or Christ, unless by foreknowledge that He should be called this in due time when He also was made flesh. A new name therefore to Him is the Name Jesus, when He was made man." de recta fide to the Princesses, p. 120 d. "For a new name to the Word is Jesus, concurrent with the birth of the flesh. And the Prophet's oracle will support us, which says, And they shall call His Name the new name which the Lord shall give Him." Dial. v. 551 d. "For when will any shew that the Word was called Jesus or Christ, save because He was made man? for He is Jesus, because He saves His people, Christ, because anointed for our sakes. Therefore not the Word out of God the Father, as yet bare before the Incarnation, but made in flesh does he call both Jesus and Christ: and of Him questionless does he say that He was yesterday and to-day, The Same too for ever." Hom. Pasch. vii. (A.D. 420) p. 101 b c.
34. i Creatum, made, = γεγενηαένον: the Syriac version gives γεγεννημένον, born.
35. k see above pp. 106, 107.
36. l Thus too the Syriac version, not adding, and the flat of Jacob's thigh was out of joint.
37. m We still possess a long Letter of S. Cyril's to Acacius Bishop of Scythopolis (or Bethshan), illustrating the unity of Godhead and Manhood in Christ, as typified, 1, in the two goats (Lev. xvi. 7 sqq.), whereof one was sacrificed, one went free, yet both were needed to make up the perfect Atonement: 2, in the two birds for the cleansing of the leper, as here. Epp. pp. 121 -132.
38. n See Ecumenic Letter to John archbishop of Antioch, 3 Epp. p. 72, and above p. 44 note e. S. Gregory of Nazianzum, in his famous Letter to Cledonius (Ep. ad Cled. 1) speaks of that Apollinarian error, of which S. Cyril was suspected, in these words, "If any one say that the Flesh hath come down out of Heaven, and is not hence and of us (παρ' ἡμῶν), be he anathema. For that the second Man is out of Heaven, and As is the Heavenly, such too they that are heavenly, and, No one hath gone up into Heaven except He Who came out of Heaven, the Son of Man, and whatever else there is, is to be understood as said, because of the union with the Heavenly (διὰ τῆν πρὸς τὸν οὐράνιον ἕνωσιν)." t.1 p. 740 ed. Par. 1609.
S. Cyril in th Paschal homily (A.D. 420, probably almost ten years before his books against Nestorius) had said, " God the Word was born on earth through the holy Virgin, after the flesh, but came down from heaven. How then does He say that the Son of man came down out of Heaven? how again does He say that He will go up where He was before (S. John vi. 62)? Thou seest therefore how drawing in the ineffable concurrence in union unparted and unsevered (ἀδιαστάτῳ τε καὶ ἀδιορίστῳ... ἑνότητι), He would have One Christ both before flesh and with flesh confessed by us. Therefore He says that His flesh albeit by nature of earth came down from above and out of Heaven, and will ascend into Heaven too where it was before. For that which is inherent in Him by Nature He puts about His own flesh as being not other than it as regards the Economic union. And we will not because of the utter union of things unlike in their nature, take away the fact that One is properly the Radiance of the Father, the other again the little flesh (τὸ σαρκίον) of earth or perfect man: but even thus distinguishing and in mere ideas (see above p. 78 note z) parting the plan of each, we will draw them in to union again unparted. For the Word was made flesh, according to the holy Evangelist, not turned into flesh." p. 102 b c d. See also de recta fide to the Emperor, p. 36 a b.
39. o "He sanctifies, being Holy by Nature, as God; He is sanctified with us humanly, when taking the likeness with us (and in this respect I mean He is sanctified albeit having authority over all as God), He is not ashamed to call us brothers." dial. vi. p. 596 e.
40. p "If being God Immortal, He is said to die as man, being; Most High as God He is said to be exalted as man." Thes. cap. 20 p. 196 c. See the very similar words near the end of the Quod Unus, pp. 302-304, and the notes f, g, h.
41. q See this same argument in the treatise de Recta Fide to the Emperor Theodosius p. 31, put forth anew in the little Dialogue De Incarnatione Unigeniti, p. 703: see also above, p. 76.
42. r S. Cyril's argument on those words in his Thesaurus, against the Arians who denied the Son's Godhead, equally holds here as to its being no mere man apart by himself who was walking on the water. S. Cyril says, "What then will they say who contend against the Truth and follow only their own likings, when they seethe whole choir of the holy Apostles together worshipping the Son as God and saying with an oath that Truly He is the Son of God? for if according to their unlearning He is one of the creatures how is He truly Son of God? for it were impossible that one who has not by nature come forth out of any, and who has not the own (τὸ ἴδιον) of the essence of him who begat him, be truly son. And how if the disciples made a mistake in saying this, was the Saviour silent, albeit He did not disregard them when they made mistakes? and verily to Peter when on one occasion he answered not aright, He says, Get behind Me satan, thou art an offence to Me because thou savourest not God's but man's. But since He was silent, when called truly the Son of God, in that He rebuked them not as mistaken, it is clear that He accepts them as saying aright. Seeing then that the holy Apostles say that He is Son and truly so, and that Christ Himself assents to it, who will endure them who bruit something else?" Thes. cap. 32, pp. 308 d e. "What did the most wise disciples, esteeming Him as Son not as creature? For when stepping on edge of wave, strewing neath His Feet with ineffable might the moist and soon-dissolving nature of the waters, He coursed the wide expanse, and gave the holy disciples an unwonted wonder, and at length of His own will vent with them and sailed in their little skiff, albeit He might most easily, had He willed to do it, have been borne on the waves themselves: they in astonishment and reflecting on that resistless authority, began to worship saying, Truly Thou art Son of God. Will they then, doing this with an oath and saying that He is truly Son of God, be reasonably accused of falsehood and be taken and convicted of aberration from the truth? For if He is not Son, sprung of the Essence of Him Who begat Him, but a creature, gilded with the glory of sonship and having the appellation in mere words, why did they worship Him? why did the initiators and heralds of the Truth call Him Son?" Dial ii. p.437 d e.
43. s inaestimabiliter, put at the beginning of § 28 to translate ἀπορρήτως; the Syriac version too gives unspeakably.
44. t This most carefully guarded language of S. Cyril is not the effect of any necessity arising from controversy with Nestorius, but of a mind from the beginning educated in careful precision of thought and utterance as regards the Mystery of the Incarnation. In his th Paschal homily (A.D. 420), after speaking of great agricultural distress in various degrees of severity in different villages in Egypt, S. Cyril points out that it is the due punishment of their sin and speaks of the proneness to pity of the Only-Begotten, and that He is God and Man in One. See a passage quoted from this Homily, above p. 227 note n, and the closing words of the extract, "For the Word was made flesh, as saith the holy Evangelist, not turned into flesh; for he says not this, but called Him flesh, instead of saying in full man." Hom. Pasch. vii. 102 d. And in the Thesaurus, "It was then the aim of the Incarnate Word to shew clearly that He really put about Him flesh and has been made man, not casting away the being God the Word: for it was not possible that the human race should in other way be saved. Yet lest any hearing that He has been made flesh should suppose that the Unchangeable Word of God has been transformed and become ought else than He was from the beginning, needs does He at one time utter words befitting man, at another displays deeds belonging to Godhead alone, in order that both together (τὸ συναμφότερον) may be conceived of.... Sin, as sinless and unknowing to have it Me rightly rejects, but suffers His body and His human nature to suffer what belong to the nature itself, as a proof that He really and truly bears flesh and was made man, according to the Scriptures. But since (as we said above) it behoved Him to be shewn forth as God even in flesh, He works sometimes what belong to God and says to them who see Him, If ye believe not Me, i. e. by reason of looking on a man, yet believe My works, that ye may know and believe that I am in the Father and the Father in Me. Hence the things said and wrought in God-befitting wise shew that the Saviour is God: and again the things said and done humanly shew that He is of a truth man. For this is the force of the mystery." Thes. cap. 24 p. 231 a b c d.
45. u Probably ἀναφορὰ, which S. Cyril uses several times in the Quod Unus est Christus, below pp. 255, 257 &c, and especially on this very subject, p. 259.
46. x See the same illustrations in the treatise Quod Unus est Christus below, p. 259.
[Page headings]
Christ signifies an anointing or setting apart to some work.
186 Christ, Incarnate God, restores us the Holy Ghost.
Emmanuel aided them of old, is with us as God and Man. 187
188 Emmanuel, Christ, Jesus ---- God, with us, anointed, Saviour.
Emmanuel out of Heaven, yet Man. 189
190 The Full made His own the emptiness.
The Word has Two Generations: He our Sacrifice. 191
192 Modes of union: that of the Son God Alone knows.
Closest connection of body and soul, that of Emmanuel higher. 193
194 Types of that Ineffable Union.
Types of that Ineffable Union. 195
196 Ark overlaid within, the Soul, without, the Body.
Christ God by Nature: Godhead cannot be grasped by earth. 197
198 God the Word lowered Himself, not man raised himself.
He humbled, emptied Himself: is in His own glory with flesh. 199
200 Incarnate =born as we yet God. Two sets of
names are His. One, yet natures inconfused. 201
202 Jesus makes His own what belong to His Manhood.
Mercy-seat type of Emmanuel, God and Man. 203
204 Brazen serpent type of Incarnate Son:
on the Father's Throne with Body. Leprous hand. 205
206 Jesus Christ Incarnate Word: spake the Law,
spake to us. Made flesh = God made Man. 207
208 If Emmanuel God as God-dwelt, we too.
: S. Paul says that Christ is God. 209
210 Christ the Great God: in Him our blessed Hope:
S. Paul preached, knows hearts, forgives, Co-sits. 211
212 Christ God: else indwelling and man-worship..
The Son made Man without change. 213
214 The Word has a second Birth, yet changes not.
The Word with His manhood One, in us an indwelling. 215
216 God fills all as He knows: sent, His Divine work for us.
The Son Eternal Offspring of the Father, Mary's Child. 217
218 B. V. bare God, not Godhead apart by Itself.
Soul not born of body, yet the two man: Christ God and man. 219
220 God the Son a Boy and saved us.
God made Man by birth. 221
222 King David's testimony.
Habakkuk's testimony: the Patriarch Jacob's. 223
224 Daniel testifies God in man's likeness.
The Son, Unsuffering, not apart from that which suffers. 225
226 Types of Life dying:
His what befall His Flesh, yet One. 227
228 All His, yet in different mode.
He worships and is worshipped: One. 229
230 One with flesh too. Truly an oath. With intimates two.
Nicene Fathers spake by Holy Ghost: their gainsayers mad. 231
232 The Son's the Body, its passions and sufferings. His Nature
Impassible: Himself Unchanging. 233
234 Union true, relation untenable.
The Word One, suffered in the flesh. Impassible. 235
236 God superior to suffering, suffered in His Manhood.
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Early Church Fathers - Additional Texts
SOURCE SECTION: cyril_against_diodore_01_text.htm
Cyril of Alexandria, Against Diodore of Tarsus and Theodore of Mopsuestia (fragments of book 1), LFC 47 (1881) pp. 320-336.
Cyril of Alexandria, Against Diodore of Tarsus and Theodore of Mopsuestia (fragments of book 1), LFC 47 (1881) pp. 320-336.
|320
CYRIL
FROM HIS TREATISE AGAINST DIODORE BISHOP OF TARSUS 1
[Translated by P. E. Pusey]
of which the beginning is
Nought shall be ranked before the Truth by them at least who love it and are well skilled in uttering what pertains to it.
1.
His words from the treatises against Diodore and Theodore: the beginning of the Treatise.
Nothing is valued before the Truth by them who love it and are skilful in speaking what pertains thereto: yet is it right (I say) that they who are thus minded and are zealous rightly to walk in the holy doctrines of the Church, should both guilelessly give heed to any who think and speak aright and not again, holden by reverence and love, commit themselves to those who write not without blame, in order that they be not blamed as calling evil good and good evil, sweet bitter and bitter sweet, and putting darkness for light, and light for darkness: but accomplishing |321 rather that which is consonant to the Divine law (for Judge, it says, righteous judgement), consonant too to the wise Paul, Be ye wise hankers, prove all things: may accept that which is excellent, and keep far from what is not so. For it is absurd that irrational animals, should be instructed by the laws of nature, to know well what is good for them and what is not so: so that they make their food of those things in the field which have no harm in them, and leave |322 those which do harm; and that WE who have understanding and right reason (for nature is wise and has perfectly the power of well examining each thing) should not rightly and without error examine the force of things written or spoken that we may honour with praise the things which are blameless, and turn aside from all which are unduly spoken and which step outside of the doctrines of the truth.
2.
Albeit how ought not one who wanted to shew the difference of the properties, I mean of flesh and Godhead, to advance to this very point by such thoughts and words as were meet? For not the same as regards the quality which is inherent in each of the things named, are Body and the Unembodied, the flesh taken of human lump and the Word which beamed forth from the Essence of God the Father. Yet we must not therefore sever into two christs and sons the One Lord JESUS CHRIST.
3.
But that we say that the Flesh of the Lord has been ensouled with reasonable soul, has been full often told by us, and now too no less do we affirm that it is no otherwise.
4.
Let Diodore hear now from us too, If you say that He is flesh whom you call a Nazarene or an assumed man, shew thyself to us apart from all disguise and mask, tell (I pray) clearly what you deem good to think, and do not, simply speaking of flesh without soul, attempt to carry away the hearers. Since WE ourselves say that according to the plan of proper nature, the flesh will surely be of other nature than the Word which sprang out of God the Father, yet hath it become His by Union which may not be plucked asunder. |323
5.
He is rather One and the Same Son, so as to be conceived of as both out of the Essence of God the Father Divinely and out of us humanly, or out of the seed of David. He was called a Prophet as Moses. And we do not disbelieve the title, seeing that we know the might of the Economy with flesh. Not Himself was the Temple nor yet in His own Nature in that He is conceived of as God did He admit the undoing of it: yet was that His own which was undone, just as of each of us his body is his own.
6.
Hence His is Divinely the Essence which is before the worlds, His in like wise and not another's that in the last times He should be born in the flesh. For the birth from the holy Virgin was found to the Word, not a way to His Being but unto His manifestation with flesh: and He is in no wise mortal out of mortals but rather Life as out of Life the FATHER.
Yet hath the Body mortal out of mortals and subject unto death become the own of Life, in order that through it contending with death and raised from the dead He might reform unto incorruption and prove superior to death that which has been mastered of death, as regards its own nature: for death falling on the body of Life, became impotent.
7.
For that the Word of God endures not to suffer a shadow of turning, nor yet does the flesh letting go what it is, change into the Nature of the Word united to It, every one of them who think aright will (I suppose) say.
8.
For withdrawing some little (if you please) the investigation from the person of Christ the Saviour of us all, when |324 we examine one of the things which has been named, as to its nature, itself by itself, one and other in all respects is the bondman's form and the Lord's, or human and Divine, lamb and High Priest, Maker and made.
9.
But haply you will say, 'Hath not then in Him dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily?' This too is true and one will not deny what has been written; yet we say that not in another's body do we conceive that the Godhead of the Son hath dwelt, but rather as in His own Temple: just as the soul of man too, being other than 2 the flesh yet together with the flesh makes up the person of a single man, as Peter or Paul.
Yet Christ is conceived of as above this too: for we say that not the Word of God became to the body in place of a soul, as some most absurdly imagine 3; but we affirm rather |325 that His holy and spotless Body has been ensouled with reasonable soul.
10.
All-Perfect confessedly and without increase is the Word of God (for He has been begotten out of the Perfect Father, Wisdom out of Wisdom and Might out of Might), but since Unchangeableness by Nature is His, in nothing wronged by being in a Temple, He hath remained the Same, i. e., All-Perfect and Wisdom and Might. And the flesh ripening advanced by degrees according to the law of its nature, the Word united to it made a declaration by little and little of His own Wisdom, keeping pace so to say with the increase and advance of His Body and one not inharmonious with the size of His stature. Thus He was regarded by them who saw Him, as being gradually advanced to the successive attainment of the above-named things. |326
11.
Hence He hath partaken like us in blood and flesh, in order that in His own flesh combating with death and bringing it to nought, He might achieve incorruption for our mortal bodies and stay the law that rages in our members from its tyranny over us. For it was not possible in any other way to mingle life with death, except He had used a mortal Body; neither could the sting of natural pleasures have been blunted in us too, except that which was taken from our lump had been made the own body of the Word.
12.
Not soulless, excellent sir, do we say that the flesh forth of the seed of David, united to God the Word is, nor yet will any imagine, if he have a mind not corrupted, that He was to the holy Temple instead of mind and soul 4; yet we are not accustomed to call man, that which is forth of the seed of David, son apart and separate 5.
13.
Yet, wise sir, would I say, soul and body combine unto a man's birth and the one does not precede the other: but God the Word, albeit He was before all worlds as God, was pleased in the latter times to be united to flesh having a reasonable soul, and to be born man, yet keep even so the glory that was His own: for He spurned not the preeminence over all which is inherent in Him, but is worshipped even thus as One and Only Son by us and by the holy angels. |327
14.
The 6 same from his discourse against Diodore beginning, We set nothing before the truth.
For he who is minded to conceive aright, when one names Him who is of the seed of David, understands at once the Word which sprang from God the Father, Who was Incarnate and made in our likeness: but thou sayest that he was the dwelling-place of the Word, surpassing indeed the holy Prophets and in more exalted place, not that He is God of God even though He was made flesh, in incomparable divergence exalted above our human condition; but that when he was formed, the Word came to him, crowning him with surpassing grace and putting in him Its own Wisdom and Glory, in order that he might become partaker of God and not be himself conceived of as God, the Only-Begotten Word of God, because He was pleased to take our likeness and to be of the seed of Divine David.
15.
7 Holy and without sin is the body of Christ our God and Saviour, and in this respect is incorruptible from the womb, and herein He hath ever no participation or likeness with us, because He was made like unto us in everything except sin, and in like manner with us did He take part in blood and flesh, as said the Apostle.
in his Discourse against the wicked Diodore wrote thus,
Excellent sir, (say I) thou art belching forth foolish words and sick with much absurdity: for from Mary was the Holy Body, yet at the beginning of its formation or subsistence in the womb, was it holy as being the body of Christ, and |328 there is not an instant in which it was not His,8 but was rather simple flesh, as thou saidst, and in equality with other flesh.
16.
the 9 wise Cyril finding fault with this craftiness writes thus against Diodore,
Fearing therefore lest we should downright say Man openly, in his craft he calls Him flesh: else why in the world is it that we do not say that the flesh is the Son of God, but rather call it the flesh of Him Who is in truth and by Nature Son? in order that we may conceive of and say One Christ and Son and Lord.
17.
wrote against Diodore thus,
Let him know then that the body which was born at Bethlehem, even though in its natural qualities it is not the same, so to say, with the Word which is from forth God the Father, yet is His and does not belong to another son apart from Him, seeing that the Word Incarnate and made Man is conceived of as One Son and Christ and Lord.
and after this he again adds these too,
Since we too say that in regard of its own property the flesh is of a truth of other nature than the Word Which was born from the Father, yet is it His own in Union inseverable: just as also the Word Which sprang from the Essence of God the Father, will be called seed of Abraham after the flesh, the Economy calling Him thereto and in no wise injuring Him, in regard to His being what He is, for being God by Nature He became of a truth Son of man too, and He is Son of God the Father, not alien nor falsely so called, but He it is Who ineffably and incomprehensibly begat |329 Him of Himself, even though He be not conceived of apart from flesh after the Union 10.
and again after a little,
Hence, even though no one call Him seed of David, Who proceeded forth of the Essence of God the Father, as neither does one so call the Only-Begotten, yet the force of the Union which is without confusion and without change, undoes severance. And again, because neither is the Only-Begotten in regard of His natural quality flesh nor again the Word flesh, he severs them not aright, putting them as though one and another and confessing two sons, to whom he gives barely the connection of affection.
Or haply there are some (I ween) who rave because they do not bring the flesh by change to the nature of the Word, nor yet again bring down the Word unto Consubstantiality with the flesh united thereto.
and after more,
Yet is it wholly unreasonable that thou durst blame them who hold the right faith and art not ashamed to withstand them who confess the Union without confusion; and thou art wholly jumbling up everything and demonstrating that the flesh is of other nature, I mean in respect of God the Word: and if one confess this with thee, keeping clear of the unlearning of the Synousiasts, thou forthwith severest the One into two.
18.
and as S. Cyril in his book against Diodore, blaming such falsehood, writes,
If He be full surely a prophet as thou affirmest and confidently sayest, Who received the gift of the SPIRIT, and foretold the things to come, and again ministered the SPIRIT, and it appears to thee not right that the Word Who is forth |330 of God the Father should be called a prophet; who is it that received the gift of the SPIRIT and ministered the revelation of the things to come? Perchance thou sayest, He that is of the seed of David, or as thou callest him, The man of Nazareth. He is then a prophet and nothing else, and just a little exalted above our condition: for He is in no wise Equal, I mean in greatness and in glory to God the Word, if the One be the Giver of the Spirit, the other the minister of the gift from the Spirit. And lo how does the God-inspired Scripture call the Holy Ghost the Spirit of Jesus? for they wished (it says) to go into Bithynia and the Spirit of Jesus suffered them not.
19.
For so says S. Cyril when writing against Diodore,
That the Word out of God the Father was not by any called Christ or Jesus as long as He was not yet man, is evident: Christ indicates anointing, Jesus clearly came through Angel's voice, and before His conception in the holy Virgin was put upon Him Who was born of her after the flesh.
20.
... what wise Cyril put forth against Diodore and wrote thus,
DIODORE. "For while the Lord was in the bowels of the Virgin and of her essence, He had not the honour of sonship; but when He was fashioned and became a temple for God the Word, in that He received the Only-Begotten, He took the honour of the name and was participant with Him in the honour."
to these the Saint mighty in the SPIRIT blaming him said,
CYRIL. Therefore according to thee, Emmanuel was not God nor Son at all, but a common man and one as we, but because on His birth the Only-Begotten came to Him, therefore He became too the Temple of God, and was |331 vouchsafed the sonship and the Dignity: undoubtedly therefore He has the honour as something added to Him.
again he brings forward Diodore varying and contradicting himself and writing thus,
DIODORE. "But he who was of the seed of David, as created, had the Word for his God, and when created he became of God the Word: for with us first a temple is prepared, and then He Who dwelleth enters it; in the womb of the Virgin He Who dwelleth fashioned Himself a Temple and removed not from the Temple but filled it with His glory and His Wisdom: nor as in the case of the Prophets, was there ignorance with Him until the Spirit made revelation."
and again he cites him saying the opposite, after this wise,
"For the Godhead did not immediately on his creation or birth, infuse all His Wisdom within him, but by little and little gave it to the body."
against these things therefore, forthwith did he who wisely exposed them, add,
CYRIL. But it is meet before other things to say this: against what he says and wishes to hold, himself advances the contrary; for he affirms that the Godhead of the Son did not as soon as he was born, put all His wisdom within him, albeit he wrote in what is a little above [Diodorus cited by Cyril] "For with us first------but filled it with His glory and His wisdom" (as above).
21.
for he wrote against Diodore thus,
CYRIL. But WE, wise sir, believing that so to think is stupidity, say that the Word took flesh of the holy Virgin and proceeded man, and He was not in a man nor is He seen to take upon Him a man; but He is rather One and |332 the Same Son; in order that He maybe conceived to be of the Essence of God the Father Divinely, and of us humanly, that is, of the seed of David.
and again citing Diodore who says,
"The Perfect Likeness of God the Word, the perfect likeness of the bondman whom He took upon Him,"
Cyril says,
In place of, He was made, or was born according to the flesh of a woman and proceeded man, he oftentimes puts the word took and the word received, in order that he may shew that he is a man who has a connection of affection, I mean with God the Word, and that he may not confess with us that He Who is in truth Lord became man.
22.
for he cites Diodore wickedly writing thus,
DIODORE. "But how do ye introduce one worship? is it as to the soul and body of kings? for the soul reigns not by itself and the body reigns not by itself, but God the Word was King before flesh; not therefore as to soul and body, so to God the Word and to flesh [is the worship paid]."
against these things again he answering said,
CYRIL. Of diverse kind then is the worship, and hence it is not One worship from us (for this is what thy word bids us): but where a difference in worship and honour is paid to the things named, and to each is accurately given what befits it, there full surely inequality of power follows: but inequality and difference in power, in regard to less and greater, comes to Two Hypostases and Persons. Union therefore flees away, the depth of the Mystery departs to nothing, for it is not right, he says, that as to the soul and body of kings should worship be paid, albeit how were it not better that this should be the type? for as out of soul |333 and body is one man, albeit the properties of each have great diversity one to another, I mean as to their mode of being (for the soul is other than the body): so will you understand concerning Christ too the Saviour of us all. For the Word Which was made flesh, i. e., was seen in human likeness, is God: in order that He may be confessed to be and may be in truth, God alike and man, One and Onely All-Perfect Son. But he is saying I know not what, in trifling and childish imaginations daring to sport himself against the Truth.
23.
thus S. Cyril cites Diodore as writing,
DIODORE. "A prophet shall the Lord God raise up to you out of your brethren, like one. Was the Prophet at all inferior to Moses? was he not Perfect man? Therefore neither is he of Nazareth less than a man, who is of the seed of David. But Perfect God out of Perfect God took perfect man:" and again, "For the Godhead did not, immediately on his formation or birth, put all His Wisdom within him, but by little and little gave it to the body."
to him who blasphemously utters these and such like lies, amid his blame the righteous accuser of the wickedness says,
CYRIL. It results that He is no longer God, but a God-clad man rather and in equal measure with these others, in whom God manifestly dwelt.
24.
and he introduces Diodore wickedly saying,
DIODORE. "The 11 Son of God and that not by reason of ought (for He is so by Nature): the flesh is son by reason of the Son." |334
as to whom he also draws out his speech and says,
CYRIL. And how (tell me) by reason of the Son is the flesh by itself son? or of whom is it son at all? the Son's? and how dost thou not fall from hence, when thou hast brought the absurdity to this point? well then, is it the son of God the Father, in like manner as He too Who is by Nature and truly of His Essence? Two therefore unquestionably sons of God there are: and lo whither goes Paul who says, One God the Father of Whom everything and WE of Him, and One Lord Jesus Christ through Whom everything and WE through Him?
25.
Cyril examining as to Emmanuel too, in these against Diodore wrote thus,
CYRIL. But when we are conceiving of the Only-Begotten Word, as united to His flesh, we do not take it as being like a garment nor do we say that He cast it upon Him like cloaks which are external, as though it were alien: but it is rather a demonstration of the declaration that He was made flesh, i. e. man. The Word therefore had a natural presence in the body which was united to Him and is His, just as also the soul of man is his, albeit the nature is alien.
26.
and against Diodore thus,
For we who hold the Right and Immaculate Faith, and ever cleave to the Divine Scriptures, and follow the tracks of the Faith of the Fathers, when we hear 'JESUS,' we understand the Only-Begotten Word made Man.
27.
seeing that Diodore too who takes occasion and speaks against them who confound the Matures, i.e. who mingle the flesh of the Lord and foolishly |335 say that it changed into the Essence of God the Word, and became the opposite of what it was before, says that they call One Christ two sons, the wise Cyril cries out on him and says,
CYRIL. Therefore let us give the crown to Paul of Samosata too, who more accurately than thou, did contend against the Synousiasts; for that more than thou did he sever the Mystery of the Economy.
28.
striving 12 against Diodore, the all-wise Cyril says thus,
He dared clothe in form of Lord, him who (as he says) is man from Mary, who at the beginning no way surpassed us, but hardly was counted worthy of the name and honour of Son and of God, after he had come forth of the womb. Christ then verily is, as I said, two sons and a new god, and has been crowned by God with supernatural honour in some small degree above the creatures, that together with a mere man He might be worshipped who at last gained the glory, i. e., the complement of the Holy Consubstantial Trinity.
29.
for 13 S. Cyril writing against Diodore says thus of the definition of a man,
This, my friend, is the definition of human nature which is also called a substance, that it is a rational animal, mortal, recipient of mind and learning.
---
The 14 same Cyril against Diodore,
We have already often said, when we were making our |336 Defence of all the Chapters, that not because the natures came together unto union, must duality be admitted 15. For as a man although compounded out of reasonable soul and body, is one and is not divided into two and this whole is called an animal rational and mortal, albeit really mortal in one part, rational in the other part: thus too Immanuel, being One, of Godhead and manhood, whereof each is perfect in itself, is the Same God and man, mortal and Immortal, in time and before all ages, Palpable and Impalpable, Visible and Invisible. For had He Immortal in His own Nature taken nothing from mortal nature, i. e. from the seed of Abraham, WE had not been renewed and lifted up to immortality, vain had been our faith and we had still lain in our sins.
The same Cyril against Diodore,
For as, suffering pains in the flesh He yet remained Impassible in the Nature of His own Godhead: so I say that even while He was growing He was All-Perfect. And while His wisdom was believed to be increasing, He was even then the overflowing fountain of wisdom whence all others draw their wisdom.
[Running titles of the pages]
320 Truth before all; we must be heedful.
God teaches animals to discern harmful and healthful. 321
322 Natures wholly different united make One CHRIST.
His Body His whereby He fought with death. 323
324 The Body His United and one with Him. One worship.
The Son manifested wisdom with His Body's growth. 325
326 His Body and Soul and Godhead.
Him of the seed of David God Incarnate. Holy the Body. 327
328 The flesh not the Son, but His.
Union without confusion, not severance. 320
330 JESUS CHRIST GOD the SON Incarnate,
made man not entering man. 331
332 Made man and born and receives one worship.
God and Man, One Perfect Son. 333
334 Natural Presence of the Son in His own Body.
Paul of Samosata. True real Union or Two sons. 335
336 Union of opposites seen in man too.
[Footnotes moved to the end. A few notes in the margin have been omitted]
1. a Diodore, the "pupil (θρέμμα) of the blessed Silvanus" Bishop of Tarsus, the comrade of S. Flavian (afterward Bishop of Antioch) in toils for the Catholics of Antioch in their low estate through Arian oppression, visitor of S.Meletius Bishop of Antioch in his banishment in Armenia through these same Arians, teacher of S.Chrysostom, commentator on most of the Old and New Testament, present at the Second Council where he signed as Bishop of Tarsus, being then at the beginning of an Episcopate of about 13 years, and who died in the Unity of the Church, nevertheless fell into the error of so parting the two Natures in Christ as to speak of His Manhood as though it were a Man apart from the Son of God. S. Athanasius speaks as though he saw the germ of some such error; he says, "And He became man and did not come into man, for this it is necessary to know, lest perchance these irreligious men fall into this notion also, and beguile any into thinking that as in former times the Word was used to come into each of the Saints, so now He sojourned in a man, hallowing him also and manifesting Himself as in the others." against Arians, iii § 30 p. 442 O.T.
Of Diodore's writings little is preserved excepting some few citations in different writings of Severus. Even of S. Cyril's work these few fragments that survive seem almost entirely due to the Monophysite Controversy in the first half of the sixth century. The fragments are mainly preserved either by Severus of Antioch (chiefly in his work against John Grammaticus of Caesarea, but also in other works) and by John of Caesarea himself who appended a vast number of extracts of S. Cyril to his Apology for the Council of Chalcedon. Anastasius, referred to by the learned Cave, under Severus (Viae dux cap. 6 pp. 90, 92, ed. Ingolstadt, 1606) says of this John, "Then John of Caesarea Grammarian and very many more made defences for the synod (of Chalcedon) through truest extracts... Severus having looked into the compilations of the Caesarean and some others who compiled in behalf of the synod through very many extracts of Fathers and writers and demonstrations and proofs, first of all straightway wrote against John of Caesarea." Further on, Severus "laid down as a law to them [in Syria Egypt Alexandria and elsewhere] in the same book which is called Philalethes, that the Faith of Chalcedon frittered away 230 citations of holy Fathers in the defence which John of Caesarea made in its behalf." ib. p.96. In the MSS of John's Defence wnich have supplied many of these passages against Diodore and Theodore, they are numbered 181-196, Cave likewise refers to extracts of Severus' work against the Grammarian in the Catena on Old Testament Canticles edited by Anton. Caraffa. John of Caesarea signs in the fifth general Council as "John by the mercy of God Bishop of Caesarea of Palestine." t. vi. 218 Colet. He had been Bishop but a short time when the Council was called in A.D. 553, and probably, as Severus was dethroned in A.D. 536, the controversy had taken place before John was Bishop, which will account for his being usually styled John of Caesarea. Leontius of Jerusalem however cites at least once, from the Book of the same Severus against the Grammarian John Bishop of Caesarea. Apol. Conc. Chalc. in Gallandi, Bibl. Vett. Patrum xii. 736. The Lateran council similarly, The same Severus against John of holy memory Bishop of Caesarea of Palestine. Conc. vii. 324 Col. John of Caesarea's Defence of the Council of Chalcedon is extant in MS. in syriac (as Cardinal Mai tells us, in Cod. Vat. 140 written in the eighth Century), and in Greek in a late manuscript at Venice and at Cairo. Of the character of Diodore's writings the learned Tillemont who appears most marvellously to have made himself acquainted with every extant writing of every Father, says "We cannot be judges of this great difficulty [whether Diodore's writings were heretical] because we no longer have his writings which would need to be examined with great care, not stopping at culled passages." t. 8. 568 ed. 2. S. Cyril however who had access to them says of him, "One Diodore, being once as they say, an opponent of the SPIRIT, communicated with the Church of the Orthodox. This man having put off, as he deemed, the spot of the Macedonian heresy, fell into another infirmity. For he deemed and wrote that one son by himself is he who is of the seed of David, born of the holy Virgin; another Son again by Himself the Word out of God the Father. But veiling the wolf under the sheep's fleece, he pretends to say One Christ, allotting the Name to the Word alone begotten out of God the Father, the Only-Begotten Son: and allotting it in the category of a grace, as himself says, he styles him too of the seed of David son, as united (he says) to the in truth Son: united, not as WE hold, but only as regards dignity, sway and equality of honour. His disciple Nestorius became, and darkened by Diodore's books, feigns" &c. Ep. 1 to Succensus 135 d e. Tillemont thinks that what S. Cyril says of Diodore having been a Macedonian, is not to be pressed, t. 8. 566.
2. b κατὰ seems an error for παρὰ.
3. c The Apollinarians: see in Tillemont, above p. 44 note col. 1. The extracts from S. Athanasius, speak of the Apollinarian unwillingness to own that our Lord made His own ought of created matter; see the theory that the body was consubstantial with the Godhead, their refusal to worship ought created, to allow that Christ was man. Diodore and Theodore having all this to battle with speak as if, while holding that the manhood is perfect and complete, they disjoined it altogether from God the Son, making it a distinct man and calling it His in some vague way without uniting Godhead and manhood in one. Calling it His in some vague way hindered their seeing that they were really dividing Christ into Two beings, God and man, separate from each other. Theodoret notwithstanding the powerful influence of these two minds, and his dread of Apollinarianism, enunciates clearly the Union, though with language occasionally vague. Andrew's statements (of Samosata in the same province) are still more clear. S. Athanasius says, " But ye say again, 'WE do not worship a creature.' O void of understanding! why do ye not consider that, made the Lord's Body, it bears away no created worship? for it has been made the Body of the Uncreated Word: Him Whose Body it has been made, to Him do ye offer the worship also." against Apollinarius, lib. i. 6. t. i. 926 c. " For ye essay to say that the flesh is consubstantial with the Godhead." ib. i. 9 t. i. 929 b. " But ye say again,,If 'Christ be man, He will be a part of the world, and a part of the world cannot save the world.' O thought of deceit and madness of blasphemy, let them say of what Scripture is this rule or sophism of the devil: albeit the Prophet saith......And a Man was born in her and the Highest Himself founded her. How then does Christ not save the world, made man? seeing that it is manifest that in the nature wherein sin was committed, therein hath had place the abundance of grace. What is abundance of grace? That the Word hath been made man, abiding God; in order that made man too, He may be believed to be God, so that Christ being man is God, because being God He has been made man, and in human form saves the believers." lib. ii. 7 t. i. 945 b c d. "How then do ye say that the Word, Creator of the rational natures, commingling with Himself flesh, was made a rational man? and how without change and turn hath He been made man, if He did not compact the bondman's form so as to be rational? in order that the Word may be without turn, abiding what He was, and being God may be seen on earth, man endowed with reason: for the Lord is a heavenly man [ἐπουράνιος ἄνθρωπος, comp. 1 Cor. xv. 48 cited just below, and as the Heavenly One (ὁ ἐπουράνιος) such too the heavenly ones], not as exhibiting flesh from out of Heaven but as compacting Heavenly flesh from out of earth: wherefore also as the Heavenly One, such too the heavenly ones by the participation of His holiness. Wherefore He also makes His own the things of His body. But ye say again, 'How did they crucify the Lord of glory?' But they did not crucify the Word as ye say, not so, but they set at nought the Word, affixing to the Cross the Body of the Word. For it was God Who was set at nought," as above p. 303 note g. "Wherefore the Lord said to the Jews, Undo this Temple and in three days I will rear it. As the Prophet saith, Because was delivered unto death His Soul, not the Word Himself: and John says, He laid down His Soul (ψυχὴν) for us. How then did the Jews avail to undo the Temple of God and to part from Him the indissoluble commixture that had taken place of the flesh with the Word (τὴν ἄλυτον σύγκρασιν τῆς σαρκὸς πρὸς τὸν λόγον γενομένην), if the death of the flesh is as you take it of such sort. For neither would the body have died except it were parted from somewhat. For except there had being undoing of it, there were no death; if death have not befallen, neither hath resurrection. Allow therefore that an undoing and a parting from the body took place, as it is written in the Gospels, He gave up the ghost, and, He bowed His Head and yielded up the ghost; in order that we may see what ghost ye understood was parted from the body, and [so] the dying had place. For ye said, that the Word having commingled with Himself an impersonal flesh (σάρκα τὴν ἀνυπόστατον) exhibited man truly rational and perfect. If therefore the Word withdrew from the body and thus the dying took place, the Jews prevailed against God, dissolving the indissoluble commixture. Neither therefore hath our death had place there, if the death of the body had place, from God being parted from it. And how did the body parted from the Incorruptible God remain in incorruption? the wounding will be that of the Body, the suffering that of the Word. Wherefore ye speak of a suffering God also, uttering things consonant with yourselves, yea rather agreeing with the Arians: for they teach thus. And the Word, according to you, will by the Resurrection be raised: for it is necessary that one take the beginning of the Resurrection from Hades, in order that the Resurrection may be perfect, both the undoing of death and the release of the spirits that are there." ib. 16 t. i. 952 d e 953 a b c d.
4. d this being the Apollinarian error with which Diodore had to contend.
5. e The first fragment has been preserved to us in a syriac collection rather later than Severus, the remainder so far (except a few words here and there) belong to John of Caesarea's collection, see above p. 321 note a. Those which follow have been chiefly preserved by Severus either in his controversy with the same Bishop John, or in that with his own fellow-heretic Julian of Halicarnassus. The lines which introduce S. Cyril's fragments are Severus', except in one or two cases which have notes as they occur.
6. f This fragment is preserved in same collection as 1.
7. g This is given by Card. Mai in a latin translation from a treatise of Severus "Questions with the heretics" (Migne t. ix. col. 1451 n. 21). It is extant also in the British Museum MS. add. 14529 fol. 27 v. I had overlooked it when editing the Syriac fragments but was directed to it later by Wright's Catalogue. This and the following paragraph make up but one piece in Mai: but are separate pieces in the London MSS. Card. Mai too gives the latter portion of this as a separate piece from the Philalethes (n. 18 in Migne) as well as in the longer n. 21, from the Questions.
8. h Card. Mai citing this from Severus' Philalethes ends it differently, no one will admit so much as an instant of time in which that (flesh) will be common and like other flesh as you my and not rather be the Flesh of the Word (n. 18 in Migne).
9. i from the same collection as 1 and 14.
10. k Card. Mai has a portion of this (Migne n. 19) cited "from Severus' defence of his Philalethes," and continues his extract, "Thou therefore while thou art admitting His all-but change into flesh soul-less and reason-less, art dividing into two sons the Only One, impiously rejecting the truth that One is the Son.
11. l This extract is given more at length by Leontius of Byzantium, who gives it as, from Book 1 against the Synousiasts. Contra Nest. et Eutch. lib. iii in Gall. xii. 697.
12. m This is preserved to us by Severus in a long letter which he wrote to his fellow-heretic Julian of Halicarnassus, in the British Museum add. 17200. Cardinal Mai also preserved a latin translation of it, I do not know whether he procured it from the same work of Severus.
13. n In the fragments as edited, this little piece is only given in latin, from Cardinal Mai's collection, but the British Museum MS. Add. 12155 fol. 180 v has it (as pointed out by Wright in his Catalogue) and supplies the concluding words. The same definition is given by S. Cyril in his Thesaurus, cap. 8 fin. p. 66a &c, ad Hermeiam, lib. 2 p. 425 c &c.
14. o This and the following are from the latin translation (not always exact) which Cardinal Mai preserved to us: this one is from the defence of Severus for his Philalethes. They have in Migne ix. 1450, 1452 the numbers 20, and 26.
15. p i.e. that we must not "divide the the Hypostases into Two," def. chapter 3 against Eastern Bishops, p. 167 a, a-gainst Theodoret, 213 c d e 214 a. def. against Theodoret chapter 4, pp. 217 e, 218, chapter 6, p. 224 a, chapter 12, p. 239 e.
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Cyril of Alexandria, Against Diodore of Tarsus and Theodore of Mopsuestia (fragments of book 2), LFC 47 (1881) pp.337-349.
Cyril of Alexandria, Against Diodore of Tarsus and Theodore of Mopsuestia (fragments of book 2), LFC 47 (1881) pp.337-349.
|337
CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA
FROM HIS SECOND BOOK AGAINST THE WORDS OF THEODORE 1
[Translated by P. E. Pusey]
of which the beginning is
They who with clear eye of the understanding view closely the holy and God-inspired Scripture 2.
1. 3
He said to His disciples, Call not any teacher on the earth, for one is your Leader, Christ. For He did not, when |338 He was commanding the Apostles this, distinguish His proper Godhead from His visible body, nor when He affirmed that He was Christ did He distinguish Himself from soul and flesh, being thus both God and man, bondman visible and Lord acknowledged, veiling the height of His Godhead with the low estate of the Incarnation, lifting up the low estate of the visible body by the operation of His Godhead.
2. 4
Let not men deceive nor be deceived admitting as "man of the Lord," as they call Him, a man without a mind, but rather our Lord and God: for neither do we sunder the man from the Godhead but we declare Him One and the Same, erst not man but God and Son only and before the ages, unmingled with body and what belong to body; at the end Man too assumed for our salvation, suffering in flesh, Impassible in Godhead, circumscribed in body, uncircumscribed in Godhead, the Same earthly and Heavenly, seen and conceived of, contained in space and boundless, in order that the whole man which fell under sin might be re-formed by the Same, Whole Man and God.
3.
For since the Only-Begotten Word of God being Life by Nature was made flesh, the nature of man re-bloomed unto life: for He has become first among all. And for this reason the Life-giving Word of God made His own flesh which was subject to death, in order that manifesting it superior to both death and decay, He might transmit the grace to us too. For as in Adam we were brought down unto death, so in Christ thrusting aside the tyranny of death, are we re-formed unto immortality. |339
4.
The same from the first book against Theodore 5.
For as out of soul and body are one man, albeit the properties pertaining to each have the vastest possible difference one to another in respect (I mean) of their being such (for the soul is other than the body): thus will it be conceived of also as to Christ the Saviour of us all.
5.
S. Cyril from his first book against Theodore from the last quire 6,
GOD was He Who suffered in the flesh (wise sir), the Lord of Glory, Who by the grace of God tasted death for every man, not in the Nature of His Godhead but in His Proper Body.
6.
for this in that too against Theodore of Mopsuestia in the first book wrote S. Cyril,
CYRIL. But we make use of necessary examples, everywhere keeping undivided the Union and repelling thy severance. The example of the sun however, none of them who think aright brings to the establishment of union, knowing that we follow the Divine Scriptures, which have it that the Word of God (as we have said) should partake in like wise as we in blood and flesh ensouled with a reasonable soul, and not on the contrary that it is man who by participation and mere affection, is illuminated by the Divine Economy as if from a ray of the sun.
7.
and in the first book of those which he wrote against Theodore of Mopsuestia on this wise,
CYRIL. But Jesus Christ is not conceived of alone and by Himself; or again as without flesh and bare of the |340 likeness usward, but rather as the Word of God, incarnate and made man.
8.
Cyril therefore treating of the 318 holy Fathers in his first book wrote these things too against Theodore,
Lo with all clearness do the initiators of all under heaven and the champions of the truth, men elect and spirit-clad, tracking the Divine Words and the Tradition of the Saints and Apostles and Evangelists, who were eye-witnesses and ministers of the Word, bid us believe, not in Two sons, but in One Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God, Begotten from forth the Father. The name Christ is indicative of anointing, and that of Jesus was conferred, not on the bare Word, conceived of apart from flesh, but rather when He was born of a woman in the flesh: yet even so do they say that One is the Only-Begotten, Who was begotten by Nature of the Father, and they affirm that He is God and Consubstantial with the Father; saying that through Him were made all things which are in Heaven and upon earth, and in plain terms they confess, that "for us men and for our salvation He came down, and was both made flesh and made man, and suffered and died and rose the third day and ascended into heaven."
[It is not said to which book the following belong.]
9.
and see the all-wise Cyril, justly objecting this to Theodore and writing thus,
Chicanery then is the Mystery of Christ and there is nought true therein; but thus he says, that the glory of God was spread upon him, i.e. the appellation of God, as some tint, was anointed on a man like us; we refuse to be man-worshippers, who worship the creature rather than the Creator. |341
10.
S. Cyril from his Book against Theodore of Mopsuestia 7.
For being God by Nature and truly Son of God the Father, He was made in likeness of men and made His own the flesh which is of the holy Virgin and it is the flesh of God and full of God-befitting might: wherefore it is also life-giving and repels infirmities and works the undoing of death.
11.
S. Athanasius from his work upon the Incarnation of the Word: Cyril cited it in his books against Theodore 8.
We confess that He is Son of God and God according to the Spirit, Son of Man according to the flesh, not Two Natures to that One Son, One [Nature] worshipped the other unworshipped, but One Nature of God the Word Incarnate 9, worshipped with His flesh with One worship 10: nor Two Sons, One, Very Son of God and worshipped, the other the man out of Mary not worshipped, made by grace son of God just as men too are.
and reiterating these matters of faith,.... he defines thus 11,
Him anathematizes the holy Catholic Church, obeying the Divine Apostle who says, If any one preach to you beside that ye received let him be accursed.
12.
for S. Cyril cites Theodore who was Archbishop of Mopsuestia, in what he wrote against him who wickedly cried out thus 12,
Theodore. "But yea (he says), for as albeit He was of |342 Bethlehem, He was called a Nazarene because of His abidance and growing up there: so [is He called] man 13 too, because He sojourned in man."
and S. Cyril against these things says thus
Silly and childish and old womanish is the speech, for not as from a city one is called citizen or countryman, so by reason of dwelling in a man, is the Word being God called man.
13.
as also Theodore Archbishop of Mopsuestia who in his craft had done this, the wise Cyril blaming, in his book against him thus wrote,
CYRIL. But he thinks that he has said something clever, for he affirms that it is right that the body should be honoured, i. e. the man, for he (I suppose) blushes to call it by the appellation of Son, and to call the Word by that of Body. The Union therefore consists in titles, and an assemblage of mere names: but in truth the Mystery is utterly repudiated.
---
The 14 same Cyril against Theodore.
But he with mouth wide open and reins of blasphemy let loose says that Christ's holiness was imperfect, and did not reach its height ere the Spirit in the form of a dove had come down upon Him.15 Why was He not Perfect? full surely one who is imperfect cannot be without sin, yea |343 one who is believed to be in part holy is thought to be in another part infirm. Besides what is that defect which (as the opponent asserts) the Holy Ghost supplied, that the other part too might be perfect and might break the devil's onset? Yea and not only is He Holy and verily most perfect but also endued with full power who used to heal sorrows and every sort of infirmity.
---
Cyril of holy memory from the first book of what he wrote against Theodore 16.
THEODORE.
"If any like to call both God the Word Son of God son of David in an improper sense on account of God the Word's temple which is forth of David, let him name him too which is of the seed of David, Son of God; let him so style him by grace not by nature, not ignorant of his natural ancestors, nor perverting order and calling Him Who is Unembodied a body also; and Him that is before the ages forth of God forth of David too, and that He suffered and is Impassible 17. A body is not incorporeal, what is from below is not from above, what is before the ages is not out of the seed of David, what suffered is not Impassible, nor are those things directed to the same understanding: what belong to the Body are |344 not God's the Word, and what are God's the "Word have not the body as their seat. Let us confess the natures and not deny the economies."
S. CYRIL.
He who says that the economies must not be denied, utterly uproots the mystery of the human nature: for he dares to say that neither was the Only-Begotten Word of God made man, nor did He appear from forth the seed of holy David, but openly introduces to us a pair of sons, a nature uneven and false in its name. For that it is said to be in an improper sense, wholly shews that it is not truly what it is said to be, for it borrows the other's name. Hence if the Word of God be called man in an improper sense, He clearly was not made man. If he who is out of the seed of David is in an improper sense Son and God, he is by nature and in truth neither God nor Son. False then is the name in either case and the fact is really understood to be that each is called what it is not.
From the same book.
THEODORE.
"And it is convenient that they who view aright, should, when we are looking for natural forefathers, call neither God the Word son of David or Abraham but their Maker: nor the body before the ages out of the Father but the seed of Abraham and David born from Mary. And 18 when the consideration is of natural births, neither is God the Word deemed to be Mary's son: for mortal bears what is mortal by nature and a body like itself. God the Word underwent not two births, one before the ages, the other in the last times, but out of the Father was He begotten by Nature, and the temple which was born of Mary He fashioned to Himself out of the very womb." |345
Then going on a little and something intervening, he said again,
"But when the consideration is of the saving economy, let both God be called man (not because He became so, but because He assumed it), and man God, not as though he had become uncircumscribed nor every where existent, for the body was subject to touch even after the resurrection, and so was taken up into Heaven and so will come as it was taken up."
CYRIL.
Lo plainly and manifestly is he borne against the Divine Scripture, he repudiates the mystery of Christ and as it were chides God the Word Who for us was pleased to suffer emptiness, and seems to grieve that He was made man. For he utterly takes away the Incarnation and lifts himself against the Unspeakable Wisdom, all-but saying in Jewish mode to Christ the Saviour of us all, For a good work we stone Thee not but for blasphemy, that THOU, a man, makest Thyself God. Let him hear Him then saying openly, If therefore I do not the works of My Father believe Me not, if I do though ye believe not Me believe My Works. For while he knows that the Word of God used Divine Might and Power even when He appeared as man, he denies that He is God and says that He rather dwelt in a man, in order that the Word of God might set forth to us a man to be worshipped and who is honoured with the mere name of Godhead; he is convicted therefore of being utterly ignorant of the might of Christ's Mystery.
Theodore from the same book.
" ' 19 But if (he says) it were flesh which was crucified, how does the sun turn away his rays, and darkness and |346 earthquakes overpower the whole earth and were the rocks rent and the dead arose?' What then do they say of the darkness that happened in Egypt in the time of Moses, not for three hours but for three days? what of the other miracles which were wrought through Moses and through Jesus the son of Nave who made the sun stand, which sun under king Ezechias even went back against nature? and of the remains of Eliseus which raised a dead man? For if what things befell in the time of the Cross shew that God the Word suffered, and they allow not that the things were wrought for the sake of a man: the things too which happened in the time of Moses for the sake of Abraham's race and those in the time of Jesus son of Nave and of king Ezechias will not be. But if those miracles were wrought for the sake of the people of the Jews, much more those on the cross for the sake of God the Word's temple."
CYRIL.
The 20 heaven is astonished for this and has quaked exceeding vehemently, saith the Lord. O wickedness past endurance! o tongue that speaks iniquity against God and mind that lifteth up its horn on high! seems it little to thee that the Lord of glory is fixed to the wood? Whom THOU sayest is neither true Son nor God, but WE believe that He is truly Son and G od, Creator and Maker of all things. For neither was God the Word Which is out of God the Father man simply but in human form, not suffering translation or change into flesh, but rather united thereto according to the faith of the holy Scriptures. He it is Who suffered in the flesh and hung on the wood, wrought miracles in Egypt, manifesting His glory through the all-wise Moses. |347
Theodore from the same book.
"Son 21 by grace he who is man out of Mary, by Nature God the Word. But what is by grace is not by nature and what is by nature is not by grace. There are not two sons. Be these enough for the body which is of us, sonship by grace, glory, immortality, whereby it is made the Temple of God the Word; be it not raised above its nature and let not God the Word in place of the thanksgiving due from us be wronged. And what is the wrong? to combine Him with a body and to suppose that He needed a body for perfect sonship. Nor does God the Word Himself please that He should be David's son, but lord; but that the body should be called son of David, He not only does not grudge but even came for this very end." 22
CYRIL.
Hence since what is by grace is not by nature and what is by nature is not by grace, there are not two sons, according to thy mode of reasoning. He indeed who is son by grace and not by nature is not truly son, it remains that the glory of true Sonship exist in Him Who is so by Nature not by grace, that is, in God the Word Who is forth of God the Father. Driven out therefore (as I said) from being and being called Son of God is Christ Jesus through Whom too we have been saved, declaring His Death and confessing His Resurrection. For the Word of faith which we preach, brings us to that confession. Hence our faith is in a man and not in Him Who is both by Nature and truly Son of God. For if he is true who says that he obtained the sonship by grace, he will be counted among |348 the multitude of sons, i. e., ourselves, to whom the grace that is from above gives the sonship whereto we were called through Jesus Christ Who is forth of the seed of David according to the flesh. And the Divine Evangelist will assure thee, saying, But they who received Him He gave them authority to become the sons of God, to them that believe on His Name. Then how does he who has obtained the rank of sonship given him by another, avail to give us too a grace not his but acquired and from without?
And after a little. The SON gave Himself unto emptying and, Perfect in all things, was pleased to suffer abasement and to undergo birth according to the flesh of a woman, and was called Son of Abraham and David. Thou marvellest not at so comely a plan of the Economy, yea rather thou findest fault with the Mystery: saying that the Incarnation of the Only-Begotten was a wrong, thou chidest the counsel of God the Father, thou criest out too against the Son Himself Who was pleased to suffer emptying for thy sake. When therefore thou hearest Him saying to God the Father in Heaven, Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not, whole burnt sacrifices and for sin Thou requiredst not but a Body Thou completedst for Me; then I said, Lo I come (in the volume of the Book it is written of Me) to do Thy will, o God: I delight to do it; you will say that the Son haply thought not aright of His glory. For He chose completion of the Body and that made not for other but for Himself, according to His own words, for He says, A Body Thou completedst for Me. Albeit thou hear Paul saying of God the Word, Therefore because the sons partook of blood and flesh, He too likewise was made partaker of the same; and thus the wise John writes, And the Word was made flesh and tabernacled in us, rise thou up against them crying out, "Be He not, in place of the thanksgiving due from from us, wronged. God the Word was not made flesh, God the Word was not truly partaker of blood and flesh; He was not born as we of a woman after the flesh, He was not called son of David. For this which is both too petty for Him to be called and not according to His Will, |349 how would He have suffered?" But WE, wise sir, are wont to glorify God the Father because He completed a Body for the Son: and we say that the Son Himself truly made flesh, i.e. man, suffered indeed emptying for our sakes, and underwent the low estate of our poverty, yet remained even thus God and Very Son of God the Father. How then did He not please to be called son of David if He were made man and that not against His will?
From the first Book of Cyril of holy memory that Christ is One against Theodore.
For there are, there are who deny their Redeemer and Lord and say that He is not true Son of God the Father Who in the last times of the age endured for our sakes birth of a woman after the flesh; but rather that a new and late god appeared to the earth, having the glory of sonship acquired from without just like us and boasting as it were in honours not his own, so that it is just man-worship and nothing else, and some man is worshipped together with the Holy TRINITY by us and by the holy angels. These things indeed they, exceeding haughty and much-wise in the knowledge of the Divine Scriptures have inserted in their writings, and as the Lord of all says through one of the holy Prophets, He set a snare to corrupt men. For what else than a snare and a stumbling-block, is a tongue uttering perverse things and counter to the sacred Scriptures and shamelessly resisting the Tradition of the Holy Apostles and Evangelists? We must therefore repudiate them who are obnoxious to such evil charges whether they are among the living or not: for from that which injures it is necessary to withdraw, and not to look to person but to what pleases God.
[Page running titles]
Theodore. 337
338 CHRIST erst GOD only, now, GOD and Man: hath renewed us.
One, suffered in the Body, Union undivided. 339
340 Nicene Fathers, following Bible tell of Christ, Man yet GOD.
His flesh the flesh of God. One Son, one Nature, one worship. 341
342 The WORD GOD and man:
Holy and healeth. 343
344 In an improper sense, denies Incarnation.
The Son emptied though some chide. Indwelling. 345
346 The Son united to flesh as the Bible says.
Christ Son, Who saved us, or our faith in a man. 347
348 God the Son chose to have a Body, some chide.
Scripture says so: Angels and we worship. 349
[Selected footnotes]
1. a Theodore, the contemporary and, in early days, comrade of S. Chrysostom, brother of Polychronius, Bishop of Apamea, was for about 36 years Bishop of Mopsuestia in Cilicia: he died in 428. John Archbishop of Antioch and Theodoret were therefore at the opening of their Episcopate when Theodore was now in old age. He seems to have been of a gifted family, for Theodoret closes his history (lib. v. 39) with the praise of Polychronius for grace in speech as well as in nobility of life. And Theodore too was a Preacher and writer, of great repute in the Province of Antioch. But he seems to have lacked stability and a well-balanced mind, and thus his controversy in earlier life against the Arians and Apollinarians led him, as well as Diodore whose pupil he was, to speak of the Incarnation as though it were only a condescension of God the Son in connecting with Himself in some way a man who had an already distinct Being. In the next Century, Facundus Bishop of Hermaeum near Carthage who endeavours most strenuously to defend Theodore, has preserved a long extract of Theodore's from a work called, 'Of Apollinarius and his heresy,' in which Theodore says, "Thirty years ago I wrote a book of 15000 lines on the Incarnation of our Lord in which I examined the faults of Arius and Eunomius hereon and also the empty presumption of Apollinarius, through my whole work; so as to pass over (I believe) nothing pertaining either to the stability of Ecclesiastical orthodoxy or to the proof of their impiety. But they... especially instructed by Apollinarius the head of this heresy shewed my work to all who thought as they did, if any how they might find valid answers against it. But since no one ventured to take up the gauntlet against the book... they wrote certain silly things which I never said and foisted them into my book and shewed them to their friends, sometimes too to our people who of their over-easiness listened eagerly to it all, and offered it as a proof as they imagined of my wickedness. And one of these writings was to say two sons,, (Theodore in Facundus, Def. iii. Capp. x. 1, Gallandi Bibl. Vett. Patr. xi. 770, 771). Nevertheless however much Theodore attempts to shield himself undercover of interpolations, his assertion (see below pp. 347, 355) of One Son and explanation of how he means One convict him of that heresy which John of Antioch, Theodoret and others, though they valued and admired Theodore, escaped.
2. b This is the title with which the Venice manuscript of John of Caesarea's compilation introduces these extracts; he calls it second book because that against Diodore was considered the first. Severus however, the fifth Council and others cite this as Book 1.
3. c This first extract belongs to Theophilus Archbishop of Alexandria and is taken from the first of those of his Paschal homilies which S. Jerome translated into Latin and thus preserved to us; John of Caesarea says, 'This testimony Cyril took to himself against what was said by Theodore: it belongs to Theophilus bishop of Alexandria.' It is his Homily for the year 401, when Theophilus was more than half through his 27 years' Episcopate. It is entitled, "To the Bishops of all Egypt." It is chiefly against Origen but the earlier part contains a clear statement of the Incarnation. S. Cyril quotes a little more of it in his de recta fide to the Princesses, p. 52 a b c.
4. d From S. Gregory Naz. Ep. 1 to Cledonius against Apollinarius, as John of Caesarea notes: ' Another testimony of the same Cyril in the same book brought forward by him against what is said by Theodore. It is in the first Letter written to Cledonius by the most holy and blessed Gregory bishop of Nazianzum.'
5. e The three first of these extracts are taken from the collection of John, Bishop of Caesarea; this one has been preserved to us by a Manuscript in the Library of S. Mark at Venice.
6. f from a collection later than Severus; the next four are from Severus.
7. g from the same collection as the passage given above, p. 320, see p. 326 note e: Card. Mai also gives it from Severus against Julian of Halicarnassus.
8. h These words of preface are taken from a Compilation mentioned in note g: they are in the British Museum MSS., Add. 14532, 14533,12155.
9. i The Greek is μίαν φύσιν Θεοῦ Λόγου σεσαρκωμένην, "One Incarnate Nature of the Word," not 'One Nature of the Incarnate Word' which would be the Monophysite heresy, and this expression S. Cyril carefully states and explains in his second letter to Succensus, Epp. pp. 142, 143. Almost the whole passage is given above, the beginning at p. 265 note e, the sequel at p. 41 note e.
10. k On this passage, see Preface.
11. l The author of the Collection thus introduces the final words of S. Athanasius, see de recta fide to Arcadia and Marina 40 b.
12. m This and the next are from Severus against the Catholic John, Bishop of Caesarea.
13. n The following passage from S. Athanasius against Apollinarius will illustrate what suggested to Theodore, in opposing Apollinarians, to err thus sorrowfully. S. Athanasius says, "Tell me therefore how ye say that God was made of Nazareth? is it as declaring a beginning of generation of the Godhead, like Paul of Samosata, or denying the generation in the flesh, like Marcion and the rest of the heretics? not walking after the Gospel standard but chusing to speak out of your own? for therefore do ye say that God has been born of a Virgin and not God and man after the Gospel standard: lest, confessing the birth of the flesh ye should say it was a natural birth, speaking truth, but ye say that God was born, and that He exhibited His own flesh in semblance. For God does not shew forth the beginning of His Generation from Nazareth; but God the Word Who existed before the ages, appeared man out of Nazareth, born of Mary the Virgin and of the Holy Ghost [compare 'Man of the Holy Ghost and the Virgin,' in S. Augustine on S. John hom. 111 fin. p. 998 O.T.], in Bethlehem of Judaea of the seed of David and Abraham and Adam, as it is written; taking all from a Virgin whatever from the beginning God moulded and made without sin unto the subsistence of man." S. Ath. against Apoll. ii. 5. t. i. 943 c d.
14. o This piece is supplied in a latin translation by Card. Mai: see Migne ix. 1451. n. 24.
15. See below pp. 358, 359.
16. p This and the following extracts are from the collection prepared for the fifth General Council, and read in its fifth collation. It was in preparation for this Council that Facundus Bishop of Hermaeum (quoted above p. 337) had written his work, and no doubt John of Caesarea's vast array of extracts were prepared for the same purpose.
17. q Thus far is given by Leontius of Byzantium as Diodore's. After a number of extracts of Theodore, Leontius gives five, which he attributes to Diodore with the title, The same Diodore out of Book 1 against the Synousiasts. This is the fourth of them. (Against Nestorians and Eutychians Book 3 in Gallandi, xii. G97.) Leontius' translation is a different one from that cited before the fifth Council. Gallandi assigns to Leontius the date about A.D. 610, nearly 60 years later than the Council. The fifth Council and Leontius agree in citing the work on (or as Leontius calls it, against) the Incarnation, in fifteen books, & the four books against Apollinarius (Leontius, book 3 ubi supra pp. 695, 696: Conc. vi. 43 &c). The Council further cites yet another treatise: The same from the book against the Synousiasts or Apollinarists, which blessed Cyril put forth and answered (ib. 54, see below p. 345 and note s: so Pope Pelagius II in his Letter to Elias of Aquileia and other bishops in Istria. Conc. vi. 269). Leontius does not (as far as I see) cite this last, but is it a part of the treatise whence Leontius does cite five pieces as Diodore out of book 1 against the Synousiasts? of these five, the first is by Mercator too (p. 350 Bal.) attributed to Diodore (Mercator does not mention what book he extracted it from), the second is at p. 347, the third at p. 344, the fourth here, a piece of the fifth is by S. Cyril (p. 333) attributed to Diodore, while he attributes 2, 3, 4 to Theodore.
18. r cited in part by Leontius under the name of Diodore against the Synousiasts (see last note), but in the fourth collation of the Council it stands as, The same Theodore from the passages which S. Cyril answered. t. vi. 57.
19. s In these first words Theodore is citing an Apollinarian objection: compare with the passage S. Cyril's words against Nestorins, above pp. 175, 176. This whole passage is cited in the fourth collation of the Council amid other extracts of Theodore with an allusion to this work of S. Cyril in its title, The same from his book against the Synousiasts or Apollinarians which the blessed Cyril both put forward and answered, t. vi. p. 54. ed. Col. S. Cyril's citation of it and reply comes further on in the fifth collation p. 69 Col. and being a startling passage, part of it is cited (as n. 29) in Pope Vigilius' constitutum, Conc. v. 1334.
20. t This piece is also preserved in Syriac by Severus, in his treatise against John the Grammarian in the British Museum MS. 12157 fol. 215 with the title, The same from the first Book of what he wrote against Theodore of Mopsuestia fighting against God.
21. u This is also extant, in a different translation, in Leontius Byzant. against Nestorius and Eutyches Book 3, with the title, The same [Dioodore] from the same book [1 against the Synousiasts]. Gallandi, Bibl. Vet. Patrum, xii. 696. see above p. 343 note q. In the fourth collation of the Council it is cited with the title, The same Theodore, what S. Cyril put forth and answered, t. vi. 57 Col. Pope Vigilius likewise has it as n. 45 in his Constitutum, t. v. 1340. For quo, whereby it is made &c, the fourth collation gives quia, for that, Leontius, et quod, and that. The words, 'to suppose that He needs a body for perfect sonship,' belong to the Apollinarian error which Theodore is opposing: the next words are those of Theodore's own error.
22. See statement of Apollinarian errors, below p. 363 note b.
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Early Church Fathers - Additional Texts
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Cyril of Alexandria, Against Diodore of Tarsus and Theodore of Mopsuestia (fragments of book 3), LFC 47 (1881) pp.350-362.
Cyril of Alexandria, Against Diodore of Tarsus and Theodore of Mopsuestia (fragments of book 3), LFC 47 (1881) pp.350-362.
|350
CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA
FROM THE THIRD BOOK AGAINST THEODORE BISHOP OF MOPSUESTIA
[Translated by P. E. Pusey]
which begins
For burdensome, I suppose, are our words.
1. 1
Hear therefore from us too. Understand, O man, the depth of the Mystery, go along the straight way of the aim of the sacred Scriptures. For one thing and another is Godhead and flesh or manhood, as far as regards the plan of their properties. Since 2 how has the Word being God been made as we, albeit abiding what He was? Yet grant Him His flesh by a Union inseverable, bare Him not of the Veil, for thus will you worship One Son, consubstantial with the Father Divinely, the Same consubstantial to us too humanly. To them who chuse thus to think will Christ turn the knowledge of the Mystery Him ward.
2.
For the nature of man which was in Christ was both honoured and hallowed. For that in regard to His Being He would neither be in need of Baptism nor of partaking |351 the Holy Ghost, the fact that He is Bestower of the Spirit will be sufficient to prove.
3.
S. Cyril in his second Book against Theodore of Mopsuestia,
But I think that this, viz. that of Christ alone the Saviour of all is it said by the God-inspired Scripture that He was born in the flesh, shews that being God He was made in our likeness. I mean something of this sort: For no one receives one who would say either of the all-wise Moses, or of one of the Saints that he was born in the flesh of the Jews, or of a woman: for no one has any other birth, for of flesh is flesh mother. But if Christ be said to be in the flesh of the Jews, i. e., of a woman, the addition of in the flesh has some wise meaning and replete with declarations of things necessary for the hearers. For in order that we may not suppose that the Nature of the Word, that is, His Godhead, had a beginning of being that It was in the flesh and of flesh, the phrase in the flesh must be taken cautiously and in its necessary meaning. For being God by Nature, and Very Son of God the Father, He was made in likeness of men and made His own the flesh which was of the holy Virgin.
4.
for he wrote thus in his second book against Theodore,
But I would fain ask him what he says that unity of Person is. For if he says that the Only-Begotten God the Word Incarnate is One Son, One will be the Person of the Son: but if he altogether distinguish and say that One is said to be and is Son in truth, and one by grace, and to the One gives the glory and the appellation of Godhead and the bare name alone of sonship: but to the other that he receives it as from Another and a Superior, and One so exalted and in Excellency, as is God above man, what room will there be for unity of person, a thing that I know not how it is put forth by him? |352
5.
S. Cyril patriarch of Alexandria against Theodore.
Since then 'it has become the own body of the Word which quickeneth all,' it too is quickening: has it not therefore ascended up above the definitions of its nature? for the Word out of God the Father has largely placed in His Body the operation of His quickening might, so that it should have power to quicken the dead and to heal the sick: just as fire approaching a vessel of brass or of other matter, changes it to its own might and working.
The same Cyril from his second book.
The words of Theodore. "What is man that Thou art mindful of him, or the son of man that Thou visitest him? Let us consider then who the man is in regard to whom he is astonished and marvels that the Only-Begotten has deigned to be mindful of and visit. Yet that it is not said of every one, has been shewn above; that it is not of any one you please, this too is certain. To omit all things, let us take the Apostle's witness which is more trustworthy than all 3. The Apostle therefore writes to the Hebrews telling of Christ and, confirming His Person which was not well received among them, thus says, But a certain one somewhere testified on this wise saying, what is man that Thou art mindful of him, or the son of man that Thou visitest him? Thou loweredst him a little below the angels, with glory and honour Thou crownedst him and didst set him over the works of Thy hands; Thou didst put all things under his feet. And having spoken the testimony he |353 interpreting it proceeded, But in subjecting all things He left nothing not subject: yet we see not at present all things subjected to him. And teaching us who the man is, since it was doubtful in the words put in blessed David, he added, But we see Jesus lowered a little below the angels on account of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour. If therefore we are taught out of the Gospels that it was to the Lord that blessed David said all that are in the psalm &c, both that Thou art mindful, and Thou visitest and Thou loweredst and Thou subjectedst; and out of the Apostle learn that it was Jesus of Whom David speaking says both that He is mindful of Him and that He visited Him, yea also that He subjected all things to Him, when He had lowered Him a little below the Angels; cease ye now at last from your shamelessness, knowing what is right. For 4 ye see (O most wicked of men) how vast the difference of natures in that the one is astounded for that He deigns to be mindful of man and to visit him and to make him partaker of the other things whereof He made him partaker; the other on the contrary marvels, that he hath been vouchsafed to be a partaker of so great things above his nature: and the one is marvelled at as bestowing a kindness and giving great things and above the nature of him who obtains it; the other, obtaining the kindness and receiving from Him greater things than he is."
S. CYRIL.
Be ye sober from your wine, may one cry to them who are thus astray. Put, o man, a door and bolt on thy tongue, cease lifting up your horn on high and speaking unrighteousness against God. How long dost thou insult Christ who endures it? Keep in mind what is written by Divine Paul, Thus sinning against the brethren and smiting their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ. And to say something out of the |354 prophetic books, Sodom was justified by thee: thou hast surpassed the talk of the pagans, which they made against Christ, deeming the Cross foolishness, thou hast shewn the charges against Jewish pride to be a nothing. Thou presumest to lower and (as far as pertains to thee) thou draggest down to dishonour Him Who sitteth in the Thrones above and together with God the Father hath the same seat. For Him Who rose from the dead is it that the most wise Paul says is sitting on the Thrones of Godhead. For he said, We have such an High Priest Who sitteth on the Right Hand of the Throne of Majesty in the highest, Who is above all princedom and power and lordship and every name that is named not only in this world but also in that to come: for to Him every knee boweth and every tongue confesseth that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father. And who is He Who is in this case as being God? The same again explaineth who is the priest of His Mysteries: for he said that He emptied Himself, was made in likeness of man and found in fashion as a man and abased Himself made obedient unto death, yea the death of the Cross. Every knee therefore of heavenly and earthly and neath the earth bendeth to Him Who bare the Cross: Whom the adversary casting into the mere and alone measures of the human nature, says was accounted worthy of mindfulness and visiting from God the Word, when surely he ought to know and mind that God the Word was not another Son apart and by Himself from Him who is (as he says) man of the seed of David; but God the Word Himself out of God the Father was made as we, i. e. man, did not rather deem worthy of visiting and mindfulness some other than He.
And out of the same book.
THEODORE.
"Will they now cease from their shameless contest? will they give over empty contention blushing before the proof of what has been said? for he said, Bringing many sons unto glory. Lo therefore the Apostle co-numbering |355 in the rank of sonship with the rest the man that was assumed not for that he partakes of sonship in like manner as they, but in regard that he assumed in like manner the grace of sonship, the Godhead alone possessing sonship by Nature 5. For it is certain that the glory of sonship is in him specially beyond others on account of the Unity that he has with Him. Whence in the very word too that means Son, he too is in like manner included. But they 6 argue with us, If ye say two things perfect, we shall surely be also saying Two sons. But lo he is called son too by himself in the divine Scripture, without the Godhead, co-numbered with the rest of men, and we do not say Two sons. But One Son there rightly is in our confession, seeing that division of natures must needs remain and union of person be kept indissoluble."
CYRIL.
Fie the madness! He knew not the manifold depth of the mystery of Christ who has trusted in words so cold and childish. But that he no wise understandeth the force of the Scripture proposed, but leaveth the right way and goes off again to the wicked aim put forth by himself, we forthwith teach. For that before all things his aim is, to want to prove that a mere man is co-seated with the Father and to be worshipped as God by every creature, himself shall come in as witness. For numbering Him with those who are sons by grace and the multitude of men, he argues that the. Godhead of the Word has alone the glory of true sonship, all but finding fault with Him Who for our sakes was pleased to suffer emptying: or haply even casting his own base madness on the disciple who says, And the Word |356 was made flesh. We must know therefore that although he somewhere says one and not rather two sons, casting out altogether him who (as he says) is of the seed of David from being God and Son, he refers the glory of true sonship to only God the Word Who is forth of God the Father. This is nought else (as I said) than not to take on Him the measure of human nature, but utterly to destroy the Economy whereby we were both saved and have passed from death and sin and have laid down the yoke of the devil's oppression.
Theodore from the same book.
"Let none be deceived by the craft of the questionings. For it were a wicked thing to put down so great a crowd of witnesses (as the Apostle said) and, deceived by cunning questionings, to join the side of the opponents. But what are the questions which they artfully ask? 'Is Mary mother of man or God's mother?' and, 'Is He Who was crucified, God or man?' But of that there has been a clear solution in these things which we have said before in the replies which were made to the questions: nevertheless let that be said even now which one ought to briefly reply in order that no occasion be left them for their cunning. When 7 therefore they ask, 'Is Mary mother of man or God's mother?' let answer be made them, Both; one from the nature of the thing, the other by reference. For she is mother of man by nature, because he was man in the womb of Mary, who also proceeded thence: but mother of God because God was in the man who was born, not circumscribed within him by Nature, but in him in the affection of the will. Hence it is right to reply, Both, but not in like wise. For not as man took in the womb a beginning of his being, did God the Word too, for He was before every creature. Hence it is right that both be said, each according to their proper notion. |357
"The same answer is to be made if they ask, 'Was God crucified or man? Both, but not in like wise: for the one was crucified, as both undergoing the Passion and fastened to the wood and holden of the Jews; the other because He was with him after the reason given above."
And forthwith he goes on adding hereto that man having God indwelling him was crucified.
S. CYRIL.
What are you saying, o mighty man? was the holy Virgin mother of God because God was in what was born of her, indwelling in mere good-pleasure of the will? dost thou call that union? then when the Word being God makes His habitation in ourselves too (for He dwells in the souls of the saints through the Holy Ghost), dost thou confess that in like wise ourselves too have union with Him? Where then will any one see the marvel of the mystery of Christ? For so long as God the Word is believed to have been made man as we, truly marvellous is the Mystery and one will wonder at it deservedly and intensely 8; but if He be said to dwell in a man in mere good-pleasure of the will, the fact of the economy has another plan. For we have been vouchsafed, as I said, grace of this kind, who are resplendent with the faith Him-ward. For no one, I suppose, will say that not of His own will is He within us; rather of His own will, i. e. after His own inherent will had He good-pleasure towards us.
Yet neither do we say that God the Word Who is con-substantial with the Father, has the beginning of His Being from the flesh of the holy Virgin 9 (for with Him was He ever existent), but rather we know that He was made man as we.
Therefore rightly will the holy Virgin be called by us Mother of God rather than mother of man, since surely 'she hath borne Christ according to the flesh.' |358
And after more. For when this was put forth for explanation, viz. When He bringeth in the First-Begotten into the world, He saith, And let all the Angels of God worship Him,, he writes again thus,
THEODORE.
"Who then is He Who is brought in into the world and commences His reign, wherefrom it results that He is also worshipped by the Angels? For one will not madly say that God the Word was brought in Who made all things when they were not, bestowing on them through His unspeakable might that they should be."
S. CYRIL.
Callest thou it then madness, to chuse to think aright and to keep in mind the true and right and unmixed Faith? since surely one would say and that deservedly that they are words full of impiety which deny that the Only-Begotten Word of God was brought in by God the Father into the world when He was made man. For He Who by Nature and diversity is superior to all, seeing He is their Creator and is Essentially as greatly superior to them, as is the thing made less than its Maker, entered into the world when He was made a part of it 10, in that He appeared man.
And after a little. But I marvel that the opponent should have written that Jesus too would never have been accounted worthy of connection with God the Word had He not first been rendered spotless through the anointing. For first of all he is openly severing and distinguishing, saying outright Two sons: next let him say, when He was (as he terms it) made spotless and attained connection with God the Word, was it from the very womb, or when, in His thirtieth year, He came to the Jordan and sought John's baptism? If He were holy from the womb, how |359 does he say that He was made holy and not rather that He was so? For in that He is said to be made so, it is quite necessary to understand that He was not what He was made. But if He were holy always, and was not so made in time, how does he say that the SPIRIT soared down upon Him and shewed that He was worthy of the connection and added to Him what He lacked? For this too he has put in his other books. For what was it that was at all lacking to Him unto sanctification from the very womb, yea rather and before Birth after the flesh, to Him Who is holy and spotless and sanctifieth the creature? When therefore he says that Jesus would not have been counted worthy of connection with God the Word except He had first been rendered spotless, he is indicting very many accusations against his empty talk. For first of all he unbecomingly says, been counted worthy: next he severs into another son apart Him Who is forth of the seed of David, whom he shamelessly maintains is called JESUS apart by Himself. Further, to say that He was made spotless, as if at one time He were not so, this too has very great blasphemy. For God the Word united from the very womb to His own flesh was One Son and thus also spotless, the Holy of holies, and giving of His fulness the SPIRIT not only to men but also to the rational powers above and in Heaven.
And after a little,
THEODORE.
"Manifoldly and in many modes of old spake God to the fathers in the Prophets, in these last days He spake to us in His Son. For through the Son He spake to us: and it is clear that he is speaking of the man 11 who was assumed. For to which of the Angels ever said He, My Son THOU art, I to day begat thee? None, he says, hath He made partaker of the Son's dignity. For in this that He said, I begat Thee, He gave as it were through it a participation |360 of sonship, yet this which has been said is openly shewn to have nothing at all to do with God the Word."
S. CYRIL.
Verily in his discourses too which he made to them who were to be baptized, the same Theodore again said, "But this testimony we found not out of our ownselves, but were taught it out of the Divine Scripture, seeing that blessed Paul thus saith, Forth of whom is Christ after the flesh Who is God over all, not that He is forth of the Jews and according to the flesh Who is God over all, but he used the one term to point out the human nature, which he knew was of the stock of Israel, the other to shew the Divine Nature which he knew was over all and king of all 12."
Hear ye deaf and see ye blind, cried aloud one of the saints to them of the blood of Israel: but I think, and deservedly, that this belongs to them who have not, or who will not understand aright the mystery of Christ. For the god of this world hath blinded the understandings of the unbelievers, and they, not having the Divine and intellectual light in heart and mind, have deservedly gone astray. But if some who are somehow or other holden in like diseases, have been enlightened, yea rather even co-numbered with the Doctors, what else will one cry to them than this which has been said by God through one of the holy Prophets, For ye are become a snare of a watchtower in your visitation and as nets spread out in a prop 13 which the hunters have pierced through? For they who ought to be of the greatest profit to those under them, they have been a snare and a net and a stumbling block and pitfall of hades. And thus I say marvelling exceedingly and unable to see whereunto tends the opponent's aim. For he confessed in plain terms that |361 God the Father spake to us through the Son, yet says that that Son is the man who was assumed, who has no share with God the Word in regard to what was said. How therefore is not the slander against the blessed Paul, yea rather the accusal of the Truth itself manifest to all? for not thus did the Apostle who has the Holy Ghost understand it. But the opponent is again turning aside right doctrine to his own pleasure.
From the second book of Cyril Bishop of Alexandria that One is Christ against Theodore.
That the ungodly Nestorius desired to follow the doctrines of Theodore, does not acquit him, rather it will thence work a deeper charge against him. For when he might have taken hold of the right words and spotless discourses of the holy Fathers on the Godhead, he thinks fit to prefer a lie to the truth. For he let alone what was theirs, he chose rather to cleave to what was base and to delight him in such perverted words. That this man therefore who hath such aim and madness, should have leapt down hereto, one may I think blame him and deservedly. For ho ought, he ought to have remembered the most holy Paul who clearly writes to us, Be ye wise money-changers, prove all things, hold fast that which is good, keep ye from every kind of evil. Which thing we, won t to do and hastening to imitate assayers of coin, repudiate those base and counterfeit doctrines, and receive full-gladly all which shine forth with the clear beauty of truth. But again let our argument turn the way befitting it and set before it. There have been writ therefore by good Theodore against the heresy of the Arians and Eunomians about twenty books or more; besides others interpreting the Gospel and Apostolic books: toils which none would have wished to find fault with, yea rather would have honoured the zeal with his approval, if soundness of doctrine had been in them 14. But if one walk |362 outside of the appointed road, and leaving the right way of truth, go a crooked path and wound the hearts of the more simple, casting therein seeds of perverted understanding, then it will not be without damage for them who are over the people to rest herein, but they will have their reward and gain if they withstand [him]. Hence since in these books or writings which we mentioned above of the man spoken of, have been found certain things full of the uttermost impiety, how would it bo congruous to choose to be silent? for he severs the inseverable Christ and, in place of One Son, he honours a duality falling away from truth and as it were tinted with false names. For he says that God the Word Who is forth of God the Father was called man, yet not that He was so made in truth: the man, Him who is of Mary (as he speaks) whom too he in many places cleverly calls flesh l, he says was called indeed God and Son of God, not that He is so in truth.
But 15 Paul a workman exceeding wise to bring in the Divine Mysteries sometimes brings in to manifest the Mystery of Christ even things which are said by some in Divine Scripture, of other people. Yet he does not separate them from the persons of whom we know that they were said, nor yet does he transfer all that is theirs 16 to Christ, but sometimes takes even some very little bit, which he can without risk skilfully transfer to his purpose.
[Page running titles]
350 Incarnate Son Consubstantial to Father and to us.
Born in the flesh, implies GOD. Unity of Person. 351
352 The Body quickens, because the Body of the WORD.
Peril of heedless speech. 353
354 Christ crucified enthroned worshipped.
God made-man. 355
356 Reference says One Son, makes Two.
Indwelling ours, the WORD incarnate God the Son. 357
358 God the Son brought into the world.
GOD the Son Incarnate, JESUS, one Son. 359
360 Some baptized, yea even teachers, have gone astray.
Nestorius followed Theodore amiss, Theodore's writings. 361
362 Silence wrong when people hurt. S. Paul's skill.
[Footnotes moved to end]
1. a Of the extracts of this last book, John of Caesarea supplies the two first, Severus in his Book against him, gives the third, a rather later syriac collection the fourth; the fifth is from a Monophysite treatise against the Nestorians, from a ninth century MS; the remainder was read before the fifth Council, except the last, a small fragment from Facundus.
2. b This is also extant in Syriac, in the MS. 12156 fol. 31 v (quoted by Timothy heretical Bishop of Alexandria and the first of the heretical succession, in his "Letter to them of Constantinople against the heretics [Eutychians] who confess not that God the Word is consubstantial with us according to the flesh, Who is consubstantial with His Father in His Godhead, and against them who say Two Natures" i. e. against the Catholics) with the title, Blessed Cyril Archbishop of Alexandria from the second chapter against Theodore. The Manuscript is itself of the sixth century. It commences with a writing of the same Timothy against the Council of Chalcedon.
3. c Thus far is given, in a different translation, by Leontius of Byzantium, against the Nestorians and Eutychians, book 3, in Gall. xii. 693, with the title, The same [Theodore the heretic] from the same [book or discourse x.] i. e. of Theodore's book on the Incarnation, which was written in Theodore's earlier life (Tillemont xii. 436) against the Apollinarians and Arians in 15 Books (ib. 445, 446), see above p. 337 note a. Leontius in his prefatory remarks to these citations speaks of this work as hard to get a sight of. "For we hardly and with great toil and with much thought have been able to find his book against the Incarnation: for they watch carefully and take care not to communicate his books to them who are not taught in them." ubi supra, p. 690. This proves that Leontius did not get his citations second-hand.
4. d Compare the extract quoted from the interpretation of the eighth psalm, in the fourth collation of the Council, t. vi. 50 Colet, and that from the fourth book against the ungodly Apollinarius, ib. 46; and in Leontius, book 3 against the Nestorians and Eutychians, the above, and one, the same from the fourth book against Apollinarius. Gall. xii. 696.
5. e Thus far is cited in the fourth collation of the Council, as from the interpretation of the Epistle to the Hebrews, t. vi. 57 Col., also by Pope Vigilius, t. v. 1341: the whole passage by Leontius of Byzantium, against the Nestorians and Eutychians, with the title, from the same [twelfth] Book, i. e. on the Incarnation. Gall. xii. 694.
6. f they, i. e. the Apollinarians, who accused their opponents of holding two sons, see S. Gregory's complaint of it, below p. 363; Theodore's (who was accused of it with real reason), above p. 337, note a and here. The objection itself is stated in S. Athanasius against Apollinarius, 'that two perfects cannot make one whole,' see below p. 363 note b.
7. g From here down to, in the affection of the will is cited in the fourth collation (vi. 57 Colet) as from the twelfth book on the Incarnation, and by Pope Vigilius in his Constitution (v. 1340): also by Leontius, as from the fifteenth book, i. e. on (or as Leontius calls it against) the Incarnation. Gall. xii. 695.
8. h see above Scholia §§ 19, 20, pp. 208, 209; also de Recta fide to Arcadia and Marina p. 72 c d 122 e.
9. i see Nestorius urging that this would follow if the holy Virgin were to be called Mother of God, and S. Cyril's reply in Book 1 § 1 against Nestorius, above pp. 7-10.
10. k See above, pp. 52, 92, 189, also p. 324 note c, where S. Athanasius speaks of the great dread on the part of the Apollinarians as to the Incarnate SON being in any way "a part of the world."
11. l These few first words are cited by Leontius of Byzantium, Book 3 against the Nestorians and Eutychians, with the title, the same from the same [twelfth book on the Incarnation]. Gall. xii. 694.
12. m In the fourth collation of the Council, are seven citations of Theodore from his book to them that are to be baptized, viz, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 41, 42 (t. vi. 55 Col.), but none of these are identical with the one here quoted by S. Cyril.
13. n statumine. I do not know how the Latin translator got this word, nor what meaning he attached to it. The Hebrew has Tabor, which the LXX. here translate ἰταβύριον, and so S. Cyril quotes the verse elsewhere: but he knew its meaning, for in his commentary on the words, he says that it is a very conspicuous mountain in Galilee.
14. o I do not know by what error in translation misled, Facundus Bishop of Hermaeum in Africa (in his Defence of the Three Chapters addressed to the Emperor Justinian just before the fifth Council) takes this to be, And these toils no one has dared to blame but to honour with vote of approval the zeal for right doctrines that is in them. Facundus repeats this three times, book iii. § 3, and 5, book viii. § 6. Gall. xi. 692, 696, 753, and in the latter place urges the extract as a reason why S. Cyril was not the writer of the books against Theodore. Facundus' work being addressed to the Emperor Justinian, would of course be not utterly unknown to the Council; this present extract is introduced in their acts as ordered to be recited because some laid stress on the word 'good Theodore,' as if S. Cyril were praising him, in order that the context might shew if it were so: after the recital, "the holy Synod said, 'The things recited shew that Cyril of religious memory blaming rather Theodore and his wicked writings, not as implying praise, used such words.' " t. vi. 90 Colet.
15. p This extract is preserved by the above mentioned Facundus (book iii. § 6 in Gall. xi. 698) who says that the author of the work [against Diodore and Theodore] treats of a section in which the Apostle says to the Hebrews, For not to the Angels hath He subjected the world to come &c.
16. q S. Cyril himself who enjoys so much adapting Old Testament events as types of Christ and His Church, says that some things in the history belong to the history itself.
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Cyril of Alexandria, Against the Synousiasts (fragments), LFC 47 (1881) pp.363-377.
Cyril of Alexandria, Against the Synousiasts (fragments), LFC 47 (1881) pp.363-377.
|363
CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA
FROM HIS TREATISE 1 AGAINST THE SYNOUSIASTS 2
[Translated by P. E. Pusey]
of which the beginning is
A long discourse has already been made by us. |364
1.
A 3 long exposition has already been wrought out by us, who desire to strive for the doctrines of the truth. For it everywhere sets forth One Lord Jesus Christ, Who proceeded forth God the Word out of God the Father Divinely, out of a woman humanly and after the flesh. And let no one say, who has a mind witting how to view each several thing, that I have been borne savagely down on them who have not such faith, seeing that a sort of sorrow sometimes invites hereto, sorrow I mean in regard to them whom we have contradicted. For the fact itself has its proof 4, not an idle excuse. For they 5 indeed are already dead and departing from human affairs, have gone to another life; and it is utter folly in enmity to insult not the living |365 but them who are now dead. Nevertheless since the Truth is dear to the lovers of right doctrine, and it needs befits them to say the truth and to be practised in the power of resisting them who are wont to utter vain things, I thought I ought, seeing that a countless multitude of brethren have suffered no slight harm from what Diodore Bishop of Tarsus and he who was Bishop of Mopsuestia, the most eloquent Theodore, have written of Christ the Lord and Saviour of us all, to say some few things on what they said and to point out to readers the hideousness of the track of both.
2.
Since then some stumble and imagine to themselves a change of the Word into blood and flesh, let them be laughed at as beside themselves and let us say to them, Wake up ye drunkards from their wine, and let us examine of what kind is the nature of the flesh, and be ye diligent to think, of what kind again is that of God Who is over all. For unbounded is the interval, and with reason may one say that to venture to compare them at all is not free from responsibility. For the One is by Nature God and Lord of all, Light and Life and Glory and moreover Power, the other is what every body who lives among men knows. When then any affirm that there has taken place a change of the Word into this earthly body, or that the Word being God framed to Himself out of His own Essence, a body of the same nature as our bodies, let them confess first that He ceased to be what He is (He was, as I said, God and Creator, Life and Light, Glory and Power) and let them moreover affirm that to endure the liability to slip that belongs to things generate is nob alien to Him and that to be conversant with a worse condition than that wherein He is, is not untried by Him.
Yet I think one ought to investigate what it is that thrust Him down hereto: was it some necessity and tyranny of passion falling on Him? yet how is it not distraction that any should suppose this so to be? for where is the greater |366 than He and that is able to overpass His Nature c? since how is God the Name that is above every name and Lord of Hosts? But it is not necessity (they will haply say) but that a change of His own choice invited Him hereto. But it were impossible that He should suffer this too: for how should the Divine and Untaint Nature make ought that befitted Him not, His choice?
3.
But haply they will say in their folly that the Word being God changed into flesh yet not the whole nor altogether: albeit how is it not an evident proof of utter madness, to think and say that these things are so? for first of all to say that not wholly nor yet altogether did He change or undergo turning pertains to those who mete Him and represent Him as quantitied and no longer incorporeal, yea and capable of being conceived of as in space and as become circumscribed. Next how must not the opponents consider this too, that whatever a part of a body subject to the Word suffer, this full surely the whole too will in possibility suffer? (for suffering would not befall one of the parts, unless the nature of the whole body were susceptible of suffering). Hence seeing that the test of their ideas compels us even against our wills to advance to words we would not, beseeching the Word of God to pardon us we say this: that if it is true that He possesseth not the being beyond turning neither is the suffering it impossible to Him, the force of the blasphemy will full surely reach both to the Father Himself and to the Holy Ghost, for Consubstantial is the Holy and untaint Trinity. And then what stability look we for in God as to our own case if He too is weak as we and undergoes commotion unto what is not lawful to say, albeit we heard Him say in plain terms, Behold I am and have not been changed, the Divinely-uttering Psalmist too |367 says that the Heavens are the works of Thy Hands: they shall perish but Thou abidest and all of them shall wax old as a garment and as a covering shalt Thou fold them and they shall be changed, but Thou art the Same and Thy years shall not fail? Consider therefore that he who in spirit speaketh mysteries and is God-taught flings turning to the nature of things generate, saying by way of illustration or demonstration that the heavens shall wax old, and hath reserved Immutability to the God Who is over all, for he hath testified to Him Ever-being and unchangeableness.
And as it has been believed to be impossible that the Nature of the Word should change into what it was not, so can it not be that the generate pass into the nature of Godhead, lest many of Its attributes be seen to be accidents, which if it advanced so far as idea alone would have the charge of blasphemy indelible. For if ought of things generate at all change into the Godhead by Nature, one would not miss of right reasoning if one should chuse to say that It out of things that are not comes into existence and obtains that which is not its, as a sort of material of Its being, and that the body became the substance of incorporeal Essence, tangible and visible of the Invisible and Untangible. And if the Father's Only-Begotten Word is by Nature Life as being of the Father Who is Life, and by change hath admitted unto consubstantiality (as they say) that which, is of the human lump, there is great fear lest we say that He is not unmixed life, for He is not unmingled with what is apt to decay.
In another way too does the opinion of the deceived ones battle with the Economy with flesh: how, we will say. The Lord being God appeared to us that He might destroy the decay which lorded it over us, not that Himself might exhibit His own Nature partaker with decay by immingling with Himself flesh subject to death.
The charge therefore is of equal force, whether one say that the Word of God have been turned into the nature of body or whether that the flesh again is transformed into consubstantiality with God. It is fit therefore that we keep |368 away from both one and other, seeing that it is not without peril to chuse to think beside what one ought to think.
4.
That we may believe that even though His holy and all-pure Body be of same nature with our bodies, it is nevertheless august and Divine and far above our measures, as having been made His own, for He hath wrought through it, therefore was it called also bread of life, yea verily it is said both to have come down from Heaven and to give life to the world because of the Word that came down from above and out of Heaven, whose very own too the flesh has been made. Hence Divine it is (as I said), yet may one not surmise if indeed he have a mind well-established and that is versed in skill of dogma, that it has changed into the nature of the Godhead. For to the Nature that is Supreme and above all must be rigidly preserved Simplicity and absence of blending with other and of any appearance of being compounded in what belongs to It or of lacking any addition and coming into fellowship of sameness of nature or consubstantiality with ought unconnatural to It.
For come let us with acute eye of the understanding investigate the idea of the confusers. They say that His Flesh has been changed (I know not how) into consubstantiality with God the Word. Why? or what is it that brings it thereto? For of its own self it has not the impulse that would bring it thereto, and of its natural motions to admit such desires is foreign to it. It remains then to say this, that it was brought hereto by the will of God the Word. Did He then cast away the Economy which He clearly deemed worthy of all account by reason of His inherent Clemency and the Pleasure of His Father? for one may hear Him say clearly through the psalmist's voice, Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not, whole burnt-offerings and for sin Thou delightedst not in, but a Body Thou perfectedst Me, then I said, Lo, I come (in the volume of the Book it has been written of Me) to do, O God, Thy Will: I delight to do it. |369 The sacrifices therefore (those I mean according to the Law of Moses) were unwilled by the Father, the Incarnation of the Word or His being made Man, was rather His Choice inasmuch as it brings in the grace that is through faith to those beneath the sky, His Clemency and God-befitting gentleness making a marvellous demonstration of Itself.
What plea will there be for daring to say that He cast off (as I just now said) the august and saving Economy, if so be it be true that He put off from Him the being flesh, having changed it into the Nature of Godhead, albeit the all-wise Paul hath written of His holy Body, For wherein He hath suffered He is able to succour the tempted? But if we take away that wherein He hath suffered, with it surely will go too the means of succour given to us. For the saying that the flesh changed into the Essence of Deity, belongs to those who take from it the being what it is; which if it be admitted to be true, no longer will it be thought or said to be flesh. Since what is the change, if it have remained what it is? What profit therefore is there to our bodies from being partakers of the Mystic and holy offering? or what is the benefit therefrom? for if the Word who is united thereto willed to transform it into His own Nature, why is He found saying to us, I am the bread of Life which came down from Heaven and giveth life to the world and the bread which I will give is My Flesh which I will give for the life of the world, and again, He that eateth My Flesh and drinketh My Blood abideth in Me and I in him?
Hence if the flesh have passed into what it was not, darting up or borne up by the Will of the Word into a position above its own nature, it is time (it seems) that we ourselves too should make after other sort the power of the mystery and follows what pleases him [who thus teaches].
5.
Therefore you have the confession of the Incarnation of the Only-Begotten, from which also our faith is True. But if (as our opponents say) the Word united thereto, put off His Flesh, changing it into His own Nature, the change of |370 the Flesh and the confession of our saving Faith will (it seems) come to an end together, and with it surely cease the justification too that is through it, we are yet in our sins, the filth of our old offences is still not cast away.
6.
If He have ceased from being as we, i.e. man, together with being also above us Divinely, the foundation of our salvation has been shaken, we unawares returned (it seems) to have to be again lorded over by death and sins. For as when the nethermost foundations of house (it may be) or wall have been shaken, the superincumbent parts too will surely subside with them: thus if the Economy with flesh of the Only-Begotten be not firm, our condition surely has tottered with it and grown weak at last; and how, we will say. For if they say that the Flesh of the Word have been changed into the Nature of the Godhead, there is every need to conceive that He has otherwise departed from His will to be son of man: then how does the all-wise Paul say, For there is one God, One Mediator too of God and men, the Man Christ Jesus Who gave Himself a ransom for us? For He mediates as being the Same, God alike and Man, reconciling us to God the Father through Himself and in Him and conjoining as it were unto union things by their own nature parted unto generic difference by a boundless parting, yet in Christ did they come together unto an union without confusion and that cannot be plucked asunder: for He has been connected Divinely with the Father, and He was connected with us too humanly. Thus is the Man Christ Jesus conceived to be and is our Mediator. But if the Flesh has been really (as he says) cast away by Him, He is gone surely away from mediating between us and His own Father: how therefore do we yet approach Him? who any longer brings us or mediates? For the Divine Paul said that the Mediator is Man: we remember Christ also Himself saying, No man cometh to the Father except through Me. Idle talk therefore and words full of distraction are the inventions of the Synousiasts. |371
7.
The Son of man when He cometh shall He find Faith on the earth 6? For come let us ask our opponents what sort of faith the Son of man when He comes down out of Heaven would find in them who are on the earth, or how He would have us minded regarding Him: that He has left willing to be son of man, or that He has remained in the likeness usward? though how can one doubt that if it were displeasing to Him to be conceived of as being yet as we are, how were it meet to say, The Son of man when He comes shall He find Faith on the earth, and not rather The Word of God bare and without flesh when He comes, will He find of such sort the faith concerning Him among them on the earth? But since He clearly and manifestly calls Himself Son of man even at the time of His arrival from Heaven, it is I suppose clear that not having changed His Flesh into ought else but rather having it glorified, incorruptible and spotless and adorned with light unapproachable [will He come]: for He will come down out of Heaven, not in His former low estate (whence should He?) but in the glory of His Father with the Holy Angels.
8.
If, His Flesh changed into the Nature of the Godhead, He ceased to be Son of man too, clear would it be to every one henceforth that we too have lost the boast of sonship, as no longer having a First-born among many brethren.
9.
He is seen not trans-elementing into the Nature of Godhead that which is unalterably and without confusion flesh, but rather will He rightly be conceived of as adorning it with His own glory and filling it with God-befitting dignities: thus will He be seen in His season by them who are |372 on the whole earth, on His return from Heaven. And verily when having accomplished full well the mystery of the Economy with flesh, He had gone up into Heaven, even though they who saw it had wondered at the thing (for a cloud received Him, as it is written): to them who then marvelled one of the holy Angels addressed him, Men of Galilee why stand ye looking into Heaven? this Man Who was received up from you into Heaven shall thus come again as ye saw Him go into Heaven. Did therefore they who were addressed see the very Word apart from the flesh going up to the Father? or [did they see Him] having cast away the likeness to us and not in a tangible and visible but transfashioned rather into one intangible and invisible? who dares to say this? If He shall so come as He also went up, how is it not true to say that He shall come again embodied and not bare and fleshless Word?
10.
The all-wise Paul hath written of Christ, Who shall transfashion the body of our low estate conformed to the body of His glory. Then what will they say to this who say that His flesh changed into the Nature of the Word? will the bodies of the saints too pass by a change into the Nature of Godhead that they too may become conformed to the body of His glory? yet how is this not a frigid speech replete with the uttermost unlearning? for when the flesh is wholly changed (as he says) into the Nature of Godhead, what body will the Word being God use? For somewhat un-embodied is Godhead, and it is true that No one hath ever seen God.
11.
But haply they will say that the Flesh did not wholly depart from being what it was, but that it was as it were immingled with God the Word unto a natural oneness. And what do we say to this? First of all, sirs, there is full much difficulty, the reasoning hereon will be weak if |373 ye decide to retain to the Nature of the Word Its unchangeable Being and unalterable Existence (for in no wise will it change unto what it was not): either when it has suffered this It has been shaken from Its God-befitting stability and from the settledness that is inherent in it by Nature, or howsoever one calls it: but I think that it is wise that we should in no wise be able to conceive that ought of things that are could abide in the Nature of the Godhead: for this too is likewise impossible.
Yet if they are well off in examples that can persuade that in commingling and mixture of things mentioned the inherent property of either will be wholly imparticipate of the quality of the other, let them bring forward their examples: for we say that the name corn-mixture will in no wise harm the force of the truth. But if they say that flesh and Word are mixed after the manner of liquids, how do they not know that liquids mixed one with other, say wine and honey, are no longer simply what they were, but are changed into something else by the addition of a quality of a different species?
Hence if they say that the Flesh has been commingled with the Word, there is every need of saying that each of the above-mentioned leaves being what it was, and makes up of both some one intermediate thing, of a different nature full surely from what each was individually and as yet unmingled one with other. Then what results? I would fain ask of our opponents whither matters will proceed, since they say that the Nature of God is henceforth mingled with flesh (for it hath not remained in identity, if their mixture, as has been said, is true). Either therefore they will say that He has this advance for the better, or else a sinking down to the baser, according to reasonable understanding of things. If then they say that He has been displayed superior to Himself, they have given the vote of superiority to the flesh by reason of which He is perceived to have sprung up to the higher: if they say that this was not so but rather that He sank into the worse: the flesh verily did Him too wrong even as it does to ourselves, |374 although we say that He let Himself down to emptiness and entered into the likeness us ward, not in order that Himself might be seen suffering somewhat in His own Nature, but that He might render us who are in flesh and blood superior to flesh and might make us, beyond the measures of human nature, sons of God.
But if as the perverted ones say He have been commingled with flesh, borne aside unto what He was not, how they say that He has not been wronged I cannot conceive 7; haply He is found to have lost in addition, the very being the Form of the Father, the Likeness and Impress of His Person and to be no longer in equality with Him but rather in a depression and abasement of both Nature and glory.
12.
It were therefore nothing hard to add very many discordant things to what have been said; but I think that one ought gladly to withdraw from thoughts tending to absurdity. We must therefore eschew commixture, for thus shall wo escape the mischiefs too that come thence. But some other argument (as they say) as to these things finds its way in. For the Divine Paul is found to have written, But if we have also known Christ after the flesh yet now no more do we know Him. Hence if ye know not Christ after the flesh (they say), one must needs say that the flesh changes, so that it is the Nature of the Word Himself: as God is He known 8.
But I suppose one would say straightway to this, 'When therefore he says of us too, But they which are in the flesh cannot please God, but YE are not in the flesh but in the spirit:----does he know that we are bare of flesh and blood? does he utter such things as though to |375 disembodied spirits?' Yet how is it not jugglery to conceive or say this?
In regard to us then he calls by the name of flesh, the unreasonable and not irreprehensible passions of the flesh: but in regard to Christ the Saviour of us all, Who is All-Pure and knows not to transgress (for He did no sin), in other way beseems it that After the flesh be conceived of; for no longer is He in the infirmities of the flesh.
13.
He 9 has fasted, He hungered, He waxed weary from long wayfaring, yet more He was crucified and died: He conceded that He should suffer these things, not to the Nature of the Godhead (for the Divine and Supreme Nature is conceived of as beyond suffering) but rather to His own Flesh. But when He rose again having trampled on Death and trans-elemented the nature of man in Himself unto incorruption and life: He is at length seen wholly without share in fleshly infirmity. Therefore with reason does the minister of His mysteries say that no more is He known after the flesh, i. e. in fleshly weakness.
14.
Having tasted death in the flesh for our sakes He rose again in His body. And verily, this very thing He had fore-signified to the people of the Jews saying, Undo this Temple and in three days I will raise it, for that has been raised which was dissolved, but we say that the flesh and not the Nature of the Word was dissolved: for that were impossible.
15.
Christ therefore Himself the Saviour of us all giving proof to His disciples that He rose from the dead, with flesh and hands and feet and declaring in plain words that He is not a Spirit: how will one doubt that the flesh did not |376 change into the Nature of Godhead, either before the Passion (for He suffered in the flesh of His will) nor when having trampled on death He arose the third day and was thus seen of His disciples?
16.
Who of the holy prophets is seen uttering afore things thus hard and impracticable and impossible? who of the holy Apostles or Evangelists spake to them of these things?
No one whatever. Let them therefore, speaking out of their own heart and not out of the mouth of the Lord, as it is written, be ashamed. For WE, whose care is orthodoxy and who makest a special aim zealously to follow the right words of the holy Fathers, not the unbridled mouth and empty-speakings void of understanding of some, will not be minded otherwise than we ought to be minded, but ever going the straight way of the truth and having our mind filled with the holy Scriptures we both say that the Flesh of our LORD was ensouled with reasonable soul and believe that it is Divine and Spotless and glorified and moreover both life-giving and sanctifying, inasmuch as it became the own Flesh of the Word out of God the Father and affirm that it is not (as some have thought fit to think) of a son other than He, nor yet that it is changed into the Nature of Godhead.
17.
S. Cyril against Diodore and Theodore in his Book against the Synousiasts wrote thus 10,
But perchance to these things some one will say, 'What then, if when contending with some of the heretics or withstanding them who confuse the Natures 11, they made a discourse grosser than should be?'
I suppose that one would say that if the fault were in a single word, the hearers would forgive what was not far |377 off from what is right. For that in some slight degree they sometimes err even against their will, who apply themselves to subtilty and exactitude of idea, they have some just reason for apology. But if in works thus extensive and in their whole writings so to say, they have attacked the Truth blow upon blow, every where confessing Two sons, what excuse will be sufficient for them?
18.
12 these things too taught S. Cyril in his discourse against those who confuse the Natures, after this sort,
Receiving as a rule of right and undistorted Faith the Holy and God-inspired Scripture we say that when the Only-Begotten Word of God became First-born for us, He ceased not from being what He was and He is called, along with the title of Very God, also Son of Man: and He is not seen to have changed the Nature of the Godhead into flesh, which without change and without confusion was united to Him that He might adorn it with His own Glory: rather we must know that He filled it with God-befitting authority. Thus for a season was He seen of those in all the earth when He came from Heaven.
[Running headers for the pages]
Liberatus. S. Athanasius. S. Gregory of Nazianzum. 363
364 Strive for the Truth, sorrow for the strayed.
Word not changed into body, nor forms body out of Himself. 365
366 If Son can change, Father and Holy Ghost can.
Nought generate can become GOD. 367
368 His Body Divine, His own, in its proper nature.
If It were changed, It would not profit us. 369
370 Christ not a Mediator unless both God and Man,
nor the Son of Man, nor we sons of God. 371
372 He will come again as He ascended.
The Flesh and the Word not commingled. 373
374 By 'after the flesh' S. Paul means
'in the weakness of the Flesh,' in which He suffered. 375
376 The Flesh of the Word Divine, yet not confounded.
Christ both Very God and Very Man. 377
[Selected footnotes]
1. a The opening fragment of this Treatise has been preserved to us by the fifth General Council, those that follow by John Bishop of Caesarea in Palestine, in his Defence of the Council of Chalcedon, of the two last fragments, the former is in Severus' treatise against John, the latter in a later collection. Bishop John heads his citations from S. Cyril: "Divers citations of Cyril Archbishop of Alexandria wherein one may find the difference of the Two Natures proclaimed by him and that God the Word is Impassible and Immortal, the Temple passible and mortal." The ms. containing Bishop John's fifteen citations from this treatise numbers them, 77-90 (91 is a passage from the Glaphyra), while the citations from the 3 books against Diodore and Theodore are numbered 181-190. This led to these fragments being placed first in the edition of S. Cyril's works, following the order of Bishop John's citations. But the present treatise is not purely against the Synousiasts or Apollinarians, though it cites their objections, in something of the same way as S. Athanasius does: but against the Apollinarians with a reference to the previous labours, not free from error, of Diodore and Theodore; see the commencement and the 17th fragment, cited by Severus and the words with which Severus introduces it, below p. 376. See too above p. 335 fragment 27 against Diodore, which may really belong to this book, not to that. I have then no doubt that the present treatise is the one on the Incarnation which Liberatus refers to. He says, "Cyril as reports go, wrote 4 books, three against Diodore and Theodore as authors of Nestorian dogma and another book on the Incarnation, wherein are contained genuine testimonies of old Fathers, i.e., Felix Pope of Rome, Dionysius Bishop of Corinth and the marvellous Gregory called the Wonderworker. And though in the Books the words of Theodore against the Arians are cited yet they maintain that he was Nestorius' master." Liberatus, Breviarium, cap. x. in Gallandi xii. 134. The opening paragraph of this Treatise, "A long discourse has already been made &c", shews that it was written after the books against Diodore and Theodore.
2. b S. Athanasius, after having spent all his life in combats and sufferings for the Truth against Arianism, had, in the close of his days, to oppose the mad errors of the Apollinarians or Synousiasts. Their chief errors are stated thus by S. Athanasius in the opening of his first book against Apollinarius; "but these either fancy a change of the Word or suppose that the Economy of the Passion is a semblance; one while saying that the flesh of Christ is Uncreate and heavenly, other while, that it is consubstantial with the Godhead. Next they say that in place of the man that is within in ourselves [i. e. the inner man] there was an heavenly mind in Christ; for He used as an instrument the form which envelopes Him, for it was impossible that He should be Perfect man: for where perfect man is, there too is sin, also that two perfects cannot make one whole." Against Apollinarius lib. i. § 2. t. i. 923. See extracts of his two books against them, above p. 324 note c. S. Athanasius exposes the chief points of their misbelief more succinctly in his famous Letter to Epictetus, Bishop of Corinth. S. Gregory of Nazianzum, the contemporary of S. Athanasius had to contend with them in his very midst (see Tillemont's life of him, Art. 88 t. 9. pp. 515 sqq. ed. 2) and as Tillemont points out, to bear their accusation that he divided into Two the One Son ("Next they accuse me as though I introduced two natures separated or opposed, and divided the Super-natural and marvellous Union, when I ought either not to do what they accuse me of, or not to accuse them of what they do," second Letter to Cledonius, near the end, t. i. 749 ed. 1609)). Under these circumstances S. Gregory both opposes the Apollinarians, and expresses himself with that accuracy on the Incarnation that his words are cited before the Council of Ephesus as contradicting Nestorius' teaching. He says, "If any suppose that Mary is not mother of God, he is external to the Godhead. If any say that He passed through the Virgin as through a channel, and not that He has been formed in her Divinely alike and humanly, Divinely because without a man, humanly because by the law of bringing forth, he likewise is godless. If any say that the man was formed, that God then entered Him he is condemned; for no Generation of God would this be, but a shunning of birth. If any introduce two sons, one Him who is out of God the Father, the other him who is forth of his mother and not One and the same, may he fall away from the sonship which is promised to them that believe aright. [This will illustrate the strenuous efforts which Diodore Theodore and Nestorius made to persuade themselves that they were not really saying two sons.] For two natures are God and man, as also soul and body, not two sons nor two gods. For neither are there with us two men, even though Paul so spoke of the inner part of man and the outward. And to speak briefly, one thing and other (ἄλλο μὲν καὶ ἄλλο) are that whereof the Saviour is, seeing that the invisible is not the same as the visible, and the apart from time with the subject to time, not one and other (ἄλλος δὲ καὶ ἄλλος), not so; for Both are One in commixture (ἓν τῇ συγκράσει), God made-man, man-made-God, or however we are to call it. I say 'one thing and other' in contrast to how it is in the TRINITY: for there it is One and Other (ἄλλος καὶ ἄλλος) that we confound not the Persons, it is not one thing and other (ἄλλο δὲ καὶ ἄλλο), for in the Godhead the Three are One and the same Thing." first Letter to Cledonius t. i. 738 d 739 a b cited in the council of Ephesus among the authorities which Peter priest of Alexandria and protonotary read out of a collection that he had. S. Cyril, as having drunk in and made his own the teaching of the Fathers which were before him in all his writings speaks expressly of One Christ, and that by Union, the Word remaining Word and the Flesh flesh: see the citation from the seventh Paschal homily (A.D. 420) p. 227 note m, and again p. 233 note z; in the latter place S. Cyril guards against Apollinarian error, in the former against both that, and the parting into Two the Incarnate SON, which the Apollinarians charged their opponents with doing.
3. c From the fifth Collation of the fifth General Council, after S. Cyril's Letters to John of Antioch, Acacius of Melitine, and the Emperor (t. vi. 101 Col.). I had overlooked it but it is pointed out by the indefatigable Tillemont.
4. d I have adopted from the margin of the Concilia the reading convictionem which they give as the reading of the Paris Manuscript, i.e. Biblioth. Imperial. Lat. 16832, formerly belonging to Notre Dame: the Beauvais manuscript also agrees with it.
5. 1 i.e. Diodore and Theodore
6. f See this text commented on by S. Cyril at the end of his Treatise de recta fide to the Princesses Arcadia and Marina, and again near the close of his Treatise on the same subject, to the Empresses, § 42, p. 178 d e.
7. g Thus I have translated, emending... from Cardinal Mai's translation of the syriac version.
8. h There seems to be some error here in the greek words as preserved to us by these two late MSS....Card. Mai's latin version from the syriac is here not close enough to help.
9. i It will be observed that this fragment carries on the subject of the previous one: probably only a few lines intervened between them.
10. k From Severus against the Catholic Bishop of Caesarea.
11. 7 the Apollinarians.
12. l from the collection referred to above, p.326 note e and elsewhere.
This text was transcribed by Roger Pearse, 2005. All material on this page is in the public domain - copy freely.
Greek text is rendered using unicode.
Early Church Fathers - Additional Texts
SOURCE SECTION: cyril_on_luke_00_eintro.htm
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke. Preface to the online edition
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke. Preface to the online edition
Among the manuscripts brought back to the British Library from the Nitrian desert in Egypt by Archdeacon Tattam in 1842, were two volumes containing the Commentary on Luke of Cyril of Alexandria. This text consisted of a compilation of 156 sermons, although some had suffered damage. The text had not survived in Greek, although long quotations existed in Byzantine catena-commentaries -- chains of quotations of the Fathers, which had been published by Angelo Mai and by Cramer.
Robert Payne-Smith produced an edition of the Syriac text: Cyrilli Alexandriae Archiepiscopi Commentarii in Lucae Evangelium; quae supersunt Syriace e Manuscriptis apud Museum Britannicum. Ed. R. Payne Smith, pp. 447, to. Oxonii: e typographeo academico. 1858. In 1859 he produced an English translation, supplemented from the catenas, and this is the text that appears here.
The gospel text at the head of each sermon forms part of the Syriac text.
In 2005 the volumes of the translation stood on the shelves of Cambridge university library. I made a photocopy of them. In February 2006 I scanned them in, using my 25-page sheet feeder, and created 13 directories each of around 60 pages. I then began to convert the images into text using Finereader OCR. The marginal notes and footnotes made this a slow business, even though I omitted much. I laboured for some months, into 2007, completing most of the first volume. Then I halted. I found that the first volume had appeared on archive.org in PDF form, thereby rendering my labour useless.
I resumed work during 2008. In the interval I had received the occasional enquiry about it, and I did not like leaving the work incomplete. But this time I took a different approach. There was no need for the footnotes or marginalia. In addition, I decided to modernise the text in the remainder of the sermons. The original was in mock-Jacobean English, full of Thee's and Thou's. This means that in order to use the book the reader must translate mentally into modern English as he goes along. Not everyone can do this, and it is wearing even for those of us to whom it is no obstacle. Naturally this renders the text less useful to the academic; but I take it that the academic will consult the copies on archive.org. I hope that the easier reading of the later sermons will encourage people to make use of them.
Roger Pearse
th April 2008
This text was written by Roger Pearse, 2008. This file and all material on this page is in the public domain - copy freely.
Early Church Fathers - Additional Texts
SOURCE SECTION: cyril_on_luke_00_intro.htm
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke (1859) Preface. pp.i-xx.
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke (1859) Preface. pp.i-xx.
A COMMENTARY
UPON
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO S. LUKE,
BY
S. CYRIL,
PATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA.
NOW FIRST TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH
FROM AN ANCIENT SYRIAC VERSION
BY
R. PAYNE SMITH, M. A.,
SUBLIBRARIAN OF THE BODLEIAN LIBRARY,
--------
PART I.
--------
OXFORD:
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.
M.DCCC.LIX.
[Blank page]
PREFACE.
When I undertook the task of preparing for the press the Syriac Version of S. Cyril's Commentary upon the Gospel of S. Luke, discovered among the manuscripts lately obtained from Egypt, and deposited in the British Museum, I was aware that my labours would be of little practical benefit, unless I also made it accessible to theologians generally by means of an English translation. In the performance of this duty, my chief assistance has been derived from the Nova Bibliotheca Patrum of Cardinal Mai, published in 1844-58 at Rome: for so miserably defective is even the best Syriac Lexicon, that it has repeatedly happened that I have only been able to arrive with something like certainty at the meaning of a passage, by waiting until I found in some extract in Mai the equivalent in Greek of the word or phrase in question. Wherever this help has failed, I have carefully examined the use of words, in other Semitic dialects, or in the numerous Syriac works which during the last few years have issued from the press, and in which I had been in the habit of noting the occurrence of all new and unusual terms. To |iv have discussed these difficulties in notes, would have been only to crowd my pages with matter not generally interesting, and for which, I trust, I shall hereafter have a more fitting opportunity. I think, however, that I can safely say, that in no case have I come to a conclusion except upon reasonable grounds, and that, after due allowance made for possible errors, my translation will be found to convey a correct and adequate representation of the original work.
Of the value of the Commentary, I shall probably not be considered an impartial judge: still my conviction is, that it can scarcely fail of being regarded as an important addition to our means of forming an accurate judgment of what was the real teaching of one of the most famous schools of thought in the early Church. It has not indeed gained entire acceptance; its philosophy was too deep, its creed too mysterious, its longings too fervently fixed upon the supernatural, for the practical mind of the West readily to assent to doctrines which mock rather than exercise the powers of even the subtlest reason. And while the names of its doctors have become household words with us, and we owe to their labours the establishment of the doctrine of the Trinity in Unity in its main outlines as we hold it at present, still the student of Church History is aware, that in many minor, though still important particulars, the teaching of the Alexandrine school was in excess of what we at present hold. The Athanasian Creed does not embody the actual tenets of Athanasius, nor of the other great masters of Alexandria, except in the form in which they were modified and altered by the influence of rival schools: and |v in like manner S. Cyril, the inheritor at once of Athanasius' throne, and of his views, often uses arguments which the Monophysites could fairly claim as giving a colour to their belief, that after the union of the two natures in Christ it was no longer lawful to distinguish their separate limits.
It was the Nestorian controversy which called out the argumentative powers and the fiery zeal of S. Cyril; and it is certainly true that in that controversy he used Nestorius unfairly, taxing him with deductions, which, however logically they might seem to follow from his opponent's teaching, yet Nestorius himself expressly denied: but it is not true that the controversy led him into statements of doctrine beyond what his predecessors in the see of Alexandria had taught. For constantly what he opposed to his rival's views was the very doctrine of S. Athanasius; and the passage which he quotes in his treatise De recta Fide, ad Imperatrices, from that father's treatise on the Incarnation of Christ, is never exceeded in any of his own dogmatic statements. Its words are as follow:---- ὁμολογοῦμεν, καὶ εἶναι αὐτὸν υἱὸν τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ θεὸν κατὰ πνεῦμα, υἱὸν ἀνθρώπου κατὰ σάρκα· οὐ δύο φύσεις τὸν ἕνα υἱὸν, μίαν προσκυνητὴν καὶ μίαν ἀπροσκύνητον· ἀλλὰ μίαν φύσιν τοῦ θεοῦ λόγου σεσαρκωμένην καὶ προσκυνουμένην μετὰ τῆς σαρκὸς αὐτοῦ μίᾳ προσκυνήσει. This was S. Athanasius' doctrine, this also was S. Cyril's; and it is only a falsification of the facts of history to endeavour to bring the Alexandrine school into verbal accordance with the decrees of the general council of Chalcedon. The doctrine which prevailed there was that of the rival school of Antioch, which had always firmly stood by the literal interpretation of |vi the plain letter of Scripture; a sound, judicious, common-sense school, which had never depth enough to have fought the battle of the Arian heresy with the profoundness of conviction which gave such undying energy to the great chiefs of Alexandria; but which nevertheless had under Providence its due place in the Church, and corrected the tendency of Athanasius and Cyril to a too immoderate love of the supernatural and mysterious.
That S. Cyril however felt that there was no insuperable barrier between the two schools is shown by his reconciliation with John of Antioch, and their signing common articles of faith. For essentially both Cyril and John of Antioch held the mean between the extremes of Nestorius and Eutyches; only Cyril's leaning was towards Eutyches, John's towards Nestorius. And when subsequently the council of Chalcedon, A. D. 451, modified, happily and wisely, the decrees of the previous general council of Ephesus, A. D. 431, and adopted as their standard of faith the teaching of the Antiochian school as embodied in the famous Epistola Flaviana of Leo, Pope of Rome, they acknowledged this substantial agreement between Antioch and Alexandria,----between themselves and the council of Ephesus,----by their declaration that Λέων εἶπε τὰ τοῦ Κυρίλλου,----that what Leo wrote was the same that Cyril taught. And that in the main they were right this present Commentary will shew; for S. Cyril's doctrine in it is essentially moderate. There are indeed passages in which he apparently confounds the limits of the two natures in Christ, but many more in which he gives to each its proper attributes, and bears witness to the existence of both |vii the godhead and the manhood in the one person of our Lord, inseparable, yet unconfused.
But when Mai would go further, and deny that the Monophysites had any ground for claiming S. Cyril's authority in their favour, his uncritical turn of mind at once betrays him: for he rests chiefly upon the treatise De Incarnatione Domini, Nov. Bib. Pat. ii. 32-74:, ascribed by him to S. Cyril upon the testimony of a MS. in the Vatican. But independently of other internal evidence that this piece was written subsequently to the council of Chalcedon, it is absolutely impossible that Cyril could ever have adopted the very keystone and centre of Nestorius' teaching, the doctrine I mean of a συνάφεια (pp. 59, 71), a mere juxtaposition, or mechanical conjunction of the two natures in Christ, in opposition to a real union.
In the West, under the guiding minds of Augustine and Ambrose, the council of Chalcedon met at once with ready acceptance; but not so in the East. It was there that the controversy had been really waged against Arius, and the reaction from his teaching led many of the fathers into overstrained arguments which ended in heresies, ejected one after another from the Church. As in the process of fermentation there is a thick scum upon the surface while the work of purification is going on below, so each extraneous element, after mingling for a time with the great mass of Christian truth, was at length rejected with an ease or difficulty proportioned to the intense-ness of its admixture with sounder doctrines. And thus the general orthodoxy and invaluable services of the Alexandrine school caused whatever there was of |viii exaggeration in their views long and violently to resist this purifying process in those parts of the world which had been the nearest witnesses of their struggles in defence of the doctrine of the consubstantial nature of the Son. Up to the time also of the council ofChalcedon the language of the Fathers had been vague and confused: and the expression of S. John i. 14, that "the Word was made flesh;" as it had led the Arians to affirm that the Logos was a created being, so it had led orthodox Fathers to speak as if Christ's human body was "very God." And thus the Monophysites could count up a long array of all the great names in the Church, Ignatius, Polycarp, Clemens of Rome, Irenaeus, Melito of Sardes, Felix and Julius of Rome, the Gregories, Athanasius, Basil, and many more, who had confounded in Christ the human with the divine. With such authorities on their side the conflict was long and dubious, and in Justinian's time they seemed likely to gain the ascendancy: for the Pope then was the mere creature of simony, and consequently there was nothing to balance the tendencies of the Eastern Church. Accordingly in A. D. 533 Justinian, though nominally opposed to their tenets, decreed that "one of the holy and consubstantial Trinity was crucified:" and twenty years after, the fifth general council of Constantinople authoritatively ratified the same doctrine. But in the subsequent weak reign of Justin, the Patriarch of Constantinople, John the Jurist, thwarted by the Monophysite monks whom Theodora had planted in the capital, took such vigorous measures against the leaders of the party, that their principles have since exercised no appreciable influence in the Church. |ix
As the Monophysites had only pushed to excess the tendencies of the Alexandrine school----and it must be remembered that they are by no means to be confounded with the Eutychians, according to the fashion of Church histories in general, whereas really they anathematized them ---- the above sketch may place the reader in a position to judge of the statements of S. Cyril regarding this doctrine,----a doctrine after all of metaphysical rather than of practical importance. But, as a general rule, he will find the Commentary written in a tone of moderation, as might be expected in homilies addressed by a teacher to his own people, far from the baleful atmosphere of controversy, and in a place where his views were in full and hereditary possession of the teacher's chair. There is too a practical tone throughout, and while in his interpretation of the Old Testament he follows the usual tendencies of the fathers to see nothing there but types and allegories, in the New he chiefly follows the obvious meaning, and considers each parable or narrative or discourse as a whole, the key of which he generally finds in the occasion which gave rise to it. He even warns us against pushing the minutiae of parables into too prominent a position, by means of which the machinery to enforce a moral lesson becomes the medium for conveying some cabbalistic mystery: as when, instead of inferring the certainty of our having to give an account of the use of our worldly means from the parable of Dives and Lazarus, commentators use it to unveil the secrets of the future world; or discover the two sacraments in the pence given by the Samaritan to the host at the inn. |x
Like many other patristic Commentaries, it was delivered in a course of short Sermons, preached extemporaneously: for so we may conclude, not only from the opening sentences of Sermon III, and the reiteration of favourite texts, but also from their evidently being quoted from memory. Repeatedly S. Cyril's reading agrees neither with the Septuagint nor with any other Greek version of the Old Testament, though occasionally he (apparently) purposely follows Theodotion. In the New Testament he was evidently most familiar with S. Matthew's Gospel, and not only does he make his ordinary quotations from it, but even introduces its readings into the Commentary, after correctly giving S. Luke's text at the head of the Sermon. And as increased attention is now being paid to the collection of the various readings of Holy Scripture contained in the works of the fathers, the caution may not be out of place, that certainly in S. Cyril, and probably in the patristic writings generally, no importance is to be attached to the substitution of the words and phrases of one Gospel for those of another.
In the headings however placed before each Sermon, we have a most valuable addition to our materials for biblical criticism: for evidently they give us the received Alexandrine text as it was read in the beginning of the fifth century; and that S. Cyril was fully aware of the importance of correctness on this head is evident from his constant allusions to the readings of the other Gospels. Its value however will best appear by a comparison between it and the chief extant authorities, and I have therefore collated it in the margin, 1°. with the readings of the great |xi Vatican MS. published posthumously by Cardinal Mai, and which I have marked as B.; 2°. with the seventh edition of Tischendorf, now in process of publication, T.; 3°. with Griesbach, G.; and, 4°. with the textus receptus, ς. I have not however considered it necessary to notice unimportant transpositions in the order of words, and where Griesbach is equally in favour of two readings, I have usually omitted his name; as also I have done with the Syriac, represented by S., in the few cases in which it corresponds as much with the one as with the other Greek reading. It will be noticed that in all cases I have represented the Syriac by its equivalent in Greek, which rule I have also followed wherever it has appeared expedient to give in the margin the original word; often however of course the Greek is actually taken from the remains in Mai.
The most cursory glance at the margin will shew that the high expectation naturally formed of the probable value of so ancient a text is fully carried out in fact. Its readings are almost always supported by one or other of the chief authorities, far more so than those of B. itself. And even where it seems to stand alone, an examination of the readings in Tischendorf will almost universally shew that there is a strong array of evidence in its support among the most valued MSS., while it contains nothing which modern criticism has definitely condemned. One observation is however necessary, namely, that the Syriac language indulges in a fuller use of pronouns even than our own; and though I have noticed in the margin their addition wherever they might possibly |xii exist in the Greek, yet, like those in italics in our own version, they are really not to be regarded as variae lectiones, but only as the necessary result of the idiom of the language.
It may however be asked, whether the Syriac translator may be depended upon in his rendering of the. original Greek text. To this I can answer unhesitatingly in the affirmative: wherever the Greek is extant in Mai's collection, the exactness with which it is reproduced in the Syriac without the slightest alteration of tense and number, and with the most curious expedients for rendering those compound words in which Greek delights, is marvellous. Wherever also Mai has misunderstood a passage, or wrongly punctuated a sentence, it is as a usual rule correctly given in the Syriac, and though occasionally it has erred, as in rendering σχοῖνος, in Jer. viii. 8, by "cord," whereas it really means "pen," still such instances are extremely rare.
At the same time the translator has been guilty of one fault, which I am the more anxious to mention, as otherwise it might be laid to my own charge, namely, that he has taken no care to render each quotation always in the same words. The most glaring instance of this occurs in Is. i. 23, where no less than three different renderings are given of "Thy princes are disobedient" one only of which is the exact equivalent of the Greek ἀπειθοῦσι, though none deviate far from it; while the Peschito gives a fourth word, the equivalent of the Hebrew "rebellious." Similarly the words σωρηρίους ἐπιφανείας in Amos v. 22, have greatly puzzled the Syriac translator, who renders |xiii them sometimes by "your appearances for salvation," sometimes "the salvation of your appearances," the language not admitting of a literal rendering on account of its scanty use of adjectives. And though the same Greek text naturally suggested to the translator the same Syriac rendering, still he has not troubled himself about maintaining verbal identity in the various places in which the same text occurs. For my own part, originally I made an entry of each text upon translating it, for the purpose of retaining as much verbal accuracy as possible; but when I found these variations in the Syriac, I gave up the attempt, and following the same plan as my predecessor, have contented myself with carefully rendering each text as it occurred, without comparing it with previous translations, and I think it will be found that neither of us have gone far astray from the exact sense of the original.
I need scarcely mention after the above, that the Syriac translator does not take his quotations from the Peschito. Of course in the Old Testament this was impossible, as that version represents, not the Septuagint, but the Hebrew. For the same reason, the use of our own version was equally an impossibility to myself, since, as is well known, the Greek differs too considerably from the Masoretic text, of which ours is a translation, for one to be at all the equivalent of the other. I am by no means however prepared to join in the general condemnation of the Septuagint, stamped as it is by the approval of our Lord and His apostles; and though parts of it are done far less efficiently than the rest, |xiv yet whoever neglects it throws away one of the most important means for attaining to a knowledge of the original Scriptures; and I know of no more difficult question than the adjudication between the vocalising and arrangement of the Hebrew text as represented by the Septuagint, and that which gives us the subsequent tradition of the Jewish schools. Not that there is the slightest room for doubting the authenticity and genuineness in all substantial points of the Scriptures of the Old Testament; for the question affects only the vowels and the division of words; and the vowels in Semitic languages are not so important as in those of the Indo-Germanic family. To the present day no Jewish author ever expresses them in writing, though they have so far adopted modern customs as no longer to string their consonants together in one unbroken line. Necessarily, however, under such circumstances reading in ancient times was a matter of no slight difficulty, and hence the dignity of the profession of the scribe, and the wonder of the Jews at our Lord and His apostles possessing the requisite knowledge. The Septuagint therefore possesses especial value, as being both the first attempt at fixing the meaning of the uncertain elements in the Hebrew language, and as dating prior to the establishment of Christianity: and though Jewish tradition subsequently grew more exact, and eliminated many mistakes into which the authors of the Septuagint had fallen, still the fact that these subsequent labours of the Jewish schools first found their expression in the version of Aquila, who had deserted Christianity, and published his translation as a rival |xv to the Septuagint, and certainly with no kindly intention towards the religion which he had abandoned, may well make us hesitate before we so unceremoniously decry a version, the mistakes of which can be ascribed to nothing worse than simple inefficiency. That from such hands and under such auspices the Masoretic text is so trustworthy, and so free from any real ground of suspicion, entirely as regards its consonants, and to a great extent as regards its vowels, is the result, under God's Providence, of the extreme reverence of the Jews for the letter of those ordinances which had been entrusted to their keeping, since the Christian Church was by no means aware of the importance of an exact inquiry into the true meaning of the earlier Scriptures, and contented itself with receiving what the Jews provided for its use; even Jerome himself scarcely giving us more than what his Jewish masters taught him, and Origen's knowledge of Hebrew being about as much as could be expected from the time it took him to acquire it.
In the New Testament the case was different: for of course it was just possible there to have used the words of our authorized Version. But so to have done would have brought me into constant opposition to my text; for I had not the Greek before me, but a Syriac rendering of it, punctuated to an extreme degree of nicety, and fixing the meaning to one definite sense. It seemed therefore my only honest course to reproduce as exactly as I could the version of the Syriac translator. Whether I should myself in all cases have given the same meaning to the original |xvi Greek is an entirely distinct thing; for the duty of a translator is not to give his own views, but those of his author. Still, as the memory naturally suggested the language of the authorized Version, it will no doubt be found to have exercised no little influence upon the words which I have used.
But it seemed to me expedient for another reason to reproduce as exactly as possible the renderings of the Syriac translation. For the perfecting of the English translation of the Inspired Word is one of the noblest tasks which the mind of man can undertake: and though there may be evils attendant upon interfering with our present noble Saxon Version, still none can be so great as its being regarded by a gradually increasing proportion of the community as deficient in correctness. To commission however any body of scholars, however competent, to undertake a completely new version, or at present even a general revision of what we have, would be, in my opinion, at least premature. The controversy ought to be carried on in a region distinct from the book which we use in our worship and devotion: and such at present is the case, the attempts at improvement being made by individuals, and not by any constituted authority. When, however, there has been gained a sufficient mass of results generally received, the time will have come for the proper steps to be taken for admitting them into the authorized version. And possibly in the New Testament the labours of so many scholars and commentators may in a few years bring matters to such a pass as may justify the proper authorities in undertaking its revision: but in |xvii the Old Testament the case is very different, and a lengthened period of far more profound study of Hebrew literature than at present prevails, carried on by many different minds, is required before anything more could be done than to bring the translation in a few unimportant particulars nearer to the Masoretic text.
In the present translation, therefore, I have used the utmost exactness in rendering all quotations from Holy Scripture, in the hope that it might not be without is value to shew in what way the New Testament was understood and rendered by so competent and ancient an authority as the Syriac translator of this present work.
It remains now only to mention the relation in which the Syriac Version of the Commentary stands to the Greek remains collected by Mai, and of which I have given a translation wherever the MS. of the Syriac was unfortunately defective.
As early then as the year 1838 Mai had shewn the great value of this Commentary by the extracts published in the tenth volume of his Auctores Classici: and from that time he laboured assiduously in making his collection as complete as possible, until at length in the nd vol. of his Bib. Pat. Nova, the fragments gathered by him from twelve different Catenae, together with a Latin translation, occupy more than 300 quarto pages.
But the critical acumen of Mai was by no means commensurate with his industry. With the usual fault of collectors, the smallest amount of external |xviii evidence was sufficient to override the strongest internal improbability: nor apparently did his reading extend much beyond those Manuscripts, among which he laboured with such splendid results. At all events, though Cyril was an author whom he greatly valued, not only does he ascribe to the Commentary a vast mass of matter really taken from Cyril's other works, but even numerous extracts from Theophylact, Gregory Nazianzen, and other writers, whose style and method of interpretation are entirely opposed to the whole tenor of Cyril's mind.
Although it scarcely belonged to my undertaking to sift these extracts, yet, as it might have thrown a suspicion upon the genuineness of the Syriac Version to find it unceremoniously rejecting nearly a third of what Mai had gathered, I have in most cases indicated the work or author to whom the rejected passages belong. A few still remain unaccounted for; but as the principle of Niketas, the compiler of the chief Catena upon S. Luke, confessedly was to gather from all Cyril's works whatever might illustrate the Evangelist's meaning, and as in so doing he often weaves two, or even three distinct extracts into one connected narrative, it is no wonder if it was more easy to gather such passages than to restore the disjecta membra to their original position. Several extracts also which escaped me at the time have since met my eye, of which the only one of importance is the remarkable explanation of the two birds at the cleansing of the leper, conf. Com. on Luke v. 14, and which is taken from a letter of Cyril to Acacius. |xix
But the value of the Commentary does not arise simply from the uncertainty attaching to what Mai has gathered, but also from the superior form in which it gives what really is Cyril's own. As a general rule, the Catenists give conclusions without premisses, striking statements separated from the context which defines their meaning, results as true generally which are only true particularly, or which at least are greatly modified by the occasion which led to them. As it is moreover the manner of the Catenists often to introduce extracts by a summary of what precedes them, or where their length precluded their admission to give an abstract of them in briefer words, it often happens that a passage really Cyril's is followed in Mai by an abstract of itself taken from some smaller Catena: and thus an amount of confusion and repetition is occasioned which contrasts unfavourably with the simplicity of arrangement and easiness of comprehension which prevail throughout the Commentary itself.
Nevertheless Mai probably took the best course in confining himself to the simple collection of materials: and at all events his works are carefully edited, punctuated intelligibly, and translated with very considerable correctness. No one, in using his very voluminous works, however much he may be inclined to regret his want of critical ability, will accuse him of an inefficient treatment of the materials before him. The very reverse is the case with the other Catena which I have used, and which was edited by Dr. Cramer.
In itself it is of considerable intrinsic value, but is |xx entirely untranslateable, except by one who will take the trouble of restoring the text, and entirely altering Dr. Cramer's punctuation.
In conclusion, I have to return my thanks to the Delegates of the University Press for undertaking both the publication of the Syriac Version of S. Cyril's Commentary, and also of the present English translation.
Oxford, Jan. 1859.
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Early Church Fathers - Additional Texts
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Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke (1859) Sermons 1-11. (Luke 1:1-3:23) pp.1-48.
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke (1859) Sermons 1-11. (Luke 1:1-3:23) pp.1-48.
Miscellaneous fragments on Luke c. 1
Sermon 1: Luke 2:1-7
Sermon 2: Luke 2:8-18.
Sermon 3: Luke 2:21-24.
Sermon 4: Luke 2: 25-35.
Sermon 5: Luke 2:40-52.
Sermon 6: Luke 3:1-6.
Sermon 7: Luke 3:7-9.
Sermons 8 & 9: Luke 3:10-14.
Sermon 10: Luke 3:15-17.
Sermon 11: Luke 3:21-23.
COMMENTARY OF S. CYRIL,
PATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA,
UPON
THE GOSPEL OF ST. LUKE.
------------------
1:2. Who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word.
In saying that the Apostles were eyewitnesses of the substantial and living Word, the Evangelist agrees with John, who says, that "the Word was made flesh, and tabernacled in us, and His glory was seen, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father." For the Word became capable of being seen by reason of the flesh, which is visible and tangible and solid: whereas in Himself He is invisible. And John again in his Epistle says, "That which was from the beginning, That which we have heard, That which we have seen with our eyes, and our hands have handled around the Word of Life, and the Life became manifest." Hearest thou not that he speaks of the Life as capable of being handled? This he does that thou mayest understand that the Son became man, and was visible in respect of the flesh, but invisible as regards His divinity.1 |2
1:51. He hath shewed strength with His arm: He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their heart.
The arm enigmatically signifies the Word that was born of her: and by the proud, Mary means the wicked demons who with their prince fell through pride: and the Greek sages, who refused to receive the folly, as it seemed, of what was preached: and the Jews who would not believe, and were scattered for their unworthy imaginations about the Word of God. And by the mighty she means the Scribes and Pharisees, who sought the chief seats. It is nearer the sense, however, to refer it to the wicked demons: for these, when openly claiming mastery over the world, the Lord by His coining scattered, |3 and transferred those whom they had made captive unto His own dominion. For those things all came to pass according to her prophecy, that
1:52. He hath put down riders from their thrones, and exalted the humble.
Great used to he the haughtiness of these demons whom He scattered, and of the devil, and of the Greek sages, as I said, and of the Pharisees and Scribes. But He put them down, and exalted those who had humbled themselves under their mighty hand, "having given them authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy:" and made the plots against us of these haughty-minded beings of none effect. The Jews, moreover, once gloried in their empire, but were stripped of it for their unbelief; whereas the Gentiles. who were obscure and of no note, were for their faith's sake exalted.
1:53 He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He hath sent empty away.
By the hungry, she means the human race: for, excepting the Jews only, they were pining with famine. The Jews, however, were enriched by the giving of the law, and by the teaching of the holy prophets. For "to them belonged the giving of the law, the adoption of sons, the worship, the promises." But they became wanton with high feeding, and too elate at their dignity; and having refused to draw near humbly to the Incarnate One, they were sent empty away, carrying nothing with them, neither faith nor knowledge, nor the hope of blessings. For verily they became both outcasts from the earthly Jerusalem, and aliens from the glorious life that is to be revealed, because they received not the Prince of Life, but even crucified the Lord of Glory, and abandoned the fountain of living water, and set at nought the bread that came down from heaven. And for this reason there came upon them a famine severer than any other, and a thirst more bitter than every thirst: for it was not a famine of the material bread, nor a thirst of water, "but a famine of hearing the Word of the Lord." But the heathen, who were hungering |4 and athirst, and with their soul wasted away with misery, were filled with spiritual blessings, because they received the Lord. For the privileges of the Jews passed over unto them.
1:54. He hath taken hold of Israel His child to remember mercy.
He hath taken hold of Israel,----not of the Israel according to the flesh, and who prides himself on the bare name, but of him who is so after the Spirit, and according to the true meaning of the appellation;----even such as look unto God, and believe in Him, and obtain through the Son the adoption of sons, according to the Word that was spoken, and the promise made to the prophets and patriarchs of old. It has, however, a true application also to the carnal Israel; for many thousands and ten thousands of them believed. "But He has remembered His mercy as He promised to Abraham:" and has accomplished what He spake unto him, that "in thy seed shall all the tribes of the earth be blessed." For this promise was now in the act of fulfilment by the impending birth of our common Saviour Christ, Who is that seed of Abraham, in Whom the Gentiles are blessed. "For He took on Him the seed of Abraham," according to the Apostle's words: and so fulfilled the promise made unto the fathers.
1:69. He hath raised up a horn of salvation for us. 2
The word horn is used not only for power, but also for royalty. But Christ, Who is the Saviour that hath risen for us from the family and race of David, is both: for He is the King of kings, and the invincible power of the Father.
1:72. To perform mercy.
Christ is mercy and justice: for we have obtained mercy through Him, and been justified, having washed away the stains of wickedness through faith that is in Him.
1:73. The oath which He sware to our father Abraham,
But let no one accustom himself to swear from hearing that God sware unto Abraham. For just as anger, when spoken of |5 God, is not anger, nor implies passion, but signifies power exercised in punishment, or some similar motion; so neither is an oath an act of swearing. For God does not swear, but indicates the certainty of the event,----that that which He says will necessarily come to pass. For God's oath is His own word, fully persuading those that hear, and giving each one the conviction that what He has promised and said will certainly come to pass.
1:76. And thou, child, shalt be called Prophet of the Highest.
Observe, I pray, this also, that Christ is the Highest, Whose forerunner John was both in his birth, and in his preaching. What remains, then, for those to say, who lessen 3 His divinity? And why will they not understand, that when Zacharias said, "And thou shalt be called Prophet of the Highest," he meant thereby "of God," of Whom also were the rest of the prophets.
1:79. To give light to them that sit in darkness, and the shadow of death.
For those under the law, and dwelling in Judea, the Baptist was, as it were, a lamp, preceding Christ: and God so spake before of him; "I have prepared a lamp for My Christ." And the law also typified him in the lamp, which in the first tabernacle it commanded should be ever kept alight. But the Jews, after being for a short time pleased with him, flocking to his baptism, and admiring his mode of life, quickly made him sleep in death, doing their best to quench the ever-burning lamp. For this reason the Saviour also spake concerning him; "He was a burning and shining lamp, and ye were willing a little to rejoice for a season in his light." |6
1:79. To guide our feet into the way of peace.
For the world, indeed, was wandering in error, serving the creation in the place of the Creator, and was darkened over by the blackness of ignorance, and a night, as it were, that had fallen upon the minds of all, permitted them not to see Him, Who both by nature and truly is God. But the Lord of all rose for the Israelites, like a light and a sun. |7
"From S. Cyril's Commentary upon the Gospel of St. Luke, Sermon the First."
From the Syriac, MS. 12,154.
Luke ii. 1. And it came to pass in those days, &c.
Christ therefore was born in Bethlehem at the time when Augustus Caesar gave orders that the first enrolment should be made. But what necessity was there, some one may perhaps say, for the very wise Evangelist to make special mention of this? Yes, I answer: it was both useful and necessary for him to mark the period when our Saviour was born: for it was said by the voice of the Patriarch: "The head shall not depart from Judah, nor a governor from his thighs until He come, for Whom it is laid up: and He is the expectation of the Gentiles." That we therefore might learn that the Israelites had then no king of the tribe of David, and that their own native governors had failed, with good reason he makes mention of the decrees of Caesar, as now having beneath his sceptre Judaea as well as the rest of the nations: for it was as their ruler that he commanded the census to be made.
2:4. Because he was of the house and lineage of David.
The book of the sacred Gospels referring the genealogy to Joseph, who was descended from David's house, has proved through him that the Virgin also was of the same tribe as David, inasmuch as the Divine law commanded that marriages should be confined to those of the same tribe: and the interpreter of the heavenly doctrines, the great apostle Paul, clearly declares the truth, bearing witness that the Lord arose out of Juda. The natures, however, which combined unto this real union were different, but from the two together is one God |8 the Son,4 without the; diversity of the natures being destroyed by the union. For a union of two natures was made, and therefore we confess One Christ, One Son, One Lord. And it is with reference to this notion of a union without confusion that we proclaim the holy Virgin to be the mother of God, because God the Word was made flesh and became man, and by the act of conception united to Himself the temple that He received from her. For we perceive that two natures, by an inseparable union, met together in Him without confusion, and indivisibly. For the flesh is flesh, and not deity, even though it became the flesh of God: and in like manner also the Word is God, and not flesh, though for the dispensation's sake He made the flesh His own. But although the natures which concurred in forming the union are both different and unequal to one another, yet He Who is formed from them both is only One: nor may we separate the One Lord Jesus Christ into man severally and God severally, but we affirm that Christ Jesus is One and the Same, acknowledging the distinction of the natures, and preserving them free from confusion with one another.
2:5 With Mary, his betrothed wife, being great with child.
The sacred Evangelist says that Mary was betrothed to Joseph, to shew that the conception had taken place upon her betrothal solely, and that the birth of the Emanuel was miraculous, and not in accordance with the laws of nature. For the holy Virgin did not bear from the immission of man's seed. And what was the reason of this? Christ, Who is the first-fruits of all, the second Adam according to the Scriptures, was born of the Spirit, that he might transmit the grace (of the spiritual birth) to us also: for we too were intended, no longer to bear the name of sons of men, but of God rather, having obtained the new birth of the Spirit in Christ first, that he might be "foremost among all," as the most wise Paul declares.
And the occasion of the census most opportunely caused the holy Virgin to go to Bethlehem, that we might see another |9 prophecy fulfilled. For it is written, as we have already mentioned, "And thou Bethlehem, house of Ephratah, art very small to be among the thousands of Judah: from thee shall come forth for Me to be Ruler in Israel!"
But in answer to those who argue that, if He were brought forth in the flesh, the Virgin was corrupted: and if she were not corrupted, that He was brought forth only in appearance, we say; the prophet declares, "the Lord, the God of Israel, hath entered in and gone out, and the gate remaineth closed." If, moreover, the Word was made flesh without sexual intercourse, being conceived altogether without seed, then was He born without injury to her virginity.
2:7. And she brought forth her firstborn Son.
In what sense then her firstborn? By firstborn she here means, not the first among several brethren, but one who was both her first and only son: for some such sense as (his exists among the significations of "firstborn." For sometimes also the Scripture calls that the first which is the only one; as "I am God, the First, and with Me there is no other." To shew then that the Virgin did not bring forth a mere man, there is added the word firstborn; for as she continued to be a virgin, she had no other son but Him Who is of the Father: concerning Whom God the Father also proclaims by the voice of David, "And I will set Him Firstborn high among the kings of the earth." Of Him also the all-wise Paul makes mention, saying, "But when He brought the First-begotten into the world, He saith, And let all the angels of God worship Him." How then did He enter into the world? For He is separate from it, not so much in respect of place as of nature; for it is in nature that He differs from the inhabitants of the world: but He entered into it by being made man, and becoming a portion of it by the incarnation. For though He is the Only-begotten as regards His divinity, yet as having become our brother, He has also the name of Firstborn; that, being made the first-fruits as it were of the adoption of men, He might; make us also the sons of God.
Consider therefore that He is called the Firstborn in respect of the economy: for with respect to His divinity He is the |10 Only-begotten. Again, He is the Only-begotten in respect of His being the Word of the Father, having no brethren by nature, nor being co-ordinate with any other being: for the Son of God, consubstantial with the Father, is One and Alone: but He becomes the Firstborn by descending to the level of created things. When therefore He is called the Only-begotten, He is so with no cause assigned by reason of which He is the Only-begotten, being "the Only-begotten God 5 into the bosom of the Father:" but when the divine Scriptures call Him Firstborn, they immediately also add of whom He is the firstborn, and assign the cause of His bearing this title: for they say, "Firstborn among many brethren:" and "Firstborn from the dead:" the one, because He was made like unto us in all things except sin; and the other, because He first raised up His own flesh unto incorruption. Moreover, He has ever been the Only-begotten by nature, as being the Sole begotten of the Father, God of God, and Sole of Sole, having shone forth God of God, and Light of Light: but He is the Firstborn for our sakes, that by His being called the Firstborn of things created, whatever resembles Him may be saved through Him: for if He must of necessity be the Firstborn, assuredly those must also continue to exist of whom He is the Firstborn. But if, as Eunomius 6 argues, He is called God's Firstborn, as born the first of many; and He is also the Virgin's Firstborn; then as regards her also, He must be the first as preceding another child: but if He is called Mary's Firstborn, as her only child, and not as preceding others, then is He also God's Firstborn, not as the first of many, but as the Only One born.
Moreover if the first are confessedly the cause of the second, but God and the Son of God are first, then is the Son the cause of those who have the name of sons, inasmuch as it is through Him that they have obtained the appellation. He therefore who is the cause of the second sons may justly be called the |11 Firstborn, not as being the first of them, but as the first cause of their receiving the title of sonship. And just as the Father being called the first----"for I, He saith, am the first, and I am after these things"----assuredly will not compel us to regard Him as similar in nature to those that are after Him; so also though the Son be called the first of creation, or the Firstborn before all creation, it by no means follows that He is one of the things made: but just as the Father said "I am the first," to shew that He is the origin of all things, in the same sense the Son also is called the first of creation. "For all things were made by Him," and He is the beginning of all created things, as being the Creator and Maker of the world 7.
2:7. And she laid him in the manger.
He found man reduced to the level of the beasts: therefore is He placed like fodder in a manger, that we, having left off our bestial life, might mount up to that degree of intelligence which befits man's nature; and whereas we were brutish in soul, by now approaching the manger, even His own table, we find no longer fodder, but the bread from heaven, which is the body of life. |12
SERMON II. Sermon of S. Cyril, archbishop of Alexandria, from the Commentary upon the Gospel of Luke; Upon the birth of our Saviour in the flesh.
From the Syriac, MS. 12,165.
2:8-18. And there were shepherds in that country, watching and keeping guard by night over their flock: and the angel of the, Lord came unto them, and the glory of God shone upon them, and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for lo! I bring unto you good tidings of great joy, which, shall be to all the people: that there is born unto you to-day, in the city of David a Saviour, Who is Christ the Lord. And this is your sign; ye shall find a babe wrapped in swaddling-clothes, and laid in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts, praising God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, and among men good will. And it came to pass that when the angels had gone from them unto heaven, the shepherds said unto one another, Let us go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which hath come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they came with haste, and found Mary and Joseph, and the babe laid in the manger. And when they had seen, they made known the word that was spoken unto them concerning the child. And all that heard wondered at what was told them by the shepherds.
LET me begin my discourse to you with that which is written in the book of Psalms, "Come let us praise the Lord, and sing unto God our Saviour:" for He is the Head of our feast-day, and therefore let us tell His noble doings, and |13 relate the manner of that beautifully contrived dispensation, by means of which He has saved the world, and having placed on each one of us the yoke of His kingdom, is justly the object of our admiration. The blessed David therefore says in the Psalms, "All ye people clap your hands;" and again adds thereto, "Sing with understanding, God hath set a king over all the heathen." For this holy mystery was wrought with a wisdom most befitting Christ, if it be true, as true most certainly it is, that the Lord, though He is God, appeared unto us, and though He is in the form of God the Father, and possesses an incomparable and universal preeminence, took the likeness of a slave. But even so He was God and Lord; for He did not cease to be that which He had been.
The company of the holy prophets had before proclaimed both His birth in the flesh, and His assumption of our likeness as about in due time to come to pass: and inasmuch as this hope had now reached its fulfilment, the rational powers of heaven bring the glad tidings of His manifestation and appearance in this world, to shepherds first of all at Bethlehem, who were thus the earliest to receive the knowledge of the mystery. And the type answers to the truth: for Christ reveals Himself to the spiritual shepherds, that they may preach Him to the rest, just as the shepherds also then were taught His mystery by the holy angels, and ran to bear the glad tidings to their fellows. Angels therefore are the first to preach Him, and declare His glory as God born in the flesh in a wonderful manner of a woman.
But perchance some one may object to this; "that He Who was now born was still a child, and wrapped in swaddling-clothes, and laid in a manger: how then did the powers above praise Him as God?" Against such our argument stands firm. Understand, O man, the depth of the mystery! God was in visible form like unto us: the Lord of all in the likeness of a slave, albeit the glory of lordship is inseparable from Him. Understand that the Only-begotten was made flesh; that He endured to be born of a woman for our sakes, to put away the curse pronounced upon the first woman: for to her it was said, "In pains shalt thou bring forth children:" for it was as bringing forth unto death, that they endured the sting of |14 death 8. But because a woman has brought forth in the flesh the Immanuel, Who is Life, the power of the curse is loosed, and along with death have ceased also the pains that earthly mothers had to endure in bringing forth.
Wouldst thou learn also another reason of the matter? Remember what the very wise Paul has written of Him. "For as to the powerlessness of the law, wherein it was weak through the flesh, God having sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and because of sin, has condemned 9 the sin in His flesh, that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit 10." What then is the meaning of his saying that the Son was sent "in the likeness of sinful flesh?" It is this. The law of sin lies hidden in our fleshly members, together with the shameful stirring of the natural lusts: but when the Word of God became flesh, that is man, and assumed our likeness, His flesh was holy and perfectly pure; so that He was indeed in the likeness of our flesh, but not according to its standard. For He was entirely free from the stains and emotions natural to our bodies 11, and from that inclination which leads us to what is not lawful.
When therefore thou seest the child wrapped in swaddling-clothes, stay not thy thought solely upon His birth in the flesh, but mount up to the contemplation of His godlike glory: elevate thy mind aloft: ascend to heaven: so wilt thou behold |15 Him in the highest exaltation, possessed of transcendent glory; thou wilt see Him "set upon a throne high and lifted up;" thou wilt hear the Seraphim extolling Him in hymns, and saying that heaven and earth are full of His glory. Yea! even upon earth this has come to pass: for the glory of God shone upon the shepherds, and there was a multitude of the heavenly armies telling Christ's glory. And this it was which was proclaimed of old by the voice of Moses, "Rejoice, ye heavens, with Him, and let all the sons 12 of God worship Him." For very many holy prophets had been born from time to time, but never had any one of them been glorified by the voice of angels: for they were men, and according to the same measure as ourselves, the true servants of God, and bearers of His words. But not so was Christ: for He is God and Lord, and the Sender of the holy prophets, and, as the Psalmist says, "Who in the clouds shall be compared unto the Lord, and who shall be likened unto the Lord among the sons of God?" For the appellation of sonship is bestowed by Him as of grace upon us who lie under the yoke, and are by nature slaves: but Christ is the true Son 13, that is, He is the Son of God the Father by nature, even when He had become flesh: for He continued, as I have said, to be that which He had ever been, though He took upon Him that which He had not been.
And that what I say is true, the prophet Isaiah again assures us, saying, "Behold the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel; butter and honey shall He eat: before He knoweth or chooseth the evil, He shall prefer the good: for before the Child distinguisheth good or evil, He is not obedient to evil in that He chooseth the good." And yet how is it not plain to all, that a new-born babe, as yet unable, from its youth and tenderness, to understand anything, is unequal to the task of distinguishing between good and evil? For he knows absolutely nothing. But in our Saviour Christ it was a great and extraordinary miracle: for He ate while yet a babe both butter and honey. And because He was God, ineffably made flesh, He knew only |16 the good, and was exempt from that depravity which belongs to man. And this too is an attribute of the supreme Substance; for that which is good by nature, firmly and unchangeably, belongs specially to It, and It only; "for there is none good, but one God," as the Saviour has Himself said.
Wouldst thou see another virtue of the Child? Wouldst thou see that He is by nature God, Who in the flesh was of woman? Learn what the prophet Isaiah says of Him: "And I drew near unto the prophetess, and she conceived, and bare a male; and the Lord said unto me, Call His name, Quick take captive, and spoil hastily.14 For before the Child shall know to call father or mother, He shall take the strength of Damascus." For contemporaneously with the birth of Christ the power of the devil was spoiled. For in Damascus he had been the object of religious service, and had had there very many worshippers; but when the holy Virgin brought forth, the power of his tyranny was broken; for the heathen were won unto the knowledge of the truth; and their firstfruits and leaders were the Magi, who came from the East to Jerusalem; whose teacher was the heaven, and their schoolmaster a star.
Look not therefore upon Him Who was laid in the manger as a babe merely, but in our poverty see Him Who as God is rich, and in the measure of our humanity Him Who excels the inhabitants of heaven, and Who therefore is glorified even by the holy angels. And how noble was the hymn, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, and among men good will!" For the angels and archangels, thrones and lordships, and high above them the Seraphim, preserving their settled order, are at peace with God: for never in any way do they transgress His good pleasure, but are firmly established |17 in righteousness and holiness. But we, wretched beings, by having set up our own lusts in opposition to the will of our Lord, had put ourselves into the position of enemies unto Him. But by Christ this has been done away: for He is our peace; for He has united us by Himself unto God the Father, having taken away from the middle the cause of the enmity, even sin, and so justifies us by faith, and makes us holy and without blame, and calls near unto Him those who were afar off: and besides this, He has created the two people into one new man, so making peace, and reconciling both in one body to the Father. For it pleased God the Father to form into one new whole all things in Him, and to bind together things below and things above, and to make those in heaven and those on earth into one flock. Christ therefore has been made for us both Peace and Goodwill; by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be glory and honour and might with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever, Amen.15 |18
SERMON III.16
[From Aubert.]
cc. 2:21-24.
VERY numerous indeed is the assembly, and earnest the hearer:----for we see the Church full:----but the teacher is but poor. He nevertheless Who giveth to man a mouth and tongue, will further supply us with good ideas.17 For He somewhere says Himself, "Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it." Since therefore ye have all come together eagerly on the occasion of this joyous festival 18 of our Lord, let us with cheerful torches brightly celebrate the feast, and apply ourselves to the consideration of what was divinely fulfilled, as it were, this day, gathering for ourselves from every quarter whatsoever may confirm us in faith and piety.
But recently we saw the Immanuel lying as a babe in the manger, and wrapped in human fashion in swaddling bands, but extolled as God in hymns by the host of the holy angels. For they proclaimed to the shepherds His birth, God the Father having granted to the inhabitants of heaven as a special privilege to be the first to preach Him. And to-day too we have seen Him obedient to the laws of Moses, or rather we have seen Him Who as God is the Legislator, subject to His |19 own decrees. And the reason of this the most wise Paul teaches us, saying, "When we were babes we were enslaved under the elements of the world; but when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born 19 of a woman, born under the law, to redeem them that were under the law." Christ therefore ransomed from the curse of the law those who being subject to it, had been unable to keep its enactments. And in what way did He ransom them? By fulfilling it. And to put it in another way: in order that He might expiate the guilt of Adam's transgression, He showed Himself obedient and submissive in every respect to God the Father in our stead: for it is written, "That as through the disobedience of the One man, the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the One, the many shall be made just." He yielded therefore His neck to the law in company with us, because the plan of salvation so required: for it became Him to fulfil all righteousness. 20 For having assumed the form of a slave, as being now enrolled by reason of His human nature among those subject to the yoke, He once even paid the half shekel to the collectors of the tribute, although by nature free, and as the Son not liable to pay the tax. |20 When therefore them seest Him keeping the law, be not offended, nor place the free-born among the slaves, but reflect rather upon the profoundness of the plan of salvation.
21 Upon the arrival, therefore, of the eighth day, on which it was customary for the circumcision in the flesh to be performed according to the enactment of the law, He receives His Name, even Jesus, which by interpretation signifies, the Salvation of the people. For so had God the Father willed that His Son should be named, when born in the flesh of a woman. For then especially was He made the salvation of the people, and not of one only, but of many, or rather of every nation, and of the whole world. He received His name, therefore, on the same occasion on which He was circumcised.
But come, and let us again search and see, what is the riddle, and to what mysteries the occurrence directs us. The blessed Paul has said, "Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing." To this it is probable that some may object, Did the God of all then command by the all-wise Moses a thing of no account to be observed, with a punishment decreed against those that transgressed it? Yes, I say: for as far as regards the nature of the thing, of that, I mean, which is done in the flesh, it is absolutely nothing, but it is pregnant with the graceful type of a mystery, or rather contains the hidden manifestation of the truth. For on the eighth 22 day Christ arose from the dead, and gave us the spiritual circumcision. For He commanded the holy Apostles: "Having gone, make ye disciples of all nations, baptizing them into the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." And we affirm that the spiritual circumcision takes place chiefly in |21 the season of holy baptism, when also Christ makes us partakers of the Holy Ghost. And of this again, that Jesus of old, who was captain after Moses, was a type. For he first of all led the children of Israel across the Jordan: and then having halted them, immediately circumcised them with knives of stone. So when we have crossed the Jordan, Christ circumcises us with the power of the Holy Ghost, not purifying the flesh, but rather cutting off the defilement that is in our souls.
On the eighth day, therefore, Christ is circumcised, and receives, as I said, His Name: for then, even then, were we saved by Him 23 and through Him, "in Whom, it saith, ye were circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands in the putting off of the fleshly body, with Christ's circumcision, having been buried together with Him in baptism, wherein also ye were raised with Him." His death, therefore, was for our sakes. as were also His resurrection and His circumcision. For He died, that we who have died together with Him in His dying unto sin, may no longer live unto sin: for which reason it is said, "If we have died together with Him, we shall also live together with Him." And He is said to have died unto sin, not because He had sinned, "for He did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth," but because of our sin. Like as therefore we died together with Him when He died, so shall we also rise together with Him.
Again, when the Son was present among us, though by nature God and the Lord of all, He does not on that account despise our measure, but along with us is subject to the same law, although as God He was Himself the legislator. Like the Jews, He is circumcised when eight days old, to prove His descent from their stock, that they may not deny Him. For Christ was expected of the seed of David, and offered them the proof of His relationship. But if even when He was circumcised they said, "As for This man, we know not whence He is;" there |22 would have been a show of reason in their denial, had He not been circumcised in the flesh, and kept the law.
But after His circumcision, the rite was done away by the introduction of that which had been signified by it, even baptism: for which reason we are no longer circumcised. For circumcision seems to me to have effected three several ends: in the first place, it separated the posterity of Abraham by a sort of sign and seal, and distinguished them from all other nations. In the second, it prefigured in itself the grace and efficacy of Divine baptism; for as in old time he that was circumcised, was reckoned among the people of God by that seal, so also he that is baptized, having formed in himself Christ the seal, is enrolled into God's adopted family. And, thirdly, it is the symbol of the faithful when established in grace, who cut away and mortify the tumultuous risings of carnal pleasures and passions by the sharp surgery of faith, and by ascetic labours; not cutting the body, but purifying the heart, and being circumcised in the spirit, and not in the letter: whose praise, as the divine Paul testifies, needs not the sentence of any human tribunal, but depends upon the decree from above. 24
After His circumcision, she next waits for the time of her purification: and when the days were fulfilled, and the fortieth was the full time, God the Word, Who sitteth by the Father's side, is carried up to Jerusalem, and brought into the Father's presence in human nature like unto us, and by the shadow of the law is numbered among the firstborn. For even before the Incarnation the firstborn were holy, and consecrated to God, being sacrificed to Him according to the law. 25 O! how great and wonderful is the plan of salvation! "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!" He Who is in the bosom of the Father, the Son Who shares His throne, and is coeternal with Him: by Whom all things are divinely brought into existence, submitted nevertheless to the measure of human nature, and even offered a sacrifice to His own Father, although adored by all, and glorified with |23 Him. And what did He offer? As the firstborn and a male a pair of turtles, or two young doves, according to what the law prescribed. But what does the turtle signify? And what too the other, the dove? Come, then, and let us examine this. The one, then, is the most noisy of the birds of the field: but the other is a mild and gentle creature. And such did the Saviour of all become towards us, shewing the most perfect gentleness, and like a turtle moreover soothing the world, and filling His own vineyard, even us who believe in Him, with the sweet sound of His voice. For it is written in the Song of Songs, "The voice of the turtle has been heard in our land." For Christ has spoken to us the divine message of the Gospel, which is for the salvation of the whole world.
Turtles, therefore, and doves were offered, when He presented Himself unto the Lord, and there might one see simultaneously meeting together the truth and the types. And Christ offered Himself for a savour of a sweet smell, that He might offer us by and in Himself unto God the Father, and so do away with His enmity towards us by reason of Adam's transgression, and bring to nought sin that had tyrannized over us all. For we are they who long ago were crying, "Look upon me, and pity me." 26 |24
SERMON IV.
cc.2:25-35.
27 The prophet Isaiah says, "Beautiful are the feet of them that bring good tidings of good:" and what could there be so sweet to learn as that God has saved the world by the mediation of the Son, in that He was made like unto us? For it is written, "that there is one God, and one Mediator of God and men, the Man Jesus Christ, Who gave Himself a ransom for us." For of His own accord He descended to our poverty, that He might make us rich by our gaining what is His. Behold Him therefore as one in our estate presented unto the Father, and obedient to the shadows of the law, offering sacrifice moreover according to what was customary, true though it be that these things were done by the instrumentality of His mother according to the flesh. Was He then unrecognised by all at Jerusalem, and known to none dwelling there? How could this be the case? For God the Father had before proclaimed by the holy prophets, that in due season the Son would be manifested to save them that were lost, and to give light to them that were in darkness. By one too of the holy prophets He said, "My righteousness approacheth quickly, and My mercy to be revealed, and My salvation shall burn as a torch. But the mercy and righteousness is Christ: for through Him have we obtained mercy and righteousness, having washed away our filthy vileness by faith that is in Him. And that which a torch going before them is to those in night and darkness, this has Christ become for those who are in mental gloom and darkness, implanting in them the divine light. For this reason also the blessed prophets prayed to be made partakers of His great grace, saying, "Shew us Thy mercy, O Lord, and grant us Thy salvation." |25
Christ 28 therefore was carried into the temple, being yet a little child at the breast: and the blessed Symeon being endowed with the grace of prophecy, takes Him in his arms, and filled with the highest joy, blessed God, and said; "Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace according to Thy Word, for mine eyes have seen Thy Salvation, Which Thou hast prepared before the face of all the nations, the Gentiles' light for revelation, and a glory of Thy people Israel." For the mystery of Christ had been prepared even before the very foundation of the world, but was manifested in the last ages of time, and became a light for those who in darkness and error had fallen under the devil's hand. These were they "who serve the creation instead of the Creator," worshipping moreover the dragon, the author of evil, and the impure throng of devils, to whom they attach the honour due unto God: yet were they called by God the Father to the acknowledgment of the Son Who is the true light. Of them in sooth He said by the voice of Isaiah, "I will make signs unto them, and receive them, because I will ransom them, and they shall be multiplied, as they were many: and I will sow them among the nations, and they who are afar off shall remember Me." For very many were they that were astray, but were called through Christ: and again they are many as they |26 were before; for they have been received and ransomed, having obtained as the token of peace from God the Father, the adoption into His family and the grace that is by faith in Jesus Christ. And the divine disciples were sown widely among the nations: and what is the consequence? Those who in disposition were far from God, have been made near. To whom also the divine Paul sends an epistle, saying, "Now ye who some time were afar off have been made near in the blood of Christ." And having been brought near, they make Christ their glorying: for again, God the Father has said of them, "And I will strengthen them in the Lord their God, and in His Name shall they glory, saith the Lord." This also the blessed Psalmist teaches, speaking as it were unto Christ the Saviour of all, and saying, "Lord, they shall walk in the light of Thy countenance, and in Thy Name shall they exult all the day, and in Thy righteousness shall they be exalted: for Thou art the glorying of their strength." And we shall find also the prophet Jeremiah calling out unto God, "Lord, my strength and my help, and my refuge in the day of my evils, to Thee shall the heathen come from the end of the earth, and say, Our fathers took unto themselves false idols, in which there is no help."
Christ therefore became the Gentiles' light for revelation: but also for the glory of Israel. For even granting that some of them proved insolent, and disobedient, and with minds void of understanding, yet is there a remnant saved, and admitted unto glory through Christ. And the firstfruits of these were the divine disciples, the brightness of whose renown lightens the whole world.
And in another sense Christ is the glory of Israel, for He came of them according to the flesh, though He be "God over all, and blessed for evermore, Amen."
And Symeon blesseth also the holy Virgin as the handmaid of the divine counsel, and the instrument of the birth that submitted not itself to the laws of human nature. For being a virgin she brought forth, and that not by man, but by the power of the Holy Ghost having come upon her.
29 And what does the prophet Symeon say of Christ? "Behold This child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign that shall be spoken against." For the |27 Immanuel is set by God the Father for the foundations of Sion, "being a stone elect, chief of the corner, and honourable." Those then that trusted in Him were not ashamed: but those who were unbelieving and ignorant, and unable to perceive the mystery regarding Him, fell, and were broken in pieces. For God the Father again has somewhere said, "Behold I lay in Sion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence, and He that believeth on It shall not be ashamed; but on whomsoever It shall fall, It will winnow him." But the prophet bade the Israelites be secure, saying, "Sanctify the Lord Himself, and He shall be thy fear: and if thou trust upon Him, He shall be thy sanctification, nor shall ye strike against Him as on a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence." Because however Israel did not sanctify the Emmanuel Who is Lord and God, nor was willing to trust in Him, having stumbled as upon a stone because of unbelief, it was broken in pieces and fell. But many rose again, those, namely, who embraced faith in Him. For they changed from a legal to a spiritual service: from having in them a slavish spirit, they were enriched with That Spirit Which maketh free, even the Holy Ghost: they were made partakers of the divine nature: they were counted worthy of the adoption of sons: and live in hope of gaining the city that is above, even the citizenship, to wit, the kingdom of heaven.
And by the sign that is spoken against, he means the precious Cross, for as the most wise Paul writes, "to the Jews it is a stumbling-block, and foolishness to the heathen." And again, "To them that are perishing it is foolishness: but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God unto salvation." The sign therefore is spoken against, if to those that perish it seem to be folly; while to those who acknowledge its power it is salvation and life.
And Symeon further said to the holy Virgin, "Yea, a sword shall go through thy own soul also," meaning by the sword the pain which she suffered for Christ, in seeing Him |28 Whom she brought forth crucified; and not knowing at all that He would be more mighty than death, and rise again from the grave. Nor mayest thou wonder that the Virgin knew this not, when we shall find even the holy Apostles themselves with little faith thereupon: for verily the blessed Thomas, had he not thrust his hands into His side after the resurrection, and felt also the prints of the nails, would have disbelieved the other disciples telling him, that Christ was risen, and had shewed Himself unto them,
The very wise Evangelist therefore for our benefit teaches us all things whatsoever the Son, when He was made flesh, and consented to bear our poverty, endured for our sakes and in our behalf, that so we may glorify Him as our Redeemer, as our Lord, as our Saviour, and our God: 30 by Whom and with Whom to God the Father and the Holy Ghost be the glory and the power for over and ever, Amen.31 |29
SERMON V.
[From Mai and Cramer]
2:40-52. And the Child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, being filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon Him. And again; But Jesus increased in stature and wisdom and grace with God and men.
TO say that the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, being filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon Him, must be taken as referring to His human nature. And examine, I pray you, closely the profoundness of the dispensation: the Word endures to be born in human fashion, although in His divine nature He has no beginning nor is subject to time: He Who as God is all perfect, submits to bodily growth: the Incorporeal has limbs that advance to the ripeness of manhood: He is filled with wisdom Who is Himself all wisdom. And what say we to this? Behold by these things Him Who was in the form of the Father made like unto us: the Rich in poverty: the High in humiliation: Him said to "receive," Whose is the fulness as God. So thoroughly did God the Word empty Himself! For what things are written of Him as a man shew the manner of the emptying. For it were a thing impossible for the Word begotten of God the Father to admit ought like this into His own nature: but when He became flesh, even a man like unto us, then He is born according to the flesh of a woman, and is said also to have been subject to the things that belong to man's state: and though the Word as being God could have made His flesh spring forth at once from the womb unto the measure of the perfect man, yet this would have been of the nature of a portent: and therefore He gave the habits and laws of human nature power even over His own flesh.
32 Be not therefore offended, considering perchance within thyself, How can God increase? or how can He Who gives grace to angels and to men receive fresh wisdom? Rather reflect upon the great skill wherewith we are initiated into His mystery. For the wise Evangelist did not introduce the Word in His abstract and incorporeal nature, and so say of Him that |30 He increased in stature and wisdom and grace, but after having shewn that He was born in the flesh of a woman, and took our likeness, he then assigns to Him these human attributes, and calls Him a child, and says that He waxed in stature, as His body grow little by little, in obedience to corporeal laws. And so He is said also to have increased in wisdom, not as receiving fresh supplies of wisdom,----for God is perceived by the understanding to be entirely perfect in all things, and altogether incapable of being destitute of any attribute suitable to the Godhead:----but because God the Word gradually manifested His wisdom proportionably to the age which the body had attained.
The body then advances in stature, and the soul 33 in wisdom: for the divine nature is capable of increase in neither one nor the other; seeing that the Word of God is all perfect. And with good reason he connected the increase of wisdom with the growth of the bodily stature, because the divine nature revealed its own wisdom in proportion to the measure of the bodily growth.
2:42. And when He was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem according to the custom of the feast.
After the Evangelist had said, that Jesus advanced in wisdom and grace with God and men, he next shews that what he says is true: for he carries Him to Jerusalem in company with the holy Virgin, upon the summons of the feast: and then he says that He remained behind, and was afterwards found in the temple sitting in the midst of the doctors both asking and answering questions regarding those things, as we may feel sure, which were spoken of old by the law: and that He was wondered at by all for His questions and answers. Thou seest Him advancing in wisdom and grace, by reason of His becoming known unto many as being what He was. |31
2:48. Thy father and I have sought Thee sorrowing.
His mother certainly knew that He was not the child of Joseph, but she so speaks to avoid the suspicions of the Jews. And upon her saying, that "Thy father and I have sought Thee sorrowing," the Saviour answers;
2:49. Did ye not know that I must be at My Father's?
Here then first He makes more open mention of Him Who is truly His Father, and lays bare His own divinity: for when the holy Virgin said, Child, why hast Thou so done unto us? then at once shewing Himself to transcend the measure of human things, and teaching her that she had been made the handmaid of the dispensation in giving birth to the flesh, but that He by nature and in truth was God, and the Son of the Father That is in heaven, He says, Did ye not know that I must be at My Father's? 34 Here let the Valentinians, when they hear that the temple was God's, and that Christ was now at His own, Who long before also was so described in the law, and represented as in shadows and types, feel shame in affirming, that neither the Maker of the world, nor the God of the law, nor the God of the temple, was the Father of Christ.35 |32
SERMON VI.
3:1-6. As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet.
The blessed Isaiah was not ignorant of the scope of John's preachings, but of old, even long before the time, bearing witness of it, he called Christ Lord and God: but John he styled His minister and servant, and said that he was a lamp advancing before the true light, the morning star heralding the sun, foreshowing the coming of the day that was about to shed its rays upon us: and that he was a voice, not a word, forerunning Jesus, as the voice docs the word.36
3:4 Prepare ye the ways of the Lord, make His paths straight,
John, being chosen for the Apostleship, was also the last of the holy prophets: for which reason, as the Lord was not yet come, he says, Prepare ye the way of the Lord. And what is the meaning of "Prepare ye the way of the Lord?" It is put for, Make ready for the reception of whatever Christ may wish to enact: withdraw your hearts from the shadow of the law: cease from the types: think no more perversely. "Make the paths of our God straight." For every path that leadeth unto good is straight and smooth and easy: but the other is crooked that leadeth down to wickedness them that walk therein. For of such it is written, "Whose paths are crooked, and the tracks of their wheels awry." Straightforwardness therefore of the mind is as it were a straight path, having no crookedness. Such was the divine Psalmist's character, who thus sings, "A crooked heart hath not cleaved unto me." And Jesus,37 the son of Nun, in exhorting the people, said, "Make |33 straight your hearts unto the God of Israel:" while John cries, "Make straight your ways." And this means, that the soul must be straight, displaying its natural intuition as it was created: and it was created beautiful and very straight. But when it turns aside, and its natural state is perverted, this is called vice, and the perversion of the soul. The matter therefore is not very difficult: for if we continue as we are made, we shall be virtuous. 38
But when some one, as it were, exclaims against us, saying, How shall we prepare the way of the Lord? or how make His paths straight? for there are many impediments in the way of those that will live well,----Satan, who hates all that is beautiful, the unholy throng of wicked spirits, the law of sin itself that is in our fleshly members, and which arms itself against the inclinations of the mind to what is good, and many other passions besides, that have mastery over the mind of man:----what then shall we do, with so great difficulty pressing upon us? The word of prophecy meets these objections, saying, Every valley shall be filled up, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low: and the crooked way shall become straight, and the rough ways shall become smooth: and all flesh shall see the salvation of God." 39
3:6. And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.
And all flesh did see the salvation of God, even of the Father: for He sent the Son to be our Saviour. And in these words by "flesh," man generally is to be understood, that is, the whole human race. For thus all flesh shall see the salvation of God: no longer Israel only, but all flesh. For the gentleness of the Saviour and Lord of all is not limited, nor did He save one nation merely, but rather embraced within His net the whole world, and has illuminated all who were in darkness. And this is what was celebrated by the Psalmist's lyre, "All the nations whom Thou hast made shall come and worship before Thee, O Lord." While at the same time the remnant of the Israelites is saved, as the great Moses also long ago declared, saying, "Rejoice ye nations with His people." |34
SERMON VII.
3:7-9. The Baptist therefore said to the multitudes that came to he baptized of him, Generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the coming wrath?
WE affirm therefore that the blessed Baptist, as being full of the Holy Ghost, was not ignorant of the daring acts that Jewish wickedness would venture against Christ. For he foreknew that they would both disbelieve in Him, and wagging their envenomed tongue, would pour forth railings and accusations against Him: accusing Him at one time of being born of fornication; at another, as one who wrought His miracles by the help of Beelzebub, prince of the devils: and again, as one that had a devil, and was no whit better than a Samaritan. Having this therefore in view, he calls even those of them who repent wicked, and reproves them because, though they had the law speaking unto them the mystery of Christ, and the predictions of the prophets relating thereunto, they nevertheless had become dull of hearing, and unready for faith in Christ the Saviour of all. "For who hath warned you to flee from the coining wrath?" Was it not the inspired Scripture, which tells the happiness of those who believe in Christ, but forewarns those who believe not, and are ignorant, that they will be condemned to severe and inevitable punishment?
3:8. Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance.
Moreover, the fruit of repentance is, in the highest degree, faith in Christ: and next to it, the evangelic mode of life, and in general terms the works of righteousness in contradistinction to sin, which the penitent must bring forth as fruits worthy of repentance. And he has added; "Begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham for our father: for I tell you that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham." You see how most skilfully he humbles their foolish pride, and shews that their being born of Abraham according to the flesh is useless for their profit. For of |35 what benefit is nobility of birth, if men practise not the like earnest deeds, nor imitate the virtue of their ancestors? For the Saviour says unto them, "if ye were Abraham's children, ye would have done the works of Abraham." The relationship which God requires is one in character and manners: so that it is a vain thing to boast of holy and good parents, while we fall far short of their virtue.
But, says the Jew, if this be so, in what way is the send of Abraham still to be multiplied, and the promise made to him of God hold true, of which the terms are, that "He will multiply his seed as the stars of heaven?" By the calling of the Gentiles, O Jew: for it was said to Abraham himself, that "in Isaac shall a seed for thee be called:" and that "I have set thee as a father of many nations." But the phrase "in Isaac" means, According to promise. He is set therefore as a father of many nations by faith, that is to say, in Christ. And of these it was that God spake also by the voice of Ezekiel: "And I will take away out of their flesh the heart of stone, and will give them a heart of flesh, that they may know Me, that I am the Lord."
And the blessed Baptist apparently calls them stones, because they as yet knew not Him Who is by nature God, but were in error, and in their great folly worshipped the creation instead of the Creator: but they were called, and became the sons of Abraham, and acknowledged, by believing in Christ, Him Who is by nature God.
But that he may benefit in a still higher degree those that hear him, the blessed Baptist brings forward something more: "But already even the axe is laid at the root of the trees." But by the axe in this passage he signifies the sharp wrath which God the Father brought upon the Jews for their wickedness towards Christ, and audacious violence: for the wrath was brought upon them like an axe. And this the prophet Zecharias has explained to us, saying, "The wailing of Jerusalem shall be as the wailing of a grove of pomegranate trees cut down in the plain." And Jeremiah also addressing her, said, "The Lord called thy name a beautiful olive tree, very leafy to behold: at the sound of its felling, a fire was kindled upon it: great was the lamentation over it: its branches |36 have been made unserviceable: and the Lord of hosts That planted thee hath uttered evils against thee." And to this thou mayest add also the parable in the Gospels about the fig-tree. As being therefore a plant unfruitful, and no longer of generous kind, it was cut down by God. He does not, however, say that the axe was laid into the root, but at the root, that is, near the root. For the branches were cut off, but the plant was not dug up by its root: for the remnant of Israel was saved, and did not perish utterly.
SERMONS VIII AND IX.40
3:10-14. And the multitudes asked him.
THE blessed Luke has introduced three classes of men making inquiry of John,----the multitudes, the publicans, and, thirdly, the soldiers: and as a skilful physician applies to each malady a suitable and fitting remedy, so also the Baptist gave to each mode of life useful and becoming counsel, bidding the multitudes in their course towards repentance practise mutual kindness: for the publicans, he stops the way to unrestrained exactions: and very wisely tells the soldiers to oppress no one, but be content with their wages. |37
SERMON X. Sermon the Tenth, from S. Cyril's Commentary upon Luke, upon John the Baptist.
[From the Syriac MS. 12,165.]
3: 15-17. But when the people were in expectation, and all men reasoned in their hearts concerning John, whether he were not the Christ, John answered, and said to them all, I indeed baptize you in water, but there cometh He Who is mightier than I: Whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose: He shall baptize you in the Holy Ghost and in fire, Whose fan is in His hand, and He shall purge His floor, and gather His wheat into stores, but the chaff He will burn in unquenchable fire. 41
IT is written, that "a just father will bring up (his children) excellently." For those who are clad in the glory of the righteousness that is by Christ, and are acquainted with His sacred commands, will train up excellently and piously those who are their sons in the faith, giving them not the material bread of earth, but that which is from above, even from heaven. Of which bread the admirable Psalmist also makes mention, where he says, "Bread establisheth man's heart, and wine rejoiceth man's heart." Let us therefore now also establish our hearts: let our faith in Christ be assured, as we correctly understand the meaning of those evangelic writings now read unto us. "For when the people, it says, were in expectation, and all reasoned in their hearts of John, whether he were not the Christ, he answered them in the words which we have just heard read." |38
They had beheld with admiration the incomparable beauty of John's mode of life: the splendour of his conduct: the unparalleled and surpassing excellence of his piety. For so great and admirable was he, that even the Jewish populace began to conjecture whether he were not himself the Christ, Whom the law had described to them in shadows, and the holy prophets had before proclaimed. Inasmuch therefore as some ventured on this conjecture, he at once cuts away their surmise, declining as a servant the honours due to the Master, and transferring the glory to Him Who transcends all, even to Christ. For he knew that He is faithful unto those that serve Him. And what he acknowledges is in very deed the truth: for between God and man the distance is immeasurable. "Ye yourselves, therefore, he says, bear me witness that I said I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before Him." But where shall we find the holy Baptist thus speaking? In the Gospel of John, who has thus spoken concerning him; "And this is the testimony of John when the scribes and Pharisees at Jerusalem sent to ask him whether he were the Christ. And he confessed, and denied not, and said, that I am not the Christ, but am he that is sent before Him." Great therefore and admirable in very deed is the forerunner, who was the dawning before the Saviour's meridian splendour, the precursor of the spiritual daylight, beautiful as the morning star, and called of God the Father a torch.
Having therefore thus declared himself not to be the Christ, he now brings forward proofs, which we must necessarily consider, and by which we may learn how immeasurable the distance evidently is between God and man, between the slave and the Master, between the minister and Him Who is ministered unto, between him who goes before as a servant, and Him Who shines forth with divine dignity. What, therefore, is the proof? "I indeed baptize in water: after me shall come He Who is mightier than I, Whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose." As I said, therefore, the difference is incomparable, the superiority immeasurable, if, as is the case, the blessed Baptist, being so great in virtue, declares that he is not worthy even, as it were, to touch His shoes. And his declaration is true: for if the rational powers above, |39 principalities, and thrones, and lordships, and the holy Seraphim themselves, who stand around His godlike throne, holding the rank of ministers, unceasingly crown Him with praises as the Lord of all, what dweller upon earth is worthy even to be nigh unto God? For though He be loving unto man, and gentle, and mild, yet must we, as being of slight account, and children of earth, confess the weakness of our nature.
And after this, he again brings forward a second proof, saying, "I indeed baptize you in water: but He shall baptize you in the Holy Ghost and in fire." And this too is of great importance for the proof and demonstration that Jesus is God and Lord. For it is the sole and peculiar property of the Substance That transcends all, to be able to bestow on men the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, and make those that draw near unto It partakers of the divine nature. But this exists in Christ, not as a thing received, nor by communication from another, but as His own, and as belonging to His substance: for "He baptizes in the Holy Ghost." The Word therefore That became man is, as it appears, God, and the fruit of the Father's substance. But to this, it may be, those will object who divide the one Christ into two sons,----those I mean who, as Scripture says, are "animal, and dividers, and having not the Spirit,"----that He Who baptizes in the Holy Ghost is the Word of God, and not He Who is of the seed of David. What answer shall we make, then, to this? Yes! we too affirm, without fear of contradiction, that the Word being God as of His own fulness bestows the Holy Ghost on such as are worthy: but this He still wrought, even when He was made man, as being the One Son with the flesh united to Him in an ineffable and incomprehensible manner. For so the blessed Baptist, after first saying, "I am not worthy to stoop down "and loose the thong 42 of His shoes," immediately added, |40 "He shall baptize you in the Holy Ghost and in fire;" plainly while having feet for shoes. For no one whose mind was awake would say, that the Word, while still incorporeal, and not as yet made like unto us, had feet and shoes, but only when He had become a man. Inasmuch, however, as He did not then cease to be God, He wrought even so works worthy of the Godhead, by giving the Spirit unto them that believe in Him. For He, in one and the same person, was at the same time both God and also man.
But yes, he objects, the Word wrought the works of Deity by means of Him Who is of the seed of David. If so then thou arguest, we will repeat to thee in answer the words of John; for he somewhere said unto the Jews, "There cometh after me a man Who was before me, because He is before me: and I knew Him not, but He That sent me to baptize in water, He said unto me, Upon Whom thou seest the Spirit descending from heaven, and abiding upon Him, This is He That baptizeth in the Holy Ghost: and I saw, and bare witness, that This is the Son of God." Behold, therefore, while plainly calling Him a man, he says that He is prior to him, and was before him, in that He is first, evidently in His divine nature; according to what was plainly said by Himself to the Jewish populace, "Verily I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am."
Next, he says as well, that the Spirit also came down from heaven upon Him. Do they pretend that the Holy Ghost came down upon the Word of God while still abstract and incorporeal? and represent Him Who bestows the Spirit as made partaker of His own Spirit? Or rather is this their meaning, that having received the Spirit in His human nature, He in His divine nature baptizes in the Holy Ghost? For He is Himself singly, and alone, and verily the Son of God the Father, as the blessed Baptist, being taught of God, himself bare witness, saying, "And I saw, and bare witness that This is the Son of God!" 43 |41
Wouldst thou have also a third proof, in addition to what have already been given? "His fan," he says, "is in His hand, and He shall purge His floor, and gather His wheat into His stores, but the chaff He shall burn with fire unquenchable." For he compares those upon earth to ears of corn, or rather to the threshingfloor and the wheat upon it: for each one of us has grown like an ear of corn. And our Lord once, when speaking to the holy Apostles, made a similar comparison of our state: "The harvest indeed is great: but the labourers are few: pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send forth labourers into His harvest." We therefore, who are upon the earth, are called ears of corn and wheat, and the harvest. And this harvest belongs to God over all: for He is Lord of all. But behold! says the blessed Baptist, the threshing floor belongs to Christ as its owner; for as such He purges it, removing and separating the chaff from the wheat. For the wheat is the just, whose faith is established and assured: but |42 the chaff signifies those whose mind is weak, and their heart easy to be ensnared, and unsafe and timorous, and blown about by every wind. The wheat, then, he says, is stored up in the granary: is deemed worthy, that is, of safety at God's hand, and mercy, and protection and love: but the chaff, as useless matter, is consumed in the fire.
In every way, therefore, we may perceive that the Word of God, even when He was man, nevertheless continued to be one Son. 44 For He performs those works that belong to Deity, possessing the majesty and glory of the Godhead inseparable from Him. If so we believe, He will crown us with His grace: by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be glory and dominion with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever, Amen.45 |43
SERMON XI. The eleventh Sermon of the Commentary upon the Gospel of Luke by the holy Cyril, archbishop of Alexandria, upon the manifestation of our lord.
[From the Syriac MS. 12,165.]
3:21-23 46. And it came to pass, that when all the people were baptized, Jesus also was baptized: and as He was praying, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Ghost descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove. And there was a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son; in Thee I am well pleased. And Jesus Himself was beginning to be about thirty years old.
AGAIN come, that fixing our mind intently upon the Evangelic Scriptures, we may behold the beauty of the truth. Come let us direct the penetrating and accurate eyes of the mind unto the mystery of Christ; let us view with wonder the admirable skill of the divine economy: for so shall we see His glory. And thus to act is for our life: as He Himself assures us, when speaking unto God the Father in heaven, "Those things are life eternal: to know Thee Who alone art true; and Jesus Christ, Whom Thou hast sent." How therefore was He sent? and what was the manner of His coming unto us? For being by nature God That filleth all, how, as the blessed John the Evangelist said, "was He in the world," Himself being Lord? And how was He sent by the Father, when as God He is the Creator and Sustainer of all things? for all things were established by Him.
The wise John the Evangelist then teaches us, saying, "And the Word was made flesh." But perchance some one will say, 'What then? Having ceased to be the Word, did |44 He change into being flesh? Did He fall from His Majesty, having undergone a transformation unto something which previously He was not?' Not so, we say. Far from it. For by nature He is unchangeable and immutable. In saying, therefore, that the Word became flesh, the Evangelist means a man like unto us. For we also are often called flesh ourselves. For it is written, "And all flesh shall see the salvation of God," meaning thereby that every man shall see it. While therefore He immutably retains that "which He was, yet as having under this condition assumed our likeness, He is said to have been made flesh.
Behold Him, therefore, as a man, enduring with us the things that belong to man's estate, and fulfilling all righteousness, for the plan of salvation's sake. And this thou learnest from what the Evangelist says: "And it came to pass that when all the people were baptized, Jesus also was baptized, and prayed." Was He too then in need of holy baptism? But what benefit could accrue to Him from it? The Only-begotten Word of God is Holy of the Holy: so the Seraphim name Him in their praises: so every where the law names Him: and the company of the holy prophets accords with the writings of Moses. What is it that we gain by holy baptism? Plainly the remission of our sins. But in Jesus there was nought of this; "for He did no sin: neither was guile found "in His mouth," as the Scripture saith. "He was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sins, and made higher than the heavens," according to the words of the divine Paul.
But yes! perchance some one will say, who has been ill instructed in the faith, 'Was it then God the Word that was baptized? Was He in need of being made partaker of the Holy Ghost? Not at all. Therefore it is that we affirm, that the man who was of the seed of David, and united unto Him by conjunction 47, was baptized and received the Spirit.' The |45 Indivisible therefore is divided by you into two sous: and because He was baptized when, thirty years old, He was made holy, as you say, by being baptized. Was He therefore not holy until He arrived at His thirtieth year? Who will assent to you, when thus you corrupt the right and blameless faith? For "there is one Lord Jesus Christ," as it is written. But this we affirm: that He was not separate 48 from Him, and by Himself when baptized and made partaker of the Holy Ghost: for we know, both that He is God, and without stain, and Holy of the Holy: for we confess that "of His fulness have all we received." For the Holy Spirit indeed proceedeth from God the Father, but belongeth also to the Son. It is even often called the Spirit of Christ, though proceeding from God the Father. And to this Paul will testify, saying, at one time, "They that are in the flesh cannot please God: but ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be the Spirit of God dwelleth in you. But if any one have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." And again, "But because ye are sons, God hath sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Father, our Father." The Holy Spirit therefore proceedeth indeed as I said from God the Father, but His Only-begotten Word, as being both by nature and verily Son, and resplendent with the Father's dignities, ministereth It to the creation, and bestoweth It on those that are worthy. Yea verily He said, "All things that the Father hath are mine."
But let us retort upon those who pervert the right belief this question; 'How can He Who received the Spirit, if He be, according to your phrase, a man, and the Son separately and by Himself, baptize with the Holy Ghost, and Himself give the Holy Spirit to them who are baptized?' For to be able to impart the Spirit to men suiteth not any one whatsoever of things created, but, together with God's other attributes, is the distinct property of Almighty God alone. But He Who gave It was man: for the wise John said, "After me cometh a Man, Who was before me... He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire." As therefore it is unbefitting God the Word, |46 regarded as God the Word, to draw near unto holy baptism, and be made partaker of the Spirit, so in like manner it is altogether incredible, or rather impossible to believe that the ability to baptize men with the Holy Ghost, is the act of a mere man with nothing in Him superior to ourselves.
How then will the mystery be true? In that for our aid He assumed a kind of adaptation 49. The divine Word became man, even "He Who was in the form of God the Father, and thought it not robbery to be equal unto God," as most wise Paul says, "but took the form of a slave, being made in the likeness of men, and humbling Himself to poverty." Enquire therefore Who He was that was first in the likeness of God the Father, and could be regarded as on an equality with Him, but took the form of a slave, and became then a man, and besides this made Himself poor. Was it He of the seed of David, as they argue, Whom they specially regard separately and by Himself as the other Son, distinct from the Word of God the Father? If so, let them shew that He ever was on an equality with the Father. Let them shew how He assumed the form of a slave. Or what shall we say was that form of a slave? And how did He empty Himself? For what is poorer than human nature? He therefore Who is the exact image of God the Father, the likeness, and visible expression of His person, Who shines resplendent in equality unto Him, Who by right of nature is free, and the yoke of Whoso kingdom is put upon all creation,----He it is Who took the form of a slave, that is, became a man, and made Himself poor by consenting to endure these human things, sin only excepted.
But how then, they object, was He baptized, and received also the Spirit? To which we reply, that He had no need of holy baptism, being wholly pure and spotless, and holy of the holy. Nor had He need of the Holy Ghost: for the Spirit That proceedeth from God the Father is of Him, and equal to Him in substance. We must now therefore at length hear what is the explanation of the economy. God in his love to man provided for us a way of salvation and of life. For believing in the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and making this confession before many witnesses, we wash away all the filth |47 of sin, and are enriched by the communication of the Holy Spirit, and made partakers of the divine nature, and gain the grace of adoption. It was necessary therefore that the Word of the Father, when He humbled Himself unto emptiness, and deigned to assume our likeness, should become for our sakes the pattern and way of every good work. For it follows, that He Who in every thing is first, must in this also set the example. In order therefore that we may learn both the power itself of holy baptism, and how much we gain by approaching so great a grace, He commences the work Himself; and, having been baptized, prays that you, my beloved, may learn that never-ceasing prayer is a thing most fitting for those who have once been counted worthy of holy baptism.
And the Evangelist says that the heavens were opened, as having long been closed. For Christ said, "Forthwith shall ye see the heavens opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man." For both the flock above and that below being now made one, and one chief Shepherd appointed for all, the heavens were opened, and man upon earth brought near to the holy angels. And the Spirit also again came down as at a second commencement of our race: and upon Christ first, Who received it not so much for His own sake as for ours: for by Him and in Him are we enriched with all things. Most suitably therefore to the economy of grace does He endure with us the things of man's estate: for where otherwise shall we see Him emptied, Whose in His divine nature is the fulness? How became He poor as we are, if He were not conformed to our poverty? How did He empty Himself, if He refused to endure the measure of human littleness?
Having taken therefore Christ as our pattern, let us draw near to the grace of holy baptism, that so we may gain boldness to pray constantly, and lift up holy hands to God the Father, that He may open the heavens also unto us, and send down upon us too the Holy Ghost, to receive us as sons. For He spake unto Christ at the time of holy baptism, as though having by Him and in Him accepted man upon earth to the sonship, "This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased." For He Who is the Son by nature and in truth, and the Only-begotten, when He became like unto us, is specially |48 declared to be the Son of God, not as receiving this for Himself:----for He was and is, as I said, very Son:----but that He might ratify the glory unto us. For He has been made our firstfruits, and firstborn, and second Adam: for which reason it is said, that "in Him all things have become new:" for having put oil the oldness that was in Adam, we have gained the newness that is in Christ: by Whom and with Whom, to God the Father, be glory and dominion with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever, Amen. 50
[Selected footnotes moved to the end and renumbered. Almost all marginalia, any purely textual footnotes, most Greek or Syriac material has been omitted without notice]
1. a There can be little doubt that this passage does not belong to the Commentary, but as I have hitherto been unable to find it in S. Cyril's Collected Works, I have thought it best to retain it. Mai's next extract on v. 32. is from the tenth Book against Julian, Op. VI. 331.; the following on v. 37. is the thirteenth, chapter against the Anthropomorphites, VI. 380.; and the third extract on v. 42. is the Commentary upon Issachar's name, signifying "a reward," in the Glaphyra, I. 227. (Ed. Aub.) All these I have omitted. The remaining extracts, forming a continuous Commentary upon the hymns of the blessed Virgin and Zacharias, I have retained, since it is scarcely probable that S. Cyril entirely passed them over; and, though the homilies, as proved by the Syriac, commenced with the first verse of chap, ii., yet possibly he may have prefaced them by an Exposition of these hymns. Cramer's Catena, nevertheless, contains portions of several of these extracts anonymously. The proof from the Syriac that the homilies began with the second chapter is decisive. Of the nine MSS. in which more or less of this Commentary is preserved, eight constantly mention the number of the homily, which they quote either in part or entire: in one of these, N°. 12, 154., a MS. probably of the eighth century, a series of extracts occurs occupying forty pages, beginning with the first and ending with the hundred and eighteenth homily; and the numbering of this Codex is identical with that of the rest, wherever two or more of them contain the same passage. The Syriac numbering apparently is also identical with that of the Greek. For in my earliest authority, Cod. 12,158, transcribed, as the Copyist states, in the year of our Lord 588., the numbering of the quotations from S.Cyril is still identical with that of the other Codices. This MS. contains a translation of two treatises of Severus of Antioch against Julian, and is probably at least a century anterior to the Syriac version of S. Cyril; so that its agreement with it, both in this and more material points, is of considerable importance. Evidently S. Cyril's Commentary upon the beginning of the Gospel was much more brief than it became subsequently: for whereas the twenty-first homily carries us down to the end of the fifth chapter, those that follow average ten homilies each. In like manner the concluding chapters of St. Luke were passed over by him very rapidly. Finally, as the Syriac, from time to time, does not recognise some of the passages collected by Mai from the Catenae, it is worth notice, that of his four first extracts, not less than three have been discovered in the published works of S.Cyril, incomplete as Aubert's edition is.
2. b Referred by Corderius to Victor.
3. c "He means the Arians, who said the Son was indeed God, but nevertheless inferior to the Father: as Eusebius, who was an Arian writer, especially in his interpretation of the 78th Psalm." Mai.----This charge against Eusebius, the late Professor Lee has endeavoured to disprove in the preface to his translation of the Theophania, a Syriac version of which was discovered among the Nitrian MSS. His translation is, however, inaccurate to the last degree; and the treatise in question leaves no doubt that Eusebius was the precursor of Arian doctrines.
4. d Θεὸς καὶ ὑιός, God the Son; as Θεὸς καὶ πατήρ is used by S. Cyril for God the Father. In the more ancient Syriac MSS. the conjunction in these phrases is constantly retained, while in those of a later date the tendency is to omit it.
5. e Mai translates contrary to the Greek "Unigenitius Dei."----S. Cyril's reading Θεός, agrees as usual with the Vatican MS., and is also supported by many of the fathers, and by the Oriental versions.
6. f Eunomius taught, that the Father and Son are unequal, both in degree and kind, whence his followers were called ἀνόμοιοι. He flourished about A. D. 360, and was a disciple of Aetius. St. Athanasius often refers to him in his treatise against the Arians. For a fuller account of him, cf. Newman's Arians, c. iv. sect. 4.
7. g For a very full and accurate discussion of the sense in which our Lord is both μονογενής and πρωτότοκος, the reader may consult S. Cyril's eighth Paschal Homily.
8. h Mai more correctly perhaps reads τῆς ἀνίας κέντρον.
9. i The Peschito has also this reading, though manifestly wrong.
10. k The passage which follows occurs also in MS. 12, 154, with no variae lectiones: as does also the subsequent explanation of Is. viii. 3.
11. l The Syriac translator has here misinterpreted S. Cyril, who does not say that our Lord was free from the emotions natural to bodies, but κινήματος καὶ ῥοπῆς τῆς ἡμᾶς ἀποφερούσης ἐφ̕ ἁ μὴ θέμις, that is, from that corruption of our nature which suggests sin to us, and inclines us to seek it. (James i. 14.) S. Cyril's main argument here is used by him with great force in his treatise De Incarnat. Dom. c. xi., wherein he shews, that our Lord took the flesh holy and perfectly pure, "to convict sin of injustice, and to destroy the power of death. For as long as sin sentenced only the guilty to death, no interference with it was possible, seeing that it had justice on its side. But when it subjected to the same punishment Him Who was innocent, and guiltless, and worthy of crowns of honour and hymns of praise, being convicted of injustice, it was by necessary consequence stripped of its power."
12. m This reading is supported by several MSS., two Scholia, and S. Augustine; but is rejected by St. Paul, Heb. i. 6.
13. n Mai reads ἡ ἀλήθεια, 'the reality.'
14. o The Fathers constantly refer this name, Maher-shalal-hash-baz, to our Lord, and explain it of the overthrow of Satan. Another instance of S. Cyril's use of it will be found in his 17th Paschal Homily, as follows: The prophetess is the holy Virgin: and the name given to the child suiteth not man, but God: for, saith He, call His name. Spoil quickly: hastily plunder. For at His birth the heavenly and supernatural infant, while yet in swaddling bands and on His mother's bosom, because of His human nature, stripped forthwith Satan of his goods by His ineffable might as God: for the Magi came from the East to worship Him, &c.
15. p Several passages referred by Mai to this homily are not found in the Syriac, as was to be expected, the Catenists having made use not only of the Commentary, but also of S. Cyril's other works, especially the Julian books, besides the possibility of interpolations, and passages erroneously ascribed to him. The first omitted extract from B. is to shew that the shepherds typified the pastors of the Church, as also Christ the chief shepherd, Who came to seek the lost flock: while Bethlehem, the house of bread, His birthplace, is the Church, "where daily the mystical bread of life is sacrificed." The second passage (from what MS. is uncertain) gives a physical interpretation of the butter which the Emmanuel ate, unworthy of Cyril, and at variance with the spiritual interpretation of the prophecy given above. Thirdly, there are a series of extracts from I. taken chiefly from the Commentary on Isaiah. Conf. Vol. II. 134. 200. (Ed. Aub.) And, lastly, an extract from B., to the effect that probably it was an archangel who brought the message, accompanied by his usual attendants. The first passage is remarkable, both as speaking of a daily communion, and for its application of the word ἱερουργεῖται to the "mystical bread of life." The Fathers generally use this word in the same manner as St. Paul, Rom. xv. 16., for the discharge of any religious duty, and in this sense it will be found to occur more than once in the course of the Commentary. Other examples may be seen in Suicer's Thesaurus under ἱερουργέω, and the only instance he gives of its application to the Lord's supper is from Zonaras, a writer of the twelfth century. It occurs, however, in Philostorgii Hist. Eccl. ix. 4., and is there referred by Valesius to the Lord's supper, but this interpretation is far from certain. For the historian is speaking of the heretic Eunomius, who, he says, retired to a small estate situated on the seashore near Chalcedon, οὐδὲ ἱερουργίας ἐξ οὗ τῆς Κυζίκου μετέστη οὐ μὲν οὖν ἐς ὅσον ἐνεβίω χρόνον ἥψατο. This Valesius translates by "ne saera quidem mysteria unquam celebravit;" but it rather means, that "he entirely abstained from all the duties of his sacred office." In support of his rendering Valesius quotes from Eusebius' Life of Constantine, Lib. IV.... where, however, as Wernsdorf shews, by a comparison with other passages of Eusebius, that historian, in his usual rhetorical style, thus described the prayers for the safety of the Emperor, and the Church militant, which, as in our service, preceded the celebration of the Eucharist. The probability, therefore, is, that this extract is incorrectly referred to S. Cyril.
16. q The original Greek of both the third and fourth Sermons has been preserved in the Imperial Library at Paris; and that of the fourth only at Trinity College, Cambridge. The former has been printed by Aubert in his collected edition of S. Cyril's Works, Vol. V. part ii. p. 385., where the two Sermons are incorporated into one.
17. r From this it appears that these homilies were delivered extemporaneously, which accounts for a certain amount of repetition in them, especially of favorite texts.
18. s The feast of circumcision.
19. t I have not noticed the many verbal discrepancies between him and Aubert, as the Catenists naturally had to make many slight alterations in forming their extracts into a connected discourse.
20. u This passage, as far as "the plan of salvation," Mai for the present omits, but afterwards gives it in so different a form, and with such additions, that I think it better to append a separate translation. "Again He paid the half shekel to the collectors of the tribute, although not bound to pay, as being in very truth the Son: but He paid as being made under the law. For He must verily act fully according to the dispensation which He had undertaken for our sakes. And we shall find Him, moreover, even in the payment of the half shekel marked out as a Saviour and Redeemer (?). For the half shekel was a coin stamped with the royal image: and it was paid according to the law for two persons. Behold therefore again Christ represented in the half shekel. For being the image of the Father, the impress of His substance, the coin that came from heaven, He offered Himself as the ransom for the two people, the Jews, I mean, and the Gentiles." This fanciful style of interpretation seldom appears in the Syriac, and is equally rejected in the present case by Aubert's MS.
21. v This passage exists among the Syriac fragments, and is important in so far establishing the accuracy of Aubert's text, as it agrees with it in omitting an interpolation of the Catenist, found in Mai.
22. x So Justin Martyr's Dial. with Trypho. (p. 201. ed. F. Sylburgii, Heidelb. 1793.) "The ordinance of circumcision, which commanded infants to be circumcised on the eighth day only, was a type of the true circumcision from error and wickedness by means of the resurrection from the dead of our Lord Jesus Christ on the first day of the week. For the first day of the week, while remaining the first of all the days, is, nevertheless, in its relation to the whole circle of the week, called the eighth, and yet continues to be the first." So again, p. 288. "The ark, in which were eight persons, symbolizes by that number the eighth day, on which Christ arose from the dead."
23. y The next two or three paragraphs are not found in Aubert, but as they are in Mai's same MS. E, which contains most of the foregoing, and as it is possible that the Copyist of Aubert's MS. in reducing two Sermons into one, made large omissions to avoid the too great length, I have received them into the text.
24. z Mai's next extract is from the 15th book of the De Ador. Spir. l. 553 and is omitted.
25. a Aubert begins again here. The passage is also in the Aurea Catena, upon Luke ii. 24.
26. b A passage follows in Mai, either from E. or H., going over ground already traversed, and probably only a summary gathered from S. Cyril. It is valuable, nevertheless, as shewing how little idea the ancients had of the immaculate conception of the blessed Virgin Mary: for it testifies that all women, except the Virgin, (αἱ ἄλλαι γυναῖκες,) conceived in sin, (ἐν ἀνομίαις.)
27. c The text is now taken from the Tr. Coll. MS. B. Q. 7. apparently of the 12th century. It is a volume of sermons, and among them has one with the following superscription: Κυρίλλου ἀρχεπισκπ. ἀλεξανδρείας, εἰς τὸν δίκαιον συμεὼν, καὶ ἐκ τῆς ἑρμηνείας τοῦ κατὰ λουκᾶν εὐαγγελίου· κε̃ εὐλο +
I owe my transcript to a friend, himself engaged in collecting and editing the Greek remains of this Father.
28. d Mai, whose extracts begin again at this clause, has admitted at the end of the first sentence an interpolation so curious, that I append it: "... and offered what is appointed in the law, a pair of turtles and two young pigeons, the type of temperance and gentleness, as well as also of each kind of life, marriage, namely, and celibacy, of both of which He is the Law-giver. For you may say that the active and more spiritual, who have taken upon themselves the single life, are the pigeons: but that those who occupy themselves with a family and other domestic cares are the turtle doves." As in the unworthy interpretation of the butter, referred to in the note at the end of the nd Sermon, it is impossible to say which MS. contains this interpolation, as the letters put by Mai at the commencement of each extract merely mean that those MSS. severally contain more or less of what follows. Immediately afterwards he has another passage, the false philosophy and bad Greek of which confirm its rejection by the two trustworthy MSS. It is to the effect, that Symeon was to be set free from the leaping-ground of life: for life is a ransom and prison. Upon the offering of the turtle doves, the reader may compare S. Cyril's explanation in the De Ador. Spir. Ed. Aub. I. 531. which agrees with the present Commentary.
29. Also in the Syriac. MS. 12,154.
30. g The doxology is taken from Aubert, and is identically the same with that which concludes every homily in the Syriac.
31. h Mai does not contain the above explanation of the sword that was to pierce the holy Virgin, but in its place has the following adaptation of it: "But to speak more briefly, we affirm that the sword here signifies the temptation like a knife, or even the passion itself brought upon the Immanuel by the madness of the Jews. And so the just Symeon seems to understand, and even to say. For the holy Virgin was all but killed by a sword in seeing Him That was born of her in the flesh crucified. Such also was that said by Zechariah (xiii. 7.): Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, that is, forthwith let the saving passion be enacted, and let the time of the shewing forth of good things come.To this Mai appends the following note: In codice B. f. 31. post σάρκα αδδιτυρ, καὶ ἀμφιγνοοῦσα εἴ γε καὶ θανάτου κρατήσει θανατωθείς: quam particulam de B. Virginis dubitatione circa futuram filii sui resurrectionem cum nec ceteri codices in Cyrillo habeant, nec pietas Christiana admittat, haud immerito praetermisimus: quamquam eadem legitur sub finem predictae homiliae in hypapantem," &c. The danger of such a method of treating MS. authority is shewn by the additional authority of the Tr. Cod., which completely agrees with Aubert, some slight verbal differences excepted.
32. From the Syriac: Ms. 12,151.
33. i That is, "the human soul:" for our Lord, being perfect man, had a human soul as well as a fleshly body, as we are taught in the Athanasian Creed, in opposition to the Apollinarian heresy "Of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting." And this human soul was capable of increasing in wisdom. This extract apparently is collected from what precedes.
34. l The style of the short extract that follows is entirely unlike Cyril's. Mai says, that the Catenae ascribe it to Origen as well as Cyril.
35. m Mai's next extract upon v. 52. may serve as an instance of the manner in which the Catenists joined with the utmost neatness passages from various works. It commences with S. Cyril's Commentary on John i. 14, Op. iv. 96: after which there follow a few lines, which may possibly be from the Commentary on Luke: and finally, we have the 28th assertion of the Thesaurus, Op. v. pt. i. 253. The doctrine of these extracts is nearly identical, all affirming that our Lord's increase in wisdom and stature and grace cannot be said of Him considered as the Word, but either must be understood of the increase of admiration on the part of all who beheld Him, and daily witnessed a fuller manifestation of His glory: or, as the two latter extracts teach, it refers to the human nature. As I have not been able to find the second extract in S. Cyril's collected works,, I give it entire: "And observe, that that which increases in any thing is different from that in which it is said to increase. If therefore He is said to increase in wisdom, it was not the wisdom that increased, but the human nature that increased in it. For as the Godhead day by day unveiled and manifested Itself in Him, He ever became an object of greater admiration to those that saw Him."
36. n This fragment is referred by two of Mai's MSS. to Chrysostom as well as Cyril, and by Corderius to Cyril and Basil.
37. o The name Joshua, as a corruption of the Jews, (certainly after the time of Josephus, but prior to Jerome, who once mentions it; cf. Com. in Os. I. 1.,) ought to be everywhere rejected; but the ΝΑΓΗ of the LXX. is an error of the copyists for ΝΑΓΝ. The Masorites have twice punctuated the name correctly in the case of Jeshua, the son of Jozadak. (Ez. ii. 2., iii. 2.)
38. p The style of this comment, so unlike Cyril's, and the extraordinary conclusion, both suggest caution in attributing to him the latter part of this extract.
39. q The next extract is from the Commentary on Isaiah, Op. ii. 506, and is therefore omitted.
40. r S. Cyril, whose habit it is to dwell at great length upon practical subjects, as will be seen afterwards in the Sermons from the Syriac, has exhausted two homilies upon John Baptist's lessons; but as they contained no doctrinal statements, nothing has been preserved in the Syriac, and by the Catenists only one extract: and even this in Cramer is referred to Origen.
41. s Although the preposition ἐν is occasionally used for the instrument or means, yet this is only admissible where the sense can still be traced back to its proper signification of local presence. And so here: "to baptize," is literally in Syriac "to make to stand," by a metaphor evidently drawn from what was actually the practice of John and the early Church: and "to be baptized" is the simple verb "to stand." Thus v. 21. is literally; "And it came to pass, when all the people stood, that Jesus also stood." And so the passage above is exactly; "I indeed make you to stand in "water;" "He shall make you to stand in the Holy Ghost," &c. And I have therefore in the translation retained "in," as most closely representing the Syriac.
42. t The Catenist in Mai has inserted in a parenthesis a curious observation, namely, that by the σφαιρωτήρ is meant "the tip of the shoe, ending in a point, such as the barbarians wear." The word, however, used by the Evangelist is ἱμάς simply a "thong:" and there can be no doubt that in the Septuagint, whence Cyril's word is taken, Gen. xiv. 23, the right reading is σφυρωτήρ, "a thong for the ankles," whereas σφαιρωτήρ, from σφαῖρα, "a ball," is the word for the pomegranates, used in the adorning of the golden candlestick. (Ex. xxv.31.)
43. v In the above defence of catholic doctrine against the heresies of Nestorius, S. Cyril must be taken as meaning, that the natural result of Nestorius' teaching is to divide the one Christ into two sons, and not that he expressly so taught. For in his seventeenth quaternion he says, "God the Word, even before the incarnation, was Son, and God, and coexistent with the Father: but in these last times assumed the form of the slave. But while, before He was Son, and so called; after the assumption of the flesh, He cannot be called Son separately, lest we should infer two Sons." The doctrine of Nestorius, as briefly sketched by the Council of Ephesus, was, that "He Who for our sakes became man, must not be called God." Hence his objection to the title θεοτόκος applied to the Virgin, and so valued by the fathers as expressing the inseparable union of the Divine and human natures in the one person of Christ. Hence his protest against worshipping Christ absolutely. (Quat. xvi.): and such expressions as, [Greek] (Quat. XV. Conf. Harduin. Concil. I. 1414, 1442.) In drawing these subtle conclusions, Nestorius (Ep. ad Cyrillum Hard. Conc. I, 1281.) also made that distinction between the Son of David and God the Word, so often attacked by Cyril in this Commentary: "God the Word, he says, was not the Son of David;" and as Cyril would fairly judge of his doctrine by this letter addressed to himself, no wonder he attributes to him, both here and elsewhere, a conclusion which follows apparently so directly from these words. In his seventeenth quaternion occurs probably Nestorius' most exact; statement, and from it equally S. Cyril would draw this conclusion, [Greek].
44. u In these words S. Cyril most accurately sums up the Catholic doctrine of the inseparable union of the two natures in Christ; which union Nestorius denied, anathematizing all who said that the Emmanuel was very God, and teaching instead that the Emmanuel was God indwelling in our nature. Si quis Eum Qui est Emmanuel, Deum verum esse dixerit, et non potius nobiscum Deum; hoc est, inhabitasse earn quae secundum nosmet est naturam, per id quod unitus est nostrae, quam de Maria Virgine suscepit; anathema sit. (An. I. Hard. Con. I. 1298.) To which it might well be replied, that the Emmanuel is "God with us," God and man, not God in man. A similar doctrine is contained in his fifteenth quaternion, as quoted above.
45. x The most important passages in the above homily have been preserved by the Catenists, but with the connection and course of the argument more than once broken. They ascribe, however, to S. Cyril, two short passages at the end (cf. Mai, p. 146.) not belonging to the Commentary; and there are some slight verbal differences in the intervening extract. On the other hand, two passages, preserved by-Thomas Aquinas, are both contained in the Syriac.
46. y It is to be observed, that S. Cyril often omits several verses in his Commentary. In one of Mai's MSS. some one has written the following anonymous note upon the omission here of vv. 18-20.: ὁ μακάριος Κύριλλος τοῦ Ἡρώδου ἐν τῇ ἑμηνείᾳ οὐκ ἐπεμνήσθη: and proceeds to give a reason for it.
47. z By [Syriac] I imagine the translator means Nestorius' favourite word συνάφεια, as he uses it for instance in his xviith quaternion: "Therefore is it, with respect, namely, to the dignity of the Sonship, that God the Word is also called Christ, inasmuch as He has a perpetual conjunction with the Christ."----Hard. Con. I. 1414. Conf. also note in page 41.
48. a This refers to the doctrine of Nestorius, that He Who was baptized was the man Christ, regarded in His human nature, and distinguished from God the Word.
49. b Economy.
50. c As frequently is the case, the short extracts in Mai at the end are not found in the Syriac, probably either from being taken from S. Cyril's other works, or erroneously ascribed to him. The first (from B.) contradicts the doctrine maintained throughout this Commentary, viz. that our Lord submitted to baptism as the pattern and type of humanity, and refers His baptism to His human nature. But Christ's human nature needed no baptism, as having no stain of sin. The second (from E. and F.) is a refutation of Paul of Samosata, drawn from the Evangelist's words, that "Jesus was be-ginning to be about thirty years old," and shewing that though He had a beginning as man, as God He had no beginning. And the last is a reproof addressed to those who justified the delay of holy baptism by our Lord's example, and which being referred to S. Cyril by four MSS. (A. E. F. H.), as well as for its own sake, I append entire; 'Thus great and beyond expectation is the harm that is done by deferring the grace that is by baptism for a long and unseasonable time: chiefly because no one can look forward with certainty to the accomplishment of his plans, and also because, though his purpose arrive at its fulfilment, he is sanctified indeed, but receives only the forgiveness of his past transgressions, while his talent he brings back to his Lord bare, having had no time to gain by trading any thing to add thereunto.'
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Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke (1859) Sermons 12-25. (Luke 4:1-6:17) pp. 49-101.
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke (1859) Sermons 12-25. (Luke 4:1-6:17) pp. 49-101.
Sermon 12.
Fragments from Sermon 21.
Fragments from Sermon 22.
Fragments from Sermon 23.
Fragments from Sermon 25.
SERMON XII. The twelfth sermon of the commentary upon the Gospel of Luke, by S. Cyril, upon the fast of our Lord in the flesh.
[From the Syriac, Ms. 14,727.]
4:1-2. But Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost, returned from the Jordan, and continued in the Spirit in the wilderness forty days, being tempted of the Devil. And he ate nothing during those days; and when they were accomplished He hungered.
THE blessed prophets, when speaking of the Only-begotten Word of God,----of Him Who is equal unto God in glory, and the sharer of His throne, and radiant in perfect equality unto Him,----lead us to the persuasion that He was manifested as a Saviour and Deliverer for those upon earth, by saying, "Arise, O Lord, help me." He arose therefore and helped, having taken the form of a slave, and being made in the likeness of men: for so did He as one of us set Himself as an avenger in our stead, against that murderous and rebellious serpent, who had brought sin upon us, and thereby had caused corruption and death to reign over the dwellers upon earth, that we by His means, and in Him, might gain the victory, whereas of old we were vanquished, and fallen in Adam.
Come therefore and let us praise the Lord, and sing psalms unto God our Saviour: let us trample Satan under foot; let us raise the shout of victory over him now he is thrown and fallen: let us exult over the crafty reptile, caught in an inextricable snare: let us too say of him in the words of the prophet Jeremiah, "How is the hammer of all the earth broken and beaten small! Thou art found and hast been taken, because thou stoodest against the Lord." For of old, that is before the time of the advent of Christ the Saviour of all, the universal enemy had somewhat grand and terrible notions |50 about himself: for he boastfully exulted over the infirmity of the inhabitants of the earth, saying, "I will hold the world in my hand as a nest, and as eggs that are left I will take it up: and no one shall escape from me or speak against me." And in very truth there was no one of those upon earth who could rise up against his power; but the Son rose up against him, and contended with him, having been made like unto us. And therefore, as I said, human nature, as victorious in Him, wins the crown. And this in old time the Son Himself proclaimed, where by one of the holy prophets He thus addresses Satan; "Behold, I am against thee, O corrupting mountain, that corruptest the whole earth."
Come therefore and let us see what the blessed Evangelist says, when Christ was now going to battle in our behalf with him who corrupted the whole earth. "But Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost, returned from the Jordan." Here behold, I pray, man's nature anointed with the grace of the Holy Ghost in Christ as the firstfruits, and crowned with the highest honours. For of old indeed the God of all promised, saying, "it shall come to pass in those days, that I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh." And the promise is fulfilled for us in Christ first. And whereas of those in old time who without restraint gave way to fleshly lust, God somewhere said, "My Spirit shall not dwell in these men, because they are flesh:" now because all things have become new in Christ, and we are enriched with the regeneration that is by water and Spirit;----for no longer are we children of flesh and blood, but rather call God our Father;----therefore it is, and very justly, that as being now in honour, and possessing the glorious privilege of adoption, we have been made partakers of the divine nature by the communication of the Holy Ghost. But He Who is the Firstborn among us, when He became so among many brethren, and yielded Himself to emptiness, was the first to receive the Spirit, although Himself the Giver of the Spirit, that this dignity, and the grace of fellowship with the Holy Ghost might reach us by His means. Something like this Paul also teaches us, where speaking both of Him and us, he says, "For both He that sanctifieth, and they that are sanctified, are all of One: for which reason He is not ashamed to call them His brethren, saying, I will declare Thy name to My |51 brethren." For as being in no degree ashamed to call us brethren, whose likeness He took, therefore, having transferred to Himself our poverty, He is sanctified with us, although Himself the Sanctifier of all creation; that thou mightest not see Him refusing the measure of human nature, Who consented for the salvation and life of all to become man.
When therefore the wise Evangelist says of Him, "But Jesus being full of the Spirit returned from the Jordan," be not offended, nor err from the mark in thy inward thoughts, and wander from the doctrine of the truth, as to the way and manner in which the Word, Who is God, was sanctified: but rather understand the wisdom of the economy, by reason of which also He is the object of our admiration. For He was made flesh and became man, not to avoid whatever belongs to man's estate, and despise our poverty, but that we might be enriched with what is His, by His having been made like unto us in every particular, sin only excepted. He is sanctified therefore as man, but sanctifies as God: for being by nature God, He was made man.
"He was led therefore, it says, in the Spirit in the wilderness forty days, being tempted of the devil." What therefore is the meaning of the word led? It signifies not so much that He was conducted thither, as that He dwelt and continued there. For we are ourselves also accustomed to say of any one who lives religiously, So and so, whoever it may be, is a well-conducted 1 person. And we give the title of paedagogue, not to signify, according to the literal interpretation, that they actually lead and conduct boys, but that they take care of them, and well and laudably train them, educating and teaching them to conduct themselves with propriety.
He dwelt therefore in the wilderness in the Spirit, that is spiritually; for He fasted, granting no food whatsoever to the necessities of the body. But to this I imagine some one may immediately object; 'And what harm then did it do Jesus to be constantly dwelling in cities? And in what way could it benefit Him to choose to inhabit the wilderness? For there is |52 no good thing of which He is in want. And why too did He also last? What necessity was there for Him to labour, Who knows not what it is to feel the rising of any depraved desire? For we adopt the practice of fasting as a very useful expedient, by which to mortify pleasures, and buffet the law of sin that is in our members, and extirpate those emotions which lead on to fleshly lust. But what need had Christ of fasting? For He it is by Whom the Father slays the sin in the flesh. And knowing this, the divine Paul wrote, "For as to the powerlessness of the law, by reason of its weakness because of the flesh, God having sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and because of sin, condemned the sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law may be fulfilled in us, who walk not in the flesh, but in the Spirit." He therefore, who even in us miserable beings mortifies the motions of the flesh, and has abolished sin, what fasting could He need in ought that concerns Himself? He is holy: undefiled by nature: wholly pure, and without blemish. He cannot experience even the shadow of a change. Why therefore did He make His abode in the wilderness, and fast, and endure, being tempted?' The type has regard to us, my beloved: He sets before us His acts as our example, and establishes a model of the better and more admirable mode of life practised among us, I mean, that of the holy monks. For whence was it possible for men on earth to know that the habit of dwelling in deserts was useful for them, and highly advantageous for salvation? For they retire from waves and storms as it were; from the utter turmoil, and vain distractions of this world, and so to speak like the blessed Joseph, they strip off and give back to the world all that belongs to it. And something like this the wise Paul too says of those who are wont so to live. "But those who are Jesus Christ's have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts." And he shews to those who choose this mode of life that abstinence is necessary, of which the fruit is fasting and the power of endurance, and of abstaining from or taking but little food. For so will Satan, when he tempts. be overcome. |53
But observe this especially: that he was first baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit, and withdrew into the wilderness, and made abstinence, that is, fasting, as it were His armour; and being thus equipped, when Satan drew near, and He had overcome him, He has so set before us Himself as our pattern. Thou therefore too must first put on the armour of God, and the shield of faith, and the helmet of salvation. Thou too must first be clothed with power from on high, must be made, that is, partaker of the Holy Ghost by means of precious baptism, and then mayest thou undertake to lead the life well beloved and honourable with God: then with spiritual courage thou shalt take for thy habitation the deserts: then shalt thou keep holy fast, and mortify pleasures, and vanquish Satan when he tempts. In Christ therefore have we gained all things 2.
[From Mai.] Lo! He appears among the combatants, Who as God bestows the prize: among those who wear the chaplet of victory is He Who crowns the heads of the saints. Let us behold therefore the skilfulncss of His wrestlings; how He overthrows the devil's wickedness. When forty days had been spent in fasting, "He afterwards hungered." But He it is Who gives food to the hungry, and is Himself the bread that came down from heaven, and gives life to the world, as being That whereby all things consist. But because, on the other hand, it was necessary that He Who refused not our poverty should withdraw from nothing whatsoever that belongs to man's condition, He consented for His flesh to require its natural supplies; and hence the words, "He hungered." It was not however till He had fasted sufficiently, and by His Godlike power had kept His flesh unwasted, though abstaining from meat and drink, that scarcely at length He permitted it to feel its natural sensations: for it says, that He hungered. And for what reason? That skilfully by means of the two 3, He Who is at once God and Man, might be recognised as such in one and the same person, both as superior to us in His divine nature, and in His human nature as our equal. |54
4:3. And the devil said unto him.
Then the devil draweth near to tempt Him; expecting that the feeling of hunger would aid him in his innate wickedness: for oftentimes he prevails over us by taking our infirmities to aid his plots and enterprizes. He thought that He would readily jump at the wish of seeing bread ready for His use: and therefore he said, "If Thou be the Son of God, bid this stone become bread." He approaches Him therefore as an ordinary man, and as one of the saints: yet he had a suspicion, that possibly He might be the Christ. In what way then did he wish to learn this? He considered, that to change the nature of any thing into that which it was not, would be the act and deed of a divine power: for it is God Who makes these things and transforms them: if therefore, says he, this be done, certainly He it is Who is looked for as the subverter of my power: but if He refuse to work this change, I have to do with a man, and cast away my fear, and am delivered from my danger. And therefore it was that Christ, knowing the monster's artifice, neither made the change, nor said that He was either unable or unwilling to make it, but rather shakes him off as importunate and officious, saying that "man shall not live by bread alone;" by which He means, that if God grant a man the power, he can subsist without eating, and live as Moses and Elias, who by the Word of the Lord passed forty days without taking food. If therefore it is possible to live without bread, why should I make the stone bread? But He purposely does not say, I cannot, that He may not deny His own power: nor does He say, I can; lest the other, knowing that He is God, to Whom alone such things are possible, should depart from Him.
And observe, I pray, how the nature of man in Christ casts off the faults of Adam's gluttony: by eating we were conquered in Adam, by abstinence we conquered in Christ.
By the food that springeth up from the earth our earthly body is supported, and seeks for its sustenance that which is congenerate with it: but the rational soul is nourished unto |55 spiritual healthiness by the Word of God. For the food that the earth supplies nourishes the body that is akin to it: but that from above and from heaven strengthens the spirit. The food of the soul is the Word that cometh from God, even the spiritual bread which strengtheneth man's heart, according to what is sung in the Book of Psalms. And such also we affirm to be the nature of the food of the holy angels.
4:5. He shewed Him all the kingdoms of the world.
But O thou malignant, and wicked, and accursed being, how didst thou dare to shew the Lord all the kingdoms of the whole creation, and say, "All these are mine? Now therefore if Thou wilt fall down and worship me, I will give them Thee." How dost thou promise that which is not thine? Who made thee heir of God's kingdom? Who made thee lord of all under heaven? Thou hast seized these things by fraud. Restore them therefore to the incarnate Son, the Lord of all. Hear what the prophet Isaiah says respecting thee; "Hath it been prepared for thee also to reign? a deep gulf, fire, and brimstone, and wood laid in order; the anger of the Lord as a gulf burning with brimstone." How then dost thou, whose lot is the inextinguishable flame, promise to the King of all that which is His own? Didst thou think to have Him as thy worshipper at Whom all things tremble, while the Seraphim, and all the angelical powers hymn His glory? It is written, "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve 4." Seasonably He made mention of this commandment, striking as it were his very heart. For before His advent, Satan had deceived all under heaven, and was himself everywhere worshipped: but the law of God, ejecting him from the dominion he had usurped by fraud, has commanded men to worship Him only Who by nature and in truth is God, and to offer service to Him alone. |56
4:9. If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down hence.
The third temptation which the devil employs is that of vain-glory, saying, "Cast Thyself down hence," as a proof of Thy divinity. But neither did he make Him fall by means of vanity, but himself in this also shot wide of the mark. For He answers, "It is said, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." For God grants not His aid to those who tempt Him, but to those who believe in Him: nor ought we, because He deigns us mercy, therefore to make a vain display. Moreover, Christ never gave a sign to those who tempted Him: "for a wicked generation, He saith, seeketh after a sign, and a sign shall not be given it." And let Satan now when tempting hear the same. Wo therefore won the victory in Christ: and he who conquered in Adam went away ashamed, that we might have him under our feet; for Christ as Conqueror handed on to us also the power to conquer, saying, "Behold I have granted you to tread upon serpents, and scorpions, and all the power of the enemy."
4:10. For it is written, that He shall give His angels charge concerning Thee to guard Thee.
But see how maliciously he endeavours by the use of the Scriptures to humble the glory of the Lord, as if in need of angelic aid; and as though it would stumble, did not the angels help it. For the application of the Psalm refers not to Christ, nor does the Sovereign need angels. As for the pinnacle, it was a very lofty building, erected at the side of the temple.
5 Some however wrongly refer the Psalm to the person of the Lord, and taking the versos together thus read; "Because Thou, O Lord, art my hope, Thou has made the Most High Thy refuge." They say therefore that the Lord had as His refuge the Most High, even the Father Who is in heaven. And their pretext for such a way of understanding it is, that Satan so took the verses, saying, "If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down: for it is written, that He shall give His |57 angels charge concerning Thee." For Satan being false and a deceiver, applies what is said of us to the person of Christ the Saviour of us all. But we do not understand it in Satan's fashion; though if the Arians have so understood it, there is no cause for astonishment: for they follow their own father, "who is a liar, and the truth is not in him," according to the Saviour's words. For if the truth be as they say, and we have made Christ our help, and He has the Father for His refuge, then have we fled to one Who Himself has need of aid, and call Him our Saviour Who is saved by another. This cannot be: Heaven forbid. We say therefore to those who are wont so to think, Ye tell us another of your errors: ye are travelling out of the royal and straight path: ye are falling into thorns and pitfalls: ye have wandered from the truth. The Son is in all things equal to the Father: the mark and impress of His substance: the Most High, as also the Father is Most High.
Satan then made use of these verses, as though the Saviour were a common man. For being entirely darkness, and having his mind blinded, he understood not the force of what was said, that the psalm is spoken in the person of every just man who is aided by the Highest, even the God of heaven. And besides this, He knew not that the Word being God, was made man, and was Himself now being tempted in accordance with the plan of salvation. He therefore, as I said, supposed the words were spoken as of a common man, or oven as of one of the holy prophets. But it is monstrous for us, who accurately know the mystery, and believe that He is God and the Son of God, and that for our sakes He became man like unto us, to imagine that the verses were spoken of Him. To say then, "Thou hast made the Most High thy refuge," befits not the person of the Saviour. For He is Himself the Most High: the refuge of all: the hope of all: the all-powerful right hand of the Father: and whosoever has made Him his defence, no evil shall approach him. For He shall command the angels, who are ministering spirits, to guard the just. For just as our fathers in the flesh, when they see the path rough and impassable, catch up their infants in their hands, lest perchance their tender feet should be hurt, being as yet unable to walk over the hard road, so also the rational powers do not permit those, who are as yet unable to labour, and whose understanding is |58 still childish, to toil beyond their strength, but snatch them out of every temptation.
4:14. And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit unto Galilee.
Having left the habitations of cities, He dwelt in deserts: there He fasted, being tempted of Satan; there He gained victory in our behalf: there He crushed the heads of the dragons: there, as the blessed David says, "The swords of the enemy utterly failed, and cities were destroyed," that is, those who were like towers and cities. Having therefore mightily prevailed over Satan, and having crowned in His own person man's nature with the spoils won by the victory over him, He returned unto Galilee in the power of the Spirit, both exercising might and authority, and performing very many miracles, and occasioning great astonishment. And He wrought miracles, not as having deceived the grace of the Spirit from without and as a gift, like the company of the saints, but rather as being by nature and in truth the Son of God the Father, and taking whatever is His as His own proper inheritance. For He even said unto Him, "That all that is Mine is Thine, and Thine Mine, and I am glorified in them." He is glorified therefore by exercising as His own proper might and power that of the consubstantial Spirit.
4:16. And He came to Nazareth: and entered into the synagogue.
Since therefore it was now necessary that He should manifest Himself to the Israelites, and that the mystery of His incarnation should now shine forth to those who knew Him not, and inasmuch as He was now anointed of God the Father for the salvation of the world, He very wisely orders this also, [viz. that His fame should now spread abroad.] And this favour He grants first to the people of Nazareth, because, humanly speaking, He had been brought up among them. Having entered, therefore, the synagogue, He takes the book to read: and having opened it, selected a passage in the prophets, which declares the mystery concerning Him. And by these words He most plainly Himself tells us by the voice of the prophet, that He both would be made man, and come to save the world. For we affirm, that the Son was anointed in no other way than by having become according to the flesh |59 such as we are, and taken our nature. For being at once God and man, He both gives the Spirit to the creation in His divine nature, and receives it from God the Father in His human nature; while it is He Who sanctifies the whole creation, both as having shone forth from the Holy Father, and as bestowing the Spirit, Which He Himself pours 6 forth, both upon the powers above as That Which is His own, and upon those moreover who recognised His appearing.
4:18. The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me; therefore He hath anointed Me: He hath sent Me to preach the Gospel to the poor.
He plainly shews by these words that He took upon Him the humiliation and submission to the emptying (of His glory), and both the very name of Christ and the reality for our sakes: for the Spirit, He says, which by nature is in Me by the sameness of Our substance and deity, also descended upon Me from without. And so also in the Jordan It came upon Me in the form of a dove, not because It was not in Me, but for the reason for which He anointed Me. And what was the reason for which He chose to be anointed? It was our being destitute of the Spirit by that denunciation of old, "My Spirit shall not abide in these men, because they are flesh." |60
These words the incarnate Word of God speaks: for being very God of very God the Father, and having become for our sakes man without undergoing change, with us He is anointed with the oil of gladness, the Spirit having descended upon Him at the Jordan in the form of a dove. For in old time both kings and priests were anointed symbolically, gaining thereby a certain measure of sanctification: but He Who for our sakes became incarnate, was anointed with the spiritual oil of sanctification, and the actual descent of the Spirit, receiving It not for Himself, but for us. For inasmuch as the Spirit had taken its flight, and not made His abode in us because of our being flesh, the earth was full of grief, being deprived of the participation of God.
And He proclaimed also deliverance to captives, which also He accomplished by having bound the strong one, Satan, who in tyrant fashion lorded it over our race, and having torn away from Him us his goods.
As the words "He anointed Me" befit the manhood: for it is not the divine nature which is anointed, but that which is akin to us: so also the words "He sent Me" are to be referred to that which is human.
Those also whose heart was of old obscured by the darkness of the devil, He has illuminated by rising as some Sun of Righteousness, and making them the children no longer of night and darkness, but of light and day, according to Paul's word, And those who were blind,-----for the Apostate had blinded their hearts,----have recovered their sight, and acknowledged the truth; and, as Isaiah says, "Their darkness has become light:" that is, the ignorant have become wise: those that once were in error, have known the paths of righteousness. And the Father also says somewhere unto the Son Himself, "I have given Thee for a covenant of kindred, for a light of the Gentiles, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring out the prisoners from their bonds, and from the guard-house those that sit in darkness." For the Only-begotten came into this world and gave a new covenant to His kindred, the Israelites, of whom He was sprung according to the flesh, even the covenant long before announced by the voice of the prophets. But the divine and heavenly light shone also upon the Gentiles: and He went and preached to the spirits in |61 Hades, and showed Himself to those who were shut up in the guard-house, and freed all from their bonds and violence. And how do not these things plainly prove that Christ is both God, and of God by nature?
And what means the sending away the broken in freedom? It is the letting those go free whom Satan had broken by the rod of spiritual violence. And what means the preaching the acceptable year of the Lord? It signifies the joyful tidings of His own advent, that the time of the Lord, even the Son, had arrived. For that was the acceptable year in which Christ was crucified in our behalf, because we then were made acceptable unto God the Father, as the fruit borne by Him. Wherefore He said, "When I am lifted up from the earth, I shall draw all men unto Myself." And verily He returned to life the third day, having trampled upon the power of death: after which He said to His disciples, "All power has been given Me, &c." That too is in every respect an acceptable year in which, being received into His family, we were admitted unto Him, having washed away sin by holy baptism, and been made partakers of His divine nature by the communion of the Holy Ghost. That too is an acceptable year, in which He manifested His glory by ineffable miracles: for with joy have we accepted the season of His salvation, which also the very wise Paul referred to, saying, "Behold, now is the acceptable time, behold now is the day of salvation:" the day, when the poor who erewhile were sick by the absence of every blessing, having no hope and being without God in the world, such as were the gentiles, were made rich by faith in Him, gaining the divine and heavenly treasure of the Gospel message of salvation; by which they have been made partakers of the kingdom of heaven, copartners with the saints, and heirs of blessings such as neither the mind can conceive nor language tell. "For eye, it saith, hath not seen, and car hath not heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things that God hath prepared for them that love Him." Though it may also be true, that the text here speaks of the abundant supply of graces bestowed by Christ upon the poor in spirit,
But by the bruised in heart, He means, those who have a weak and yielding mind, unable to resist the attacks of their |62 passions, and so carried along by them, as to seem to be captives: to these He promises both healing and forgiveness.
And to those who are blind, He gives the recovering of sight. For those who serve the creature instead of the Creator, "and say to the wood, Thou art my father, and to the stone, Thou hast begotten me," without recognising Him Who is by nature and in truth God, how can they be ought else than blind, seeing they have a heart devoid of the light that is divine and spiritual? And on these the Father bestows the light of the true knowledge of God: for they are called through faith, and acknowledge Him, or rather are acknowledged of Him, and whereas they were children of night and darkness, they have been made children of light. For the day has shone upon them, and the sun of righteousness has arisen, and the bright morning star has dawned.
There is no objection, however, to any one's referring all these declarations to the Israelites. For they were poor, and crushed in heart, and, so to speak, prisoners, and in darkness. "For there was not upon earth that was doing good, not even one. But all had turned aside, together they had become unprofitable." But Christ came, preaching to the Israelites before all others, the glories of His advent. And like to their maladies were those of the Gentiles; but they have been redeemed by Him, having been enriched with His wisdom, and endowed with understanding, and no longer is their mind weak and broken, but healthy and strong, and ready to receive and practise every good and saving work. For in their error they had need of wisdom and understanding, who in their great folly worshipped the creature instead of the Creator, and inscribed stocks and stones with the name of Gods. But those who long ago lived in gloom and darkness, because they knew not Christ, now acknowledge Him as their God.
These words having been read to the assembled people, He drew upon Himself the eyes of all, wondering perhaps how He knew letters Who had not learnt. For it was the wont of the Israelites to say, that the prophecies concerning Christ were fullilled, either in the persons of some of their more glorious kings, or, at all events, in the holy prophets. For not correctly understanding what was written of Him, they missed the |63 true direction, and travelled on another path. But that they might not again thus misinterpret the present prophecy, He carefully guards against error by saying, "This day is this prophecy fulfilled in your ears," expressly setting Himself before them in these words, as the person spoken of in the prophecy. For it was He Who preached the kingdom of heaven to the heathen, who were poor, having nothing, neither God, nor law, nor prophets; or rather, He preached it unto all who were destitute of spiritual riches: the captives He set free, having overthrown the apostate tyrant Satan, and Himself shed the divine and spiritual light on those whose heart was darkened; for which reason He said, "I am come a light into this world:" it was He Who unbound the chains of sin from those whose heart was crushed thereby: Who clearly shewed that there is a life to come, and denounced the just judgment. Finally, it was He Who preached the acceptable year of the Lord, even that in which the Saviour's proclamation was made: for by the acceptable year I think is meant His first coming; and by the day of restitution the day of judgment.
4:11. And all bare Him witness and wondered.
For not understanding Him Who had been anointed and sent, and Who was the Author of works so wonderful, they returned to their usual ways, and talk foolishly and vainly concerning Him. For although they had wondered at the words of grace that proceeded out of His mouth, yet their wish was to treat them as valueless: for they said, "Is not this the son of Joseph?" But what does this diminish from the glory of the Worker of the miracles? What prevents Him from being both to be venerated and admired, even had He been, as was supposed, the son of Joseph? Seest thou not the miracles? Satan fallen, the herds of devils vanquished, multitudes set free from various kinds of maladies? Thou praisest the grace that was present in His teachings; and then dost thou, in Jewish fashion, think lightly of Him, because He accounted Joseph for His father? O great senselessness! True is it to say of them, "Lo! a people foolish, and without understanding: they have eyes and see not, ears, and hear not." |64
4:23. Ye will altogether say unto Me this parable...
This was a common saying among the Jews, and had its origin in a witticism: for when physicians were themselves ill, men would say, Physician, heal thyself. Christ therefore, setting before them as it were this proverb, said unto them, Ye wish for many signs to be wrought by Me among you especially, in whose country I was brought up; but I know the common feeling to which all men are liable: for always, somehow or other, even the choicest things are despised when there is no scarcity of them, and people have them in abundance. And so too is the case with men: for his acquaintance will oftentimes refuse one with whom they are familiar, and who is constantly among them, even the honour which is due. He rebuked them therefore for asking so foolishly, "Is not this the son of Joseph?" and still keeping to the object of His teaching, says, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, that no prophet is acceptable in his country."
4:25. There were many widows in the days of Elias.
For since, as I have mentioned, certain of the Jews affirmed that the prophecies relating to Christ had been accomplished either in the holy prophets, or in certain of their own more distinguished men, He for their good draws them away from such a supposition 7, by saying that Elias had been sent to a single widow, and that the prophet Elisaeus had healed but one leper, Naaman the Syrian: by these signifying the church of the heathen, who were about to accept Him, and be healed of their leprosy, by reason of Israel remaining impenitent. |65
4:28. And all in the synagogue were filled with anger.
They then were inflamed with anger, because he had branded their wicked thought; and also because He had said. To-day is this Scripture fulfilled, namely, that "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me;" for they considered that He made Himself equal to the prophets. Moreover, they cast Him out of their city, decreeing thereby their own condemnation, and confirming; what the Saviour had said: for they themselves were banished from the city that is above, for not having received Christ. And that He might not convict them of impiety in words merely, He permitted their audacity against Himself to proceed even unto deeds: for their violence was unreasonable, and their envy untamed. Leading Him therefore to the brow of the hill, they endeavoured to throw Him from the crags: but He went through the midst of them without taking any notice, so to say, of their attempt: not as refusing to suffer,----for for this reason He had even come,----but as awaiting a suitable time. For it was now the commencement of His preaching, and it would have been unseasonable to have suffered before He had proclaimed the word of truth. For it depended on Him to suffer, or not to suffer; for He is Lord of times as well as of things. And this is a proof, that when He suffered He suffered voluntarily, and that neither then could He have suffered, had He not yielded Himself thereto.
4:31. And he went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee.
Those whom argument cannot bring to the sure knowledge of Him Who by nature and in truth is God and Lord, may perhaps be won by miracles unto a docile obedience. And therefore usefully, or rather necessarily, He oftentimes completes His lessons by proceeding to the performance of some mighty work. For the inhabitants of Judaea were unready to believe, and slighted the words of those who called them to salvation, and especially the people of Capernaum had this character: for which reason the Saviour reproved them, saying, "And thou Capernaum, that art exalted unto heaven, "shalt be brought down unto hell." But although He knows them to be both disobedient, and hard of heart, nevertheless He visits them as a most excellent physician would those who |66 were suffering under a very dangerous disease, and endeavours to rid them of their malady. For He says Himself, that "those who are in health, have no need of a physician, but those who are sick." He taught therefore in their synagogues with great freedom of speech: for this He had foretold by the voice of Isaiah, saying, "I have not spoken in secret, nor in a dark place of the earth." The holy apostles moreover He oven commanded to publish their words concerning Him with full boldness of speech, saying, "What I tell you in darkness, speak ye in the light: and what ye have heard (whispered) into the ear, proclaim upon the housetops." On the Sabbath also, when they were at leisure from labour, He conversed with them. They therefore wondered at the power of His teaching, and at the greatness of His authority: "For the word, it says, was with authority;" for He used not flatteries, but urged them to salvation. For the Jews indeed thought that Christ was nothing more than one of the saints, and that He had appeared among them in prophetic rank only: but that they might entertain a higher opinion and idea concerning Him, He exceeds 8 the prophetic measure; for He never said, Thus saith the Lord, as of course was their custom, but as being the Lord of the law He spake things that surpass the law.
God moreover said by Isaiah, "And I will make with them an everlasting covenant, even the holy, the sure things of David: behold I have given Him as a testimony among the gentiles, a ruler and commander of the gentiles." For it was fitting that Moses, as a servant, should be the minister of the shadow that endureth not: but Christ, I affirm, was the eternal publisher of a lasting and abiding worship. And what is the eternal covenant? It means the sacred prophecies of Christ, Who is of David's seed according to the flesh, and which produce in us holiness, and sureness: just as also the fear of God is pure, because it makes us pure: and the word |67 of the Gospel is life, because it produces life: "for the words, He says, "that I have spoken unto you are spirit and life," that is, spiritual and life-giving. But mark well the exactness of the prophecy. Isaiah, speaking as in the person of God the Father concerning Christ, says, "Lo, I have given Him as a testimony unto the Gentiles," that is, to bear witness unto them, that these things are acceptable; that no one may imagine Him to be one of the holy prophets, but that all mankind may rather know, that He is radiant with the glory of lordship,----for being God, He appeared unto us;----and so he goes on to say, not merely that He was given for a testimony, but also as "a ruler and commander of the gentiles." For the blessed prophets, and before them even Moses, holding the station of servants, ever called out to their hearers, "Thus saith the Lord," not as being so much commanders, as ministers of the divine words. But our Lord Jesus Christ spake words most worthy of God; and was therefore admired even by the Jews themselves, because His word was with authority, and because He taught them as one that had authority, and not as their scribes. For His word was not of the shadow of the law, but as being Himself the lawgiver, He changed the letter into the truth, and the types into their spiritual meaning. For He was a ruler, and possessed a ruler's authority to command.
4:35. And Jesus rebuked him.
With godlike power He rebuked the unclean spirits, making the miracle follow immediately upon His words, that we might not disbelieve. We have seen the guilty Satan overcome by Him in the wilderness, and broken by three falls: we have seen his might again shaken, and the power that was against us falling: we have seen ourselves rebuking the wicked spirits in Christ as our firstfruits. For that this also has reference to the ennoblement of human nature, thou mayest learn from the Saviour's own words. For the Jews indeed maligned His glory, and even said, "This man casteth not out devils except in Beelzebub, prince of the devils:" but He in answer, having first said much and to the purpose, ended by declaring; "But if I in the Spirit of God cast out devils, then has the kingdom of God come upon you unawares." For if, says He, |68 I, Who have become a man like unto you, chide the unclean spirits with godlike power and majesty, it is your nature which is crowned with this great glory: for ye are seen both through Me and in Me to have gained the kingdom of God.
The evil demons therefore were cast out, and made moreover to feel how invincible is His might; and being unable to bear the conflict with Deity, they exclaimed in imperious and crafty terms, "Let us alone: what is there between us and Thee?" meaning thereby, Why dost Thou not permit us to keep our place, whilst Thou art destroying the error of impiety? But they further put on the false appearance of well-sounding words, and call Him the Holy One of God. For they supposed that by this specious kind of language they could excite the desire of vainglory, and thereby prevent His rebuking them, returning as it were one kindness for another. But though he be crafty, he will fail of his prey: for "God is not mocked;" and so the Lord stops their impure tongues, and commands them to depart from those possessed by them. And the bystanders being made witnesses of so great deeds, were astonished at the power of His word. For He wrought His miracles, offering up no prayer, to ask of any one else at all the power of accomplishing them, but being Himself the living and active Word of God the Father, by Whom all things exist, and in Whom all things are, in His own person He crushed Satan, and closed the profane mouth of impure demons.
4:38. He entered into Simon's house.
Observe therefore how He Who endured voluntary poverty for our sakes, that we by His poverty might become rich, lodged with one of His disciples,----a man poor, and living in obscurity,----that we might learn to seek the company of the humble, and not to boast ourselves over those in want and affliction.
Jesus arrives at Simon's house, and finds his wife's mother sick of a fever: and He stood, and rebuked the fever, and it left her, Now in what is said by Matthew and Mark, that "the fever left her," there is no hint of any living thing as the active cause of the fever: but in Luke's phrase that "He stood |69 over her, and rebuked the fever, and it left her," I do not know whether we are not compelled to say that that which was rebuked was some living thing unable to sustain the influence of Him Who rebuked it: for it is not reasonable to rebuke a thing without life, and unconscious of the rebuke. Nor is it anything astonishing for there to exist certain powers that inflict harm on the human body: nor must we necessarily think evil of the soul of those who thus suffer for being harmed by these beings. For neither, when the Devil obtained authority to tempt Job by bodily torments, and struck him with painful ulcers, was Job therefore to be found fault with, for he manfully contended, and nobly endured the blow. God grant, however, that it be said, if at any time we are tempted by bodily pains, "but touch not his soul." 9 The Lord then by a rebuke heals those who are possessed. |70
He laid also His hands upon the sick one by one, and freed them from their malady, so demonstrating that the holy flesh, which He had made His own, and endowed with godlike power, possessed the active presence of the might of the Word: intending us thereby to learn that though the Only-begotten Word of God became like unto us, yet even so is He none the less God, and able easily, even by His own flesh, to accomplish all things: for by it as His instrument He wrought miracles. Nor is there any reason for great wonder at this; but consider, on the contrary, how fire, when placed in a brazen vessel, communicates to it the power of producing the effects of heat. So therefore the all-powerful Word of God also, having joined by a real union unto Himself the living and intelligent temple taken from the holy Virgin, endowed it with the power of actively exerting His own godlike might. To put to shame, therefore, the Jews, He says, "If I do not the works of My Father, believe Me not: but if I do, though ye believe not Me, believe My works." We may, therefore, see, with the Truth Itself witnessing thereto, that the Only-begotten gave not His glory as to a man taken 10 separately and apart by himself, and regarded as the woman's offspring; but as being the One only Son, with the holy body united to Him, He wrought the miracles, and is worshipped also by the creation as God.
He entered, then, into Peter's house, where a woman was |71 lying stretched upon a bed, exhausted with a violent fever: and when He might as God have said, "Put away the disease, arise," He adopted a different course of action. For, as a proof that His own flesh possessed the power of healing, as being the flesh of God, He touched her hand, and forthwith, it says, the fever left her. Let us, therefore, also receive Jesus: for when He has entered into us, and we have received Him into mind and heart, then He will quench the fever of unbefitting pleasures, and raise us up, and make us strong, even in things spiritual, so as for us to minister unto Him, by performing those things that please Him.
But observe again, I pray, how great is the efficacy of the touch of His holy flesh. For It both driven away diseases of various kinds, and a crowd of demons, and overthrows the power of the devil, and heals a very great multitude of people in one moment of time. And though able to perform these miracles by a word and the inclination of His will, yet to teach us something useful for us, He also lays His hands upon the sick. For it was necessary, most necessary, for us to learn, that the holy flesh which He had made His own was endowed with the activity of the power of the Word by His having implanted in it a godlike might. Let It then take hold of us, or rather let us take hold of It by the mystical "Giving of thanks," that It may free us also from the sicknesses of the soul, and from the assault and violence of demons.
4:41. And rebuking them, He suffered them not to speak.
He would not permit the unclean demons to confess Him; for it was not fitting for them to usurp the glory of the Apostolic office, nor with impure tongue to talk of the mystery of |72 Christ. Yea! though they speak ought that is true, let no one put credence in them: for the light is not known hy the aid of darkness, as the disciple of Christ teaches us, where he says, "For what communion hath light with darkness? or what consent hath Christ with Beliar?" 11 |73
5:2. And He saw two ships standing by the lake, but the fishermen were gone out of them, and, were washing their nets.
LET us admire the skilfulness of the method employed in making them a prey who were to make prey of the whole earth; even the holy Apostles, who, though themselves well skilled in fishing, yet fell into Christ's meshes, that they also, letting down the drag-net of the Apostolic preachings, might gather unto Him the inhabitants of the whole world. For verily He somewhere said by one of the holy prophets, "Behold I send many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall catch them as fish: and afterwards I will send many hunters, and they shall hunt them as game." By the fishers He means the holy Apostles; and by the hunters, those who successively became the rulers and teachers of the holy churches. And observe, I pray, that He not only preaches, but also displays signs, giving thereby pledges of His power, and confirming His words by the display of miracles: for after He had sufficiently conversed with the multitudes, He returns to His usual mighty works, and by means of their pursuits as fishers catches the disciples as fish: that men may know that His will is almighty, and that the creation ministers to His most godlike commands.
5:4. And when He ceased speaking, He said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep.
As He had now taught them sufficiently, and it was fitting also to add some divine work to His words for the benefit of the spectators, He bade Simon and his companions push off a little from the land, and let down the net for a draught. But they replied, that they had been labouring the whole night, and had caught nothing: in the name, however, of Christ, they let down the net, and immediately it was full of fish; in order that by a visible fact, and by a type and representation, miraculously enacted, they might be fully convinced that their labour would not be unrewarded, nor the zeal fruitless which |74 they displayed in spreading out the net of the Gospel teaching; for that most certainly they should catch within it the shoals of the heathen. But observe this, that neither Simon nor his companions could draw the net to land; and therefore, being speechless from fright and astonishment:----for their wonder had made them mute:----they beckoned, it says, to their partners, those, that is, who shared their labours in fishing, to come and help them in securing their prey. For many have taken part with the holy Apostles in their labours, and still do so, especially such as search into the meaning of what is written in the holy Gospels; and others besides them, even the pastors and teachers and rulers of the people, who are skilled in the doctrines of truth. For still is the net drawn, while Christ fills it, and summons unto conversion those in the depths of the sea, according to the Scripture phrase; those, that is to say, who live in the surge and waves of worldly things.
5:8. And when Simon Peter saw it.
For this reason also Peter, carried back to the memory of his former sins, trembles and is afraid, and as being impure ventures not to receive Him Who is pure: and his fear was laudable: for he had been taught by the law to distinguish between the holy and the profane.
5:12. And behold a man full of leprosy.
The faith, however, of him who drew near is worthy of all praise: for he testifies that the Emmanuel can successfully accomplish all things, and seeks deliverance by His godlike commands, although his malady was incurable: for leprosy will not yield to the skill of physicians. I see, however, he says, the unclean demons expelled by a godlike authority: I see others set free from many diseases: I recognise that such things are wrought by some divine and resistless force: I see, further, that He is good, and most ready to pity those who draw near unto Him: what therefore forbids His taking pity on me also? And what is Christ's answer? He confirms His faith, and produces full assurance upon this very point. For He accepts His petition, and confesses that He is able, and says, "I will: be thou cleansed." He grants him also the touch of His holy and all-powerful hand, and immediately the |75 leprosy departed from him, and his affliction was at an end. And in this join with mo in wondering at Christ thus exercising at the same time both a divine and a bodily power. For it was a divine act so to will, as for all that He willed to be present unto Him: but to stretch out the hand was a human, act: Christ therefore is perceived to be One 12 of both, if, as is the case, the Word was made flesh.
5:14. And He charged him to tell no man.
Even though the leper had been silent, the very nature of the fact was enough to proclaim to all who knew him how great was His power Who had wrought the cure. But He bids him tell no man: and why? That they who receive from God the gift of working cures may hereby learn not to look for the applause of those whom they have healed, nor indeed any one's praises whatsoever, lest they fall a prey unto pride, of all vices the most disgraceful.
He purposely, however, bids the leper offer unto the priests the gift according to the law of Moses. For it was indeed confessedly His wish to put away the shadow, and transfbrm the types unto a spiritual service. As the Jews, however, because as yet they did not believe on Him, attached themselves to the commands of Moses, supposing their ancient customs to be still in force, He gives leave to the leper to make the offering for a testimony unto them. And what was His object in granting this permission? It was because the Jews, using ever as a pretext their respect for the law, and saying that the hierophant Moses was the minister of a commandment from on high, made it their endeavour to treat with contempt Christ the Saviour of us all. They even said plainly, "We know that God spake unto Moses: but This man, we know not whence He is." It was necessary, therefore, for them to be convinced by actual facts that the measure of Moses is inferior to the glory of Christ: "For he indeed as a servant was faithful over his house; but the other as a Son over His Father's house." From this very healing, then, of the leper, we may most plainly see that Christ is incomparably |76 superior to the Mosaic law. For Mariam,13 the sister of Moses, was herself struck with leprosy for speaking against him: and at this Moses was greatly distressed; and when he was unable to remove the disease from the woman, he fell down before God, saying, "O God, I beseech Thee, heal her." Observe this, then, carefully: on the one hand, there was a request; he sought by prayer to obtain mercy from above: but the Saviour of all spake with godlike authority, "I will: be thou cleansed." The removal therefore of the leprosy was a testimony to the priests, and by it those who assign the chief rank to Moses may know that they are straying from the truth. For it was fitting, even highly fitting, to regard Moses with admiration as a minister of the law, and servant of the grace that was spoken of angels; but far greater must be our admiration of the Emmanuel, and the glory we render Him as very Son of God the Father.
And whoever will may see the profound and mighty mystery of Christ written for our benefit in Leviticus. For the law of Moses declares the leper defiled, and gives orders for him to be put out of the camp as unclean: but should the malady ever be alleviated, it commands that he should then be capable of readmission. Moreover it clearly specifies the manner in which he is to be pronounced clean, thus saying; "This is the law of the leper on whatsoever day he shall have been cleansed, and shall be brought unto the priest. And the priest shall go out of the camp, and the priest shall see him, and behold, the touch of the leprosy is healed from the leper: and the high priest shall command, and they shall take for him who is cleansed two living clean birds; and the high priest shall command, and they shall kill the one into an earthen vessel over living water: and he shall take the living bird, and dip it into the blood of the bird that was killed over the living water, and shall sprinkle it seven times over the man cleansed of the leprosy, and he shall be cleansed: and he shall send away the living bird into the field." The birds then are two in number, both without stain, that is, clean, and liable to no fault on the part of the law: and the one of them is slain over |77 living water, but the other, being saved from slaughter, and farther baptized in the blood of that which died, is let loose.
This type, then, represents to us the great and adorable mystery of our Saviour. For the Word was from above, even from the Father, from heaven; for which reason He is very fitly compared to a bird: for though He came down for the dispensation's sake to bear our likeness, and took the form of a slave, yet even so He was from above.----Yea, He even, when speaking to the Jews, said so plainly, "Ye are from beneath: I am from above." And again, "No one hath ascended up into heaven, but the Son of man That came down from heaven." As therefore I just now said, even when He became flesh, that is, perfect man, He was not earthy, not made of clay as we are, but heavenly and superior to things worldly in respect of that wherein He is perceived to be God. We may see, then, in the birds (offered at the cleansing of the leper), Christ suffering indeed in the flesh according to the Scriptures, but remaining also beyond the power of suffering; and dying in His human nature, but living in His divine; for the Word is Life. Yea, too, the very wise disciple said, "that He was put to death in the flesh, but made to live in the spirit." But though the Word could not possibly admit the suffering of death into His own nature, yet He appropriates to Himself that which His flesh suffered: for the living bird was baptized in the blood of the dead one; and thus stained with blood, and all but made partaker of the passion, it was sent forth into the wilderness. And so did the Only-begotten Word of God return unto the heavens, with the flesh united unto Him. And strange was the sight in heaven, yea, the throng of angels marvelled when they saw in form like unto us the King of earth, and Lord of might: moreover they said, "Who is This that cometh from Edom?----meaning thereby the earth:----the redness of "His garments is from Bosor:" the interpretation of which is flesh, as being a narrowing and pressing. Then too they |78 inquired, "Are such the wounds in the middle of Thy hands?" and He answered, "With these was I wounded in the house of My beloved." For just as after His return to life from the dead, when showing, with most wise purpose, His hands unto Thomas, He bade him handle both the prints of the nails, and the holes bored in His side: so also, when arrived in heaven, He gave full proof to the holy angels, that Israel was justly east out and fallen from being of His family. For this reason, He shewed His garment stained with blood, and the wounds in His hands, and not as though He could not put them away; for when He rose from the dead, He put off corruption, and with it all its marks and attributes: He retained them therefore, that the manifold wisdom of God, which He wrought in Christ, might now be made known by the Church, according to the plan of salvation, to principalities and powers.
But perhaps some one will say, How can you affirm that Jesus Christ is one and the same Son and Lord, when there were two birds offered? Does not the law very plainly hereby show that there are certainly two Sons and Christs? Yes, verily, men 14 have ere now been brought to such a pitch of impiety, as both to think and say, that the Word of God the Father is one Christ separately by Himself, and that He Who is of the seed of David is another. But we reply to those who, in their ignorance, imagine such to be the case, what the divine Paul writes, "One Lord, one faith, one baptism." If, therefore, they affirm that there are two Sons, necessarily there must be two Lords, and two faiths, and the same number of baptisms: and therefore, though he has Christ speaking within him, as he himself affirms, yet will his teaching be false. But this cannot be: away with such a thought! We therefore acknowledge one Lord, even the Only-begotten incarnate Word of God: not putting apart the manhood and the Godhead, but earnestly affirming that the Word of God the Father Himself became man while continuing to be God.
And next, let those who hold a contrary opinion be the |79 speakers.15 'If, they say, there are two Sons, one specially of the seed of David, and the other again separately the Word of God the Father; must not the Word of God the Father be superior in nature to him of the seed of David? What, then, shall we do in seeing the two birds, not distinct in nature from one another, but, on the contrary, of the same kind, and in no point, as regards specific difference, unlike one another.' But they gain nothing by their argument; for great is the distance between the Godhead and the manhood: and in the explanation of examples, we are to understand them according to their fitting analogy; for they fall short of the truth, and often effect but a partial demonstration of the things signified by them. We say, moreover, that the law was a sort of shadow and type, and a painting, as it were, setting things forth before the view of the spectators: but in the pictorial art, the shadows are the foundations for the colours; and when the bright hues of the colours have been laid upon them, then at length the beauty of the painting will flash forth. And in like manner, since it was fitting for the law of Moses to delineate clearly the mystery of Christ, it does not manifest Him as both dying and at the same time living in one and the same bird, lest what was done should have the look of a theatrical juggle; but it contained Him, as suffering slaughter in the one bird, and in the other displayed the same Christ as alive and set free.
But I will endeavour to shew that my argument here does not go beyond the bounds of probability by means of another history. For were any one of our community to wish to see the history of Abraham depicted as in a painting, how would the artist represent him? as doing every thing at once? or as in turn, and variously acting in many different modes, though all the while the same one person? I mean, for instance, as at one time sitting upon the ass with the lad accompanying him, and the servants following behind: then again the ass left with the servants, Isaac laden with the wood, and himself carrying in his hands the knife and the fire: then in another compartment, the same Abraham in a very different attitude, with the lad bound upon the wood, and his right hand armed with the |80 knife ready to strike the blow. Yet it would not be a different Abraham in each place, though represented in very many different forms in the painting, but one and the same everywhere, the painter's art conforming itself constantly to the requirements of the things to be represented. For it would be impossible in one representation to see him performing all the above-mentioned acts. So therefore the law was a painting and type of things travelling with truth, and therefore even though there were two birds, yet was He Who was represented in both but One, as suffering and free from suffering, as dying and superior to death, and mounting up unto heaven as a sort of second first fruits of human nature renewed unto incorruption. For He has made a new pathway for us unto that which is above, and we in due time shall follow Him. That the one bird then was slain, and that the other was baptized indeed in its blood, while itself exempt from slaughter, typified what was really to happen. For Christ died in our stead, and we, who have been baptized into His death, He has saved by His own blood.
5:17. And He Himself was teaching, and the Pharisees were sitting.
Around Him verily was a company of the envious, scribes, that is, and pharisees, who were spectators of His wonderful works, and listened as He taught: "and the power of God was present, it says, to heal him." Is this spoken as though God gave Him the ability to perform the miracles? Did He borrow of another the power? But who would venture to affirm this? Rather it was He Himself, working by His own power, as God and Lord, and not as partaker of some divine grace. For men indeed often, even after being counted worthy of spiritual gifts, yet sometimes occasionally prove infirm, according to the proportion known to Him Who distributes these divine graces. But in the case of the Saviour of us all, there was nought such as this; but His power to heal him was not a human power, but rather one divine and irresistible: for He was God and the Son of God.
[From Cod. D.] Christ alone teaches as being the (true) teacher, and the wisdom of the Father. For all the rest teach as receiving from Him. "And there was also, it says, the power of the Lord |81 upon Him to heal all;" which means that His power to heal was not human, but divine and irresistible. For the rest of the saints at one time receive the power to work cures, and at another time, not: but Jesus, as being God, and the power of the Father, ever healed all.16
5:18. And behold certain bringing on a bed a man who was paralytic.
[From Cod. D.] When, then, no small number, as it says, of scribes and pharisees, were assembled together, behold certain bringing upon a bed a man who was paralytic; and not being able to come in by the door, they carried him up to the roof, to attempt a strange and novel deed. For having pulled up the tiling, they removed the wood laid there: and still, while this was being done, both Jesus waited patiently, and those who were present; kept silence, watching for the result, and wishing to see what He would say and do. Having uncovered, therefore, the roof, they let down the bed, and lay the paralytic in the midst. What then does the Lord do? Having seen their faith, ----not that of the paralytic, but of the bearers; for it is possible for one to be healed by the faith of others; or, perceiving that the paralytic also believed, He healed him. It is possible, however, that the place into which they let down the bed of the paralytic through the tiles was open to the air, so that they would not have at all to break up the roof. But when the Saviour says to him, "Man, thy sins are forgiven thee," He addresses this generally to mankind: for those who believe in Him, being healed of the diseases of the soul, will receive forgiveness of the sins which formerly they had committed. Or He may mean this; I must heal thy soul before I heal thy body: for if this be not done, by obtaining strength to walk, thou dost but sin the more: and even though thou hast not |82 asked for this, yet I as God see the maladies of the soul, which brought upon thee this disease.17
And as it was necessary, now that so large a number of scribes and pharisees had assembled, that some especially divine miracle should be wrought for their benefit, because of the scorn with which they regarded Him, well does the Saviour provide again for them a most wonderful deed. For there was stretched upon a bod a paralytic, overcome with an incurable disease: and as the art of the physicians had proved altogether unavailing, he was carried by his relatives to the Physician Who is from above, even from heaven. And when he was in the presence of Him Who is able to heal, his faith was accepted: and that faith can take away sin, Christ immediately shews; for He proclaims to him as he lay there, "Thy sins are forgiven thee." Now some one, I imagine, may say to this; What he wanted was to be delivered from his disease; and why, then, does Christ announce to him the forgiveness of his sin? It was that thou mayest learn that God silently and noiselessly observes the affairs of men, and watches the course of each one's life; and so it is written, "The paths of a man are before the eyes of God; and He looks at all his tracks." And as He is good, and willeth that all men should be saved, He often purifies those who are entangled in sins by inflicting sickness upon their body. For so He somewhere says by the voice of Jeremiah, "Thou shalt be taught, O Jerusalem, by labour and the scourge." And the writer of the book of Proverbs also has somewhere said, "My son, despise not thou the teaching of the Lord, nor faint when thou art convicted by Him, for whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He accepteth." Well, therefore, does Christ announce that He will cut away the cause of the disease, and the very root, as it were, of the malady, even sin: for if this be removed, necessarily must the disease which sprung from it be also at the same time taken away. |83
5:21. And the scribes and pharisees began to reason, saying.
He then, as was said, being endowed with a most godlike authority, declared the forgiveness of sins. But the declaration disturbs again the ignorant and envious gang of the Pharisees: for they said one to another, "Who is This That speaketh blasphemies?" But thou wouldest not have said this of Him, O Pharisee, if thou hadst known the divine Scriptures, and borne in mind the words of prophecy, and understood the adorable and mighty mystery of the incarnation. But now they involve Him in a charge of blasphemy, determining against Him the uttermost penalty, and condemning Him to death: for the law of Moses commanded that whoever spake blasphemies against God, should suffer death. But no sooner have they arrived at this height of daring, than He shews forthwith that He is God, to convict them once more of intolerable impiety. "For what, saith He, reason ye in your hearts?" If thou, therefore, O Pharisee, sayest, who can forgive sins but One, God; I will also say to thee, Who can know hearts, and see the thoughts hidden in the depth of the understanding, but God only? For He saith Himself somewhere by the voice of the prophets, "I am the Lord that searcheth hearts, and trieth reins." And David also said somewhere concerning both Him and us, "He Who singly formed their hearts." He therefore Who as God knows both the hearts and reins, as God also forgives sins.
5:24. But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power.
But inasmuch as a place still remains open for disbelief, in saying, "Thy sins be forgiven thee:"----for man sees not the forgiven sins with the eyes of the body, whereas the putting off of the disease, and the paralytic's rising up and walking carries with it a clear demonstration of a godlike power:----He adds, "Rise up and carry thy bed, and go to thine house:" and this was done, for he returned unto his house, delivered from the infirmity under which he had so long suffered. It is proved therefore by the very fact, that "the Son 18 of man has |84 power on earth to forgive sins." But of whom says He this? Is it of Himself, or also of us? Both the one and the other are true. For He forgives sins as being the Incarnate God, the Lord of the law: and we too have received from Him this splendid and most admirable grace. For He hath crowned man's nature with this great honour also, having even said to the holy apostles, "Verily I say unto you, whatsoever things ye bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever things ye loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." And again, "Whosesoever sins ye remit, they shall be remitted unto them: and whosesoever ye bind shall be bound." And what is the occasion on which we find Him thus speaking unto them? It was after He had trampled upon the power of death, and risen from the grave, when He breathed upon them, and said, "Receive the Holy Ghost." For having made them partakers of His nature, and bestowed upon them the indwelling of the Holy Ghost, He also made them sharers of His glory, by giving them power both to remit and to bind sins. And as we have been commanded to perform this very act, how must not He much more Himself remit sins, when He giveth unto others authority to enable them to do so?
5:27. And He saw a publican named Levi.
For Levi was a publican, a man insatiable after filthy lucre, of unbridled covetousness, careless of justice in his eagerness after what was not his own; for such was the character of the publicans: yet was he snatched from the very workshop of iniquity, and saved beyond hope, at the call of Christ the Saviour of us all. For He said unto him, "Follow Me: and he left all and followed Him," Seest thou that most wise |85 Paul truly says, that "Christ came to save sinners?" Seest thou how the Only-begotten Word of God, having taken upon Him the flesh, transferred unto Himself the devil's goods?
FROM SERMON XXI. Explanation of what follows.
[From the Syriac MS.12,154.]
"Or how can a man enter the house of the strong man, and spoil his vessels, unless first he have bound the strong man, and then he will spoil his vessels." By the house of the strong man, that is of Satan, He means this country upon earth, and his vessels are those who are likeminded with him. For just as we call the saints holy vessels, so there is nothing to prevent our giving the name of "vessels of the devil" to those who are the contrivers of all wickedness. The Only-begotten Word therefore of God at His incarnation entered into the strong man's house, even into this world, and having bound him, and "sunk him in fetters of darkness," as it is written, spoiled his goods.
[From Mai.] And Levi verily was saved, while in us the deed suggests happy hopes; for by the very fact we are taught that repentance will save. Yea, moreover, God Himself, Who is Lord of all, shall be our surety, whore He says by the voice of the prophet, "Return unto Me, and be ye saved, even from the ends of the earth."
FROM THE SAME SERMON. Explanation of what follows.
[From the Syriac, as above.]
"Which of you that has a hundred sheep, and has lost one of them, will not leave the ninety-nine in the mountain, and go and seek that which has gone astray? And if he chance to find it, verily I say unto you, that he rejoices more in it, than in the ninety-nine which went not astray." For the multitude of rational created beings which form Christ's flock in heaven and on earth is innumerable, and so great as |86 even to mount up unto a perfect number. For this is what is signified to us by the term "one hundred." The companies then of the holy angels are the ninety-nine; for, as I said, they are many: but the flock on earth is one, but yet useful to complete the number, and sought for also by Christ. Did He then seek it as that which was lost, or as that which had not yet suffered this? But it is plain that that which is lost is sought for. In what manner then had it been lost? By being brought down into sin: by wandering from the divine will, and going far astray from the universal Shepherd.
But none of these things moved the Pharisees: on the contrary, they find fault with them to the disciples; for listen,
5:30. And their scribes and pharisees murmured, saying unto His disciples:
There are however some 19 who endeavour to deprive those entangled in sin of the divine gentleness: for they do not admit of repentance, but as it were rebuke the Saviour for seeking His own, and gathering from every quarter that which was scattered: and to these we say, The pharisees set you the example of murmuring, when they saw Levi called, and a crowd of publicans gathered together, and feasting with Christ the Saviour of us all. And going up to the holy apostles, they vented their blame, saying, "Why do ye eat and drink with the publicans?" But they had for answer, "They that are whole need not a physician." For the Saviour of all, as being the physician of spirits, does not withdraw from those in need of Him, but as being able to cleanse them, purposely conversed with those not as yet purified of their sins. But let us see, O pharisee, the overweening pride of thy disposition: for let us take Christ Himself, to Whom all things are known, as the expounder of the great blame that thou broughtest upon thyself by thy overbearing treatment of sinners. For speaking of a Pharisee who vaunted himself when praying, and of a certain publican who accused himself, He said, "Verily I say unto you, that he went down justified to his house rather than that Pharisee." The publican |87 therefore, who confessed his sin, is justified rather than the haughty Pharisee. But for what reason do the Pharisees blame the Saviour for eating with sinners? Because it was the law to put a distinction between the holy and the profane: that is, that whatever was hallowed was not to be brought into contact with things profane. They made the accusation therefore as vindicating the law forsooth: but really it was envy against the Lord, and readiness to find fault. But He shews them that He is present now, not as a judge, but as a physician; and performs the proper duty of the physician's office, in being in the company of those in need of healing. But no sooner had they received an explanation of their first accusation, than they bring forward another, finding fault because His disciples did not fast, wishing to obtain hereby an opportunity against Himself 20.
But observe their perseverance in malice: for no sooner have they received an explanation of their first accusation, than they change from one thing to another, in the hope of finding an opportunity of convicting the holy disciples, and Jesus Himself, of disregard of the law. But they are told in reply, now is the bride-chamber, the time of calling, the time of instruction: the children are being nursed up; those who are called are being fed with milk: fasting is not yet seasonable. For yes! say they, you feast with publicans and sinners, although the law commands that the pure should not hold intercourse with the impure: and your pretext for transgressing the law is your love for mankind. But why fast ye not according to the custom of the just, and those who wish to live according to the law? But in answer to such objections one may say, Do you understand at all yourself, O Jew, the proper method of fasting? For as the prophet Isaiah says, "On the days of your fasts ye find your own wills, and goad all who are subject unto you. If ye fast for lawsuits and contentions, and strike the lowly with fists, why fast ye for Me? This is |88 not the fast I have chosen, saith the Lord." And dost thou then, when thou thyself knowest not how to fast, blame the holy apostles for not fasting after thy fashion?
And to view it in another light, those who are made wise by the new covenant in Christ, fast rationally; that is, by humbling themselves in the eyes of God, and imposing upon themselves as it were a voluntary sentence of labour and abstinence, that they may obtain forgiveness of their offences, or win some fresh spiritual gift, or even to mortify the law of sin that is in their fleshly members. But this mode of fasting thou art ignorant of, O Pharisee! For thou hast refused to receive the heavenly Bridegroom, Who is the planter and teacher of every virtue, even Christ. Moreover, the saints indeed fast that they may quell the passions of the body by exhausting it: but Christ needed not to fast for the perfecting of virtue, because, as being God, He was free from all passion; nor did His companions, because they received of His grace, and were made strong, and wrought virtue oven without fasting. And even though He fasted for the forty days, it was not to mortify any passions in Himself, but to set an example for men in His own conduct of the law of abstinence. With good reason therefore He defends Himself by the words which the Evangelist goes on to record.
5:34. But He said unto them, Can ye make the sons of the bride-chamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them?
Observe, I pray again, the manner in which Christ shews that they have no share in the feast, but are altogether strangers to the joy felt on His account, and without part in the world's groat festival. For the revelation of our Saviour to the world was nothing else than a general festival, at which He spiritually united to Himself the nature of man, to be as it were His bride: that she who had been long barren might be fruitful, and blessed with a numerous offspring. All therefore are the children of the bridechamber who are called by Him through the new message of the Gospel: but not the scribes and Pharisees, who attached themselves solely to the shadow of the law. But as He had once granted permission to the children of the bridechamber not to afflict themselves, as a |89 a concession suitable to the season, inasmuch as they were keeping a spiritual feast, that fasting might not be entirely rejected by us, He adds most suitably.
5:35. But the days will come, when also the bridegroom shall be taken away from them; then shall they fast in those days.
For all things are good in their season. But what is the meaning of the bridegroom being taken away from them? It is His being taken up into heaven.
5:36. And He spake also a parable unto them.
But that the institutions of Christ cannot be received by those who live according to the law, nor admitted into the hearts of such as have not as yet received the renewing by the Holy Ghost, the Lord shews by saying, that "a tattered patch cannot be put upon a new garment, nor can old skins hold new wine." For the first covenant has grown old, nor was it free from fault. Those therefore who adhere to it, and keep at heart the antiquated commandment, have no share in the new order of things in Christ: "For in Him all things are become new:" but their mind being decayed, they have no concord nor point of mutual agreement with the ministers of the new covenant. The God of all accordingly somewhere said of them by one of the holy prophets, that "a new heart and a new spirit will I put into them." And David also sings, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." And we have been commanded also " to put off the old man, and to put on the new man, renewed after the image of Him that created it." And Paul also gives counsel, saying, "Be ye not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable, and perfect will of God." Those therefore who have not as yet received the renewing of the spirit, are also unable to prove the good and acceptable, and perfect will of God. |90
FROM SERMON XXII. Explanation of that which is below.
[From the Syriac, as before.]
"And no man puts now wine into old skins." The heart of the Jews then is an old skin, and therefore cannot hold the new wine: for this is the saving commandment of the Gospel, making glad the heart of man. But Christ hath filled us with these great blessings, by bountifully endowing us with spiritual gifts, and opening the pathway wide unto all virtue. |91
6:2. Why do ye that which is not lawful to do on the sabbaths?
[From Mai.] Yet a new covenant God promiseth us, now that "the first hath waxed old and is near to vanish away," according to the words of the divine Paul. Yea, He even says by one of tho holy prophets, "Behold the days come, saith the Lord, when I will perfect with the house of Israel, and with tho house of Judah, a new covenant: not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers in tho day when I took hold of their hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt." If therefore the new covenant is the second, and different from the first, there is every necessity for those who wish to live according to it, to abandon the old laws, and conform to those which will guide them into the newness of the gospel polity. But of all this we can see that the Scribes and Pharisees comprehended nothing: for being altogether destitute of knowledge of the sacred Scriptures, they had but one sole purpose, on every occasion to find fault with the divine and heavenly preaching. They lie in wait therefore for the holy apostles in their constant attendance upon our common Saviour Christ, and tell Him concerning them; "Behold we see those who are under Thy instruction acting contrary to the precepts of the law: for they do what it is not lawful to do on the sabbaths: for while the law enjoins men to do no work on the sabbath, and to meddle with no labour whatsoever, tho disciples are rubbing ears of corn with their hands." But tell me, dost not thou thyself, when setting thy sabbath meal, break the bread? Why then dost thou blame others? But that we may use against thee the bulwark of the Saviour's words, listen;
6:3. And Jesus answered and said unto them, Have ye not even read what David did...?
Now even though David thus acted contrary to what tho law approves, yet he is rightly and justly esteemed by us as |92 worthy of all admiration: for he was in truth a saint and prophet. Since, therefore, the law of Moses expressly commands, "Judge just judgment, and regard not the person in judgment;" how, saith He, condemn ye My disciples, while ye still admire as a saint and prophet the blessed David, although he did not keep Moses' command?
But by the loaves (of the shewbread), there is clearly indicated to us the bread that cometh down from heaven to be set forth upon the holy tables of the churches: and all the furniture of the table, used for the performance of its mystical service, was a plain type of the divine treasures. But spiritually [the bread signifies] the twelve Apostles: of whom we shall speak in duo order, when our discourse reaches the disciples themselves.
FROM SERMON XXIII. Explanation of what follows.
[From the Syriac, as before.]
But God said, I require mercy, and not sacrifice: and the acknowledgment of God, and not whole burnt offerings.
What is meant by mercy? and what by sacrifice? By mercy then is signified, Justification and grace in Christ: even that which is by faith. For we have been justified, not by the works of the law that we have done, but by His great mercy. And sacrifice means the law of Moses.
6:6. And He was teaching: and there was a man there whose right hand was withered.
[From Mai.] But His teaching was ever of things too high for reason, and such as made plain to His hearers the pathway of salvation |93 opened through Him: and immediately after His teaching He displayed His godlike power, having first by words smoothed, as it were, the road to belief. For the miracle sometimes converts unto faith those who had disbelieved the word. But the Pharisees watched Him, to see if He would heal on the sabbath: for such is the nature of an envious man, that he makes the praises of others food for his own disease, and wickedly is maddened by their reputation. And what once more said He to this, Who knoweth all things, Who searcheth the hearts, and understandeth whatever is therein? "For with Him is the light," as Scripture declares. "He spake to him that had the withered hand, Stand forth into the midst." And why did He do this? It might perhaps be to move the cruel and unpitying Pharisee to compassion: the man's malady perhaps might shame them, and persuade them to allay the flames of envy.
6:9. I will ask you something: Is it lawful on the sabbath days to do good, or to do evil?
Most wise in very deed is this question, and a statement most suitable to meet their folly. For if it be lawful to do good on the sabbath, and nothing prevents the sick being pitied by God, cease thus picking up opportunities for faultfinding against Christ, and bringing down on thy own head the sentence which the Father has decreed against those who dishonour the Son: for thou hast heard Him where He says of Him by the voice of David, "And I will cut off His enemies from before His face, and put to flight those that hate Him." But if it be not lawful to do good on the sabbath, and the law forbids the saving of life, thou hast made thyself an accuser of the law, thou hast slandered the commandment, for which the ministry of Moses is regarded with admiration. No, he replies, the God of all did not enact the law of the sabbath for Himself, but for us rather, whose neck is bowed to it. Thou sayest well; I assent to thy words; therefore that which is divine is free from the compulsion of the law. Why, then, dost thou blame Christ for wishing also to shew mercy on the sabbath, and benefit a living soul? And were it our wish to examine closely the law enacted for the sabbath, we should find it ordained by God for purposes of mercy. For He commanded to |94 do no work on the sabbath, and entirely to abstain from labour, and even to give rest at the same time to the irrational animals. For He said, that its purpose was, "that thy manservant may rest, and thy maidservant, thy ox, and thy beast of burden, and all thy cattle." But He Who has mercy on the ox and other animals, how would not He pity on the sabbath day a man who was attacked by a severe and irremediable malady? 21
6:11. And they ware filled with madness.
Is not the miracle enough to produce faith? Thou seest Him working with godlike dignity, and with supreme power healing the sick, and travaillest thou with murder, bred of envy and malice?
6:12. He went out into the mountain to pray.
All that Christ did was for our edification, and for the benefit of those who believe in Him; and by proposing to us His own conduct as a sort of pattern of the spiritual mode of life, He would make us true worshippers. Let us see, therefore, in the pattern and example provided for us by Christ's acts, the manner in which we ought to make our supplications unto God. We must pray secretly and in concealment, and with no one seeing us: for this is the signification of Jesus going into the mountain alone, and praying, as it were, leisurely. And this He has Himself taught us, saying; "But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet." For we ought to pray, not seeking after glory, but "lifting up holy hands," while the soul, as it were, mounts aloft to the contemplation of God, withdrawing from all tumult, and quitting worldly anxiety. And this we must do not with fickleness, nor with a listless feebleness; but, on the contrary, with earnestness and zeal, and a patience worthy of admiration: for thou hast heard that Jesus did not merely pray, but that He also passed the night in this duty.
But possibly the enemy of the truth will not endure us when thus speaking: for he 22 says, 'He prays and requests from the |95 Father what He hath not: how then do yo still say, that He is both consubstantial and equal to Him in all things, and in no way whatsoever unlike Him? "For without all controversy the less is blessed of the greater:" and decidedly he who gives is greater than he who makes request to receive something.' Let then those who pervert the right faith teach us first of all, of what they imagine the Son to be in need? And what did He seek to obtain as not as yet possessing it? He is the true light; He is in His own nature life, and the cause of life; He is the Lord also of powers; He is wisdom and righteousness; the Creator and train or of the universe; superior to every thing that has been brought into being; is the King of the universe; the dispenser of heaven and earth; the giver, with God the Father, of every blessing. And this thou wilt learn by what the blessed Paul has somewhere written; "Grace be to you, and peace from God our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ." He is conspicuous on the throne far above, and is glorified by the whole rational creation. Accordingly He is by substance the heir of all the divine dignities of God the Father: and therefore spake He unto Him, that "all that is Mine is Thine; and Thine Mine: and I am glorified in them." But He Who has every thing that belongs to God the Father as His very own, of what is He still in need? But if, in fine, He is in need of any thing, and they affirm that this is true, there is nothing to prevent our saying, that there are certain things of which the Father Himself is in need. For if all that the Son has is the Father's, but there is something of which the Son is in need, therefore must the Father too be similarly circumstanced: for all that the Son hath is the Father's. But the Father is all perfect, and is deficient of no good whatsoever that is suitable to Deity: therefore is the Son all perfect, as having all that the Father hath, and being His image and the impress of His substance: but in the impress there is displayed entirely the original form, and in the original form there exists entirely the impress. And thus much then as respects them.
And those too who have been caught by the empty declamations of Nestorius, say that it is entirely unbefitting the Son, considered as God by nature, to pray: and rather belongs to |96 the man, 23 coupled with Him by way of connexion, to him, that is, of the seed of David. He it was therefore who offered up the prayer. What reply, then, shall we make to this? That ye are utterly ignorant of the mystery of the incarnation of the Only-begotten. Remember the blessed Evangelist John, who says; "And the Word was made flesh." And of this the all-wise Paul has given us a plain proof by saying concerning Him: "For He taketh not hold at all of the angels, but taketh hold of the seed of Abraham: whence it became Him to be made like unto His brethren in all things, that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining unto God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people." On what account therefore does Nestorius eject from the measure of human nature Him Who, though divinely begotten as the Word by God the Father, yet humbled Himself unto emptying, even to becoming our brother, by being made like unto us, and similar in all things to the inhabitants of the earth, sin only excepted? For having become like unto us from His exceeding gentleness and love to mankind, He disdains not human things: but sets before us His conduct as a type of goodness unto the end, that as I said we may be earnest in following His footsteps.
6:13. And when it was day, He called His disciples, and of them having chosen twelve.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, having spent the night in prayer, and having conversed with His Father and God in heaven in a way ineffable and beyond our powers of understanding, and such as is known solely to Himself,----even therein making Himself an example unto us of that which is necessary for salvation; for He taught us in what way we too may rightly and blamelessly offer our prayers:----comes down from the mountain, and appoints those who were to be the world's teachers, |97 according to the words He spake, "Ye are the light of the world." And of this appointment of the holy Apostles, the blessed David also makes mention, addressing himself, as it were, to Christ: "Thou shalt make them rulers over all the earth; they shall make mention of Thy name in every successive generation." For verily, while they were in the body, they made mention of the glory of Christ, telling His mystery both in cities and villages: and now that they have been called to the mansions that are above, none the less do they still even thus converse with us about Him, by the most wise history which they have written concerning Him. And those, indeed, who were appointed priests according to the law of Moses, even Aaron and his company, were made beautiful to the senses by vestments suitable to their priestly dignity; but the divine disciples, being adorned with spiritual gifts, had entrusted to them the ministry of the Gospel oracles. For it was said unto them, "Heal the sick: cast out daemons: cleanse lepers: raise the dead." And being thus invested with Christ's power, they have filled the whole world with astonishment. But mark the extreme moderation of the Evangelist: for he does not simply say that the holy Apostles were appointed, but rather, by introducing the record of these chief ones each by name, takes care that no one should venture to enrol himself in the company of those that were chosen. For as Paul saith, "No man taketh this honour upon himself, but he that is called by God." And though the holy Apostles were called by name to this great and splendid dignity, yet from time to time some men have gone to such a pitch of madness and audacity, as even to name themselves Apostles of Christ, and to usurp an honour not granted unto them. Of these the divine disciples have made mention; for they say, "Such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into angels of righteousness. And no wonder: for Satan even transforms himself into an angel of light. It is no great thing, therefore, if his ministers also transform themselves into angels of righteousness." But we neither acknowledge nor will receive any one, except those only so named in the Evangelic writings, and him who was appointed after them, the most wise Paul: to whom also the Saviour Himself bore witness, saying, that |98 he is a vessel of election for Me, to carry My name before all the heathen."
24 The law indeed pointed them out before in type, and the prophets also proclaimed them. As, for instance, it is written in the Mosaic record, "And ye shall take fine flour, and make it into twelve loaves: and he shall put them in two rows upon the pure table before the Lord. And ye shall put upon the row frankincense and salt: and they shall be for loaves, sot before the Lord for a memorial." For the bread that came down from heaven, and giveth life to the world, Who else can it be but Christ the Saviour of the universe? And in imitation too of Him, the blessed disciples also are named loaves: for having been made partakers of Him Who nourishes us unto life eternal, they also nourish by their own writings those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. And as the Saviour Who is the true light called the disciples also light:----"for ye are the light of the world:"----so also being Himself the broad of life, He has bestowed upon His disciples to be ranked as loaves." 25 And observe, I pray, the marvellous art of the law: "for ye shall put, it says, upon the loaves frank-incense and salt." Now the frankincense is the symbol of a sweet odour; and the salt that of understanding and good sense: both of which existed in the highest degree in the holy Apostles. For their life was one of a sweet savour, as they also said, that "we are a sweet savour of Christ unto God:" and they were moreover also full of understanding, so that I hear the prophet David even singing of them in the Psalms: "There is Benjamin in entrancement: the princes of Judah are their leaders: the princes of Zebulon, the princes of Nephthalim." For the blessed disciples were chosen out of almost every tribe of Israel, and were the bearers of light to the world, "holding up the word of life." And the wonder indeed |99 is this, that the sages of the Greeks possess a splendid copiousness of speech, and an admirable beauty of language: but the disciples of our Saviour were mere artificers, and boatmen, and fishers, having no boast of words, no fluency of picked phrases, and in expression indeed were simple men, but rich in knowledge: yet is the literature of the Greeks, with its sonorous phrases, silent; while the power of the Evangelic preaching has possession of the world. God also makes mention of them by the voice of Jeremiah, saying of the enemy of all, even Satan; "Woe to him, who multiplieth for himself that which is not his, and maketh his collar thick and heavy: for suddenly shall they arise that shall bite him, and thy adversaries shall wake up, and thou shalt be their prey." For Satan had gathered unto him all the inhabitants of the earth, though they were not his, and had caused them to be his worshippers, making his collar heavy: but those who were to plunder his goods woke up: for the net of the apostolic teaching caught all those that were in error, and brought back unto God the whole world.
FROM SERMON XXV. Explanation of the saying of the Apostle that follows.
Be ye like unto me, as I also am unto Christ.
AND how was the wise Paul like unto Christ? Did he establish the heavens, as did the Word of God? Did he set the earth upon its firm foundation, and bring forth the sun and moon, and the stars, and light? How therefore was he like Him? By being an imitator of that human virtue, which Christ shewed forth for our example.
6:17. He stood upon level ground, and a crowd of His disciples and a great multitude of the people.
But observe, I pray, the manner of the election. For the most wise Evangelist says that it was not done in a corner and secretly, but rather when many disciples were gathered together, and a vast crowd from all the country of the Jews, and from the sea-coast of Tyre and Sidon. These latter were |100 idolaters, lame in the hollow of both knees,26 in part observing the customs of the Jews, but yet not altogether abandoning their idolatrous practices. The election, therefore, was held in the presence of all these spectators, and teachers appointed for all beneath the heaven: and this duty they also fulfilled, summoning the Jews from their legal worship, and those who served demons, from Grecian 27 error to the acknowledgment of the truth.
And when He had appointed the holy Apostles, He performed very many wonderful miracles, rebuking demons, delivering from incurable diseases whosoever drew near unto Him, and displaying His own most godlike power: that both the Jews, who had run together unto Him, and those from the country of the Greeks, might know, that Christ, by Whom they were honoured with the dignity of the Apostolate, was not some ordinary man of those in our degree, but, on the contrary, God, as being the Word That was made man, but retained, nevertheless, His own glory. For "power went forth from Him, and healed all." For Christ did not borrow strength from some other person, but being Himself God by nature, even though He had become flesh, He healed them all, by the putting forth of power over the sick.
If further you wish to learn the interpretation of the Apostles' names, know that Peter is explained as meaning "loosing," or "knowing:" Andrew as "comely strength," or "answering:" James as "one who takes labour by the heel:" John, "the grace of the Lord:" Matthew, "given:" Philip, "the opening of the hands," or "the mouth of a lamp:" Bartholomew, "the son suspending water:" Thomas, an "abyss," or "a twin:" James, the son of Alphaeus, "the supplanting |101 "of the passage of life:" Judas, "thanksgiving:" and Simon, "obedience." 28
[Selected footnotes moved to the end and renumbered. Almost all marginalia, any purely textual footnotes, most Greek or Syriac material has been omitted without notice]
1. e The Syriac translator explains his own term: the Greek is "that so and so leads a good life."
2. g The MS. is imperfect, and ends here abruptly.
3. h The two, viz,. His fasting for forty days without His body wasting; and His permitting it to feel hunger afterwards.
4. k T. Aquinas here inserts: "But how is the Son adored, if, as the heretics say, He is a creature? What charge can be brought against those, who have served the creature instead of the Creator, if we worship as God, the Son Who, according to them, is a creature?"
5. 1 Mai notices that this passage is either taken from the Commentary on the Psalms, or vice versa. Cf. Mai's Patrum Nov. Bibl. vol. iii. pp. 419. 420. on Ps. xc. 9.
6. m As the Greek Church denies the procession of the Spirit from the Son, and says that it is not taught by their Fathers; and as S. Cyril in a previous passage, (cf. c. iii. v. 21.), speaks as if he held, that though the Spirit is the Son's, yet that It proceeds from the Father only, this passage is of great value, and therefore I append the original. Τὸ ἐξ αὐτοῦ προχεόμενον πνεῦμα ταῖς ἄνω δυνάμεσιν ἐνιεὶς ὡς ἑαυτοῦ. Another passage to the same effect will be found in the treatise against Nestorius, vol. vi. pp. 98, 99, where S. Cyril thus comments on Luke x. 19.: "The Spirit, therefore, is His own, and from Him: of which a plain proof is, that He can give It to others also, and that not by measure, as the blessed Evangelist says. For the supreme God has measured out to the saints the grace of the Spirit, giving to one the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge; to another the gift of healings: and this is, I think, the meaning of those thus endowed having the power by measure. But our Lord Jesus Christ, pouring out the Spirit of His own fulness, even as doth also the Father, gives it, not as by measure to those who are worthy to receive it." A more full account of the teaching of the Fathers upon the procession of the Holy Ghost, may be seen in Owen's Introduction to Dogmatic Theology, pp.169-178.
7. n In Cramer's Catena, in which this passage occurs anonymously, as is often the case with extracts from S. Cyril, the conclusion is as follows: "Convicting them of disbelieving and denying, that these prophecies chiefly apply to Him, by saying that Elias had been sent to a single widow, though there were many at that time in Israel; and that the prophet Elisaeus had healed one leper, Naaman the Syrian, though there were very many of them in Israel; because of all the widows she alone was found faithful, and he in like manner of all the lepers."
8. o Cr. reads ἀναβαίνει for ἐκβαίνει, and proceeds thus; "for neither did He ever speak these things in the way of argument, but as one enunciating law, He spake things that surpass the law, and with godlike authority rebuked the unclean spirits." Aq. agrees with M., but adds, "changing the letter to the truth, and the figures to the spiritual meaning," with which the conclusion of M.'s next extract agrees.
9. p The word ψυχή in Greek signifies "the vital principle of the body:" and as there is no equivalent in English, a difficulty occasionally arises in translating it. Sometimes it signifies "sensation;" so St.Paul and St.Jude call those ψυχικούς sensuous, who live a mere animal life. Sometimes it means "a person's self:" so the rich man said to his ψυχὴ, or self, Self, thou hast much goods, &c.: and such is the meaning of its Hebrew and Syriac equivalent..., "that which exists by breathing;" and so one's self: still even here there may be an allusion to man's animal nature, which was the sole part of him which the rich man valued. Sometimes it is used in opposition to the body, because the life is something better than the frame which it vivifies; and so S. Cyril seems to understand it in this place, though doubtless it is rightly translated in our version, "But save his life." Certainly just above he had used it for man's moral state, saying, that we must not think evil of the soul of those who suffer from bodily maladies. In all cases the ψυχή is rather the mortal than the immortal, and is opposed to the πνεῦμα, although even in this word, as in Spiritus, the original idea is taken from the physical act of breathing. Possibly, however, we often take the word "soul" in the A.V. in a sense not intended by the translators. For by the gradual change of language, the meaning of the term has been limited since their time to its higher signification, and a different sense thereby given to many passages of Scripture; such, for instance, as, "What is a man profited if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?" that is, his life. (Mat. xvi. 26.) So "to deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine." (Ps. xxxiii. 19.) Wicklif uses soul-haver as equivalent to animal: "Thou shalt be cursed among alle the soul-hauers and beestis of the erthe." (Gen. hi. 14.) From not attending to this gradual alteration in the meaning of words, curious misunderstandings often arise; as, for instance, in an emended Book of Common Prayer lately put forth, the word 'wealth,' which signifies our general well-being, is expunged as being supposed to signify money.
10. q S. Cyril refers in these words to the doctrine of Nestorius, who taught that in the one person of Christ the two natures existed separately, so as to energize ἀνὰ μέρος in turn, or rather apart from one another, sometimes one nature exerting its influence, and sometimes the other. In explaining, therefore, a miracle such as that before us, in which the flesh of our Lord performs the proper act of Deity, Nestorius must have used some such argument as S. Cyril here brings forward, and to conjecture from the absolute use of ὁ Μονογενής, and other technical Nestorian terms, it was a quotation. The catholic doctrine respecting the nature of our Lord has been thus defined by the Council of Chalcedon (Hard. Conc. ii. 456): that the two natures in our Lord remain distinct and unaltered, and not blended and confused, as the Eutychians taught, into some new third nature; but, on the other hand, that they are inseparable in their action, and while each preserves its own proper attributes, the two united form but one person and substance.
11. s Βελίαρ is the reading of most of the MSS. and Fathers. The Hebrew is Belial, and signifies "worthlessness," from... without, and... utility. Sons of Belial, therefore, as in i Sam, ii. 12., according to the ordinary Hebrew use of "son," signifies "worthless persons." Bar-bahlul says, that the word Beliar is derived from... and means Lord of the air.
12. t That is, One person consisting of both natures. The passage referred to by Mai, as preceding this extract in Aquinas, is from the Thesaurus.
13. u As the Masoretic punctuation of this word as Miriam, is apparently of very modern date, I have retained the spelling of the LXX. Even Jerome apparently had never heard of it.
14. y The Nestorians, to whom this doctrine is several times expressly assigned by S. Cyril in this Commentary. The phrase, "one and the same Son and Lord," was afterwards formally enacted by the Council of Chalcedon. Cf. above.
15. z The Monophysites, whose doctrines Eutyches subsequently pushed to an extreme.
16. a This passage being evidently collected out of the preceding, shews that the writers of the smaller Catenae rather gave an epitome in their own words than an exact transcript of the Fathers. It changes the difficult reading of the old MSS. αὐτὸν into πάντας.
17. c This extract from D., which I had previously marked as suspicious, I find assigned in Cramer's Catena to Titus Bostrensis.
18. d In Syriac, the ordinary language of Palestine when our Lord was upon earth, the phrase "son of man," is equivalent to man simply: and the word [Syriac] 'man' signifies "any," "some," so that we even find [Syriac], literally Deus homo, as the translation of Θεός τις. In Hebrew [Hebrew] is seldom found, except in poetry, but men are called "sons of Adam," and Adam is even used simply for "any one," as in Lev. i. 2. "Son of man" therefore signifies man absolutely, and so even Adam is called [Syriac], son of man, in the Syriac version of 1 Cor. xv. 45. This sometimes leads to an ambiguity in Scripture, as that noticed in the text by S. Cyril: and again, Luke vi. 5, where some interpret that our Saviour is Lord of the Sabbath day, whereas the sense requires us to understand it of mankind generally.
19. e The Novatians are probably meant, who subsequently are more than once referred to in the course of the Commentary.
20. f This extract, and some sentences in the next, apparently belong to the Commentary upon St. Mark, cf. c. ii. vv. 1.7, 18, and confirm Cramer's opinion, upon the authority of the Laudian Greek Codex xxxiii. in the Bodleian, that the Catena upon that Evangelist is to be assigned to S. Cyril, rather than to Victor of Antioch; who possibly nevertheless compiled it, as in many codices it bears his name.
21. i This extract, which is taken from the same MSS. A. and H., which contained the dubious passage in page 92, [conf. note h.], is assigned by Cramer's MS. to Titus of Bostra.
22. Arius.
23. k συναφθέντι κατὰ συνάφειαν Nestorius' favourite word: upon his use of which Cyril observes in his Commonitorium to Posidonius: "Therefore he always avoids the word 'union,' ἔνωσις, and calls it instead συνάφεια, a connection, like one who is from without, and as God said to Jesus, As I was with Moses, so will I also be with thee." Hard. Conc. i. 1319.
24. l Mai's difficulty from finding that this passage is quoted in two codices as from a homily of S. Cyril, and also that occasionally direct addresses are made as to persons present, is cleared up by the Syriac, which shews that the whole commentary was delivered in a course of sermons.
25. m In the original ἄρτος both means "bread," and a "loaf:" but this identity of the terms cannot be preserved in the translation.
26. o The ἰγνύα is the hollow of the knee, where Jacob's sinew shrank. The Jews thus were lame of one knee, the Sidonians of both, as having mingled up Judaic rites with their heathenism. Conf. i Kings, xviii. 21.
27. p Graecian in the Fathers is often equivalent to heathen. So "the sages of the Greeks" above means the chief writers of heathenism generally: and so S. Chrysostom, Hom. cxxi. T. v. p. 792., says, speaking of those who preceded Abraham.
28. q The explanation given by S. Cyril of the names of the Apostles corresponds in great measure with that in S.Jerome.
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Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke (1859) Sermons 27-38. (Luke 6:20-7:28) pp. 102-148.
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke (1859) Sermons 27-38. (Luke 6:20-7:28) pp. 102-148.
Fragments from Sermon 27
Sermon 29
Fragments from Sermon 29
Sermon 33
Sermon 34
Sermon 35
Sermon 36
Sermon 37
Sermon 38
FROM SERMON XXVII. Explanation of what follows.
6:20. Blessed are ye poor: for yours is the kingdom of God.
[From the Syriac] Those are the Saviour's words, when directing His disciples into the newness of the Gospel life after their appointment to the apostolate. But we must see of what poor it is that He speaks such great things: for in the Gospel according to Matthew it is written, "Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven:" wishing us to understand by the poor in spirit the man who entertains lowly thoughts of himself, and whoso mind, so to speak, is closely reefed, and hi heart gentle, and ready to yield, and entirely free from the guilt of pride.
[From Mai.] Such a one is worthy of admiration, and the friend of God; yea, He even said by one of the holy prophets; "Upon whom will I look but upon the humble and peaceable, and that trembleth at my words?" And the prophet David also said, that "a contrite and humbled heart God will not set at nought." Moreover, the Saviour Himself also says, "Learn of Me, for I am meek and humble in heart." In the lessons, however, now set before us, He says, that the poor shall be blessed, without the addition of its being in spirit. But the Evangelists so speak, not as contradicting one another, but as dividing oftentimes the narrative among them: and at one time they recapitulate the same particulars, and at another that which has been omitted by one, another includes in his narrative, that nothing essential for their benefit may be hidden from those who believe on Christ.----[From the Syriac.] It seems likely, therefore, that He here means by the poor, whom He pronounces blessed, such as care not for wealth, and are superior to covetousness, and despisers of base gifts, and of a disposition free from the love of money, and who set no value upon the ostentatious display of riches. |103
And so the most wise Paul manifestly guides us into the best doctrines, where he says, "Let your disposition be free from the love of money, being contented with what it has:" and to this he has added, that "having nourishment and the means of shelter, we will be therewith content." For it was necessary, absolutely necessary, for those whose business it would be to proclaim the saving message of the Gospel to have a mind careless about wealth, and occupied solely with the desire of better things. The argument, however, does not affect all whose means are abundant, but those only whose desire is set upon riches: and who are these? All to whom our Saviour's words apply: "Store not up for yourselves treasures upon the earth."
6:21. Blessed are ye that hunger now; for ye shall be filled.
In Matthew, however, again He says; "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled:" but here He simply says, that "those that hunger shall be filled." We say, therefore, that it is a great and noble thing to hunger and thirst after righteousness: that is, habitually to take part in earnest endeavours after piety:----for such is the meaning of righteousness:----as if it were our meat and drink. And inasmuch as we ought to give to this passage also a meaning, in accordance with the foregoing explanations, we say again as follows: The Saviour pronounced those blessed who love a voluntary poverty, to enable them honourably, and without distraction, to practise the apostolic course of life. For it is in plain keeping with the having neither gold nor silver in their purses, nor two coats, to endure also very great hardness in their way of life, and scarcely obtain food for their need. But this is a burdensome thing for those who are suffering poverty and persecutions, and therefore He That knoweth hearts, very suitably does not permit us to be dispirited because of the results of poverty: for He says, that those who hunger now for their piety's sake towards Him shall be filled: that is, they shall enjoy the intellectual and spiritual blessings that are in store. |104
6:21. Blessed are ye that weep now, for ye shall laugh.
[From the Syriac.] He pronounces them that weep blessed, and says that they shall laugh. But by those who weep, we say that those are not meant who simply shed tears from their eyes: for this is a thing common to all without exception, whether believers or unbelievers, if ought happen of a painful nature; but those rather who shun a life of merriment and vanity, and carnal pleasures. ----[From Mai.] For of the one we say, that they live in enjoyment and laughter; whereas believers abandoning luxury and the careless life of carnal pleasures, and all but weeping because of their abhorrence of worldly things, are, our Saviour declares, blessed; and for this reason, as having commanded us to choose poverty, He also crowns with honours the things which necessarily accompany poverty: such, for instance, as the want of things necessary for enjoyment, and the lowness of spirits caused by privation: for it is written, that "many are the privations of the just, and the Lord shall deliver them out of them all."
6:22. Blessed are ye when men shall hate you.
Already did the Lord mention persecution, even before the Apostles had been sent on their mission. The Gospel anticipated what would happen. For it was altogether to be expected that those who proclaimed the Gospel message, and made the Jews abandon their legal mode of worship to learn the Gospel way of virtuous living, while too they won over idolaters to the acknowledgment of the truth, would come in contact with many impious and unholy men. For such are they who, in their enmity against piety, excite wars and persecutions against those who preach Jesus. To prevent them, therefore, from falling into unreasonable distress whenever the time should arrive at which such events were sure to befal them from some quarter or other, He forewarns them for their benefit, that even the assault of things grievous to bear will bring its reward and advantage to them. For they shall reproach you, He says, as deceivers, and as trying to mislead: they shall separate you from them, even from their friendship and society: but let none of these things trouble you, He says: |105 for what harm will their intemperate tongue do a well-established mind? For the patient suffering of these things, will not be without fruit. He says, to those who know how to endure 1 piously, but is the pledge of the highest happiness. And besides, He points out to them for their benefit, that nothing strange will happen unto them, even when suffering these things: but that, on the contrary, they will resemble those who before their time were the bearers to the Israelites of the words that came from God above. They were persecuted, they were sawn asunder, they perished slain by the sword, they endured reproaches unjustly cast upon them. He would therefore have them also understand that they shall be partakers with those whose deeds they have imitated; nor shall they fail in winning the prophet's crown, after having travelled by the same road. |106
SERMON XXIX.
(6:24) [From the Syriac. 2 MS.14,551.] * * * * * * * * receive those things that will lead you unto life eternal. For it is written, that "man doth not live by bread alone, but by every word that goeth forth from the mouth of God." All Scripture, indeed, is inspired of God; but this is especially true of the proclamations in the Gospels: for He Who in old time delivered unto the Israelites by the ministry of Moses the law that consisted in types and shadows, the very same having become man spake unto us, as the wise Paul testifies, writing; "God, Who in divers manners spake in old time to the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son:" and "we are taught of God:" for Christ is in truth God and the Son of God. Let us therefore fix our careful attention upon what He says: and scrupulously examine the very depth of His meaning. For "Woe, He says, unto you rich, in that ye have received your consolation."
Very fitly is this added to His previous discourse: for having already shewn that poverty for God's sake is the mother of every blessing, and said that the hungering and weeping of the saints would not be without a reward, He proceeds to speak of the opposite class of things, and says of them, that they are productive of grief and condemnation. For He blames indeed the rich, and those who indulge immoderately in pleasures, and are ever in merriment, in order that He may leave no means untried of benefitting those who draw near unto Him, and chief of all the holy Apostles. For if the endurance of poverty for God's sake, together with hunger and tears:----by which is meant the being exposed to pain and afflictions in the cause of piety:----be profitable before God, and He pronounce a threefold 3 blessedness on those who embrace them; as a necessary consequence, those are liable to the utmost blame, |107 who have prized the vices, that are the opposites of these virtues.
In order therefore that men may be won by the desire of the crowns of reward unto willingness to labour, and voluntary poverty for God's sake; and, on the other hand, by fear of the threatened punishment, may flee from riches, and from living in luxury and merriment, that is to say, in worldly amusements, He says that the one are heirs of the kingdom of heaven, but that the others will be involved in the utmost misery: "for ye have received, He says, your consolation."
And this truth we are permitted to behold beautifully delineated in the Gospel parables like as in a painting. For we have heard read that there was a rich man decked in purple and fine linen 4, at whose gate Lazarus was cast, racked with poverty and pain; and the rich man felt no pity for him.----But Lazarus, it says, was carried to Abraham's bosom; while he was in torments and in flame. And when he saw Lazarus at rest and in happiness in Abraham's bosom, he besought saying, "Father Abraham have mercy on me, and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger 5 in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame." But what was blessed Abraham's reply? "Son, thou hast received thy good things in thy life, and Lazarus evil things; but now he is here in happiness, and thou art tormented." True therefore is what is here said by Christ of those who live in wealth and luxury and merriment, that "ye have received your consolation:" and of those who now are full, that they shall |108 hunger, and that those who laugh now shall weep and lament.
But come and let us examine the matter among ourselves. Our Saviour in His parables has thus spoken: "Two men went up unto the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. And the Pharisee forsooth prayed saying, God I thank Thee that I am not as the rest of mankind, extortioners, unjust, adulterers; or like this publican. I fast twice in the week: and I pay tithes of all that I possess. But the publican, He says, did not venture to lift up his eyes unto heaven, but stood smiting his breast and saying, God be merciful to me, a sinner. Verily I say unto you, that this man went down to his house justified rather than the other." For the proud Pharisee was boasting over the publican, and indecently assuming the rank of a lawgiver, would have condemned one, on whom it was rather his duty to have shewn pity: but the other was the accuser of his own infirmity, and thereby aided in his own justification; for it is written, "Declare thou thy sins first, that thou mayest be justified." Let us therefore unloose, that is, set free those who are suffering sicknesses from having been condemned by us, in order that God may also unloose us from our faults: for He condemneth not, but rather sheweth mercy.
Closely neighbouring, so to speak, upon the virtues which we have just mentioned is compassion, of which He next makes mention. For it is a most excelling thing, and very pleasing to God, and in the highest degree becoming to pious souls: and concerning which it may suffice for us to imprint upon our mind that it is an attribute of the divine nature. "For be ye, He says, merciful, as also your heavenly Father is merciful." But that we shall be recompensed with bountiful hand by God, Who giveth all things abundantly to them that love Him, He has given us full assurance by saying, that "good measure, and squeezed down, and running over shall they give into your bosom:" adding this too, "for with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you." There is however an apparent incompatibility between the two declarations: for if we are to receive "good measure, and squeezed down, and running over," how "shall we be paid back the same measure wherewith we mete?" for this implies an equal recompense, and not one of |109 far-surpassing abundance. What say we then? The all wise Paul frees us from our difficulties, by bringing us the solution of the matters in question. For he says, that "he that soweth sparingly, meaning thereby, that he who distributeth the necessaries of life to those who are in penury and affliction moderately, and so to speak, with contracted hand, and not plentifully and largely," shall also reap sparingly: and he "that soweth in blessings, in blessings shall also reap." By which is meant, he who bountifully * * * * * [From Mai] So that if anyone hath not, he has not sinned by not giving it; for a man is acceptable according to that which he hath, and not according to that which he hath not. [From the Syriac.] And this the law of the very wise Moses has taught us in type: for those that were under the law brought sacrifices to God according to what they severally possessed, and were able to afford: some for instance bullocks, and some rams, or sheep, or doves, or pigeons, or meal mingled with oil, but even he who offered this * *, because he had no calf to offer, though so little and to be procured so cheaply, was equal to the other as regards his intention.
FROM SERMON XXIX. Explanation of what is below.
From the Syriac. MS.12,154.
6:24. Woe unto you rich; For ye have received your consolation.
This too we must discuss among ourselves: For is it the case, that every one who is rich, and possesses abundant wealth, |110 is determinately cut off from the expectation of God's grace? Is he entirely shut out from the hope of the saints? Has he neither inheritance nor part with them that are crowned? Not so, we say, hut rather on the contrary, that the rich man might have shewn mercy on Lazarus, and so have been made partaker of his consolation. For the Saviour pointed out a way of salvation to those who possess earthly wealth, saying, "Make unto yourselves friends of the unrighteous mammon, that when ye depart this life they may receive you into their tents."
Love your enemies.
[From Mai.] The blessed Paul speaks the truth where he says, that "if any one be in Christ, he is a new creation:" for all things have become new, both in Him and by Him, both covenant, and law, and mode of life. But look closely and see how thoroughly the mode of life here described becomes those holy teachers, who were about to proclaim the message of salvation to every quarter of the world: and yet from this very fact they must expect that their persecutors would be beyond numbering, and that they would plot against them in many different ways, if then the result had been that the disciples had become indignant at these vexations, and wished for vengeance on those that annoyed them, they would have kept silence and passed them by, no longer offering them the divine message, nor calling them to the knowledge of the truth. It was necessary therefore to restrain the mind of the holy teachers by so solemn a sense of the duty of patience, as to make them bear with fortitude whatever might befal, oven though men insulted them, yea and plotted against them impiously. And such was the conduct of Christ Himself above all others for our example: for while still hanging upon the precious cross, with the Jewish populace making Him their sport, He put up unto God the Father prayers in their behalf, saying, "Forgive them, for they know not what they do." Yea, and the blessed Stephen too, while the stones wore smiting him, knelt down, and prayed, saying, "Lord, lay not this sin upon them." And the blessed Paul also says, "being reproached we bless, being reviled we entreat."
The exhortation of our Lord therefore was necessary for the |111 holy apostles, and most useful for us also, to oblige us to live rightly and admirably: for it is full of all philosophy 6. But our mistaken preconceived ideas, and the fierce tyranny of our passions, render it a thing difficult for our minds to accomplish: and therefore knowing that the natural 7 man does not admit of these things, regarding as folly and mere impossibilities the oracles of the Spirit, He separates such from those able to hear, and says, "I speak unto you that hear and are prepared readily to perform My words." For the gloriousness of spiritual fortitude is displayed in temptations and labours. Imitate therefore in these things Christ, "Who when He was reviled, reviled not again, suffering He threatened not, but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously." But perhaps thou wilt object, saying within thyself, 'Christ was God, but I a frail man, having but a feeble mind, and one unable to resist the attack of covetousness and pain.' Thou speakest rightly: for the mind of man easily slides into wrong doing. Nevertheless, I say, The Lord has not left thee destitute of His compassion and love: thou hast Him by thee, yea within thee, by the Holy Ghost: for we are His abode, and He lodgeth in the souls of them that love Him. He gives thee strength to bear nobly whatever befals, and to resist manfully the attacks of temptations. "Be not overcome therefore by the 8 evil, but overcome the evil in the good."
6:29. To him that striketh thee on the cheek, offer also the other.
That Christ is the end of the law and the prophets, is declared by the most wise Paul: for the law served as a schoolmaster to guide men unto His mystery. "But now that faith has come, as the blessed Paul has again himself said, we are no longer under a guide: for no longer are we children in mind, but, on the contrary, have grown up to the perfect man, to the measure of the mature age of the fulness of Christ." We do |112 not therefore require milk, but rather, food of a more solid nature, such as Christ bestows upon us, by setting before us the pathway of that righteousness which surpasses the power of the law. For He said Himself to the holy apostles, "Verily I say unto you, except your righteousness be over and above, more than of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven." This then it is necessary to discuss, what, namely, is meant by the "over and above" in the righteousness in accordance with the saving message of the Gospel.
The law spoken by Moses to them of old time enacted like for like: and while it forbade the doing a wrong, it by no means commanded those who had already been injured to bear patiently, as the Gospel law requires. For it says, "Thou shalt not kill: thou shalt not steal: thou shalt not forswear thyself." But to this is added, "Eye for eye, hand for hand, foot for foot, wound for wound, bruise for bruise." Such an enactment required a man not to injure others; and supposing him to have sustained an injury, that his anger at the wrong doer must not go beyond an equal retribution. But the general bearing of the legal mode of life was by no means pleasing to God; it was even given to those of old time as a schoolmaster, accustoming them by little and little to a fitting righteousness, and leading them on gently to the possession of the perfect good. For it is written, "To do what is just is the beginning of the good way:" but finally, all perfection is in Christ, and His precepts. "For to him that striketh thee. He saith, on the check, offer also the other." In this there is pointed out to us the pathway to the highest degree of patience. But He wills besides, that we pay no regard to riches; so that even if a man have but one outer garment, he must not count it a thing unendurable to put off with it also his undergarment, if it so befal. But this is a virtue possible only for a mind entirely turned away from covetousness: for "do not, He says, ask back whatever any one taketh away that is thine: but even give to every one that asketh of thee:" a proof indeed of love and willingness to be poor; and the compassionate man must necessarily also be ready to forgive, so as to shew friendly acts even to his enemies. |113
6:31. As ye wish that men should do unto you, even so do ye unto them.
It was probable however that the holy apostles would perchance think these things difficult to put into practice: He therefore Who knoweth all things takes the natural law of self-love as the arbiter of what any one would wish to obtain from another. Shew thyself, He says, to others such as thou wishest them to be towards thee. If thou wouldest have them harsh and unfeeling, fierce and wrathful, revengeful and ill-disposed, shew thyself also such: but if on the contrary thou wouldst have them kind and forgiving, do not think it a thing intolerable to be thyself so. And in the case of those so disposed, the law is perchance unnecessary, because God writes upon our hearts the knowledge of His will: "for in those days, saith the Lord, I will surely give My laws into their mind, and will write them on their heart."
6:36. Be ye therefore merciful.
Great is the glory of compassion, and so verily it is written, that "man is a great thing, and the merciful man an honourable thing." For virtue restores us to the form of God, and imprints on our souls certain characters as it were of the supreme nature.
6:37. Judge not, and ye shall not be judged.
He cuts away from our minds a very unmanageable passion, the commencement and begetter of pride. For while it is men's duty to examine themselves, and to order their conduct according to God's will, they leave this alone to busy themselves with the affairs of others: and if they see any infirm, forgetting as it seems their own frailties, they make it an excuse for faultfinding, and a handle for calumny. For they condemn them, not knowing that being equally afflicted with the same infirmities as those whom they censure, they condemn themselves. For so also the most wise Paul writes, "for wherein thou judgest the other, thou condemnest thyself: for thou that judgest doest the same things." And yet it were rather our duty to have compassion on the infirm, as those who have been overcome by the assaults of the passions, |114 and entangled without hope of escape in the meshes of sin, and to pray in their behalf, and exhort them, and rouse them up unto soberness, and endeavour ourselves not to fall into similar faults. "For he that judgeth the brother, as the disciple of Christ saith, speaketh against the law, and judgeth the law." For the lawgiver and judge is One: for the judge of the sinning soul must be higher than that soul: but since them art not so, the sinner will object to thee as judge, "why judgest thou thy neighbour?" But if thou venture to condemn him. having no authority thereto, it is thyself rather that will be condemned, inasmuch as the law permits thee not to judge others.
Whoever therefore is guided by good sense, does not look at the sins of others, nor busies himself about the faults of his neighbour, but closely scans his own misdoings. Such was the blessed Psalmist, falling down before God, and saying on account of his own offences, "If Thou, O Lord, O Lord, closely regardest iniquities, who can endure?" And once again, putting forward the infirmity of human nature as an excuse, he supplicates for a not unreasonable pardon, saying, "Remember that we are earth."
6:39. And he spake a parable unto them.
This parable He added as a most necessary appendage to what had been said. The blessed disciples were about to be the initiators and teachers of the world: it was necessary for them therefore to prove themselves possessed of every thing requisite for piety: they must know the pathway of the evangelic mode of life, and be workmen ready for every good work, and able to bestow upon well-instructed hearers such correct and saving teaching as exactly represents the truth. This they must do, as having already first received their sight, and a mind illuminated with the divine light, lest they should be blind leaders of the blind. For it is not possible for men enveloped in the darkness of ignorance, to guide those who are afflicted in the same way into the knowledge of the truth: for should they attempt it, they will both roll into the ditch of licentiousness.
Next, overthrowing the vaunting passion of boastfulness, to which most men give way, that they may not emulously strive |115 to surpass their teachers in honour, He added; "The disciple is not above his teacher;" and even if some make such progress, as to attain to a virtue that rivals that of their teachers, they will range themselves no higher than their level, and be their imitators. And Paul shall again be our warrant, saying, "Be ye imitators of me, as I also am of Christ." Since therefore the Teacher as yet judgeth not, why judgeth thou? For He came not to judge the world, but to shew pity. And according to the foregoing explanation, if I, He says, judge not, neither must you the disciple. But if thou art guilty of worse crimes than those for which thou judgest another, how canst thou keep thyself from shame when thou art convicted of it? And this the Lord made plain by another parable. |116
SERMON XXXIII.9
From the Syriac. MS. 14,551
6:41. "And why, saith He, beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?" Having previously shewn us that the judging others is utterly wicked and dangerous, and the cause of final condemnation:----for "Judge not, He said, and ye shall not be judged: and condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned." He now by conclusive arguments persuades us to avoid the very wish of judging others: and rather to examine our own hearts, and try to free them from the passions that dwell within them, and their frailties, by asking it of God: for He it is Who healeth the broken in heart, and freeth us from the maladies of the soul. For if thou, He says, art thyself sick with maladies more dangerous and severe than those of others, why, neglecting thy own, dost thou find fault with them, and whilst thou hast a beam in thine own eye, commencest a hot accusation against those who have a mote? Tell me by what |117 boldness doest thou this? Deliver thyself first from thy great crimes, and thy rebellious passions, and then thou mayest set him right who is guilty of but trifling faults.
Wouldst thou see the matter clearly and plainly, and that it is a very hateful thing for men to give way to this feeling? Our Lord was once walking on the sabbath day among the cornfields, and the blessed disciples plucked some ears, and rubbing them in their hands, ate the grains. But some Pharisees drew near, and say, "Behold, Thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do on sabbath days!" And yet they themselves in manifold ways were guilty of disregarding the law altogether. For even the prophet Isaiah cried out against them, saying, "How has the faithful city Zion become a harlot! It was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it:----but now murderers. Your silver is reprobate; thy merchants mix the wine with water; thy princes are contentious, the partners of thieves, loving bribes, pursuing after recompense; they judge not the orphans, and to the widow's suit they have no regard." Yet these very men, themselves liable to these most severe reproaches, accused the disciples of breaking the sabbath!
But they met with just rebuke from Christ, Who said unto them; "Woe unto you, scribes and pharisces, hypocrites! who tithe mint and cummin, and have neglected the weighty matters of the law, judgment, and mercy, and faith." And again, "Ye are they who strain out a gnat, but gulp down a camel." For while their teaching was of mere trifles, and they condemned the people under them for the most contemptible matters, they had the hardihood, as I said, to treat as of no consequence those weighty crimes. For this reason the Saviour called them "whitened sepulchres, which outside appear indeed to men to be beautiful, but inside are full of the bones of the dead, and of all unclcanness."----And such is every hypocrite: and whenever they would cast an imputation upon others, who have yielded to infirmity in any particular, deservedly will they have it said to them, "First cast out the beam from thine own eye, and then thou wilt see to cast out the mote from thy brother's eye."
The commandment, therefore, is indispensable for every one |118 who would live piously: but, above all, for those who have been intrusted with the instruction of others. For if they are good and sober-minded, and enamoured of the elect life, and not merely acquainted with, but also practisers of virtuous arts, and setting in their own conduct the pattern of a holy life, they can with open countenance rebuke those who will not do the same, for not having imitated their example, nor imprinted their virtuous manners on themselves: but if they are careless, and quickly snared by pleasures to do evil, how can they blame others when similarly affected? Wisely, therefore, did the blessed disciples write, saying; "Let there not be many teachers among you, my brethren: for ye know that we shall receive greater condemnation." For as Christ, Who is the Distributor of the crowns, and the Punisher of those who do wrong, Himself says; "He who shall do and teach, shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven: but he who hath not done, but hath taught, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven."
But I can imagine some one saying, How are we to distinguish the man who has a beam in his eye, but finds fault with those who have a mote, and are infirm only in part? But there is nothing difficult in this, He says; for any one who will, may see it easily: "for it is not a good tree that brings forth evil fruit: nor a good tree that brings forth good fruit: for every true is known by its fruit." Each man's actual life, therefore, is that which decides what are his morals: for it is not by mere outside adornments, and fictitious virtues that the beauty of the truly honourable life is delineated, but by the deeds a man does: for they are the fruits of a mind that for the love of piety chooses a blameless life. It is by deeds, therefore, and not by outside shew, that we must see who is the man truly approved, and who is not so. Again, Christ somewhere says, "Beware of those who come to you in the likeness of sheep, but within are ravenous wolves." See |119 again, Christ commands that those who come unto us must be distinguished not by their clothing, but by what they really are. "For by its fruit, He says, the tree is known:" and just as it is ignorance and folly for us to expect to find the choicer kinds of fruits on thorns, grapes for instance, and figs; so it is ridiculous for us to imagine that we can find in hypocrites and the profane ought that is admirable, the nobleness, I mean, of virtue.
Wouldst thou see the truth of this again? Wouldst thou see who the wolves are that clothe themselves in the sheep's skin? Examine the writings of the holy Apostles: hear what they say of certain men: "For they who are such are false Aposties: deceitful workers, transforming themselves into angels of righteousness: and no wonder, for Satan even transforms himself into an angel of light. It is no great thing, therefore, if his ministers also transform themselves into angels of righteousness." These one may well call thorns and briars: in such there is no particle of sweetness, but every thing that is bitter and of an evil nature: for the fig grows not on thorns; nor will one find any thing pleasant in them, for grapes are not produced on briars. We must decide, then, the character of the teacher, not by appearances, but by the acts of each one's life.10
This is also made clear by another declaration of our Lord: "for the good man, He says, as out of a good treasure, poureth forth from the heart 11 good things:" but he who is differently disposed, and whose mind is the prey of fraud and wickedness, necessarily brings forth what is concealed deep within. For the things that are in the mind and heart boil over, and are vomited forth by the outflowing stream of speech. The virtuous man, therefore, speaks such things as become his |120 character, while he who is worthless and wicked vomits forth his secret impurity.
Every thing, therefore, that is to our benefit, Christ teaches us, and requires His disciples to be on their guard against deceit, and vigilant and careful. For this reason He shews them the straight way, and discloses the snares that lead down to wickedness, that thus escaping from offences, and being steadfast in mind beyond risk of sin, they may quickly reach the mansions that are above by Christ's blessing: by Whom and with Whom to God the Father 12 be praise and dominion with the Holy Ghost for ever and ever, Amen. |121
SERMON XXXIV.
6:46-49. But why call ye Me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? Every one that cometh unto Me, and heareth My words, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like. He is like a man building a house, who dug and made it deep, and laid a foundation upon the rock: and when there was a flood, the river beat against that house, and could not shake it, because it was well built. But he that hath heard and not done, is like a man who built a house upon the earth without foundation, against which the river beat, and that moment it fell, and the fall of that house was great.
THERE is "one Lord, one faith, one baptism," for so the wise Paul writeth. For both the name of lordship, and also the reality, are appropriate solely to that nature Which transcends all, and is supreme; even That Which is divine, and to be worshipped, as possessing and governing all things. For so Paul again somewhere says of Him; "For even, if there be Gods many and Lords many, in heaven or in earth; yet for us there is one God, the Father, from Whom is all, and we by Him: and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by Whom is all, and we by Him." As therefore we acknowledge God the Word alone, Who reigneth with God the Father, as by nature and verily Lord, we accordingly give this name to Him. "But why, He asks, call ye Me indeed Lord, but do not the things which I say?" For if He possess no real authority, nor glory of lordship, but, on the contrary, it is conferred upon Him from without, and bestowed by favour, do not offer Him thy obedience: refuse His service: consent not to be subject unto Him. But if He be verily, and in its precise meaning Lord, and the whole nature of things created bow beneath His sceptre, and as a thing set under the feet of its Lord, then pay what is due: accept the yoke: and as being due, offer Him thy obedience; that thou mayest not hear Him blaming thee in words spoken by one of the holy prophets to them of old time; |122 A son honoureth his father, and a servant his lord: if I then am a father, where is My honour? and if I am a lord, where is My fear? saith the Lord Almighty."
For come, and let us see by what takes place among us the blame to which we become liable by disobedience. We are ourselves accustomed to require of our servants 13 obedience mingled with tear: and when they plan rebellion, and throw off the yoke of servitude; we make them humble by bonds and tortures and the scourge. When therefore we, who are of earth, and by nature the brethren of those who are bowed beneath the yoke, cannot tolerate them when rebellious, how will God endure it;----He Whom principalities, thrones, and lordships worship: in Whose presence the high-exalted Seraphs stand, readily rendering their service? For the divine David somewhere says of them in the Psalms; "Bless the Lord, all ye His angels, who hearken to the voice of His words. Bless the Lord, all ye His hosts: His ministers, who do all of them His pleasure."
It is dangerous, therefore, and merits final condemnation, to be unwilling to submit to Christ the Almighty: but those who prize His service, shall receive the most excellent blessings. For He has said by one of the holy prophets to those who run away from His yoke, and will not submit to be set under His authority; "Behold, they that serve Me shall eat; but ye shall suffer hunger: behold, they that serve Me shall drink; but ye shall suffer thirst: behold, they that serve |123 Me shall exult; but ye shall mourn: behold, they that obey Me, shall be merry with joy; but ye shall cry out for the grief of your heart, and howl for contrition of your spirit." Thou seest that the crown of those who bear the yoke of servitude is very beautiful, worthy of being acquired, and precious: while severe and manifold condemnation is decreed against the rest.
And yet again in another place thou mayest see that the true servant is adorned with surpassing honour, while the disobedient and careless is rejected with disgrace, or rather is banished to the outer darkness. For they who received the talents, and doubled for the owner what had been given them, were honoured by him with praises: for he said to each one of them, "O good and faithful servant, thou hast been faithful over a few things; I will set thee over many things: enter the joy of thy lord." But him who hid in the ground what had been given him, as not loving service and indolent, he condemned to severe and inevitable punishment.
Elsewhere too He has said, "Who then is that faithful and wise servant, whom his lord 14 shall set over his household to give them meat at its season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord shall come and find so doing. Verily I say unto you, that he will set him over all that he hath."
Those therefore who keep our Saviour's will are made glorious, and worthy of emulation, and adorned with praises for their fidelity: yea, moreover, they have a name given them, for He has said again of them in a certain place, "On them that serve Me, there shall be called a new name,15 even That Which is blessed upon earth."
And there is yet another point which I think must be added to what has been already said, namely, that by being willing |124 to submit to our Saviour's words and serve Him, we shall gain in return the honour of freedom by His decree. For He said to those that believe in Him, "If ye abide in My Word, ye are truly My disciples, and ye shall acknowledge the truth, and the truth shall make you free." We gain therefore the glory of freedom by subjection: that is, by servitude under Him. This makes us sons and heirs of God, and fellow heirs with Christ: of which He again shall be thy proof, saying; "that every one that doeth sin is the servant of sin: but the servant abideth not in the house for ever. If therefore the Son make you free, ye are really free."
The being willing therefore to serve is that which invites us to freedom, and the honour which is the especial prerogative of sons: but disobedience humbles us to a base and ignominious servitude, if it be true, as true certainly it is, that "every one that doeth sin is the servant of sin."
But yes! says some one, obedience unto Christ's service is a most excellent thing, and highly to be appreciated; but it is by no means an easy matter: for there is much that stands in the way, and is able to exhaust our zeal. Yes, so say I too:----for first of all Satan resists whatever is excellent:----and the flesh, in its fondness for pleasure, strives against the Spirit, "for they are contrary one to the other," according to the expression of the wise Paul: and the law of sin that is in the members, savagely and very bitterly makes opposition. For I know that Paul, who was instructed in the law, excellently discusses these questions. For he said, "For I rejoice in the law of God in the inner man: but I see another law warring against the law of the mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, that is in my members." And again; "I therefore in my mind serve indeed the law of God, but in my flesh the law of sin." And besides this, there is a certain powerful inclination of the mind of man, which makes the will wander after pleasures: and engenders the delights of worldly lusts, and leads it away from the wish to labour in the cause of virtue. Shall we, therefore, on this account, refuse our service? |125 Is He ever seen to command ought that is impossible, and that cannot be done? Does He demand of us anything that exceeds the limits of our nature? And who would venture to say this? For certainly He adapts to our minds whatever is commanded. When, therefore, thou tellest me of the difficulty of obedience,
I tell thee also: Do those things that are great and excellent come of themselves? or do those who seek to win them succeed without toil? or, on the contrary, are they attained to by earnestness and labours? Who are the men that in the conflicts of the palestra are accustomed to win the crown? Is it those who have entirely devoted themselves to skill in the art of wrestling, and have gone through bitter toils? for "they endure all things," according to the expression of St. Paul: or, on the contrary, is it the indolent and luxurious, and those entirely unacquainted with what is suitable for athletes? Who of those that till the ground have their threshing-floor full of sheaves? Is it such as neglect ploughing, and will not undertake the severe toil of the mattock: or, on the contrary, is it the diligent and industrious, and such as apply themselves to the labours necessary for ensuring a prolific crop? The answer is known, even if no one speak it; that it is with those who are willing to labour, and not with those whose wont it is to be at ease, that a life of happiness is to be found, and nothing wanting for a tranquil existence. The Psalmist also bears witness, in a passage where he makes mention of the tillers of the ground as an exemplification of something else, "They went out, and that with tears, carrying their seed: but they shall surely come with joy bringing their sheaves." Joy therefore is the fruit of labour.
Moreover, the Lord Himself somewhere quickens us for the love of exertion in every praiseworthy pursuit, by saying, "Enter at the strait gate: because narrow is the gate, and strait the way that leadeth unto life; but broad and wide is that which leadeth down those that run thereon unto destruction." Observe therefore that the end of that strait path leadeth unto life, while the easy descent of the broad way sends men to the flame and never-ending torments.
If therefore we call Christ, the Saviour of us all. Lord, let us do the things which He says. For He teaches us Himself what the benefit is of our being willing to do that which is |126 commanded: and what the loss of our refusing to obey: for He says, "Every one that heareth My words and doeth them, is like a man who builds a house, and firmly places its foundations upon the rock:" while he who does not obey, he also is like a man building a house, but who has taken no care for its stability. For he who is obedient and tractable holds a thoroughly firm position in every thing that is honourable and good, by reason of his being not so much a hearer of the law, as a doer of its works: he resembles therefore a house firmly settled, and having a foundation that cannot be shaken, so that, even though temptations press upon him, and the savageness of the passions that dwell within us assail him like some winter torrent, or a waterflood, he will sustain no serious loss. But he who merely inclines his ear to what Christ saith, but stores nothing up in his mind, nor performs anything that is commanded, he, on the other hand, is like a house just ready to fall. For he will be led away at once into things unseemly whenever pleasure allures him, and leads him into the pitfalls of sin.
The service therefore of Christ invites us, as we affirm, unto every blessing: and if we will blamelessly fulfil it, Christ will crown us with His grace; by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever, Amen.16 |127
SERMON XXXV.
7:1-10. And when He had ended all His words in the hearing of the people, He entered into Capernaum. And a certain centurion's servant who was dear unto him was sick, and near to die. And when he heard of Jesus, he sent unto Him elders of the Jews, beseeching Him to come and save his servant. And when they came unto Jesus, they besought Him earnestly, saying, that he is worthy that Thou shouldst grant this unto him: for he loveth our nation, and hath also built us himself a synagogue. And Jesus went with them. And when He was now not far distant from the house, the centurion sent his friends unto Him, saying unto Him, Lord, trouble not Thyself; for I am not sufficient that Thou shouldest enter under my roof: therefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto Thee: but speak only with a word, and my child 17 will be healed. For I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers; and I say to this one, Go, and he goeth: and to another, Come, and he cometh: and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. And when Jesus heard these things, He marvelled at him, and turned Himself, and said to the multitude that followed Him, I say unto you, that I have not found so great faith even in Israel. And when they who had been sent returned unto the house, they found the servant whole.
THE wise Evangelist filleth our minds with sacred lessons, and endeavours to throw abundant light upon whatever makes our faith assured: for this is the object of his tidings concerning Christ. Very appropriately therefore he introduces Him as at one time teaching the holy Apostles |128 things superior to the service enacted in the law, and pointing out to them a path new and untrodden by them of old time of the conversation that becometh saints: and at another, he very beautifully displays to us the manifestation of a godlike power, in order that in every way it may be known that the Only-begotten Word of the Father is very God even though He became flesh, that is, man,----" and produces every thing by the word of his power:"----as is proved unto us by the examination of what is written concerning Him.
When then, so to speak, he had satiated the holy Apostles with the most perfect doctrines, and had set before them a banquet of evangelical commands, and had mingled the wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and very clearly told them the means by which they would become triumphant and praiseworthy, He goes down to Capernaum. And there also He works a great and wonderful deed, worthy of the greatness of His majesty: there a glorious theatre was moved with astonishment, in which angels and men were spectators. For Israel is rebuked, and is dull of understanding, and unready for faith: while the multitude of the heathen, in mind at least, is ready thoroughly both to understand and believe: so that Christ is seen by just decree rejecting His servant Israel, while He accepts and honours and crowns by His grace those who of old served the creature apart from the Creator: who were in gloom and darkness, and without the knowledge of God: and had bowed the neck of their slavish mind to the wickedness of demons.
What, then, was that which was accomplished, or what was the miracle? There 18 was a pious man, distinguished for the excellence of his conduct, and the commander of a body of soldiers, who was a fellow inhabitant with the people of Capernaum. A faithful servant of his as it chanced fell sick, and, so to speak, had already reached the gates of death, and to all appearance was now at his last gasp. "And he was dear to him," so that he was pierced with anguish. What remedy, then, can he find for what has happened, or what aid can he procure for him who is lying ill? "He heard, it says, the |129 things of Jesus;" and so he sends unto Him, asking of Him manifestly as of God things that exceed the nature and power of man. For his request was, that one who was laid prostrate in the last stage of sickness might be delivered from the bands of death. And whence, then, did he know Jesus, since he was not as yet of the number of those who believed on Him? for hitherto he had been one of the mass wandering in error. He heard, it says, the things concerning Him. And since certainly he had never heard His personal instruction, nor seen any of His miracles, nor had met with the writings of Moses, nor searched the divine Scriptures, he could only have attained to faith in Him from simple rumours and hearsays. But as being fully assured that by the mere act of His will He could accomplish his request, he sends as supplicants in his behalf the principal men of the Jews; and these wore the elders.
Upon their arrival they offer their request, saying, "that he is worthy that Thou shouldest grant this unto him." O marvellous act! They who slandered Christ's glory, request Him to work a miracle! Those who refused to believe in Him, ask Him to display before men who had not yet believed such acts as lead on to faith! Tell me in what character dost thou approach with thy request? Dost thou know and believe that He is able to perform things that are the prerogative of God? Art thou fully convinced that it belongs solely to the supreme Substance, Who is above all, to be able to make alive, and to deliver men from the snares of death? If so, how then didst thou say when thou sawest Jesus working miracles, "This man casteth not out devils but by Beelzebub, Prince of the devils?" And when that man who had been blind from his mother's womb was wonderfully healed, and gained an unwonted light, thou advisedst him, saying, "Give God the glory, we know that this man is a sinner." Dost thou then ask this sinner, as thou calledst Him, to perform an act of Deity? Is not this madness, and sheer stupidity? Are not those who hitherto had not believed far better than those who had been taught by the law and the prophets?
Wouldst thou see the fact that such is the case and such only? Observe what follows; The Saviour had now sot out upon His way to restore the sick man: but the centurion sent unto Him, saying, "Lord, trouble not Thyself; but speak |130 with a word, and my child will be healed." Consider then, that these elders of the Jews begged Jesus to go to the house of him who requested His aid, as not being able in any other way to raise him up who was lying ill, except by going to his side: ----whereas the other believed that He could do it even at a distance, and effect it by the inclination of His will. He asked for the saving word, the loving assent, the all mighty utterance; and justly therefore did he win a sentence of surpassing worth: for Jesus said, "Verily I say unto you, that not even in Israel have I found so great faith." The proof then and demonstration, follows closely and immediately from what we have now said. Finally, He delivered that same hour from his sickness him who a little before had been the prey of death: for He Who willed the undoing of what had happened was God. As I said then at the beginning of this discourse, by God's holy decree Israel fell from his relationship unto Him, and in his stead the heathen wore called and admitted, as having a heart better prepared for that faith in Him, which justly is required. And of this the divine Psalmist shall again be our proof, where he says concerning them; at one time, "Thou hast inclined Thine ear because of the preparation of their heart;" and at another, "Many were their infirmities, and afterwards they went quickly." For many indeed were the offences laid to their charge, to which he gently gives the name of infirmities: for they were wandering in error, and guilty of abominable crimes, not merely in one way, but in many: but they went quickly to the faith, that is, they were not slow in accepting the commands of Christ, but very readily embraced the faith. For that they were to be caught in Christ's net, He teacheth thee where He saith by one of the holy prophets, "For this wait for Me, saith the Lord, until the day of My rising up to bear witness, because My judgment is for the congregations of the heathen." For when Christ rose from the dead, He bestowed on those that were in error that judgment which is for their happiness and salvation. For He even commanded the holy disciples, "Go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: and teaching them to observe all those things that I have commanded you." |131
By the holy decree therefore, and just sentence of our common Saviour Christ, the heathen were honoured; but Israel we see rejected from His love and affection. For what do we find the chief Shepherd of all saying to them by one of the holy prophets? "And I have declared, He says, that I will not feed you, and that which is dying shall die: and that which is fainting shall faint: and those that are left shall devour every one the flesh of his neighbour." And again; "God hath rejected them, because they have not heard Him: and they shall be wanderers among the heathen." And again by the voice of the prophet Ezechiel, "Thus saith my Lord, the Lord; that I will drive them among the heathen, and disperse them over the whole earth." Take the actual result of facts for your persuasion and faith in what is here said. For they are vagabonds and strangers in every land and city, neither preserving in its purity the worship enjoined by the law, nor submitting to accept the gloriousness of the excellency of the Gospel life: while we, who have received the faith are fellow-citizens with the saints, and called the sons of the Jerusalem that is above, in heaven, by the grace of God which crowneth us. And Him we affirm to be the completion of the law and the prophets: we confess His glory; we admire Him as He worketh miracles; by Whom and with Whom, to God the Father be praise and dominion with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever, Amen. |132
SERMON XXXVI.
7:11. And it came to pass the day after, He was going to a city called Nair, and His disciples were going with Him,...19
[From Mai and Cramer] * * * * * * But observe how He joins miracle to miracle: and in the former instance, the healing of the centurion's servant, He was present by invitation: but here He draws near without being invited. For no one summoned Him to restore the dead man to life, but He comes to do so of His own accord. And He seems to me to have purposely made this miracle also follow upon the former. For there was nothing improbable in supposing that at some time or other some one might rise up and say, in opposition to the Saviour's glory, 'What is the prodigy wrought in the case of the centurion's son? For though he was ailing, he was in no danger of death, even though the Evangelist has so written, shaping his narrative rather with a view to what was pleasant, than to what was true.' To stop therefore the intemperate tongue of such detractors, he says, that Christ met the dead young man, the only son of a widow. It was a pitiable calamity, able to arouse one's lamentation, and make one's tears gush forth; and the woman follows, stupified with her misfortune, and all but fainting, and many with her.
[From the Syriac] * * *: for that dead man was being buried, and many friends were conducting him to his tomb. But there meets him the Life and Resurrection, even Christ: for He is the |133 Destroyer of death and of corruption: He it is "in Whom we live and move and are:" He it is Who has restored the nature of man to that which it originally was; and has set free our death-fraught flesh from the bonds of death. He had mercy upon the woman, and that her tears might be stopped, He commanded, saying, "Weep not." And immediately the cause of her weeping was done away: how, or by what method? He touched the bier, and by the utterance of his godlike word, made him who was lying thereon return again to life: for He said, "Young man, I say unto thee. Arise;" and immediately that which was commanded was done: the actual accomplishment attended upon the words, "And that dead man, it says, sat up, and began to speak, and He gave him to his mother."
Observe here too, I pray you, the accuracy of the expression: for the divine Evangelist not only says, that the dead man sat up, but lest any one should by false arguments attack the miracle, saying,' What wonder! if by means of some artifice or other the body was set upright! for it is not as yet clearly proved to be alive, or delivered from the bonds of death:'----for this reason he very skilfully notes down two proofs one after the other, sufficient to produce the conviction that he did in very truth arise and was restored. "For he began, he says, to speak"----but an inanimate body cannot speak----"And He gave him to his mother:"----but assuredly the woman would not have taken her son back to her house if he had boon dead, and had breathed his last.
Those persons therefore who were restored to life by the power of Christ, we take as a pledge of the hope prepared for us of a resurrection of the dead: and these were, this young man, and Lazarus of Bethany, and the daughter of the chief of the synagogue. And this truth the company of the holy prophets proclaimed before: for the blessed Isaiah said, "The dead shall arise, and those in the graves shall be restored to life: for the dew from Thee is healing to them." And by dew he means the life-giving operation of Christ, which is by the instrumentality of the Holy Ghost. And the Psalmist bears witness, thus speaking concerning them in words addressed to God the Saviour of us all. "When Thou turnest away Thy face they are troubled, and return to their dust. |134 Thou sendest Thy Spirit, and they are created, and Thou renewest the face of the ground." For it was by reason of Adam's transgression of the commandment that we, having our faces turned away from God, returned to our dust: for the sentence of God upon human nature was, "Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return:" but at the time of the consummation of this world, the face of the earth shall be renewed: for God the Father by the Son in the Spirit will give life to all those who are laid within it.
It is death that has brought men to old age and corruption: death therefore has made old, that is to say, has corrupted: for "that which is made old, and is growing aged, is near corruption," as Scripture saith: but Christ renews, in that He is "the Life." For He Who in the beginning created, is able again to renew unto incorruption and life. For one may well affirm that it is the office of one and the same energy and power, to effect both the one and the other. As therefore the prophet Isaiah says, "'He hath swallowed up death, having become mighty." And again, "The Lord hath taken away all weeping from every countenance. He hath taken away the reproach of the people from all the earth." By the reproach of the people he means sin, which disgraces and depraves men: and which, together with destruction, shall be slain, and sorrow and death shall perish, and the tears cease which are shed on its account.
Disbelieve not therefore the resurrection of the dead; for long ago Christ wrought it among us with a Godlike majesty. And let no man say, that He Who raised two, for instance, or three, and effected thus much, is not thoroughly sufficient for the life also of us all. Such words, foul with utter ignorance, are simply ridiculous. Right rather is it for us to understand, that He is the Life, and the Life-giver by nature. And how can the Life be insufficient for making all alive? It would be the same thing as to say in one's excessive folly, that the Light also is sufficient indeed for little things, but not for the Universe.
He therefore arose who was descending to his grave. And the manner of his rising is plain to see; "for He touched, it says, the bier, and said, Young man, I say unto thee, arise." And yet how was not a word enough for raising him who was lying there? For what is there difficult to it, or past |135 accomplishment? What is more powerful than the Word of God? Why then did He not effect the miracle by a word only, but also touched the bier? It was, my beloved, that thou mightest learn that the holy body of Christ is effectual for the salvation of man. For the flesh of the Almighty Word is the body of life, and was clothed with His might. For consider, that iron, when brought into contact with fire, produces the effects of lire, and fulfils its functions; so, because it became the flesh of the Word, Who gives life to all, it therefore also has the power of giving life, and annihilates the influence of death and corruption 20. May our Lord Jesus Christ also touch us, that delivering us from evil works, even from fleshly lusts, He may unite us to the assemblies of the saints; for He is the giver of all good, by Whom, and with Whom, to God the Father, be praise and dominion, with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever, Amen. |136
SERMON XXXVII.
7:17-23. And this word concerning Him went forth in all Judaea, and in all the region round about. And his disciples told John of all these things: and John called certain two of his disciples, and sent them unto Jesus, saying, Art Thou He that cometh, or look we for another? When the men came to Him, they said, John the Baptist sent us to Thee, saying, Art Thou He that cometh, or look we for another? But in that same hour he healed many of sicknesses and scourges, and of evil spirits: and unto many that were blind He gave sight. And He answered and said to them, Go tell John what things ye have seen and heard: that the blind see; and the lame walk; and the lepers are cleansed; and the deaf hear; the dead arise, and the poor are preached unto; and blessed is he who is not offended in Me.
On the present occasion also the Word about to be addressed to you, and the investigation of the sacred doctrines cannot but be most certainly for your benefit. Come then, that together with the holy angels we may praise the universal Saviour: for He is worshipped, as in heaven so also in earth; and to Him every knee shall bow, as it is written. Be it therefore known to people everywhere, that the Lord is God, and even though He appeared in fashion like unto us, yet has He given us the indications of a godlike power and majesty on many occasions, and in a multitude of ways: by driving away diseases; by rebuking unclean spirits; by bestowing on the blind their sight; and finally, oven by expelling death itself from the bodies of men;----death which cruelly and mercilessly had tyrannized from Adam even unto Moses, according to the expression of the divine Paul. That widow's son then at Nain 21 |137 arose unexpectedly and wonderfully, and the miracle remained unknown to no one throughout the whole of Judaea, but was noised abroad as a divine sign, and admiration was upon every tongue. And some of his intimate friends, that is, his disciples, tell it also to the blessed Baptist: and he chose out and selected two persons from the rest, and sends them to Jesus to ask Him, if it is He Who cometh, or whether they must wait for another. What hast thou done, O excellent Baptist! Dost thou not know Him Whom thou preachedst, being thyself the precursor of this rising, as the morning star proclaims the coming sun? Thou wentest before Him like a torch. Thou pointedst Him out to the holy apostles, saying very plainly, "Behold the Lamb of God, Who taketh away the sin of the world!" Elsewhere also we heard Thee saying to the multitudes of the Jews, that "after me cometh the man who was before me, because He is before me. And I knew Him not: but He who sent me to baptize in water, He said unto me, On Whom thou seest the Holy Ghost descend from heaven, and remain upon Him, He it is Who baptizeth in the Holy Ghost. And I saw, and bore witness, that This is the Son of God." How then dost thou ask, if it is He that cometh? For thou saidst, "I saw and bore witness, that He is the Son of God." But the blessed Baptist did not fail to recognise the Word of God Who had become man. Do not imagine so. Well and very clearly was he persuaded that He was He that cometh; but what He did was something wise and well-contrived, and fit in no slight degree to benefit his disciples. For they indeed, because they did not yet know Christ, inasmuch as His glory and all-excelling majesty was concealed from them, were even silently stung at His working miracles, and surpassing the Baptist in the greatness of the deeds wrought by Him. For on one occasion they even drew near to him, pining with envy and vexation, and with their heart still requiring to set free from Jewish maladies, and said to the blessed Baptist concerning Christ the universal Saviour, "Rabbi, He Who was with thee on the other side of Jordan, to Whom thou bearest witness, He baptizeth, and every man cometh to Him." For they did not wish any one else to baptize at all, and exalt himself against the honour of John. They learnt however from him the superiority of Christ's |138 glory, and the incomparable greatness of His splendour: for they heard him say in answer, "Ye are yourselves my witnesses that I said, that I am not the Christ, but that I have been sent before Him. He who hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the bridegroom's friend, who standeth and heareth his voice, joyfully rejoiceth because of the bridegroom's voice: this therefore, which is my joy, is complete. He must grow great, but I must be made small." We do not however say that the blessed Baptist in any respect whatsoever decreased in dignity, himself of himself, during the time that Christ's glory was constantly receiving addition from those that believed on Him: but inasmuch as the blessed John continued in the measure of human nature:----for it was not possible for him ever to advance to anything beyond:----but the incarnate Word, being in His nature God, and ineffably begotten of God the Father, advancing continually to His proper glory, was admired of all men; for this reason it was he said, "He must grow great, but I must be made small." For he who remains in exactly the same state seems to grow small, in comparison with one who is continually advancing. But that it was right that as being by nature God, He should surpass in might and glory human things, he explained to them saying: "He Who cometh from above is above all: and he who is of the earth, belongeth to the earth, and speaketh of the earth." Who then is He Who cometh from above, and is above all as being God? Plainly the only-begotten Word of the Father, Who was in His likeness, and on an equality with Him: but for the love He had unto the world, humbled Himself to our estate. As being such therefore, He must necessarily surpass one who was of the earth: one, that is to say, numbered among the things of earth, and their like in nature, such as was the Baptist. For he was indeed praiseworthy in virtue, and incomparable in piety, and had attained to the perfection of all righteousness, and was honourable and worthy of admiration: for the Lord bore him witness saying, "There hath not risen among the sons of women one greater than John the Baptist." But he was not from above; not of the Substance, I mean, that is set above all: rather he was from below, a son of earth, and one of us. Therefore, to return from this digression, as their heart was not free from Jewish |139 maladies, they tell the blessed Baptist of the Saviour's divine signs: and he, as thoroughly knowing Who it was That wrought the miracles, exulted indeed in himself, in seeing the Saviour's glory spread abroad: but to produce a firm and steadfast faith in Him, in those, who as yet were halting, nor thus far convinced that He is the Christ, he puts on the appearance of ignorance, and so sends to Him certain to ask Him, saying, "Art Thou He That cometh, or do we wait for another?" Cometh whither perhaps some will say: for there are men who think that we ought to understand something of this sort: ----that as the Baptist was about before the precious cross to undergo death by the wickedness of Herod, and, so to speak, anticipate Christ's departure, and as His forerunner, precede His arrival in Hades, he asks whether He will come there also, to redeem those in darkness and the shadow of death, and entangled in inevitable bonds. But such an opinion is utterly to be rejected: for nowhere do we find that the Scripture inspired of God has declared that the divine Baptist preached beforehand to the spirits in Hades the coming of the Saviour. And this also we may truly say, that inasmuch as once for all he knew the whole effect of the dispensation in the flesh of the Only-begotten, he of course knew, in addition to the other particulars, that He will redeem those in Hades, and shine forth even upon them, as "by the grace of God tasting death for every man," that as Paul says, "He may be Lord both of the dead and of the living."
What then does he wish to understand by asking, "Art Thou He that cometh, or do we wait for another?" I said then, that he puts on the appearance of ignorance purposely, not so much that he might himself learn:----for as being the forerunner he know the mystery:----but that his disciples might be convinced, how great is the Saviour's superiority, and that, as the word of the inspired Scripture had announced before, He is God, and the Lord That was to come. All the rest then were servants, sent before a master, preceding Him Who is beyond all, and preparing the way of the Lord, as it is written. By the holy prophets therefore the Saviour and Lord of all is called, "He that cometh." For the prophet David in a psalm declares: "Blessed be He That cometh in the Name of the Lord." And what means that expression "in the Name of |140 the Lord?" it means in godlike glory, and lordship, and all transcending majesty. And this again he has signified in what follows: "The Lord is God, and hath shone forth upon us." For Moses indeed came, and appeared in his season, and by his instrumentality the law was spoken to the Israelites: and then after him Jesus the son of Nun commanded the host, and then in order the blessed prophets. And they were indeed holy men, honourable beyond comparison, and endowed with a spiritual and all-excelling splendour: but no one of them shone forth upon the inhabitants of earth in the name of the Lord, in the glory that is of Godhead and dominion. But the only-begotten Word of God shone forth upon us as being in His nature and verily God and Lord. So God the Father named Him by the prophet Habakuk, thus saying; "Yet a little He That cometh will come, and will not tarry." And again also by another prophet the only-begotten Word of God thus speaketh: "Rejoice, and be glad, O daughter of Zion: for behold! I come, and will lodge in the midst of thee, saith the Lord. And many nations shall find refuge in the Lord on that day; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Mo a people." And that this has come to pass, one may see by actual facts: for a multitude of nations has been caught in the net, and Christ is their God, and they are His people.
Having therefore taken from the inspired Scripture the name of "He That cometh," the divine Baptist sent certain of his friends to ask, "if He were He that cometh." And what follows? Inasmuch as Christ by nature and in truth is God, the purpose of John did not escape Him, but as well knowing the cause of his disciples' coming, He especially at that particular time began accomplishing divine miracles many times more numerous than those which He had hitherto wrought. For so the wise Evangelist has told us, saying, "In that same hour He healed many of sicknessess and of scourges, and of evil spirits: and gave sight to many that were blind." Having then been made spectators and eyewitnesses of His greatness, and gathered into them a great admiration of His power and ability, they bring forward the question, and beg in John's name to be informed, whether He is He Who cometh. Here see I pray the beautiful art of the |141 Saviour's management. For He does not simply say, I am; though had He so spoken, it would have been true: but He rather leads them to the proof given by the works themselves, in order that having accepted faith in Him on good grounds, and being furnished with knowledge from what had been done, they might so return to him who sent them. "For go, He says, tell John the things that ye have seen and heard." For ye have heard indeed, He says, that I have raised the dead by the all-powerful word, and by the touch of the hand: ye have seen also, while ye yourselves stood by, that those things that were spoken of old time by the holy prophets are accomplished: the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the dumb hear, and the dead arise, and the poor are preached unto. All these things the blessed prophets had before announced, as about in due time to be wrought by My hands. If then I bring to pass those things that were prophecied long before, and ye are yourselves spectators of them, return and tell those things which ye have seen with your own eyes accomplished by My might and ability, and which at various times the blessed prophets foretold. And then He added necessarily to these things; "And blessed is he who is not offended in Me!" For the Jews indeed were offended, cither as not knowing the depth of the mystery, or because they did not seek to know. For though the inspired Scripture announced beforehand, in every part of it, that the Word of God would humble Himself to emptiness, and be seen upon earth, plainly referring to when He was such as we are, and would justify by faith every thing under heaven, yet they stumbled against Him, and struck against the rock of offence, and fell, and were ground to powder. For though they plainly saw Him invested with ineffable dignity and surpassing glory, by means of the wondrous deeds He wrought, they threw stones at Him and said: "Why dost Thou, being a man, make thyself God?" In answer to these things, Christ reproved the immeasurable infirmity of their intellect, and said; "If I do not the works of My Father, believe Me not: but if I do, then though ye believe not Me, believe My works." Blessed therefore is he, who doth not stumble against Christ; that is, who believeth in Him.
And what the advantage is that is derived from this, and in |142 what way we are benefitted by attaining to faith in Him, every one knows: nothing however forbids our enumerating a few particulars. For first indeed we obtain the light of the true knowledge of God: and next, when by the aid of holy baptism we have washed away the stains of sin, being purified that we may serve Him purely, we are also made partakers of His divine nature, and gain Him to dwell within us by having the communion of the Holy Ghost. And we are made also sons of God, and win for ourselves brotherhood with Him Who by nature and verily is the Son. Moreover, in addition to those things, we are exalted to the inheritance of the saints, and dwell in bliss in the enjoyment of those blessings which are bestowed on those who love Him, and which the divine Paul declares surpass understanding and description: "for eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, and into the heart of man have not entered the things that God hath prepared for them that love Him." Of those may we also be thought worthy by the grace and love of Him Who giveth to every one bountifully all good things, even of Christ, by Whom and with Whom, to God the Father, be praise and dominion with the Holy Ghost, for over and ever, Amen. 22 |143
SERMON XXXVIII.
7:24-28. And when the messengers of John had departed, He began to speak unto the multitudes concerning John, What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed, shaken with the wind? But what went ye out to see? A man clad in soft garments? Behold they who wear soft clothing, are in the abodes of kings. But what went ye out to see? A Prophet? Yea, I say unto you: and more than a prophet: for this is he of whom it is written, Behold I send My messenger before Thy face, to prepare Thy way before Thee. Verily I say unto you, Among those born of women there is no one greater than John: but he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.
YE who thirst for the knowledge of the divine doctrines, open once again the treasure-house of your minds: satiate yourselves with the sacred words: or rather, give way to no feeling of satiety herein: for gluttony in things that tend to edification is a quality worth the gaining. Let us approach, then, the Saviour's words, not carelessly, and without due preparation, but with that attentiveness and vigilance which befits those who would learn. For so alone can those subjects for contemplation, which are difficult of comprehension, be rightly understood. Let us, therefore, ask of Christ that light, which He sends down upon the mind and heart, that thus being enabled correctly to understand the force of what is said, we may again admire the beautiful skill of the management. For He had been asked by the disciples of John, whether He is He that cometh? When then: He had answered them in a suitable manner, and commanded them to return to him that sent them. He began to say unto the multitudes concerning him, "What went ye out into the wilderness to see? a reed shaken by the wind?" And what the instruction is which we gain from this, or what the end to which our Saviour's words have reference, how must it not be worth our while to inquire? Let us examine, therefore, the meaning of what is said: let us search |144 it as a treasure: let us spy into its secrets: and fixing our mind upon the profundity of the mystery, let us be like careful moneychangers,23 proving every thing, as Scripture says.
There were then certain who prided themselves upon their performance of what was required by the law: the Scribes namely, and Pharisees, and others of their party; who were regarded according to their professions as exact observers of the law, and claimed on this score, that their heads should be adorned with honours. This too is the reason why they neither accepted faith in Christ, nor paid due honour to that mode of life which truly is praiseworthy and blameless: even that which is regulated by the commands of the Gospel. The purpose, therefore, of Christ the Saviour of all, was to shew them that the honours both of the religious and moral service that are by the law, were of small account, and not worthy of being attained to, or oven perhaps absolutely nothing, and unavailing for edification: while the grace that is by faith in Him is the pledge of blessings worthy of admiration, and able to adorn with incomparable honour those that possess it. Many, then, as I said, were observers of the law, and greatly puffed up on this account: they even gave out that they had attained to the perfection of all that is praiseworthy, in the exact performance of the righteousness that consisted in shadows and types. In order, then, that, as I said, He might prove that those who believe in Him are better and superior to them, and that the glories of the followers of the law are evidently but small in comparison with the evangelic mode of life, He takes him who was the best of their whole class, but nevertheless was born of woman, I mean the blessed Baptist: and having affirmed that he is a prophet, or rather above the measure of the prophets, and that among those born of women no one had arisen greater than he in righteousness, that namely, which is by the law, He declares, that he who is small, who falls short, that is, of his measure, and is inferior to him in the righteousness that is by the law, is greater than he:----not greater, in legal righteousness, but in the kingdom of God, even in faith, and the excellencies which result from faith. For faith crowns those that receive it with glories that surpass the law. And this thou |145 learnest, and wilt thyself affirm to be the case, when thou meetest with the words of the blessed Paul: for having declared himself to be free from blame in the righteousness that is by the law, he added forthwith, "But those things that were gain unto me, those I have counted loss for Christ's sake: and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ: not having my own righteousness which is by the law, but the righteousness that is of the faith of Jesus Christ." And the Israelites he even considers deserving of great blame, thus saying: "For being ignorant of God's righteousness, that namely which is by Christ, and seeking to establish their own; even that which is by the law; they have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the completion of the law for righteousness unto every one that believeth." And again, when speaking of these things: "We, he says, who by nature are Jews, and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of. the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, we also have believed in Jesus Christ, that we may be justified in Him." The being justified, therefore, by Christ, that is to say, by faith in Him, surpasses the glories of the righteousness that is by the law. For this reason the blessed Baptist is brought forward, as one who had attained the foremost place in legal righteousness, and to a praise so far incomparable. And yet even thus he is ranked as less than one who is least: "for the least, He says, is greater than he in the kingdom of God." But the kingdom of God signifies, as we affirm, the grace that is by faith, by means of which we are accounted worthy of every blessing, and of the possession of the rich gifts which come from above from God. For it frees us from all blame; and makes us to be the sons of God, partakers of the Holy Ghost, and heirs of a heavenly inheritance.
Having prefaced therefore thus much by way of preparation, and to explain the connection of the ideas, come now. and let us examine the actual words. As I have already said then, He exalts the divine Baptist to a great height, and crowns the Forerunner with surpassing honours purposely; that thou mayest the more thoroughly admire faith; as that which makes believers to have a grandeur far surpassing even that of men thus illustrious. He asks the Jews, then, saying |146 "What went ye out into the wilderness to see? a reed shaken by the wind?" Now He compares to a reed,----a thing tossed about, and, so to speak, reeling and shaken to and fro by the violence of the winds,----the man who lives in worldly honours and pleasures, and in the grandeur of temporal sovereignty. For there is nothing stable or firm or unshaken with such persons, but things change frequently in an unexpected manner, and to that which they did not anticipate, and their prosperity lightly passes away. For true it is, that "all flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass: the grass withereth, and the flower falleth." Did ye then, He says, go out into the desert to see a man like a reed? This, however, possibly he is not, but of a different character; one of those who live in pleasures, and are wont to be clad in beautiful garments, and value childish honour. And yet one does not see persons such as these dwelling in the desert, but at the courts of kings: and as for the blessed Baptist's raiment, it was of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle upon his loins.
What then did ye go out to see? Perhaps ye say, A Prophet. Yea, I also say as well as you. For he is a saint and a prophet: nay, he even surpasses the dignity of a prophet; for not only did he announce before that I am coming, but pointed Me out close at hand, saying? "Behold the Lamb of God, That beareth the sin of the world." Moreover, he was testified of by the prophet's voice, "as sent before My face, to prepare the way before Me." And I bear him witness that there hath not arisen among those born of women one greater than he: but he that is least----in the life I mean according to the law----in the kingdom of God is greater than he. How and in what manner? 24 In that the blessed John, together with as |147 many as preceded him, was born of woman: but they who have received the faith, are no more called the sons of women, but as the wise Evangelist said, "are born of God." "For to all, he says, who received Him, that is, Christ, He gave power to become the sons of God, even to them who believe on His Name: who have been born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." For we have been born again to the adoption of the sons, "not of corruptible seed," but, as Scripture saith, "by the living and abiding Word of God." Those then who are not of corruptible seed, but, on the contrary, have been born of God, are superior to any one born of woman.
There is also another respect in which they surpass those born of women. For they have earthly fathers: but we Him Who is above in heaven. For we have received this also of Christ, Who calleth us to the adoption of sons and brotherhood with Him. For He has said, "Ye shall not call any one on earth father: for One is your Father, Who is in heaven. But ye, all of you, are brethren." And most wise Paul gives us surety of this, writing as follows: "For because ye are sons, God hath sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, calling Father, our Father." For when Christ rose, and spoiled hell, the spirit of adoption was then given to them that believed on Him, and first of all to the holy disciples; for "He breathed upon them, saying, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. If ye remit the sins of any, they are remitted them; and if ye retain the sins of any, they are retained." For inasmuch as they have become partakers of the divine nature, by being richly endowed with that lordly and all-governing Spirit; therefore He has also given them the godlike power of remitting the sins of whomsoever they will, and of retaining those |148 of all others. But that previously to the resurrection of Christ from the dead, and His ascent to heaven, there was not among men the spirit of adoption, the most wise Evangelist John makes plain where he says: "For the Spirit was not as yet: because that Jesus was not yet glorified." And yet certainly, how can the Spirit be unequal in eternity to God the Father, and the Son? And when did He not exist, Who is before all? For He is equal in substance to the Father, and the Son. "But inasmuch as Christ, he says, was not yet glorified," that is to say, had not yet risen from the dead, and ascended to heaven, the spirit of adoption did not as yet exist for men. But when the Only-begotten Word of God ascended up into heaven, He sent down for us in His stead the Comforter, Who is in us by Him. And this He taught us, thus saying: "It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you: but when I have departed, I will send Him unto you."
Even though, therefore, we be inferior to them who have fulfilled the righteousness that is by the law: inferior, I mean, in righteousness of life, yet are we who have received faith in Him endowed with greater privileges. We must, however, bear in mind, that although the blessed Baptist was thus great in virtue, yet he plainly confessed that he stood in need of holy baptism: for he somewhere said, speaking to Christ, the Saviour of us all, "I have need to be baptized of Thee." But he would have had no need of holy baptism, nor have requested leave to have it granted him, had there not been in it something more and better, than the righteousness that is by the law.
Christ therefore does not contend against the honours of the paints; nor is it His purpose to diminish and strip of their renown those holy men who had before attained to victory: but as I said, it rather is to prove that the Gospel mode of life is superior to the legal worship, and to crown with surpassing honours the glory of faith, that we all may believe in Him. For so we enter by Him, and with Him, into the kingdom of heaven: by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever, Amen.
[Selected footnotes moved to the end and renumbered. Almost all marginalia, any purely textual footnotes, most Greek or Syriac material has been omitted without notice]
1. s Literally, "to philosophize;" but from the philosophers affecting an austere life, it came to bear the general meaning of "endurance." So Greg. Nanz. of the martyrs,... So Chrysost. Hom. 80. in Joan.... And again Hom. 55. in Matth.... In the middle ages its meaning further altered, and philosophy was equivalent to monkery; so Luitprand, v. 9. Et ad vicinam insulam, in qua Coenobitarum multitudo philosophabatur, tonso ei ut moris est capite ad philosophandum transmittunt.
2. t The principal Syriac MS. commences here, but the first leaf is in part illegible, and the three following sermons are entirely lost.
3. u One for poverty, one for hunger, and one for tears.
4. x After scholars had satisfactorily decided on philological evidence that the 'byssus' was cotton, the microscope has proved it to be linen. The main points of the argument were that the Hebrew word shesh, always rendered 'byssus' by the Septuagint, is the Arabic modern term for fine muslin: and that cotton garments are mentioned on the Rosetta stone as supplied by government for the use of the temples, being in great request, according to Pliny's account (xix. 8.), by the Egyptian priests. Herodotus however says, that the mummies were enveloped Σινδόνος βυσσίνης τελαμῶσι (ii. 86.), and Mr. Thompson (on the mummy cloth of Egypt, as quoted in Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians, iii. 113.) has shewn, that the wrappers are invariably of linen, though occasionally so fine as not to be distinguishable from muslin, until the microscope revealed the different texture of the filaments.
5. y The Syriac makes the smallness of the request more apparent, by using a term peculiar to the little finger.
6. z On the meaning of philosophy, consult the note on ver. 22.
7. a Ψυχικός, having a soul only. Cf. note on iv. 38.
8. b Although the article might suggest, as in the Lord's prayer, that Satan, the evil one, is signified, who is to be overcome in the good One, God, yet the gender in the second clause proves this idea to be incorrect. The meaning therefore is, "Overcome evil of every kind, whatever it be, by whatever is good."
9. g The Commentary, like similar works of S. Chrysostom and others, was delivered in a course of Homilies; these however the Syriac translator terms Targums, literally Interpretations or Expositions; and this title I had made use of until I met with the following heading to a sermon contained in MS. 12,165, in the British Museum, which shews that the verb signified also to "preach." -- 'Sermon upon the death of Meletius the Great, bishop of Antioch. S. Gregory, bishop of Nyssa, preached it before one hundred and fifty bishops at Constantinople.' This sermon is also extant in Greek. Upon the authority therefore of this heading I have called them Sermons.
10. e A few lines follow in Mai not recognized by the Syriac, but probably taken from the Commentary on Matth. vii. 18, as they give an explanation of the different bearing of the interpretation of the two passages.
11. f Lest I should be thought to have separated this word wilfully from its usual dependance upon "treasure," I may here observe, once for all, that the punctuation of the Syriac is exact to the last degree of minuteness: and in this and all similar places I have scrupulously adhered to it.
12. g Syriac, God and Father.
13. h Domestic service in old time by freemen was all but unknown, and therefore "servant" is equivalent to "slave." Hence the full force of Luke xvi. 13., xvii. 9., &c.; and such expressions as "sold under sin." (Rom. vii. 14.) Of their treatment, S. Chrysostom (Hom. iv. in Titium) complains that masters generally neglected their morals, and thought only of their service; and that therefore "it was a difficult thing for a slave to be a good man:" for being left without education, and not admitted into the society of freemen, there was nothing to counteract the debasing associations of his degraded position. That Christianity gradually, though very slowly, led to the amelioration of their state, we may see by the acknowledgment in the text that the slave was by nature his master's brother; and by S. Chrysostom's appeals in their behalf, as, for instance, 'If Paul was not ashamed to call a slave his son, and his own bowels, and brother and beloved, why should we be ashamed? And what say I? Paul's Lord was not ashamed to call our slaves His brothers, and are we ashamed thereat?' (Hom. ii. in Phil.)
14. i As servant meant slave, so the "lord," despo&thj, was the master or owner of the household. Hence the well-known objection of the Romans to the title of Dominus, as implying the relation between master and slave. Each slave had usually a monthly allowance of food, which one of them was commissioned to distribute.
15. k The name of Christ, fulfilled in the title of Christians; of which S. Gregory of Nyssa, (de perf. Chr. forma, iii. 277.) says, "The goodness of God has granted us to share in that great and most divine and chief of names, being honoured with Christ's own title, and so called Christians."
16. m The greater part of the above homily has perished in the Greek, but Mai has among his fragments one from his second Catena B. not recognized in the Syriac: its style, however, differs from Cyril's; and in Cramer's Catena a part of it is quoted ἐξ ἀνεπιγράφου i. e. as given without the author's name, whereas Cyril had been very largely quoted by name almost immediately before.
17. n A domestic servant was constantly styled παῖς, child. So [Hebrew] in Hebrew, "Joseph was serving boy, (in charge of the sheep probably,) with the sons of Bilhah." (Gen. xxxvii. 2.): and very frequently it is rendered "servant" in the A. V. as 1 Sam. ii. 15. The term was also applied to females, as when Boaz bade Ruth continue with his "young women" during the gleaning.
18. o Cr. contains several fragments of this exposition, but anonymously, and probably on this account, not included by Mai in his collection.
19. q A folium is here lost, and apparently at some distant time, as the ornamental writing of the title has left its marks on the opposite side. In the margin is a note, "Fit to be read at the commemoration of the departed." To depart was a common euphemism in the ancient church for death; cf. Suiceri Th. sub ἀποδημία: and of the Commemorations, St. Augustin says (De Civ. Dei, 1. xxii. c. 10.) Gentiles talibus diis suis, sc. qui antea homines fuerant, et templa aedificaverunt, et statuerunt aras, et sacerdotes instituerunt, et sacrificia fecerunt. Nos autem martyribus nostris non templa sicut diis, sed memorias sicut hominibus mortuis, quorum apud Deum vivunt spiritus, fabricamus.
20. r Two passages follow in Mai, not recognised by the Syriac. The first from Cod. A. is as follows: "for we believe that the body of Christ makes alive, because It is both the temple and dwelling-place of the living Word, and possesses all Its activity. It was not enough therefore for Him only to command, though accustomed by a word to accomplish whatsoever He wished, but He laid also His hands on the bier, shewing that His body also possesses the power of making alive." The second from Codd. A and C. is referred also by Aquinas and Cramer's MS. to Cyril: "That fear fell upon all, and they glorified God, was indeed a great thing on the part of the senseless and ungrateful people (Cr. reads λόγῳ for λαῷ): for shortly afterwards they regard Him neither as a prophet, nor as having appeared for the good of the people: yea they deliver up to death Him Who destroys death, not knowing that at that very time He destroyed death, when in His own person He wrought the resurrection."
21. s In the preceding sermon this place was called Nair, in the same way as Beliar has occurred for Belial, and as no Gr. MS. recognises this form, it is possible that it is a Syriac provincialism, in the same way as in Sanscrit certain final letters are regularly changed into r, from the ease with which the voice rests upon that letter at the close of a word.
22. t Mai from Cod. A. contains a few lines here and there not acknowledged by the Syriac, but apparently only intended to convey the general sense of the passages omitted; though even these may possibly be from other works of S. Cyril, as Niketas' acquaintance with them was evidently most complete, and instances will subsequently be pointed out of his having thus introduced single sentences into the body of the Commentary, though naturally such intrusions generally escape discovery. The subject of this sermon is again treated of by S. Cyril in his Thesaurus, c. xi.
23. u For this quotation, consult the note at the commencement of Serm. 39.
24. x The passage in Mai, p. 213, from B. f. 72. agrees, as far as it goes, with the Syriac. It is preceded, however, by two passages, the second of which from B. f. 71. is much too rhetorical to be really S. Cyril's, and is given by Cramer anonymously, following one taken from Titus of Bostra, whose style it much more resembles. It explains, however, more fully what Cyril very shortly refers to, viz. that John was more honourable than the prophets, as being himself the object of prophecy: and guards against a misinterpretation of the word angel in the prediction, "Behold I send My angel before Thy face." The other passage from A. 118. has the appearance of being a summary of S. Cyril's argument respecting John being the greatest of those born of women, though it includes new matter in an important interpretation of Luke xvii. 21.: to the effect that "the kingdom of heaven signifies the gift of the Holy Ghost," according to the words, "The kingdom of heaven is within you." Soon after this quotation it runs into the Syriac, at the sentence with which B. 72. ends, with some verbal differences. This sentence will be found in my translation at the commencement of the paragraph in page 148: "Even though, therefore, we be inferior to them, &c." But soon afterwards it diverges again to explain more fully than the Syriac does, that our Lord's words that from the days of John the kingdom of heaven is taken by force, would not justify the conclusion, that the saints of the old dispensation did not gain admission therein.
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Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke (1859) Sermons 39-46 (Luke 7:31-8:56) pp. 149-198.
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke (1859) Sermons 39-46 (Luke 7:31-8:56) pp. 149-198.
Sermon 39
Sermon 40
Sermon 41
Sermon 42
Sermon 43
Sermon 44
Sermon 45
Sermon 46
SERMON XXXIX.
7:31-35. To what therefore shall I liken the men of this generation, and to what are they like? They are like to children sitting in the market-place, and calling one to another, and saying, We have played unto you, and ye have not danced: we have wailed unto you, and ye have not wept. For John the Baptist came, neither eating bread, nor drinking wine, and ye say, that he hath a devil. The Son of man came eating and drinking: and ye say, Behold a man gluttonous, and a wine drinker: a friend of publicans and sinners. And wisdom is justified of her children.
THOSE who have a sound mind examine everything, rejecting the false, but receiving and praising that which is without blame. And such the wise Paul also requires us to be, where writing he said: "1 Be ye wise money-changers; prove all |150 things, and hold that which is good: abstain from every evil kind." We therefore also, as I said, must closely examine with the discerning eye of the mind whatever is done, and search into the nature of actions, that so we may approve of that which is without blame, while we reject that which is counterfeit. But if, making no distinctions, we run the risk of passing an evil sentence upon things highly praiseworthy: and of deeming that which is evil fit for commendation and applause, the prophet's words will apply to us: "Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil: who call bitter sweet, and sweet bitter: who put light for darkness, and darkness for light." Such was the character of the Israelites, and especially of those whose lot it was to be their chiefs, the Scribes namely and Pharisees: of whom Christ said, "To what shall I liken the men of this generation? and so on."
There was perchance a sort of game among the Jewish children, something of this kind. A troop of youths was divided into two parts: who, making sport of the confusion in the world, and the uneven course of its affairs, and the painful and rapid change from one extreme to the other, played some of them on instruments of music: while the rest wailed. But neither did the mourners share the merriment of those who were playing music and rejoicing: nor again did those with the instruments of music join in the sorrow of those who were weeping: and finally, they reproached one another with their want of sympathy, so to speak, and absence of affection. For the one party would say, "We have played unto you, and ye have not danced:" to which the others would rejoin, "We have wailed unto you, and ye have not wept." Christ declares, therefore, that both the Jewish populace, and their rulers, were in some such state of feeling as this;2 "For John |151 came, He says, neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and they say, that he hath a devil: the Son of man came eating and drinking; and they say, Behold! a man gluttonous, and a wine drinker, a friend of publicans and sinners." By what then wilt thou be won unto the faith, O foolish Pharisee, when thou thus blamest all things indifferently, nor countest anything worthy of thy praise? The blessed Baptist was the forerunner of the Saviour, saying, "Repent ye, for the kingdom of God is at hand." For he was a man fit to win confidence, and able to persuade, as having even from them the testimony that his life was noble, and worthy of admiration. For he dwelt in the deserts, clad in poor and rough clothing, and scarcely allaying the necessities of the body with locusts and wild honey. Thou wentest out to see him as one who was holy, and had attained to the perfection of all virtue. And dost thou venture afterwards to speak ill of such a one? of one who ought rather to be counted worthy of all admiration? Dost thou say that he hath a devil, who by fastings is mortifying the law of sin that lurks in our fleshly members, and wars against the law of our mind? What is greater than a life of abstinence? For the very fact of being able to rebuke wisely those pleasures that lead to evil, and to cast over them as a bridle the laboriousness of a life of abstinence, how is not this a great and excellent thing! The blessed Baptist was entirely devoted to piety unto Christ; nor was there in him the very slightest regard either for fleshly lusts, or for the things of this world. Having altogether abandoned, therefore, the vain and unprofitable distractions of this world, he laboured at one, and that a very urgent task, of blamelessly fulfilling the ministry entrusted to him. For he was commanded to preach, saying: "Prepare ye the way of the Lord." Tell me, dost thou think that this man hath a devil?----one over whom the tyranny of Satan had no power; who was the captive of no evil lusts; who had overleapt the pitfalls of the base love of the flesh; who had commanded the herds of demons to be still, and manfully resisted their attacks. For verily he could not have attained to this glory and virtue but through Christ, Who is |152 exalted above Satan, who tempts and gnashes his teeth at the prosperity of the saints. Art thou not ashamed, then, of slandering one who had attained to so great patience and endurance, and had wound chaplets of manly virtue round his head? Hast thou whetted thy tongue even at him, and ventured basely to calumniate him, by affirming that he is a madman, and contemptible, and not in his right mind?
Let us, then, see what is on the other side, and which seems, as it were, to follow a different course from the Baptist's conduct. Christ was not in the wilderness, but rather made the city His habitation in company with the holy Apostles: He did not eat locusts and wild honey: His clothing was not of camel's hair, nor had He a leathern girdle upon his loins. His mode of life rather was such as is usual in towns, with no such hardness in it as that practised by the holy Baptist. Dost thou, then, praise Him at least? Dost thou approve of His easiness of approach, and His freely mixing with others, and entire carelessness about His diet? By no means. Thy censoriousness extended even unto Christ: for thou saidst, "Behold a man gluttonous, and drinking wine! a friend of publicans and sinners!" Because thou hast occasionally seen Jesus faring luxuriously, does He appear to thee a drinker of wine, and a carouser, and gluttonous? How canst thou prove this? For when once upon a time Mary and Martha received Him at Bethany, and one of them was distracted with overmuch service, Christ is seen preventing excess, and reducing us to a bare sufficiency. For He said, "Martha, Martha: thou art careful, and hurried about many things: but few things are required, or one." And such He was constantly and everywhere.
But dost thou accuse Him because He went about with publicans and sinners? And is this the cause of thine offence? But what detriment can it be imagined that Christ suffered, from His willingness to be with sinners? He was not liable at all to be taken by their sins, being entirely beyond the reach of fault. He even said, at one time: "The prince of this world cometh, and will find nothing in Me?" at another, |153 again: "Who of you rebuketh Me because of sin?" He could in no respect therefore be contaminated by being with sinners.
But thou sayest, the law of Moses commanded that "we should not hold converse with the wicked." Let us, however, study the object of the law: let us see for what cause it forbade the Israelites holding intercourse with the wicked, and mingling with the deceivers. Now the truth most certainly is, that the law of Moses ordained these things, not so much that thou mightest vaunt thyself over others, and make the commandment a reason for boasting; but rather, because thy mind is weak, and readily drawn aside into folly, and because thy heart runs willingly after evil pleasures, it would free thee from the wish to be with those whose life is culpable, lest thou shouldst become like them in mind, and foolishly be caught in their snare. "For evil communications corrupt good manners." Thou receivedst the commandment therefore as a safeguard for thy infirmity. For if thou hadst been established in virtue, and thy mind steadfast in the fear of God, the law would not have hindered thee from holding useful intercourse with those who were weak, in order that they might become imitators of thy piety, and learn to emulate thy doings: that walking in the steps of thy zeal, they might advance to that which is more excellent. Conceive, therefore, no proud imaginings, since, even in the commandment of Moses, thou art accused of infirmity. Thou blamest Christ for going about with sinners and publicans. Is it because thou art afraid lest He should suffer from their contamination? Tell me, then, dost thou imagine that He also shares thy frailness? Art thou entirely ignorant of the mysteries respecting Him? That the Word being God was with us: that is, was incarnate for our sakes? That the Father sent Him "not to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." Now it belongs to one who condemns, to avoid the company of such as are still in their sins: but it is the part of him who wishes to save to be with them, and admonish them, and prevail upon them to change from their disgraceful courses, and instead of |154 the path of wickedness, to choose the way that leadeth to eternal life. "He came not to call the righteous, hut sinners, to repentance." And as He said Himself, "They that are whole need not a Physician: but they that are sick." Why therefore dost thou blame Him for loving man so well, and find fault with His godlike gentleness? Why reproach Him for being kind to us, and healing our sickness? And yet every body praises physicians, not when they avoid those who are sick, but when they are constantly with them, and by the resources of their art bring them gradually back to sound health. And why then, since Jesus is the Physician of souls and spirits, dost thou blame Him for saving sinners? He could sustain no pollution, even though He ate with sinners: for yon bright sun sheds its radiance upon, and visits every thing under heaven: it chances, then, that impurities also are found lying exposed to it: but that which pours down this radiance is not in the least defiled, even though it shed it on matters so abominable.3 Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Sun of Righteousness: a wicked man, then, in no way whatsoever defiles Him, though close at His side, and eating with Him.
And thus much, then, we have said respecting Christ the Saviour of us all. It is not, however, perhaps unlikely, that some may object, and say; 'Does not also the new and saving preaching of the Gospel plainly command us to withdraw from the communications of impure men? For most wise Paul also wrote to some: "I have written unto you in the epistle, that ye hold no intercourse with fornicators: If any one called a brother be a fornicator, or a drunkard, or covetous, or an extortioner, or idolater: with such a one no not to eat." It had been fitting, therefore, for Christ to have been the type to us of this behaviour.' Thou hast missed thy measure, my beloved! Thou wishest to vie with |155 thy Master's sovereign dignity: Thou catchest at that which is above thy nature. Consider the infirmity of thy mind. Christ was God: but thou art a man, tyrannized over by fleshly pleasures, with a mind easily beguiled into error, and readily made the prey of sins. If, however, thou feelest confident of thy ability manfully to maintain a blameless course of conduct, and also to admonish others, there is nothing to hinder even thee from wishing to be with the wicked and sinloving. For often the admonitions of spiritually-minded e men have profited those who are in sin. If, on the contrary, thou thyself art scarcely saved, even when keeping far away from the company of the evil, maintain thy carefulness in this respect. Call to thy remembrance the writer of the book of Proverbs, who says; "He that walketh with the wise, shall become wise: but he who walketh with fools, shall become known." And again, "He that toucheth pitch shall be defiled." And again also the blessed David: "With the holy, thou wilt become holy; and with the pure, thou wilt become pure: with the elect, thou wilt become elect; and with the crooked, thou wilt be made crooked." In order, then, "that thou mayest be delivered like a roc from the nets," flee from wicked men; keep apart from those who cannot be restrained from pollution; and supplicate Christ to purify thy corruptions, or rather all thy human weaknesses. For the Word that came from God is God, even though He became flesh, that is, man: by Whom and with Whom to God the Father, be praise and dominion, with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever, Amen. |156
SERMON XL.
7:36-50. And a certain Pharisee desired Him to eat with him. And having entered the Pharisee's house, He reclined at his table. And, behold, a woman who was a sinner in the city, when she knew that He was reclining at table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, and stood behind Him at His feet, and, weeping, began to wash His feet with tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head, and kissed, His feet, and anointed them with ointment. When the Pharisee who had bidden Him saw it, he said in himself, If this were a prophet, He would have known who and of what sort the woman is who toucheth Him, that she is a sinner. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And he said, Teacher, say on. He saith to him; A certain money-lender had two debtors; the one owed five hundred denarii, the other fifty: and when they could not repay, he forgave them both. Which therefore of them will love him most? and Simon answered and said, I suppose he that had most forgiven him. And He said to him, Thou hast rightly judged. And turning to the woman He said to Simon, Thou seest this woman. I entered into thine house: thou gavest no water for My feet; but she hath, washed My feet with tears, and wiped them with her hair. Thou gavest Me no kiss, but she from the time I came in hath not ceased kissing My feet. My head with oil thou didst not anoint; but she hath anointed My feet with ointment. For this reason, I tell thee, her many sins are forgiven her, because she hath loved much: but he to whom little is forgiven, loveth little. And He said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven thee. And those who were reclining with Him at table began to say in themselves, Who is This That forgiveth sins also? But He said, to the woman, Thy faith hath made thee live: go in peace.
"ALL ye people, clap your hands, and praise God with the voice of thanksgiving.'' And what is the cause of the festival? It is that the Saviour hath newly constructed for us a way of salvation, untrodden by them of old time. |157 For the law, which the all-wise Moses ordained, was for the reproof of sin, and the condemnation of offences: but it justified absolutely no one. For the very wise Paul writes, "Whosoever rejected the law of Moses, was put to death without mercy at the mouth of two or three witnesses." But our Lord Jesus Christ, having removed the curse of the law, and proved the commandment which condemns to be powerless and inoperative, became our merciful High Priest, according to the words of the blessed Paul. For He justifies the wicked by faith, and sets free those held captive by their sins. And this He proclaimed to us by one of the holy prophets, saying, "In those days, and at that time, saith the Lord, they shall seek for the sin of Israel, and there shall be none: and for the sin of Judah, and thou shalt not find it: for I will be merciful to those that have been left in the land, saith the Lord." But lo! the fulfilment of the promise came to pass for us at the time of His Incarnation, as we are assured by the purport of the holy Gospels. For he was invited by one of the Pharisees, and being kind and loving unto man, and "willing that all men should be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth," He consented, and granted the favour to him who requested it. And having entered, He reclined at table: and immediately there entered a woman defiled with filthy lewdness: who, like one scarcely roused from wine and intoxication, and made sensible of the guilt of her transgressions, offered supplication unto Christ, as able to cleanse her, and deliver her from all fault, and free her from her former sins, as "not remembering iniquities." And this she did, washing His feet with tears, and anointing them with ointment, and wiping them with her hair. Thus a woman, who beforetime had been lewd, and guilty of sensuality, a sin difficult to wash away, missed not the path of salvation; for she fled for refuge to Him Who knoweth how to save, and is able to raise from the depths of impurity.
She then failed not in her purpose. But the foolish Pharisee, the blessed Evangelist tells us, was offended, and said within himself, "If this were a prophet, He would have known who and of what sort the woman is that toucheth Him, that she is a sinner." The Pharisee therefore was boastful, |158 and utterly without understanding. For it was his duty rather to regulate his own life, and earnestly adorn it by all virtuous pursuits; and not to pass sentence upon the infirm, and condemn others. But we affirm of him, that having been brought up in the customs of the law, he gave too wide an influence to its institutions, and required the Legislator Himself to be subject to the commandments of Moses. For the law commanded the holy to keep apart from the impure: and God also blamed those whose lot it was to be the chiefs of the congregation of the Jews, for their unwillingness in this respect. For He thus spake by one of the holy prophets: "they make no distinction between the holy and the profane." But Christ arose for us, not to subject our state to the curses that are by the law, but to redeem those subject to sin by a mercy superior to the law. For the law was instituted "because of transgressions," as Scripture declares, "that every mouth might be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God, because by the works of the law no flesh is justified." For there was no one so far advanced in virtue, spiritual virtue I mean, as to be able to fulfil all that had been commanded, and that blamelessly. But the grace that is by Christ justifieth, because, doing away with the condemnation of the law, it frees us by means of faith.
That proud and foolish Pharisee therefore did not even deem Jesus to have attained to the measure of a prophet: but He made the woman's tears an opportunity for clearly instructing him in the mystery. For He taught the Pharisee, and all who were assembled there, that the Word being God, "came into the world in our likeness, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved by Him." He came that He might forgive the debtors much and little, and shew mercy upon small and great, that there might be no one whatsoever who did not participate in His goodness. And as a pledge and plain example of His grace, He freed that unchaste woman from her many iniquities by saying, "Thy sins are forgiven thee." Worthy indeed of God is a declaration such as this! It is a word joined with supreme authority. For since the law condemned those that were in sin, who, I ask, was able to declare things above the law, except Him only Who ordained it? Immediately therefore He |159 both set the woman free, and directed the attention of that Pharisee, and those who were dining with him, to more excellent things: for they learned that the Word being God, was not as one of the prophets, but rather far beyond the measure of humanity, even though He became man. And one may say to him who invited Him, Thou was trained up, O Pharisee, in the sacred Scriptures; thou knowest I suppose of course the commands given by most wise Moses: thou hast examined the words of the holy prophets: Who then is This That walking in a path contrary to the sacred commands, hath delivered from guilt? Who That hath pronounced them free who have boldly broken the things ordained? Recognise therefore by the facts themselves One superior to the prophets and the law: remember that one of the holy prophets proclaimed these things in old time of Him, and said, "They shall be in wonder at our God, and shall be afraid of Thee. Who is a God like unto Thee, That forgiveth the transgressions, and passeth over the iniquities of the remnant of His inheritance, nor retaineth His anger unto the end, because He willeth mercy?"
Those therefore who were at meat with the Pharisee, were astonished and wondered at seeing Christ the Saviour of all possessed of such godlike supremacy, and using expressions above the right of man. For they said, "Who is This That forgiveth sins also?" Dost thou wish me to tell thee Who He is? He Who is in the bosom of God the Father, and was begotten of Him by nature: by Whom every thing was brought into being: Who possesses supreme sovereignty, and is worshipped by every thing in heaven and in earth. He submitted Himself to our estate, and became our High Priest, in order that He might present us unto God, pure and clean, having put off the ill savour of sin, and having Him instead in us as a sweet savour. For, as most wise Paul writes, "We are a sweet savour of Christ unto God." This is He Who spake by the voice of the prophet Ezechiel, "And I will be to you a God, and I will save you from all your uncleannesses." See therefore, that the actual accomplishment agreed with what had before been promised by the holy prophets. Acknowledge Him as God----Him so gentle and loving unto men. Seize upon the way of salvation: flee from the law that killeth: accept |160 the faith which is above the law. For it is written, "That which is written killeth," even the law: "but the spirit giveth life," even the spiritual purification that is in Christ. Satan had bound the inhabitants of earth with the cords of sin: Christ has loosed them; He has made us free, has abolished the tyranny of sin, has driven away the accuser of our infirmities; and the Scripture is fulfilled, that "all iniquity shall stop its mouth;" "for it is God That justifieth: 'Who is he that condemneth?" This the divine Psalmist also prayed might be accomplished, when thus addressing Christ the Saviour of all. "Let sinners perish from off the earth: and the wicked, so that they may not be found." For verily we must not say of one clothed with the Spirit, that he curseth those who are infirm and sinful:----for it is not fitting for the saints to curse any:----but rather that he prays this of God. For before the coming of the Saviour we all were in sin: there was no one who acknowledged Him Who by nature and verily is God. "There was no one doing good, no not one; but they all had turned aside together, and become reprobate." But because the Only-begotten submitted Himself to emptiness, and became flesh, and was made man, sinners have perished, and exist no longer. For the dwellers upon earth have been justified by faith, have washed away the pollution of sin by holy baptism, have been made partakers of the Holy Ghost, have sprung out of the hand of the enemy; and having bidden as it were the hosts of devils to depart, dwell under the yoke of Christ.
Christ's gifts therefore raise men to a hope long looked for, and to a most dear joy. The woman who was guilty of many impurities, and deserving of blame for most disgraceful deeds, was justified, that we also may have confidence that Christ certainly will have mercy upon us, when He sees us hastening to Him, and endeavouring to escape from the pitfalls of wickedness. Let us too stand before Him: let us shed the tears of repentance: let us anoint Him with ointment: for the tears of him that repenteth are a sweet savour to God. Call him to mind who saith, "Awake, they who are drunken with wine: weep and howl all they who drink wine to drunkenness." For Satan intoxicates the heart, and agitates the mind by wicked pleasure, leading men clown to the pollutions of sensuality. But while there is time, let us awake; and as most |161 wise Paul says, "Let us not be constantly engaged in revels and drunkenness, nor in chambering and wantonness; but rather let us work what is good: for we are not of the night, nor of darkness, but children of light and of the day. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and clothe ourselves with the works of light." Be not troubled when thou meditatest upon the greatness of thy former sins: but rather know, that still greater is the grace that justifieth the sinner, and absolveth the wicked.
Faith then in Christ is found to be the pledge to us of these great blessings: for it is the way that leadeth unto life: that bids us go to the mansions that are above: that raises us to the inheritance of the saints: that makes us members of the kingdom of Christ: by Whom and with Whom, to God the Father be praise and dominion with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever, Amen. |162
SERMON XLI.
8:4-8. And when a large multitude was gathered together, and some of every city were come to Him, He spake by a parable. The Sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and was trampled upon, and the birds of heaven devoured it. And other fell upon the rock, and, when it had sprung up, it withered away because it had no moisture. And other fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up with it, and choked it. And other fell upon the good ground, and it grew up, and brought forth fruit a hundredfold. While saying these things He cried out, He that hath ears to hear let him hear.
The blessed prophets have spoken to us in manifold ways respecting Christ the Saviour of us all. For some proclaimed Him as a Light that was to come: and others as One of royal rank and greatness. For one of them even says, "Blessed is he who hath seed in Zion, and kinsmen in Jerusalem: for lo! her just king shall reign, and princes shall bear rule with judgment. And That Man shall be One That hideth His words." For the word of the Saviour is constantly, so to speak, hidden. So also the blessed Psalmist has brought Him before us saying, "I will open My mouth in parables." See therefore that that which was spoken by Him in old time has come to pass. For a large multitude was assembled round Him of people from all Judaea, and He spake to them in parables. But inasmuch as they were not worthy to learn the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, the word was wrapt for them in darkness: for they had killed the holy prophets, and being guilty of much blood of the righteous, heard themselves thus plainly addressed: "Which of the prophets have not your fathers killed?" And again, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that killeth the prophets, and stoneth them that are sent unto her; how often would I have gathered thy children, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not. Behold your house is left unto you." |163
But their wicked acts did not extend merely to the holy prophets, but even mounted up to Him Who is Lord of the prophets: that is Christ. For being insolent, and setting up against Him, so to speak, their haughty neck, they gave not the slightest heed to the duty of receiving faith in Him: and even wickedly resisted His public teaching, and rebuked those who wished to be constantly with Him, and thirsted for His instruction, impiously saying, "He hath a devil and is mad: why hear ye Him?" To them therefore it was not granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but rather unto us, who are more ready to embrace the faith. For He hath given unto us, as being perfect wisdom, the ability "to understand parables, and the dark saying, the words of the wise, and their riddles." For parables we may say are the images not of visible objects, but rather of those cognizable by the intellect and spiritual. For that which it is impossible to see with the eyes of the body, the parable points out unto the eyes of the mind, beautifully shaping out the subtilty of things intellectual, by means of the things of sense, and which are as it were palpable to the touch. Let us see therefore what benefit the Saviour's word weaves for us.
The Sower, He says, went out to "sow his seed, and so forth." Concerning whom then did He thus speak? Evidently concerning Himself. For He verily is the Sower of all that is good, and we are His husbandry: and by Him and from Him is the whole harvest of spiritual fruits. And this He taught us when saying, "Without Me ye can do nothing."
In the imaginations therefore of the mind, see, I pray, a husbandman walking along, and everywhere casting seed in the fields: of which some falls on the pathways, and some on the rocks; and some on thorny places: and again some on good, that is, on fertile ground. That however on the |164 pathways was snatched away: and that on the rocks, when it had just sprouted, and scarcely shot up, quickly withered of drought: and that among thorns was choked: hut that which fell on good ground prospered, for it bore fruit, He says, a hundredfold.
Now what the aim is of the discourse, and what the profounder teaching of the parable, we shall learn from Him Who framed it. Before us even the blessed disciples found these things hard to understand, and drew near unto the Revealer of mysteries, supplicating Him and saying, "What is the parable? And what was Christ's reply? "The seed is the word of God: those on the way are they who have heard, and afterwards the devil cometh, and taketh away the word from their heart, that they may not believe and be saved." And 4 as to the cause of the seed on the pathways being snatched away, we see in a moment that it is the hardness of the ground. A pathway always is hard and untilled, because it is exposed to every one's feet, nor is any seed admitted into it, but lies rather upon the surface, ready for any birds that will to snatch it away. All those therefore, whose mind is hard and unyielding, and so to speak, pressed together, do not "receive the divine seed: for the divine and sacred admonition finds no entrance into them, nor do they accept the words that would produce in them the fear of God, and by means of which they could bring forth as fruits the glories of virtue. They have made themselves a beaten and trampled pathway for unclean demons, yea, and for Satan himself, such as never can bear holy fruit. Let those therefore awake, whose heart is sterile and unfruitful: open your mind, receive the sacred seed, be like productive and well-tilled soil, bring forth unto God the fruits that will raise you to an incorruptible life: guard your mind, shut the entrance against the thief, drive away from your hearts the flocks of birds, in order that the seed may abide with you; that ye may be ground luxuriant in corn, and very fertile, and rich abundantly in bringing forth fruit. |165
And next, let us also consider those others of whom Christ said, "And those upon the rock are they who, when they hear, receive the word with joy, and they have no root: these for a while believe, and in time of temptation depart away." For there are verily men whose faith has not been proved, depending on words simply, and not applying their mind to the examining of the mystery: of such the piety is sapless and without root. For when they enter the churches, they feel pleasure often in seeing so many assembled, and joyfully receive instruction in the mysteries from him whose business it is to teach, and laud him with praises: but this they do with no discretion or judgment, but with unpurified wills: and when they have gone out of the churches, at once they forget the sacred doctrines, and proceed in their customary course; not having stored up within them any thing for their future benefit. And if the affairs of Christians go on peacefully, and no trial disturb them, they even then scarcely maintain in them the faith, and that, so to speak, in a confused and tottering state. But if persecution trouble them, and the enemies of the truth attack the churches of the Saviour, their heart loves not the battle, and their mind throws away the shield and flees, being devoid of zeal, and destitute of love towards God, and ready for desertion. But O ye fearful and infirm, one may well say, why do ye flee from that which would be your glory? and escape from conflicts to which ye have been trained? For hereby those who wish may win for themselves the trophy of victory. Do ye also struggle: twine the chaplet of manliness, thirst for the rewards of perseverance, for the honours of patience.
I think too that I may rightly bring forward the following argument: they who glitter on lofty thrones, and govern earthly things, when is it they see the steadfast soldier, whose desire is set on victory? Is it in times when peace smiles, and the din of arms is still? Or is it rather when he goes courageously against those who are marshalling for the attack? As I imagine, it is the latter case that is true rather than the former. Therefore as the prophet Jeremiah has said, "Take up arms and shields." Especially as the right hand of God our Saviour is invincible in the battle, and as most wise Paul has said, "He does not permit men to be tried more than they can |166 bear, but with the trial will make also the way of egress, that they may be able to endure patiently."
But even if it possibly be our lot to suffer when contending in defence of piety towards Christ, then altogether and in every way are we worthy of envy, and glorious, and possessed of splendid hopes. Moreover, a praised death is incomparably better than an ignominious life. For so also the Saviour said to the holy apostles, "Fear not them who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. But rather fear Him Who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." Did He therefore command us thus entirely to disregard these extreme dangers, while He Himself remained aloof from similar trials? But lo! He laid down His life for us, and with His blood purchased the world. We are therefore not our own, but His Who bought and redeemed us, and to Whom we owe our lives. For as the divine Paul said, "For this reason Christ died and lived, that He might be Lord of the dead and the living." We ought therefore to possess a mind incapable of being shaken, that especially whenever temptation arrive, we may shew ourselves approved and victorious in the power of patience: and ready with joy to undergo conflicts, and seize the opportunity of suffering for piety's sake towards Christ.
Thus much then being disposed of and explained, let us next consider the thorns among which the divine seed is choked. What again says the Saviour? "But that which fell among the thorns are they who have heard, and by cares, and wealth, and pleasures of the world, go and are choked, and yield no fruit." For the Saviour scatters the seed, which having obtained a firm hold in the souls that have received it, and already, so to say, shot up, and just begun to be visible, is choked by worldly cares, and dries up, being overgrown by empty occupations, and as the prophet Jeremiah 5 said, "it becomes a handful, that can produce no meal." In these things therefore we must be like skilful husbandmen: who having perseveringly cleansed away the thorns, and torn up by the root whatever is injurious, then scatter the seed in clean furrows; and therefore one can say with confidence, "that doubtless they shall come with joy, bearing their sheaves." But if a man cast his |167 seed in ground that is fertile in thorns, and fruitful in briars, and densely covered with useless stubble, he sustains a double loss: of his seed first, and also of his trouble. In order therefore that the divine seed may blossom well in us, let us first cast out of the mind worldly cares, and the unprofitable anxiety which makes us seek to be rich, "For we brought nothing into the world, nor can we take any thing out." For what profit is there in possessing superfluities? "Treasures profit not the wicked," as Scripture saith, "but righteousness delivereth from death." For immediately upon the possession of affluence, there run up, and, so to speak, forthwith hem us in, the basest wickednesses; profligate banquets, the delights of gluttony, and carefully prepared sauces; music, and drunkenness, and the pitfalls of wantonness; pleasures and sensuality, and pride hateful to God. But as the disciple of the Saviour has said, "Every thing that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eye, and the pride of the world; and the world passeth away, and its lust; but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever."
This is the good seed, and worthy of admiration: the land rich and well productive, that bringeth forth fruit a hundredfold. For men say, that the best soils do sometimes under cultivation produce a hundredfold; so that this is a mark of every fertile and productive spot. And of such it has been very justly said by one of the holy prophets at the mouth of God, "And all nations shall congratulate you; because ye are a desirable land." For when the divine word falls upon a mind pure and skilful in cleansing itself from things hurtful, it then fixes its root deeply, and shoots up like an ear of corn, and so to speak, being strong in blade, and well flowered, brings its fruit to perfection.
But I think it may be useful to mention this to you, who wish to learn what is good. For Matthew, when relating this chapter to us, said that the good ground brought forth, fruit in three degrees. "For one, he says, brought forth a hundred, |168 and one sixty, and one thirtyfold." Observe therefore, that just as Christ described three degrees of loss, so similarly the degrees of success are equal in number. For those seeds that fall upon the pathway are snatched away by the birds: and those upon the rocks, having merely shot up, within a little while wither away: and those among the thorns are choked. But that desirable land brings forth fruit in three several degrees, as I said: a hundred, sixty, and thirtyfold. For as most wise Paul writes, "Each one severally of us has his own gift from God, one in one manner, and another in another." For we do not at all find that the successes of the saints are in equal measure. On us however it is incumbent to emulate these things that are better and superior to those of meaner kind; for so will Christ bountifully bestow happiness upon us: by Whom and with Whom, to God the Father be praise and dominion with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever, Amen. |169
SERMON XLII.
8:19-21. And there came to Him His mother, and His brethren, and were not able to speak with Him because of the multitude. Bui it was told Him, Thy mother, and Thy brethren stand without, wishing to see Thee. But He answered and said unto them, My mother and My brethren are these who hear the word of God and do it.
ONCE again let the words of praise in the book of Psalms be quoted by us; "What shall I render unto the Lord for all He hath rendered unto me?" For what can we offer Him that is equal to His love towards us? Shall we choose for our guidance the commands of the law, and honour Him with sacrifices of blood? Does He feel pleasure in the slaughter of bullocks and goats? No certainly: for they are an abomination unto Him. For by one of His holy prophets He even plainly declared to those who were rendering Him the legal service, "I hate, I abominate your feast days: nor will I smell at your festivals: because though ye bring Me whole burnt offerings and sacrifices, I will not accept them; nor regard your displays for salvation." What therefore ought to be the spiritual sacrifice which we offer Him, the wise Psalmist again teaches us saying, "I said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord; because my good things Thou needest not." When thus we approach Him, He will accept us: if this be the offering we make Him it will be dear and agreeable: this is the spiritual sacrifice, according as it is written, "Hath the Lord delight in whole burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in our hearkening to His voice? Behold! to hearken is better than sacrifices; and to listen than the fat of rams." For that obedience and the hearkening unto God, is the cause of every blessing, the present lesson teaches us. For some entered and told Christ respecting His holy mother and His brethren. And He, it says, answered in these words, "My mother and My brethren are they who hear the word of God and do it."
Now let not any one imagine that Christ spurned the honour due to His mother, or contemptuously disregarded the love owed |170 to His brethren: for He it was Who spake the law by Moses, and clearly said, "Honour thy father and thy mother, that it may be well with thee." And how I pray could He have rejected the love due to brethren, Who even commanded us to love not merely our brethren, but those who stand in the relation to us of foes? For He says, "Love your enemies." What therefore does Christ wish to teach? His object then is highly to exalt His love towards those who are willing to bow the neck to His commands: and in what way I will explain. The greatest honours; and the most complete affection is that which we all owe to our mothers and brethren. If therefore He says that they who hear His word and do it are His mother and brethren, is it not plain to every one, that He bestows on those who follow Him a love thorough and worthy of their acceptance? For so He would make them readily embrace the desire of yielding themselves to His words, and of submitting their mind to His yoke, by means of a complete obedience.
But that God greatly rejoices in those whose minds are thus disposed, He assures us by one of the holy prophets, thus saying, "And on whom shall I look, except upon the humble and meek, and that trembleth at My words?" For just as our fathers after the flesh feel pleasure in those sons whose choice it is to perform the things that are good and agreeable to them, and who wish to accord with them in mind, so also the God of all loves the obedient, and deigns His mercy to him who thoroughly hearkens to Him. And the converse also is true: that he rejects him who is disobedient and untractable. For He also blamed the Jews who fell into this wickedness, saying, "A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if I then am a father, where is My honour? and if I am a master, where is My fear? saith the Lord Almighty." For either we ought to fear the Lord of all as a master, or to honour Him at least as a father,----a thing which is far greater and better than the former: for love casteth out fear.
For that there is no obedience without reward, and on the other hand, no disobedience without penalty, is made plain by what God spake by His holy prophet to those who disregarded Him: "Behold, they who serve Me shall eat, but ye shall suffer hunger: behold, they who serve Me shall drink, but ye shall suffer thirst: behold, they who obey Me shall |171 rejoice, but ye shall lament: behold, they who serve Me shall exult in happiness, but ye shall groan, and wail from contrition of your heart." For let us see, if you will, even from the writings of Moses, the grief to which disobedience has brought us. We have been driven from a paradise of delights, and have also fallen under the condemnation of death; and while intended for incorruption:----for so God created the universe:----we yet have become accursed, and subject to the yoke of sin. And how then have we escaped from that which befel us, or Who is He that aided us, when we had sunk into this great misery? It was the Only-begotten Word of God, by submitting Himself to our estate, and being found in fashion as a man, and becoming obedient unto the Father even unto death. Thus has the guilt of the disobedience that is by Adam been remitted: thus has the power of the curse ceased, and the dominion of death been brought to decay. And this too Paul teaches, saying, "For as by the disobedience of the one man, the many became sinners, so by the obedience of the One, the many became righteous." For the whole nature of man became guilty in the person of him who was first formed; but now it is wholly justified again in Christ. For He became for us the second commencement of our race after that primary one; and therefore all things in Him have become new. And Paul assures of this, writing, "Therefore every man who is in Christ is a new creation; and the former things have passed away: behold, they have become new."
In order then that Christ may win us all unto obedience, He promises us surpassing honours, and deigns us the highest love, saying, "My mother and My brethren are those who hear the word of God and do it." For who among men is so obdurate and ungentle, as to refuse to honour, and accord the most complete love to his mother and brethren? For the all-powerful law of nature, even without our will, obliges us to this. When therefore, bowing our neck to the Saviour's commands, we become His followers, and so are in the relation of a mother and brethren to Him, how does He regard us before God's judgment seat? Is it not with gentleness and love? What doubt can there be of this? And what is comparable to this honour and goodness? What is there worthy of being matched with a gift thus splendid and desirable? For He takes us unto Him, that where |172 He is, there we also may be with Him. For this He even deigned to promise us, saying, "I will go, and make ready a place for you: and return again and take you with Me, that where I am, there ye also may be with Me."
Servitude, therefore, is a thing worth our gaining, and the pledge of noble honours. And this, we say, is fulfilled not by our merely hearing the words of God, but by our endeavouring to perform what is commanded. This thou learnest from what one of the holy Apostles declares: "But become doers of the law 6, and not hearers only. If any be a hearer of the law, and not a doer, he is like a man regarding his natural face in a mirror. For he has regarded himself, and gone away: and at once forgotten what manner of person he was. But he who hath, looked into the perfect law of liberty, and wrought: not being a forgetful hearer, but an active doer,7 he shall be blessed in his doing."
Now though the argument already brought forward is sufficient for the persuasion of right-thinking men, yet I will add for their advantage that also which is correctly said in the words of the blessed Paul: "For the land that hath drunk in the rain that hath come oft upon it, and bringeth forth the root serviceable for them for whose sake it is tilled, receiveth a blessing from God. But if it bring forth thorns and thistles, it is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing: and its end is to be burnt." For like rain, the Saviour sendeth down upon the hearts of those who hear, the word of spiritual consolation; even the sacred doctrine of salvation. If then a man be possessed of understanding, he will bring forth the fruits of an abundant intellectual harvest: but if he be careless and negligent, he of course has no claim to the praises of virtue, and instead of grapes will bring forth thorns. And what his end will be, we learn from the words of Isaiah. For he says: |173 "For the vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the man of Judah: a plant new and well-beloved: and I looked that it would bring forth grapes, but it brought forth iniquity, and not righteousness, but a cry." And that Israel was thus punished for its neglect of that fruitfulness which was both fitting for itself and well pleasing to God; having neither obeyed His commands, nor consented to perform them; we learn again from' His words, where He says: "But now I will shew you what I will do to My vineyard. I will take away its fence, and it shall be wasted: and I will rend its wall, and it shall be trampled under foot. And I will abandon My vineyard: and it shall not be pruned, nor tilled: and thorns shall grow up in it as on waste ground; and I will command the clouds to rain no rain upon it." It is plain, therefore, to every man, that God hath no respect for the wicked soul that beareth thorns. For it is left unprotected, and without a wall, and exposed to the depredations of whoever will; a place for thieves and wild animals; and sharing in no spiritual consolation. For this I consider, and this only, is the meaning of there falling upon it no rain. When Israel suffered these things, the Psalmist so to speak wailed over him, and said to the God of all: "The vine that Thou broughtest out of Egypt, Thou castedst out the nations and plantedst it." And again thus proceeds: "Its shade covered the mountains; and its boughs were as the cedars of God: it sent forth its branches to the sea, and its foliage to the river." He made too supplications for what they had suffered, saying; "Why hast Thou broken down her hedges, and all the wayfarers pluck her? The boar out of the wood destroyeth her: and the ass of the desert feedeth upon her." For the soul that is undefended, and deemed unworthy of protection from on high, becomes a pasture ground for evil beasts. For it is plundered by Satan and his angels.
In order, therefore, that we may not fall into such severe tribulations, let us bow the neck of our mind to Christ the Saviour of all. Let us receive the Word of God and do it: for if our choice be so to act, He will crown us with lofty honours; for He is the distributor of the crowns; by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever, Amen. |174
SERMON XLIII.
8:22-25. But it came to pass on a certain day that He went into a ship with His disciples. And He said unto them, Let us go over to the other side of the lake: and they went. But as they were sailing, He fell asleep: and there came down a storm of wind upon the lake, and the ship was filled and they were in danger. And they drew near, and awoke Him, saying, Master, Master, we perish. Then He arose, and rebuked the winds, and the raging of the waters, and they were still: and there was a great calm. But He said to them, Where is your faith? And they were afraid, and wondered among themselves, saying, Who, then, is This, that He commandeth even the winds, and waters, and they obey Him?
ONCE again draw near, that as with the Psalmist's harp we may cry aloud: "I will bless the Lord at all times: and at all times shall His praise be in my mouth." For He ever doeth wonderful things; and giveth occasions thick and closely pressing one upon another for His praise: and every word falls short of His power, and of His majesty far exalted above all. For true is it that "the glory of the Lord covereth over the Word." But we must not on this account forget the glory that is His due and fitting right: but rather must hasten joyfully to offer such fruits as are proportionate to our power. For certainly there is nothing whatsoever that a man can affirm to be better than praise, even though it be but little that we can offer. Come, therefore, and let us praise Christ the Saviour of all: let us behold the supremacy of His might, and the majesty of His godlike dominion.
For He was sailing, together with the holy Apostles, across the sea, or rather lake of Tiberias, and an unexpected and violent tempest arose upon the vessel; and the waves, piled up high by the gusts of the winds, filled the disciples with the fear of death. For they were terrified not a little, although well acquainted with seamanship, and by no means inexperienced |175 in the tumults of the waves. But inasmuch as the greatness of the clangor made their terror now unendurable, as having no other hope of safety except Him only Who is the Lord of powers even Christ, they arouse Him, saying, Master, Master, save us, we perish: for the Evangelist says that He was asleep.8 With most wise purpose, as it seems to me, was this also done. For some one, I imagine, may say, Why did He fall asleep at all? To which we reply, that the event was so arranged as to be good and profitable. For that they might not ask aid of Him immediately when the tempest began to dash upon the ship, but when, so to speak, the evil was at its height, and the terrors of death were troubling the disciples; that so the might of His godlike sovereignty might be more manifest, in calming the raging sea, and rebuking the savage blasts of the wind, and changing the tempest to a calm, and that the event might thus become a means of improvement to them that were sailing with Him, He purposely fell asleep.
But they, as I said, wake Him, saying: Save 9 me, We perish. See here, I pray, smallness of faith united with faith. For they believe that He can save; and deliver from all evil those who call upon Him. For had they not so far had a firm faith in Him, they certainly would not have asked this of Him, And yet as having but little faith, they say, Save me, we perish. For it was not a thing possible, or that could |176 happen, for them to perish when they were with Him Who is Almighty.
The vessel, then, was severely tossed by the violence of the tempest, and the breaking of the waves: and along with the whip the faith of the disciples also was tossed, so to speak, by similar agitations. But Christ, Whose authority extends over all, immediately arose, and at once appeased the storm, restrained the blasts of wind, quieted their fear, and yet further proved by deeds that He is God, at Whom all created things tremble and quake, and to Whose nods is subject the very nature of the elements. For He rebuked the tempest: and Matthew says that the manner of the rebuke was with godlike authority. For he tells us, that our Lord said to the sea: "Peace, be thou still." What can there be more grand than this in majesty? or what can equal its sublimity? Right worthy of God is the word, and the might of the commandment, so that we too may utter the praise written in the book of Psalms: "Thou rulest the power of the sea: and stillest the turbulence of its waves." He too has Himself said somewhere by one of the holy prophets: "Why fear ye not Me, saith the Lord? nor tremble at My presence? I Who have set the sand as the bound of the sea, a commandment for ever, and it hath not passed it." For the sea is subject to the will of Him Who made all creation, and is, as it wore, placed under the Creator's feet, varying its motions at all times according to His good pleasure, and yielding submission to His lordly will.
When, therefore, Christ had calmed the tempest, He also changed into confidence the faith of the holy disciples, which had been shaken along with the ship, no longer permitting it to be in doubt; and wrought in them, so to say, a calm, smoothing the waves of their weak faith. For He said, "Where is your faith?" 10 Another Evangelist, however, affirms of Him, that He said, "Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?" For when the fear of death unexpectedly |177 befals, it troubles sometimes even a well-established mind, and exposes it to the blame of littleness of faith; and such also is the effect of any other trouble too great to boar upon those who are tried by it. For this reason there once drew near certain unto Christ, and said: "Increase our faith."' For the man who is still exposed to blame for littleness of faith falls short of him who is perfect in faith. For just as gold is tried in the fire, so also is faith by temptations. But the mind of man is weak, and altogether in need of strength and help from above, in order that it may be well with him, and that he may be able to maintain a steadfast course, and be strong, manfully to endure whatsoever befal. And this our Saviour taught us, saying; "Without Me ye can do nothing." And the wise Paul also confesses the same, where he writes; "I am able to do all things through Christ, That strengtheneth me."
The Saviour, therefore, wrought miracles, changing by His all-prevailing nod the tempest into a calm, and smoothing the raging storm into a settled peace. But the disciples wondering at the divine sign, whispered one to another, saying: "Who, then, is This, that He commands even the winds and the waters, and they obey Him?" Did the blessed disciples, then, thus say to one another, "Who is This?" from not knowing Him? But how is not this utterly incredible? For they knew Jesus to be God, and the Son of God. For also Nathaniel plainly confessed, "Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God, Thou art the King of Israel." Yes, and Peter too, that chosen one of all the Apostles, when they were in the neighbourhood of Caesarea Philippi, and Christ put a question to them all, and said, "Whom do men say that the Son of man "is?" and certain had answered, '' Some, indeed, Elias; but others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets"----made a correct and blameless confession of faith in Him, saying, "Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God." And Christ praised him for thus speaking, honoured him with crowns, and counted the disciple worthy of surpassing honours: for He said, '' Blessed art thou, Simon, son of Jonah: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but My Father in heaven." And how could Peter, who was taught of God, not know Him Whom he plainly said was the Son of the living God? It was not then as being ignorant of His glory, that the wise disciples say, |178 Who is This? but rather as wondering at the immensity of His power, and at the lofty and incomparable greatness of His sovereignty. For the wretched Jews, either as being entirely ignorant of the mystery of Christ, or as not deigning Him, in their great wickedness, any regard, rebuked Him, and threw stones at Him, when He called God His Father. For they ventured even to say, "Why dost Thou, being a man, make Thyself God?" For they did not comprehend in their mind the depth of the mystery. God was in visible form like unto us: the Lord of all bore the likeness of a slave: He Who is high exalted was in lowliness: and He who surpasses all intellectual comprehension, and transcends every created being, was in the measure of us men. And as the disciples knew this, they wonder at the glory of the Godhead; and as they view It present in Christ, and yet see that He was like unto us, and visible in the flesh, they say, "Who is This?" instead of, How great He is! and of what nature! and with how great power, and authority, and majesty. He commands even the waters and the wind, and they obey Him!
There is also in this much for the admiration and improvement of those who hear: for creation is obedient to whatsoever Christ chooses to command. And what excuse can avail us, if we do not submit to do the same? or can deliver from the fire and condemnation him who is disobedient and untractable, setting up, so to speak, the neck of his haughty mind against Christ's commands, and whose heart it is impossible to soften? It is our duty, therefore, understanding that all those things that have been brought into existence by God entirely agree with His will, ourselves to become like the rest of creation, and avoid disobedience as a thing that leads to perdition. Let us rather, then, submit to Him Who summons us to salvation, and to the desire of living uprightly and lawfully, that is, evangelically: for so Christ will fill us with the gifts that come from above, and from Himself: by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Ghost, for ever and over, Amen 11. |179
SERMON XLIV.
8:26-36. And they went to the country of the Gerasenes, which is over against Galilee. And when He went out on land, there met Him a certain man who had devils, and for a long time had not worn clothing, nor abode in a house, but in the tombs. And when he saw Jesus, he cried out, and fell down before Him, and with a loud voice said, What is there between me and Thee, Jesus, Son of God Most High? I beseech Thee, Torment me not. But He had commanded the unclean spirit to go out of the man: for from a long time it had seized him, and he was kept bound with chains and fetters, and was watched: and breaking his bonds, he was driven, by the devil into the wilderness. And Jesus asked him, saying, What is thy name? And he said, Legion: because that many devils had entered into him. And they besought Him not to command them to go into the abyss. But there was there a herd of many swine feeding on the mountain: and they besought Him to suffer them to enter into them. And He suffered them. But when the devils had gone out of the man, they entered into the swine. And the herd rushed over the precipice into the lake, and was drowned. When then the keepers saw what had happened, they fled, and told it in the city and villages. And they went out to see what had happened, and came to Jesus, and found the man out of whom the devils had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus clothed, and sober-minded. And they were afraid. But they who saw it told them in what manner the demoniac had been saved.
THE prophet Habakkuk foresaw the glory of the Saviour, and, overcome by His wonderful deeds, he offered up praises unto Him, saying: "O Lord, I have heard Thy hearing, and been afraid: I have considered Thy doings, and been |180 astonished." For of which of the deeds wrought by our common Saviour Christ can any one say, that it is not worthy of all admiration? which of them is not great, and highly to be praised, and a proof of His godlike authority? And this we can very clearly see in what has been here read to us from the evangelic Scriptures. Let us behold, then, the tyranny of the enemy shaken by Christ, and the earth set free from the wickedness of demons: let us see the heads of the serpent bruised by Him, and the swarm of venomous reptiles driven away overpowered and in terror: and those who in old time had been full of cunning and audacity; who had held subject to their sway all that lies beneath the heavens; who had prided themselves upon their temples of vast cost, and on their beautifully sculptured altars; who had been honoured with sacrifices; and crowned with universal praises; fall from their former glory, and as though retaining sovereignty over no one single man, beg for a herd of swine! A very plain proof is this of the unexpected misery that had befallen them, and of their being broken utterly.
But no more: for I perceive that in my discourse I have taken a leap, as it were, from what we began with, and have hurried to the latter part of the lesson. Come, therefore, that, like a fleet and strong-limbed horse, we may as with a bridle, turn it back to the beginning. For the Saviour, in company with the holy disciples, had landed in the country of the Gerasenes; and immediately a man met them, in whom dwelt many unclean spirits: and he was void of mind and understanding, and in no respect different from those already dead, and laid in the earth: or rather, perhaps, even in a more miserable state. For they, carefully wrapped in their grave-clothes, are laid in the earth, like one on his mother's bosom: but he, in great misery and nakedness, wandering among the graves of the dead, was in utter wretchedness, leading a disgraceful and ignominious life: and so was a proof of the cruelty of the demons, and a plain demonstration of their impurity. And besides this, it is a charge and accusation against them of hatred unto mankind: for they would have no man whatsoever upon earth sober, but wish them like one intoxicated, and crazed, to know nothing to their profit, but be left in ignorance even of Him Who is the Maker of all. For of |181 whomsoever they have possession, and have subjected to their power, him at once they make an example of great misery, deprived of every blessing, and destitute of all sobriety, and bereft moreover entirely even of reason itself.
But why, say some, have they possession of men? To such, then, as wish to have this explained, I answer, that the reason of these things is very deep: for so somewhere God is addressed by one of His saints, "Thy judgments are a vast abyss." But as long as we bear this in mind, we shall perchance not shoot beside the mark. The God of all, then, purposely permits some to fall into their power, not so much that they may suffer, as that we may learn by their example in what way the demons treat us, and so may avoid the wish of being subject to them. For by the suffering of one, many are edified.
But the Gerasene, or rather the herd of demons lying concealed within him, fell down before Christ's feet, saying, "What is there between me and Thee, Jesus, Son of God Most High? I beseech Thee, torment me not.'" Here observe, I pray, the mixture of fear with great audacity, and overweening pride: and that the words which he is forced, as it were, to ejaculate, are coupled with inflated haughtiness! For it is a proof of the pride of the enemy, that he ventures to say, "What is there between me and Thee, Jesus, Son of God Most High? Thou knowest, then, for certain, that He is the Son of God Most High: thou therefore confessest that He is also God, and Lord of heaven and earth, and of all things therein: and how, then, having usurped that which is not thine, or rather that which is His, and assumed to thyself a glory which in no possible way is thy right:----for thou claimedst to be worshipped:----didst thou affirm that He had nothing to do with thee, Whom, as far as thy endeavours went, thou causedst to be expelled from that dignity which most fitly is His alone? All men upon earth are His; and these thou wickedly corruptedst, removing them far from the knowledge of Him Who truly is the Lord and Maker of all, and plungedst them into the mire of sin, making them thy worshippers:----and afterwards dost thou say, "What is there between me and Thee?" What earthly king would endure to have those placed under his sceptre harrassed by barbarians? Or what |182 shepherd is so unfeeling and indifferent, as when savage beasts attack his flocks, to take no heed of the calamity, nor endeavour to aid his sheep? Confess, even though against thy will, who thou art, and to Whom thou speakest. Utter words such as befit thee: such namely as, "I pray Thee, torment me not." "For He had commanded, it says, the spirit to go out of the man."
Observe, I pray again, the incomparable majesty of Him Who transcends all, even of Christ. With irresistible might and unequalled authority He crushes Satan by simply willing that so it should be. He does not permit him to venture to give one look of opposition to His commands. Fire and flames unto him was Christ's will: so that it is true as the blessed Psalmist said, that "the hills melted like wax before the face of God." And again elsewhere, "Touch the hills, and they shall smoke." For he compares to the hills those high and boastful powers of wickedness; which nevertheless, as though in contact with fire, melt like wax before the might and sovereignty of our Saviour. And besides this they smoke: now smoke is an indication of tire about to burst into a blaze; and this it is the lot of the impure spirits to suffer.
But Christ asked him, and commanded him to tell, What was his name. And he said, "Legion, because that many devils had entered into him." Did Christ then ask because He did not know it, and like one of us, wished to learn it as something that had escaped Him? But how is it not perfectly absurd for us to say or imagine any thing of the kind? For as being God, "He knoweth all things, and searcheth the hearts and reins." He asked therefore for the plan of salvation's sake, that we might learn that a great multitude of devils shared 12 the one soul of the man, engendering in him a wretched and impure madness. For he was their work, and they indeed are "wise to do evil," as the Scripture saith, but to do "good they have no knowledge."
As therefore the Psalmist said, "let us keep the feast with flowers." And "Let all the people clap their hands." For |183 let us bear in mind what was the character of our enemies; and who were those princes of all beneath the heavens before the coining of our Saviour: bitter were they, impure, murderers, and full of all immorality. But Christ setteth us free from the hatred of these noxious beings. Let us therefore with exultation and gladness in our great joy exclaim, "We will cut asunder their cords, and cast away their yoke from us." For we have been set free, as I said, by the might of Christ, and delivered from those bitter and iniquitous beings, who in old time had the dominion over us. |184
The herd then of impure spirits asked for a herd----worthy of and like itself----of swine! And Christ purposely gave them leave, though He well knew what they would do. And I can imagine some one saying, Why did He grant their request? To which we answer, That He gave them the power, in order that this, like all His other conduct, might be a means of benefit to us, and inspire us with the hope of safety. But perhaps thou wilt say, How, and in what manner? Listen therefore. They ask for power over swine: plainly as something which they do not possess. For what possible doubt can there be, that they would not have asked it, if it had been in their power to take it without hindrance? But those who have no power over things thus trifling and valueless, how can they injure any one of those whom Christ has scaled, and who place their hope on Him? Comfort therefore thy heart: for perhaps thou wast terrified at hearing that a crowd of wicked spirits dwelt in one man, and made him wander among the graves of the dead in shame and nakedness, and bereft of mind and understanding. Inasmuch as thou too art a man exposed to temptations, thou fearedst a misery thus bitter and unendurable, should Satan attack thee. Rouse therefore thy heart to confidence: do not suppose that any such thing can happen while Christ surrounds us with protection and love. It is certain that they possess no power even over swine. So great is the providence which the Almighty Governor of our affairs deigns to bestow on human things. For He even said to the holy apostles, "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and not one of them falleth to the ground without your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows." For if He bestow His protection upon things thus trifling and valueless, how will He not deem us worthy of all regard, for whose sake He Who by nature is God, even became man, and endured the contumelies of the Jews? Away therefore with fear: for God aids, and encircles with the armour of His good pleasure those whose wish it is to live for Him, and who seek to perform those things that are pleasing in His sight.
And this too we may learn, from what befel the herd of swine, that wicked demons are cruel, and mischievous, and hurtful, and treacherous to those who are in their power. |185
This the fact clearly proves, that they hurried the swine over a precipice and drowned them in the waters. Christ therefore granted their request, that we might learn from what happened, that their disposition is ruthless and bestial, incapable of being softened, and solely intent on doing evil to those whom they can get into their power.
if therefore there be any one among us wanton and swinish, filth-loving and impure, and willingly contaminated with the abominations of sin, such a one by God's permission, falls into their power, and sinks into the abyss of perdition. But it can never happen to those who love Christ, to become subject unto them: nor to us, as long as we walk in His footsteps, and, avoiding negligence in the performance of what is right, desire those things which are honourable, and belong to that virtuous and laudable conversation, which Christ has marked out for us by the precepts of the Gospel: by Whom and with Whom, to God the Father be praise and dominion with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever, Amen. |186
SERMON XLV.
8:40-48. And when Jesus returned, the multitude received Him; for they were all waiting for Him. And behold there came a man named Jairus, and he was a ruler of the synagogue: and he fell down at Jesus' feet, and besought Him to come to his house; for he had an only daughter, about twelve years old, and she was dying. And as He went, the multitudes thronged Him. A woman who had had an issue of blood twelve years, and had spent all her substance upon physicians, and could be healed of none, came near behind Him, and touched the hem of His garment: and immediately her issue of blood staunched. And Jesus said, Who touched Me? And when all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, Master, the multitudes press and throng Thee. But Jesus said, Some one touched Me; for I know that power has gone forth from Me. And when the woman saw that she was not hid from Him, she came trembling, and fell down before Him, and declared before all the people, for what cause she had touched Him, and that she was healed immediately. And He said unto her, My daughter, thy faith hath saved thee: go in peace.
Those who are skilful in elucidating the mystery of the dispensation of the Only-begotten in the flesh, and whose minds are illuminated with divine light, the Spirit commanded, saying, "Declare His praise among the Gentiles, and His miracles among all nations." Did He then command them to declare the praise of our universal Saviour Christ among the multitudes of the Gentiles, to the inhabitants, that is, of the whole world, for no other reason than that He might be admired, or was it not that He might also be believed on by all men? I verily affirm that it was both in order that He might be admired, and also that we might believe that the Word of God the Father is very God, even though, as John says, He was made flesh. For He also somewhere declares unto the Jews, "If I do not the works of My Father, believe Me not: |187 but if I do them, though ye believe not Me, believe the works."
Let us then once again behold Him benefiting multitudes by the miracles He wrought for their good. For there was a ruler and teacher of the synagogue of the Jews, called Jairus; and him the Gospel narrative here announces to us. For he fell down before the feet of Christ our common Saviour, to ask for the unloosing of death, and the annulling of corruption. For his daughter was, so to speak, at the very gates of the grave. Come then, and let us ask Jairus to tell us in what light he regards Him to Whom he offers his request. For if thou drawest near regarding Him as a mere man, and like unto one of us; as one, that is, Who possesses no power superior to ourselves, thou missest thy mark, and hast wandered from the right road, in asking of a man that which requires the power of God. The supreme nature alone is able to give life to the dead. It alone has immortality: and from It every thing that is called into being borrows its life and motion. Ask therefore of men the things that belong unto men, and of God the things that belong unto God.
Moreover thou worshippest Him as the Almighty God: and doest so, as certainly knowing and testifying that He is able to give thee the accomplishment of thy requests. What argument therefore is sufficient for thy defence, that once thou stonedst Christ the Saviour of all; and with the rest didst persecute Him, and most foolishly and impiously say, "For a good work we stone Thee not, but for blasphemy: because that Thou being a man, makest Thyself God."
And not only must we wonder at this, but at the following as well. For Lazarus indeed arose from the dead at the summons of Christ, Who made him come forth from the very grave, when he had been there four days, and corruption had already begun. And those indeed who were spectators of the miracle were astonished at the majesty of the deed. But the rulers of the synagogue of the Jews made the very miracle food for envy, and an act thus great and excellent was stored up in their memory as a seed whence sprung the guilt of murder. For when they had assembled, they took counsel one with another, certainly for no lawful deed, but for one rather that brought upon them their final doom. For they said, "What |188 do we? for This man doeth many miracles. If we let Him thus alone, the Romans will come, and take away both our nation and our place." What then sayest thou to this, O Jairus? Thou sawest death abolished in the case of Lazarus; death which always and to every one before had been stern and unyielding. Thou sawest destruction lose its power, from which no one on earth had escaped. And how then dost thou imagine thou canst make Him subject unto death Who is supreme over death: the Overthrower of destruction, and the Giver of life? How can He Who delivered others from the snares of death, Himself be liable to suffer it, unless He wills so to do for the plan of salvation's sake. The text therefore concerning them is true, "that they are foolish children, and unwise."
But the fate of the damsel was not without profit to her father. For just as sometimes the violence of the reins brings the spirited steed that has bounded away from the road back to its proper course, so also trouble often compels the soul of man to yield obedience to those things which are for its good, and are commanded. To this effect we find the blessed David also addressing God over all, concerning those men who, not being as yet willing to walk uprightly, were led on, so to speak, by the disorderly impulses of their mind to the pit of destruction. "With bridle and bit Thou shalt restrain the jaws of those who draw not near to Thee." For the force of circumstances brings men, as I said, even against their wills to the necessity of bowing their neck to God, as we may see indirectly shewn in the Gospel parables. For Christ somewhere said, that when the banquet was ready, a servant was sent to call them to the supper, and gather those that were bidden: but they, employing fictitious excuses of various kinds, would not come. Then the Lord, it says, spake to that servant: "Go into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in that My house may be filled." What then is the meaning of men being invited from the hedges,----and that as it were by force,----if it be not what is here referred to? For sometimes misfortunes beyond the power of endurance hedge men into extreme misery: and meeting, it may be, with care and assistance from those who fear Christ, they are thus led on unto faith in Him and love: and being weaned from their former |189 error received by tradition from their fathers, they accept the saving word of the Gospel. And such we may well affirm to be those who are called from the hedges. It is indeed more excellent and praiseworthy, when the withdrawal from former error to hasten to the truth is the fruit of freewill: and such converts gathering the confirmation of their belief from the sacred Scriptures, and enjoying the instruction of such as are skilful in initiating men into the mysteries, will advance onwards to a correct and blameless faith. But those others, who are kindled, if we may so speak, by force and the troubles they meet with to the acknowledgment of the truth, are not upon an equality with the former, but when admitted must be careful to maintain constancy, and flee from a fickle levity: for it is their duty to preserve an unwavering faith, lest they be found reprobate and feeble workers, deserters after the seal 13, cowards and traitors after taking up arms. Let them not hasten back to their former deeds, lest that be said of them which was spoken by one of the holy apostles: "For it had been better for them not to have known the way of truth, than having known it to turn back from the holy commandment that was delivered unto them. The case of the true proverb has befallen them: the dog that returns to his vomit, and the sow that was washed to wallowing in the mire."
Not however to make this digression too long, let us return to our original subject. Jairus then drew near; but we deny that his coming was the fruit of freewill; rather it was the fear of death which made him thus act against his will: for it had already, so to speak, assailed his daughter; and she was |190 his only one. He set utterly at nought then the reputation of consistency in his wicked words and thoughts. For he who had ofttimes made the attempt to slay Christ, for raising the dead from the grave, asks of Him the unloosing of death. In order then that his character may be seen to be harsh and abominable, and that he may be convicted of being such by the very facts, Christ accompanied him, and yielded to his request.
But there was also a sort of wise management in what was done. For had He not yielded to his request for grace, both himself and whosoever else suffered under the same ignorance, or rather, want of common sense, would have said forsooth, that He was not able to raise the damsel, nor drive death away from her, even if He had gone to the house: that being then without power, and unequal to the accomplishment of the divine miracle, He made His displeasure at Jairus a pretext for keeping away. To put a stop therefore to the impure and unbridled calumny of the Jews, and restrain the tongues of the numerous persons ever ready for fault-finding, He consents immediately, and promises to raise up her who was in danger. And the promises were followed by the fulfiment, in order that disbelief on their part might be without excuse, and that this miracle, like the rest, might be for their condemnation. For Christ also said of them, "If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now they have both seen and hated both Me and My Father."
The Saviour then wont to raise the damsel, and to implant in the dwellers upon earth the sure hope of the resurrection of the dead. But as He was midway on His road, another miracle, not unlike the former, was wonderfully wrought. For there was a woman afflicted with an issue of blood, the prey of a severe and violent malady, which refused to yield to the skill of physicians, and set at nought all the appliances of human remedies. For she could "not be healed, it says, by any," even though she had unsparingly lavished all her substance upon those who promised to deliver her from her disease. When therefore the unhappy woman had given up all hope from men, and now survived only for utter misery, she conceived in her a wise plan. For she had recourse to the Physician Who is from above, from heaven, as One Who is able |191 readily and without effort to effect those things that are beyond our power, and Whose decrees, whatever it be He would accomplish, nothing can oppose.
Her faith in this was perhaps occasioned by seeing Jairus leading Him to his house, to prove Himself mightier than death, by delivering his daughter from its inevitable bonds. For she thought perchance within herself, that if He be mightier than death, and the destroyer of corruption, how much more can He also alleviate the malady that afflicts her, staunching by ineffable power the fountains of her issue of blood! She draws near therefore and touches the hem of His garment; but secretly and not openly: for she hoped to be able to escape notice, and. as it were, to steal healing from One Who knew not of it. But why, tell me, was the woman careful to escape notice? For why should she not draw near to Christ with more boldness than that leper, and ask for the remission of her incurable pain?, For he said, "Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean." Why should not she act like those blind men, who when Christ passed by called out and said, "Have mercy upon us, Lord Jesus, the Son of David"? What then was it made that sick woman wish to remain hid? It was because the law of the all-wise Moses imputed impurity to any woman who was suffering from an issue of blood, and everywhere called her unclean: and whoever was unclean, might neither touch any thing that was holy, nor approach a holy man. For this reason the woman was careful to remain concealed, lest as having transgressed the law, she should have to bear the punishment which it imposed. And when she touched, she was healed immediately and without delay.
But the miracle did not remain hid; for the Saviour, though knowing all things, asked as if He knew it not, saying, 'Who touched Me?' And when the holy apostles with good reason said, "The multitudes throng Thee and press Thee 14," He sets before them what had been done, saying, "Somebody touched Me: for I know that power has gone forth from Me." Was |192 it then for love of glory that the Lord did not allow this instance of His godlike working----the miracle, I mean, that had happened to the woman to remain concealed? By no means do we say this, but rather, that it was because He ever keeps in view the benefit of those who are called to grace through faith. The concealment then of the miracle would have been injurious to many, but being made known, it benefited them in no slight degree; and especially the ruler of the synagogue himself. For it gave security to the hope to which he looked forward, and made him firmly trust that Christ would deliver his daughter from the bonds of death.
But it is itself a fit subject for our admiration. For that woman was delivered, being saved from a state of suffering thus bitter and incurable; and thereby we again obtain the firm assurance, that the Emmanuel is very God. How and in what manner? Both from the miraculous event itself, and from the words which with divine dignity He spake. "For, I know, He said, that power has gone forth from Me." But it transcends our degree, or probably that even of the angels, to send forth any power, and that of their own nature, as something that is of themselves. Such an act is an attribute appropriate solely to the Nature That is above all, and supreme. For every created being whatsoever that is endued with power, whether of healing, or the like, possesses it not of itself, but as a thing given it by God. For to the creature all things are given, and wrought in it, and of itself it can do nothing. As God therefore He said "I knew that power has gone forth from Me."
And the woman now made confession; and inasmuch as with her malady, with the disease, I mean, which had afflicted her, she had put off the fear, which made her wish to remain concealed, she proclaimed the divine miracle: and therefore was very fitly deemed worthy of His tranquillizing words, and received security that she should suffer from her malady no more; for our Saviour Christ said unto her, "Daughter, thy faith hath saved thee: go in peace."
And this too was for the benefit of Jairus, though it was indeed a hard lesson. For he learns, that neither the legal worship, nor the shedding of blood, nor the slaying of goats and calves, nor the circumcision of the flesh, nor the rest of the |193 sabbaths, nor ought besides of these temporary and typical matters, can save the dwellers upon earth; faith only in Christ can do so, by means of which even the blessed Abraham was justified, and called the friend of God, and counted worthy of especial honours. And the blessing of God has been given also to those, who according to the terms of the promise were to be his sons: even unto us. "For they are not all Israel; who are of Israel, neither because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all sons: but the children of the promise are accounted as the seed." To us then this grace belongs: for we have been adopted as Abraham's sons, "being justified not so much by the works of the law, as by faith in Christ;" by Whom, and with Whom, to God the Father be praise and dominion with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever, Amen 15. |194
SERMON XLVI.
8:49-56. And while He is speaking, there cometh one from the ruler of the synagogue's house, saying, Thy daughter is dead: trouble no more the Teacher. But when Jesus heard it, He answered and said, Fear not: believe only, and she shall live. And when He came unto the house, He suffered no one to go in with Him, save Peter, and James, and John, and the father and the mother of the maiden. And all wept and bewailed her. But He said, Weep not: for the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed at Him, knowing that she was dead. But He made them all go out, and took her by the hand, and called, saying, Maid, arise. And her spirit returned, and she arose immediately: and He commanded to give her somewhat to eat. And her parents were astonished. And He commanded them to tell no one what was done.
O COME, all ye who love the glory of the Saviour, and thereby weave crowns for your heads, come once again, that we may rejoice in Him, and as we extol Him with endless praises, let us say in the words of the prophet Isaiah: "O Lord, my God, I will praise Thee; and I will laud Thy name; for Thou hast wrought wonderful works, even a counsel true from the beginning." What then is the counsel and purpose of God the Father, which was from the beginning, and was true? Plainly that respecting us. For Christ foreknew, even before the foundations of the world, His mystery: but it was in the last ages of the world that He arose for the inhabitants of earth, that having borne the sin of the world, He might abolish both it and death, which is its consequence, and was brought upon us by its means. For so He Himself plainly said, "I am the resurrection and the life:" and "he that believeth on Me hath everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but hath passed from death unto life." And this then we shall see fulfilled in actual facts. For the ruler of the synagogue of the Jews drew near, and embracing the Saviour's |195 knees, besought Him to deliver his daughter from the bonds of death:----for lo! already she had been brought down unto this, and was in extreme danger. And the Saviour consented, and set out with him, and was even hastening onward to the house of him who asked the favour, as well knowing that what was being done would profit many of those who followed Him, and would also be for His own glory. And thus on the way the woman was saved, who was the victim of a severe and incurable malady. For she had an issue of blood, which no one could stanch, and which set at nought the art of physicians: but no sooner had she touched the hem in faith, than she was forthwith healed; and a miracle thus glorious and manifest was, so to speak, the work merely of Christ's journey.
And afterwards there met them from the ruler of the synagogue's house a messenger, saying: "Thy daughter is dead: trouble not the Teacher." What, then, was Christ's answer, seeing that He possesses universal sovereignty; that He is Lord of life and death; and by the all-powerful determination of His will accomplishes whatsoever He desires? He saw the man oppressed with the weight of sorrow, swooning, and stupefied, and all but despairing of the possibility of his daughter being rescued from death. For misfortunes are able to disturb even an apparently well-constituted mind, and to estrange it from its settled convictions. To aid him, therefore, He gives him a kind and saving word, fit to sustain him in his fainting state, and work in him an unwavering faith, saying, "Fear not: only believe, and she shall live."
And having now come to the house of His supplicant, He quiets their lamentations, silences the musicians, and stops the tears of the weepers, saying, "The damsel is not dead, but rather sleepeth." And they, it says, laughed at Him. Observe here, I pray, the great skill of the management. For though He well knew that the damsel was dead, He said, "She is not dead, but rather sleepeth." For what reason? That by their laughing at Him, they might give a clear and manifest acknowledgment that the damsel was dead. For probably there would be some of that class who always resist His glory, who would reject the divine miracle, and say, that the damsel was not yet dead; and that in being delivered from |196 sickness, there was nothing done by Christ very extraordinary. To have, therefore, the acknowledgment of many that the damsel was dead, He said, that she was rather sleeping. And let no man affirm that Christ spake untruly. For to Him, as being Life by nature, there is nothing dead. And this is the reason why we, having a firm hope of the resurrection of the dead, call them "those that sleep." For in Christ they will arise: and, as the blessed Paul says, "They live to Him," in that they are about to live.
But observe this also. For as if to teach us to avoid vainglory;---- though certainly no such admirable deeds can be wrought by us;----when He came to the house in which the damsel was lying dead, He took in with Him but three of the holy Apostles, and the father and the mother of the damsel.
And the manner in which He wrought the miracle was worthy of God. For having taken her, it says, by the hand, He said, Damsel, arise: and she arose immediately. O the power of a word, and the might of commands that nothing can resist!
O the life-producing touch of the hand, that abolishes death, and corruption! These are the fruits of faith, for the sake of which the law also was given to those of old time by the hand of Moses.
But perhaps some one may say to this: 'But lo! any one can see that the ceremonial ordained by the law is unlike and at variance with faith in Christ: for the law commands us to
make use of bloody sacrifices; but faith rejects everything of the kind, and has brought in for mankind a worship to be offered in spirit and in truth. For even Christ is somewhere found thus speaking by the harp of the Psalmist to God the Father in heaven: "Sacrifices and offerings Thou didst not desire: whole burnt offerings, and for sins, Thou hadst no pleasure in: but a body hast Thou framed for Me. Then said I, Lo! I come: for in the chapter of the books it is written of Me: I delight to do Thy will, O God," Offerings therefore by blood are unavailing; but the sweet savour of spiritual worship is very acceptable to God. And this no man can present unto Him, unless first he possess that faith which is by Christ. And the blessed Paul bears witness to this, where he writes: "Without faith, no man can ever do that which is well pleasing.16 "' |197
It is necessary, therefore, for us to explain in what sense we say that the law was given because of faith. The blessed Abraham then was justified by obedience and faith. For it is written: "That Abraham believed God; and he was called the friend of God, and faith was counted to him for righteousness." And God promised him both that he should be the father of many nations, and that all nations should be blessed in him; that is to say, by the imitation of his faith. One can see, therefore, that the grace that is by faith is prior to the ceremonial enjoined by the law, in that Abraham attained unto it while still uncircumcised. And afterwards, in process of time, the law entered by the hand of Moses. Did it then thrust away the justification that is by faith,----that I mean which God promised to those who follow the steps of the faith of our father Abraham, which he had while still uncircumcised? But how can this be true? The blessed Paul, therefore, writes: "This I say then, that the covenant, which was confirmed of old by God, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years afterwards, does not disannul, so as to make the promise given to the fathers of no effect." And again: "Is the law then against the promises of God? It may not be." And the same divine Paul further teaches us the reasons for which the law at length entered by the ministration of angels, and the manner in which it confirms the faith in Christ, by having been brought in before the time of the incarnation of the Only-begotten, saying at one time, that "the law entered that sin might abound:" and at another again, "that the Scripture hath included all things under sin:" and again, "The law, therefore, was added, because of transgressions."
Do you wish to learn how the Scripture included all things under sin? If so, I will explain it to the best of my ability. The heathen, then, as those who were without God, and destitute of hope, were in this world as men imprisoned in the pitfalls of baseness, and entangled without hope of escape in the cords of sin. On the other hand, the Israelites possessed indeed the law as a schoolmaster: but no man could be justified by its moans. For there is no profit to them that are in their sins in an offering by blood. And to this Paul again bears witness, saying; "For the blood of bulls, and of goats, cannot |198 take away sins." The law is the proof of the infirmity of all men: and therefore the blessed Paul calls it "the ministry of condemnation." Sin abounded by its means: and that, not as though it made any man sin, but rather because it declared the condemnation of him who was subject to offences. It was enacted, therefore, because of transgressions, that as now no man was able to attain to a blameless life, the bringing in of the justification that is by Christ might be altogether necessary. For there was no other way by which the inhabitants of earth could escape from the tyranny of sin. The law, then, entered first for the sake of faith, to declare the guilt of those who were liable to infirmities, and prove them to be sinners. It sent men, therefore, so to speak, to the cleansing that is in Christ by faith. And for this reason the blessed Paul again wrote: "Therefore the law was our schoolmaster unto Christ. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster." For we are all sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
Faith, then, in every way, is the cause of life, as that which slays sin, the mother and nurse of death. Excellently, therefore, said Christ to the ruler of the synagogue of the Jews, when his daughter was dead; "Fear not: only believe, and she shall live." For, as I said, Christ makes those live who approach Him by faith, in that He is life; "for in Him we live and move, and are:" and He will raise the dead "suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump,"" as it is written. And having this hope in Him, we shall both attain to the city that is above, and reign as kings with Him; by Whom and with Whom, to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever, Amen.
[Selected footnotes moved to the end and renumbered. Almost all marginalia, any purely textual footnotes, most Greek or Syriac material has been omitted without notice]
1. y Concerning this quotation, which very frequently is met with in S. Cyril, three different opinions have been held: 1°. that of Archbp. Usher, who contended that it belonged to some apocryphal Gospel, as that of the Hebrews: 2°. that of Crojus, who considered that it was collected by the Fathers from Christ's parable of the Talents: and 3°. that of Sylburgius, who referred it to St. Paul's Epistle to the Thessalonians, I. v. 21. That the last alone is true, the Syriac here goes far to prove, quoting it expressly from St. Paul, as also do S. Cyril's Greek remains, as his Commentary on Is. iii., on Job. vii. 12., &c. In the previous Sermon also the quotation has already occurred, coupled with a portion of the same text, "prove all things." And Tischendorf gives it as a different reading of the passage in Thes. from Chrysostom, Theodoret, (saec. v.), Ambrosiaster, (saec. iii. vel iv.), and Œcumenius, (saec. xi.) The patristic authority for this opinion is, however, really far greater, as it occurs frequently in their works, in connection with the two other main portions of St. Paul's command. Thus Basil the Great (saec. iv.), in bis homily on the beginning of the book of Proverbs, says:.... And Athanasius, Hom. in Mat. xxi. 8..... And similar quotations might be multiplied indefinitely. On the contrary, however, Origen, in the Latin version of his Commentary in Johannem, and Jerome, Ep. ad Minerium, quote it as a saying of our Lord's: there can, however, be little doubt that the majority of the Fathers of the fourth and fifth centuries regarded it as a genuine portion of St. Paul's Epistle, though probably it was not extant in many of the MSS., and so was occasionally quoted as a saying attributed by tradition to our Lord.
2. z A passage follows in Mai from B. f. 73, interpreting the mourners by the prophets, and the players by the Apostles, the predictions of the former being generally of woe and punishment, while the latter proclaimed "the grace of repentance." As alien both to the general tenor of the Commentary, and the closeness with which S. Cyril confines himself to the text, it is most probably an interpolation.
3. d S. Cyril uses a similar metaphor in his 15th paschal homily, to shew that the divine nature of our Lord suffered no corruption by its union with the human nature. (Ed. Aub. V. pt. 2. 205.) "The sun retains its brightness untarnished, even though it shed its rays upon mud and slime; how, then, could the divine nature, which is incorruptible, and liable to no change or injury, sustain harm by consorting with the inferior? Would it not rather overpower the inferior nature, and, illuminating it with its own excellencies, elevate it to something incomparably better?"
4. h This passage is contained in Cramer ii. 66, and as generally is the case, his MS. agrees more closely with the Syriac than Mai's, but is rendered comparatively valueless by the extreme carelessness and inaccuracy with which it is edited.
5. i One or two similar instances will subsequently be found of incorrect quotations probably from memory.
6. l The reading νόμου for λόγου in this and the following verse is found in very few even of the inferior MSS., but occurs in the Aethiopic and Arabic versions.
7. m Owing to the paucity of adjectives in Syriac, an attribute is generally expressed by the addition of a substantive, and this idiom is frequent in the Greek of the N. T., but nowhere more so than in St. James. As, therefore, "the mammon of unrighteousness" is "the unrighteous mammon," and "a hearer of forgetfulness," "a forgetful hearer;" so a "doer of doings" is "an active doer."
8. n Mai here inserts two passages, the first referring to our Lord's austerity of manners (φιλοσοφία) in sleeping with only a pillow under His head; and the second at the end of the paragraph, enlarging upon the economy: but as the first of these is contained in Cramer entire and the beginning of the second, in the extracts in his Catena from S. Cyril's Commentary on S. Mark, (cf. c. iv. v. 35.), we have another proof that the passages not acknowledged by the Syriac are often taken from other works of this father. In the second extract there is a remark so worthy of Cyril that I append it: it is to the effect, that in our Lord's miracles generally the Apostles were only eyewitnesses, and in danger, therefore, of not really appreciating them: it was necessary, therefore, for them to experience in their own persons their Master's divine power, that they might be fully impressed with His majesty: and thus, therefore, He did not save them till they were in the very terrors of death.
9. o S. Cyril was here probably quoting from memory: for though σῶσον is read in some MSS., it is universally regarded as an interpolation, and does not appear in Cyril's own text: while the pronoun "me," "Save me," has no MS. authority whatsoever.
10. p Mai adds a passage enlarging upon the idea, "and with the tempest of the waves does away with the tempest of their soul, rebuking them, and at the same time admonishing them, that their fear was caused not by the trials that befel them, but by the weakness of their faith."
11. q Mai from A. f. 126. appends a passage containing two allegorical interpretations, the first explaining the lake as signifying Judaea, in which a tempest rose against the disciples, appeased by Christ, when after His resurrection He said, Peace be unto you: and the second the more ordinary one of the ship being the Church, the saints the rowers, &c.
12. s As a general rule, the Syriac is a very exact translation of the Greek, to judge by the fragments in Mai: here, however, the word κατενείματο, which he renders "divided" or "shared," has probably only the meaning of "possessed," the proper signification being to "graze off' land with cattle," "depasci."
13. u S. Chrysostom also speaks of soldiers having a seal, at the end of Hom. iii. in Ep. ii. ad Cor. "For like the seal that soldiers have, so He also gives the Spirit to the faithful, that shouldest thou desert, thou mayest be detected by all. For the Jews indeed had circumcision as a seal, but we have the earnest of the Spirit," And in the Martyrdom of S. Maximilian, we learn that this was a stamped piece of lead, worn probably only by new recruits: for when he was required to take the military oath, he refused, saying, "Non accipio signaculum saeculi, et, si signaveris, rumpo illud, quia nihil valeo. Ego Christianus sum: non licet mihi plumbum collo portare post signum salutare Domini Jesu Christi, Quem tu ignoras." Du Cange Glos.----By the fathers, the word "seal" is generally applied either to baptism or ordination: but it has several less frequent meanings.
14. x Of this portion of the commentary Mai has recovered but very little: this passage, however, is found by him in one Catena A. f. 130, but with three or four slight additions; of which the most important is, that it inserts here, "which was a very great sign of the reality of His flesh, and of His trampling down pride; for they did not follow Him at a distance, but closed Him round on all sides."
15. y Mai adds from H. f. 30. an allegorical interpretation of the two miracles given there under the names both of Origen and Cyril, and in Corderius under those of Cyril and Geometra. In the appendix however to vol. xiv. of the Bibliotheca vet. Patrum Gallandii, p. 95, it is found in Origen's Commentaries, and to him therefore it should be assigned.
16. Heb.11:6.
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Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke (1859) Sermons 47-56 (Luke 9:1-56) pp. 199-257.
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke (1859) Sermons 47-56 (Luke 9:1-56) pp. 199-257.
Sermon 47
Sermon 48
Sermon 49
Sermon 50
Sermon 51
Sermon 52
Sermon 53
Sermon 54
Sermon 55
Sermon 56
SERMON XLVII.
9:1-5. And when He had called the twelve Apostles, He gave them power and authority over all the devils, and to heal sicknesses. And He sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick. And He said unto them, Take nothing for the way: no staff: no scrip: neither bread nor money: nor shall ye have two coats. And into whatsoever house ye enter, there abide, and thence depart. And whosoever will not receive you, when ye depart from that city, shake off the dust from your feet for their testimony.
IT is a true saying, that the fruit of good deeds is honourable. For those who wish to lead lives pure and undefiled as far as is possible for men, Christ will adorn with His gifts, and grant them an abundant recompense for all their saintly deeds, and make them partakers of His glory. For it is impossible that He should ever lie who says: "As I live, saith the Lord, those who honour Me, I will honour."
As a plain and clear proof of this, I take the glorious and noble company of the holy Apostles. Behold them highly distinguished, and crowned with more than human glory, by this fresh gift bestowed by Christ. "For He gave them, it says, power and authority over all the devils, and to heal sicknesses." Observe again, I pray, that the Incarnate Word of God exceeds the measure of humanity, and is radiant with the dignities of the Godhead. For it transcends the limits of human nature, to give authority over unclean spirits to whomsoever He will: as does also the enabling them to deliver from sicknesses such as were afflicted with them. For God, indeed, bestows on whom He will powers of this kind; and on His decree alone it depends that any are able, according to His good pleasure, to work divine miracles, and act as ministers of the grace that is from above: but to impart to others the gift bestowed on them, is altogether an impossibility. For the majesty and glory of the supreme nature is found existing essentially in nothing that has being, except in Itself, and It only. |200 Be it, therefore, angel or archangel, that any one mentions, or thrones and dominions, or the seraphim, which again are higher in dignity, let him wisely understand this: that they indeed possess pre-eminent authority by the powers given them from above, such as language cannot describe, nor nature bestow: but reason altogether forbids the supposition of their imparting these powers to others. But Christ bestows them, as being God therefore, and as out of His own fulness: for He is Himself the Lord of glory and of powers.
The grace then bestowed upon the holy Apostles is worthy of all admiration; but the bountifulness of the Giver surpasses all praise and admiration: for He gives them, as I said, His own glory. Man receives authority over the evil spirits, and reduces unto nothingness the pride that was so high exalted, and arrogant, even that of the devil: his wickedness he renders ineffectual, and, by the might and efficacy of the Holy Ghost, burning him as with fire, he makes him come forth with groans and weeping from those whom he had possessed. And yet in old time he had said: "I will hold the whole world in my hand as a nest, and will take it as eggs that are left: and there is no one that shall escape from me, or speak against me." He missed, then, the truth, and fell from his hope, proud and audacious though he was, and vaunting himself over the infirmity of mankind. For the Lord of powers marshalled against him the ministers of the sacred proclamations. And this verily had been foretold by one of the holy prophets when speaking of Satan and the holy teachers: "That suddenly they shall arise that bite thee: and they shall awake that afflict thee, and thou shalt be their prey." For, so to speak, they bit Satan by attacking his glory, and making his goods a spoil, and bringing them unto Christ by means of |201 faith in Him: for so they attacked Satan himself. Great therefore was the power given unto the holy Apostles by the decree and will of Christ, the Saviour of us all. "For He gave them power and authority over the unclean spirits."
We will, in the next place, also inquire, if it seem good, whence a grace, thus illustrious and famous, descended upon mankind. The Only-begotten Word therefore of God crowned human nature with this great honour by becoming flesh, and taking upon Him our likeness. And thus, without in one single particular departing from the glories of His majesty;----for He wrought deeds worthy of God, even though He became, as I said, like unto us, and was of flesh and blood;----He broke the power of Satan by His almighty word. And by His rebuking the evil spirits, the inhabitants of earth became able to rebuke them also.
And that what I say is true, I will endeavour to make quite certain. For the Saviour, as I said, was rebuking the unclean spirits: but the Pharisees, opening their mouth to deride His glory, had the effrontery to say, "This man casteth not out devils, but by Beelzebub, prince of the devils." But the Saviour rebuked them for so speaking, as men prone to mockery, and ill-disposed, and utterly without understanding, thus saying; "If I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons east them out? Therefore shall they be your judges." For the blessed disciples, who were sons of the Jews by their descent according to the flesh, were the terror of Satan and his angels: for they broke their power in the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. And our Lord further said: "But if I by the Spirit of God cast out devils, then the kingdom of God is come upon you." For He, as the Only-begotten Son of the Father, and the Word, both was and is omnipotent, and there is nothing that is not easy to Him: but inasmuch as He rebuked evil spirits while He was man, human nature was triumphant in Him, and crowned with godlike glory; for it was capable of rebuking even the evil spirits with power. By Christ's casting out devils, therefore, the kingdom of God came unto us: for one may affirm that it is the perfection of godlike majesty to be able to beat down Satan in spite of his resistance. |202
He glorified therefore His disciples by giving them authority and power over the evil spirits, and over sicknesses. Did He then thus honour them without reason, and make them illustrious without any cogent cause? But how can this be true if For it was necessary, most necessary, that having been publicly appointed ministers of the sacred proclamations, they should be able to work miracles, and by means of what they wrought convince men of their being the ministers of God, and mediators of all beneath the heaven, inviting them all to reconciliation and justification by faith, and pointing out the way of salvation and of life that is thereby. For the devout and intelligent need generally only reasoning to make them understand the truth: but those who have wandered without restraint into rebellion, and are not prepared to receive the sound speech of him who would win them for their true profit;----such require miracles, and the working of signs: and scarcely even so are they brought to thorough persuasion.
For we often find that the discourse of the holy Apostles prospered in this way. For, for example, Peter and John delivered from his malady that lame man who lay at the beautiful gate. And upon his entering the temple, they had his aid, as it were, in testimony of the great deed that had been wrought, and spake with great boldness concerning Christ, the Saviour of us all; even though they saw that those whose lot it was to be rulers of the synagogue of the Jews, were still travailling with bitter ill-will against Him. For they said: "Ye men of Israel, why wonder ye at this, or why gaze ye at us, as though by our own might or righteousness we made this man to walk? The God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified His Son Jesus, Whom ye delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he would have let Him go. But ye denied the Holy One, and the Just, and asked for a murderer to be granted you. And Him the Prince of Life ye killed; Whom God raised from the dead. And of Him we are witnesses: and His Name, through faith in His Name, hath made this man strong whom ye see and know: and faith in Him hath given him this soundness in the presence of you all." But although many of the Jews were embittered at a loftiness of speech such |203 as this, yet against their will they put, so to speak, a bridle upon their wrath, being ashamed because of the greatness of the miracle.
And there is another point we must not omit. For having first invested the holy Apostles with powers thus splendid, He then bids them depart with speed, and commence their office of proclaiming His mystery to the inhabitants of the whole earth. For just as able generals, having equipped their bravest soldiers with weapons of war, send them against the phalanxes of the enemy; so too does Christ, our common Saviour and Lord, send the holy teachers of His mysteries, clad as it were in the grace that He bestows, and fully equipped in spiritual armour, against Satan and his angels; that so they may be unconquerable and hardy combatants. For they were about to do battle with those who in old time held mastery over the inhabitants of earth; even against the wicked and opposing powers, who had divided among them all under heaven, and had made those their worshippers who had been created in the image of God. These, then, the divine disciples were about to vex, by summoning to the knowledge of the truth those that were in error, and giving light to them that were in darkness: while those who in old time worshipped them, they rendered earnest followers of such pursuits as become saints.
For this reason very fitly He bade them take nothing with them, wishing them both to be free from all worldly care, and so entirely exempt from the labours that worldly things occasion, as even to pay no regard to their necessary and indispensable food. But manifestly One Who bids them abstain even from things such as these, entirely cuts away the love of riches and the desire of gain. For their glory, He said, and, so to speak, their crown, is to possess nothing. And He withdraws them even from such things as are necessary for their use, by the command to carry nothing whatsoever, neither staff, nor scrip, nor bread, nor money, nor two coats. Observe, therefore, as I said, that He withdraws them from vain distractions, and anxiety about the body, and bids them have no cares about food, repeating to them, as it were, that passage in the Psalm: "Cast thy care upon the Lord, and He shall feed thee." For true also is that which Christ said: |204 "Ye are not able to serve God and Mammon." And again; "For where thy treasure is, there will thy heart be also."
That they may lead, therefore, a consistent and simple life, and, being free from vain and superfluous anxiety, may devote themselves entirely to the duty of proclaiming His mystery, and labour without ceasing in publishing to men everywhere the tidings of salvation, He commands them to be indifferent both as regards clothing and food. And to the same effect the Saviour elsewhere spake: "For let your loins, He says, be girt, and your lights burning." But by their loins being girt, He means the readiness of the mind for every good work: and by their lights burning, that their heart be filled with divine light. And in like manner the law also of Moses plainly commands those who ate of the lamb: "Thus shall ye eat it: your loins shall be girt: and your staves in your hands: and your sandals on your feet." Observe, therefore, that those in whom Christ, the true Lamb, dwells, must be like men girt for a journey: for they must "shoe their feet with the readiness of the Gospel of peace," as blessed Paul wrote unto us; and be clad as becometh wayfarers. For it is not fitting for those charged with the divine message, if they would prosper in their office, to remain stationary; but, as it were, they must constantly be moving forward, and run, not for an uncertainty, but to win a glorious hope. For even those who once had fallen under the hand of the enemy, if by faith they fight for Christ, the Saviour of us all, will inherit an incorruptible crown.
But I can imagine some one saying, O Lord, Thou hast commanded thy ministers to carry with them no supply whatsoever of necessaries for food and raiment: whence, then, will they obtain what is essential and indispensable for their use? This too He at once points out, saying; "Into whatsoever house ye enter, there abide, and thence depart." The fruit, He says, which you will obtain from those you instruct, shall be sufficient. For those who receive from you things spiritual, and gain the divine seed for their souls, shall take care of your bodily needs. And this no one can blame: for the wise Paul also sent word as follows: "If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your bodily things? |205 "So the Lord also commanded, that those who preach the Gospel shall live of the Gospel." And that this same truth is signified by the command of Moses, he clearly shews, saying, "It is written, Thou shalt not muzzle the trampling ox." And what the intention of the law is he again showed, saying, "Doth God care for oxen? or sayeth He it altogether on our account, because it is fit that he who plougheth should plough in hope: and he who trampleth the corn as having hope to share in it?" For the teachers, therefore, to receive from those taught these trifling and easily procurable matters is in no respect injurious.
But He commanded them both to abide in one house, and from it to take their departure.1 For it was right, both that those who had once received them should not be defrauded of the gift: and that the holy Apostles themselves should not place any impediment in the way of their own zeal and earnestness in preaching God's message, by letting themselves be carried off to various houses by those whose object was, not to learn of them some necessary lesson, but to set before them a luxurious table, beyond what was moderate and necessary.
And that it is by no means without its reward to honour the saints, we learn from our Saviour's words. For He said unto them; "Whosoever receiveth you receiveth Me, and whosoever receiveth Me receiveth Him That sent Me." For He purposely makes His own, and takes unto Himself, the honours paid to the saints, in order that on every side they may have security. For what is there better, or what is comparable unto the honour and love due unto God? But this is rendered by giving honour to the saints. And if he who receiveth them is right blessed, and of glorious hope, how must not also the converse be entirely and absolutely true! For he must be full of utter misery, who is indifferent to the duty of honouring the saints. For this reason He said, "that when ye go out from that house, shake off the very dust from your feet for their testimony." |206
And next, we must see what this signifies. And it is this: That from those who would not receive them, nor set store by the charge confided to them, nor obey the sacred message, nor receive the faith;----from such they should refuse to receive any thing whatsoever. For it is unlikely that those who despise the master of the house, will shew themselves generous to the servants: and that those who impiously disregard the heavenly summons, will ask a blessing of its preachers, by offering them things of no value, and such as the disciples could without trouble obtain from their own people. For it is written, "Let not the oil of the wicked anoint my head." And besides they ought to feel that their love was due to those only who love and praise Christ; and avoid all others of a different character: for it is written: "Have I not hated, O Lord, them that hate Thee: and been hot exceedingly at Thy enemies? I have hated them with a perfect hatred: they have become my enemies." So is the love proved of earthy soldiers: for it is not possible for them to love foreigners, while paying a due regard to their king's interests. We learn this too by what Christ says: "that he who is not with Me is against Me; and he that gathereth not with Me altogether scattereth."
Whatsoever, therefore, Christ commanded his holy Apostles was exactly fitted for their use and benefit: by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever, Amen. |207
SERMON XLVIII.
9:12-17. And the day began to decline: and the twelve drew near, and said unto Him, Send the multitudes away, and let them go into the villages, and fields round about, and lodge, and find victuals: for we are here in a desert place. But He said unto them, Give ye them to eat. But they said, We have no more than five loaves and two fishes: unless we go and buy food for all this people. But they were about five thousand men. And He said to His disciples, Make them sit down in companies of fifty each. And they did so, and made them all sit down. And when He had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, He looked up to heaven and blessed them, and brake, and gave to His disciples to set before the multitudes. And they did eat, and were all filled: and that which remained over unto them was taken up, even twelve baskets of fragments.
THE Jews, in my opinion, have not a single argument thai can serve before the tribunal of God as a defence for their disobedience: for their opposition had no appearance of reason on its side. And why so? Because the law of Moses, by shadows and figures, led them unto the mystery of Christ. For the law, or rather the things it contained, was symbolical, and in it the mystery of Christ was depicted by type and shadow as in a painting. And the blessed prophets also foretold long before that in due time there should come One to redeem all beneath the heaven, and further proclaimed the very place of His birth in the flesh, and the signs that He would accomplish. But they were so obdurate, and their mind so indiscriminately set upon that alone which agreed with their prejudices, that they would not receive the words of instruction, nor be brought to obedience even by miracles so splendid and glorious.
Such then was their conduct: but let us, who have acknowledged the truth of His appearing, offer Him our praises for His godlike works; such as that which the passage before us records. For we learn by it, that our Saviour from time to |208 time went out from Jerusalem and other cities and towns, followed by multitudes, some seeking deliverance from the tyranny of devils, or recovery from sickness; but others desiring to receive instruction from Him, and constantly with great earnestness, remaining with Him, that they might be made fully acquainted with His sacred doctrines. When then the day was declining, as the Evangelist says, and evening had all but arrived, the disciples had care of the multitudes, and drew near, offering requests on their behalf. For they said, "Send them away, that they may go into the neighbouring villages and fields, and lodge and find victuals; for we are in a desert place."
But let us carefully inquire what is the meaning of the expression "Send them away." For we shall see by it both the admirable faith of the holy apostles, and also the supernatural and wonderful power of Christ the Saviour of us all, in whatsoever He willeth to perform. For, as I said, some of them followed beseeching Him to deliver thorn from the evil spirits that oppressed them, while others sought recovery from various maladies. Since, therefore, the disciples knew that by the mere assent of His will he could accomplish for those sick persons what they wanted, they say "Send them away:" not so speaking as though they were themselves at all annoyed, and considered that the proper time had gone by; but seized with love toward the multitudes, and beginning to have a concern for the people, as being already intent upon their pastoral office: so that we may even take pattern by them ourselves. For to draw near, and make supplication on the people's behalf, is an act becoming to the saints, and the duty of spiritual fathers, and the proof of a mind that has regard not to selfish objects alone, but already considers as its own the interests of others: of which surpassing love this is a clear and very evident instance. And if we may be permitted to carry our argument above the level of human things, we say, for the benefit of such as meet with it, that when in earnest prayer we continue with Christ, whether asking of Him healing for the maladies of our souls, or deliverance from other sicknesses, or desiring to obtain anything whatsoever for our advantage; there is no doubt that when we ask in prayer any thing that is good for us, there supplicate in our behalf both the |209 intelligent powers, and those holy men who have freedom of access unto Him.
But observe the incomparable gentleness of Him Whom they supplicate. For not only does He grant all that they ask Him to bestow on those who followed Him, but also adds thereto of His own bountiful right hand; refreshing in every way those that love Him, and nurturing them unto spiritual courage. And this we may see from what has now been read. For the blessed disciples besought Christ that those who were following Him, having had their requests granted them, might be sent away, and disperse as they best could. But He commanded them to supply them with food. The thing, however, was impossible in the eyes of the disciples, for they had brought nothing with them but five loaves and two fishes: and this they drew near and confessed to Him. To magnify, therefore, the greatness of the miracle, and make it in every way evident that He is in His own nature God, He multiplies that little many times, and looks up to heaven to ask a blessing from above, being intent in this also upon our good. For He is Himself That which filleth all things, being the blessing that cometh from above from the Father. But that we may learn that when we commence a meal, and are about to break bread; it is our duty to offer it to God, placing it, so to speak, upon our stretched out hands, and calling down a blessing upon it from above, He purposely became our precedent, and type, and example in the matter.
But what was the result of the miracle? It was the satisfying a large multitude with food: for there were as many as five thousand men besides women and children, according to what another of the holy Evangelists has added to the narrative. Nor did the miracle end here; but there were also gathered twelve baskets of fragments. And what do we infer from this? A plain assurance that hospitality receives a rich recompense from God. The disciples offered five loaves: but |210 after a multitude thus large had been satisfied, there was gathered for each one of them a basketful of fragments. Let nothing therefore prevent those who are willing from receiving strangers, whatever there may be likely to blunt the will and readiness of men thereunto: and let no one say, "I do not possess suitable means; what I can do is altogether trifling and insufficient for many." Receive strangers, my beloved; overcome that unreadiness which wins no reward: for the Saviour will multiply thy little many times beyond expectation, and though thou givest but little, thou wilt receive much. "For he that soweth blessings shall also reap blessings," according to the blessed Paul's words.
The feeding, therefore, of the multitudes in the desert by Christ is worthy of all admiration; but it is also profitable in another way. For we can plainly see that these new miracles accord with those in old time, and that they are the acts of one and the same power. "He rained manna in the desert upon the Israelites; He gave them bread from heaven; man did eat angels' food," according to the words of praise in the Psalms. But lo! again in the desert He has abundantly supplied those in need of food, bringing it down, as it were, from heaven. For His multiplying that little many times, and feeding, so to speak, with nothing so large a multitude, is not unlike that former miracle. And to address myself once again to the throng of the Jews, Thou wast in need of the natural water, when thou wast walking in that long wilderness; and God gave thee thy desire beyond thy hopes, and from an unlooked-for quarter. For, as the Psalmist says, "He clave the rock in the desert; He gave them drink as from the vast abyss; and He brought forth water out of the rock, and made water flow like rivers." Tell me then, when thou hadst drunk, didst thou praise the Worker of the miracle? Didst thou raise thy tongue for thanksgiving? or wast thou induced by what had happened to acknowledge the ineffable power of God? Not so: for thou murmuredst against God, saying, "Can God prepare a table in the wilderness? If He smote the rock, and the waters flowed, and He made the streams overflow; can He also give bread, or prepare a |211 table for His people? Thou wast not astonished at seeing the flint rock the source of copious rivers; fountains issuing marvellously from stones, and streams running with rapid force, but imputedst weakness to Him Who is Almighty. And yet how was it not rather thy duty to perceive that He is the Lord of powers? How indeed could He be unable to prepare a table, Who made the flint rock a fountain and a stream, flowing over for that multitude?
But since thou hast brought thyself to so great folly as to imagine that there is anything impossible with God, and with empty babble hast said that He cannot prepare a table for His people in the wilderness, answer the question we now put to thee: Wilt thou embrace the faith now that thou seest a table prepared by Christ in the wilderness, and an innumerable multitude so abundantly supplied with food that twelve baskets of remnants were collected? or wilt thou still refuse to believe, and ask another sign? When, therefore, wilt thou be found believing? When wilt thou cease from finding fault with the ineffable power of Christ? When wilt thou put a door and bolt to thy tongue? and delivering it from the language of blasphemy, change it to a better use by praising Him, so that thou also mayest be a partaker of the blessings He bestows? For His mercies are revealed upon those who love Him, and He delivers them from all sickness. He supplies them also with spiritual food, by means of which each one attains to manliness in every thing that is praiseworthy. But upon the unbelieving and contemptuous He bestows no such gifts, but rather brings upon them that condemnation which they fitly deserve. For by one of His holy prophets He as it were said unto them, "Behold, they who serve Me shall eat, but ye shall suffer hunger. Behold, they who serve Me shall drink, but ye shall thirst. Behold, they who submit themselves to Me shall rejoice in happiness, while ye shall lament from sorrow of heart, and wail from contrition of spirit." And again it is written, "The Lord killeth not the righteous soul with hunger, but wasteth the life of the wicked."
For the flocks of the believers have, as it were, a pasture full of divers plants and flowers, in the holy Scriptures, which are their wise guides: and filled with spiritual joy at the glorious doctrines and instructions which they contain, they |212 frequent the sacred courts. And this it is which long ago was proclaimed in the words of Isaiah: "And there shall be upon every high mountain, and upon every high hill, running waters upon that day." And again; "And the mountains shall drop sweetness: and the hills flow with milk." For it is the custom of divine Scripture to compare to mountains and hills those set over others, and whose office it is to teach, inasmuch as they are high exalted, in respect, I mean, of their thoughts being occupied with elevated subjects, and withdrawn from things earthly: while the waters and the sweetness and the milk are the instructions which flow from them as from fountains. "There shall be then, He says, at that time from every high mountain, and from every high hill, flowing waters, and sweetness and milk." And these are the spiritual consolations of holy instructors, offered to the people under their charge. Of these the Jewish congregations are deprived, because they did not receive Christ, the Lord of the hills and mountains, the Giver of spiritual consolation, Who offers Himself as the bread of life to those who believe in Him: for He it is Who came down from heaven, and gave life to the world: by Whom, and with Whom, to God the Father be praise and dominion with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever, Amen. |213
SERMON XLIX.
9:18-22. And it came to pass that as He was alone, praying, His disciples were with Him: and He asked them, saying, Whom do the multitudes say of Me that I am? And they answered and said, Some, indeed, John the Baptist: and others, Elijah: and others, that some prophet of those in old time has risen again. And He said unto them; But whom do ye say that I am? And Peter answered and said, The Christ of God. And He charged and commanded them to tell this to no man, saying, The Son of man is about to suffer many things, and to be rejected of the elders, and chief priests, and scribes: and be slain, and rise again the third day.
WELL may we call out to those who would search the sacred Scriptures, "Arouse ye, and awake." For it is a thing impossible to perceive the exact meaning of the mystery of Christ, if we use for this end a debauched mind, and an understanding drowned, so to speak, in sleep. Need rather is there of a wakeful mind, and a penetrating eye; for the subject is one difficult to comprehend in the highest degree. And this is apparent now that our discourse has come to the explanation of the passage before us. For what says the Evangelist? "And it came to pass that as He was alone, praying, His disciples were with Him; and He asked them, saying; Whom do the multitudes say of Me that I am? Now the first thing we have to examine is, what it was which led our Lord Jesus Christ to propose to the holy apostles this question, or inquiry, For no word or deed of His is either at an unseasonable time or without a fitting reason; but rather, He does all things wisely and in their season. What therefore do we say, or what suitable explanation do we find for His present acts? He had fed in the desert a vast multitude of five thousand men: and how had He fed them? With five loaves! breaking with them into morsels two small fish! And these so multiplied out of nothing, that twelve baskets of fragments even were taken up. The blessed disciples therefore were astonished as well as the multitudes, and saw by what had been wrought, that He is |214 in truth God and the Son of God. And afterwards, when they had withdrawn from the multitude and He was alone, He occupied Himself in prayer, in this too making Himself our example, or rather instructing the disciples how to discharge efficiently their office as teachers. For it is, I think, the duty of those who are set over the people, and whose lot it is to guide Christ's flocks, constantly to occupy themselves with their necessary business, and openly practise those things with which God is well pleased: even that saintlike and virtuous conduct which gains great admiration, and is certain to profit the people under their charge. For they ought either to be actively engaged in those duties which are to the glory of God: or such as in their retirement bring upon them a blessing, and call down upon them power from on high: of which latter, one and the most excellent is prayer. Knowing which the divine Paul said, "Pray without ceasing."
As I said, then, the Lord and Saviour of all made Himself an example to the disciples of saintlike conversation, by praying alone, with them only in His company. But His doing so might perchance trouble the disciples, and beget in them dangerous thoughts. For they saw Him praying in human fashion, Whom yesterday they beheld working miracles with godlike dignity. It would not therefore have been entirely without reason, had they said among themselves; Oh, strange conduct! Whom must we consider Him to be? God, or man? If we say man, and like one of us; like one, that is, of the holy prophets; we see from the ineffable miracles which He works, that He far transcends the limits of human nature: for in manifold ways He doeth wonders as God. If we say He is God, surely to pray is unbefitting One Who is God by nature. For of whom can God ask what He wishes to receive? And of what can God at all be in want? To chase away therefore such confusing thoughts, and to calm their faith, which, so to speak, was tempest-tossed, He makes this inquiry; not as though He were at all ignorant of what was commonly said of Him, either by those who did not belong to the synagogue of the Jews, or by the Israelites themselves: His object rather was to rescue them from the general mode of thinking, and implant in them a correct faith, "Whom, therefore, He asks, do the multitudes say that I am? |215
Thou seest the skilfulness of the question. He did not at once say, "Whom do ye say that I am? but refers to the rumour of those that were without, that having rejected it, and shewn it to be unsound, He may then bring them back to the true opinion. Which also happened: for when the disciples had said, "Some John the Baptist, and others Elijah, and others, that some prophet of those in old time has risen up;" He said to them, "But ye, whom do ye say that I am?" Oh! how full of meaning is that "ye!" He separates them from all others, that they may also avoid their opinions, and not conceive an unworthy idea of Him, nor entertain confused and wavering thoughts, themselves too imagining that John had risen again, or one of the prophets. Ye therefore, He says, who have been chosen; who by My decree have been called to the apostleship; who are the witnesses of My miracles; whom do ye say that I am?
First before the rest Peter again springs forth, and makes himself the mouthpiece of the whole company, pouring forth the expression of love to God, and giving utterance to a correct and faultless confession of faith in Him, saying, "The Christ of God." The disciple is unerring: a thoroughly intelligent explainer of the mystery. For he does not simply say, that He is a Christ of God; but "the Christ" rather: for there are many who have been called "Christ," from having in various ways been anointed of God. For some have been anointed as kings; and some as prophets; while others, having received salvation by That Christ Who is the Saviour of all, even we ourselves, obtain the appellation of christ, as having been anointed by the Holy Ghost. For it is said in the words of the Psalmist, of those in old time, that is, before the coming of our Saviour: "Touch not My christs, and do My prophets no harm." But the words of Habakkuk refer to us; "Thou hast gone forth to the salvation of Thy people: to save Thy christs." Christs therefore there are many, and they have so been called from the fact [of having been anointed ]: but He Who is God the Father's Christ is One, and One only: not as though we indeed are christs, and not God's christs, but belonging to some other person: but because He and He alone has as His Father Him that is in heaven. Since therefore most wise Peter, confessing the faith correctly and without |216 error, said, "The Christ of God," it is plain, that distinguishing Him from those to whom the appellation generally belongs, he referred Him to God, as being His sole (Christ). For though He be by nature God, and shone forth ineffably from God the Father as His only begotten Word, yet He became flesh according to the Scripture. The blessed Peter therefore professed faith in Him, lending, as I before said, his words to the whole company of the holy apostles, and acting as spokesman for them all, as being more accurate than the rest.
And this too we ought to observe: that in Matthew's account we find that the blessed disciple said, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God:" but the wise Luke, summing up so to speak the purport, agrees with him in the thoughts, but using fewer words, tells us that he said, "The Christ of God." Moreover no mention is here made of that which the Saviour spake to him: but in Matthew again we find that He said to Him plainly: "Blessed art thou, Simeon, son of Jonah: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but My Father in heaven." The disciple therefore was verily taught of God; nor did he make this profession of faith for us of his own thoughts merely, but because the divine light shone upon his understanding, and the Father led him to a correct knowledge of the mystery of Christ. What therefore do those mistaken innovators 2 say to this, who unwarrantably pervert the great and adorable mystery of the incarnation of the Only Begotten, and fall from the right way, walking in the path of crookedness? For the wise Peter acknowledged one Christ: while they sever that One into two, in opposition to the doctrines of truth. 'But yes, he replies, the disciple acknowledged one Christ; and so do we also affirm that there is one Christ, by Whom we mean the Son, even the Word that, is from God the Father 3.' To this then |217 what do we reply? Is it not plain then, we say, to every one, that Christ asks the holy apostles, not, Whom do men say that the Word of God is? but, who "the Son of man is?" and that |218 it was of Him that Peter confessed, that He is "the Christ of God?" Let them also explain this to us: How is Peter's confession worthy of admiration, if it contain nothing profound and hidden, and, so to speak, not apparent to the generality? For what verily did God the Father reveal to him? That the Son of man is a man? Is this the God-taught mystery? Is it for this that he is admired, and deemed worthy of such surpassing honours? For thus he was addressed, "Blessed art thou, Simeon, son of Jonah."
The reason, however, for which he was thus admired is a very just one; for it was because he believed that He Whom he saw as one of us, that is, in our likeness, was the Son of God the Father, the Word, namely, That sprang forth from His substance, and became flesh, and was made man. See here, I pray, the profundity of the thoughts, the importance of the confession, the high and weighty mystery. For He Who was there in the likeness of mankind, and as a portion of creation, was God, Who transcends all created things! He Who dwells in the high and lofty place was abased from His glory to be in poverty like unto us! And He Who, as God, is Lord of all, and King of all, was in the likeness of a slave, and in the measure of a slave! This is the faith the Saviour crowns; to those thus minded He extends His bountiful right hand. For when He had praised Peter, and said that he was taught of God, as one who had obtained the revelation from above, from God the Father, He makes him more assured and more abundantly confirmed in the faith he had professed concerning Him, by saying: "And I say unto thee, that thou art a stone; and upon this stone I will build My church: and I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."
For observe how He makes Himself at once the Lord of heaven and of earth. For He promises things that exceed our nature, and surpass the measure of humanity; yea, rather, even that of the angelic rank: and are suitable for that nature only to bestow, Whose glory and sovereignty transcend all. For, first He says that the church belongs to Him; the sacred Scriptures nevertheless distinctly ascribe it rather to God, |219 and to Him only, saying that it is "the church of God." 4 For they say that "Christ presented it to Himself, having neither spot nor stain, but holy rather, and blameless." As being God therefore He says that it is His, and promises moreover to found it, granting it to be unshaken, as being Himself the Lord of powers.
And next He says that He gives him the keys of heaven. Who is it then that thus pours forth language appropriate to God? Is it an angel? or some other intelligent power, whether principality, or throne, or dominion? or those holy seraphs? Not at all: but, as I said before, such language belongs to Almighty God alone, Whose is the sovereignty of earth and heaven. Let not, then, these innovators divide the one Christ, so as to say that one Son is the Word of God the Father, and that He Who is of the seed of David is another Son. For Peter made mention of one Christ; even the Only-begotten Who became man and was made flesh: and for this confession was counted worthy of these extraordinary honours.
When, however, the disciple had professed his faith, He charged them, it says, and commanded them to tell it to no man: "for the Son of man," He said, "is about to suffer many things, and be rejected, and killed, and the third day "He shall rise again." And yet how was it not rather the duty of disciples to proclaim Him everywhere? For this was the very business of those appointed by Him to the apostle-ship. But as the sacred Scripture saith, "There is a time for everything." There were things yet unfulfilled which must also be included in their preaching of Him: such as were the cross; the passion; the death in the flesh; the resurrection from the dead; that great and truly glorious sign by which testimony is borne Him that the Emanuel is truly God, and by nature the Son of God the Father. For that He utterly abolished death, and effaced destruction, and spoiled hell, and overthrew the tyranny of the enemy, and took away the sin of the world, and opened the gates above to the dwellers upon earth, and united earth to heaven: these things proved Him to be, as I said, in truth God. He commanded |220 them, therefore, to guard the mystery by a seasonable silence until the whole plan of the dispensation should arrive at a suitable conclusion. For then, when He arose from the dead, He gave commandment that the mystery should be revealed to all the inhabitants of the earth, setting before every man justification by faith, and the cleansing efficacy of holy baptism. For He said, "All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth: Go ye, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in 5 the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and teaching them to observe all those things which I have commanded you. And lo! I am with you always, even unto the end of the world." For Christ is with us and in us by the Holy Ghost, and dwells in the souls of us all: by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion and honour with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever, Amen. |221
SERMON L. Fit to be read at a time of persecution.
9:23-26. And He said to them all, Whosoever will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross every day, and come after Me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for My sake shall save it. For what is a man profited, who hath gained the whole world, but hath lost himself, or fallen short? For whosoever shall be ashamed of Me, and of My words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed when He shall come in His glory, and in His Father's, and of His holy angels.
6 MIGHTY generals encourage their trained warriors to deeds of courage, not only by promising them the honours of victory, but even by telling them that the very fact of suffering brings them glory, and gains for them all praise. For it is impossible for those who would win fame in battle not sometimes to have to endure wounds also from their opponents. But their suffering is not without its reward, for they are praised as those who bravely assaulted the enemy; and the very wound bears witness to the courage and valour of their mind. And much the same arguments we see our Lord Jesus Christ also using in a discourse, the occasion of which was as follows; He had just shewn the disciples that it was altogether necessary for Him to endure the wicked enterprizes of the Jews, and be mocked by them, and spit upon in the face, and put to death, and the third day rise again. To prevent them, therefore, from imagining that He indeed for the life of the world would suffer the scorn of those murderers, and the other cruelties which they inflicted upon Him; but that they would be permitted to live quietly, and might without blame avoid the suffering readily for their piety's sake, and the endurance even of death |222 itself in the flesh, should it so befal, and by so doing would incur no disgrace, He of necessity, so to speak, testifies that those who would be thought worthy of the glory He bestows, must attain to it by proportionate acts of bravery, saying, "He that will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross every day, and come after Me."
Here, too, we must wonder at the love of Christ the Saviour of us all towards the world; for He not only consented Himself to suffer and bear so great ignominy, humbling Himself even to the cross and death for our sakes, but also rouses His chosen followers to the same excellent desire: even those who were to be the instructors of men every where, and hold the post of commanders-in-chief over the people committed to their care. For those who were appointed to so great a ministry must in very deed be thoroughly brave and valiant, armed with an unshaken mind and invincible courage, so as to dread no difficulties, and even if death befal, to deride its terrors, and set at nought every fear. He who thus acts denies himself, since, so to speak, he resigns this temporal life, and deems its concerns worthy of no regard, inasmuch as his choice is to suffer for the blessedness and love that is in Christ. So does a man follow Christ. For the company of the holy Apostles is, as it were, set before us by the Psalmist's harp, as crying out unto Christ the Saviour of all: "For Thy sake we are killed every day; we have been counted as sheep for the slaughter." For in this also they are like unto the Emmanuel, "Who for the joy that He had, endured the cross, having despised the shame."
He would have those, therefore, who were to be the teachers of all beneath the sun superior to timidity and the base love of the world, laying it down as their duty to suffer for love of Him. And He has Himself taught us what is the character of those of His apostles who love Him, where he said to the blessed Peter, "Simeon, son of Jonah, lovest thou Me? Feed My lambs; feed My sheep." "He was the good Shepherd; He laid down His life for the sheep." For He was not a hireling; rather, those that were saved were His own: He saw the wolf coming; He made no attempt to flee; He despised not the flock; but, on the contrary, yielded Himself to be torn by it, that He might deliver and save us: "For by His bruises we have been healed," "and He was |223 afflicted for our sins." Those, therefore, who would follow Him, and earnestly desire to be like Him, and are set over His intelligent flocks, must undergo similar labours. For numerous savage beasts encircle them, violent, and implacable, and that slay cruelly, and hurry souls to the pit of destruction. For the more learned and skilful of the heathen possess great eloquence, and adorn their false doctrine with beautiful language: and thus they pervert some simple-minded men, making them often wish to share their malady, and depart from the God Who is over all, to worship others in His stead which are no gods. These heaped upon the holy Apostles unendurable persecutions, and exposed them again and again to dangers. For the blessed Paul commemorates the things he had been seen to suffer at Iconium and Lystra, and at Ephesus and Damascus, For at one time he says, "In Damascus the chief captain of Aretas the king watched the city of the Damascenes wishing to seize me, and from a window they let me down from the wall in a basket, and I was delivered from his hands." And again at another time, "Alexander the smith caused me much evil." What then is the testimony of this mighty Evangelist, this courageous and valiant champion, who everywhere despised the utmost dangers? "For to me," he says, "that I live is Christ; and that I die is gain." And again, "I am crucified with Christ; but henceforth I no more live, but Christ liveth in me: and that which I live here in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me, and yielded up Himself for my sake."
But the violence of the Jews broke forth frequently against the other apostles also: they persecuted them; they summoned them before their synagogues; they scourged them wickedly, commanding them to keep silence, and desist from their sacred preachings: for they said, "Did we not strictly command you not to speak to any man in this Name?----even the Name of Christ, the Saviour of us all;----and behold! ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine." But after the disciples had borne their violent accusation for the firm love they had to Christ, they went out "rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the Name." But had they been timid, and abject, and frightened at words, and overpowered by the terrors of death, how would they have been proved? or how have offered as fruits to God those who were called by their |224 means? For, also, the wise Paul whom no difficulty whatsoever could overpower, when on his way to Jerusalem the prophet Agabus loosed his girdle, and bound his own feet, and said, "So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind that man to whom this girdle belongs," answered and said, ''What do ye, that ye weep and break my heart? for I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die for the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ." Excellently, therefore, did He command them manfully to prevail over every persecution, and boldly to undergo trials, as being well assured that if thus they will be zealous in His cause, they will become His friends, and share His glory. If, therefore, a man be ready to endure and despise the terrors of death, has he lost himself and departed, and is there nothing more in store for him? By no means: for in that he loses his life, he especially finds it; while to find it is to bring upon himself destruction. What fear, therefore, can the saints now feel, if that which seemed to be hard proves rather joyous to them that bear it; while that which is dear to men, as being exempt from pain, leads them especially downwards to destruction and the snare of hell, according to the Scripture.
But 7 that it is incomparably better, far above the splendour and pleasure of the world, to excel in the love of Christ, He shows us by saying, "For what is a man profited who hath gained the whole world, but hath lost himself, or fallen short?" For when a man looks chiefly to that which is pleasant and profitable for the moment, and therefore avoids suffering, and desires to live joyously, even though he have wealth and abundance of possessions, yet what profit hath he therefrom when he has lost himself? "Treasures profit not the wicked," but "the fashion of this world passeth away:" and "like clouds those pleasures recede," and riches flies away from those that possess it: "but righteousness delivereth from death."
And further, to set plainly before us the reward of our |225 being willing to labour, He says: "For whosoever shall be ashamed at Me and at My words, at Him shall the Son of man be ashamed when He shall come in His glory, and of His Father, and of His holy angels." Much that is both useful and necessary does He effect by these words. For in the first place He shews that entirely and altogether it follows that those who are ashamed 8 at Him and at His words will meet with the reward they merit. And what could so give us joy as this? For if there are some in whose presence the Judge feels shame, as owing them the reward of obedience, and the dignities and crown due to their love and affection for Him, and the honours won by their bravery, how may we not without fear of contradiction say that they most certainly will henceforth live in never-ending honours and praises who have attained to such splendid blessings?
But, next, He also begets in them fear as well, in that he says that He shall descend from heaven, not in His former lowliness and humiliation, like unto us, but in the glory of His Father; even in godlike and transcendent glory, with the holy angels keeping guard around Him. Most miserable, therefore, and ruinous would it be to be condemned of cowardice and indolence when the Judge has descended from above, and the angelic ranks stand at His side. But great and most blessed, and a foretaste of final blessedness is it to be able to rejoice in labours already accomplished, and await the recompense of past toils. For such as these shall be praised, Christ Himself saying unto them: "Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." May we also be deemed worthy of these rewards by the grace and lovingkindness of Christ the Saviour of us all: by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever, Amen. |226
SERMON LI.
9:27-36. But I say unto you truly, there are some of those standing here who shall not taste of death, until they have seen the kingdom of God. And there were after these things about eight days, and He took Peter, and John, and James, and went up to the mountain to pray. And while He was praying, the look of His countenance was altered, and His raiment was white, shining like lightning: and behold! two men talked with Him, who were Moses and Elijah: who having appeared in glory, spake of His departure, that He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. But Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep: but having roused themselves, they both saw His glory, and the two men that stood with Him. And it came to pass, that when they were separating from Him, Peter said unto Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three tabernacles, one for Thee: and one for Moses: and one for Elijah: not knowing what he said. While he spake these things, there came a cloud, and overshadowed them; and they feared as they entered the cloud. And there was a voice from the cloud, saying, This is My beloved Son, hear Him. And when there was the voice, Jesus was found alone; and they kept silence, and told no man in those days ought of the things they had seen.
THOSE who are skilful in the combat rejoice when the spectators clap their hands, and are roused to a glorious height of courage by the hope of the chaplets of victory: and so those whoso desire it is to be counted worthy of the divine gifts, and who thirst to be made partakers of the hope prepared for the saints, joyfully undergo combats for piety's sake towards Christ, and lead elect lives, not setting store by a thankless indolence, nor indulging in a mean timidity, but rather manfully resisting every temptation, and setting at nought the violence of persecutions, while they count it gain to suffer in His behalf. For they remember that the blessed Paul thus writes, |227 "The sufferings of this present time are not worthy of the glory that is about to be revealed in us."
Observe, therefore, how perfectly beautiful is the method which our Lord Jesus Christ uses here also for the benefit and edification of the holy Apostles. For He had said unto them, "Whosoever will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross every day, and follow Me. For he that will save his life shall lose it; and he that will lose his life for My sake shall find it." The commandment is indeed both for the salvation and honour of the saints, and the cause of the highest glory, and the means of perfect joy: for the choosing to suffer for the sake of Christ is not a thankless duty, but on the contrary makes us sharers in everlasting life, and the glory that is prepared. But as the disciples had not yet obtained power from on high, it probably occasionally happened, that they also fell into human weaknesses, and when thinking over with themselves any such saying as this, may have asked "how does a man deny himself?" or how having lost himself does he find himself again? And what reward will compensate those who thus suffer? Or of what gifts will they be made partakers? To rescue them therefore from such timid thoughts, and, so to speak, to mould them unto manliness, by begetting in them a desire of the glory about to be bestowed upon them, He says, "I say unto you, there are some of those standing here, who shall not taste of death until they have seen the kingdom of God." Does He mean that the measure of their lives will be so greatly prolonged as even to reach to that time when He will descend from heaven at the. consummation of the world, to bestow upon the saints the kingdom prepared for them? Even this was possible for Him: for He is omnipotent: and there is nothing impossible or difficult to His all-powerful will. But by the kingdom of God He means the sight of the glory in which He will appear at His manifestation to the inhabitants of earth: for He will come in the glory of God the Father, and not in low estate like unto us. How therefore did He make those who had received the promise spectators of a thing so wonderful? He goes up into the mountain taking with Him three chosen disciples: and is transformed to so surpassing and godlike a brightness, that His garments even |228 glittered with rays of fire, and seemed to flash like lightning. And besides, Moses and Elijah stood at Jesus' side, and spake with one another of His departure, which He was about, it says, to accomplish at Jerusalem: by which is meant the mystery of the dispensation in the flesh; and of His precious suffering upon the cross. For it is also true that the law of Moses, and the word of the holy prophets, foreshewed the mystery of Christ: the one by types and shadows, painting it, so to speak, as in a picture; while the rest in manifold ways declared beforehand, both that in due time He would appear in our likeness, and for the salvation and life of us all, consent to suffer death upon the tree. The standing, therefore, of Moses and Elijah before Him, and their talking with one another, was a sort of representation, excellently displaying our Lord Jesus Christ, as having the law and the prophets for His body guard, as being the Lord of the law and the prophets, and as foreshown in them by those things which in mutual agreement they before proclaimed. For the words of the prophets are not at variance with the teachings of the law. And this I imagine was what Moses the most priestly and Elijah the most distinguished of the prophets were talking of with one another.
But the blessed disciples sleep awhile, as Christ continued long in prayer:----for He performed these human duties as belonging to the dispensation:----and afterwards on awaking they became spectators of changes thus splendid and glorious: and the divine Peter, thinking perchance, that the time of the kingdom of God was even now come, proposes dwellings on the mountain, and says that it is fitting there should be three tabernacles, one for Christ, and the others for the other two, Moses and Elijah: "but he knew not," it says, "what he was saying." For it was not the time of the consummation of the world, nor for the saints to take possession of the hope promised to them; for as Paul says, "He will change our humble body into the likeness of His,----that is, Christ's----glorious body." As therefore the dispensation was still at its commencement, and not yet fulfilled, how would it have been fitting for Christ to have abandoned His love to the world, and have departed from His purpose of suffering in its behalf? For He redeemed all under heaven, by both undergoing death |229 in the flesh, and by abolishing it by the resurrection from the dead. Peter therefore knew not what he said 9.
But besides the wonderful and ineffable sight of Christ's glory, something else was done, useful and necessary for the confirmation of their faith in Him: and not for the disciples only, but even for us too. For a voice was given forth from the cloud above, as from God the Father, saying: "This is My beloved Son, hear Him. And when there was the voice," it says, "Jesus was found alone." What then will he who is disputatious and disobedient, and whose heart is incurable, say to these things? Lo! Moses is there, and does the Father command the holy apostles to hear him? Had it been His will that they should follow the commandments of Moses, He would have said, I suppose, Obey Moses; keep the law. But this was not what God the Father here said, but in the presence of Moses and the prophets, He commands them rather to hear Him. And that the truth might not be subverted by any, affirming that the Father rather bade them hear Moses, and not Christ the Saviour of us all, the Evangelist has clearly marked it, saying, "When there was the voice, Jesus was found alone." When therefore God the Father, from the cloud overhead, commanded the holy apostles, saying, "Hear Him," Moses was far away, and Elijah too was no longer nigh; but Christ was there alone. Him therefore He commanded them to obey.
For He also is the end of the law and the prophets: for which reason He cried aloud to the multitudes of the Jews: "If ye had believed Moses, ye would have believed Me also: for he wrote of Me 10." But as they persevered even unto the end in despising the commandment given by most wise Moses, and in rejecting the word of the holy prophets, they have justly been alienated and expelled from those blessings that were |230 promised to their fathers. For "obedience is better than sacrifices, and to hearken than the fat of rams," as the Scripture saith. And thus much then of the Jews: but upon us who have acknowledged the revelation, all these blessings have necessarily been bestowed, by means of and as the gift of the same Christ: by Whom and with Whom, to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever. Amen. |231
SERMON LII.
9:37-43. But it came to pass, the day after, as they came down from the mountain, a great crowd met Him. And, behold, a man cried out from the crowd, saying, Teacher, I beseech Thee to regard my Son, for he is my only one. And lo, a spirit taketh him, and he suddenly crieth out, and it convulseth and teareth him, and he foameth; and having bruised him scarcely departeth from him. And I besought Thy disciples to cast him out, and they could not. And Jesus answered, and said: O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you, and suffer you? Bring thy son hither. And when he was yet coming, the devil threw him down, and convulsed him. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, and healed the child, and gave him to his father. And all wondered at the majesty of God.
ALL Scripture is inspired of God and profitable: but especially above all besides this is the case with the holy Gospels. For He Who in old time spake the law to the Israelites by the ministry of angels, has in person spoken unto us, when having taken our likeness, He appeared upon earth, and went about among men. For most wise Paul writes: "That while in old time God spake to the fathers by the prophets in manifold parts, and manifold manners, He hath in these latter days spoken unto us by the Son." And by one of His holy prophets, He somewhere Himself saith, "I Who speak am near as the brightness upon the mountains, as the feet of him that proclaimeth tidings of peace; as one that proclaimeth good things." For lo! He frees us from the tyranny of the enemy, that we may in purity follow Him; and that having brought to nought "the world rulers of this darkness," even wicked spirits, He may present us unharmed unto God the Father.
For that it is by Him that we have gained deliverance from the power of unclean spirits, this lesson proves. For we heard read that a man ran towards Him from among the multitude, and related the intolerable malady of his son. For he said |232 that he was cruelly torn by an evil spirit, and suffered violent convulsions. But the manner of his approach was not free from fault: for he made loud outcries against the company of the holy apostles, saying that they could not rebuke Satan: whereas it would have been more fitting, had he honoured Jesus when asking His aid, and imploring grace. For He grants us our request when we honour and confide in Him, as being the Almighty, Whose power nothing can withstand. For He verily is the Lord of powers 11, and nothing can offer resistance to His will. Yea rather, everything whatsoever that is capable of possessing power obtains entirely from Him the possibility of being what it is. For just as He sheds His light upon those who are capable of being illuminated, as being Himself the true light; and just as in like manner He is the bestower of wisdom upon those who are capable thereof, as being Himself Wisdom, and perfect understanding: so, inasmuch as He is Power, He bestows power on those capable of receiving it. When then by our disbelief we despise His glory, and wickedly scorn His supreme majesty, we can receive nothing from Him: for "we must ask in faith, nothing wavering," as His disciple said.
And that this saying is true, we may perceive even from what takes place among us. For such as present petitions to those who preside over affairs upon earth, and govern mighty thrones, preface their requests with suitable praises, and confess their universal power and majesty; addressing the memorial they present, "To the Lords of earth, and sea, and of |233 every people and race among mankind:" and afterwards they add an account of what they would ask. The father therefore of the demoniac was rude and uncourteous: for he did not simply ask the healing of the child, and in so doing crown the healer with praises, but, on the contrary, spake contemptuously of the disciples, and found fault with the grace given them. "For I brought him, he says, to Thy disciples, and they could not cast it out." And yet it was owing to thy own want of faith that the grace availed not. Dost thou not perceive that thou wast thyself the cause that the child was not delivered from his severe illness?
For that we must have faith when we draw near to Christ, and whosoever have obtained from Him the grace of healing, He teaches us Himself, by everywhere requiring faith of those who approach Him, desiring to be counted worthy of any of His gifts. For, for instance, Lazarus died at Bethany, and Christ promised to raise him. When then one of his sisters doubted of this, and had no expectation that the miracle would take place, Christ said, "I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in Me, even though he die, shall live." And we find elsewhere a similar occurrence. For Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue of the Jews, when his only daughter was now breathing her last, being caught, so to speak, in the meshes of death, besought Jesus to deliver the damsel from what had happened: and Christ accordingly promised so to do upon arriving at the house of the supplicant. But as He was on His way, a man met Him from the relatives of the ruler of the synagogue, saying, "Thy daughter is dead: trouble not the Teacher." And what was Christ's reply? "Fear not: only believe, and she shall live."
It was the duty therefore of the father of the lad rather to lay the blame upon his own unbelief, than upon the holy apostles. For this reason Christ justly called out, "O faithless and perverse generation: how long shall I be with you, and suffer you?" He justly therefore calls both the man himself, and those like him in mind a faithless generation. For it is a wretched malady, and whosoever is seized by it is, as He shews, perverse, and utterly without knowledge to walk uprightly. And therefore the sacred Scriptures say of such persons, "that their ways are crooked, and their paths |234 perverse." From this malady the divine David fled: and in order that he may also benefit us, he reveals the set purpose of his mind thereupon, saying, "A crooked heart hath not cleaved unto me:" that is, one that cannot walk in an upright course. To such the blessed Baptist, as the forerunner of the Saviour, cried, saying, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight."
The man therefore was thoroughly an unbeliever, and perverse, refusing the straight paths, straying from the mark, and wandering from the right ways 12. And Christ deigns not to be with such as are thus minded, and have fallen into this wickedness: and if one may speak in the manner of men, He is tired and weary of them. And this He teaches us saying, "How long shall I be with you, and suffer you?" For he who says, that those were powerless for the expulsion of evil spirits, who by Christ's will had received power to cast them out, finds fault with the grace itself, rather than with the receivers of it. it was wicked blasphemy therefore: for if grace be powerless, the fault and blame is not theirs who have received it, but rather belongs to the grace itself. For any who will may see that the grace which wrought in them was Christ's. For, for instance, the lame man at the beautiful gate of the temple was made whole; but Peter ascribed the miracle to Christ, saying to the Jews, "For Him Whom ye crucified, even by Him this man stands before you whole: and the grace which He bestows hath given him this soundness." Elsewhere the same blessed Peter proclaimed to one of those who were healed by Him, "Aeneas, Jesus Christ healeth thee." It is plain therefore in every way that the man wickedly found fault with Christ's power in saying of the holy apostles, "they could not cast it out."
And besides, Christ is angry when wrong is done unto the holy preachers who have been entrusted with the word of His Gospel, and appointed to teach it to all under heaven, inasmuch as witness is borne them by His grace, that they are His |235 disciples, and they shed the light of the true knowledge of God on those who everywhere were convinced by their doctrines, and the wonderful miracles they wrought. For the miracle constantly, so to speak, leads on to faith. It would have been deserved therefore, had the father of the demoniac gone away disappointed, and been refused the bounteous gift. But that no man might imagine that Christ also was unable to work the miracle, He rebuked the unclean spirit, and forthwith delivered the youth from his malady, and gave him to his father. For up to this time he had not been his father's, but the property of the spirit that possessed him: but being now delivered from his violence, he became once again his father's property, as Christ's gift: Who also gave the holy apostles authority to work divine miracles, and rebuke with irresistible might impure spirits, and crush Satan.
And the multitudes, the blessed Evangelist says, wondered at the majesty of God. When Christ then works miracles, it is God Who is glorified, and God only and solely. For He is by nature God, and His majesty is incomparable, and His supremacy without a rival, resplendent with the sovereignty of God the Father. He is therefore to be extolled with praises, and let us say unto him, "O Lord God of powers, Who is like unto Thee? Powerful art Thou, O Lord, and Thy truth is round about Thee." For all things are possible to Him, and easy to accomplish, and nothing whatsoever is too difficult or high: by Whom and with Whom, to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever, Amen. |236
SERMON LIII.
9:43-45. And while every one wondered at all things which He did, He said unto His disciples, Lay ye these words to your ears: For the Son of man is about to be delivered up into the hands of men. But they knew not this saying, and it was hid from them that they should not understand it: and they feared to ask Him of this saying.
PROFOUND in very deed is the mystery of godliness, according to the expression of the wise Paul: but God the Father reveals it to such as are worthy of receiving it. For the Saviour Himself also, when speaking to the Jews, said, "Murmur not among yourselves: no man can come unto Me, unless the Father Who sent Me draw him." When then the blessed Peter had been counted worthy of a grace thus glorious and wonderful, being in the neighbourhood of Caesarea Philippi, he made a correct and faultless confession of faith in him, saying, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." And what was the reward of which he was thought worthy? It was to hear Christ say, "Blessed art thou, Simeon, son of Jonah: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but My Father in heaven." And he further received surpassing honours: for he was entrusted by Him with the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and the confession of his faith was made the firm foundation for the Church. "For thou," He says, "art a stone: and upon this stone I will build My Church: and the gates of hell shall not overpower it."
That those therefore who were to teach the whole world might know exactly His mystery, He usefully and necessarily explains it clearly to them beforehand, saying, "Lay ye these words to your hearts 13; for the Son of man is about to be delivered into the hands of men." The reason then which led Christ so to speak is, I think, a subject both useful |237 and necessary for our consideration. He had then led up into the mountain Peter, and James, and John, and been transfigured before them, and His countenance shone as the sun: and He shewed them the glory, with which in due time He will arise upon the world. For He will come, not in humiliation such as ours; nor in the meanness of man's estate, but in the majesty and splendour of the Godhead, and in transcendent glory. And again, when He came down from the mountain. He delivered a man from a wicked and violent spirit. Yet was He certainly about to bear for our sakes His saving passion; and endure the wickedness of the Jews; and, as the minister of His mysteries says, "by the grace of God to taste death for every man." But when this came to pass, there is nothing unlikely in supposing that the disciples would be troubled; and in their secret thoughts perhaps even say, How is One so glorious; Who raised the dead by His godlike power; Who rebuked the seas and the winds; Who by a word crushed Satan; how is He now seized as a prisoner, and caught in the snares of these murderers? Were we then mistaken in thinking that He is God? Have we fallen from the true opinion regarding Him? For that those who knew not the mystery, that our Lord Jesus Christ would endure the cross and death, would find therein an occasion of stumbling, is easy to perceive, even from what the blessed Peter said to Him. For though he had not as yet been witness of His passion, but only had heard beforehand that it would befal Him, he interrupted Him, saying, "That be far from Thee, Lord: this shall not be unto Thee."
In order, therefore, that they might know what certainly would happen, He bade them, so to speak, store up the mystery in their mind. "For lay ye it," He says, "to your hearts." In which words, the "ye" distinguishes them from all others. For He wished indeed that they should themselves know what would happen, but not that they should communicate it to others. For it was not right for the unlearned to be taught simply His future passion, but far better, to convince them at the same time of His having risen divinely from the grave, and abolished death, and so avoid the danger of their being offended. When therefore the time comes, He says, that I must suffer, ask not, How it is that One so glorious, Who |238 performed all these signs, has fallen like one of us unawares into the hands of His enemies: but, on the contrary, be assured, when reflecting upon the dispensation, that I am not led by human compulsion, but go willingly thereunto. For what is there to hinder one Who knows beforehand and clearly proclaims what is to happen, to refuse to suffer, if He so will? But I submit to suffer, in order that I may redeem all beneath the heavens. For this He plainly teaches us elsewhere, saying, "No man taketh My life from Me, but I lay it down of My own will. I have power to lay it down: and I have power to take it again."
"But they, it says, knew not this saying; and it was hid from them, that they might not perceive it." Now naturally any one may justly wonder, when meditating with himself, how it was that the disciples knew not the mystery of Christ. For though they belonged to the companies of the Jews, yet they were neither slothful nor contemptuous, but on the contrary most earnest and diligent. For though reckoned as handicraftsmen, whose trade was fishing in the lake, yet, as I said, they had been soberly educated, and were far from ignorant of the Mosaic Scriptures: for for this very reason Christ had chosen them. How then were they ignorant of the mystery of Christ, when it had been shadowed forth for them in various places by the law, and beautifully foreshewn in its types as in a painting? For, to shew my meaning by an example, they were not able to flee away from the bondage of Egypt, nor escape from the hand that oppressed them, until they had sacrificed a lamb according to the law of Moses; and when they had eaten its flesh, they anointed the lintels with its blood; and so put the destroyer to shame. But it was not the mere sacrifice of a sheep that made them, superior to death and the destroyer. Types travail with the truth: and this act of theirs was, as I said, a foreshowing, by means of what was done in shadows, of the saving efficacy of the death of Christ, and of the abolition of destruction by His blood: Who also further drives away our cruel tyrant, Satan, and delivers from the mastery of impure spirits those whom they had enslaved, and who, like the Israelites made to serve in bricklaying, had become the victims of earthly cares, and |239 polluted fleshly lusts, and the unprofitable distractions of this world.
The mystery of the passion may be seen also in another instance. For according to the Mosaic law two goats were offered, differing in nothing from one another, but alike in size and appearance. Of these, one was called "the lord:" and the other, the "sent-away." 14 And when the lot had been cast for |240 that which was called "lord," it was sacrificed: while the other was sent away from the sacrifice: and therefore had the name of the "sent-away." And Who was signified by this? The Word, though He was God, was in our likeness, and took the form of us sinners, as far as the nature of the flesh was concerned. The goat, then, male or female, was sacrificed for sins. But the death was our desert, inasmuch as by sin we had fallen under the divine curse. But when the Saviour of all Himself, so to speak, undertook the charge, He transferred to Himself what was our due, and laid down His life, that we might be sent away from death and destruction.
The mystery, therefore, was revealed to the Jews, by what was shadowed in the law, had they only been acquainted with the sacred Scriptures. But, as the blessed Paul wrote, "Blindness in part hath happened unto Israel;" and "even to this day, when Moses is read, the veil is laid upon their heart: nor is it unveiled, because in Christ it is done away." They then boast indeed of the law, but its purpose is entirely hidden from them; for it leads us to the mystery of Christ. But that they were without understanding our Saviour shews, saying; "Search the Scriptures: for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they it is that testify of Me. And ye desire not to come unto Me, that ye may have life." For the divinely-inspired Scriptures conduct him who has understanding to an accurate knowledge of the doctrines of the |241 truth: but they do not at all benefit the unwise, the ignorant, and the careless. Not because they cannot do so, but because the infirmity of their mind renders them incapable of receiving the light which the Scriptures give. For just as the light of the solar radiance is useless to those deprived of sight; not as though it cannot shine, but because their eyes are incapable of admitting and receiving it; so the holy Scriptures, though inspired by God, profit nothing the unlearned and foolish.
Our duty, therefore, is to draw near unto God, and say; "Open mine eyes: and I shall perceive the wondrous things of Thy law." So He will reveal Christ to us: by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever, Amen. |242
SERMON LIV.
9:46-48. And there entered a thought among them, which of them is the greatest. And Jesus, knowing the thought of their heart, took a child, and set him by Him, and said unto them, Whosoever shall receive this child in My name, receiveth Me: and whosoever receiveth Me, receiveth Him Who sent Me. For he that is least among you all, shall be the chief.
YE who are zealous after spiritual skilfulness, and thirst for the communication of the sacred doctrines, receive once again the things ye love. And it is no earthly teacher Who leads you to the gainful booty, nor one like unto us Whom ye obtain as your guide, but the Word of God, Who came down from above, even from heaven, and is the true light of heaven and earth. For the whole rational creation is illuminated by His means, inasmuch as He is the giver of all wisdom and understanding. From Him we receive all knowledge of virtue, and the perfect ability to perform good works such as become saints. For, as Scripture saith, "we are taught of God." And the passage just laid before us bears witness also to what I have said. "For there entered," it says, "a thought among them:"----that is, among the holy Apostles,----"which of them is chief."
And now let him who thinks that Jesus was a mere man learn that he is in error, and far gone from the truth. For let him know, that though God the Word became flesh, yet that it was not possible for Him to cease to be that which He was, and that He continued to be God. For to be able to search the hearts and reins, and know their secrets, is the attribute of the supreme God alone, and besides Him of no other being whatsoever. But behold, Christ searcheth the thoughts of the holy Apostles, and fixeth the eye of Godhead upon their hidden feelings. Therefore He too is God, as being adorned with honours thus glorious and divine. |243
But let us just now investigate this question, whether all the blessed disciples in common were seized with this malady? whether this thought entered all at once? But it is, in my opinion, altogether incredible to suppose that all of them at the same moment became the common prey of one malady: but when, as I imagine, it happened to one, the wise Evangelist, that he might not be found framing an accusation against an individual among his fellow disciples, expresses himself indefinitely, saying, "There entered a thought among them, who of them is chief.'' By this, however, we are permitted to see how very wily Satan is in doing evil. For most versatile and full of contrivance is this snake for mischief, plotting in a diversity of ways against those whose love is fixed upon an honourable life, and who earnestly seek after more excellent virtues: and if by fleshly pleasures he can prevail over any one's mind, he savagely makes the assault, and sharpens the goad of voluptuousness, and by the very audacity of his attacks, humbles to base lusts even a well-confirmed mind. But if any one be manly, and escape from these snares, he then uses other artifices, contriving baits to tempt him unto mental maladies. For he sows some seed or other displeasing to God: and in those in whom there is something noble, and the praise of an excellent life, he excites the passion of vainglory, exciting them by little and little to an abominable haughtiness. For just as those who in warlike guise are equipped to do battle with invaders, use many contrivances against them; either drawing bows, which discharge arrows, or hurling stones from slings, or manfully charging them with drawn swords: so also Satan uses every artifice in carrying on war against the saints by means of manifold sins.
The passion, therefore, and lust of vainglory attacked some one of the holy Apostles; for the mere disputing who of them is the chief, is the mark of an ambitious person, eager to stand at the head of the rest. But He slept not Who knoweth how to deliver, even Christ; He saw in the disciple's mind this thought, springing up, in the words of Scripture, like some bitter plant: He saw the tare, the work of the wicked sower: and before it grow up high; before it struck its root down |244 deep; before it grew strong, and took possession of the heart; He, so to speak, tears up the evil by the very root. He saw the barbarian's arrow that had found entrance: and before it prevailed, and pierced through the mind, He contrives a medicine. For when passions are but beginning in us, and, so to speak, as yet in their infancy, and not full grown, nor firmly rooted, they are easily overcome. But when they have increased, and grown strong, they are hard to put off, and bear themselves with no little audacity. For this reason one of the wise said: "If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place: for yielding heals many sins."
In what way, then, does the Physician of souls amputate the passion of vainglory? How does He deliver the beloved disciple from being the prey of the enemy, and from a thing hateful to God and man? "He took a child, it says, and set it by Him;" and made the event a means of benefiting both the holy Apostles themselves, and us their successors: for this malady as a general rule preys upon all those who are in any respect superior to other men.
But of what did He make the child He had taken a type and representation? Of an innocent and unambitious life. For the mind of a child is void of fraud, and his heart sincere; his thoughts are simple; he covets not rank, and knows not what is meant by one man being higher in station than another: he has even no unwillingness to be regarded as the least, nor sets himself above any other person whatsoever: and though he be of good family by birth, he does not quarrel about dignity even with a slave: nor though he have rich parents, is he aware of any difference between himself and poor children. On the contrary, he likes being with them, and talks and laughs with them without distinction. In his mind and heart there is great frankness arising from simplicity and innocence. For even the Saviour once said to the holy Apostles, or rather to all those who love Him: "Verily I say unto you, that unless ye be converted, and become like these children, ye cannot enter the kingdom of God." And at another time again, when the women were bringing to Him their infants, and the disciples prevented them, He said, "Suffer the little children, and forbid them not, to come unto Me; for of such as they is |245 the kingdom of heaven." And again the most wise Paul desires that those who believe in Christ should be "grown men in understanding, but in malice babes." And another of the holy Apostles said: "As babes just born, love the rational and pure milk, that ye may grow thereby unto salvation, if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is kind."
As I said then, Christ brought forward the child as a pattern of simplicity and innocence, "and set him also by Him;"" shewing by him, as in a figure, that He accepts and loves those who are such, and deems them worthy, so to speak, of standing at His side, as being like-minded with Him, and anxious to tread in His steps. For He said, "Learn of Me: for I am meek, and lowly in heart." And if He Who transcends all, and is crowned with such surpassing glories, is lowly in heart, how must it not bring upon such as we are, yea, even upon our very selves, the blame of utter madness, if we do not bear ourselves humbly towards the poor, and learn what our nature is, but love to vaunt ourselves ambitiously above our measure!
And He further says: "He that receiveth this child in My name receiveth Me: and he that recciveth Me receiveth Him that sent Me." Since, therefore, the reward of those that honour the saints is one and the same, whether he who is honoured be, if it so chance, of modest rank, or of exalted station and dignity;----for he receiveth Christ, and by Him and in Him the Father;----how was it not utterly foolish for them to quarrel among themselves, and aim at pre-eminence, and be unwilling to be thought inferior to others, when they were to be accepted on equal terms!
But He makes the purport of this declaration even still more |246 plain by saying: "For he that is least among you all, the same is chief." And how is he the chief, who is regarded as the least? Is the comparison in point of virtue? But how can this he? The foremost place is not assigned to him who is chief in virtue above him who is otherwise. In what way, then, is he chief who is least? Probably, then, He calls him least whom lowly things please, and who, from modesty, does not think highly of himself. Such a one pleases Christ: for it is written, "that every one that exalteth himself shall be abased: and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." And Christ Himself somewhere says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for their's is the kingdom of heaven." The ornament, therefore, of a soul that is sanctified is a poor and humble mind: but the wish to think highly of oneself, and to be at strife with the brethren for the sake off honour and dignity, and foolishly to quarrel with them, is in like manner a disgrace. Such conduct separates friends, and makes even those perhaps great enemies whoso dispositions are similar. It overpowers the law of nature, and subverts that innate affection which we owe our brethren. It divides lovers, and sometimes makes even those enemies of one another, who are united by being born from one womb. It fights against and resists the blessings of peace. Miserable is it, and a malady invented by the wickedness of the devil. For what is there more delusive than vainglory? Like smoke it is dispersed; like a cloud it passeth away, and like the vision of a dream changeth into nothingness. It scarcely equalleth the herbage in endurance, and withereth like grass. For it is written, that "all flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass." It is a weakness, therefore, despised even among us, and numbered among the greatest evils. For who does not reckon a vainglorious man, inflated with empty airs, an annoyance? Who does not regard with contempt, and give the name of "boaster," to one who refuses to be on an. equality with others, and thrusts himself forward as if claiming to be accounted their superior? Let, then, the malady of vaingloriousness be far from those who love Christ: and lot us rather consider our companions as better than we are, and be anxious to adorn ourselves with that humility of mind, which is well-pleasing to God. For being thus |247 simple-minded, as becometh saints,15 we shall be with Christ, Who honoureth simplicity: by Whom and with Whom, to God the Father, be praise and dominion with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever, Amen. |248
SERMON LV.
9:49-50. And John answered and said: Teacher, we saw one casting out devils in Thy Name, and we forbade him because he followeth not with us. But Jesus said unto him: Forbid him not: for he is not against you. For whosoever is not against you, is on your part.
PAUL requires us to "prove every thing," and says, "Be wise money-changers." But an exact and scrupulous knowledge of each particular matter we can obtain from no other source than from divinely-inspired Scripture. For David in the Psalms, addressing as it were Christ, the Saviour of all, declares; "Thy law is a lamp to my feet, and a light unto my paths." And Solomon also writes, that "the commandment of the law is a lamp and a light." For just as this sensible light that is in the world, by falling on our bodily eyes, dispels the darkness; so also the law of God, when admitted into the mind and heart of man, illuminates it thoroughly, and does not suffer it to fall against the stumblingblocks of ignorance, nor be caught in the wickednesses of sin.
And this I say from admiration of the skilfulness here also displayed in the lessons from the Gospel just set before us, and the purport of which ye doubtless wish to be taught, seeing ye have assembled here from love of the sacred doctrines, and with eagerness have formed the present meeting. What therefore do the wise disciples say, or what do they wish to learn from Him Who endoweth them with all wisdom, and revealeth to them the understanding of every good work? "Teacher, we saw one casting out devils in Thy name, and we forbade him." Has the sting of envy troubled the holy disciples? Do they grudge those highly favoured? Have even they admitted within them a passion so abominable and hateful to God? "We saw one, they say, casting out devils in Thy name, and we forbade him." Tell me, dost thou forbid one who in Christ's name troubles Satan, and crushes evil demons? How was it not thy duty rather to reflect, that he was not the doer |249 of these wonders, but that the grace which was in him wrought the miracle by the power of Christ? How therefore dost thou forbid him who in Christ wins the victory? "Yes," he saith; for he followeth not with us." Oh blind speech! For what if he be not numbered among the holy Apostles, who is crowned with Christ's grace, yet is he equally with you adorned with apostolic powers. There are many diversities of Christ's gifts, as the blessed Paul tcacheth, saying; "that to one is given the word of wisdom, but to another the word of knowledge: and to another faith; and to another gifts of healings."
What therefore is the meaning of his "not walking with us," or what is the force of the expression? Look then; for I will tell you as well as I can. The Saviour gave the holy Apostles authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all disease and all sickness among the people. And so they did; nor was the grace given them ineffectual. For they returned with joy, saying; "Lord, even the devils are subject to us in Thy name." They imagined, therefore, that leave was given not to any one else but to themselves alone to be invested with the authority which He had granted them. For this reason they draw near, and want to learn, whether others also might exercise it, even though they had not been appointed to the apostleship, nor even to the office of teacher.
We find something like this also in the ancient sacred Scriptures. For God once said to the hierophant Moses: "Choose thee seventy men of the elders of Israel, and I will take of the Spirit that is upon thee, and give it," He says, "to them." And when those who were chosen had assembled at the former tabernacle, two men only excepted, who had remained in the camp, and the spirit of prophecy descended upon them, not only those who were assembled in the holy tabernacle prophesied, but those also who had remained in the camp. But "Jeshua, it says, who stood before Moses, said, Eldad and Midad, lo! they prophesy in the camp. My lord Moses forbid them. And Moses said unto Jeshua, Enviest thou me? Would that all the Lord's people were prophets, the Lord putting His Spirit upon them." But it was Christ Who at that time made the hierophant Moses thus speak by the Holy Ghost: and here also in person He saith to the holy Apostles; "Forbid not him who is crushing Satan," that is, in His name, |250 "for he is not against you,16 He says; for he who is not against you is on your part." For on the part of us who love Christ, are all who wish to act to His glory, and are crowned by His grace. And this is a law to the churches continuing even to this day. For we honour only those who lift up holy hands, and purely and without fault or blame, in Christ's name, rebuke unclean spirits, and deliver multitudes from various diseases: for we know that it is Christ Who worketh in them.
We must, however, examine such things carefully. For there are verily men, who have not been counted worthy of Christ's grace, but make the reputation of being saints and honourable an opportunity of gain. Of such one may say, that they are bold and shameless hypocrites, who seize honours for themselves, even though God has not called them thereto; they praise themselves, and imitate the bold doings of the false prophets of old, of whom God said; "I have not sent the prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken unto them, yet they prophesied." And so too may He say of these, I have not sanctified them, but they falsely assume the gift for themselves: they have not been counted worthy of My grace, but wickedly seize those things which I bestow on such alone as are worthy to receive them. These, making a show of fasting, walk sadly with downcast looks, while full of fraud and baseness. And often they pride themselves on letting their nails grow long: and are especially fond of their complexion being sallow: and though no one compel them, they delight in enduring such misery as men have to bear in prison, hanging collars on their necks, and putting fetters sometimes on their hands and feet. Such persons the Saviour has commanded us to avoid, saying; "Beware of those who come to you in sheep's clothing: but within are ravening wolves."
To this, however, some one may object, 'But who, O Lord, knows the heart of man? Who sees what is concealed within us, but Thou alone, Who by Thyself didst form our hearts, and tryest hearts and reins? Yes, He says: "By their fruits ye shall know them:" not by appearances, not by outward show, but by fruits. For what is the object of their |251 hypocrisy? Plainly it looks to the love of gain. For they gape at the hands of those who visit them: and if they see them empty, they are greatly distressed, and stung with annoyance. For piety is with them merchandize. If, however, thou lovest wealth, and lusteth after base gains, and hast given a place in thy mind to that most base passion,----the love of money,----put off the sheep's skin; why labourest thou in vain, by making a pretence of an austere and unworldly conduct? Abandon this excessive rigour of life, and aim instead at being one who is contented with little. Ask this of God: seek His righteousness: "Cast thy care upon the Lord: and He shall nourish thee."
But there are even some who use from time to time incantations and certain abominable mutterings, and wickedly make certain fumigations 17, and command the use of amulets. 'But yet,' says one, 'who has without thought taken part in these practices, in their incantations they use the Name of the Lord of Sabaoth.' Are we, then, to acquit them of blame because they bestow on a wicked and impure devil an expression suitable to God only, and call the wicked Satan the Lord of Sabaoth; asking of him as the reward of blasphemy, aid in the things they request of him? Not that he really aids them, for he is powerless; but rather brings down to the pit of destruction those that call upon him. For the Lord speaketh not untruly where He says that Satan casteth not out Satan 18.
It is necessary, therefore, for our salvation and well-pleasing to God, to flee far from every thing like this. But when thou seest one who has been brought up in the church, innocent, simple, without hypocrisy, whose mode of life is worthy of emulation, who is known of many as the companion of holy monks, who flees from the arts of the city, who is fond of desert places, who loves not gain, nor schisms, and, besides all this, has a correct faith, and is made honourable by the grace of Christ, through the operation of the Holy Ghost, so as to be even able to work those things that are by Christ; unto |252 such a one draw near with confidence: he shall pray for thee purely, and his grace shall minister unto thee. For the Saviour and Lord of all grants the requests of those who ask Him: by Whom and with whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever, Amen. |253
SERMON LVI.
9:51-56. And it came to pass that when the days were fulfilled for His being taken up, that He set His face to go to Jerusalem: and sent messengers before His face, and they went and entered into a village of the Samaritans to make ready for Him. And they did not receive Him, because His face was as though He would go to Jerusalem. And when His disciples James and John saw it, they said, Wilt Thou that we bid fire come down from heaven to consume them? But He turned and rebuked them, and went to another village.
Those who are abundantly endowed with vast wealth, and pride themselves on their ample riches, assemble fit persons to their banquets, and set before them a sumptuously furnished table, producing by a diversity of dishes and sauces of various kinds a pleasure superior to the mere satisfying of hunger. But from this no benefit arises, but rather great injury to the banqueters. For more than a sufficiency after the calls of hunger have been satisfied is always hurtful. But those who possess heavenly riches, and know the sacred doctrines, and have been illuminated with divine light, nourish their souls by feasting them on instructive discourses, in order that they may become both fruitful towards God, and skilled in the pathway unto all virtue, and earnest in accomplishing those things by means of which a man attains to a happy issue. To this intellectual and holy table, therefore, the sacred Word invites us; for it says, "Eat and drink, and be drunken, my friends." But friends of whom? evidently of God. And it is worthy of note that we are to be drunken with these things, and that we can never be satiated with that which is to our edification. Let us see, therefore, what kind of profit the lesson from the Gospel sets before us upon the present occasion.
"For 19 when," it says, "the days were fulfilled for His |254 being taken up, He set His face to go to Jerusalem." By which is meant, that as the time had now come when at length having borne for us His saving passion, He should ascend to heaven, and dwell with God the Father, He determined to proceed to Jerusalem. For this is, I think, the meaning of His having set His face. He sends, therefore, messengers to prepare a lodging for Him and His companions. And when they came to a village of the Samaritans, they were not received. At this the blessed disciples were indignant, not so much on their own account as because they did not honour Him Who is Saviour and Lord of all. And what followed? They murmured greatly: and as His majesty and power was not unknown to them, they said, "Lord, wilt thou that we bid fire come down from heaven, and consume them?" But Christ rebuked them for so speaking. And in these last words lies the purport of the lesson: and therefore let us accurately examine the whole passage. For it is written, "Churn milk, and it becomes butter."
It would be untrue, then, to affirm that our Saviour did not know what was about to happen: for as He knows all things, He knew, of course, that His messengers would not be received by the Samaritans. Of this there can be no doubt. Why, then, did He command them to precede Him? The reason of it was His custom assiduously to benefit the holy Apostles in every possible way: and for this end His practice sometimes was to put them to the proof. As for instance, He was sailing once upon the lake of Tiberias with those named above; and while so doing he fell asleep purposely: and a violent wind having risen upon the lake, a rough and unusual storm began to rage, and the boat was in danger, and the crew in alarm. For He intentionally permitted the storm and the fury of the tempest to rage against the ship, to try the faith of the disciples, and to make manifest the greatness of His power. And this, also, was the result. For they, in the littleness of their faith, said, "Master, save us, we perish." And He at once arose and shewed that He is Lord of the elements; for He rebuked the sea and the tempest, and there was an exceeding great calm. And so also on this occasion: He knew, indeed, that those who went forward to announce that he would lodge with them would not be received by the Samaritans; but He permitted |255 them to go, that this again might be a means of benefiting the holy Apostles.
What, then, was the purpose of this occurrence? He was going up to Jerusalem, as the time of His passion was already drawing near. He was about to endure the contumelies of the Jews; He was about to be set at nought by the scribes and Pharisees; and to suffer those things which they inflicted upon Him when they proceeded to the accomplishment of all violence and wicked audacity. In order, therefore, that they might not be offended when they saw Him suffering, as understanding that He would have them also to be patient, and not to murmur greatly, even though men treat them with contumely, He, so to speak, made the contempt they met with from the Samaritans a preparatory exercise in the matter. They had not received the messengers. It was the duty of the disciples, treading in the footsteps of their Lord, to bear it patiently as becometh saints, and not to say anything of them wrathfully. But they were not yet so disposed; but being seized with too hot indignation, they would have called down fire upon them from heaven, as far as their will went. But Christ rebuked them for so speaking.
See here, I pray, how great is the difference between us and God: for the distance is immeasurable. For He is slow to anger, and long-suffering, and of incomparable gentleness and love to mankind: but we children of earth are quick unto anger, hasty unto impatience, and refuse with indignation to be judged by others when we are found out in committing any wrong act; while we are most ready to find fault with others. And therefore God the Lord of all affirms, saying; "For My thoughts are not as your thoughts, nor your ways as My ways; but as the heaven is far from the earth, so are My ways from your ways, and My thoughts from your thoughts." Such, then, is He Who is Lord of all: but we, as I said, being readily vexed, and easily led into anger, take sometimes severe and intolerable vengeance upon those who have occasioned us some trifling annoyance: and though commanded to live according to the Gospel, we fall short of the practice commanded by the law. For the law indeed said, "Eye for eye; tooth for tooth; hand for hand:" and commanded that an equal retribution should suffice: but we, as I |256 said, though perhaps we have suffered but a trifling wrong, would retaliate very harshly, not remembering Christ, who said: "The disciple is not greater than his teacher, nor the slave than his master;" Who also, "when He was reviled, reviled not again; when suffering, threatened not; but committed His cause to Him Who judgeth righteously." As treading this path much-enduring Job also is justly admired: for it is written of him, "What man is like Job, who drinketh wrongs like a draught?" For their benefit, therefore, He rebuked the disciples, gently restraining the sharpness of their wrath, and not permitting them to murmur violently against those who sinned, but persuading them rather to be longsuffering, and to cherish a mind immovable by ought of this.
It benefited them also in another way: they were to be the instructors of the whole world, and to travel through the cities and villages, proclaiming everywhere the good tidings of salvation. Of necessity, therefore, while seeking to fulfil their mission, they must fall in with wicked men, who would reject the divine tidings, and, so to speak, not receive Jesus to lodge with them 20. Had Christ, therefore, praised them for wishing that fire should come down upon the Samaritans, and that so painful a torment should be inflicted upon them, they would have been similarly disposed in many other instances, and when men disregarded the sacred message, would have pronounced their condemnation, and called down fire upon them from above. And what would have been the result of such conduct? The sufferers would have been innumerable, and no longer would the disciples have been so much physicians of the sick, as torturers rather, and intolerable to men everywhere. For their own good, therefore, they were rebuked, when thus enraged beyond measure at the contumely of the Samaritans: in order that they might learn that as ministers of the divine tidings, they must rather be full of longsuffering and gentleness; not revengeful; not given to wrath, nor savagely attacking those who offend them.
And that the ministers of God's message were longsuffering, |257 Paul teaches us, saying, "For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were, condemned to death; for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men. Being reviled, we bless; being defamed, we persuade: we have become the offscouring of the world; the refuse of all men up to this day." He wrote also to others, or rather to all who had not yet received Christ in them, but, so to speak, were still afflicted with the pride of the Samaritans: "We pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God."
Great, therefore, is the benefit of the gospel lessons to those who are truly perfect in mind; and may we also, taking them unto ourselves, benefit our souls, ever praising Christ the Saviour of all: by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Ghost, for ever and. ever, Amen.
[Selected footnotes moved to the end and renumbered. Almost all marginalia, any purely textual footnotes, most Greek or Syriac material has been omitted without notice]
1. a Mai here inserts μὴ in the Greek, which equally with the Syriac has no negative: but certainly without reason, as the meaning is, that when they took their final departure from the city, it was to be from the same house which they had first entered.
2. e The Nestorians.
3. f These words contain the supposed defence of Nestorius, confining the appellation "Christ" to the divine Person, the Word, and denying it to the human person, the "Son of man," or "Son of David." But they require some modification: for Nestorius did not confine the appellation, Christ, to the divine Person, but said that it was a title common to both. So in his letter to Cyril, Harduin's Conc. I. 1278, having quoted the words of the Creed, "We believe in Jesus Christ, our Lord, His only-begotten Son," he says, 'Observe, I pray, how, having laid down as foundations the terms Lord, Jesus, Christ, Only-begotten, and Son, as common both to the Godhead and the manhood, they proceed to build upon them the tradition of the Incarnation, and the Passion, and the Resurrection.' And soon afterwards commenting upon Phil. ii. 5, he says, 'St. Paul being about to speak of the Passion, that no one may imagine God the Word to be capable of suffering, uses the term Christ, as significative of the Substance incapable of suffering and of that capable of suffering in a single person.' So again he does not object to the title of Χπιστοτόκος being applied to the Virgin; οὐ φθονῶ τῆς φωνῆς τῇ Χριστοτόκῳ παρθένῳ: Quat. xxi. p. 1412. What he denied was that there was any such union of the two natures in our Lord as for the Virgin to be correctly called Θεοτόκος, or for it to be orthodox to affirm the divinity of our Lord considered as the Son of man. Thus in Quat. xvi, p. 1415, he says, 'Because God was present in that which was assumed, viz., human nature, that which was assumed, as being joined with That Which assumed it, is also called God, because of the Assumer.' Ἐπειδήπερ ἐν τῷ ληφθέντι Θεὸς, ἐκ τοῦ λαβόντος ὁ ληφθεὶς, ὡς τῷ λαβόντι συναφθεὶς, συγχρηματίζει Θεός. But in this very quaternion he says that Christ is a title applicable to either nature: 'The appellation Christ, like that of Son, and Lord, as used in the Scriptures of the Only-Begotten, expresses the two natures, signifying at one time the Godhead, at another the manhood, and at another both together.' Nevertheless he affirmed that these titles were used differently of the two natures: for while they belonged to the divinity absolutely, they belonged to the manhood only κατὰ συνάφειαν, by conjunction: for the two natures were not united but coupled, each energizing separately and apart. And this συνάφεια was the very keystone of his doctrine, so that he well said in Quat. xv. ἀσύγχυτον τὴν τῶν φύσεων τηρῶμεν συνάφειαν. In Cyril's answer to his letter preserved in Harduin I. 1286, we have a most temperate and exact statement of the doctrine sanctioned by the council of Ephesus, and confirmed subsequently at Chalcedon; 'Confessing that the Word was substantially united----ἡνῶσθαι not συνῆφθαι----to the flesh, we worship one Son and Lord Jesus Christ, not putting them apart and distinguishing between man and God, nor regarding them as joined to one another by oneness of dignity and command: nor again giving the name of Christ in one special sense to the Word of God, and in another special sense to the seed of the woman: but acknowledging one Christ only, even the Word of God the Father, with the flesh which He made His own." This last quotation shews with what, modification we are to take the less exact statement in the text; in answering which, however, S. Cyril refutes, not the confining the title, Christ, to the divinity, but the separation of the natures, shewing that Peter acknowledged Him Whom he saw present before him as "the Son of God the Father, the "Word That sprang forth from His substance."
4. g The Copyist has here apparently omitted a line to the effect that the Scriptures also ascribe the church to Christ.
5. i As the Syriac has but one preposition [Syriac] with which to express both εἰς and ἐν, the translation may either be "into" the Name, or "in" the Name,
6. a A few passages occur in the Aurea Catena, ascribed to S. Cyril, not contained in the Greek, and such are generally also not recognised by the Syriac. The commencement of this homily is, however, an instance to the contrary, the purport of it being very correctly given; as also another passage which occurs towards the end.
7. b Aquinas (Ed. Ven. 1775, vol. v. 134), has "Quod autem incomparabiliter exercitium pacis Christi superet delicias et pretiosa mundi, insinuat subdens; Quid proficit &c." It is impossible to conjecture what can have been the reading of the translator in the Library of the Fathers, who renders it, 'But that incomparable exercise of the passion of Christ, which surpasses the delights and precious things of the world, is alluded to when He adds, 'What is a man advantaged,' " &c.
8. c In this argument S. Cyril takes the being ashamed in a good sense, as "feeling reverence at." Similarly it is understood by the Vulgate: Qui enim erubuerit Me, et Meos sermones, hunc Filius hominis erubescet. This Wiclif renders, "Whoso schameth Me and My wordis, mannes Sone shall schame him," &c. And the sense in which he uses shame we may see in his version of Luke xviii. 2: "There was a juge in a citee, that drede not God, neither schamede of men."
9. n Mai adds a passage from B, giving a completely distinct reason for the transfiguration, namely, that it was to teach the disciples that at the resurrection the body is not "put off, but a sort of light-like glory envelopes it."
10. o Again Mai ascribes a passage from B and F to Cyril, remarking upon the terror with which the disciples fell to the ground on hearing the Father's voice, that it proves the necessity of Christ's mediatorship in human form, inasmuch as the glory of God would otherwise have been unendurable to mankind. The passage following the quotation from St. John he omits.
11. p This title of Deity, which is of very frequent occurrence in S. Cyril's works, is the Greek translation of "Jehovah Sabaoth," the Lord of Hosts, Ps. xxiv. 10; and this again the Latins render, "Dominus virtutum." By "powers" the Syrians understood an order of the angelic hierarchy, inferior only to the Cherubs and Seraphs. Among the MSS. obtained by the late Dr. Mill from the Syriac Christians of Malabar, I have found two lists of ecclesiastical and angelic dignities, in which they are ranked as follows: 1. Players on musical instruments. 2. Singers. 3. Doorkeepers. 4. Readers. 5. Subdeacons. 6. Deacons. 7. Priests. 8. Visitors. 9. Chorepiscopi. 10. Bishops. 11. Metropolitans. 12. Patriarchs. 13. Angels. 14. Archangels. 15. Principalities. 16. Dominions. 17. Thrones. 18. Lordships. 19. Powers. 20. Cherubs. 21. Seraphs. By visitors, though the title is taken from the Peschito version of 1 Pet. ii. 25, I imagine the περιοδευταὶ of the Greek Canons to be meant; and the Chorepiscopi, or Village-bishops, had no power to ordain any one above a subdeacon.
12. q Aquinas translates correctly, Nescientes procedere rectis incessibus: for though incessus is properly the act of walking, yet as early as Tacitus it began to be used for a path. The translator of the Aurea Catena nevertheless renders it, "not knowing how to continue in the right beginnings."
13. r In the text S.Cyril has the right reading "ears," but both here and afterwards he changes it to "hearts," possibly through inadvertence, as no MS. contains this reading, though the more obvious expression.
14. s This translation of Lev. xvi. 8. was apparently adopted by S. Cyril to escape from an objection brought against the passage by Julian, as proving the existence of a Deus Averruncus, "an evil-averting demon." For the text is rightly translated by the Sept. κλῆρον ἕνα τῷ κυρίῳ καὶ κλῆρον ἕνα τῷ ἀποπομπαίῳ: "one lot for the Lord, and the other lot for the scapegoat," as the A. V. renders it. But as ἀποπομπαῖος in classical Greek signifies a "demon who averts evil," Julian inferred from it the existence of these inferior powers, unto one of which he supposed the second goat was offered: and therefore Cyril, not being acquainted with Hebrew, gives it another meaning, of which the Greek may possibly admit: namely, that two lots were written for the goats, inscribed with these two names, conf. Lib. ix. contra Jul. vi. 301. E. So again in his Epistle to Acacius, V. pt. ii. 224. arguing against a faction, who had adopted the same opinions, he says, "He commanded therefore two goats to be offered, and two lots to be written for them, so as for the one goat to be called Lord, and the other goat ἀποπομπαῖος. These therefore were the names of the goats." In modern times, Bochart, Suicer, and Gesenius, all adopt Julian's view, that ἀποπομπαῖος is equivalent to ἀποτροπαῖος, though it draws but slight confirmation from Josephus, who says, indeed, that the goat was an ἀποτροπιασμὸς, an averting of evil, but evidently is referring to v. 21. where Aaron is commanded to lay the sins of the people upon the goat's head. That Cyril had never heard of this meaning of ἀποπομπαῖος is plain; for he calls it ὄνομα τοι-ς μὲν ἱεροῖς νόμοις οὐκ ἐγνωσμένον, ἐντριβὲς δὲ ἴσως ἑαυτῷ, i. e. to Julian: and nothing could be more unsafe than to interpret the language of the Sept. by classical Greek usage. That the Jews of the second century understood it in a passive sense is plain from Aquila, who renders it ἀπολελυμένος, and Symmachus who gives ἀπερχόμενος: while the Greek fathers always treat it as equal to ἀποπεμπόμενος, and the Latins as Emissarius, i. e. the goat sent away. Besides, it is quite impossible to suppose that either the Sept., or Aquila and the other Greek translators of the O.T., meant their renderings as an equivalent of the Hebrew [Hebrew], any more than our own translators their word "scapegoat:" for there is not the most distant connection between the Hebrew and any of these significations. They are mere substitutions of the general sense of the passage for a word confessedly untranslatable; for Jonathan, Onkelos, the Samaritan, and most other versions, retain the original word, as does also the A. V. in the margin: or perhaps, they may have supposed it to be explained by [Hebrew], as it occurs in vv. 10. 21. 22. As regards the meaning of [Hebrew] Azazel, some consider it to be the name of a mountain; Bochart, "the wastes:" others, one of the four chiefs of the devils, whose names Menachem on Lev. assures us are Sammael, Azazel, Azael, and Machazeel: others, that it is Satan's lieutenant, so called in the hymn against Marcion cited by Epiphanius from Irenaeus:----
ἅ σοι χορηγεῖ σὸς πατὴρ Σατὰν ἀεὶ δἰ ἀγγελικῆς δυνάμεως Ἀζαζὴλ ποιεῖν.
Upon the whole, I think Ewald's opinion, Krit. Gr. p. 243, is the most defensible, that Azazel means "total separation or removal;" for Gesenius' objection, that Moses would not have used so hard a word when simpler expressions were at hand, has little force, since possibly Moses may have preserved in this rite some patriarchal observance: and nothing is so retentive of ancient words,----as well as also of customs and ideas,----as the ritual of a nation.
15. u The MS. reads, "as becometh the rich;" but as the argument is not addressed to them in particular, I imagine that the translator mistook ὁσίοις for πλουσίοις, and have translated accordingly.
16. x This reading is also found in most copies of the Philoxenian Version.
17. y In the margin this is explained by "they make fumigations, like persons burning spices."
18. z In the margin this passage is said to be spoken "against the sorcerers."
19. a The Greek of this passage is partially preserved in Cr.'s Catena, p. 80. Corderius and Aquinas have also each some fragments in the Latin, but Mai has found no portion of this sermon in his Catena;, and very little of those that precede, except of that upon the transfiguration.
20. b This apparently very simple metaphor, though it occurs also in Rev.iv.20, has not been understood by the translator of Aquinas (Oxf. 1843), who renders, "quasi non concedentes secum commorari Jesum," "allowing not that Jesus sojourned on earth with them!"
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Early Church Fathers - Additional Texts
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Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke (1859) Sermons 57-65 (Luke 9:57-10:21) pp. 258-301
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke (1859) Sermons 57-65 (Luke 9:57-10:21) pp. 258-301
Sermon 57
Sermon 58
Sermon 59
Sermon 60
Sermon 61
Sermon 62
Sermon 63
Sermon 64
Sermon 65
SERMON LVII.
9:57-58. And as they were going in the way, a certain man said unto Him, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest. And Jesus said unto Him: The foxes have holes, and the birds of heaven a place, to lodge in: but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head.
TO covet the gifts that come from above from God is in very deed a state of mind worthy of being attained to, and that wins for us all good. But though the Lord of all be a bountiful Giver, yet giveth He not simply to all men without distinction, but to such rather as are worthy of His bounty. For just as those invested with the glory of royalty bestow their honours, and the various offices of state, not upon rough and ignorant men, who have nothing in them worthy of admiration, but crown those rather, who have hereditary nobility, and have been proved by trial worthy of receiving them, and likely to be successful in the discharge of their duties; so also God, Who knoweth all things, bestoweth not a share in His bounties upon souls careless and pleasure seeking, but upon such as are in a fit state rightly to receive them. If then any one would be accounted worthy of these great honours, and of being accepted by God, let him first free himself from the pollutions of evil, and the guilt of indifference; for so he will become capable of receiving them: but if he be not so disposed in mind, let him depart far away.
And this the purport of the passage from the Gospels just placed before us teaches us: for a certain man drew near to Christ the Saviour of us all saying, "Teacher, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest." But He rejected the man, saying, "The foxes have holes, and the birds of heaven a place to lodge in: but that He had not where to lay His head." And yet perchance some one may say, that 'he who promised to follow Him had attained to the desire of what was honourable, and good, and profitable. For what is comparable to being with Christ, and following Him? Or how must it not aid in his salvation? Why therefore did He reject one who was |259 eagerly promising to follow Him constantly? For one may learn from His own words, that to follow Him leads on to every blessing: for He said, "He that followeth Me, walketh not in darkness, but possesseth the light of life." What therefore was there improper in promising to follow Him, in order to gain the light of life? What then is our answer to this? That this was not his object. How could it be? For it is easy for any who will examine such matters accurately, to perceive that in the first place there was great ignorance in his manner of drawing near; and secondly, that it was full of excessive presumptuousness. For his wish was not simply to follow Christ, as so many others of the Jewish multitude did, but rather to thrust himself into apostolic honours. This then was the following which he was seeking for, being self-called thereto: whereas the blessed Paul writes, "that no man taketh the honour unto himself unless he be called of God, as Aaron also was." For Aaron did not enter upon the priesthood of himself, but on the contrary was called of God. And of every one of the holy apostles we find, that he did not promote himself to the apostleship, but rather received the honour from Christ. For He said, "Come after Me; and I will make you to become fishers of men." But this man, as I said, boldly took upon himself gifts thus altogether honourable, and, though no one called him, thrust himself into that which was above his rank. Now were any one to draw near to an earthly king, and say, "I shall promote myself, even though thou grantest it not, to this or that honour, whatever it may be;" it would be a dangerous act, and one that would bring upon him the loss often even of his life. Who can doubt that certainly this would be the result? For in every matter we must await the decision of him who possesses sovereign authority. How then could it be fitting for this man to appoint himself among the disciples, and crown himself with apostolic powers, without being called thereunto at all by Christ?
And there is another reason for which He justly rejected him, and deemed him unworthy of so illustrious an honour. For earnestly to follow Christ is confessedly profitable to salvation: but he who wishes to be counted worthy of so great glory must, I say, bear his cross. And what is it to bear the cross? It is to die unto the world, by denying its empty |260 distractions, and manfully abandoning a carnal and pleasure-loving life. For it is written: "Love not the world: neither the things that are in the world: for every thing that is in the world is the lust of the body, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life."... And again, "Know ye not that the love of the world is enmity unto God? Whosoever therefore would be a friend of the world is found God's enemy." The man therefore, whose choice it is to be with Christ, loves that which is admirable and profitable unto salvation; but let him hearken to our words: withdraw thyself far from fleshly lusts; wash away the pollution of wickedness; cleanse off the stains caused by the base love of pleasure; for these keep thee away, and permit thee not to be with Christ. Remove that which separates thee; break down the enmity; burst open the hedge that is between; for then thou wilt be with Christ. But if the hedge which keeps thee from communion with Him be not yet destroyed, in what manner canst thou follow Him?
That such then was the case with the man before us, He shews by the indirect rebuke which He gave him, not in order to reproach him, but rather for his correction, that he might of his own accord grow better, and become earnest in following the ways of virtue. Therefore He says, "The foxes have holes, and the birds of heaven a place to lodge in: but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head." And the simple meaning of the passage, and that ready to hand, is as follows: that the beasts and birds have dens and dwellings; but I have nothing to offer of those things which are the objects of general pursuit: for 1 have no place where to dwell, and rest Myself, and lay My head. But the inner and secret signification of the passage is attained to by more profound thoughts. For He seems to mean by the foxes and birds of heaven, those wicked, and cunning, and impure powers, the herds of demons. For they are so called in many places in the inspired Scripture. For the blessed Psalmist says of certain men, "They shall be the portions of foxes." And in the Song of Songs it is written again: "Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that destroy the vines." And Christ Himself somewhere says of Herod, who was a bad man, and crafty in his wickedness; "Tell that fox." And elsewhere He said of the seeds that fell upon the pathways, "the birds of heaven came and devoured them." |261 And this we affirm that He said, not of the material and visible birds, but rather of those impure and wicked spirits, who oft-times, when the heavenly seed has fallen upon the hearts of men, remove and, so to speak, carry it away, that they may not bring forth any fruit. As long therefore as the foxes and birds have holes and dens in us, how can Christ enter? Where can He rest? What communion is there between Christ and Belial? For He lodgeth in the saints, and dwelleth in them that love Him: but withdraws from the impure and the unclean. Expel the beasts: hunt out the foxes: drive away the birds: free thy heart from their impurity, in order that the Son of man may find a place in thee to lay His head: even the Word of God Who was incarnate and became man. For light has no concord with darkness, nor the impure with the holy. It is a thing altogether incredible for there to be stored up in one vessel perfume and filthiness. It is impossible for a man to be invested with apostolic honour, and conspicuous for his virtues, and every good and manly quality, if he have not admitted Christ into him. And so most wise Paul has taught us saying: "Or seek ye a proof of Christ, Who speaketh in us?" But he in whom Christ dwells is a temple, not of one of those gods falsely so named, but of Him Who by nature, and in truth is God. For we have been taught to say, that "we are the temples of the living God." But to a divine temple incense is suitable, such as is of a most sweet scent: and every virtue is a rational incense, altogether acceptable to the God of all.
"Let us therefore cleanse ourselves from every stain of the flesh, and of the spirit." "Let us put to death those members which are upon the earth." Let us close the entrance to impure spirits. Let not reprobate and wicked birds lodge within us. Let our heart be holy and unpolluted, as far as is possible and may be. For so shall we follow Christ, according as He giveth us the grace, and He will dwell joyfully in us. For then He will have where to lay His head, and rest in us as in saints. For it is written; "Become ye holy, because I am holy." And devoting ourselves to these earnest pursuits, we shall also attain to the city that is above, by the aid of the same Christ: by Whom, and with Whom, to God the Father be praise and dominion with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever, Amen. |262
SERMON LVIII.
9:59-60. And He said unto another, Follow Me: but he said, Lord, suffer me to go first and bury my father. And Jesus said to him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.
IN Christ we have the head and teacher of every virtue. For "we are taught of God," as the prophet declares, and moreover the wise Paul bears witness saying: "God, Who in manifold parts and manifold manners spake in old time to the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by the Son." And what spake He by the Son? Plainly the gospel message of salvation, by means of which we are successfully guided into every kind of virtue, and advance in the praiseworthy and admirable pathway of the better life, so that by following His footsteps we gain the treasure of His gifts. The manner, then, in which we follow Him, and are counted worthy of those perfect and surpassing honours which were first bestowed upon the apostles, the lesson just laid before us clearly teaches us. "For He said, it tells us, unto another, Follow Me."
Now the first point to consider is this: that in the preceding passage we learnt, that one drew near to Him, and said, "Teacher, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest:" but was rejected with scorn by Christ; first as being self called, and thrusting himself into honours which God bestows upon those only who are fit to receive them, and who as being announced by every excellent quality, and skilful in practising every good work and deed, are crowned by Christ, and inscribed in the companies of the holy teachers. But inasmuch as this man was not so disposed, he met with rebuke; for his mind was the dwelling of evil spirits, and full of all impurity. For the Saviour, indirectly touching his case, said; "The foxes have holes, and the birds of heaven a place to lodge in: but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head." |263
Now at our last meeting; we sufficiently discussed the manner in which this is to be understood by us. But here it was no self-called disciple who came, nor one presumptuously forward in promises of deeds thus praiseworthy: but, on the contrary, it was one called by Christ to the apostleship, as not unfitted for it. For he was honoured by the divine decree, and was doubtless holy, and venerable; and able to conform himself to the intention of the evangelic message. But he did not as yet know clearly in what way he ought to conduct himself in so great a matter; for he had perchance a father bowed down with old age: and thought himself acting in a manner highly pleasing to God in anxiously shewing him tenderness and tit-ting love. He knew, of course, as meeting with it in the books of the law, that the God of all has provided also for this, saying; "Honour thy father, and thy mother: that it may be well with thee: and that thou mayest live long upon the earth." On being, therefore, summoned to the sacred ministry, and to the office of proclaiming the Gospel message:----for this is what was signified by Christ's command to follow Him:----he is troubled in his human understanding, and asks for a delay of time enough to tend the old age of his parent. For "Suffer me," he said, "first to go and bury my father." And what we say is, not that he asked permission to bury his father, being already dead and laid out:----for Christ would not have forbidden this:----but he used the word "bury" instead of "that I may take care of his old age till his burial."
What, then, was the Saviour's answer? "Leave the dead burying their dead: but go thou, preach the kingdom of God." For there were, no doubt, other guardians and relatives of his father: but as I consider dead, because they had not yet believed in Christ, nor been able to receive the new birth by holy baptism unto the life incorruptible. Let them, He says, bury their dead, because they also have within |264 them a dead mind, nor as yet have been numbered among those who possess the life that is in Christ. From this, then, we learn, that the fear of God is to be set even above the reverence and love due to parents. For the law of Moses also, while it commanded, in the first place, that "thou shalt love the Lord God with all thy soul, and all thy might, and all thy heart:" put as second to it the honour due to parents, saying, "Honour thy father and thy mother."
For come, and let us examine the matter in dispute, and inquire what is the reason why we consider the honour and love due to parents, not a thing to be neglected, but, on the contrary, carefully to be attended to. One may say, then, that is because we have our being by their means. But the God of all brought us into being, when we absolutely did not exist. He is the Creator and Maker of all: and, so to speak, the principle and radical essence of everything. For to everything existence is His gift. The father, then, and mother, were the means by which their offspring came into existence. Ought not, therefore, the primary Author justly to be loved more than the secondary and subsequent? And will not He Who gave the more precious gifts require of us the more marked honour? Our endeavours, therefore, to please our parents must give way to our love to God, and human duties must yield precedence to those which are divine. And this the Saviour has Himself taught us, saying, "He who loveth father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me: and he who loveth son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me." He does not say that they are condemned for simply loving, but for loving them more than Me. He permits sons and daughters, therefore, to love their parents, but not more than they do Him. When therefore any thing which concerns God's glory has to be done, let no impediment stand in the way; let thy earnestness be without pretext: thy zealous exertions ardent and irrepressible. Forthwith let father and mother and children be disregarded, and the power of natural affection towards them cease, and yield the victory to the love of Christ.
So was that thrice-blessed Abraham tried: so was he justified, and called the friend of God: and counted worthy of |265 surpassing honours. For what can equal in the balance the being a friend of God? What can this world offer comparable with a grace so glorious and admirable? He had one only-begotten and beloved son, who, after long delay, and scarcely, and in his old age had been given him. Upon him too rested all his hope of offspring: for it was said to him: "In Isaac shall thy seed be called." But as the sacred Scripture saith, "God tried Abraham, saying: Take thy beloved son, even him whom thou lovest, Isaac, and go to the high land, and offer him to Me for a whole burnt-offering, upon one of the mountains that I will tell thee." Was God trying Abraham, as not foreknowing what would happen, and waiting to learn the result? But how can this be true? For He knows all things before they happen. Why therefore did He try him? That we by the fact might learn the old man's love of God, and ready obedience, and unchanging earnestness in the dutiful performance of God's will. And observe how God made him, so to speak, unready for the act, that the patriarch might obtain the more worthy admiration, as preferring nothing to his Lord's will. "Take," He says, not simply Isaac, but "thy son: the beloved one;----him whom thou hast loved." This strengthened in his case the sting of natural affection. Oh! how mighty a turmoil of bitter thoughts rose up in the old man! For the force of innate affection naturally called him to compassion for the child. He had wished to be a father: for he had even lamented his childlessness unto God, when He promised to give him all that land which had been told him, and said, "Lord, what givest Thou me? and I dwell childless." The law, therefore, of natural affection urged him to spare the lad; while the power of love towards God called him to ready obedience: and he was like some tree, driven to and fro by the violence of the winds; or like a ship at sea, reeling, so to speak, and staggering by the beating of the waves. But there was one true and powerful thought to which he held fast. For he considered, that though the lad were slain, and became the work and victim of the fire, as being a whole burnt-offering, well-pleasing to God: yet that He "was not unable to raise him up again, oven from the dead." |266
Much, therefore, at once was taught him by this event. For, in the first place, he learnt that ready obedience leads on to every blessing, and is the pathway to justification, and the pledge of friendship with God: and secondly, that God is able to raise again, even from the dead. And, moreover, he learnt what is more important, and more worthy of account, I mean the mystery of Christ: that for the salvation and life of the world God the Father was about to yield His own Son to the sacrifice: even Him, Who by nature was beloved, that is, Christ. And the blessed Paul confirms this, saying of Him: "He That spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all." The patriarch Abraham therefore learnt what kind of and how great a thing it is, not to spare his own son, the only-begotten and beloved. He then was found approved, because he set nothing above those things that are well-pleasing to God. Such Christ requires us to be, so as to love and prize what concerns His glory far above the ties of fleshly relationship.
And once more to look at it in another light. It was right that the power of love towards Him should outweigh with us even that of those who begat us in the flesh. He has given us God as a Father; for He said: "Call not any one father upon earth: for One is your Father Who is in heaven: and ye are all brethren." And the wise John said of Him, "He came to His own, and His own received Him not: but to all who received Him He gave power to become the sons of God." Ought they therefore who have Him as Father Who is Lord of heaven and earth: Who transcends all created things: Who is guarded by mighty cherubim: Who excels thrones and dominions, principalities and powers;----ought such, I say, to fall into so great folly, as not to set Him above all natural relationship? Can it be that we shall be guilty if we disregard the honour due to parents and children and brethren: but free from guilt, if we pay not the honour due to the Father of all? Hear what He plainly saith; "The son honoureth his father, and the servant his master: if I am a Father, where is My honour? and if I am. a Master, where is My fear? saith the Lord Almighty."
Fitly therefore did Christ make him who was called to the |267 apostleship acquainted with apostolic conduct, and the spiritual manliness required for its discharge, by saying, "Leave the dead burying their dead: but go thou, preach the kingdom of God." For such must the ministers of the divine message be. To whose wise teaching let us also in everything adhere, advancing onwards unto Christ: by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Ghost, for ever, and ever, Amen. |268
SERMON LIX. FIT TO BE READ WHEN ANY ONE RECEIVES THE TONSURE 1.
9:61-62. And another also said, I will follow Thee, Lord; but first let me bid farewell to the members of my house. But Jesus said to him, No man who putteth his hand to the plough, and looketh back, is fit for the kingdom of God.
OF zeal in virtuous pursuits we say, that it is worthy of all praise. But those who have attained to this state of mind |269 must be strong in purpose, and not feebly disposed towards the mark that is set before them. Rather they must plainly possess an unwavering and inflexible mind: for so, starting impetuously as from the barriers of the race-course, they will reach the goal, and gain the victory, and twine around their hair the conqueror's crown. And to this heartiness of purpose the Saviour of all encouraged us, as being a quality worth the gaining, where He says, "Who of you wishing to build a tower, sitteth not down first and counteth whether he have sufficient to finish it; lest, saith He, having laid the foundation, and not being able to finish it, the passers by say, This man began to build, and was not able to finish." One who so acts becomes an object merely of ridicule: for upon every honourable and virtuous undertaking a fitting conclusion ought to follow. And to teach this truth the law of Moses commanded those who were building a house to erect upon it also a battlement. For he who is not perfect in good, is not free from blame. Just then as discredit was of course attached to a house that had no battlements, so the passage just read to us from the Gospel teaches us a similar lesson.
"For one drew near saying, I will follow thee, Lord; but first let me go and bid farewell to those in my house." The promise then that he makes is worthy of emulation, and full of all praise: but the fact of his wishing to bid farewell to those at home shews him, so to speak, divided, and that he had not as yet entered upon the course with unshackled mind. For look how, like some colt eager for the race, there holds him back as with a bridle, the stream of worldly things, and his wish in part still to take interest in this world's occupations. For no one hinders him from hastening, if he will, to the wished for mark, according to the free inclinations of his mind. But the very wish to consult first with his relatives, and to make those his counsellors who were not likely to entertain |270 sentiments similar to his own, nor to share at all in his resolution, sufficiently proves him infirm and halting, and not as yet fully inclined to act upon his desire of following Christ.
But He, as it were by gentle reproofs, corrected him, and taught him to practise a more determined zeal, saying, "No man putting his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." For just as the husbandman, who has begun to break up his land by the plough, if he grow weary, and leave his labour half done, sees not his field thick set with ears, nor his threshing-floor full of sheaves, and suffers of course the loss which is the natural result of idleness; the absence, I mean, of produce, and the consequent penury, and incurs also the ridicule of those that see him: so he who wishes to cleave unto Christ, but does not bid farewell to the things of the world, and abandon all love of the flesh, and even deny his earthly relatives; for by so doing he attains to a resolute courage in all praiseworthy pursuits; is not fit for the kingdom of God. One who cannot attain to this resolution, because his mind is fettered with indolence, is not acceptable unto Christ, nor fit for His company, and necessarily is refused permission to be with Him.
Such were those of whom Christ spake, when forming that similitude in the Gospels. For He said, "A rich man made a banquet for his son; and sent therefore his servants to call them that were bidden, saying, My oxen and my failings are killed, and every thing is ready: come to the banquet. But they, it says, would not come: but one said, I have bought a field, and I cannot come. And another, I have bought a yoke of oxen: and another, I have taken a wife, hold me excused." Thou seest that they were called, and while it was in their power to partake of the feast, they excused themselves, and gave themselves up without restraint to those temporal and earthly matters, which rapidly fade, and the possession of which must quickly be abandoned. And yet surely it was their duty rather to have understood, that a wife and lands, and those other possessions, are but finite pleasures, short in duration, and fleeting like the shadows, and, as it were, a bitterness mingled with honey. But to be members of the church of God, from which they, I know not how, foolishly fled, would have procured for them an eternal and unchanging |271 joy. Whoever would follow Christ, let him be thoroughly constant, and intent solely upon this end; let him not be divided; let him not be possessed by timidity and slothfulness; let him be free from all carnal lust, and prefer nothing to his love unto Him. But if he be not so disposed, nor so affected in his will, even if he do draw near, he will not be accepted.
Something of this sort the law of Moses also has taught us indirectly in figure. For whenever, as emergencies arose, the children of Israel went out to battle against their enemies, before they engaged in the combat, the herald of the host made proclamation, "Whosoever hath betrothed a wife, and hath not taken her, let him return to his house, that he die not in battle, and another man take her. Whosoever hath built a new house, and hath not dedicated it, let him return to his house, that he die not in battle, and another dedicate it. Whosoever is frightened in his heart, let him return to his house, that he make not the heart of his brother frightened as his own." Thou seest that the man who loves the world, or wealth, and whosoever is full of excuses, is not every where in his place: but we shall find the holy apostles very different from such as these. For when they heard Christ saying, "Follow Me, and I will make you to become fishers of men: they, it says, at once left the ship and their father, and followed Him." And the wise Paul also writes, "But when God willed to reveal unto me His Son, immediately I counselled not with flesh and blood." Thou seest the valiant mind, and the brave and hearty purpose, not subject to the bonds of indolence, but superior to all cowardice and fleshly lust. Such must they be who would follow Christ: not looking behind them, not walking, that is, so to speak, backwards, and turning their faces from that manly virtue which becometh saints, and excusing themselves from the duty of labouring: not loving things temporal, not of a double mind, but hastening onwards with perfect zeal to that which is well pleasing to Christ: by Whom and with Whom, to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever, Amen. |272
SERMON LX.
10:1-3. After these things the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them two and two before His face, unto every city and place, whither He was about to enter. And He said unto them, The harvest indeed is great, but the labourers few. Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send forth labourers into the harvest.
THE Holy Ghost by the mouth of the holy prophets commanded the ministers of the saving word of the gospel, saying, "Sound the trumpet on the new moon: on the solemn day of your feast." And to the new moon we may compare the time of our Saviour's coming. For a new world arose for us, in which all things have become new, as the very wise Paul assures us in his writings. For he says, "The former things have passed away: behold, all things have become new." By the new moon therefore, and solemn feast, we understand the time of the incarnation of the Only-begotten, when a trumpet sounded loudly and clearly, even that which proclaimed the saving message of the gospel. For is not that a time which invites us to keep festival, when we were justified by faith, and washed from the pollutions of sin, and death abolished, which had tyrannized over us, and Satan ejected from his mastery over us all; and in which by sanctification and justification we have been united to our common Saviour Christ, and enriched with the hope of unending life and glory. These are the loud trumpet's sounds, and they run not only through Judaea, like that law which was of old, but throughout the whole earth.
And this is pictured for thee in the writings of Moses. For the God of all came down in the likeness of fire on Mount Sinai, and there was a cloud, and darkness, and gloom, and the voice of the trumpet with a loud ringing sound, according to the Scripture. But the notes of the trumpet were, it says, few at first, but afterwards they waxed longer, and became louder and louder continually. What then was it which the shadow of the law signified to us by these things? Was it not this: that |273 at first there were but few to publish the Gospel tidings; but afterwards they became many? And Christ began the work: and having first chosen the twelve apostles, He afterwards appointed, it says, seventy others. And that, not as though those who had been already called to the honour of the apostleship had been guilty of any neglect, or been led into anything unbecoming, but because a great multitude was about to believe in Him. For not Israel only was caught in the net, but also the crowds of the Gentiles. For that the message of salvation would take possession of the whole world, the God of all declared by one of the holy prophets, saying of it, "Judgment springeth up like couch-grass in the furrows of the |274 field." For like as the couch-grass springs up in the furrows that are left without cultivation, and takes possession of them, and spreads everywhere, constantly advancing onwards, so in an exactly similar manner has judgment, that is to say, the grace that justifieth the world as declared in the saving tidings of the Gospel, taken possession of every city and place.
Besides these twelve therefore, there were also seventy others appointed by Christ. And again a type of this was prefigured in the words of Moses. For at God's command he also chose seventy, and God sent the Spirit upon those who had been chosen. And yet again, we find the twelve disciples, and these seventy also, indicated to us by the shadow of the law. For it is thus written in the Exodus concerning the children of Israel; "And they came to Marah 2: and the people could not drink the waters of Marah; for they were bitter. And Moses cried unto the Lord, and the Lord shewed him a tree; and he cast it into the waters, and the waters were made sweet." Now Marah, when translated, means bitterness; and. is taken by us as a type of the law. For the law was bitter, in that it punished with death. And of this Paul is witness, saying, "He that hath despised Moses' law is put to death without mercy at the mouth of two or three witnesses." It was bitter therefore, and unendurable to those of old time, and was unacceptable on this account, just as were also those bitter waters. But it also was sweetened by the precious cross, of which that tree there shewn by God to the blessed Moses was a type. For now that the shadow has changed to the spiritual contemplation, we behold with the eyes of the mind the mystery of Christ, that lay hid in the types of the law. Although therefore the law was bitter, it has now ceased to be so any longer.
"And after Marah, they came, it says, to Elim." And Elim again when translated means an ascent or increase. And what again was there at Elim? "Twelve wells of water, it says, and seventy palm trees." For as we ascend to more perfect knowledge, and hasten onward to spiritual increase, we |275 find twelve wells, that is, the holy Apostles: and seventy palm trees, those, namely, who were appointed by Christ. And very excellently the disciples 3 are compared to wells, and the seventy, who were subsequently chosen, to palm trees. For as from holy wells we draw from the disciples of our Saviour the knowledge of all good: while we praise the seventy also, and, so to speak, call them palms; for this tree is strong-hearted, and firm of root, and very fruitful, and constantly grows besides the waters. And such we affirm the saints to be: for their mind is pure, and steadfast, and fruitful, and habitually delights itself in the waters of knowledge.
Therefore, to return again to what we were at first saying, the Lord "appointed other seventy." But some may perchance imagine that the former had been dismissed, and deprived of the honours of the apostleship; and that these were promoted in their stead, as being better able to teach than they were. To remove therefore such thoughts from our minds, He Who knoweth hearts, and is acquainted with things to come, even as it were apologized, saying, "The harvest indeed is great; but the labourers are few: pray therefore the Lord of the harvest to send forth labourers into His harvest." For just as lands covered thick with produce, and broad and long, require numerous and able labourers; so the whole earth, or rather the company of those about to believe in Christ, being great and innumerable, required not a few teachers, but as many as would suffice for the work. And for this reason Christ appointed those who were to be the allies, so to speak, and assistants of the twelve disciples. They went therefore on their mission, being sent two and two to every city and village, crying, as it were, in the words of John, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord."
But observe this: that while He said, "Pray ye the Lord of the harvest to send forth labourers into His harvest," He did it Himself. And yet Who besides is Lord of the harvest, that is, of the dwellers on earth, but He Who by nature and truly is God. "For to Him belongs the whole earth and its fulness," as Scripture says: and He is the Creator of all, and its Fashioner. But inasmuch as it belongs to the supreme God |276 alone to send forth labourers, how was it that Christ appointed them? Is He not therefore the Lord of the harvest, and God the Father, by Him and with Him, the Lord of all? All things therefore are His, and there is nothing of all things which are named that belongs to the Father, which is not also the Son's. For He also said to the Father, "Those whom Thou gavest Me out of the world, Thine they were, and Thou gavest them unto Me." For, as I said, all those things that belong to the Father are declared to be, and are, the property of the Son, and He is radiant with His Father's dignities. And the glory of the Godhead belongs to Him, not as a thing conferred and given Him by another; but rather He subsists in honours which are His by nature, as He also doth Who begat Him. And the wise John also affirms that we all are His, thus saying of Him: "I indeed baptize you in water: but after me cometh He Who is mightier than I: He [Who] shall baptize you in the Holy Ghost, and in fire. Whose fan is in His hand, and He will cleanse His floor, and will gather the wheat into His garner, but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire."
May it be our lot then as rational wheat, to be carried into God's treasure house, oven into the mansions that are above: that there, in company with the rest of the saints, we may enjoy the blessings which God bestows in Christ: by Whom, and with Whom, to God the Father be praise and dominion with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever, Amen 4. |277
SERMON LXI. FIT TO BE READ AT THE COMMEMORATIONS OF THE APOSTLES.
10:3. Go: behold, I send you as sheep among wolves.
ALL those who praise the divine and sacred Word correctly, and without error, are, we affirm, the allies of the doctrines of truth, and its host teachers; well knowing how to guide whosoever wish to advance in Christ, rightly unto every good work, and to the life incorruptible, and to participation in the blessings bestowed upon us. Of these most wise Paul also declares, that they are "the lights of the world, holding the word of life."
Now of these illustrious and famous men the divine disciples were the commencement, and stand foremost in order: for they had as a schoolmaster Him Who is the Giver of all understanding; and Who richly bestoweth His light upon those who love Him. For He is the true light Who illumineth the heavens, even the powers who are above; and delivereth from ignorance and darkness those also upon earth. And observe how He made the appointed teachers of all beneath the sun to be ready workmen, conspicuous for their earnest zeal, and able to win the glory of apostolic victories; preferring none of this world's affairs to the duty of proclaiming their sacred message, and so bravely disposed in their manly mind as to be superior to all fear, and no whit terrified at hardships, nor alarmed at death itself, when brought upon them for Christ's sake. For "go," He says: and in this word "go," He encourages them to be courageous; makes them eagerly desirous of saintly victories; establishes them in the steadfast resistance of all temptation; and permits them not to shrink from the violence of persecutions. For just as valiant generals, when the battle begins, and the enemy discharge their shafts, encourage those under their command bravely to resist the attacking foe, and to bear themselves manfully against the enemy; using such words as these; 'Fellow soldiers, let none of these things that |278 ye see trouble your mind; we are not weak and inexperienced in warfare, but know well the ways of battle: we have coats of mail strongly made; armour and swords; bows too and darts: by exertion we shall purchase the victory; stoutheartedness will win for us a right glorious renown:' so does the Saviour of all, if we may so speak, send forth the disciples against the hosts of unbelievers, saying, "Go; behold, I send you as sheep among wolves."
What sayest Thou O Lord? How can sheep converse with wolves? When was a wild beast ever at peace with the sheep? Scarcely can the shepherds protect their flocks by gathering them into folds, and shutting them up in enclosures, and frightening the beasts of prey by the barking of dogs, yea, and even themselves fighting in their defence, and running risks to protect the more weakly members of their flock. How then does He command the holy Apostles, who are guileless men, and if we may so speak, sheep, to seek the company of wolves, and go to them of their own accord? Is not the danger manifest? Are they not set as a ready prey for their attacks? How can a sheep prevail over a wolf? How can one so peaceful vanquish the savageness of beasts of prey? Yes, He says, for they all have Me as their Shepherd: small and great; people and princes; teachers and taught. I will be with you and aid you, and deliver you from all evil. I will tame the savage beasts; I will change wolves into sheep; I will make the persecutors become the helpers of the persecuted: and those who wrong My ministers I will make to be sharers in their pious designs. For I make and unmake all things, and there is nothing that can resist My will.
And that this was the actual result, we may see in instances which really occurred. For the divine Paul was a blasphemer, and persecutor, more injurious and cruel than any wolf against those who believed in Christ. Did he then persist in this conduct? Did he continue to be a wolf even unto the end? Far from it: for he was called by Christ, and experienced an unlooked for change. He who in old time was a wolf became more gentle than a lamb; and preached the faith which once he persecuted. And a change so unexpected in its manner was the wonder of all men, and Christ was glorified, Who had changed him from a beast of prey into a lamb. And this the |279 divine Jacob had in his blessings before announced concerning him: "Benjamin is a ravening wolf: in the morning he shall eat flesh: and in the evening divide victual." For the wise Paul was of the tribe of Benjamin, and, at first, he resisted those who believed in Christ like a ravening wolf; but when a short time had elapsed, a space, so to speak, as from morning to evening, he divided victual. For he taught and preached Jesus: and to those that as yet were babes in intellect he offered milk; but set before the full grown strong meat. In the morning therefore he eats flesh, and in the evening divides victual.
And thus much then briefly respecting the blessed Paul: but let us next discuss from a similar point of view the calling of nations. Let us see whether they too also were not at one time beasts of prey, and fiercer than wolves against the ministers of the gospel message of salvation, but were transformed unto the gentleness and guilelessness which are by Christ's help. They too persecuted the holy apostles, not so much like men struggling with wolves, as like beasts of prey, raging savagely against sheep. And though they wronged them not, but rather called them to salvation, they stoned them, they imprisoned them, they persecuted them from city to city. And yet those, who thus acted at first, afterwards became gentle and guileless, and like the sheep which once they persecuted.
And who else accomplisheth all these things but Jesus Christ our Lord? For He also it is "Who hath broken down the fence wall that was in the middle, abolishing the law of commandments contained in doctrines; Who hath made the two nations into one new man; Who hath made peace, and reconciled both in one body unto the Father." For that there have been joined unto the faith in concord and unity of mind and will, the savage in company with the gentle; the impure and sin-stained with the saints; those, that is, of the herds of the Gentiles with those of Israel who believed; the prophet Isaiah shews, thus speaking in the Spirit: "And the wolf shall graze with the lamb; and the leopard rest with the kid; and the bear and the cow shall graze together; and the ox and the lion eat provender together, and their young ones shall be with one another." Consider, my beloved, and understand that those who were sanctified by faith did not |280 conform to the habits of the heathen, but on the contrary those who were called of the heathen conformed to them. For such beasts as the wolf and lion, the bear and leopard, are eaters of flesh; but those animals which are of a gentle nature, kids and lambs, and steers, feed upon grass. But those beasts of prey, he says, shall graze with these gentle ones, and eat their food. It is not therefore the gentle ones who have conformed to the habits of the savage: but, on the contrary, as I said, the savage who have imitated them. For they have abandoned their cruel disposition for the gentleness that becometh saints, and been changed by Christ, so that the wolves have become lambs; for He it is Who hath made them gentle, and united, as I said, the two nations unto a mind full of the love of God. And this of old the hierophant Moses cried out, saying, "Rejoice, ye nations, with His people; ascribe majesty unto God." Let us therefore exalt Him and honour Him with praises because of the Saviour and Lord of all: by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever, Amen. |281
SERMON LXII. Fit to be read at the Commemorations of the Apostles.
10:4-7. Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes; and ask not the peace of any one by the way. And into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, Peace to this house. And if there be there one 5 worthy of peace, your peace shall rest upon him; but if not, it shall return to you. And in that house remain, eating and drinking of their things: for the labourer is worthy of his hire. Change not from house to house.
THE prudent and skilful bee visits the flowers in every field and meadow, and gathering the dew that has settled upon them, so makes sweet honey. And Solomon leads us to imitate her conduct, saying, "Draw near to the bee, and learn how industrious she is, and how excellent is her workmanship. She is beloved, therefore, and praised by every man, and her labours kings and private persons employ for their health." Come, therefore, and let us also, wandering, as it were, around some intellectual meadow, gather the dew let fall by the Holy Ghost upon the divine message of the Gospel, that so being enriched in mind we may bring forth the spiritual honey, even the word profitable and useful to all who thirst after the communication of the divine doctrines, whether they be noble and illustrious, or obscure and private persons in a humble rank of life. For it is written, "Good words are as honeycomb; and their sweetness is healing to the soul." |282
Now these fair and good words, what else are they than those certainly which Christ spake unto us, making those who love Him skilful by repeated teaching in virtuous pursuits? For take here also as a proof of what I have said the sense of the passage just read to us. "Carry," it says, "neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes." Consider, I pray you, here again the nature of the pathway of apostolic virtue set before them. For it was right that they who were to be the lights and teachers of all beneath the heaven, should learn it from no other than from Him Who is the Word that came down from above----from heaven: the fountain of wisdom and intellectual light; from whom cometh all understanding, and the knowledge of every thing that is good. What, then, He requires of them is, that in preaching to men everywhere the Word that He spake, and in calling the inhabitants of the whole earth to salvation, they should travel about without purse, or scrip, or shoes; and journey rapidly from city to city, and from place to place. And let no man on any account say that the object of His teaching was to make the holy Apostles refuse the use of the ordinary articles of equipment. For what good would it do them, or what harm, to have shoes on their feet, or go without them? But what He does wish them to learn by this command, and to endeavour to practice is certainly this, that they must lay all thought of their sustenance upon Him, and call to remembrance the saint who said, "Cast thy care upon the Lord, and He shall feed thee." For He giveth the saints what is needful for life, nor speaketh He falsely where He saith, "Be ye not anxious for yourselves as to what ye shall eat, and what drink: nor for your body, what clothing ye shall wear: for your Father knoweth that ye have need of all those things. But seek first His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you."
For verily it was fitting and necessary that those who were adorned with apostolic honours, should have a mind free from covetousness, and altogether averse from the receiving of gifts, and content, on the contrary, with what God provides. "For the love of money is the root of all evils" as Scripture declares. They, therefore, in every way must be free and exempt from that which is the root and nourisher of all evils, and must expend, so to say, all their zeal upon their necessary |283 duties, not being exposed to Satan's attack, us taking with them no worldly wealth, but despising the things of the flesh, and desiring only what God wills.
For just as brave soldiers when they go out to battle carry nothing with them but such equipments only as are suitable for war, so also it was right that those who were sent out by Christ to carry aid to the world, and wage war in behalf of all who were in danger against the "world-rulers of this darkness," yea, and against Satan himself, should be free from the distractions of this world, and from all worldly anxiety; that being tightly girt, and clad in spiritual armour, they might contend mightily with those who resisted the glory of Christ, and had made all beneath the heaven their prey. For they had caused its inhabitants to worship the creature instead of the Creator, and to offer religious service to the elements of the world. Armed, therefore, with the shield of faith, and the breastplate of righteousness, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, they must prove themselves invincible antagonists to their enemies; and not drag after them a heavy load of things worthy of blame and condemnation: such as are the love of wealth and hoards of base gains, and eagerness after them: for these things turn aside the mind of man from that behaviour which pleaseth God, and permit it not to mount upward to Him, but humble it rather to feelings set upon dust, and earthly things.
In enjoining them, therefore, to take neither scrip nor purse, nor, moreover, to trouble themselves about shoes, He clearly teaches them that his commandment requires them to abandon all carnal wealth, and that His wish is that they should be free from every impediment in entering upon the duty to which they were especially called, of preaching, namely, His mystery to men everywhere, and of winning unto salvation those who were entangled in the nets of destruction.
And to this He adds that "they 6 were not to ask of the |284 peace of any one by the way." But what harm would this have done the holy apostles? Come, therefore, come, and let us see the reason why it was not right for them to offer greeting to those that met them. Thou doubtless wilt say that it was because it might sometimes happen that those who met them were not believers: and that therefore it would not have been right for those who were ignorant of Him Who by nature and verily is God to be blessed by them. What, therefore, do we say to this? Does it not then seem an incredible supposition that this was the reason why they were commanded not to ask of the peace of any one by the way? For they were sent forth "not so much to call the righteous as sinners to repentance." And how, therefore, was it not fitting that they who were about to enlighten all who were in darkness, and to bring them unto the acknowledgment of the truth, should rather use gentleness and great kindliness instead of roughly withdrawing themselves from associating with them, and even refusing to ask of their health? For certainly with other good qualities, gentleness of address becometh the saints, and greetings, provided they are made in a fitting manner. And, moreover, those who met them would, of course, sometimes not be unbelievers, but men of their own persuasion, or 7 who had already been enlightened, and to whom it would even be their duty to offer an acknowledgment of love by a kindly greeting.
What, therefore, does Christ teach by this? He does not enjoin them to be rude, nor command them to lay stress upon the not making salutation: such conduct He rather teaches them to avoid. But it is not a thing unbefitting to suppose that when |285 the disciples were travelling about among the cities and villages, to instruct men everywhere in the sacred doctrines, they might wish to do this, perhaps, not with haste, but, so to speak, in a loitering manner, making deviations from the road, and permitting themselves to pay visits, because they wished to see some one or other as being an acquaintance or friend, and so would waste prodigally in unnecessary matters the fitting time for preaching. With great industry, therefore, says He, be zealous in delivering your sacred message; grant not to friendship an unprofitable delay, but let that which is well pleasing to God be preferred by you to all other things: and so practising an irresistible and unhampered diligence, hold fast to your apostolic cares.
Besides this He further commanded them "not to give holiness to dogs, nor again to cast the pearls before swine," by bestowing upon unbelievers their society in lodging with them: they were rather to grant it to such as were worthy of having it deigned them, by being sons of peace, and yielding obedience to their message. For it would have been a most disgraceful act for them to wish to be intimate with any who were still resisting Christ's glory, and guilty of the charge of ungodliness. "For what part hath the believer with the unbeliever?" For how could those who had not as yet even listened to their words, but made their instruction, however worthy it was of being embraced, an occasion sometimes even of ridicule, receive them as meriting their admiration? So too at Athens some once ridiculed the divine Paul. For he indeed taught them "that God dwelleth not in temples made with hands," being incorporeal and infinite, and That Which filleth all, but is contained by none: and declared that he preached unto them "Him Whom though they knew Him not, they imagined they rightly worshipped." But they being given up to superciliousness, and greatly priding themselves on their fluent tongue, said in their folly, "What would this seed-picker 8 say? For he seemeth to be a setter forth of |286 foreign gods." Seed-picker was the name they gave to a worthless bird, whose habit it was to pick up the seeds scattered on the roads: and in comparing to it the divine Paul, these foolish men were ridiculing the word of salvation then offered them.
Christ therefore commanded them to lodge with the sons of peace, and to eat at their cost, affirming that this was by a just decree; "for a labourer, He says, is worthy of his hire." And therefore, let not any of those who acknowledge the truth, disregard or be careless of the duty of honouring the saints: for they bless us, when "sowing to us things spiritual, they reap of us things carnal:" and "the Lord also commanded that those who preach the gospel shall live of the gospel:" since also according to the law of Moses, "those who offered sacrifices shared with the altar." And let those who are careless of honouring the saints, and illiberally close the hand, be assured that they are deprived of their blessing. But may it be our lot to be partakers of the blessing prepared for them with God, by offering to them as fruit whatever we possess; and by feeling pleasure in so doing; "for Christ loveth a cheerful giver:" by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever, Amen 9. |287
SERMON LXIII.
10:16 He that heareth you, heareth Me: and he that rejecteth you, rejecteth Me: and whosoever rejecteth Me, rejecteth Him That sent Me 10.
THOSE who adorn thrones of earthly royalty, and possess supreme authority, when they wish to render fitting men illustrious with this world's dignities, send them in the missives on which the decree commanding their appointment is inscribed, a declaration of their praiseworthiness. And this we find that Christ did. For consider how great was the authority He gave the holy apostles, and in what manner He declared them to be praiseworthy, and adorned with the highest honours. For let us search the sacred Scripture, even the treasure of the written words of the Gospel: let us there see the greatness of the authority given unto them. "He that heareth you," He says, "heareth Me: and he that rejecteth you, rejecteth Me: and he that rejecteth Me, rejecteth Him That sent Me." O what great honour! What incomparable dignities! O what a gift worthy of God! Though but men, the children of earth, He clothes them with a godlike glory; He entrusts to them His words, that they may be condemned who in ought resist, or venture to reject them: for when they are rejected He assures them that He it is Who suffers this; and then again He shews that the guilt of this wickedness, as being committed against Him, mounts up to God the Father. See, therefore, see with the eyes of the mind, to how vast a height He raises the sin committed by men in rejecting the saints! What a wall He builds around them! How great security He contrives for them! He makes them such as must be feared, and in every way plainly provides for their being uninjured.
And there is yet another way in which thou mayest attain to |288 the meaning of what is said by Christ. "For he," He says, who heareth you, heareth Me."He gives those who love instruction the assurance, that whatsoever is said respecting Him by the holy apostles or evangelists, is to be received necessarily without any doubt, and to be crowned with the words of truth. For he who heareth them, heareth Christ. For the blessed Paul also said; "Or seek ye proof of Christ That speaketh in Me? And moreover Christ Himself somewhere said to the holy disciples; "For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you." For Christ speaketh in them by the consubstantial Spirit. And if it be true, and plainly it is true, that they speak by Christ, how can that man err from what is fitting who affirms, that he who doth not hear them, doth not hear Christ, and that he who rejecteth them rejecteth Christ, and with Him the Father.
Inevitable therefore is the guilt decreed against the wicked heretics, who reject the words of the holy apostles and evangelists, and pervert them to that meaning only which without due examination seems to them to be right. These fall from the straight way, and wander from the doctrines of piety, "deceiving, and being deceived." For while, so to speak, they have bidden farewell to the sacred Scriptures, "they speak of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord," as Scripture saith. For though the blessed evangelist John wrote to us, that "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God;" they drag to the exact opposite both the tenet concerning Him, and the quotation which proves it: saying that the only begotten Word of God was not in the beginning, nor very God, and that He was not even with God; that is, in union with Him by nature, inasmuch as He Who is incorporeal cannot be imagined to be in any place. These most audacious men even say that He was made, and measure out for Him such glory as they forsooth please: for they elevate Him above created things, as far as the language goes of praise. And in inventing for Him this mere and naked majesty, they imagine that they are doing something wise, or even pious: not understanding that if in any respect He be regarded as a created being, it 11 avails Him |289 nothing for the proof of His being really God: and that if in any respect He be made, and His nature similar to that (of things which are made), that then it follows, as they (virtually) affirm, that He was not in the beginning. For one who is made is not without beginning. How therefore does the wise Paul say, "By Him the Father made the worlds?" For if He were created, He had, as I said, a beginning of existence, and there must have been a time previous to His existence: and there must have been a time also, in which even the Father apparently was not that which the name signifies, but on the contrary, not a Father at all by nature. The word therefore that has come to us concerning Him is untrue, as also is that respecting the Son; and both forsooth are falsely so called.
And how then, I pray, can we believe the Son in saying, "I am the Truth;" for how is He the truth, Who is not what His name implies? Or how must not Paul be false in his words, when he thus writes, "For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, Who was preached unto you by me, and Sylvanus, and Timotheus, was not yea and nay? For how was He not yea and nay, if He is said to be God, and is not God by nature? if He is called a Son, and was not begotten of the Father? if the divinely inspired Scripture saith, that the worlds were made by Him, and there was a time before He existed? if all things were brought into being by His means, and He is Himself one of them, in that He is regarded as a thing made? if He is called the only begotten, and is not so in truth? For the things that have been made, those, I mean, which have been brought into existence from non-existence by having been created, are, so to speak, akin to one another.
But we follow not the vain words of these men, in disregard of the declarations of the holy apostles and evangelists. We reject not them, that we may not reject Christ, and with Him and by Him the Father. We believe that the Only-begotten Word of God is God, and was begotten of God by nature: |290 that He is not created; not made; but the Creator of all: and not so much in all things, as rather supreme above all substantially with the Father. And when again we hear John saying, "And the Word became flesh," we do not falsify the expression: we do not use violence to the freeness of the the declarations: we do not pervert the mystery of Christ to that which is not right. We believe that the Word, though He was God, became flesh, that is, man; and not that He joined some man unto Him in equal honour: for this some venture to say and think, so that the Word from God the Father is to be regarded by us as one Son by Himself; and He Who sprang from the holy virgin as another beside Him, separately and by Himself: for such are the impure inventions of these men. We however agree with the divine Paul, who says: "There is one Lord; one faith; one baptism:" for we divide not Him Who is indivisible, but confess one Christ, the Word, Who is from God the Father, Who was made man, and incarnate, Whom the heavens worship, and the angels honour: and we too with them praise Him, crowning Him with divine honour, not so much as. a man Who was made God, but as God Who became man. And holding this opinion respecting Him, we shall also by His means enter the kingdom of heaven: by Whom, and with Whom, to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever, Amen. |291
SERMON LXIV.
10:17-20. And the seventy returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us in Thy Name. And He said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold I have given you the authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. But in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.
IT is somewhere said by one of the holy prophets, "Will the Lord God do anything without revealing the teaching thereof to His servants the prophets?" For the God of all made known to the holy prophets those things which were hereafter to take place, in order that they might previously declare them, that so they might not be disbelieved, when in due time what had been foretold arrived at its fulfilment. And those who will may see that what we have now affirmed is true, even from the present lessons. "For the seventy" it says, "returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject to us in Thy Name." For first of all the twelve disciples had been appointed, holy and elect men, and worthy of all admiration. But inasmuch as, according to Christ's declaration, "the harvest indeed was great, but the labourers few," He further, in addition to those first chosen, "appointed seventy others, and sent them to every village and city of Judea before His face," to be, that is to say, His forerunners, and to preach the things that belonged to Him.
And in sending them, He ennobled them with the grace of the Holy Ghost, and crowned them with the power of working miracles, that they might not be disbelieved by men, nor be supposed to be self-called to the apostleship: just as of old there were some who prophesied, "though they spake not out of the mouth of the Lord," as Scripture saith, but rather vomited forth lies from their own heart. For God by the voice of Jeremiah somewhere also said, at one time, "I have not sent the prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken unto |292 them, yet they prophesied:" and again at another; "The prophets prophesied lies in My name: I sent them not, neither spake I unto them; neither had I commanded them." In order, therefore, that men might not subject to such a suspicion those who were commissioned by Christ, He gave them power over unclean spirits, and the ability to perform signs. For when the divine miracle followed close upon their word, no form, either of calumny or of Jewish false-speaking, could find a place against them. For they were convicted of accusing them without reason, or rather of choosing to fight against God. For to be able to work miracles is possible for no man, unless God give him the power and authority thereunto. The grace of the Spirit therefore witnessed of those who had been sent, that they were not persons who ran of themselves, nor self-called to the duty of speaking concerning Christ; but that, on the contrary, they had been appointed to be the ministers of His message.
The authority, however, which they bore to reprove evil spirits, and the power of crushing Satan, was not given them that they might themselves so much be regarded with admiration, as that Christ might be glorified by their means, and be believed on by those whom they taught, as by nature God, and the Son of God; and invested with so great glory and supremacy and might, as to be even able to bestow upon others the power of trampling Satan under their feet.
But they, it says, in that they were counted worthy of so great grace, "returned rejoicing, and saying, Lord, even the devils are subject to us in Thy name." For they confess the authority of Him Who honoured them, and wonder at the supremacy and greatness of His power. But they seem to have rejoiced, not so much because they were ministers of His message, and had been counted worthy of apostolic honours, as because they had wrought miracles: but it would have been better for them to have reflected, that He gave them the power to work miracles, not that they might be regarded by men with admiration on this account, but rather that what they preached might be believed, the Holy Ghost bearing them witness by divine signs. It would have been better, therefore, had they manifestly rejoiced on account of those rather who had been won by their means, and had made this |293 a cause of exultation. Just as also the very wise Paul gloried in those who had been called by his means, saying, "My joy and my crown." But they said nothing at all of this kind, but rejoiced only in that they had been able to crush Satan.
And what is Christ's reply? "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven." That is, 'I am not unaware of this: for inasmuch as ye set out upon this journey, so to speak, by My will, ye have vanquished Satan. "I saw him fall like lightning from heaven."' And this means that he was cast down from on high to earth: from overweening pride to humiliation: from glory to contempt: from great power to utter weakness. And the saying is true: for before the coming of the Saviour, he possessed the world: all was subject to him, and there was no man able to escape the meshes of his overwhelming might: he was worshipped by every one: everywhere he had temples and altars for sacrifice, and an innumerable multitude of worshippers. But because the Only-begotten Word of God has come down from heaven, he has fallen like lightning: for he who of old was bold and supercilious, and who vied with the glory of Deity; he who had as his worshippers all that were in error, is put under the feet of those that worshipped him. Is it not then true, that he has fallen from heaven to earth, by having suffered so great and terrible an overthrow?
Who then is He That hath destroyed his might, and humbled him to this misery? Plainly it was Christ. And this He announced to us in the words, "Behold, I have given you the authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy; and nothing shall hurt you." 'But, O Lord, some one may reply, behold already we rejoice in the glory and grace bestowed upon us by Thee: for we have acknowledged that even the devils are subject to us in Thy name. And how then dost Thou proclaim to those who know it, and have openly acknowledged it, "Behold I have given you the authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions?"' Yes, He saith, I have carefully on purpose called you to the remembrance of those things which lo! already ye know, that ye may not be carried away with the ignorance of the Jews, who, not understanding the mystery of My incarnation, approach Me as a mere man, and persecute Me, saying, "Why dost Thou, being a man, make Thyself God? And yet it was |294 rather their duty, He says, to have known, that not "as being a man," to use their words, I affirm of Myself that I am God; but rather that being by nature God, I have put on the form of a slave, and appear on earth as a man like unto you. And what is the proof of these things? "Behold, I have given you the authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions." But it was not the act of a mere man, nor of one such as we are, to bestow on others an authority so glorious and admirable, as for them to be able to tread upon all the power of the enemy: rather it was a deed suitable to God alone, Who is supreme over all, and crowned with surpassing honours.
it is capable also of being explained in another way. For thus He leaves them no excuse for giving way to cowardice, but rather requires of them to be very hearty and courageous. For such ought those to be who are ministers of the divine word: not subject to timidity, nor overpowered by sloth, but preaching "with great power," as Scripture saith, and bold in pursuing after those who are drawn up in array against them, and bravely struggling against the enemy; as having Christ to help them, Who will also humble the impure powers of evil under their feet, and with them even Satan himself. What man is there more powerful than "the world-rulers of darkness," or than that wicked serpent and prince of evil? He therefore who "brake the heads of the dragons," how can He be too weak to save them from the attacks of any of this world's inhabitants "Not without benefit, therefore, did Christ proclaim to His disciples: "Behold I have granted you to tread on serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy."
But He also further benefits them by immediately adding; "But in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice that your names are written in heaven.": 'Dost Thou not, O Lord, permit those who have been honoured by Thee to rejoice in their honours? And yet it is written of those who were appointed to the apostleship: "They shall walk, O Lord, in the light of Thy countenance, and in Thy name shall they exult all the day, and in Thy righteousness shall they be exalted. For Thou art the glory of their strength, and in Thy good pleasure shall our horn be exalted." How then didst Thou command them not to rejoice in the honour and glory which Thou didst Thyself bestow?' |295 What can we say to this? I answer, that Christ raises them to something greater, and commands them to account it their glory that their names were written in heaven. For it is of the saints that God is thus addressed, "And in Thy book they are all written."
But besides, to rejoice solely in the fact that they were able to work miracles, and crush the herds of demons, was likely to produce in them possibly the desire also of vainglory:----and the neighbour, so to speak, and kinsfellow of this passion constantly is pride. Most usefully, therefore, does the Saviour of all rebuke the first boasting, and quickly cuts away the root, so to speak, that had sprung up in them of the base love of glory, imitating good husbandmen, who, immediately that they see a thorn springing up in their pleasure 12 grounds or gardens, tear it up with the teeth of the mattock, before it strike its root deep.
Even though, therefore, we receive some gift from Christ not unworthy of admiration, we must not think too highly of it, but rather make the hope prepared for us our cause of rejoicing, and that our names are written in the companies of the saints, by Christ's gift, the Saviour of us all, Who, from His love to man bestows, with all besides that we have, this also upon us: by Whom, and with Whom, to God the Father be praise and dominion with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever, Amen. |296
SERMON LXV.
10:21. In that same hour, Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Ghost, and said, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of the heaven and the earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father; for so it was good in Thy sight.
ONE of the holy prophets has said; "Whoever thirst, come ye to the waters." For he sends us to the writings of the holy Evangelists as to fountains of water. For just as "waters are pleasant to the thirsty soul," as Scripture saith, so to the mind that loveth instruction is the life-giving knowledge of the mysteries of our Saviour. Let us, therefore, draw from the sacred springs the living and life-giving waters, even those that are rational and spiritual. Let us take our fill: and weary not in thy drinking: for in these things more than enough is still for edification: and greediness is great praise. What then it was the Saviour said:----That fountain which came down from heaven, That river of delight,----we learn from what has here been read to us. "In that same hour, Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Ghost, and said,"----Whosoever then loveth instruction, must approach the words of God not carelessly, and without earnestness; but, on the contrary, with eagerness: for it is written, "That for every one that taketh care, there is something over." Let us, therefore, examine them, and especially what is meant by the expression, that He "rejoiced in the Holy Ghost."
The Holy Ghost then proceedeth from God the Father as from the fountain; but is not foreign from the Son: for every property of the Father belongeth to the Word, Who by nature and verily was begotten of Him. Christ saw therefore that many had been won by the operation of the Spirit, Whom He bestowed on them that were worthy, and whom He had also commanded to be ministers of the divine message: He saw that wonderful signs were wrought by their hands, and that the salvation of the world by Him,----I mean by faith,----had |297 now begun: and therefore He rejoiced in the Holy Ghost, that is, in the works and miracles wrought by means of the Holy Ghost. For He had appointed the twelve disciples, whom He also called apostles, and after them again seventy others, whom He sent as His forerunners to go before Him unto every village and city of Judaea, preaching Him, and the things concerning Him. And He sent them, nobly adorned with apostolic dignities, and distinguished by the operation of the grace of the Holy Ghost. "For He gave them power over unclean spirits to cast them out." They then, having wrought many miracles, returned saying, "Lord, even the devils are subject unto us in Thy Name."And therefore as I have already said, well knowing that those who had been sent by Him had benefited many, and that above all others, they had themselves learned by experience His glory, He was full of joy, or rather of exultation. For being good and loving unto men, and wishing that all should be saved, He found His cause of rejoicing in the conversion of those that were in error, in the enlightenment of those that were, in darkness, and in the answer of the understanding to the acknowledgment of His glory, of those who had been without knowledge and without instruction.
What then does He say? "Father, I confess Thee, Lord of the heaven and the earth." And these words, "I confess Thee," He says after the manner of men, instead of, "I accept Thy kindness," that is, "I praise Thee 13." For it is the custom of the divinely inspired Scripture to use the word |298 confession in some such way as this. For it is written, that "they shall confess, O Lord, Thy great name; for it is terrible and holy." And again, "I will confess Thee, O Lord, with all my heart, and I will tell all Thy wonders."
But I perceive again, that the mind of these perverted men departs not from its depravity; and some of them perhaps will object to us the following argument: 'Lo! the Son makes confession of gratitude to the Father: and how must He not be inferior to Him?' But whosoever is skilful in defending the doctrines of truth may well reply to this: 'And what hinders, O worthy sir, the Son, though equal in substance, from thanking and praising His Father, for saving by His means all beneath the heaven? But if thou thinkest that because of this thanksgiving He is inferior to the Father, observe that also which follows; for He calls the Father "Lord of the heaven and the earth." But of a certainty the Son of Almighty God is equally with Him Lord of all, and above all: not as being inferior, or different in substance, but as God of God, crowned with equal honours, and possessing by right of His substance equality with Him in all things.' And thus much then in answer to them.
But let us consider the words which He addresses to His Father respecting us and in our behalf. "Thou hast hid, He says, all these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them unto babes: Yea, O Father, that so it seemed good in thy sight." For God the Father has revealed unto us the mystery, which before the foundations of the world was hidden and reserved in silence with Him: even the Incarnation of the Only-begotten, which was foreknown indeed before the foundations of the world, but revealed to its inhabitants in the last ages of the world. For the blessed Paul writes, that "to me who am the least of all saints, has this grace been given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; and clearly teach them all, what is the dispensation 14 of the mystery that for ages has been hid in God Who created all." The great and adorable mystery of our |299 Saviour was hidden therefore even before the foundations of the world, in the knowledge of the Father. And in like manner we also were foreknown and foreordained to the adoption of sons. And this again the blessed Paul teaches us, thus writing, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heaven in Christ, according as He has chosen us in Him before the foundations of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him, having foreordained us in love to the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ unto Himself." To us therefore, as unto babes, the Father has revealed the mystery that for ages had been hidden and reserved in silence.
And yet multitudes of men have preceded us in the world past numbering, who, as far as words went, were wise, who had a practised and skilful tongue, and beauty of stylo, and grandeur of expression, and no mean reputation for wisdom: but as Paul said, "They had become empty in their reasonings, and their foolish heart was darkened: while professing to be wise, they had made themselves fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of corruptible man, and into that of birds, and four-footed beasts and reptiles. For this cause they were given up to a reprobate mind;" "and God made the wisdom of this world to be folly:" neither did He shew unto them the mystery. And to us too it is written, "Whosoever seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become foolish, in order that he may become wise: for the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God." It may truly therefore be affirmed, that he who possesses merely and by itself the wisdom of the world, is foolish and without understanding before God: but that he who seems to be a fool to the wise men of the world, but possesses in his mind and heart the light of the true vision of God, is wise before God. And Paul again confirms this, saying, "For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach: not with wisdom of speech, lest the cross of Christ be made ineffectual. For the speech of the cross is to them who are perishing foolishness; but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and take away the understanding of the prudent." And to others also he sent, saying, "For see your calling, |300 brethren: that there are not among you 15 many wise men after the flesh: nor many mighty, nor many of high birth; but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world, that He may confound the wise." To those therefore who seemed to be foolish, by which is meant, men of an innocent and guileless mind, and simple as a child in wickedness, the Father hath revealed His Son, as being themselves also foreknown and foreordained to the adoption of sons.
Nor is it in my opinion unreasonable to add also the following. The Scribes and Pharisees, who held high rank among the Jews, as having the reputation of legal learning, were regarded as wise men. But they were convicted by the very result of not being so in reality. For even the prophet Jeremiah thus somewhere addressed them: "How say ye, that we are wise, and the word of the Lord is with us? The lying cord of the scribe is for emptiness. The wise men are ashamed; they fear and are taken: what wisdom is in. them, because they have rejected the word of the Lord?" Because then they rejected the word of the Saviour, that is, the saving message of the Gospel, or in other language, the Word of God the Father, Who for our sakes became man, they have themselves been rejected. For again the prophet |301 Jeremiah said of them, "Call ye them reprobate silver, because the Lord hath rejected them." And the mystery of Christ was also hid from them: for He somewhere even said to his disciples concerning them, "To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven; but to them it is not given." "To you," that is, to whom? Plainly to those who believed: to those who have recognised His appearing, who understand the law spiritually, who can perceive the meaning of the previous revelation of the prophets, who acknowledge that He is God and the Son of God, to them the Father is pleased to reveal His Son: by Whom and with Whom, to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever. Amen.
[Selected footnotes moved to the end and renumbered. Almost all marginalia, any purely textual footnotes, most Greek or Syriac material has been omitted without notice]
1. d The marginal note, which literally means, "Fit to be read when any one is shaven," refers to the rite of admission into the monastic order, and is of course of the date, not of the original work, but of its translation into Syriac, or even its transcription, that is, of the seventh or eighth century. In the Syriac historian, John of Ephesus, the phrase is of frequent occurrence, and always in the sense of becoming a monk. Thus in p. 47, we read that Photius, son of Antonina, the wife of Belisarius, 'for some reason or other, left the army, and shaved his hair, and put on the monastic habit: but being unable to submit to monastic rule, he went to Justin II., still clad in the monkish stole, and was by him made governor of Samaria:' where for twelve years he gave free licence to his ungoverned temper and avarice: as an instance of which, the historian mentions, that he hung the bishop of Ascalon up by one arm, ordering him not to be loosed for three days, unless upon payment of three talents of gold. Again, in p. 55 he mentions, that at the time when the great eunuch Narses received orders to proceed on his last expedition to Italy, he was occupied in building a monastery in Bithynia, intending 'to retire thither, and shave his hair,' i. e. become a monk. Even ladies had to submit to this rite: for in p. 88 he tells us, that in the severe persecution carried on in Justin's latter years by the patriarch, John of Sirmium, against the Monophysites, two noble ladies, Antipatra, whose daughter was married to the consul John, and Juliana, the emperor's own sister-in-law, having refused to receive the holy communion from a bishop who accepted the council of Chalcedon, were sent to a nunnery, with strict orders 'that their hair should be shorn, and that they should wear the black habit of the nuns, and be compelled to perform the most menial labours:' which these ladies found so painful, that they submitted, and were allowed to return to their families. Similar testimonies have already been collected from Greek and Latin authors, as, e. g. Socrates, 1. 3. c. 1. says of the apostate Julian, iv χρῷ κειράμενος τὸν τῶν μοναχῶν ὑπεκρίνετο βίον. To shave the head was peculiar to the monks; for of the clergy nothing more was required than that modesty of dress and apparel which became the gravity of their office; so Conc. Carth. iv. c. 44. "Clericus nec comam nutriat, nec barbam radat," letting the hair grow long, and shaving the beard, being equally marks of luxury and effeminacy. So Morinus Com. de Sac. Eccles. Ordin. P. iii. 266, grants that the clergy for many centuries did not shave the head; and Jerome bears witness to the same effect in his Commentary on Ezech. xliv. 20.
2. f Although the translator generally takes the Septuagint text, he has here preserved the name of this place as found in the Syriac version, and calls it Morat.
3. g The reader has probably already noticed how constantly S. Cyril uses "disciples," as synonymous with "apostles."
4. i The passage in which S. Cyril compares the seventy disciples to the palm trees in Elim, is contained in a brief form both in Mai and Cramer, hut ascribed by the latter to Titus of Bostra. Another passage, rightly assigned by Cramer to Cyril, but at the end of which the Catenist has referred his readers to his collections on St. Matthew's Gospel for the explanation of Luke x. 2, 7, and 16, has evidently puzzled both editors. Mai puts one full stop between the verb προεγράφετο, and τὰ ἀκόλουθα its nominative case: but Cramer puts two full stops, and begins the verb with a capital letter. Nor is this by any means a solitary instance on the part of this latter editor, of his punctuation rendering his text unintelligible. (Cf. ii. p. 85, last three lines.) In his next page, he again contains a passage belonging to Cyril, but given under the name of Titus of Bostra: followed by one which really does belong to this writer.
5. k Literally, "a son of peace;" the Syriac with all the best MSS. rejecting the article. It is, moreover, written in one word.... Similar instances of this idiom are,... man, literally, a son of man;... immediately, literally, son of the hour. So also a counsellor is a son of counsel; a secretary, a son of the secret; like, a son of likeness; connatural, a son of his nature; brought up together, σύντροφος, a son of his bringing up; a fellow-heir, a son of his inheritance, &c. The translators of the A. V. do not seem to have understood this, as they translate, "your peace shall rest upon it," the house: whereas Christ's peace rests upon the man who is worthy of it.
6. l This is not a different reading from the Greek text, but the substitution of the customs of the East for those of Greece. In Greece when friends met they embraced one another, and therefore their word for salutation is ἀσπάζομαι, amplecti; in Rome they said Salve, Be well, whence Saluto: and in the East they asked of one another's peace, 2 Kings ix. 22; whence the phrase in the text. In the present day Orientals greet by saying, Peace be to you; to which the answer is, And to you peace: Cf. also John xx. 26: it is thus that the word for peace, Salaam, has become equivalent with us to salutation.
7. m The use of this conjunction leads to the conclusion that "by having been enlightened" is meant having been baptized: and thus two stages of feeling would be marked in those who might meet them; they might either be men disposed to look favourably upon the labours of the Apostles, or they might even have publicly acknowledged their convictions, and been received into the church by baptism. That φωτίζω constantly has this meaning is well known, and the Peschito, which often is rather a paraphrase than a translation, renders φωτισθέντας in Heb. vi. 4. by "who have gone down to baptism;" and in Heb. x. 32. by "ye have received baptism."
8. n S. Cyril explains σπερμολόγος in almost the same terms as Theophylact, and others of the Fathers. Casaubon, however, from Eustathius, has shewn that the word was applied by the Athenians contemptuously to the worthless fellows who hung about the market-place to pick up any thing that might fall: and hence the explanations given in Suidas and Hesychius of εὐρολόγος and φλύαρος. And in this sense it is taken in the A. V.
9. o Scarcely any of this part of the commentary has been discovered by Mai; he has however a very short summary of this sermon, in which the Catenist has interpolated an illustration of our Lord's command to the disciples by referring to Elisha's similar instruction to Gehazi to salute no one by the way, when sent to visit the Shunamite's dead son, 2 Kings iv. 29.
10. p S. Cyril has passed over without notice, vv. 8-15, containing the denouncement of the woes upon Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, for not having received Christ's teaching. On several other occasions he has similarly omitted passages, probably as having been explained by him in his other commentaries.
11. q Namely, the position invented for our Lord by the Arians, who considered Him greater than all created beings, but less than God. Subsequently, I have inserted, virtually, because S.Cyril does not mean that the Arians rejected the Scripture absolutely, but that the legitimate deductions from their doctrines are irreconcilable with its plain meaning. This must be borne in mind all through his argument, as otherwise it is unintelligible.
12. r Literally, "the paradise," a word borrowed from the Persian language, and exactly signifying "the pleasure ground immediately attached to a house."
13. s As the English translation "I thank " has already obviated the difficulty in the original, it may be necessary to say, that it literally means as rendered above, "I confess," "I make confession to Thee, O Father:" but as the Greek language has no word strictly meaning "to thank," the Sept. use this verb to express the Hebrew [Hebrew], gratias egit, laudavit, and hence its use in biblical Greek in this sense. The Syriac periphrasis is also remarkable, being, "I accept thy grace or kindness," the acceptance of it; as a favour being supposed to convey an acknowledgment of gratitude. The Latin of Corderius gives the general sense of the passage very correctly: Confiteor Tibi, Pater, dicit more hominum, pro gratiam agnosco, quare laudo Te, gratias ago tibi. Solet enim divinitus inspirata scriptura confessionis nomen secundum talem aliquem modum sumere. Scriptum est enim; Confiteantur nomini Tuo magno: et iterum; Confitebor Tibi, Domine, in toto corde meo. The Greek has not been preserved.
14. t Οἰκονομία. The reading of the textus receptus κοινωνία, 'fellow-ship,' has scarcely any MS. authority, and is rejected in all modern edd. There is considerably more support for its addition of διὰ Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ, but far outweighed by the evidence for its rejection.
15. u With the exception of the Peschito, I am not aware of any other authority for the reading "among you," which otherwise however makes a very good sense, 'Observe that in your company, forming the Christian church at Corinth, ye do not find many men distinguished either for wealth, power, or lineage, but principally the poor and ignoble.' Most probably the translator, though not quoting it literally, had the Peschito in his mind, as otherwise he would scarcely have used the obsolete plural...
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Early Church Fathers - Additional Texts
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Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke (1859) Sermons 66-80. (Luke 10:22-11:18) pp.302-366
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke (1859) Sermons 66-80. (Luke 10:22-11:18) pp.302-366
Sermon 66
Sermon 67
Sermon 68
Sermon 69
Sermon 70
Sermon 71
Sermon 72
Sermon 73
Sermon 74
Sermon 75
Sermon 76
Sermon 77
Sermon 78
Sermon 79
Sermon 80
SERMON LXVI.
10:22. Every thing has been delivered to Me by My Father; and no one knows Who the Son is but the Father; and Who the Father is but the Son; and to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him.
OUR Lord Jesus Christ again reveals to us His glory, and the dignity of His godlike majesty, and the skilful method of the dispensation in the flesh; and plainly shows how great is the benefit which the dwellers upon earth derive from it. Let us ask of Him wisdom: let us seek understanding, that we may be able to perceive the exact meaning of His words. For it is He "Who reveals deep things out of darkness, and brings to light those things that are hidden; and gives wisdom to the blind, and makes the brightness of the truth shine forth upon those that love Him. And among these are we: for lo! you have again come, as being, so to speak, thirsty, and the church is full of men loving to hear; and all are true worshippers, and searchers into the doctrines of piety. Come therefore, and let us approach the Saviour's words, opening wide the eye of the mind. And His words are, "Every thing has been delivered to Me by My Father."
For He was and still is Lord of heaven and earth, and sits with the Father on His throne, and equally shares His government over all. But inasmuch as, by humbling Himself to our estate, He became man, He further speaks in a manner not unbefitting the dispensation in the flesh, nor refuses to use such expressions as suit the measure of His state, when He had emptied Himself, that He might be believed upon as having become like to us, and put on our poverty. He therefore Who was Lord of heaven and earth, and, in a word, of all things, says, that "everything was delivered to Him by the Father." For He has been made ruler of all under heaven; since of old only the Israel after the flesh bowed the neck to His laws: but God the Father willed to make all things now in Him, and by His means reconcile the world to Himself. For "He became Mediator between God and men," and "was made |303 our peace," in that He united us by Himself to God the Father: for He is the door and the way whereby this is done; for He has even plainly said, "No man comes to the "Father but by Me." He then Who of old delivered Israel by the hand of Moses from the tyranny of the Egyptians, and appointed the law to be their schoolmaster, has now called the whole world, and Himself has spread for it the net of the Gospel message, according to the good-will of God the Father. And this then is the reason why He says, "Every thing has been delivered to Me of My Father."
But though we may affirm that these things are thus rightly understood and explained by us, the heretic will not submit to the conditions of the dispensation, but betakes himself, it may be, to his usual audacity, and makes what is said food, so to speak, for the wickedness of his mind; and, forsooth, proceeds to say, 'Lo! the Father gives every thing to the Son; but the Son would not have needed to receive any thing, had it been lawful for Him to obtain it of Himself. How, then, is He equal to the Father, as you say, when He receives from Him authority over what He did not previously possess?' Let us see, therefore, whether in any thing at all He is inferior to the glory and supremacy of the Father, as you in your folly say.
Now there are many arguments one might use when wishing to defend the doctrines of truth, but on the present occasion let us enquire what is true from the lessons now set before us, even from His own words. For after having said, "Everything has been delivered to Me of My Father," honouring thereby the mystery of His Incarnation, and using expressions suitable to the manhood, He mounts at once, as I said, to His own glory and supremacy, and shows that He is in no way whatsoever inferior to His Father. For what were the words which He next spoke? ----"No one knows Who the Son is but the Father, and Who the Father is but the Son, and to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him." Let us ask, then, those who have resisted His glory, and still resist it, Does Christ speak falsely, or is He true? For if He speaks falsely, and you affirm that this is truly the case, you are void of all understanding, you have fallen from your senses, having drunk of the wine of "the vine of Sodom," and stumbled like |304 drunkards upon unrighteous courses. But if you believe that He speaks truth, for "He is the Truth," how do you, while He says that "no one knows the Son but the Father only," venture both to think and say that He is inferior to the Father, as though you exactly know who He is? And yet how must not He, Who is known of His Father only, far transcend all understanding and all powers of speech: just as also the Father Himself does, as being known of His Son only? For the holy and consubstantial Trinity alone knows Itself, being far above all speech and understanding. How do you say then that He is inferior to the Father, seeing that no one knows Who He is but the Father alone Who fathered Him?
And I will add this too; Do you say that He is inferior to the Father as being "true God," but yet inferior to Him Who is "true God and Father;" or as being something made and created? If, indeed, as something made, you canst not compare them at all: for the interval between the Maker and the thing made is infinite; between the Lord and the slave; between Him Who is by nature God, and him who has been brought into existence. For whosoever is made is not merely inferior to God, but altogether different, both in nature, and in glory, and in every attribute that appertains to the divine substance. But if He is made, as you affirm, how can "no one know Who He is?" For He would not be above all understanding, even though it may surpass the mind of man to be able to know the nature of a created thing. If, on the other hand, you affirm that He is true God, and being such by nature, yet say that He is inferior to the Father, I cannot understand how this can be. Tell me, I pray, in what this inferiority consists. I mean, for instance, thus: those who are of the same nature and substance are, of course, equal to one another in all those qualities which belong to them as pertaining to their substance: as, for instance, one man is in no respect inferior to another man with regard to the manhood which is common to them both: and so neither is one angel to another angel. How, then, can true God be inferior to true God?
For come, if you will, and let us raise ourselves to the investigation of the Father's prerogatives and attributes: those, namely, which specially belong to Him as God. God the |305 Father is by nature Life, Light, and Wisdom. But the Son also is in like manner the same, as the divinely inspired Scripture everywhere testifies. For He is Light, and Wisdom, and Life. But if He be inferior to the Father, then of course He is indebted to Him for it, and that not in one particular only, but in every attribute that appertains to His substance. Nor is He perfectly Life; nor Light perfectly; nor Wisdom perfectly. And if this is true, then there exists in Him something of corruption; something also of darkness; and something also of ignorance. But who will assent to you in so arguing? For if He be a creature, then, as I said, you must not compare Him with the Creator and Lord of all. Bring down His place to the level of creation, while you extol to incomparable supremacy that Nature Which created all, and transcends all. But if He is true God, as sprung from Him Who is true God and. Father, perhaps, forsooth, the Father has fathered one not equal to Himself in nature, and His nature alone has suffered this, while certainly of all created beings there is not one that has endured so strange a mischance. For man is born of man, the definitions of his father's substance existing fully in him; and all the other animals in like manner are regulated by the law of their own nature. And how then can the all-transcending nature of God suffer that which even we do not suffer, nor any other being which has the power of generation?
Let those, therefore, hear who think scorn of the greatness of the glory of the Son; let those that are drunken awake from their wine; worship with us Him Who is equal in substance with the Father, and crowned with equal praises, and indistinguishable preeminence. "For to Him every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth: and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father," Amen. |306
SERMON LXVII.
10:23-34. And He turned to the disciples when they were alone, and said, Blessed are the eyes which see the things that you see. For I say to you, that many prophets and kings have desired to see the things which you see, and have not seen them; and to hear the things which you hear, and have not heard them.
THE shows which the world offers (in its games and theatres) lead men often to the sight of things unprofitable, or rather, to what constantly does them great injury. For the frequenters of such places either give themselves up to the admiration of dancers, and yielding to the soft langour they produce, are dissolved in effeminate emotions; or they extol the declaimers of cold sentiments; or delight themselves in the sounds and vibrations of pipes and harps. But vain and altogether unprofitable are such things, and able to lead the mind of man astray from all good. But us, who practise a virtuous course of life, and are earnest in upright deeds, Christ gathers in His holy courts, that delighting ourselves in singing His praise, we may again be made happy by His sacred words and doctrines, which invite us to eternal life.
Let us, therefore, see here too what gifts He has deigned to bestow upon us, who have been called by faith in Him to the knowledge of His glory. "And He turned," it says, "to the disciples when they were alone, and said, Blessed are the eyes which see the things that you see." Now, perchance, some one may object, 'Why did He not address to all who were assembled there His words describing these blessings? and what made Him turn to the disciples, so as to say to them when they were alone, "Blessed are the eyes which see the things that you see?"' What then shall be our reply? That it is right to communicate matters of a more secret nature, not to any chance person, but to the most intimate friends. But His friends are whosoever have |307 been deemed by Him worthy of discipleship: and the eye of whose mind is enlightened, and their ear ready for obedience. For He also said on one occasion to the holy apostles, "No longer do I call you servants; you are My friends: for the servant doesn't know what his lord does: but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you all things which I have heard from My Father." There were, no doubt, many assembled there and standing in His presence besides His chosen followers, but they were not all believers; and how then could He with truth say to them all, without distinction, "Blessed are the eyes which see the things that you see, and who hear the things that you hear?" It was, therefore, with good reason that, having turned Himself to the disciples. having, that is, averted His face from those who would neither see nor hear, but were disobedient, and their mind darkened, He gave Himself entirely to those who loved Him, and, looking upon them, said, Blessed are the eyes which see, or rather, gaze upon, those things which they were the first, before all others, to behold.
Now the expression which is here used is taken from the common custom of men, and we must bear in mind that in such passages "seeing" does not refer to the action of our bodily eyes, but rather to the enjoyment of those things which are bestowed by Christ on such as fear God. Just, for instance, as if any one say, "So and so saw happy times," instead of "enjoyed happy times." Or you may understand it in the same way as that which is written in the book of Psalms, addressed to those who constantly fixed their thoughts on things above; "And you shall see the good of Jerusalem," instead of, "you shall take part in the happiness of Jerusalem," even of that which is above, in heaven, which the wise Paul calls "the mother of all saints." For what doubt can there be that those who were spectators of the godlike miracles wrought by Christ, and of the admirable works He performed, were not necessarily in all cases blessed? For all the Jews saw Christ working with divine majesty, yet it would not be right to account them all as blessed; for they by no means believed, nor did they see His glory with the eyes of the mind. Truly, therefore, they were only the more guilty, and cannot |308 properly be regarded as blessed, for though they saw Jesus possessed of divine glory by the ineffable deeds which he wrought, yet they did not accept faith in Him.
But come, in what way has blessedness befallen our eyes? and what have they seen? and for what reason did they attain to this blessing? They saw that God the Word, Who was in the form of God the Father, had become flesh for our sakes: they saw Him Who shares the Father's throne, dwelling with us, in our form, that by justification and sanctification He might fashion us after His own likeness, imprinting upon us the beauty of His Godhead in an intellectual and spiritual manner. And of this Paul is witness, who thus writes: "For as we have been clothed with the image of the earthy, we shall also be clothed with the image of the heavenly:"----meaning by the earthy man, Adam, the first created: but by the heavenly, the Word Who is from above, and Who shone forth from the substance of God the Father, but was made, as I said, in our likeness. He Who by nature is a Son took the form of a slave, not that by taking upon Him our state, He might continue in the measure of slavery, but that He might set us free, who were chained to the yoke of slavery,----for every thing that is made is by nature a slave,----enriching us with what is His. For through Him and with Him we have received the name of sons, being ennobled, so to speak, by His bounty and grace. He Who was rich shared our poverty, that He might raise man's nature to His riches: He tasted death upon the tree and the cross, that He might take away from the midst the offence incurred by reason of the tree (of knowledge), and abolish the guilt that was thereby, and strip death of his tyranny over us. We have seen Satan fall: that cruel one broken: that haughty one laid low:----him who had made the world submit to the yoke of His empire, stripped of his dominion over us: him in contempt and scorn, who once was worshipped: him who seemed a God, put under the feet of the saints: him who rebelled against Christ's glory, trampled upon by those who love Him. "For they received power to rebuke the unclean spirits, and to cast them out." And this power is a very great honour, and too high for human nature, and fit only for the supreme God. |309
And of this too the Word manifested in human form was the first to set us the example: for He also rebuked the impure spirits. But the wretched Jews again vomited forth against Him their envious calumnies; for they said, "This man casts not out devils, but by Beelzebub, the prince of the devils." But these wicked words of theirs the Lord refuted, saying; "If I cast out devils by Beelzebub, by whom do your sons cast them out? But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then has the kingdom of God come upon you." For if I, He says, being a man like to you, can thus exercise a divine power, this great and excellent blessing has come upon you: for human nature, He says, is ennobled in Me, by trampling down Satan. Upon us, therefore, the kingdom of God has come, by the Word having been made like to us, and working in the flesh deeds worthy of God.
He also gave the holy Apostles power and might even to raise the dead, and cleanse lepers; and heal the sick, and to call down upon whomsoever they would the Holy Ghost from heaven by the laying on of hands. He gave them power to bind and to lose men's sins; for His words are, "I say to you, Whatsoever you shall bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever you shall lose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven." Such are the things of which we see ourselves possessed: and blessed are our eyes, and those of all who love Him. We have heard His ineffable teaching: He has given us the knowledge of God the Father: He has shown Him to us in His own nature. The things that were by Moses were but types and symbols: Christ has revealed the truth to us. He has taught us that not by blood and smoke, but rather by spiritual sacrifices, we must honour Him Who is incorporeal and immaterial, and above all understanding. Many holy prophets desired to see these things; yes, and many kings: for we find them at one time saying, "Show me Your mercy, O Lord: and, O Lord, grant us Your salvation." For they call the Son Mercy and Salvation. At another time again; "Remember me, O Lord, with the favour of Your people: and visit me with Your Salvation: that we may see the happiness of Your chosen, and rejoice in gladness with Your people." And who the people are, that are chosen in Christ by God the |310 Father, the wise Peter tells us, when saying to those who have been ennobled by faith: "But you are a chosen generation: a royal priesthood: a holy people, a redeemed multitude: that you may tell forth His virtues, Who has called you out of darkness into His marvellous light."
And to this we have been called by Christ: by Whom and with Whom, to God the Father be praise and dominion, with tho Holy Ghost, for ever and ever, Amen. |311
SERMON LXVIII.
10:25-37. And see, a certain lawyer stood up, tempting Him, and saying, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And He said to Him, What is written in the law? how do you read? And he answered and said, That you shall love the Lord your God from all your heart, and from all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind: and your neighbour as yourself. And He said to him, You have answered rightly: this do, and you shall live. But he, wanting to justify himself said to Jesus; And who is my neighbour? And Jesus answered, and said; A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who, when they had stripped and beaten him, went away, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed him by. And in like manner also a Levite, when he came to the place, and saw him, passed him by. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to him; and when he saw him, he felt pity: and he went to him, and bound up his wounds, and poured upon them oil and wine. And having mounted him on his own beast, he brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And the day after he took out two denarii, and gave them to the host, and said to him, Take care of him: and if you spend any thing more, when I come again I will repay you. Which therefore of these three do you think was neighbour to him that fell among the thieves? And he said; He that was merciful to him. And Jesus said to him, Go, and do likewise.
A MOST base pest, my beloved, is double-dealing and hypocrisy in our actions and conduct; and for a man to make pretence of pleasant-spoken words, and of a tongue anointed, so to speak, with the honey of deception, while the heart is full of utter bitterness. Of such we say, in the words of one of the holy prophets, "Their tongue is a piercing arrow: the words |312 of their mouth are deceitful: he speaks peacefully to his neighbour, and enmity is in his heart." And again; "Their words are smoother than oil, yet are they arrows:" by which is meant that they have the force of darts falling violently and shot forth from bows.
The proof of my assertion is close at hand: for let us examine the lawyer's words: let us strip off his borrowed countenance: let us lay bare his scheming: let us view his pleasant words sprung from deceit, and the guile which they conceal. "For see," it says, "a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted Him, saying, Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" By a lawyer, the blessed evangelist here meant, according to the custom of the Jews, one acquainted with the law, or at least having the reputation of knowing it, though in reality he knew it not. This man imagined that he could entrap Christ; and in what way I will mention. Certain tale-makers, accustomed to talk at random, went about everywhere in Judaea and Jerusalem itself, accusing Christ, and saying, that He taught that the commandment given by Moses was of no use, and refused to pay any attention to the law given of old to the fathers, while He Himself introduced new doctrines, and spoke to all who would fear God things out of His own mind, which were not in accordance with the law that was given of old. There were even then believers, who resisted the words of these men, everywhere accepting the saving tidings of the gospel. The lawyer therefore wishing, or even expecting to be able to entrap Christ, and get Him to say something against Moses, and affirm that His own doctrine was far better than the commandment of which Moses was the minister, drew near tempting Him, and saying, "What shall I do to inherit eternal life?"
But any one who thoroughly understands the mystery of the Incarnation may well say to him, If you had been skilful in the law, and in the meaning of its hidden teaching, it would not have escaped you Who He is you venture to tempt. For you thought that He was a mere man, and that only; and not rather God, Who appeared in human likeness, and Who knows what is secret, and can look into the hearts of those who approach Him. In manifold ways is the Emmanuel depicted to you by the shadowing of Moses. You saw Him there |313 sacrificed as a lamb, yet vanquishing the destroyer, and abolishing death by His blood. You saw Him in the arrangement of the ark, in which was deposited the divine law: for He was in His holy flesh like as in an ark, being the Word of the Father, the Son that was fathered of Him by nature. You saw Him as the mercy-seat in the holy tabernacle, around which stood the Seraphim [Cherubim]: for He is our mercy-seat for pardon of our sins. Yes! and just like man, He is glorified by the Seraphim, who are the intelligent and holy powers above; for they stand around His divine and exalted throne. You saw Him as the candlestick with seven lamps in the Holy of Holies: for abundant is the Saviour's light to those who hurry into the inner tabernacle. You saw Him as the bread placed upon the table: for He is the living bread, that came down from heaven, and gives life to the world. You saw Him as the brazen serpent that was raised on high as a sign, and being looked upon healed the bites of the serpents: for though He was like us, in the form therefore of that which is evil, as being in our form, nevertheless He is by nature good, and continues to be that which He was. For the serpent is the type of wickedness; but yet, by being lifted up, and enduring the cross for us, He rendered powerless the bites of those rational serpents, who are no other than Satan, and the wicked powers under his command.
But though the lawyer was invested with the reputation of being instructed in the law, nevertheless He Who is marked out by the shadowing of the law was completely unknown to him, even though He was proclaimed of old by the words of the holy prophets. For had he not been sunk in utter ignorance, how could he have drawn near to Him as to a mere man? Or how have ventured to tempt God, Who tries the hearts and reins, and to Whom nothing that is in us is hidden? For he says, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" Do you call Him Teacher, when you wilt not submit to learn? Do you make a pretence of honouring Him, Whom you hope to entrap, and do you place as the bait upon your hook the pleasantness of words?
But what would you learn? "For what, he says, shall I do to inherit eternal life?" Observe again, I pray, the malice in the lawyer's words. For he might have said, What shall I |314 do to be saved, or to please God, and receive reward of Him? But this he passes by, and uses rather the Saviour's expressions, pouring ridicule upon His head. For as it was the custom of our common Saviour Christ to speak constantly of eternal life to as many as drew near to Him, the haughty lawyer to ridicule Him, as I said, makes use of His own expressions.
Now had you been truly desirous of learning, you would have heard from Him the things that lead on to eternal life: but as you wickedly tempt Him, you will hear nothing more than those commands only which were given to them of old time by Moses". For "What," says He, "is written in the law? How do you read?" And on the lawyer's repeating what is enacted in the law, as if to punish his wickedness, and reprove his malicious purpose, Christ, as knowing all things, says, "You have answered rightly: this do, and you shall live." The lawyer has missed his prey; he has shot wide of the mark, his wickedness is unsuccessful, the sting of envy has ceased, the net of deceit is torn asunder, his sowing bears no fruit, his toil gains no profit: and like some ship that misfortune has overwhelmed, he has suffered a bitter wreck. Let us therefore cry out against him in the words of Jeremiah, "You are found, and caught, because you have stood up against the Lord."
But having, as I said, missed his prey, he falls headlong into vanity; he is hurried from one pitfall to another, from snare to snare, from deceit to pride: vices, so to speak, lend him to one another, and he is tossed about everywhere, one wickedness as soon as it has seized him thrusting him on to another, and carrying him wherever it may chance, and easily making him wander from destruction to destruction. For he does not ask in order that he may learn, but as the Evangelist said, "wishing to justify himself." For observe how from self-love as well as pride he shamelessly called out, "And who is my neighbour?" And is there no one, O lawyer, |315 like you? Do you raise yourself above every one? Be less supercilious: Remember what the author of the book of Proverbs says, "that those who know themselves are wise." He exalts himself therefore, and breathes forth proud things, and boasts himself in vain imaginations: but he learnt of Christ, that as he was destitute of love towards his neighbours, the bare profession only of being learned in the law profited him in no way whatsoever. For God over all looks at works rather, and gives not praise to bare and merely fictitious professions.
Very skilfully therefore does the Saviour of all weave the parable of him who fell into the hands of thieves, saying, that when he was lying half dead, and in the last extremity of evil, a priest passed by, and in like manner a Levite, without feeling towards him any sentiment of humanity, or dropping upon him the oil of compassionate love; but rather, their mind was unsympathizing and cruel towards him. But one of another race, a Samaritan, fulfilled the law of love. Justly therefore He asked, which of these three he thinks was the sufferer's neighbour. And he said, "He that wrought mercy with him." And to this Christ added, "Go you also, and act in like manner." You have seen, O lawyer, and it has been proved by the parable, that it is of no avail whatsoever to any man, to be set up by empty names, and to pride himself upon unmeaning and ridiculous titles, so long as the excellence of deeds does not accompany them. For the dignity of the priesthood is unavailing to its owners, and equally so is the being called learned in the law, to those who are so reputed, unless they |316 excel also in deeds. For lo! a crown of love is being twined for him who loves his neighbour: and he proves to be a Samaritan. Nor is he rejected on this account: for he who was foremost among the disciples, even the blessed Peter, testified, thus writing, "In truth I perceive that God is not a respecter of persons: but in every nation, whosoever fears Him, and works righteousness, is accepted by Him." For Christ, Who loves our virtues, accepts all who are diligent in good pursuits: by Whom and with Whom, to God the Father be praise and dominion with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever, Amen.|317
SERMON LXIX.
10:38-42. And it came to pass as they journeyed, that he entered into a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha received Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at our Lord's feet, and heard His word: but Martha was distracted with much service. And standing before Him, she said, Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Bid her help me. But our Lord answered and said to her, Martha, Martha, you are anxious and busied about many things: but few things are required, or one: and Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.
You who love the virtues which adorn piety, and carefully practice every art which become the saints, again come and listen to the sacred doctrine, and let not the method of hospitality be unknown to you. For it is a great and valuable quality, as the wise Paul testifies, where he writes, "Forget not hospitality: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." Let us learn therefore of Christ, the Saviour of all, this also, as well as all other things. For it would be a disgrace to us, that while those who desire worldly wisdom, and gather written learning, select the best teachers for their instructors; we who are encouraged to pay earnest heed to doctrines of such surpassing value, and may have as our instructor and teacher Christ the Giver of all wisdom, do not imitate this woman in her love of learning, even Mary, who sat at the Saviour's feet, and filled her heart with the doctrines He taught, feeling as if she could never have enough of what so profited her.
For the Saviour lodged with the holy women, but Mary, it |318 says, listened to Him as He taught; while the other, Martha, was distracted with much service. She therefore besought Him that her sister might share her carefulness with her. But Christ consented not, saying, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and busied about many things: only few things are required, or but one." And He further praised Mary, that "she had chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her." For the acquisition of spiritual blessings is never lost.
The first thing however which we must examine is the manner in which the Saviour again benefits His disciples, by setting Himself before them as an example, in order that they may know how and in what manner to behave in the houses of such as receive them. For they must not immediately on entering indulge themselves in relaxation, or suppose that this is the reason why they lodge with men, but rather that they may fill them with every blessing, and the divine and sacred doctrines. So somewhere the blessed Paul also sends a message to certain: "For I desire to see you, that I may give you some spiritual gift, that you may be confirmed." Observe therefore, that our Lord Jesus Christ, on entering to lodge with these holy women, did not cease from giving instruction, but still grants them, without stint, the sober doctrines of salvation. And one of these women was steadfast in her love of hearing: but Martha was distracted with much service. Does any one then blame her for being occupied with careful service? By no means. For neither does the Saviour chide her for having proposed to herself the discharge of this duty; but rather He blamed her, as one who was labouring in vain, by wishing to procure more than was necessary. And this He did for our benefit, that He might fix a limit to hospitality. For far better is that other part, of earnestly desiring the divine doctrine.
We do not then say that the wish to entertain strangers, when it does not aim at anything excessive, is to be despised, and is no service. The saints especially are bound to be content with little, and when they eat, and are prevailed upon to draw near to the table, they do so, rather to appease the infirmity of the body, in accordance with the laws of nature, than as caring about pleasure and relaxation. When |319 therefore we lodge with the brethren, in wishing to reap their corporeal things, let us first sow for them things spiritual; and imitating therein careful husbandmen, let us lay bare their hearts, lest some root of bitterness spring up and injure them: lest the worm of human innovation attack them, and work in them secret decay. And if anything like this has happened, then thrusting forthwith into their minds the saving word of instruction, like the teeth of the mattock, let us eradicate the root of ungodliness; let us pluck up the heretical darnel from the very bottom; let us implant the knowledge of the truth: thus we may reap the corporeal things of those who have a superfluity, receiving them as a matter of debt: for the workman, He says, is worthy of his hire. And the law of Moses, hinting at the same truth, says somewhere in like manner, "You shall not muzzle the trampling ox." And as Paul said, "Does God care about oxen? Or does He say it altogether for our sakes?" You therefore will give things more valuable than those you receive from men: for things temporal. You will give things eternal: for earthly things things heavenly: for the things of sense, things intellectual: for the things that perish, things that endure. And thus much of those who receive hospitality.
But let those who open to them their house, meet them cheerfully, and with alacrity, and as their fellows: and not so much as those who give, but as those who receive: as those who gain, and not as those who expend. And the more so as they profit doubly; for in the first place they enjoy the instruction of those whom they hospitably entertain: and secondly, they also win the reward of hospitality. Every way therefore they are profited. When however they receive the brethren into their house, let them not be distracted with much service. Let them not seek any thing beyond their means, or more than sufficient. For every where and in every thing excess is injurious. For often it produces hesitation in those who otherwise would be glad to receive strangers, and causes but few [houses] to be found fit for the purpose: while it proves a cause of annoyance to those who are entertained. For the rich in this world delight in costly banquets; and in many kinds of viands, prepared curiously often with sauces and flavours; a mere sufficiency is utterly scorned, while that |320 which is extravagant is praised, and a profusion beyond all satiety is admired, and crowned with words of flattery. The drinkings and revellings are excessive; and the draining of cups, and courses of wines, the means of intoxication and gluttony. But when holy men are assembled at the house of one who fears God, let the table be plain and temperate, the viands simple, and free from superfluities: but little to eat, and that meagre and scant: and a limited sufficiency of drink. In every thing a small supply of such necessaries as will allay the bodily appetite with simple fare. So must men receive strangers. So too Abraham by the oak at Mamre, received those three men, and won as the reward of his carefulness, the promise of his beloved son Isaac. So Lot in Sodom honoured the angels, and for so doing, was not destroyed by fire with the rest; nor became the prey of the inextinguishable flame.
Very great therefore is the virtue of hospitality, and especially worthy of the saints: let us therefore also practise it, for so will the heavenly Teacher lodge and rest in our hearts, even Christ; by Whom and with Whom, to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever, Amen. |321
SERMON LXX.
11:1-4. And it came to pass, that as He was in a certain place praying, when He ceased, one of His disciples said to Him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. And He said to them, When you pray, say, Our Father, hallowed be Your Name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done, as in heaven, so in earth; give us every day the bread of our necessity; and forgive us our sins, for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us; and bring us not into temptation.
O warm and fervent in spirit, now also you have come, and we see God's sacred court full of eager listeners. The purpose doubtless of your assembling is a pious one, and you have met together to be taught; and He Who is the Dispenser of the divine gifts, again satisfies you with those things of which you wish to be accounted worthy, and prepares a spiritual table, crying out and saying, "Come, eat of My bread, and drink the wine which I have mingled for you:" and as the Psalmist says, "Bread strengthens man's heart, and the intellectual wine gladdens it." Let us therefore draw near to the table now spread before us, even to the signification of the gospel lessons: and let us attentively consider what advantage it brings us, and what it begets in us of these qualities which are necessary for the fitting honour of the saints.
"Christ," it says, "was praying alone:" and yet He is true God, and the Son of God over all; and Himself dispenses |322 to the creation all those things by means of which it flourishes and is kept in being; and Himself is absolutely in need of nothing: for He is "full," as He said Himself. 'Of what then,' some one asks, 'is He in need, Who by right of nature possesses all that belongs to the Father? For He said plainly, "All that the Father has is mine." But it is the property of the Father to be full of all good, and of such prerogatives as befit Deity: and this too belongs to the Son. And knowing this the saints say, "Of His fulness have all we received." But if He give as from His own godlike fulness, of what, can one say that He is in need, or what does He want to receive from the Father, as though He had it not already? And for what, forsooth, does He pray, if He be full, and needs nothing that is the Father's!'
To this we reply, that He permits Himself, in accordance with the manner of the dispensation in the flesh, to perform human actions whensoever He wishes, and as the season requires, without being liable to blame for so doing. For if He ate and drank, and is found partaking of sleep, what is there absurd, if also having humbled Himself to our measure, and fulfilled human righteousness, He not unfitly offered up prayer? And yet certainly He is in need of nothing; for "He is full," as we already said. For what reason therefore, and in the performance of what necessary and profitable duty, did He pray? It was to teach us not to be slack in this matter, but rather to be constant in prayers, and very urgent; not standing in the middle of the streets; for this some of the Jews used to do, the scribes namely and Pharisees; nor making it an occasion of ostentation, but rather praying alone and silently, and by ourselves: and, so to speak, conversing alone with God alone, with pure and undistracted mind. And this He clearly taught us in another place, saying of those who were wont to make a show of their prayers; "For they love to pray standing in the corners of the streets, and in the synagogues. But you, when you pray, enter your chamber, and shut your door, and pray to your Father Who is in secret; and your Father Who sees in secret shall reward you."
For there are men who make a gain of the reputation of piety, and while earnestly attending to outward appearances, |323 within are full of the love of vainglory. These often, when entering the church, first of all glance about in every direction, to observe the number of those standing there, and see whether they have many spectators. And as soon as the assembly pleases them, then raising their hand to their forehead, not once merely, but again and again they make there the sign of the precious cross. And so spinning out a long prayer according to their own fancy, they babble in a loud tone, as though praying to the bystanders, rather than to God. To such we say in the words of the Saviour, "You have received your reward:" since you pray as hunting after the praises of men, and not as seeking any thing of God. Your wish is fulfilled; you have been praised as being religious; you have gained vainglory: but you have traded in a fruitless labour; you have sown emptiness, and you shall reap nothing. Would you see the end of your artifices? Hear what the blessed David says; that "God has scattered the bones of them that please men." And by bones he here of course means not those of the body; for there are no instances of any men having suffered this: but rather the powers of the mind and heart, by means of which a man is able to effect good. The powers then of the soul are that earnestness which leads on strenuously to perseverance, spiritual manliness, patience and endurance. These qualities God will scatter in such as please men.
In order therefore that we, withdrawing far from these disgraceful ways, and escaping from the snares to which they are exposed who seek to please men, may offer to God prayer, holy and blameless and undefiled, Christ made Himself our example, by going apart from those who were with Him, and praying alone. For it was right that our Head and Teacher in every good and useful deed should be no other than He Who is first among all, and receives the prayers of all, and with God the Father bestows on those who ask Him whatsoever they require. If therefore you se Him praying as a man, that you may learn how to pray, withdraw not from the belief and conviction, that being by nature God Who fills all, He became like to us and with us on earth as a man, and fulfilled human duties as the dispensation required: but that even so He was seated in heaven with the Father, dispensing of His own fulness all things to all, accepting the |324 prayers of the dwellers upon earth, and of the spirits that are above, and crowned by them with praises. For He ceased not to be God by becoming like to us, but continued even so to be whatsoever He had been. For it became Him to be that which He had been, since He is unchangeable, and, as Scripture declares, not subject even to a "shadow of turning."
But inasmuch as a long discourse is required for what remains, holding it in for the present, as it were, with a bridle, lest it should become tedious to the hearers, we will hereafter with God's help explain it to you, when next Christ the Saviour of us all assembles us here: by Whom and with Whom, to God the Father be praise and dominion with the Holy Ghost for ever and ever, Amen. |325
SERMON LXXI.
11:2. Upon, "Our Father, Who art in heaven"
OUR Lord Jesus Christ counted the insatiate desire of learning as worthy of all praise, thus saying: "Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be satisfied." For it is right constantly to hunger and thirst after those things, by means of which a man becomes a warm lover of saintly glories, and earnest in every good work. And to all who are thus minded, Christ reveals the way by which they can accomplish their desire. But serviceable is it above all things besides for the religious to salvation, that they know how to pray, and offer not supplications displeasing to Almighty God. For as the wise Paul wrote to us, "We know not what to pray for as we ought." Let us therefore draw near to Christ, the Giver of wisdom, and say, "Teach us to pray." Let us be like the holy apostles, who above all other things asked of Him this profitable and saving lesson.
Now at our last meeting we heard the gospel read, which says of Christ, the Saviour of us all, that "it came to pass, that as He was in a certain place praying by Himself." And we addressed you, explaining as well as we could the dispensation, by reason of which Christ prayed: and when we had carried our argument to this point, we reserved the rest for some fitting occasion. This has now arrived, and is present. Let us then proceed to what follows; for the Saviour said, "When you pray, say, Our Father." And another of the holy evangelists adds, "who is in heaven."
O boundless liberality! O incomparable gentleness, and that befits Him alone! He bestows upon us His own glory: He raises slaves to the dignity of freedom: He crowns man's estate with such honour as surpasses the power of nature: He brings that to pass which was spoken of old by the voice |326 of the Psalmist: "I said, You are gods: and all of you children of the Most High." For lo! He rescues us from the measure of slavery, bestowing upon us by His grace that which by nature we possessed not: and permits us to call God Father, as being admitted to the rank of sons. Of Him have we received this, together with all our other privileges: and the wise John the Evangelist witnesses thereto, thus writing of Him: "He came to His own, and His own received Him not: but to all who received Him He gave power to become the sons of God, even to those who believe in His Name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." For we have been fashioned to the sonship by that birth which is spiritually wrought in us, "not by corruptible seed, but rather by the living and abiding Word of God,'1 as Scripture says. "By willing it He fathered us by the Word of truth, that we might be a kind of first-fruits of His creatures;" for so one of the holy apostles declares. And Christ Himself, in a certain place, clearly explained the manner of this birth by declaring; "Verily I say to you, that unless a man be born of water and Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." Or rather,----for to you it is right to speak even of those things that are mysterious,----He Himself became both the way and the door, and the cause of a grace being bestowed upon us thus glorious and worthy of our gaining by having taken upon Him our likeness. For although in that He is perceived to be, and is God, He is free, yet He took the form of a slave, that He might bestow upon us those things which are His, and enrich the slave with His own excellencies. For He alone is by nature free, because He alone is Son of the Father, even of Him Who is supreme above all, and rules over all, and Who is by nature and truly free. For whatsoever has been brought into existence bows the neck of slavery to Him Who created it. For the Psalmist sings to Him, saying, that "all things are Your slaves:" but inasmuch as in the dispensation He transferred to Himself what was ours, He has given us what was His. And most wise Paul, the minister of His mysteries, is our proof, thus writing: "That when He was rich, He made Himself poor, that we by His poverty might be rich." For our things, by which is meant the condition of human nature, |327 is poverty to God the Word: while it is wealth to human nature to receive what things are His. And of these one is the dignity of freedom,----a gift peculiarly befitting those who have been called to sonship. And this, as I mentioned, is also His gift: for He said to us, "And call no man your Father on earth: for One is your Father, Who is in heaven: and you all are brethren." And again, He Himself too, from His infinite love to mankind, is not ashamed to call us brethren, thus saying; "I will preach Your name to My brethren." For because He became like to us, we thereby have gained brotherhood with Him.
He commands us therefore to take boldness, and say in our prayers, "Our Father." We children of earth and slaves, and subject by the law of nature to Him Who created us, call Him Who is in heaven Father. And most fittingly He makes those who pray understand this also: that if we call God Father, and have been counted worthy of so distinguished an honour, must we not necessarily lead holy and thoroughly blameless lives, and so behave as is pleasing to our Father, and neither think nor say anything unworthy or unfit for the freedom that has been bestowed upon us? And so one of the holy apostles spoke: "If you call Him Father, Who without respect of persons judges according to every man's work, let your conversation during the time of your sojourning be in fear." For it is a most serious thing to grieve and provoke a father, by turning aside to those things which are not right. How do earthly fathers act, or what is their feeling towards their sons? When they see them willing to conform themselves to their wishes, and choosing that course of conduct which is pleasing to them, they love and honour them; they open to them their house; they multiply their presents of whatsoever they wish, and acknowledge them as their heirs. But if they are disobedient, and intractable, having no respect for the laws of nature, and indifferent to that affection which is implanted in us, they drive them from their house, and deem them unworthy of any honour, or indulgence, or love: they even refuse to acknowledge them as sons, and do not write them as their heirs.
Mount now, I pray, from things as they are with us to those that transcend us. You call God Father: honour Him with |328 ready obedience: yield submission as that which is His due: live so as He pleases: show not yourself harsh or proud, but, on the contrary, tractable and submissive, and ready without delay to follow His directions, so that He may honour you in return, and appoint you fellow-heir with Him Who is the Son by nature, For if "He gave Him for us, how will He not with Him also give us all things," according to the expression of the blessed Paul. But if you have no regard for yourself, and therefore heed not the bounteous gift that is bestowed, you are proved to be bold, and, so to speak, without salt, loving pleasure more than you love the Father. Fear, therefore, lest of you also God say that which was spoken of the Israelites by the word of Isaiah; "Hear, O heavens; and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken: I have begotten and brought up children, but they have rejected Me." Heavy in every way, my beloved, is the guilt of those who rebel; and most wicked the crime of rejecting (God). Very wisely therefore, as I said, does the Saviour of all grant us to call God Father, that we, well knowing that we are sons of God, may behave in a manner worthy of Him Who has thus honoured us; for so He will receive the supplications which we offer in Christ: by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever, Amen. |329
SERMON LXXII.
11:2 Upon "Hallowed be Your Name."
ALL who desire the sacred words of God, the prophet Isaiah commands, saying; "You who thirst come to the waters:" for whosoever will may draw from the life-giving fountain. And who is this fountain? Plainly it is Christ, and His doctrines. For He has somewhere said to us, "Whosoever thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.'' Let us then once again come as to a fountain: let us fill our souls: let us satiate ourselves of the torrent of pleasure. For the blessed David somewhere in a psalm thus speaks of Him to God the Father: "They shall be satisfied with the fatness of Your house: and You shall make them drink of the torrent of Your pleasure. For with Thee is the fountain of life." For the river of pleasure is richly poured forth for us, and the fountain of life, even that which is in Christ: Who also by one of the prophets has thus spoken concerning us; "Behold, I bend down to them as a river of peace, and as a torrent flooding them with the glory of the Gentiles."
For observe how Christ waters us with rich streams of spiritual blessings. For what will He next teach us? When you pray, He says, say, "Our Father, Hallowed be Your Name." Now see! already we have discoursed to you not without profit, when explaining in what manner it is right for us to say, "Our Father." And you, I think, remember my words, in that you are, as I said, eager after learning. In order, therefore, that we may not say the same things; for that were tedious to attentive listeners, who store up in the treasure-house |330 of their heart whatever they have already understood, and wish constantly to advance to something further, let us proceed to that which follows, namely, " Hallowed be Your Name:" and let us consider in what way this also must be understood.
Do we then pray that additional holiness may accrue to the all-holy God? And how would not this be absolutely absurd? For if indeed there be anything wanting to God over all, in order to his being perfect, and in need of nothing, He may need additional holiness: but if He be full, as He says, and in every respect perfect in and by Himself, and the Giver of holiness to the creation out of His own fulness; what addition can He receive? For all things are His. and He has reached the highest perfection in every good: for this is also an attribute of His by nature. And besides it is a foolish and ridiculous thing for those who pray to imagine that they offer their supplications not on their own behalf but on His. What therefore is the meaning of "Hallowed be Your Name?"
We say then, that men do not supplicate for any addition of holiness to accrue to God over all: for who is greater than He, and able to give Him any increase? "For without all doubt the less is blessed of the greater." But they supplicate rather that this may be granted to them and all mankind. For when it is our settled conviction and belief, that He Who by nature is God over all, is Holy of the Holies, then we confess His glory and supreme majesty: then we receive His fear into our mind, and lead upright and blameless lives, that by thus becoming ourselves holy, we may be able to be near to the holy God. For it is written; "Become you holy: for I am holy." And He once also said to the hierophant Moses, "I will be hallowed in them that draw nigh to Me.'" The prayer therefore is, May Your Name be kept holy in us, in our minds and wills: for this is the signification of the word " Hallowed." For just as one who suffers under a disease in his bodily sight, and is able to see but little, and with difficulty; and prays, saying, 'O Lord of all, grant that the light of the sun's radiance may illuminate me also,' does not, we affirm, make his supplications on the sun's behalf, but, on the contrary, upon his own: so also if a man say, "Our Father, hallowed be Your Name," he is not requesting any addition to be made to God's holiness, but rather asks, that he may himself possess such a mind and |331 faith, as to feel that His Name is honourable and holy. The act therefore is the source of life, and the cause of every blessing: for to be thus affected towards God, how must it not be a thing worthy of the highest estimation, and useful for the salvation of the soul?
But do not imagine, that when those who depend upon His rove are earnest in their supplications towards God, that they ask these things of Him for themselves alone: but know rather, that their purpose is to intercede for all the dwellers upon earth: for those who already have believed; and for those who have not as yet received the faith, nor acknowledged the truth. For for those who already have believed, they ask that their faith may be established, and that they may be able to practise the glories of the more excellent life: while for those who as yet are not believers, they ask that they may be called, and their eyes be opened; even in this following the footsteps of Christ, Who according to the words of John is "the Advocate with the Father for our sins: and not for our's only, but for the whole world." He therefore Who is the Intercessor for the saints, and for the whole world, wills that His disciples be like Himself. When therefore men say to the Father, "Hallowed be Your Name," bear in mind, that among those who have not as yet gained the light of truth, nor received the faith, the Name of God is despised. It does not as yet seem to them to be holy, honourable, and adorable. But no sooner has the light of truth risen upon them, and they have with effort awoke as from some night and darkness, then learning Who and how great He is, they acknowledge Him as Holy of the Holies, and have correspondent sentiments and belief.
But that the phrase, that God is hallowed by us, is a confession of our regarding Him as Holy of Holies, and does not bestow on Him any additional holiness, you may understand hence. One of the holy prophets said, "Hallow the Lord, and He shall be Your fear: and if you trust in Him, He shall be holiness unto you." Do we then make God holy? Is it the act of human nature to bestow ought on God? Does the thing made benefit the Maker? Does any man imagine that He, Who of his fulness richly distributes to the creature His gifts, will Himself receive ought of us, |332 whose place it is to listen to the words of the blessed Paul; "What have you that you have not received? When, therefore, the prophet said, "Hallow the Lord, and He shall be your fear, and holiness to you;" we affirm that what he teaches is, 'Believe that He is holy, for then you will fear Him; and so He will thus be to you the means of holiness.'' And it is written again of Christ the Saviour of us all; "Hallow Him, Who despised Himself." For He did despise Himself, by deeming His life of no account, and laying it down for our sakes. But let Him be hallowed, it says, by you: that is, let Him be acknowledged as holy. For such He is by nature, as being true God, and the Son of God. For to be essentially holy suits not any one whatsoever of those things, which from nonexistence have been brought into being: but only that supreme nature which transcends all. By believing therefore that He is by nature holy;----for this is the meaning of our hallowing Him; ---- we further acknowledge Him to be true God.
For ourselves therefore and not for God let us pray, saying, "Hallowed be Your Name." For if we are thus disposed, and with free mind offer up prayers such as this, God the Father will accept us, and Christ with Him will bless us: by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever, Amen. |333
SERMON LXXIII.
11:2. Upon "Your kingdom come."
THOSE who love riches, and whose mind is set on wealth and gain, gather by every means in their power the wished for object, and there is no labour they will not undertake. But their pursuit ends in no happy issue: "For what," as the Saviour says, "is a man profited, if he gain the whole world, but lose himself?" But those who love the Word of salvation, and unrol the divine Scripture as a treasure, and carefully search out the things therein concealed, find the life-giving knowledge which leads them on to every virtuous pursuit, and makes them perfect in the knowledge of the doctrines of truth. Let us search therefore into the sense of the passage set before us. And our object is intelligently to see what the Saviour commanded. For we must, He said, when we pray say, "Your kingdom come." Nevertheless He reigns over all with God the Father: nor can any addition be made to His kingly glory, either as accruing to Him from without, or as given Him by another. Nor did it gather by the course of time, but, so to speak, sprang up with Him without a beginning. For He at all time was and is that which He was. Altogether therefore, and in every way it follows upon His being God by nature and truly, that He must be omnipotent, and that this glorious attribute is, so to speak, His without a beginning, and without end. For one also of the holy prophets said to Him, "The Lord shall reign for ever and ever, and yet." And the divine Psalmist too says, "Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom." And again; "God is our king before the worlds." Since, therefore, God ever reigns, and is omnipotent, with what view do those who call God Father offer up to Him their supplications, and say, Your kingdom come?
They seem, therefore, to desire to see Christ the Saviour of all rising again upon the world. For He will come, He will come and descend as Judge, no longer in low estate like to us, nor in the meanness of human nature; but in glory such as becomes God, and as He dwells in the unapproachable light, and with the |334 angels as His guards. For so He somewhere Himself said, that "the Son of man shall come in the glory of His Father, with His holy angels." And I think, therefore, that I ought to add this too: that at the consummation of this world He will descend from heaven, but no longer to instruct those on earth, as He did of old, nor again to show them the way of salvation; ----the season for this has passed away;----but to judge the world. And the wise Paul also bears witness to what I say, declaring that "we all must be revealed before the judgment seat of Christ, that every man may be requited for those things that were by means of the body, according to what he has done, whether it be good, or whether it be bad."
Terrible, therefore, is that judgment seat; without respect of persons is the Judge; it is a time of pleading, or rather of trial, and of retribution. The fire is prepared for the wicked, and enduring punishment, and eternal torments:----and how can men pray to see that time? Observe, I pray again, the Saviour's skilfulness, and His admirable management in every particular. For He commanded them to ask in prayer that this dread time may come, to make them know that they must live, not carelessly, nor dissolutely, nor moreover as beguiled into laxity and the love of pleasure; but, on the contrary, as becomes saints, and according to God's will: that so that time may prove the bestower upon them of crowns, and not of fire and condemnation. For for the wicked and impure, in that they lead base and lascivious lives, guilty of every vice, it were in no way fit for them in their prayers to say, Your kingdom come. Rather let them know that in so saying they, as it were, charge God with blame, because the time of their punishment does not quickly arise and manifest itself. Of them one of the holy prophets said, "Woe to those that desire the day of the Lord! What will the day of the Lord be to you? For it is darkness, and not light; and that thick darkness in which is no brightness." |335
The saints, therefore, ask that the time of the Saviour's perfect reign may come, because they have laboured dutifully, and have a pure conscience, and look for the requital of what they have already wrought. For just as those who are expecting a festival and merriment about forthwith to come, and shortly to appear, thirst for its arrival, so also do they. For they trust that they shall stand glorious in the presence of the Judge, and hear Him say: "Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundations of the world." They were wise and zealous stewards, when their Lord set them over His household, to give them their meat in its season. Well and wisely did they distribute to their fellow servants those things by the receiving of which they had themselves before been made rich; for they remembered Him Who said: "Freely you have received, freely give." When they received of Him the talent, they did not bury it in the earth. They were not like that slothful, and indolent, and careless servant, who drew near, saying, "Lord, I knew that You are a hard man; reaping where others sowed, and gathering where others scattered: and I was afraid, and hid the talent. Behold! You have Your own." They, on the contrary, traded: and so they brought it greatly multiplied, saying, "Lord, Your pound has made ten pounds," and were admitted to yet further honours. They possessed an active, and right hearty, and courageous disposition; they had put on the panoply of God; the breastplate of righteousness; the helmet of salvation; had taken the Spirit's sword: It did not escape them that they had a war, not against blood and flesh, but against magistracies, against powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in the heavenly regions. For many wove for themselves crowns of martyrdom, and by enduring conflicts, even to life and blood, were made "a spectacle to the world, and to angels, and to men," and were accounted worthy of all admiration. There were others who endured labours and persecutions, eagerly contending for His glory. "Cruel wolves sprang in upon Christ's flocks, not sparing the flock," as the divine Paul declares. "Deceitful workers; false apostles," vomiting forth the gall of the malice of the devil, and "speaking perverse things," such as lead ignorant souls |336 to destruction, and "wound their weak conscience." These, by flattering the powers of this world, brought persecutions and distresses upon the champions of the truth. But they made no great account of what they suffered, for they looked to the hope which they had in Christ. For it was not unknown to them that "by suffering for Him they would reign with Him." They know that at the time of the resurrection, "He will change the body of their humiliation into the likeness of His glorious body." They fully believed what He said about the consummation of the world, that when He shall appear to them again from heaven, "they shall shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father." Justly, therefore, in their prayers they say, "Your kingdom come." For they feel confident that they shall receive a recompense for their bravery, and attain to the consummation of the hope set before them.
May it be our lot also to be counted worthy of this great inheritance in Christ; by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever, Amen. |337
SERMON LXXIV.
11:2 Upon " Your will be done; as in heaven, so on earth."
THE prophet David made his supplications to Christ the Saviour of all, saying, "Lead me to Your truth, and teach me that You are God my Saviour." For all those are taught of God who are in Christ by faith; and among these are we. Of Him, therefore, let us ask the explanation of His words: for whosoever would understand correctly and without error what He wishes to teach, are in need of divine light: but He is the Giver of all wisdom, and sheds His light upon the mind and heart of those that ask Him. For again the Psalmist said, "Open mine eyes, and I shall see Your wonders out of Your law." Let us, therefore, examine this part also of the prayer: for it will profit us in no slight degree to the salvation of the soul. Why then did He command the saints to say to God the Father in heaven, "Your will be done; as in heaven, so in earth?"
Worthy of the saints, and full of all praise is this petition also. For for them to ask that the good-will of God may prevail on earth, what else is it but to ask that all mankind may lead praiseworthy and elect lives, and practise and know all virtue? By so doing, the holy angels, we affirm, dwell in glory in heaven: for it is written; "Bless the Lord all you His powers; His ministers who do His will." For by adhering to the will of their Lord, and fulfilling that righteousness which transcends human things, they preserve their high estate, whereas those who acted otherwise fell therefrom.
But to gather to a head, and, so to speak, collect briefly the meaning of the words, we supplicate, that power may be given to the dwellers upon earth to do the will of God, and imitate the conduct practised above in heaven by the holy angels. Let us see, therefore, as well as we can, in what way the powers above and the ranks of the holy angels successfully perform their duty. How do they honour God? Is it by sacrifices of blood? Is it by perfume and frankincense, as forsooth the Israel after the flesh did? But this I think is |338 altogether incredible both to think and say. For it is rather true to affirm that they fulfil a spiritual and not a material service, ever crowning with lauds and praises the Creator of all, and fulfilling that righteousness which is suitable to holy spirits. Those, therefore, who in their prayers ask that the will of God may be done also on earth, ought necessarily themselves to live blamelessly, and to pay no regard to these earthly things, but free themselves from all impurity, and leap out of the pitfalls of iniquity, and "perfect holiness in the fear of God;" that as Paul also says, even while walking upon earth, "their conversation may be in heaven." And above all others let those who belong to the Jewish multitude, but have been enriched with the righteousness that is in Christ by faith, know that it is altogether fitting for them if they would fulfil the word of God, to cease from the shadows of the law, and abandon the service that consists in semblances and types: and choose rather the service which is spiritual, and pure, and immaterial. For as the Saviour somewhere said, "God is a Spirit; and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. For such the Father also requires those to be who worship Him."
For that the legal manner of service is not what He requires, is a thing in no respect difficult to see from the prophetic and apostolic writings. For by the word of Jeremiah He says, "Why do you bring Me the frankincense from Sheba; and cinnamon from a far country? Your whole burnt-offering is not acceptable, and your sacrifices please Me not." And by the voice of David, "I will not take bullocks from your house, nor he goats out of your flocks: should I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?" And the blessed Paul also shows that the service that is by the law is powerless to justification, thus saying; "For that no man is justified by the law before God is evident." The will therefore of God, that will which we pray may be done upon earth, is not that we should conform to the law, and live according to the grossness of its letter, but that we should endeavour to live by the gospel. And this is effected by a faith correct and free from error, and by a holy life, possessed of the sweet savour of every virtue, and proved by the testimony of good and noble conduct in every thing that is excellent. |339
And to explain also in another way the sense of what is laid before us, we say, that those who utter to God the petition "Your will be done, as in heaven so on earth," pray that they may see the cessation of sin. For the law of Moses was given to the Israelites to be their schoolmaster; but those who received it paid but slight heed to its commands: they were "lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God;" and turned aside to follow their own will: for they wandered after the doctrines and commandments of men. For God also somewhere said of them; "This people draws near to Me; with their lips they honour Me, but their heart is far from Me. But in vain fear they Me, while teaching the doctrines and commandments of men." And He also said of them by the word of Jeremiah; "Hear, O earth, see I bring upon this people evils; the fruit of their turning aside: because they have not regarded My Word, and have rejected My law." Such then was the state of the Jews. But that other multitude, spread over the whole earth, was in error in manifold ways. "For they served the creatures instead of the Creator:" and having humbled their mind to submission to unclean spirits, were led by them readily and without understanding, into every thing base, and every kind of wickedness was honoured among them, and "they gloried in their shame," as Scripture says.
The saints therefore supplicate, that both of these, as well Israel as the Gentiles, may be counted worthy of peace from on high, and be comforted in that they were in misery, and caught, so to speak, in the net of sin, without possibility of escape: that having received the righteousness which is in Christ by faith, they may become pure, and skilful in every good work. For this reason they pray, "Your will be done, as in heaven, so in earth:" for as I said, the will of God over all is, that the dwellers upon earth should live holily, and piously, and without blame, being washed from all impurity, and diligent in imitating the spiritual beauty of the spirits above in heaven; so that the church on earth, being, as it were, the visible likeness and image of the "church of the firstborn" that is above, may please Christ; by Whom, and with Whom, to God the Father be praise and dominion with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever, Amen. |340
SERMON LXXV.
11:3 Upon "Give us every day our needful bread."
THOSE who possess earthly riches invite to their house such of their friends as they wish to honour, and setting before them a costly banquet, make them enjoy themselves, though providing for them nothing further than the satiating of the appetite. But the Saviour and Lord of all, feasts us not with bodily enjoyments; for this is profitless, and injurious even to the body itself: rather He banquets with spiritual feasts the hearts of those who would live virtuously, bestowing on them the saving doctrine of the gospel, by means of which a man becomes full of all good, and an heir of eternal life. And what I have said is clearly taught us in the passage now set before us. For when you pray, He says, you must say, "Give us every day the bread of our necessity."
But some, perchance, may think and even say, that it is unsuitable and not fitting for the saints to ask of God these corporeal things; and may therefore divert what is said to a spiritual sense; and affirm that they ask not earthly bread, nor that for the body, but rather That Which came down from above, from heaven, and gave life to the world. And I too without all doubt would say, that it most becomes the saints earnestly to endeavour to be accounted worthy of spiritual gifts. We must, however, also understand, that though they ask simple bread, and this be what the Saviour bids them do, that their address to God is nevertheless free from all blame, and suitable to the piety of their lives. For examine what is the sense concealed in these words, and with what doctrines it is pregnant. For in that He commanded to ask for the bread, that is, for the food of a day, it is evident, that He does not permit them to possess any thing, but requires them rather to practise a saint-like poverty. For to ask is not the part of those who have, but of those rather who are in need of what the body indispensably requires, and cannot do without. Should then any one who is in want of nothing, say to the |341 omniscient God, "Give us the bread of a day," he would of course seem to wish to receive in derision, or perchance even to ridicule the meaning of the command, and to imagine as some do, "That the Lord does not see, neither the God of Jacob understand." By this very command therefore, inasmuch as they ask what they have not, we may perceive, that He does not wish His disciples to set their desire upon wealth. And this He is found elsewhere clearly enjoining: "Be not anxious for yourselves, what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; neither for your body what you shall put on: for all these things the Gentiles seek after. But seek you chiefly the kingdom of God and His righteousness: and all these things shall be added to you. For your heavenly Father knows that all these things are needed by you."
The word ἐπιούσις, applied here to the bread, some explain as meaning that which is coining, and about to be given in the future world, understanding it again spiritually: while others give the word a different sense. But if it be true, that the bread men make mention of when they pray, is that which is to be |342 given them in the world to come, why do they add, "Give it us every day?" For by this we may see, that what they request is their daily provision, asking not as loving wealth, but as free from all earthly anxiety. We must explain therefore ἐπιούσιος as meaning that which is necessary and sufficient. The blessed Paul has somewhere applied this phrase to Christ the Saviour of us all, with a slight alteration; for he said that "He has prepared for Himself a people περιούσιος," using περιούσιος instead of ἐπιούσιος, and meaning a people sufficient, and not falling short of perfection. When therefore they ask food for the day, understand, that they offer the request as men free from the desire of riches, and who count it their boast to be entirely destitute of earthly things.
For it is fitting for those who are appointed to the priesthood, to be free from all worldly distraction and care, whoring after none of those things which overwhelm men with necessary cares, and cast them as in a slough into the filth of worldly lusts. "For the love of money is the root of all evil." And it is right that I should say to those who would renounce such faults, that they must strip off for the world what belongs to it, and deny these bodily things, and seek from God those things only which are necessary for existence, protesting as it were against the weakness of the body, which constantly requires food; and ready, were it lawful utterly to escape from it, and life could so be prolonged, even to accept this with great joy. For just as those who know how to contend in bodily strife, and are skilled in the combats of the games, strip off even their garments, and stand up manfully against the vigorous strength of their opponents; so also the saints, withdrawing from all worldly anxiety, and bodily lusts; and careless even of having abundance of food, and stripping as I said to oppose Satan and the enemies of the truth, apply themselves to the contests of the priestly office, and conquer as combatants. And the divine Paul too somewhere said of those that war in the flesh: "No man that wars entangles himself with worldly merchandise, that he may please him who has chosen him for a soldier." For he does not go forth to the combat laden with superfluities, but on the contrary only taking with him such equipments as are fit for warriors. |343
It becomes therefore the saints, as having a combat to wage, not only "against blood and flesh, but also against magistracies and powers, and against the world-rulers of this darkness, and against the spirits of evil in the heavenly regions," to be so well prepared in mind, as not to be open to the grasp of those who resist them, and who war against the message which they proclaim. And it is right also for them to be single-minded, that is, to think only of those things which please the Lord, not being partly given up to worldly anxiety, but being all of them entirely holy and without blame, so to make their conduct a sacrifice to God. For it is written that "every sacrifice of the priest shall be a whole burnt-offering." For the lives of the worldly are "divided," according to the expression of the blessed Paul; but of the saints not so: but they are entirely consecrated, completely holy, emitting a sweet savour to God: and this we say is a whole burnt-offering. But when ought that is unsaintly is found in any, it pollutes the sacrifice, alters and divides it: or rather filth is mingled with the ointment; for its sweet savour has utterly perished. But the love of money is an unsavoury thing; and the being anxious for the things of the body; for God has everywhere promised the saints that they shall not want. If then we do not believe that He will grant this, we become partakers of the unbelief of the Jews. For when God over all wonderfully and ineffably brought out for them water from the rock, they murmured at Him saying; "Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?" And why can He not, and wherefore should He not give what He has promised? For all men of good character abide faithfully by their words: and how shall God Who transcends all, be false in ought that He has promised? Men moreover, after having promised some good, are often too weak to fulfil their engagements: but He who knows no weakness, but rather is the Lord of powers, Who does whatsoever He will without labour and with ease, how shall not He accomplish whatsoever He promises to men? |344
"Casting therefore upon Him our care," let us ask of Him what suffices for life; food, that is to say, and clothing, and whatever is sufficient for us, avoiding all wish to be rich, as that which threatens us with destruction. For if such be our will, Christ will accept and bless us; by Whom, and with Whom, to God the Father be praise and dominion with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever, Amen. |345
SERMON LXXVI.
11:4 And forgive us our sins: for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us.
THE blessed prophet Isaiah, when revealing the way of salvation by the preaching of the Gospel, thus somewhere speaks: "There shall be there a level way, and it shall be called the holy way." For it leads those who walk thereon to holiness by a spiritual service, and a righteousness superior to the law. We remember also Christ, Who says to those who love Him; "Verily I say to you, that unless your righteousness be more than that of the scribes and pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of God." And I say that it is the duty of those who have been called by faith to the acknowledgment of the glory of our universal Saviour Christ, and have Him for their head, to delight in imitating His actions, and be in earnest in letting their light shine by holy conduct, such as was unknown to them of old time. "For all things are become new in Christ," He requires therefore His disciples to be gentle, and slow to anger, that so they may be able to say blamelessly in their prayers, "Forgive us our sins: for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us." Oh! what great and admirable skill! what sagacious thought! or rather, oh! the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! He first commands them to ask forgiveness of the sins they commit, and then to confess that they also entirely forgive others: and if I may so say, they ask God to imitate the long suffering which they practise: and that same gentleness which they show to their fellow servants, they pray that they may receive in equal measure from God, Who gives justly, and knows how to show mercy to every man.
Come, therefore, and let us endeavour to perceive more clearly the meaning of the prayer, by entering upon a more extended and exact consideration of the passage before us. As I said, therefore, He has commanded us when we draw near to |346 say: "Forgive us our sins." And we will examine, if you please, what the benefit is which we receive from this. Those then who thus speak are not supercilious: they do not think great things of themselves: do not vaunt themselves over the weak: but, as Scripture says, "they know themselves," For they are not like that ignorant and haughty Pharisee, who even made the Lord his witness, according to the parable which says: "Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee and the other a publican: and the Pharisee stood and said thus: God, I thank Thee that I am not as the rest of mankind, extortioners, unjust, adulterers; or as this publican. I fast twice in the week; and tithe every thing I possess. But the publican stood afar off, smiting upon his breast, and saying; God, be merciful to me a sinner. I say to you, that this one went down to his house justified rather than the other." Observe therefore how ruinous it is to vaunt oneself over those who are weak, imagining that our conduct is in no respect whatsoever worthy of blame. We ought rather to consider and reflect, that "in many things we all of us are guilty," and, so to speak, are always in sins, sometimes even involuntarily: for it is written; "Who can understand his offences?" We find also the blessed Psalmist very anxious in making his supplications to God, and plainly saying: "Both cleanse me from my secret doings: and from the deeds of others spare Your servant, lest they overpower me: then shall I be blameless, and purified from great sin." And further also, the very patient Job offered sacrifices for the unknown, or rather undiscovered sins of his sons, considering and saying; "It may be my sons have spoken evil in their heart against God." We remember also the very wise Paul, who, when he had written, "For I am not conscious of any fault in myself:" thoughtfully added, "but I am not hereby justified: but He That judges me is the Lord."
It is therefore greatly to our profit constantly to fall down before God, Who loves what is good, and say, Forgive us our sins. For He said by one of the holy prophets, "Declare you first your unlawfulnesses, that you may be justified." And inasmuch as this was not unknown to the blessed David, he thus sings; "I said that I will confess of myself my iniquity to the Lord; and You forgave the wickedness of my |347 heart." For God readily accepts, and has mercy on those who do not forgot their offences, but fall down before Him, and ask of Him forgiveness: but He is severe, and very justly so, upon the obdurate and the proud, and on him who in his great ignorance acquits himself of blame. For He said to one thus disposed, "Behold, I have a suit against you, because you say, I have not sinned." For who can boast that he has a pure heart? or who can have confidence that he is undefiled by sins? The road then to salvation, and which delivers those who earnestly walk thereon from the wrath of God, is the confession of offences, and to say in our prayers to Him Who purifies the wicked, Forgive us our sins.
There is also another way in which it benefits us. For those truly who own that they have sinned, and wish to obtain pardon from God, necessarily fear Him, as One Who is about to be the Judge: they are not forgetful of God's terrible judgment-seat. For, as the very wise Paul writes; "We shall all be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ, that every man may be requited for the things done by the body, according to what he has done, whether it be good, or whether it be bad." Those in whose mind the conviction is present, that they must stand before Him, and make their defence; and if they are accused of wicked conduct, will suffer bitter punishment; but will be praised, if they have well and wisely lead the life that is in the flesh on earth; thirst, on the one hand, for the forgiveness of the sins they have already committed, that they may escape the unending torment and eternal punishment: and, on the other, they hasten to live uprightly and blamelessly, that they may receive the crown that becomes the excellence of their lives. For so will the Judge be gentle towards them, nor remember evil: "for the iniquity, He says, of the wicked shall not harm him in the day that he shall repent of his iniquity.'"
And let not any one imagine that it is lawful for men without distinction to say, "Forgive us our iniquities." For it is not fitting for those who still continue in wickedness, and wish to do so to the last, to say, Forgive us our sins: but for those rather, who have abandoned their former wicked deeds, and now earnestly desire to live as becomes saints. Were it not so, nothing would prevent men who are still wicked, smiters of their |348 fathers, and matricides, and adulterers, and sorcerers, and whoever are guilty of these most abominable crimes, to continue in the practice of them, and cherish their evil propensities unchanged, and be polluted by the pursuit of every thing that is base; and nevertheless to draw near, and presumptuously say, "Forgive us our sins." For with good reason the Saviour of all and Lord did not conclude this clause of the prayer at this point, but commanded us to add, "For we also ourselves have forgiven every one who is indebted to us." But this is fitting only for those to say, who have chosen a virtuous life, and are practising without remissness that will of God, which, as Scripture says, is "good and acceptable and perfect." These honour a long-suffering temper, and acquit of all blame those who have wronged them: and even though any one afflict them, they think nothing of the matter. To be slow then to anger, is a virtue altogether excellent, and the fruit of that love which the wise Paul even declares to be "the fulfilling of the law."
And consider, I pray, the exceeding beauty of this virtue, even from the deformity of the vice opposed to it. For irascibility is in truth a serious malady, and whoever is subject to it in mind becomes irritable and morose, harsh and obdurate, the abode and habitation of wrath and vexation; and this long continued, and that cannot be charmed away. Ever does he see with evil eyes whoever has wronged him: he watches him sternly; seeks for time and place in which to injure him: and that generally not in equal measure, but many times greater than the wrong: he is secret and plotting. Is not such a one full of all deformity, hateful to God, and rejected by Him, and therefore in utter misery? "For the ways of the angry," as it is written, "are to death." But he who is simple, and not irascible, is full of forbearance, and that not so much the forbearance which men practise, as that which comes from above, and from God. His heart is not subject to the fester of vexation: it masters its anger, and repels the bitter feelings which spring therefrom. He is forgiving, kind to his companions, gentle and affable, and humbles himself to the infirmity of his neighbour. Such was the character of the disciples of the Saviour: for the blessed Paul wrote; "Being reviled, we bless: being persecuted, we bear patiently: being |349 defamed, we entreat." For they have grown like their Lord, "Who, when He was reviled, reviled not again: and when He suffered, threatened not; but committed His cause to Him that judges righteously."
We must ask, therefore, of God the forgiveness of the sins we have committed, when we have ourselves first forgiven whoever have offended in ought, provided that their sin is against us, and not against the glory of the supreme God. For over such actions we are not lords, but only over those which have been committed against ourselves. And by thus forgiving the brethren what they do to us, we shall then certainly find Christ, the Saviour of all, gentle and ready to show us mercy: by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever, Amen. |350
SERMON LXXVII.
11:4 And lead us not into temptation.
O ALL you who love the divine will, and are enamoured of a blameless life, draw near to God over all, and say, "Show me Your ways, O Lord, and teach me Your paths." For all wisdom and understanding is from Him; and the knowledge of all good comes to us from above from the supreme throne, as from a fountain; and no man can accomplish any thing praiseworthy, unless he receive the ability from Him. And this He teaches us Himself, saying, "Without Me you can do nothing." He therefore Who gives to every man all things whatsoever wherein they can justly glory, now leads us on to another of those things which are necessary to salvation. For He commands us when we are instant in prayer to say, "Lead us not into temptation."
With these words Luke concludes the prayer; but Matthew is found to add, "but deliver us from evil." And there is a certain close connection in the clauses: for plainly it follows from men not being led into temptation, that they are also delivered from evil; or perchance, were any one to say, that the not being led into it is the same as the being delivered from it, he would not err from the truth. But let us consider this: Does the Saviour and Lord of all wish His friends to be cowardly? Are they to be lazy and abject, and in earnest rather in avoiding the contest than in winning renown? And yet the Spirit said in the book of Psalms, "Be strong, and let your heart be firm, all you who trust in the Lord." And the Saviour Himself somewhere says, "Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." If then He crown with such splendid honours him who is persecuted, and to be persecuted is undeniably a temptation 1, in what sense does He command them to avoid temptation? For certainly it is not inactivity, and an unprofitable dilatoriness, and a thankless sloth, which render those trained for gymnastic contests successful, and worthy of honours, and |351 the clapping of hands, but, on the contrary, severe toil. Moreover, it is not in time of peace that one sees the man who is well acquainted with the tactics of war, and bold withal, and tried in battle, but he must have shown himself a hardy combatant against the enemy. And why then does Christ, so to speak, even hamstring those who love Him, by making them say, "Lead us not into temptation."
To this we reply, gathering after our manner those ideas which are best, that He does not wish His followers to be abject, nor yet indolent in any other way; that He even incites them to courageousness in all things praiseworthy, saying, "Enter in at the strait door: for narrow is the door, and constricted the way, that leads to life, and few are they who find it." There must therefore be in us an unchangeable and manly spirit of ardour: and a mind patient in endurance, such as was that of the blessed Paul, who said, "Who shall separate me from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or the sword?" But even though we be thus minded, and attain to these measures of manliness, yet we must think humbly of ourselves, being "poor in spirit," according to the Saviour's word, and not imagine that always and necessarily we shall conquer all temptations. For sometimes an unendurable alarm falling upon the mind of a man terrifies it into abject fear; as also does Satan, who hates whatever is good; and the severity of the temptation unbends sometimes even the most courageous mind. So do the violent and unendurable blows of the waves dash to pieces a firmly built and well-manned ship: and so does a dense mass of darts shot from the hands of the enemy put to flight the most steadfast soldier. No one therefore ought to be over-confident, or rash in encountering temptations, even though he be brave in mind: but rather let us reflect upon the infirmity of our mind, and fear with soberness, lest perchance we prove a cause of ridicule to our tempters, by not being able to bear the brunt of the battle.
Let us therefore pray that we may not be tempted: for it is a thing difficult to escape from, and difficult to most men to endure to the end. But when the conjuncture summons us of necessity thereto, then indeed, exerting all our strength, we |352 must enter the conflict, and struggle for our souls, nothing fearing, but, on the contrary, calling to mind what Christ the Saviour of all said to us; "Fear you not them who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul; but rather fear Him Who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell." As also that holy apostle who thus wrote, "Blessed is the man that endures temptation: who, when he is proved, shall receive the crown of life, which God has promised to them that love Him,"
There are however many kinds of temptation; of which two are of universal occurrence, and common and very general. And what these are, we must tell. There are in the world many heresies; false apostles, and false teachers, who gathering the wearisomeness of frigid inventions, and glorying in the arts of worldly wisdom, adulterate the language of the sacred proclamations, and multiply blasphemous words against their own pates: and as the Psalmist says, "they set up their horn on high, speaking iniquity against God:" yes, and against God the Word the Maker of all, Who, they say, is to be reckoned among those things that were made by Him; and is a servant, and not a son; and a creature, and not the Lord. These, resisting the champions of the truth, persecute those whose choice it is to hold sound doctrine, and who defend the divine glory, and endeavour to crown the only-fathered Word of God with incomparable praises. When therefore any temptation arrive on this account, be not you found one who throws away his shield, nor a soldier who runs from the battle, nor an athlete destitute alike of skill and courage. Wish not an unseasonable peace, the cause of future ruin; but remember that Christ the Saviour of all said, "Think not that I am come to bring peace upon earth; I am not come to bring peace, but a sword." And if perchance it happen that the persecutors possess worldly power, fear not the harm they can do you, nor the danger even of blood, and the risk of life; but remember again the exhortation of the holy apostle, who says, "Therefore let those also who suffer according to the will of God commend their souls to a faithful Creator." And again, For let no one of you suffer as a thief, or as an evil doer, or as one busy with other men's things; but if as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but glorify God on this account." |353
For it follows as a matter of course upon Laving to suffer, that we shall justly be accounted worthy of eternal honours. The struggle is not unrewarded; the labour is not in vain; for as Paul said, "God is not unrighteous to forget your labour and your love, which you have shown in His Name." These then are the conflicts ordained for all who fear God, to give the proof of him who knows how to endure patiently. For the blessed martyrs are crowned, as "having fought a good fight, and finished their running, and kept the faith."
Furthermore, other kinds of temptations there are besides this, common, so to speak, to every one, but which happen to each one differently. For as one of the holy apostles said, "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God; for God does not tempt with evils: neither does He tempt any one. But every one is tempted, when he is drawn away and enticed of his own lust. And afterward lust, having conceived, brings forth sin: and sin when it is consummated brings forth death." A struggle therefore and great danger is laid upon every one, lest he fall into sin, and be led. away from that which is seemly, wandering into wrongful deeds. Violent is the force of passions, and there wars against the mind of every one a motley crowd and furious multitude of base pleasures. For some humble men into fleshly lust and filthy lewdnesses; while others lead them to the desire of gain, making their victims lovers of sordid hoards, and drawing them on to every blameful crime. Well therefore does it become us who are exposed to such serious evils, even though as yet we have not fallen into them, to pray, saying, "Load us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." For it were good for a man to run his course apart from evil: but if temptation assail, then be brave and unconquerable; rebuke the flesh, put a bridle on the mind, ask aid of God, the safety vouchsafed by power from on high. Be established and confirmed, not feeble, not easy to be ensnared; rather be cautious, and a lover of God more than a lover of pleasure: for then He will aid you and grant you victory Who is Saviour and Lord of all: by Whom and with Whom, to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever, Amen. |354
SERMON LXXVIII.
11:5-10. And He said to them, Who of you shall have a friend, and shall go to him at midnight, and say to him, Friend, lend me three loaves: for my friend has come to me from the way, and I have nothing to set before him. And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: lo! the door is shut, and the children are with me in bed: I cannot rise and give you. I say to you, that though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend; because of his urgency he will rise and give him as much as he needs. And I also say to you, Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you. For every one that asks receives; and he that seeks finds: and whosoever knocks, it shall be opened to him.
THE language of the divinely inspired Scripture is constantly, so to speak, profound; nor will it bend itself for those to be able to understand it who merely wish to do so, but only for those who know how to search it well, and are enriched with the divine light in their mind, by means of which they attain to the meaning of hidden truths. Let us therefore ask for the understanding which comes from above, from God, and the illumination of the Holy Ghost, that we may attain to a correct and unerring method, whereby we may be enabled to see the truth contained in the passage set before us.
We have heard then what the Saviour said in the parable now read to us, which if we understand we shall find to be laden with benefits. And the order of the ideas is very wonderful. For the Saviour of all had taught at the request of the holy apostles, in what way we ought to pray. But it was possible that those who had obtained from Him this precious and saving lesson, might sometimes make indeed their supplications according to the pattern given them, but would do so wearily and lazily. And so, when not heard at their first or |355 second prayer, would desist from their supplications, as being unavailing to their benefit. In order therefore that we may not experience this, nor suffer the injury that would result from such littleness of mind, He teaches us that we must diligently continue the practice, and in the form of a parable plainly shows that weariness in prayer is to our loss, while patience therein is greatly to our profit: for it is our duty to persevere, without giving way to indolence. And this He teaches us by saying, that "though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend, because of his importunity he will rise and give him as much as he needs."
And now come, and let us transfer to the truth what was shown in the form of a parable. Be urgent in prayer; draw near to God Who loves to be kind; and that very constantly. And if you see that the gift of grace is delayed, yield not to weariness: despair not of the expected blessing: abandon not the hope set before you; nor further foolishly say within yourself, 'I have drawn near frequently; I have gained absolutely nothing; I have wept, and received not; I have supplicated, but not been accepted: for of all I asked, nothing has been accomplished.' Rather think thus within yourself, that He Who is the universal treasure house better knows our state than we do, in that He weighs to every man what is due and suitable to him. You ask sometimes what is beyond your measure; you wish to receive those things of which you are not yet worthy. The Giver Himself knows the time suitable for His gifts. Earthly fathers do not immediately and without discretion fulfil the desire of their sons: but often delay in spite of their asking, and that not because they have a grudging hand, nor again because they regard (merely) what is pleasant to the petitioners, but as considering what is useful and necessary for their good conduct. And how will that rich and bounteous Giver neglect the duo accomplishment for men of what they pray for, unless of course, and without all doubt, He knows that it would not be for their benefit to receive what they ask? We must therefore offer our prayers to God with knowledge, as well as with assiduity: and even though there be some delay in your requests, continue patiently with the vineyard workers, as being well assured that what is gained without toil, and readily won, is usually despised: |356 whereas that which is gathered with labour is a more pleasant and abiding possession.
But perchance to this you say; 'I draw near frequently, making requests; but the vintage therefrom has wandered far away. I am not slothful in supplications, but persevering and very importunate: who will assure me that I shall receive? who is my security that I shall not labour in vain?' "Therefore I also say to you;" and it is the Bestower of divine gifts Who Himself enters, and speaks;----"I also say to you, Seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you: for every one that asks receives; and he who seeks finds: and whosoever knocks, it shall be opened to him." In those words, "I say to you" has the full force of an oath: not that God is false, even though the promise be not accompanied with an oath; but to show that the littleness of their faith was groundless, He sometimes confirms His hearers by an oath. For the Saviour is also found in many places prefacing His words by saying, "Verily, truly, I say to you." As therefore He makes this very promise on oath, it is not a thing free from guilt to disbelieve it.
In telling us therefore to seek, He bids us labour: for by labour, that which is needed is always, so to say, found; especially when it is something fit for us to possess. He who knocks, not once merely, but again and again, rattles the door with his hand, it may be, or with a stone, so that the master of the house, unable to endure the annoyance of the knocks, will open it even against his will. Learn therefore, even from what happens among us, the way to gain that which is to your profit. Knock, be urgent, ask. So must all act who ask any thing of God: for wise Paul writes, "Pray without ceasing." We are in need of urgent prayer, because many are the turmoils of worldly matters which encircle us around: for that many headed serpent greatly distresses us, involving us sometimes in unexpected difficulties, that he may humble us to baseness and manifold sin: and, besides this, there is also the inbred law of voluptuousness lurking in our fleshly members, and warring, as Scripture says, "against the law of our mind:" and lastly, the enemies of the doctrines of truth, even the impure and polluted gangs of heretics, oppose those who wish to hold correct opinions. Constant and earnest prayer therefore is necessary. |357 For arms and the implements of warfare are needed for soldiers, that they may be able to overcome those who are drawn up against them: and for us prayer, "for our weapons," as Scripture says "are not carnal, but mighty to God."
And this too we ought to add, as being in my opinion amply sufficient to quicken us to prayer. The Saviour and Lord of all is seen again and again passing the night in prayer. And when too He was about to undergo His saving passion upon the precious cross, He knelt down and prayed, saying; "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me." Was this because Life was afraid of death? Was it because there was no escape for Him from the net, no deliverance from the snare, in that the hand of the Jews was mightier than His power? And how is it not altogether abominable to think or speak thus? He was by nature God, and the Lord of powers, even though He was in form like to us. Of His own will He took upon Him the suffering upon the cross, because He was the helper of us all. What need was there then of prayer? It was that we might learn that supplication is becoming and full of benefits, and that we must be constant in it whenever temptation befal, and the cruelty of enemies press upon us like a wave.
And to put it in one more light; for man to converse with God is a very great honour to human nature. And this we do in prayer, being commanded to address the Lord as Father; for we say, Our Father. But if He be a Father, necessarily He both loves and generously cherishes His sons, and honours them of course, and counts them worthy of indulgence. Draw near therefore in faith with perseverance, as being well assured that to those who ask urgently Christ bows His ear: by Whom and with Whom, to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever, Amen. |358
SERMON LXXIX.
11:11-13. And which of you that shall ask his father bread, will he offer him a stone? or if he ask of him a fish, will he for a fish offer him a serpent? If he ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you therefore, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children; how much more shall the heavenly Father give a good spirit to them that ask Him?
TO love instruction and be fond of hearing becomes saints: but those who are thus minded must, I say, keep in remembrance, and store up in the treasure-house of their heart, whatsoever has been spoken by those who are skilful in teaching right doctrine, and whose study it is ably to initiate men in the truth. For this is both profitable to themselves for their spiritual improvement; and besides, it rejoices the teacher, just, for instance, as the seed also gladdens the husbandman when it springs up, as having been well covered in the furrow, and escaped being the food of birds. You therefore remember that at our last meeting we addressed you on the duty of praying without ceasing, and making supplication continually in offering our requests to God: and that we must not give way to any littleness of soul, nor at all grow weary, even though He somewhat delay His gift, considering that He knows whatsoever is to our benefit, and that the fitting season for His bounties is not forgotten by Him.
And in to-day's lesson from the gospel, the Saviour again teaches another point most useful for our edification. And what this is, come, that we may declare it as to sons. We sometimes draw near to our bounteous God, offering Him petitions for various objects, according to each one's pleasure: but occasionally without discernment, or any careful examination what truly is to our advantage, and if granted by God would prove a blessing; and what would be to our injury if we received it. Rather, by the inconsiderate impulse of our fancy, we fall into desires replete with ruin, and which thrust the souls of those that entertain them into the snare of death and the meshes of hell. When therefore we ask of God ought of |359 this kind, we shall by no means receive it: on the contrary, we offer a petition fit only for ridicule. And why shall we not receive it? Is the God of all weary of bestowing gifts upon us? By no means. Why then, some one forsooth may say, will He not give, since He is bounteous in giving? Let us learn of Him; or rather, you have already heard Him here saying, What man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Understand, he says, by an image or plain example taken from what happens among you, the meaning of what I say; You are the father of children; you have in you the sharp spur of natural affection towards them; in every way you wish to benefit them: when therefore, He says, one asks of you bread, without delay and with pleasure you give it, as knowing well that he seeks of you wholesome food. But when, from want of understanding, a little child that knows not yet how to distinguish what it sees, nor moreover what is the service and use of the various objects that fall in our way, asks for stones to eat, do you, He says, give them, or rather do you not make him desist from any such desire as would be to his injury?
And the same reasoning holds good of the serpent and fish, and the egg and scorpion. If he ask a fish, you will grant it: but if he see a serpent, and wish to seize it, you will hold back the child's hand. If he want an egg, you will offer it at once, and encourage his desire after things of this sort, that the infant may advance to riper age: but if he see a scorpion creeping about, and run after it, imagining it to be something pretty, and as being ignorant of the harm it can do, you will, I suppose, of course stop him, and not let him be injured by the noxious animal. When therefore He says, "You who |360 are evil;" by which He means, you whose mind is capable of being influenced by evil, and not uniformly inclined to good like the God of all; "you know how to give good gifts to your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give a good spirit to them that ask Him? And by "a good spirit'1He means spiritual grace: for this in every way is good, and if a man receive it, he will become most blessed, and worthy of admiration.
Most ready therefore is our heavenly Father to bestow gifts upon us: so that whosoever is denied what he asks, is himself the cause of it: for he asks, as I said, what God will not give. For God wishes us to be holy and blameless, and to advance uprightly and boldly in every good work; walking apart from every thing that defiles, and from the love of fleshly pleasure, and rejecting the anxieties of worldly pursuits; not involving ourselves in worldly business; not living profligately and carelessly; not delighting in unruly pleasures; nor moreover practising a dissolute mode of life; but desiring to live well and wisely, and in accordance with God's commands, making tho law which He gave us the regulator of our conduct, and earnest in tho pursuit of whatever tends chiefly to our edification. If therefore you wish to receive ought of this kind, draw near with joy: for our Father Who is in heaven, because He loves virtue, will readily incline His car.
Examine therefore your prayer: for if you ask ought by receiving which you will become a lover of God, God, as I said, will grant it: but if it be any thing unreasonable, or that is able to do you an injury, He will withhold His hand: He will not bestow the wished-for object; in order that neither He may give nothing of an injurious nature,----for this is completely alien from Him,----nor let you harm yourself by receiving it. And let me explain how: for which purpose I shall bring forward examples. When you ask for wealth, you will not receive it of God: and why? Because it separates the heart of man from Him. Wealth begets pride, voluptuousness, and the love of pleasure, and brings men down to the pitfalls of worldly lusts. And so one of the disciples of our Lord has taught us, saying; "Whence are there wars, and whence quarrels among you? Is it not hence; from your lusts, that war in your members? You lust, and have not: you seek, and |361 find not: you ask, and receive not, because you ask wickedly, that you may spend it on your pleasures." When you ask worldly power, God will turn away His face: for He knows that it is a most injurious thing to those who possess it. For constantly, so to speak, charges of oppression attach themselves to those who possess worldly power: and those are for the most part proud, and unbridled, and boastful, who are set in temporal dignities. When you ask for any to perish, or be exposed to inevitable tortures, because they have annoyed or molested you in any way, God will not grant it. For He wills us to be long-suffering in mind: and not to requite any one with evil for evil, but to pray for those who spoil us: to do good to those who injure us, and be imitators of His kindness. For this reason Solomon was praised; for when offering up prayers to God, he said: "And you shall give Your servant a heart to hear, and to judge Your people righteously." And it pleased the Lord that Solomon asked this thing. And what did God, Who loves virtue, say to him? "Because you have not asked for you many days: nor have asked the lives of your enemies; but have asked for you understanding, and to hear judgment: see! I have done what you said: see! I have given you a heart prudent and wise."
You, therefore, should ask the bestowal without stint of spiritual gifts. Ask strength, that you may be able manfully to resist every fleshly lust. Ask of God an uncovetous disposition; long suffering; gentleness; and the mother and nurse of all good, I mean, patience. Ask calmness of temper; continence; a pure heart; and further, ask also the wisdom that comes from Him. These things He will give readily: these save the soul: these work in it that better beauty, and imprint in it God's image. This is the spiritual wealth; the riches that has never to be abandoned: these prepare for us the lot of the saints, and make us members of the company of the holy angels; these perfect us in piety, and rapidly load us onward to the hope of eternal life, and make us heirs of the kingdom of heaven, by the aid of Christ, the Saviour of us all; by Whom, and with Whom, to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever, Amen. |362
SERMON LXXX.
11:14-18. And He was casting out a dumb devil: and it came to pass, when the devil was gone out, the dumb spoke. And the multitudes wondered: but some of them said, He casts out devils through Beelzebub, the prince of the devils: and others tempting, sought of Him a sign from heaven. But He, knowing their thoughts, said to them; Every kingdom divided against itself is laid desolate: and a house against a house falls. And if Satan also be divided against himself how shall his kingdom stand? Because you say that 1 cast out devils through Beelzebub.
"I HAVE been very jealous for the Lord," as Scripture says; and I too would say, fixing an accurate attention upon the lessons from the Gospel set before us, that the frantic tongue of Israel was bold and unbridled in insult, tyrannized over by harsh and unrestrainable wrath, and vanquished by unappeasable envy. For consider how, so to speak, they were even gnashing their teeth at Christ, the Saviour of all, because He made the multitudes wonder by His many divine and astonishing miracles; and because the very devils cried out at His ineffable and godlike power and authority. And this, I suppose, was what was celebrated by David when thus addressing Him: "Through the greatness of your power shall Your enemies be found liars to You."
But the reason for which those who warred against His glory thus acted, this lesson plainly teaches us. "There was brought to Him one who was possessed with a dumb devil." Now dumb devils are, so to speak, difficult for any one whatsoever of the saints to rebuke; and are more obstinate than any other kind, and excessively audacious. But there was nothing difficult to the all-powerful will of Christ, the Saviour of us all. For He immediately set the man who was brought to Him tree from the wicked and impure devil; and he whose tongue had before been closed by door and lock, once again |363 poured forth his customary speech. For we say that he is called dumb in this passage as being without tongue, that is, without speech. And upon the accomplishment of this wonderful act, the multitude extolled Him with praises, and hastened to crown the worker of the miracle with godlike honour. But certain of them, it says, being Scribes and Pharisees, with hearts intoxicated with pride and envy, found in the miracle fuel for their malady; and not only did they not praise Him, but betook themselves to the very opposite. For having stripped Him of the godlike deeds He had wrought, they assigned to the Devil almighty power, and made Beelzebub the source of Christ's might. "For by him, they said, He casts out devils," And others being afflicted, so to speak, with a kindred wickedness, and running without discernment into a disgraceful forwardness of speech, and being stung by the like goadings of envy, required, it says, to see of Him a sign from heaven; calling out, as it were, and saying, 'Even if You have expelled from a man a bitter and malicious demon, that as yet
is no such great matter, nor worthy of admiration. What as yet is done is no proof of divine ability. We see nothing as yet equal to the miracles of old. Show us some deed of which there is no doubt of its being wrought by power from above. Moses made the people pass over, having caused the sea that was between to become capable of being walked upon: the waters were piled up like a wall. He smote the rock with his rod, and made it the mother of rivers, so that fountains burst forth from the flinty stone. Likewise also Jeshua, his successor, made the sun stand still in Gibeon, and the moon in the valley of Arnon. He laid bonds on the streams of Jordan. But You show no such deed as these. You cast out a devil: this authority the prince of the devils, even Beelzebub, grants to men. Of him You borrow the power of doing those things, |364 which in unlearned and ignorant people beget wonder.' Such were their froward fault-findings. For the fact of their wishing to ask a sign from heaven proves nothing else than that they entertained such thoughts as these respecting Him.
And what said Christ to these things? First, indeed, He proves Himself to be God, by knowing even that which was secretly whispered among them: for He knew their thoughts. And it is an act that altogether belongs to God, to be able to know what is in the mind and heart, and even what is spoken anywhere by men secretly. To draw them away then from so obdurate a crime, He says, that "Every kingdom divided against itself is laid desolate: and a house against a house falls. And if Satan be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? For He well might have said to those who babbled thus foolishly about Him, You depart from the right way: truly you err, and without doubt are ignorant of My nature. The greatness of My might, and the splendour of My glory, is unperceived by you. Moses was a servant: I am Lord. He was the minister of the law: but I the legislator; for I am by nature God. He was the minister of the signs; but I the doer of them, and the worker of the miracles. I divided the sea: it was the work of My power, that the waters were divided, and the people passed over: I displayed the flint stone as the mother of rivers. I made the sun stand still in Gibeon, and the might of My commands stayed the moon in the valley of Arnon. It was I Who laid bonds on the streams of Jordan. Had He, however, used words such as these, it is perhaps not improbable to imagine that they would have conceived in them a yet more violent flame of envy: for they would at once have said, 'He exalts Himself above the glory of the saints: He boasts Himself over the illustrious patriarchs, who, He says, were nothing: He appropriates to Himself their glory.' And they would have added to these other words, which in unlearned persons would have given occasion for wickedness towards Him.
Very wisely therefore, omitting these things, He proceeds to arguments, drawn indeed from common things, but which have the force of truth in them; "For every kingdom," He says, "divided against itself, becomes desolate; and every house against a house, falls: and if Satan be divided |365 against himself, how shall his kingdom stand?" For that which establishes kingdoms is the fidelity of subjects, and the obedience of those under the royal sceptre: and houses are established when those who belong to them in no way whatsoever thwart one another, but, on the contrary, accord both in will and deed. And so I suppose it would establish the kingdom too of Beelzebub, had he determined to abstain from every thing contrary to himself. How then does Satan cast out Satan? It follows then that devils do not depart from men of their own accord, but retire unwillingly. Satan, He says, does not fight with himself. He does not rebuke his own satellites. He does not permit himself to injure his own armour-bearers. On the contrary, he aids his kingdom. It remains, therefore for you to understand, that I crush Satan by divine power.
So must we be persuaded who believe in Him, and have departed far away from the wickedness of the Jews. For what is at all impossible to that Almighty right hand? Or what is great and difficult to Him, Who can accomplish every thing by His will alone? He Who established the heavens, and founded the earth, Who is the Creator of all, Who is perfect power, how can He be in need of Beelzebub? Oh, thoughts never to be spoken! Oh, wickedness never to be endured! A people foolish and without understanding! Very justly may one say of the Israelites, "They have eyes, and see not: they have ears, and hear not." For though they were spectators of the wonderful deeds wrought by Christ, and by the holy prophets, and heard of them, and knew them long before, nevertheless they continued obdurate and intractable. Therefore "they eat the fruit of their way," as Scripture says. But let us be earnest in extolling Christ with endless praises; for thus shall we be heirs of the kingdom of heaven, by the gift of the same Christ: by Whom, and with Whom, to God the Father be praise and dominion with the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever, Amen. |366
Here ends the first portion of the Explanation of the Evangelist Luke, by the holy Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria; containing eighty Sermons.
Blessed be God for ever; and praised be His Name for generations.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and always, and for ever and ever, Amen and Amen.
1. m Or in more modern language a trial, which is the strict meaning of temptation, a derivative of tento.
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Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke (1859) Sermons 81-88. (Luke 11:19-12:10.) pp.369-408.
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke (1859) Sermons 81-88. (Luke 11:19-12:10.) pp.369-408.
Sermon 81
Sermon 82
Sermon 83
Sermon 84
Sermon 85
Sermon 86
Sermon 87
Sermon 88
SERMON LXXXI.
11:19-26. But if I by Beelzebub cast out the devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. But if I by the finger of God cast out the devils, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. When the strong man armed guards his house, his goods are in peace: but when He Who is stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, He takes from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divides his spoils. He that is not with Me is against Me: and he that gathers not with Me, scatters for Me. When the unclean spirit has gone forth from the man, it wanders about in places where there is no water, seeking rest: and not having found it, then it says, I will return to my house, whence I came out. And when it comes, it finds it empty, swept, and garnished. Then it goes, and brings seven other spirits worse than itself, and they enter in and dwell there. And the last state of that man is made worse than the first.
THE God of all, blaming the haughtiness of the Jews, and their constant tendency to run into disobedience, thus spoke by the voice of Isaiah; "Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord has spoken. I have begotten, and brought up sons; and they have rejected Me." For they rejected God the Father, by setting in manifold ways the Son at nothing, Who, though sprung from Him by nature, yet afterwards was made like unto us for our sakes: and yet He called them unto the grace that is by faith, and would have fulfilled the promise given unto their fathers. For of this the sacred Paul bears witness, where he writes, "For I say that Christ was a minister of the circumcision, to fulfil the promises of the fathers: and that the Gentiles might glorify God for mercy." The Only-begotten Word of God therefore was made man, that He might fulfil the promise of the blessing granted unto |370 them. And that they might know that it was He Whom the law had prefigured by shadows, and Whom the company also of the holy prophets had foretold, He wrought these godlike deeds, and rebuked the unclean spirits. But they, though it was their duty to have praised Him, as doing wonders, as One Who possessed a power and authority beyond that of nature, and incomparable in degree, on the contrary disparaged His glory, saying, "This man only casts out devils by Beelzebub the prince of the devils." And what doth Christ reply to this? "If I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out?"
Now this subject was explained by me to you at length at our last meeting. But inasmuch as it is right that the wickedness of the Jews, in thus idly prating against Him, should still further be rebuked by many and convincing arguments, He adds on this account to what had been already said, an unanswerable consideration. And what this is, I will now mention to you as to my children.
The blessed disciples were Jews, and the children of Jews, according to the flesh; but they had obtained authority from Christ over unclean spirits, and set free those that were possessed by them, by calling over them these words, "In the Name of Jesus Christ." For Paul also once with apostolic authority commanded an unclean spirit, saying, "I command you, in the Name of Jesus Christ, to come out of her." When therefore He says, your own children in My Name trample upon Beelzebub, by rebuking his satellites, and expelling them forthwith from those in whom they are, what else is it but manifest blasphemy, joined with great ignorance, to say that I borrow this power from Beelzebub? You are convicted therefore, He says, by the faith of your own children, if, as is the case, they having received of Me authority and power, overthrow Satan, and against his will drive him from those in whom he dwells; while you affirm, that I make use of his agency in working divine miracles. But inasmuch as what you say is not true, but, on the contrary, empty and false, and liable to the charge of calumny, it is plain that I cast out devils by the finger of God. And by the finger of God He means the Holy Ghost. For the Son is called the hand and arm of God the Father; for He does all things by the Son, |371 and the Son in like manner works by the Spirit. For just as the finger is appended to the hand, as something not foreign from it, but belonging to it by nature, so also the Holy Spirit, by reason of His being equal in substance, is joined in oneness to the Son, even though He proceed from God the Father. For, as I said, the Son does every thing by the consubstantial Spirit. Here, however, purposely He says, that by the finger of God He casts out devils, speaking as a man: because the Jews in the infirmity and folly of their mind, would not have endured it, if He had said, "by My own Spirit I cast out devils." Appeasing therefore their excessive readiness to anger, and the proneness of their mind unto insolence and phrensy, He spake as a man, although He is by nature God, and Himself the Giver of the Spirit from God the Father to those who are worthy, and employs as His own that power which is from Him. For He is consubstantial with Him, and whatsoever is said to be done by God the Father, this necessarily is by the Son in the Spirit. If therefore, He says, I, being a man, and having become like unto you, cast out devils in the Spirit of God, human nature has in Me first attained to a godlike kingdom. For it has become glorious by breaking the power of Satan, and rebuking the impure and abominable spirits: for such is the meaning of the words, that "the kingdom of God has come upon you." But the Jews did not understand the mystery of the dispensation of the Only-begotten in the flesh: and yet how ought they not rather to have reflected, that by the Only-begotten Word of God having become man, without ceasing to be that which He was, He glorified the nature of man, in that He did not disdain to take upon Him its meanness, in order that He might bestow upon it His own riches.
And inasmuch as it was necessary, as I showed, that the argument upon this subject should travel through many considerations, He makes use of a most plain and evident comparison, by means of which those who will may see, that He has conquered the ruler of this world, and having, so to speak, hamstrung him, and stripped him of the power which he possessed, has given him over for a prey unto His followers. "For when, He says, the strong man being armed guards his house, all his goods are in peace: but when One That is |372 stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, He takes away all his armour wherein he trusted, and divides his spoil," This is, as I said, a plain demonstration, and type of the matter depicted after the manner of human affairs. For as long as a strong man retains the superiority, and guards his own property, he is in no danger of being plundered. But when one who is stronger than he, and more powerful, comes upon him, and prevails against him, then forthwith he is spoiled. And such has been the fate of our common enemy, the wicked Satan, that many headed serpent, the inventor of sin. For before the coining of the Saviour, he was in great power, driving and shutting up, so to speak, in his own stall flocks not his own, but belonging to God over all, like some rapacious and most insolent robber. But inasmuch as the Word of God Who is above all, the Giver of all might, and Lord of powers assailed Him, having become man, all his goods have been plundered, and his spoil divided. For those who of old had been ensnared by him into ungodliness and error have been called by the holy apostles to the acknowledgment of the truth, and been brought near unto God the Father by faith in His Son.
Would you like to hear and learn another convincing argument besides these? "He that is not with Me," He says, "is against Me: and he that gathers not with Me, scatters for Me." For I, He says, have come to save every man from the hands of the devil; to deliver from his guile those whom he had ensnared; to set the prisoners free; to give light to those in darkness; to raise up them that had fallen; to heal the broken-spirited: and to gather together the children of God who were scattered abroad. Such was the object of My coming. But Satan is not with Me; on the contrary he is against Me. For he ventures to scatter those whom I have gathered and saved. How then can he, who wars against Me, and sets his wickedness in array against My purposes, give Me power against himself? How is it not foolish even barely to imagine the possibility of such a thing as this?
The cause however which made the Jewish multitudes fall into such thoughts concerning Christ He Himself makes plain, by saying; "When the wicked spirit has gone forth from the man, it returns with seven other spirits more bitter |373 than itself; and the last state of that man is worse than the first." For as long as they were in bondage in Egypt, and lived according to the customs and laws of the Egyptians, which were full of all impurity, they led polluted lives; an evil spirit dwelt in them: for it dwells in the hearts of the wicked. But when in the mercy of God they had been delivered by Moses, and received the law as a schoolmaster, calling them to the light of the true knowledge of God, the impure and polluted spirit was driven out. But because they did not believe in Christ, but rejected the Saviour, the impure spirit again attacked them: for he found their heart empty, and devoid of all fear of God, and, swept as it were, and took up his abode in them. For just as the Holy Spirit, when He sees any one's heart free from all impurity, and clean, dwells and abides there, and rests therein; so also the impure spirit is wont to dwell in the souls of the wicked. For they are devoid, as I said, of all virtue: and thero is in them no fear of God. The last state therefore of the Israelites has become worse than the first. For as the disciple of the Saviour said; "It had been better for them not to have known the way of truth, than that when they have known it, they should turn back again from the holy commandment that was delivered unto them. It has happened to them according to the true proverb; The dog that returned to its vomit; and the washed sow to wallow in the mire." Let us flee therefore from being like the Jews; let Christ Who works miracles, be extolled by us: by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever, Amen. |374
SERMON LXXXII.
11:29-36. And when the multitudes were gathered together, He began to say; This generation is an evil generation. It seeks a sign: and a sign shall not be given it, except the sign of Jonah. 1
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THE request originated in malice, and therefore was not granted them, according to the text, "The wicked shall seek Me, and shall not find Me." * * * * * * * * and which He spoke to the divine Moses; the rod was changed into a serpent. And what thing is this? some one, forsooth, may say; or what is the truth it hints at? And this certainly we must examine: for I say that of all that is contained in the sacred Scriptures, there is nothing which is not useful for edification. When Israel then had dwelt for a lengthened period in Egypt, and been brought up in the customs of its inhabitants, he wandered far from God, and became like one that had fallen from His hand, and been made a serpent, by which is meant one naturally of a thoroughly wicked disposition. But inasmuch as God again took hold of him, he was restored to his former state, and became a rod, that is to say, a plant of Paradise. For he was called to the true knowledge of God, and enriched with the law as the means of a virtuous life.
Moreover God wrought also something further of an equally miraculous character. For He said unto Moses, "Put your hand into your bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom; and he drew forth his hand from his bosom, and his hand had become leprous, like snow. And he said again, Put your hand into your bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom; and he drew it forth from his bosom, and it had gained again the colour of his flesh." For as long as Israel adhered to the customs of his fathers, and represented in his |375 own manners the type of virtuous living which he had in Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, he was, as it were, in the bosom of God, that is, under His guardianship and protection: but by abandoning the virtue of his ancestors, he became, so to speak, leprous; and fell into impurity: for the leper by the law of Moses was impure. But when He was again accepted by God, and placed under His protection, he was delivered from his leprosy; and put away the impurity of the Egyptian mode of life. And when these signs were wrought in their presence, they believed Moses, saying, "The Lord God of your fathers has sent me unto you."
Observe therefore that they did not make the display of miracles a reason for fault finding. They did not revile the divine Moses; they did not give free license to an unbridled tongue, and say that he wrought the miracles which he displayed before them by means of Beelzebub: they did not ask a sign from heaven, in contempt of his mighty deeds. But you assigned to Beelzebub works thus honourable and miraculous, and was not ashamed in bringing to perdition others as well as your own self, by means of those very things which ought to have made you possess a steadfast faith in Christ. But He will not grant you another sign, that He may not give holy things unto dogs, nor cast pearls before swine. For how can they who are hot calumniators of the miracles already wrought, deserve yet more? On the contrary we see that very skilful husbandmen, when they observe land sluggish in bearing fruit, withhold their hand, and refuse to plough it any more, that they may not suffer the loss at once both of their labour and of the seed.
He said, however, the sign only of Jonah shall be given them, by which is meant the passion upon the cross, and the resurrection from the dead. "For as Jonah," He says, "was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights, so shall also the Son of Man be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights." But had it been possible for Jesus not to have willed to suffer death in the flesh upon the cross, neither would this sign have been given to the Jews: but inasmuch as the passion, wrought for the salvation of the world, was indispensable, it was given these unbelievers for their condemnation. For also in speaking to the Jews, He |376 said, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." But that the abolishing of death, and restoration of corruption by the resurrection from the dead, is a very great sign of the power and godlike authority of the Incarnate Word, will be sufficiently proved, as I imagine, in the judgment of serious men, by the soldiers of Pilate, who were appointed to guard the tomb, having been bribed with a large sum of money to say, that "the disciples came by night, and stole Him." It was therefore no unavailing sign, but rather one sufficient to convince all the inhabitants of the whole earth, that Christ is God, that of His own choice He suffered death in the flesh, but rose again, having commanded the bonds of death to depart, and overthrown corruption. But the Jews did not believe even this: for which reason it was very justly said of them, that "the queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment against this generation."
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[From Mai] This woman, though a barbarian, earnestly sought to hear Solomon, and for this purpose travelled so vast a distance, to listen to his wisdom upon the nature of things visible, and animals, and plants. But you, though already present, and listening to Wisdom Itself, Who came to you, discoursing upon things invisible and heavenly, and confirming what He said by deeds and miracles, turn away from the word, and pass by with indifference the wonderful nature of His oracles. How then is there not more than Solomon here, that is in Me? And again observe, I pray, the skilfulness of His language; for why does He say "here," and not rather "in Me?" It is to persuade us to be humble, even though we be largely endowed with spiritual gifts. And besides, it is not at all unlikely, that had the Jews heard Him say, "that there is more than Solomon in Me," they would have ventured to speak of Him in their usual way: 'See! He says, that He is superior even to the kings who have gloriously reigned over us.' The Saviour, therefore, for the economy's sake, uses moderate language, saying, "here," instead of "in Me."
He says, moreover, that the Ninevites will appear for the condemnation of the Jews at the season of judgment: for they were rude and barbarous people, ignorant of Him Who by nature and in truth is God, who had never even heard of the predictions of Moses, and were without knowledge of the |377 glorious tidings of prophecy: but even though this was their mental state, they repented, He says, at the preaching of Jonah. Far better therefore were they than the Israelites, and will condemn them. But listen to the very words: "The men of Nineveh shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold! a greater than Jonah is here." "No man, having lighted a lamp, puts it into a cellar, nor under the bushel, but upon the lampstand, that they who enter in may see the light." And what was the object of such words as these? He combats the Jews by an objection drawn from their own folly and ignorance: for they said that He wrought miracles, not that He might be more fully believed in, but that He might have numbers of followers, and catch the applause of those who saw his wondrous acts. And this calumny He refutes by taking as an example the use of a lamp. For a lamp, He says, is always elevated, and put upon a stand, to be of use to those who see. And let us consider the inference which follows from this. Before then the coining of our Saviour, the father of darkness, even Satan, had made the world dark, and blackened all things with an intellectual gloom; but in this state the Father gave us the Son, to be as it were a lamp to the world, to irradiate us with divine light, and rescue us from Satanic darkness. But, O Jew, if you blame the lamp, because it is not hidden, but on the contrary, being set on high on a stand, gives its light to those who see, then blame Christ for not wishing to be concealed, but on the contrary to be seen of all, illuminating those in darkness, and shedding on them the light of the true knowledge of God. He did not therefore fulfil His miracles so much in order to be wondered at, nor seek by them to become famous, as that we might rather believe, that whereas He is God by nature, yet He became man for our sakes, but without ceasing to be what He was. And upon the holy church as a lamp-stand, shining by the doctrine He proclaims, He gives light to the minds of all by filling them with divine knowledge. |378
SERMON LXXXIII.
11:37-41. And as He was speaking, a certain Pharisee besought Him to dine with him: and He went in and lay down to meat. But the Pharisee, when he saw it, wondered that He had not first washed before dinner. But the Lord said unto him, Now do you Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the dish,, but that which is within you is full of rapine and wickedness. O you little-minded, did not He Who made that which is without, make that which is within also? But whatever there is give as alms, and behold! every thing is clean unto you.
THE very wise Paul truly tells us, that "Christ came into the world to save sinners." For this was His aim, and for this purpose He humbled Himself to the emptying of His glory, and appeared upon earth in the flesh, and conversed with men. For it was right, that as being the Creator and Lord of all, He should give a saving hand to those who had fallen into sin, and show unto them that were wandering in error, a pathway that would lead them straight unto every good work, and the excellence of virtuous deeds. And it is said somewhere also by one of the holy prophets, concerning those who have been called by faith to the knowledge of His glory "And they shall be all taught of God." How, therefore, does He lead us into every thing that is useful? By humbling Himself to be with sinners, and condescending sometimes even to those things that He would not, that so He might save many. That this was the case we may see by the lessons from the gospel now set before us; for one of the Pharisees, it says, besought Him to dine at His house: "and He went in, and lay down to meat." And yet how is it not plain to every one, that the gang of the Pharisees were always wicked and impure, hateful to God, and envious, ready for anger, of innate pride, and ever bold of speech against Christ the Saviour of us all? For they found fault with His divine miracles, and gathering wicked troops of counsellors, plotted His death. How then |379 did He become their guest? Was He not aware of their maliciousness? But how can this be safely affirmed? For as God He knowcth all things. What therefore is the explanation? It is this, that He was especially anxious to admonish them, therein resembling the most excellent physicians. For they apply the remedies of their are to those who are most dangerously ill, struggling against the disease under which they suffer, and assuaging its cruel attacks. As they therefore without restraint gave way to an infatuated mind, it was necessary for Christ to speak unto them what was requisite and useful for their salvation. For as He Himself somewhere says, "He came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." And again He also said, that "they who are whole need not a physician, but they who are sick."
The Pharisee therefore for some purpose of his own invites Him to an entertainment: and the Saviour of all submits, as I said, to this, for the economy's sake. But He made the matter an opportunity of giving instruction, not consuming the time of their meeting in the enjoyment of food and delicacies, but in the task of making those more virtuous who were assembled there. And the dull Pharisee himself supplied an occasion for His discourse, for "he wondered," it says, "that He had not washed before dinner." Did he then wonder at Him, as having done something of which he approved, as being especially worthy of the saints? This was not his view: how could it be? On the contrary he was offended, because having the reputation among them of a righteous man and a prophet, He did not conform Himself to their unreasonable customs. For they washed before meat, as though they so freed themselves from all pollution. But this was very absurd. For the washing with water is highly useful for those who are unclean in body; but how can it free men from the defilement of the mind and heart?
Our argument however is this: O foolish Pharisee, you boast much of your knowledge of the sacred Scriptures: you are ever quoting the law of Moses. Tell us therefore where Moses gave you this precept? What commandment can you mention, ordained by God, requiring men to wash before meat? The waters of sprinkling were indeed given by the command of Moses for the cleansing of corporeal |380 uncleanness, as being a type of the baptism which really is holy and cleansing, even that in Christ. Those also who were called to the priesthood were bathed in water: for so did the divine Moses bathe Aaron, and the Levites with him, the law thereby declaring by means of the baptism enacted in type and shadow, that even its priesthood had not that which suffices for sanctification, but, on the contrary, needs divine and holy baptism for the true cleansing: and further, beautifully showing us that the Saviour of all is sufficient to sanctify and cleanse from all defilement, by means of holy and precious baptism, ourselves, who are the generation consecrated to and elect of God. Plainly however, he nowhere commands it as a duty to wash before eating. Why therefore do you wonder, or for what reason are you offended, O Pharisee? He Who Himself spoke it in old time has not violated the precept of Moses: and, as I said, the law, which you makea profession of honouring, has nowhere given you any such commandment.
But what said the Saviour? He most opportunely rebuked them, saying, "Now you Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup, and the dish; but that which is within you is full of rapine and wickedness." For it would have been easy for the Lord to have used other words with the view of instructing the foolish Pharisee, but He found an opportunity, and, so to speak, connects His teaching with what was before their eyes. For as it was the time of eating, and of sitting at table, He takes as a plain comparison the cup and the dish, and shows that those who sincerely serve God must be pure and clean, not only from bodily impurity, but also from that hidden within in the mind; just, for instance, as those utensils also that serve the table must be cleansed both from those impurities that are on the outside, and also as well from those that are within. "For He who made," He says, "that which is without, made also that which is within:" by which is meant, that He Who created the body made also the soul. As therefore they are both the works of one virtue-loving God, their purification must be uniform.
But this was not the practice of the Scribes and Pharisees; for so far as the mere reputation went of being clean, they were anxious to do every thing. They went about with sad |381 looks, as though pale from fasting; and as the Saviour says, "made broad the hems of their robes, and widened their phylacteries, and stood in the streets and prayed, that they might be seen of many," wishing rather to have praise of men than God, and to carry off the applause of the spectators. And, to speak briefly, while they exhibited themselves to the lookers on as the very pattern of the life of virtue that is by the law, they in every possible way withdrew from being lovers of God. "Whitened sepulchres were they," as the Saviour said, "which on the outside are beautiful, but inside are full of bones of the dead, and of all uncleanness." But Christ wills not that we be such as these, but rather spiritual worshippers, holy and without blame both in soul and body. For one also of our communion said, "Cleanse your hands you sinners, and sanctify your hearts, you double-minded." And the prophet David somewhere sings, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." And again the prophet Isaiah speaks as in the person of God, "Wash you, make you clean; put away iniquities from your souls from before My eyes. Cease from your iniquities." Observe the exactness of the expression: for His words are, "From before My eyes put away iniquities from your souls." For the wicked do sometimes escape the eyes of men, but never can they escape those of God. It is our duty therefore, inasmuch as God sees what is secret, to put away wickedness from before His eyes.
But the Pharisees had no knowledge of any such method of virtuous living: what medicine therefore did the Saviour offer them after His rebukes? How did He Who struck them make them whole? "Whatever you have," He says, " give as alms: and lo! every thing is pure unto you." And yet we affirm that there are many ways of virtuous conduct, such for instance as meekness, humility, and other kindred virtues: why therefore did He omit these, and command them to be |382 compassionate? What answer do we make to this? The Pharisees then were exceedingly avaricious, and the slaves of base gains, and accumulated with greedy hand stores of wealth. For the God of all even somewhere said concerning them, "How has the faithful city Zion, that was full of judgment, become a harlot! Righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers! Your silver is adulterate; your merchants mingle the wine with water; your princes are disobedient, the partners of thieves, loving bribes, running after recompense; they judge not the fatherless, and regard not the suit of the widow." He purposely therefore had regard to that malady which had possession of them, and tears their avarice up by the root, that being delivered from its wickedness, and attaining to purity in mind and heart, they might become true worshippers.
The Saviour therefore in all these things acted in accordance with the plan of salvation; and being invited to a banquet, bestowed spiritual food, not only upon His entertainer, but upon all those who were feasting with Him. And let us too pray Him for this spiritual food; for "He is that living Bread, which came down from heaven, and gives life unto the world:" by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever, Amen. |383
SERMON LXXXIV.
11:42-44. But woe unto you, Pharisees! who tithe mint and rue and all herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God. But these things ought you to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Woe unto you, Pharisees! for you love the uppermost seat in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets. Woe unto you! for you are as those graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them know it not.
THOSE who are exact observers of the sacred commandments do not venture in any way whatsoever to offend the God of all. For they feel the truth of what is written, "That whosoever shall keep the whole law, but shall offend in one particular, becomes guilty of all. For He Who said, You shall not commit adultery, said also, You shall not kill. If then you do not commit adultery, but yet kill, you are become a transgressor of the law." The transgression therefore of one commandment transgresses the law, that is, proves the man to be without the law. But when any one disregards those commandments, which especially are important above the rest, what words will he find able to save him from deserved punishment? That the Pharisees then merited these severe censures, the Lord proved against them, saying, "Woe unto you, Pharisees! who tithe mint and rue and all herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God. These things ought you to have done, and not to pass by the other, that is, to leave them undone." For while they omitted, as of no importance, those duties which they were especially bound to practice, as, for instance, judgment and the love of God, they carefully and scrupulously observed, or rather commanded the people subject to their authority to observe, those commandments only which were a way and means of great revenues for themselves. |384
Put more fully to explain these things to you, my beloved, I must speak as follows. The law of Moses commanded tithes to be offered to the priests by the Israelites. For it spoke thus; "The sons of Levi shall have no inheritance among the children of Israel. The offerings of the Lord are their inheritance." For whatsoever was offered by any one for the glory of God, on the score I mean of tithe, this God set apart for those whose office it was to minister; and this was their inheritance. But inasmuch as the Pharisees above all others were covetous, and fond of disgraceful gains, they commanded that this law of tithing should be observed carefully and scrupulously, so as not even to omit the most paltry and insignificant herbs; while they carelessly disregarded what they ought to have observed, namely, the more essential commandments given by Moses; such, for instance, as judgment, by which is meant justice in passing judgment, and the love of God. For it would have been a just judgment, and an upright sentence, to have considered every thing that was commanded deserving of equal care and attention, and not to neglect things of primary importance, while they paid a scrupulous regard to those only which were to their profit. And the effect of love to God would have been to avoid making Him angry in any respect, and to dread the violation of any part whatsoever of the law.
Or to put it in another light, one may say, that judgment would have been to decree just sentences, and to make upon no matter whatsoever an unfair decision. And this too was disregarded by the Pharisees; for the Spirit rebuked them by the voice of David, thus saying, "God arose in the congregation of the Gods, and in the midst of the Gods He judges. How long will you judge unjustly, and accept the persons of the wicked?" He accused them also by the voice of Isaiah, saying, "How has the faithful city Zion, that was full of judgment, become a harlot? Righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers. Your silver is adulterate: your merchants mingle the wine with water: your princes are disobedient, the partners of thieves, loving bribes, running after recompense: they judge not the fatherless, and regard not the suit of the widow." For to judge unjustly is not the part of those who practice love to the brethren, but the crime rather |385 of an iniquitous mind, and a plain proof of a falling away into sin. While therefore you tithe mint, He says, and rue, and every herb, and ordain that the commandment upon these points is to be strictly kept, you deign to give no attention to the weightier matters of the law, to those commandments, I mean, which are more especially necessary and beneficial to the soul, and by means of which you might prove yourselves honourable and holy, and full of such praises as become those whose desire it is to love God, and please Him.
And He adds yet another woe to those already spoken, saying, "Woe unto you, Pharisees, who love the uppermost seat in the synagogues, and greetings in the market places," Is then this reproof useful to the Pharisees only? Not so: for the benefit of it extends even unto us: for by the rebukes He addressed to them, He effects also our improvement. For true it is, that those who are perfect in mind, and lovers of upright conduct, find in the rebukes of others the means of their own safety. For they of course avoid imitating them, and do not expose themselves to being caught in similar faults. The accusation therefore which Christ brings against the Pharisees, that they seek for greetings in the market places, and the uppermost seats in the synagogues, or meetings, shows that they were fond of praise, and wont to indulge themselves in empty ostentation, and an absurd superciliousness. And what can be worse than this? or how must not such conduct be hateful to every man, as being boastful and annoying, and destitute of the praises of virtue, and intent solely upon stealing the reputation of being honourable. And how must not he be incomparably superior to men thus disposed, who is poor in spirit, and gentle, and affable; not loving boasting, but courteous; not deceiving men by outside and fictitious disguises, but being rather a true worshipper, and adorned with that rational beauty which the divine Word imprints in us by means of all virtue and holiness and righteousness.
For if we must prove ourselves better than others,----and there is nothing to prevent this,----let the sentence of superiority be given us of God, by our excelling them in point of conduct and morals, and in a wise and blameless knowledge of the sacred scriptures. For to be saluted by others, and seated higher |386 than one's friends, does not at all prove us to be persons of merit: for this is possessed by many, who, so far from being virtuous, are rather lovers of pleasure, and lovers of sin. For they wrest honours from every one, because of their possessing either vast wealth or worldly power.
But that our being admired by others without investigation and inconsiderately, and without their knowing our real state, does not at all make us elect in the presence of God, Who knows all things, the Saviour at once demonstrates by Saying; "Woe unto you, for you are as those graves which appear not, and the men who walk over them know it not," Observe, I pray, very clearly the force of the example. Those who desire to be saluted by every one in the marketplace, and anxiously consider it a great matter to have the foremost seats in the synagogues, differ in no respect from graves that appear not, which on the outside are beautifully adorned, but are full of all impurity. See here, I pray, that hypocrisy is utterly blamed: for it is a hateful malady, both towards God and men. For whatsoever the hypocrite seems, and is thought to be, that he is not: but he borrows, so to speak, the reputation of goodness, and thereby accuses his real baseness: for the very thing which he praises and admires, he will not practise. But it is a thing impossible for you long to hide your hypocrisy: for just as the figures painted in pictures fall off, as time dries up the colours, so also hypocrisies, after escaping observation for a very little time, are soon convicted of being really nothing.
We then must be true worshippers, and not as wishing to please men, lest we fall from being servants of Christ. For so the blessed Paul somewhere speaks; "For now do I persuade men or God? or do I seek to please men? If I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ." For suppositions in matters of moral excellence are simply ridiculous, and worthy neither of account nor admiration. For just as in gold coins, that which is counterfeit and faulty is rejected, so the hypocrite is regarded with scorn both by God and men. But he who is |387 true meets with admiration; just, for instance, as Nathaniel, of whom Christ said, "Behold one truly an Israelite, in whom is no guile." He who is such is esteemed before God; he is counted worthy of crowns and honours; has a glorious hope given him; and is "a fellow-citizen with the saints, and of the household of God."
Let us therefore flee from the malady of hypocrisy: and may there rather dwell within us a pure and uncorrupt mind, resplendent with glorious virtues. For this will unite us unto Christ; by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever, Amen. |388
SERMON LXXXV.
11:45-48. Then answered one of the lawyers, and said unto Him, Teacher, in saying these things you reproach us also. And He said, Also unto you, lawyers, woe! for you burden men with burdens heavy and grievous to be borne; and you yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers. Woe unto you! for you build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. Therefore you bear witness, and approve of the deeds of your fathers: for they indeed killed them, and you build their sepulchres.
REPROOF is ever, so to speak, a thing difficult for any man to bear: but it is not without profit to the soberminded: for it leads them to the duty of performing those things which make them worthy of honour, and lovers of virtuous pursuits. But those who run into wickedness with all eagerness, and whose heart is set against admonition, are hurried into greater sins by the very things that should have made them more soberminded, and are only hardened by the words of those who try to benefit them. And, as an example of this state of mind, behold those who among the Jews were called lawyers. For the Saviour of all was rebuking the Pharisees, as men that were wandering far from the right way, and fallen into unbecoming practices. For He blamed them as being boasters, as hypocrites, as loving greetings in the markets, and as wishing to sit in front of everybody else in the synagogues: and He further called them "whited sepulchres, which on the outside are beautiful, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all impurity." At these things the band of wicked lawyers was indignant, and one of them stood up to controvert the Saviour's declarations, and said; "Teacher, in saying these things, You reproach us also." Oh what great ignorance! what blindness in mind and understanding unto every thing necessary! These men subject themselves to blame: or rather the force of truth showed them to be liable to the same accusations as the Pharisees, and of one mind with them, and partners of their |389 evil deeds, if they thus consider that what Christ said unto the others was spoken also against them. For tell me, for what reason are you angry? When any reproof is addressed to the Pharisees, you say that you are reproached. You confess therefore your deeds. You are conscious, of course, to thyself of being a similar character. But if you consider it a reproach for ought of this sort to be said of you, and nevertheless do not alter your behaviour, it is your own conduct you are found blaming. If you hate reproof as being a reproach, show thyself superior to the faults with which you are charged: or rather do not regard as a reproach the word of correction. Do you not see that those who heal the bodies of men converse with the sick upon the causes which have brought on their maladies, and use pungent drugs to counteract what has happened: but no one is angry with them on this account, or regards what they say as a reproach. But you are weak-minded in bearing admonitions, nor consent to learn what those passions are which are bringing injury to your heart. Far better would it be to love reproof, and ask for deliverance from your maladies, and healing for the ulcers of your soul. Far better were it rather to say, "Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed: save me, and I shall be saved: for You are my praise."
Nothing however of this sort enters the mind of the lawyers, but they venture even to say; "In speaking these things, You reproach us also:" ignorantly giving the name of reproach to a reproof which was for their benefit and advantage. What then does Christ reply? He makes His reproof yet more severe, and humbles their empty pride, thus saying; "Also to you, lawyers, woe! for you burden men with burdens heavy and grievous to be borne: and you yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers." He frames His argument against them out of a plain example. For the law was confessedly grievous to the Israelites, as the divine disciples also acknowledged. For they even rebuked those who were endeavouring to make such as had already believed desire to return to the legal ritual: for they said; "And now why tempt you God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear? And the Saviour Himself taught us this, crying out and saying; "Come |390 unto Me, all you weary, and heavy laden; and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and you shall find rest for your-selves." Weary then and heavy laden are those, He says, who are under the law: while He calls Himself meek, as though the law had nothing in it of this character. For, as Paul says; "Whosoever has despised Moses' law is put to death without mercy at the mouth of two or three witnesses." Woe to you, therefore, He says, O lawyers: for while you bind burdens grievous to be borne, and intolerable to carry, and lay them on those who are under the law, you yourselves will not touch them. For while commanding that the ordinance of Moses should be kept inviolate, and passing sentence of death upon any who despise it, they themselves paid not the slightest heed to the duty of performing its precepts. As accustomed thus to act, the wise Paul also rebukes them, saying; "Behold you are called a Jew, and rest in the law, and make your boast of God; and know His will, and discern the things that are more excellent, being instructed by the law; and are confident of thyself, that you are a guide of the blind; an instructor of those without understanding; a teacher of babes; and that you have the form of knowledge and of truth in the law. You therefore that teach others, teach you not thyself? you that say that men should not steal, do you steal? you that say that men should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? And you that despise idols, do you plunder the sanctuary? And you that boast in the law, by the transgression of the law despise you God?" For the teacher is rejected with infamy when his conduct does not agree with his words. Upon him our Saviour also passes the sentence of severe punishment: "for whosoever," He says, "has taught and done, shall be called great: but whosoever shall teach and not do, he shall " be called small in the kingdom of heaven." And for the same reason the disciple of the Saviour also writes to us; "Let there not be many teachers among you, my brethren; knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. For in many things we all of us commit wrong."
And having thus shown the worthlessness of this abominable crew of lawyers, He goes on to utter a common reproof to all |391 the chiefs of the Jews: "Woe unto you! for you build the sepulchres of the prophets: and your fathers killed them. Therefore you bear witness, and approve of the deeds of your fathers; for they indeed killed them, and you build their sepulchres." Let us then carefully examine what the Saviour means; for what wicked act can we say that they were guilty of in building the tombs of the saints? Were they not rather doing them distinguished honour? What doubt can there be of this? It is necessary therefore to see what it is which Christ teaches us. The ancestors then of the Jews had from time to time put the holy prophets to death, when bringing them the word of God, and leading them unto the right way: but their descendants, acknowledging that the prophets were holy and venerable men, built over them sepulchres or tombs, as bestowing upon them an honour suitable to the saints. Their fathers therefore slew them; but they, as believing that they were prophets and holy men. became the judges of those that slew them. For by determining to pay honour to those who had been put to death, they thereby accused the others of having done wrongfully. But they, who condemned their fathers for such cruel murders, were about to incur the guilt of equal crimes, and to commit the same, or rather more abominable offences. For they slew the Prince of Life, the Saviour and Deliverer of all: and added also to their wickedness towards Him other abominable murders. For Stephen was put to death, not as being accused of any thing base, but rather for admonishing them, and speaking unto them what is contained in the inspired Scriptures. And other crimes besides were committed by them against every saint who preached unto them the Gospel message of salvation.
The lawyers therefore and Pharisees were reproved in every way, as being haters of God, and boastful, and lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God: and as everywhere hating to be saved. For this reason Christ added always that word "woe," as something peculiarly theirs: by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever, Amen. |392 |393
SERMON LXXXVI.
11:52... 12:1-3. Woe unto you, lawyers: for you have taken away the key of knowledge: you entered not in, and those that are entering in you hindered. And as He came out from thence, the scribes and Pharisees began to urge Him vehemently, and to put Him to silences about many things, lying in wait to catch something out of his mouth. Meanwhile many myriads of the people having assembled, so that they trod one upon another, He began to say unto His disciples first of all, Beware in yourselves of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed: neither hid, that shall not be known. All things whatsoever you have spoken in darkness, shall be heard in the light: and that which you have spoken in the ear in chambers, shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.
THOSE who search the sacred Scriptures, and know the Lord's will, if they are virtuous men, and anxious for the people's good, and skilled in leading them aright unto every thing that is admirable, shall be rewarded with every blessing, if they discharge their duties with earnestness. And of this the Saviour assures us where He says, "Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his Lord has set over his household, to give them meat in its season? Blessed is that servant, whom his Lord shall come and find so doing: verily, I say unto you, that he will set him over all that he has." But if he be indolent, and neglectful, and a cause of offence to those entrusted to his charge, so as for them to fall from the right way, most miserable is he, and in danger of hopeless punishment. For again Christ Himself has said; "Whosoever therefore shall offend one of these little ones, which believe in Me, it were better for him that the millstone of an ass were hung about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depths of the sea." |394
Of faults thus grievous, Christ proved them guilty who professed to be skilled in the law; the scribes, I mean, and lawyers: and for this reason he said unto them; "Also to you lawyers woe! who have taken away the key of knowledge." By the key of knowledge we consider that the law itself is meant, and justification in Christ, by faith I mean in Him. For though the law was in shadow and type, yet those types shape out to us the truth, and those shadows depict to us in manifold ways the mystery of Christ. A lamb was sacrificed according to the law of Moses; they ate its flesh, they anointed the lintels with its blood, and overcame the destroyer. But the blood of a mere sheep could not turn away death. It was Christ then Who was typified under the form of a lamb, Who endures to be the victim for the life of the world, and saves by His blood those who are partakers of Him. And one might mention many other instances as well, by means of which we can discern the mystery of Christ, sketched out in the shadows of the law. And He Himself once when speaking to the Jews said, "There is one that accuses you, even Moses, in whom you trusted. For if you had believed Moses, you would have also believed Me; for he wrote of Me." And again; Search the Scriptures: for in them you think that you have eternal life; and it is they that testify of Me. And you are not willing to come unto Me, that you may have life." For every word of divinely inspired Scripture looks unto Him, and refers to Him. And whether it be Moses who speaks, he, as has been shown, was typifying Christ: or be it the holy prophets that you name, they also proclaimed to us in manifold ways the mystery of Christ, preaching beforehand the salvation that is by Him.
It was the duty therefore of those who were called lawyers, because they studied the law of Moses, and were well acquainted with the words of the holy prophets, to open, so to speak, to the Jewish multitudes the doors of knowledge. For the law directs men unto Christ, and the pious announcements of the holy prophets lead, as I said, to the acknowledgment of Him. But this the so-called lawyers did not do, but on the contrary they took away the key of knowledge, by which you are to understand the guidance of the law, or really faith in Christ. For by faith is the knowledge of the truth, as the |395 prophet Isaiah somewhere says; " If you will not believe, neither shall you understand." This same way of salvation by faith in Christ He before declared unto us by the holy prophets, saying; "Yet a little, a little while, and he that comes shall come, and shall not tarry. And whosoever shall draw back, in him My soul shall have no pleasure." And what is meant by a person's drawing back is his giving way to slothfulness. When therefore He says, that no one of those who have been called must draw back, it means, that if he grow slothful in his progress towards the grace which is by faith, My soul shall have no pleasure in him.
But that the fathers were proved by faith, the examination of their deeds demonstrates. Take, for instance, the patriarch Abraham, who was called the friend of God: what is written of him? "Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness: and he was called the friend of God." And it is written again; "By faith Noah, when it was revealed to him of things not seen as yet, prepared the ark for the saving of his house, in which few, that is, eight persons, were saved by water." And the blessed Paul has laid down for us a definition, so to speak, or rather a general law, thus saying; "Without faith it is impossible for any one whatsoever to please God." "For by it, he said, the elders, that is, those in old time, obtained a good report."
But these so-called lawyers had taken away the key of knowledge; for they would not let men believe in Christ the Saviour of all. He wrought miracles in manifold ways; raising the dead from their graves; restoring beyond all hope their sight to the blind; making the lame whole in their feet; cleansing lepers; and rebuking unclean spirits. But they, though it was their duty to regard Him with admiration because of these things, despised His divine signs: and making the people entrusted to their charge to stumble, they said; "This man casts not out devils but in Beelzebub the prince of the devils." Here then you see them taking away the key of knowledge. He taught in their synagogues; He revealed to His hearers that good and acceptable and perfect will of God the Father; but they cannot leave even these His instructions without blame: for they called out to the multitudes, "He has a devil, and is utterly mad. Why hear you |396 Him?" In truth therefore they took away the key of knowledge: they went not in themselves, and the others they hindered.
And thus being indignant at this reproof, ''they began," it says, "to urge Him vehemently;" by which is meant, to attack Him with cunning, and oppose Him, and show their hatred of Him. And they ventured also, it says, even "to put Him to silence about many things." And what again is the meaning of their putting Him to silence? It is that they required Him at once, and so to speak, without consideration to make answer to their wicked questions; expecting forsooth that he would fall, and say something or other open to objection. But they knew not that He was God; or rather, they were despisers, and proud and contemptuous. And therefore it was that Christ told His friends, that is, His disciples, to "beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and scribes," meaning by leaven their false pretence. For hypocrisy is a thing hateful to God, and abominated by man, bringing no reward, and utterly useless for the salvation of the soul, or rather the cause of its perdition. For though sometimes it may escape detection for a little, yet before long it is sure to be laid bare, and bring upon them disgrace; like ill-featured women, when they are stripped of that external embellishment which they had produced by artificial means.
Hypocrisy therefore is a thing foreign to the character of the saints: for that it is impossible for those things that are done and said by us to escape the eye of the Deity, He showed by saying; "For there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed: neither hid that shall not be known." For all our words and deeds shall be revealed at the day of judgment. Hypocrisy therefore is superfluous trouble; and our duty is to prove ourselves true worshippers, serving God with free and open countenance, not submitting our judgment to those who take away the key of knowledge, but seeing even in the law the mystery of Christ, and seizing upon the words of the holy prophets to confirm our knowledge of Him. For this His disciple also taught us thus saying; "We have for confirmation the word of prophecy, into which you do well to look, as upon a torch shining in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the star of light arise in your hearts." |397 On us then who are in Christ the day has shone, and the star of the rational dawn has arisen, possessing as we do a correct and blameless knowledge of Him: for He has Himself put into our mind and heart divine knowledge, being the Saviour and Lord of all; by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever, Amen. |398
SERMON LXXXVII.
THIS HOMILY IS FIT TO BE READ IN A TIME OF STRUGGLE AND PERSECUTION FOR FAITH IN GOD.
12:4-7. And I say unto you, My friends, Fear not them that kill the body, and afterwards have nothing more to do. But I will show you Whom you shall fear: fear Him Who after He has killed has power to cast into hell: yea, I say unto you, fear Him. Are not five sparrows sold for two halfpence; and not one of them is forgotten before God. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not: you are of more value than many sparrows.
PATIENCE, and an enduring and courageous mind, form the impenetrable armour of the saints: for they render them approved and resplendent with the praises of piety. For one also of the holy apostles thus spake, at one time; "In patience possess you your souls:" at another; "You have need of patience, that by doing the will of God, you may receive the promise." By such manly virtues we become famous, and praiseworthy, and renowned among men everywhere, and worthy of honours and the blessings that are prepared for the saints: even those which "eye has not seen, nor ear heard," as wise Paul says. And how must not those things be worth the gaining and admirable, which surpass our understanding and reason? And therefore, as I said, He prepares those who love Him for spiritual fortitude, thus speaking; "I say unto you, My friends."
His present discourse therefore does not, as it seems, belong to every one absolutely: but, on the contrary, to those only who evidently love Him with all their heart, and can fitly say; "Who shall separate me from the love of Christ? shall |399 tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?" For those who have as yet no sure and certain and well-founded love of Him, as long as they live in tranquil times, may indeed possibly preserve their faith in Him: but if distress or persecution harass them a little, they turn away and forsake Him, losing, together with their faith, that which stirred them up to love Him. For just as young plants, which have lately sprung up, cannot endure the violence of too tempestuous a wind, because they have not as yet struck their roots deep; while those which are firmly fixed, and well rooted, remain secure in the ground, even though a gale of fierce winds shake them: so those whose mind is not yet firmly and securely fixed upon Him are very easily drawn aside, and readily desert; while those who have stored up and possais in mind and heart a secure and unwavering love of Him, are unalterable in mind, and unwavering in heart, being superior to all indolence, and looking with contempt upon the most intolerable dangers, and making a mock at terrors, so as even to ridicule the violence of death. The commandment therefore so to act belongs to those who love Him.
But who are those who love Him? They are, so to speak, such as are like-minded with Him, and anxious to follow in His footsteps. And to this His disciple encourages us by saying; "Forasmuch then as Christ has suffered for us in the flesh, do you for His sake arm yourselves with the same mind." He laid down His life for us, and was "among the dead as one free." For death did not attack Him, as it attacks us, because of sin: for He was and is far removed from all sin, and incapable of iniquity: but of His own will He endured it for our sakes, because of His boundless love toward us. For listen to Him as He plainly says; "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." And how then is it not a most base thing not to return to Christ, as a most necessary debt, that which we have received of Him? |400 And, to put it in another light; as being His friends, we ought not to fear death, but rather imitate the faith of the holy fathers. The patriarch Abraham, when tempted, offered his only-begotten son Isaac, "accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead." What terror of death, therefore, can assail us, now that "Life has abolished death?" for Christ is "the Resurrection and the Life."
And this too we must bear in mind, that the crowns are to be won by labour. It is strong exertion united with skill that perfects those mighty athletes in the games. It is courage and a brave mind that are most serviceable to those who are skilled in battles: while the man who throws away his shield is ridiculed even by the foe: and if the runaway live, he leads a life of disgrace. But he who was steadfast in the battle, and stood stoutly and courageously with all his might against the enemy, is honoured if he win the victory; and if he fall, is looked upon with admiration. And so ought we to reckon for ourselves; for to endure patiently, and maintain the conflict with courage, brings with it great reward, and is highly desirable, and wins for us the blessings bestowed by God: while to refuse to suffer death in the flesh for the love of Christ, brings upon us lasting, or rather never-ending punishment. For the wrath of man reaches at most to the body, and the death of the flesh is the utmost that they can contrive against us: but when God punishes, the loss reaches not to the flesh alone;----how could it?----but the wretched soul also is cast alone; with it into torments. Let our lot therefore rather be the honoured death; for it makes us mount up to the commencement of an eternal life, to which of necessity are attached those blessings also which come from the divine bounty: and let us flee from and despise a life of shame; a life accursed, and of short duration, and which leads down to bitter and everlasting torment.
And to bestow yet another means of succour upon our minds, He forcibly added; "that five sparrows are scarcely perhaps worth two halfpence, and yet not one of them is forgotten before God." And further, He said; "that also the |401 separate hairs of your head are all numbered." Consider, therefore, how great care He takes of those that love Him. For if the Preserver of the universe extends His aid to things thus worthless, and descends, so to speak, to the smallest animals, how can He forget those who love Him, especially when He takes so great care of them, and deigns so to visit them, as to know exactly each particular of their state, and even how many are the hairs of their head?
Where, then, is the vain and senseless babbling of heathen boasting? "Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For some of them entirely deny the providence of God: while others make it reach down as far only as the moon, and set bounds to it, as though they had had this authority committed to them. Unto such we would say: Is the providence of God too weak to reach down to that which is below, and even as far as unto us, or is the Creator of all too weary to see what we do? If then they say that it is too weak, this is mere stupidity, and nothing else. But if they represent the divine nature as subject to indolence, they make it thereby liable also to envy. And this again is blasphemy, and a crime than which none is greater. But they answer, it is giving trouble to the divine and supreme will to impose upon it the care of all these earthly matters. They know not how great is that nature which the mind cannot understand nor speech describe, and which rules over all. For to it all things are small: and so the blessed prophet Isaiah teaches us where he says; "If it is true that all the nations are as a drop from a cask, and are reckoned as the turn of a balance, and shall be counted as spittle, to what have you likened the Lord?" For what is one drop from a cask? and what is the turn of a balance? and what too is spittle?----that is, a single expectoration? If therefore this be the position of all things towards God, how can it be a great matter to Him, or one that occasions Him trouble, to have the care of all things? The noxious sentiments therefore of the heathen are bereft of reason.
Let us therefore not doubt but that with rich hand He will bestow His grace upon those who love Him. For either He |402 will not permit us to fall into temptation: or if, by His wise purpose, He permit us to be taken in the snare, in order that we may gain glory by suffering. He will most assuredly grant us the power to bear it. And of this the blessed Paul is our witness, who says; "God is powerful, Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able, but will with the temptation also make a way of egress, that you may be able to bear it." For He Who is the Saviour and Lord of us all, is the Lord of powers: by Whom and with Whom, to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever, Amen. |403
SERMON LXXXVIII.
THIS HOMILY ALSO IS FIT TO BE READ IN A TIME OF STRUGGLE AND PERSECUTION FOR FAITH IN GOD.
12:8-10. And I say unto you, that whosoever shall confess Me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God. But he that shall deny Me before men, shall be denied before the angels of God. And whosoever shall speak a word against the son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but unto him that blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him.
HERE too, you who love to hear, replenish yourselves with the words of holiness: receive within you the knowledge of the sacred doctrines, that advancing prosperously in the faith, you may obtain the crown of love and steadfastness in Christ. For He bestows it, not upon those whose heart is faint and easily shaken, but rather on those who can with fitness say; "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." For those who live holily, live unto Christ; and those, who for piety towards Him, endure dangers, gain the life incorruptible, being crowned by His decree before the judgment seat of God. And this He teaches us, saying; "Whosoever shall confess Me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God,"
It is then a thing above all others worthy of our attention to see who it is that confesses Christ, and in what way one may rightly and blamelessly confess Him. Most wise Paul, therefore writes to us, "Say not in yours heart, Who shall ascend unto heaven? that is to bring Christ down: or who shall descend into the deep? that is, to bring Christ up from the dead. But what says the Scripture? The Word is nigh you, in your mouth and in your heart; that is, the Word of faith which we preach: because if you shall say with your mouth that Jesus is the Lord, and shall believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall live. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth |404 confession is made unto salvation." In which words the mystery of Christ is most excellently explained. For first of all it is our duty to confess that the Son, Who sprang from God the Father, and Who is the Only-begotten of His substance, even God the Word, is Lord of all: not as one on whom lordship has been bestowed from without, and by imputation, but as being by nature and in truth Lord, as the Father also is. And next we must believe, that " God raised Him from the dead," that is, when having become man, He had suffered in the flesh for our sakes: for so He arose from the dead. The Son therefore is, as I said, Lord; yet must He not be reckoned with those other lords, to whom the name of lordship is given and imputed: for He alone, as I said, is Lord by nature, being God the Word, Who transcends every created thing. And this the wise Paul teaches us saying; "That though there be in heaven or in earth certain Gods many, and Lordships many: yet to us there is one God the Father, from Whom is everything and we from Him: and one Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom is everything and we by Him." But even though there be but one God, Whose name is the Father; and one Lord, Who is the Son; yet neither is the Father put aside from being Lord, by reason of His being God by nature: nor docs the Son cease from being God, because He is Lord by nature. For perfect freedom is the attribute of the divine and supreme substance only, and to be entirely separate from the yoke of servitude: or rather, to have the creation put in subjection under Its feet. And therefore, though the Only-begotten Word of God became like unto us, and, as for as regarded the measure of the human nature, was placed under the yoke of slavery:----for He purposely paid the Jewish tax-gatherers the two drachms according to the law of Moses; ----yet He did not conceal the splendour of the glory that dwelt in Him. For He asked the blessed Peter; "The kings of the earth, of whom do they receive tribute and poll-tax; of their own children, or of strangers? And when he had said, Of strangers: Then, said He, are the children free." The Son therefore is in His own nature Lord as being free: as the wise Paul has again taught us, thus writing: "But we all, with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same likeness, from glory to glory, as by |405 the Lord, the Spirit." "Now the Spirit is the Lord: but where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." Observe therefore how he affirms that the Spirit is Lord: not as possessed of sonship; for He is the Spirit, and not the Son; but as being co-essential with the Son, Who is Lord and free, and proved by this natural equality with Him to possess that freedom which befits God.
Whosoever therefore confesses Christ before men, as God and Lord, shall be acknowledged by Him before the angels of God. But where and how? Evidently at that time, when He shall descend from heaven in the glory of His Father with the holy angels at the end of this world: then shall He crown His true confessor, who possessed an unwavering and genuine faith, and so made profession. There also shall the company of the holy martyrs shine, who endured the conflict even unto life and blood, and honoured Christ by their patient endurance: for they denied not the Saviour, nor was His glory unknown to them, but they kept their fealty to Him. Such shall be praised by the holy angels; and shall themselves glorify Christ the Saviour of all, for bestowing upon the saints those honours which especially are their due. And so the Psalmist also declares, "And the heavens shall declare His righteousness; because God is judge." And such then shall be the lot of those who confess Him.
But the rest, those who denied and despised him, shall be denied: when the Judge shall say to them that, as it were, which was spoken by the holy prophets to certain of old; "As you have done, it shall be done unto you; and your requital shall be requited upon yours own head;" and shall deny them in these words: "Depart from Me, you workers of iniquity, I know you not." And who then are they that shall be denied? First of all, those who when persecution was pressing upon them, and tribulation had overtaken them, deserted the faith. The hope of such shall depart utterly from its very root: for such no human words can suffice; for wrath and judgment and the unappeasable fire shall receive them.
And in like manner both the followers and teachers of heresy deny him. For they venture to say that the Only-begotten Word of God is not by nature and in truth God; and they |406 traduce His ineffable generation, by saying that He is not of the substance of the Father: yes rather, they count among things created Him Who is the Creator of all, and wickedly class with those who are under the yoke Him Who is Lord of all; although Paul affirms, that we must say that "Jesus is Lord."
The disciples also of the vain babbling of Nestorius deny Him by acknowledging two sons, one false, and one true; the true one, the Word of God the Father: the false one, to whom the honour and name of a son belongs by imputation only, who in their phrase is the son only, and sprung from the seed of the blessed David, according to the flesh. Most heavy is the judgment of these also; for they have denied "the Lord Who bought them." They have not understood the mystery of His dispensation in the flesh: for "there is one Lord, one faith," as it is written. For we do not believe in a man and a God, but in one Lord, the Word Who is from God the Father, Who became man, and took upon Him our flesh. And thus then these also are numbered among those Who deny Him.
And that blasphemy is a most wicked crime for men to commit, He has further taught us by saying, "that whosoever shall speak a word against the son of man", it shall be forgiven him: but unto him that blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven." And in what way is this too to be understood? Now if the Saviour means this, that if any scornful word be used by any one of us towards some more man, he will obtain forgiveness if he repent, the matter is free from all difficulty. For as God is by nature good, He will free from blame all those who repent. But if the declaration |407 has reference to Christ himself, the Saviour of all, how can he he innocent, or secure from condemnation, who has spoken against Him? What then we say is this; that whenever any one, who has not yet learnt the meaning of His mystery, nor understood that being by nature God, He humbled Himself to our estate, and became man, speaks anything against Him, blasphemous to a certain extent, but yet not so wicked as to pass forgiveness, such things God will pardon in those who have sinned from ignorance. And to explain my meaning by an example; Christ somewhere said, "I am the living bread which came down from heaven, and gives life to the world." Because therefore some did not know His glory, but thought that he was a mere man, they said, "Is not this the carpenter's son, Whose father and mother we know? How does He now say that I came down from heaven?" And again, He was once standing teaching in a synagogue, and was wondered at by them all. But some, it tells us, said, "How knows this man learning, having never been taught?" For of course they knew not that "in Him are all the treasures of wisdom, and the hidden things of knowledge." Such things might well be forgiven, as being spoken inconsiderately from ignorance.
But for those who have blasphemed the Godhead itself, condemnation is inevitable, and the punishment eternal both in this world and in that which is to come.
For by the Spirit He here means not only the Holy Spirit, but also the whole nature of the Godhead, as understood (to consist) in the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And the Saviour Himself also somewhere said, "God is a Spirit." Blasphemy therefore against the Spirit, is against the whole supreme substance: for as I said, the nature of the Deity, as offered to our understanding in the holy and adorable Trinity, is one.
Let us therefore, as the writer of the book of Proverbs says, "put a door and a bar to the tongue," and draw near to the God over all, thus saying, "Set a watch, O Lord, upon my mouth; and a door of safety about my lips; incline not my heart to wicked words;" for those are wicked words which are against God. And if thus we rightly fear Him, Christ |408 will bless us: by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.
1. a A folium in the Syriac has perished, of which Mai has recovered but one sentence, the Catenae seldom preserving the Exordia of these discourses. Of the next folium lost most has been preserved.
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Early Church Fathers - Additional Texts
SOURCE SECTION: cyril_on_luke_09_sermons_89_98.htm
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke (1859) Sermons 89-98. (Luke 12:13-13:9) pp.409-459
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke (1859) Sermons 89-98. (Luke 12:13-13:9) pp.409-459
Sermon 89
Sermon 90
Sermon 91
Sermon 92
Sermon 93
Sermon 94
Sermon 95
Sermon 96
Catena extracts replacing end of sermon 96, all of sermon 97, start of sermon 98
Sermon 98 (remainder)
SERMON LXXXIX.
12:13-21. And one of the multitude said unto Him, Teacher, bid my brother divide with me the inheritance. But He said unto him, Man, who made Me a judge or a divider over you? And He said unto them, Take heed, and keep yourselves from all greediness: for a man's life is not from his possessions by reason of his having a superfluity. And He spoke a parable unto them, saying, The land of a certain rich man brought forth unto him plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have not where to gather my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my storehouses, and build greater: and there will I gather all my crops and my goods. And I will say to myself, Self you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, enjoy thyself But God said unto him, You fool, this night they demand of you your soul. But whose shall those things be which you have provided? So is he that lays up treasures for himself, and is not rich toward God.
PAUL, as a wise man, recommends constancy in prayer: for he said, "Pray without ceasing." And in very truth it is a thing full of benefit. But I say this, that whosoever draws near unto God, ought not to do so carelessly; nor may he offer unbefitting petitions. And one may very justly affirm, of a multitude of petitions, that they are unbefitting, and such as are not suitable for God to give, nor beneficial for us to receive. And if we will direct the penetrating glance of the mind upon the passage before us, we shall see without difficulty the truth of what I have said. For a certain man drew near to Christ, the Saviour of us all, and said, "Teacher, bid my brother divide with me the inheritance. But He said unto him, Man, who set Me as judge or divider over you?" For the Son indeed, when He appeared in our likeness, was set by God the Father as "Head and King over Sion, His holy mount," according to the Psalmist's words: and the nature |410 of His office He again Himself makes plain, "For I am come, He says, to preach the commandment of the Lord." And what is this? Our virtue-loving Master wishes us to depart far from all earthly and temporal matters; to flee from the love of the flesh, and from the vain anxiety of business, and from base lusts; to set no value on hoards, to despise wealth, and the love of gain; to be good and loving unto one another; not to lay up treasures upon earth; to be superior to strife and envy, not quarrelling with the brethren, but rather giving way to them, even though they seek to gain an advantage over us; "for from him, He says, who takes away what is yours, demand it not again;" and rather to strive after all those things which are useful and necessary for the salvation of the soul. And for those who habitually thus live, Christ lays down laws by which they become illustrious and praiseworthy. For He said, "Possess neither silver nor gold: nor two coats, nor scrip, nor brass in your purses." And again, "Make for yourselves purses that grow not old: a treasure that does not fail for ever in heaven." And when a young man drew near saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" "Go, He answered, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven, and come after Me." To those therefore who bow down to Him the obedient neck of their minds, He both gives commandments and appoints laws: He lays down for them precepts, distributes to them the heavenly inheritance, gives them spiritual blessings, and is a storehouse for them of never-failing gifts. While for those who think only of earthly things, and whose heart is set on wealth, and their mind hardened, and unmerciful, and without gentleness or love for the poor, to such He will justly say, " Who set Me as ruler or divider over you? He rejects the man therefore as troublesome, and as having no desire to learn ought fitting for him to know.
But He does not leave us without instruction: for having found, so to speak, a seasonable opportunity, He frames a profitable and saving discourse; and protesting as it were against them, declares, "Take heed, and keep yourselves from all covetousness." He showed us that pitfall of the devil, |411 covetousness, a thing hateful to God, and which the wise Paul even calls idolatry, perhaps as being suitable for those only who know not God, or as being equal in the balance with the defilement of those men who choose to serve stocks and stones. It is a snare of evil spirits, by which they drag down man's soul to the meshes of hell. For this reason He says very justly, as setting them on their guard, "Take heed and keep yourselves from all covetousness:" that is, from great and small, and from defrauding any one whoever he may be. For as I said, it is a thing hateful to God and men. For who does not flee from him who uses violence, and is rapacious and greedy, and ready for iniquity in those things to which he has no right, and who with avaricious hand gathers that which is not his? What beast of prey does not such a man surpass in savageness? Than what rocks is he not more hard? For the heart of him who is defrauded is torn, and even melted sometimes by the penetrating pain as it were by fire: but he takes pleasure therein, and is merry, and makes the pains of them that suffer a cause of rejoicing. For the wronged man is sure generally to be one without power, who can but raise his eyes to Him Who alone is able to be angry for what he has suffered. And He, because He is just and good, accepts his supplication, and pities the tears of the sufferer, and brings punishment on those who have done the wrong.
And this you may learn from what He Himself says thereupon by the mouth of the holy prophets; "Therefore because you have bruised the heads of the poor, and taken from them chosen gifts, you shall build houses of carved stone, but you shall not dwell therein: and you shall plant desirable vineyards, but you shall not drink of their wine. For I know |412 your many wickednesses, and mighty are your sins." And again, "Woe unto those who add house to house, and join field to field, that they may take away something from their neighbour. Will you dwell alone in the earth? For these things have been heard in the ears of the Lord of hosts. For though your houses be many, they shall be a desolation: though they be great and fair, there shall be none to inhabit them. For the ground that ten yoke of oxen till shall produce one pitcher full: and he that sows six artabae shall gather three measures," Although therefore houses and fields may be the fruit of the oppression of others, yet these, He says, shall lie waste, without inhabitants, and shall yield no profit whatsoever to those who will act wickedly, because the just wrath of God is poured out upon them. In every way therefore there is no profit in covetousness.
And to view it in yet another light; it avails nothing, because a man's life, as He says, is not from his possessions, by reason of his having a superfluity. And this is plainly true: for the duration of a man's life is not extended in proportion to his wealth, nor does the sum of his life run parallel with that of his wicked gains. And this the Saviour has clearly and manifestly shown us, by very excellently adding the present parable in connexion with His previous argument. "For the ground, He said, of a certain rich man brought forth abundant crops." Consider it exactly, that you may admire the beautiful art of the discourse. For He has not pointed out to us an estate of which one portion only brought forth abundant harvests; but the whole of it was fertile for its owner, showing thereby the vastness of his wealth. Similar to this is that passage of one of the holy apostles; "Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped your land, which is of you kept back by fraud, cries out: and the supplications of those that reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth." The Saviour therefore said that all his estate brought forth abundant harvests. |413
What therefore does the rich man do, surrounded by a profusion of so many blessings beyond all numbering? In distress and anxiety he utters the words of poverty. "For what, he says, shall I do? The man who is in want of necessaries constantly ejaculates this miserable language: but lo! one here of boundless wealth uses similar expressions. He determined then to build more spacious storehouses: he purposed to enjoy for himself alone those revenues that were sufficient for a populous city. He looks not to the future; he raises not his eyes to God; he does not count it worth his while to gain for the mind those treasures which are above in heaven: he does not cherish love for the poor, nor desire the estimation to be gained thereby: he sympathizes not with suffering; it gives him no pain, nor awakens his pity. And what is still more irrational, he settles for himself the duration of his life, as if he would reap this too from the ground: for he says, "I will say to myself, Self, you have goods laid up for many years; eat, drink, enjoy thyself." 'But, O rich man, one may say, you have indeed storehouses for your fruits, but from where will you obtain your many years? for by the decree of God your life is shortened. For God, it tells us, said unto him, You fool, this night they shall require of you your soul. But whose shall these things be that you have prepared?'
It is true therefore, that a man's life is not from his possessions, by reason of his having a superfluity: but very blessed, and of glorious hope is he who is rich towards God. And who is he? Evidently one who loves not wealth, but virtue rather, and to whom few things are sufficient: and whose hand is open to the necessities of the indigent, comforting the sorrows of those in poverty, according to his means, and the utmost of his power. It is he who gathers in the storehouses that are above, and lays up treasures in heaven. Such a one shall find the usury of his virtue, and the recompense of his upright and blameless life; Christ shall bless him: by Whom, and with Whom, to God the Father be praise and dominion with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever, Amen. |414
SERMON XC.
12:22-31. And He said unto His disciples; Therefore I say unto you, Be not anxious for your life, what you shall eat: nor for your body, what you shall put on. For the life is more than meat, and the body than raiment. Consider the ravens, that they sow not nor reap: which have neither closet nor store, and God feeds them: how much more are you better than the birds! And which of you by being anxious can add to his stature one cubit? If you then be not able to do even that which is least, why are you anxious about any thing else? Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, neither do they spin: but I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so clothe the grass, which is today in the field, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, how much more will He you, O you of little faith? And seek not what you shall eat, nor what you shall drink, neither let your mind be unsettled: for all these things the nations of the world seek after: but your Father knows that you have need of them. But seek His kingdom, and all these things shall be added unto you.
THE law of Moses was ordained for the Israelites, to guide them unto all which it was their duty to do, and to set clearly before them whatever was for their benefit. And they made this a matter of the greatest joy, saying, " Blessed are the children of Israel: for unto us arc made known the things that please the Lord." But I affirm, that we can even more fitly and appropriately use these words: for it was not a prophet, nor yet an angel, who spake unto us, but the Son in His own person, even He Who is Lord of the holy angels and of the prophets. And this the wise Paul, the minister of His mysteries, clearly teaches us, thus writing; "God, Who in manifold parts and manifold manners spoke in old times to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken unto us by the Son, Whom He has appointed Heir of all; |415 and by Whom also He made the worlds." Blessed therefore are we, in that we are taught by Himself His good and saving will, by which we are guided into all virtuous pursuits, that having so fulfilled a life worthy of emulation, such as befits the elect, we may reign with Him.
Observe therefore how carefully, and with what great skill He fashions the lives of the holy apostles unto spiritual excellence. But with them He benefits us also: for He wills that all mankind should be saved, and should choose the wise and more excellent life. For this reason He makes them abandon superfluous anxiety, and does not permit them to practise a careworn and urgent industry through the wish of gathering what exceeds their necessities; for in these matters a superfluity adds nothing to our benefit. "Be not anxious therefore, He says, for your life, what you shall eat: nor for your body, what you shall put on. For the life is more than meat, and the body than raiment." He did not simply say, "Be not anxious;" but added "for your life:" that is, do not expend any careful study on these things, but bestow your earnestness on things of far higher importance. For the life indeed is of more importance than food, and the body than raiment. Since therefore a risk is laid upon us that concerns both life and body, and pain and punishment are decreed against those who will not live uprightly, let all anxiety be laid aside respecting raiment and food.
And besides how is it not a base thing for those who arc lovers of virtue, and earnest followers after such manly virtues as are excellent and approved of God, to be intoxicated with fine apparel like young boys, and to run after expensive banquets! For there follow immediately upon these things a savage crowd also of other lusts: and the result is apostasy from God: for it is written, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world." And again; "Know you not that the love of the world is enmity with God!" It is our duty therefore to keep our foot apart from all worldly desires, and rather to take delight in those things which please God.
But perchance you will reply to this, 'Who then will give us the necessaries of life?' And to this be our answer as follows; The Lord is worthy to be trusted; and He clearly promises it to you, and by little things gives you full |416 assurance that He will he true also in that which is great. "For consider, He says, the ravens: that they sow not, nor reap: they have neither closet nor store: and God feeds them." For just as, when He was strengthening us unto spiritual fortitude, He taught us to despise even death itself by saying, "Fear not them that kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul;" and in the same way to make His providence plain to you, used for His proof things utterly valueless, saying; "Are not two sparrows sold for one halfpenny? and not one of them falls to the ground without your Father: and the individual hairs of your head are all counted: fear not therefore; for you are of more value than many sparrows:" so also here, from the birds and the flowers of the field, he produces in you a firm and unwavering faith. Nor does He permit us at all to doubt, but that most certainly He will grant us His mercy, and stretch out His comforting hand, to bestow upon us in all things a sufficiency. It is moreover a very wicked thing, that while those who arc placed under the yoke of bodily slavery depend upon their masters, as sufficient to supply them with food and clothing; we will not consent to put our trust in Almighty God, when He promises us the necessaries of life.
And what benefit at all is there in living luxuriously? Or rather, will it not bring with it utter destruction? For quickly of a certainty there enter along with luxurious pleasures the infamies of sensuality, and the assaults of base and contemptible lusts;----things whose approach is difficult to combat. And the being clad too in splendid apparel is of no benefit whatsoever. "For consider," He says, "the lilies, how they grow. They toil not, neither do they spin. I tell you, that not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed like one of these." And this also is true: for both in lilies and other flowers that spring up in the fields, the lustre of the colours possesses an admirable beauty, both by the diversity of the hues, and the variety of the arrangement, as they glitter in their natural purple, or shine with the brilliancy of other colours: but all that is made by the art of man in imitation of them, whether by the painter's skill, or in embroidery, altogether falls short of the reality: and even though it be successful as a work of art, it scarcely even approaches the truth. |417
If therefore these representations by means of art, are so inferior to the glory of the lily, and the beautiful colours of other flowers, how is it not true, that even Solomon, though so magnificent a king, in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these? Vain therefore is our toil for beautiful apparel. Sufficient is it for men of sense that their raiment being such as necessity requires should be decorous, and easily procurable; and with it such a bare sufficiency of food as merely satisfies the demands of nature. Let their banquet in Christ be sufficient for the saints: a banquet spiritual, divine, and intellectual: and the glory that will follow. "For He shall change the body of our humiliation into the likeness of the body of His glory;" and as He Himself says, " They shall shine like the sun in the glory of their Father." What garments therefore are not surpassed in splendour by the magnificence that is in Christ?
And in another view it was unbefitting for those who were to be the type and pattern for others of holy conduct, themselves carelessly to fall into those things, which as soon as they became the world's teachers, they would have to warn others to abandon. And it would have been no slight injury both to their zeal, and to the usefulness of their sacred preaching, for the disciples to have been burdened with the care of worldly pursuits. On the contrary, it was their duty with determined mind entirely to disregard such things, and simply and earnestly to be anxious for apostolic victories. Very justly for this reason He openly reprobates the pursuit of the things of |418 time, "for the nations of the world," He says, "seek after them:" and raises them to the unwavering conviction, that certainly and under all circumstances they will have enough, because their Father well knows of what things they have need, even He Who is in heaven. And at a most fitting season He calls Him Father, that they may know, that He will not forget His children, but be kind and loving unto them.
Let us seek, therefore, not such food as is unnecessary and superfluous, but whatsoever tends unto the salvation of the soul: not raiment of great price, but how to deliver our body from the fire, and from judgment. And this let us do, seeking His kingdom; even all that will aid us in becoming partakers of the kingdom of Christ: by Whom and with Whom, to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen. |419
SERMON XCI.
12:32-34. Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom,. Sell your possessions, and give alms: make you purses that do not grow old: and a treasure in heaven that does not fail, where no thief approaches, nor moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
AGAIN the Saviour deigns to bestow upon us a pathway to eternal life, and opens wide the door of salvation; that travelling thereon, and adorning the soul with every virtue, we may attain to the city which is above, and of which the prophet Isaiah also bore witness, saying; "Your eyes shall see Jerusalem, the wealthy city, even the tents that shake not." For immoveable is that tabernacle which is in heaven, and unending joy is the lot of those that dwell therein. And the nature of the way that leads us thereto He shows us, by saying; "Fear not, little flock: for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." This therefore is indeed spiritual consolation, and the pathway that leads us to assured faith.
I think, however, that I ought first of all to show you the reason why the Saviour spake words such as these; for so the full signification of the passage before us will become the more plain to the hearers. In teaching therefore His disciples not to be covetous of wealth, He also withdraws them from worldly anxiety, and from vain toils and luxury and splendour of attire, and whatsoever evil habits follow upon these things: and bids them rather courageously be earnest in the pursuit of these things, [which 1 are good and more excellent, by saying; "Be not anxious for your life, what you shall eat: nor for your body, what you shall put on. For the life is more than meat, and the body than raiment?" And He also] added to this, that "your Father which is in heaven knows that these things are needed by you." And, so to |420 speak, He enounced as a general law, useful and necessary for salvation, not only to the holy apostles, but to all who dwell upon the earth, that men must seek His kingdom, as being sure that what He gives will be sufficient, so as for them to be in need of nothing. For what does He say? "Fear not, little flock." And by Do not fear, He means that they must believe that certainly and without doubt their heavenly Father will give the means of life to them that love Him. He will not neglect His own: rather He will open unto them His hand, which ever fills the universe with goodness.
And what is the proof of these things? "It is," He says, "your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." And He Who gives things thus great and precious, and bestows the kingdom of heaven, what unwillingness can there be on His part to be kind towards us; or how will He not supply us with food and clothing? For what earthly good is equal to the kingdom of heaven? or what is worthy to be compared with those blessings, which God is about to bestow, and which neither the understanding can conceive, nor words describe? "For eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love Him." When you praise earthly wealth, and admire worldly power, these things are but as nothing compared with that which is in store. "For all flesh," it says, "is grass: and all the glory of man as the flower of grass." And if you speak of temporal affluence and luxuries and banquets, yet "the world," it says, "passes away, and the desire thereof." The things therefore which are of God surpass in an incomparable degree ought which this world possesses. If therefore God bestow the kingdom of heaven upon those that love Him, how can He be unwilling to give food and raiment?
And He calls these on earth a "little flock.'' For we are inferior to the multitude of the angels, who are innumerable, and incomparably surpass in might our mortal things. And this too the Saviour has Himself taught us, in that parable in the Gospels so excellently framed for our instruction: for He said, "What man of you, that has a hundred sheep, and one of them go astray, will not leave the ninety and nine upon the mountains, and go to seek that which has strayed? And |421 if he chance to find it, verily I say unto you, that he will rejoice in it more than in the ninety and nine which went not astray." Observe therefore, that while the number of rational created beings extends to ten times ten, the flock that is upon earth is but as one out of a hundred. But though it is little, both by nature and number and dignity, compared with the countless troops of the spirits that are above, yet has the goodness of the Father, which surpasses all description, given also to it the portion of those transcendent spirits, I mean the kingdom of heaven: for permission is given to whosoever will to attain thereunto.
2[And the means by which we may attain to it, we learn from the Saviour's words: for He says, "Sell that you have, and give alms." And this perchance] is a commandment hard and difficult for the rich to endure: for so He Himself has somewhere said; "That hardly shall they that have riches enter the kingdom of God." And yet the commandment is not impossible for them that are of perfect mind. For come, let me address a few words to those who are rich. Withdraw your attention a little from these temporal things; cease from too worldly a mind; fix the eye of the understanding upon the world that is to be hereafter: for that is of long duration; but this is limited and short: the time of every individual's life here is allotted by measure; but his life in the world to come is incorruptible and enduring. Let our earnestness therefore after things to come be unwavering: let us store up as our treasure the hope of what will be hereafter: let us gather beforehand for ourselves those things, by which we shall even then be counted worthy of the gifts which God bestows.
To persuade us, however, to take due care of our souls, come, and let us consider the matter among ourselves with reference to men's ordinary calculations. Suppose one of us wanted to sell a fertile and productive farm, or, if you will, a |422 very beautifully-built house; and so one of you, who had plenty of gold and plenty of silver, were to conceive the desire of purchasing it; would be not feel pleasure in buying it, and readily give the money that was laid up in his coffers, and even add to what he had by him other money on loan? Of this I think there can be no doubt, and that he would feel pleasure in giving it: for the transaction would not expose him to loss, but rather the expectation of his future gains would make him in a flutter of joy. Now what I say is somewhat similar to this. The God of all offers to sell you paradise. There you will reap eternal life; an unending joy; an honourable and glorious habitation. Once there, right blessed will you be, and will reign with Christ. Draw near therefore with eagerness: purchase the estate: with these earthly things obtain things eternal: give that which abides not, and gain that which is secure: give these earthly things, and win that which is in heaven: give that which you must leave, even against your will, that you may not lose things hereafter: lend to God your wealth, that you may be really rich.
And the way in which to lend it He next teaches us, saying; "Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make you purses that grow not old: and a treasure that fails not, eternal,3 in "heaven.'' And the very same the blessed David also teaches us in the Psalms, where he says by inspiration of every merciful and good man: "He has dispersed, and given to the poor, and his righteousness is stored up for ever.'' For worldly wealth has many foes: for thieves are numerous, and this world of ours is full of oppressors; of whom some are wont to plunder by secret means, while others use violence, and tear it away even from those who resist. But the wealth that is laid up above in heaven, no one injures: for God is its Keeper, Who sleeps not.
And besides it is a very absurd thing, that while we often entrust men of probity with our earthly wealth, and feel no fear lest any loss should result from our confidence in the uprightness of those who receive it; we will not trust it to God, |423 Who receives from us these earthly things, so to speak, as a loan, and promises to give us things eternal, and that with usury. "For good measure," He says, "and pressed close, and weighing down the scale, and running over, shall they give into your bosom." And for the measure to run over, is a direct proof of its great abundance. Away then with this pleasure-loving wealth; this parent of base lusts; this inciter to carnal impurity; this friend of covetousness; this worker of boasting: which, as with indissoluble bonds, chains the human mind in effeminacy and indolence towards all that is good, and stretches out, so to speak, a stiff and haughty neck against God: for it yields not itself to that yoke which would lead it unto piety. And be gentle, and merciful, ready to communicate, and courteous. For the Lord is true, Who says; "that where your treasure is, there is your heart also." For the whole earnestness of those who value these temporal things is set upon them; while those who wish for that which is in heaven, direct thither the eye of the mind. Bo therefore, as I said, friendly to your companions, and merciful. And the blessed Paul makes me speak unto you, where he writes; "Charge them who are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded, nor trust in riches, wherein is no reliance, but on God, Who gives us all things richly to enjoy: that they do good: that they be rich in good works, ready to give, and willing to share with others; laying up for themselves treasures that shall be a good foundation for that which is to come, that they may lay hold upon true life." These are the things which, if we earnestly practise, we shall become heirs of the kingdom of heaven, by Christ; by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and over, Amen. |424
SERMON XCII.
12:35-40. Let your loins be girt, and your lamps burning, and be like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the banquet: that when he has come and knocked they may open to him immediately. Blessed are those servants, whom their lord at his coming shall find watching. Verily I say unto you, that he will gird up his loins, and make them sit down to meat, and pass by and minister unto them. And if he come in the second watch, or if he come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. And know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief would come, he would be awake, and not have suffered his house to be dug through. Be you therefore also ready, for in an hour that you expect not the Son of man cometh.
THE Psalmist has somewhere said unto Christ, the Saviour of all; "Your commandment is exceeding broad." And any one may see if he will from the very facts that this saying is true: for He establishes for us pathways in countless numbers, so to speak, to lead us unto salvation, and make us acquainted with every good work, that we, winning for our heads the crown of piety, and imitating the noble conduct of the saints, may attain to that portion which is fitly prepared for them. For this reason He says, "Let your loins be girt, and your lamps burning." For He speaks to them as to spiritually-minded persons, and describes once again things intellectual by such as are apparent and visible.
For let no one say, that He wishes us to have our bodily loins girt, and burning lamps in our hands:----such an |425 interpretation would suit only Jewish dullness:----but our loins being girt, signifies the readiness of the mind to labour industriously in every thing praiseworthy; for such as apply themselves to bodily labours, and are engaged in strenuous toil, have their loins girt. And the lamp apparently represents the wakefulness of the mind, and intellectual cheerfulness. And we say that the human mind is awake when it repels any tendency to slumber off into that carelessness, which often is the means of bringing it into subjection to every kind of wickedness, when being sunk in stupor the heavenly light within it is liable to be endangered, or even already is in danger from a violent and impetuous blast, as it were, of wind. Christ therefore commands us to be awake: and to this His disciple also arouses us by saying; Be awake: be watchful." And further, the very wise Paul also says; "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead: and Christ shall give you light."
It is the duty therefore of those who would be partakers of eternal life, and firmly believe that in due season Christ will descend from heaven as Judge, not to be lax, and dissolved in pleasures; nor, so to speak, poured out and melted in worldly dissipation: but rather let them have their will tightly girt, and distinguish themselves by their zeal in labouring in those duties with which God is well pleased. And they must further possess a vigilant and wakeful mind, distinguished by the knowledge of the truth, and richly endowed with the radiance of the vision of God; so as for them, rejoicing therein, to say, "You, O Lord, will light my lamp: You, my God, will lighten my darkness."
Quite unbefitting is an expression like this for heretics, whether they be the sectaries or the teachers. For as Christ Himself said, "Darkness has blinded their eyes." And this Paul explains to us, saying, that "the god of this world has blinded the minds of them that believe not, that the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ may not shine upon them." It is our duty therefore carefully to avoid their false speaking, |426 and not to turn aside from the doctrines of the truth; and admit into our minds the darkness of the devil; but rather to draw near to the true light, even Christ, praising Him in psalms and sayings "Lighten mine eyes, that I sleep not for death." For it is in very deed death, and that not of the body, but of the soul, to fall from the uprightness of true doctrines, and choose falsehood instead of the truth. Let therefore our loins be girt, and our lamps burning, according to what has here been spoken unto us.
And let us know that the law also of the very wise Moses is found to have commanded something of the kind to the Israelites. For a lamb was sacrificed on the fourteenth day of the first month, as a type of Christ. "For our passover, Christ is sacrificed," according to the testimony of most sacred Paul. The hierophant Moses then, or rather God by his means, commanded them, when eating its flesh, saying, "Let your loins be girt, and your shoes on your feet, and your staves in your hands." For I affirm that it is the duty of those who are partakers of Christ, to beware of a barren indolence; and yet further, not to have as it were their loins ungirt and loose, but be ready cheerfully to undertake whatever labours become the saints; and to hasten besides with alacrity whithersoever the law of God leads them. And for this reason He very appropriately made them wear [at the passover] the garb of travellers.
And that we ought to look for the coming again of Christ from heaven;----for He will come in the glory of the Father with the holy angels;----He has taught us saying, "That we must be like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the banqueting-house, that when he has come and knocked, they may open to him immediately." For Christ will return as from a feast: by which is plainly shown, that God over dwells in festivals, such as befit Him. For above |427 there is no sadness whatsoever: since nothing can grieve That nature Which is incapable of passion, and of being affected by anything whatsoever of this kind.
When therefore He comes and finds us girt and wakeful, and with our heart enlightened, then forthwith He will make us blessed: for "He will gird up His loins, and serve them." By which we learn that he will requite us proportionately: and because we are as it were weary with toil, He will comfort us, setting before us spiritual banquets, and spreading the abundant table of His gifts.
"And whether He come in the second watch, it says, or whether He come in the third watch, blessed are they." Here observe I pray, the breadth of the divine gentleness, and the bountifulness of His mildness towards us. For verily He knows our frame, and the readiness with which man's mind wanders into sin. He knows that the power of fleshly lust tyrannizes over us, and that the distractions of this world even, so to speak, against our will drag us on by force, leading the mind into all that is unseemly. But in that He is good, He does not leave us to despair, but on the contrary, pities us, and has given us repentance as the medicine of salvation. For this reason He says, that "whether He come in the second watch, or whether He come in the third watch, and find them so doing, blessed are they." Now the meaning of this you will certainly wish clearly to understand. Men therefore divide the night into three or four watches. For the sentinels on city walls, who watch the motions of the enemy, after being on guard three or four hours, deliver over the watch and guard to others. So with us there are three ages: the first, that in which we are still children; the second, in which we are young men; and the third, that in which we come to old age. Now the first of these, in which we are still children, is not called to account by God, but is deemed worthy of pardon, because of the imbecillity as yet of the mind, and the weakness of the understanding. But the second and the third, the periods of manhood and old age, owe to God obedience and piety of life, according to His good pleasure. Whosoever therefore is found watching, and, so to speak, well girt, whether, if it so chance, he be still a young man, or one who has arrived at old age, |428 blessed shall he be. For he shall be counted worthy of attaining to Christ's promises.
And in commanding us to watch, He adds further for our safety a plain example, which very excellently shows that it is dangerous to act otherwise. For He says, "that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief would come, he would be awake, and not have suffered his house to be dug through. Be you therefore also ready, for in an hour that you expect not, the Son of man comes." For as His disciple said, "The day of the Lord will come as a thief, in which the heavens shall suddenly pass away, and the elements being on fire shall melt, and the earth, and the works that are therein shall be utterly burned. But we look for new heavens and a new earth, and His promises." And to this he adds, "Since then all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought we to be found, being holy and without blame before Him? " For no one at all knows the time of the consummation of all things, at which Christ shall appear from above, from heaven, to judge the world in righteousness. Then shall He give an incorruptible crown to them that are watching; for He is the Giver, and Distributor, and Bestower of the Divine gifts: by Whom, and with Whom, to God the Father be praise and dominion with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever, Amen. |429
SERMON XCIII.
12:41-48. And Peter said, Lord do You speak this parable unto us, or also unto all? And the Lord said, Who then is the faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall set over his household, to give the portion of food in its season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord at his coming shall find so doing. Of a truth I say unto you, that he will appoint him over all that he has. But if that servant say in his heart, My lord delays his coming, and begin to beat the men servants and female servants, and to eat and drink, and be drunken: the lord of that servant shall come in a day that he expects not, and at an hour of which he is not aware, and will cut him asunder, and give him a portion with the unbelievers. And that servant who knew his lord's will, and did it not, neither prepared according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But He who knew it not, and did things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will require the more.
IT is a good and saving thing for us to direct the penetrating glance of the mind unto the words of God. For it is written of the words which God speaks, "Who is wise, and he will understand them? or prudent, and he will know their meaning?" For simply to hear, and receive the spoken word in the ear, is common to all men, both to the wise, and to those who are not so: but the habit of penetrating deep into profitable thoughts is found only with those who are truly wise. Let us therefore ask this of Christ: let us imitate the blessed Peter, that chosen disciple, that faithful steward and true believer; who, when he had heard Christ say somewhat highly advantageous for their benefit, prayed that it might be explained to him, and did not allow it to pass by, because he had not as yet clearly understood it. For he said, "Lord, speak You this parable unto us, or also unto all? Is it, he asks, a general law, and |430 one that appertains in equal measure to all, or is it fitting for those only who are superior to the rest? What then was it which troubled the wise disciple, or what led him to wish to learn things such as this from Christ? This point then we will first discuss.
There are then some commandments which befit those who have attained to apostolic dignities, or possess a more than ordinary knowledge, and the higher spiritual virtues; while others belong to those in an inferior station. And that this is true, and according to my words, we may see from what the blessed Paul wrote unto certain of his disciples, "I have given you milk to drink, and not meat: for you were not as yet strong enough, nor even yet could you bear it." "For solid food belongs to them that are full grown, who by reason of perfectness have the senses of the heart exercised for the discerning of good and evil." For just, for instance, as very heavy burdens can be carried by persons of a very powerful frame, to which men of weaker stature are unequal, so those of a vigorous mind may justly be expected to fulfil the weightier and more excellent commands among those which become the saints; while such as are, so to speak, simple, and quite easy, and free from all difficulty, suit those who have not yet attained to this spiritual strength. The blessed Peter therefore, considering with himself the force of what Christ had said, rightly asked, which of the two was meant; whether the declaration referred to all believers, or only to them; that is, to those who had been called to the discipleship, and especially honoured by the grant of apostolic powers?
And what is our Lord's reply? He makes use of a clear and very evident example, to show that the commandment especially belongs to those who occupy a more dignified position, and have been admitted into the rank of teachers. "For who, He says, is the faithful and wise servant, whom his lord will set over his household, to give the allowance of food at its |431 season," 'Let us suppose, He says, a householder; who being about to go upon a journey,, has entrusted to one of his faithful slaves the charge of all his house, to give his household, that is, his servants, their allowance of corn at its due season. When therefore, He says, he shall return, if on coming to his house he shall find him so doing as he commanded, very blessed shall that servant be. For he will set him, He says, over all that he has. But if he be neglectful and indolent, and take pleasure in oppressing his fellow-servants, eating and drinking, and given up to self-indulgent voluptuousness, he will be cut asunder, that is, will have to bear the severest punishment, when his lord shall come to him in a day that he expects not, and at an hour of which he is not aware.'
Such then is the simple and plain meaning of the passage: but if we now fix our mind accurately upon it, we shall see what is signified by it, and how useful it is for their benefit who have been called to the apostleship, to the office, that is, of teacher. The Saviour has ordained as stewards, so to speak, over his servants;----that is, over those who have been won by faith to the acknowledgment of His glory;----men faithful and of great understanding, and well instructed in the sacred doctrines. And He has ordained them, commanding them to give their fellow-servants their allowance of food; and that not simply and without distinction, but rather at its proper season: by which is meant such food, I mean spiritual food, as is sufficient and fitting for each individual. For it is not fitting to address simply to all who have believed in Christ instruction upon all points; for it is written, "With knowledge learn the souls of your flock." For very different is the way in which we establish in the paths of truth one who has but just now become a disciple, using simple teaching, in which there is nothing profound nor difficult to understand, counselling him to escape from the error of polytheism, and fittingly persuading him to discern by the beauty of things created, the universal Creator and Artificer, Who is One by nature, and verily God: from the way in which we instruct those who are more confirmed in mind, and able to understand what is the height and depth, and what the length and breadth, of the definitions of |432 the supreme Godhead. For as we have already said, " Solid meat belongs to them that are full grown."
Whoever therefore shall wisely in due season, and according to their need, divide to his fellow-servants their portion, that is, their food, very blessed shall he be, according to the Saviour's word. For he shall be counted worthy of still greater things, and shall receive a suitable recompense for his fidelity. "For he will set him, He says, over all that he has." And this the Saviour has elsewhere taught us, where praising the active and faithful servant, He said, "O good and faithful servant, you have been faithful over few things, I will set you over many things: enter into the joy of your lord."
But if, He says, neglecting the duty of being diligent and faithful, and despising watchfulness in these things as superfluous, he let his mind grow intoxicated with worldly cares, and is seduced into improper courses, dragging by force, and oppressing those who are subject to him, and not giving them their portion, in utter wretchedness shall he be. For this I think, and this only, is the meaning of his being cut asunder. "And his portion too," He says, "shall be with the unbelievers." For whosoever has done wrong to the glory of Christ, or ventured to think slightingly of the flock entrusted to his charge, differs in no respect whatsoever from those who know Him not: and all such persons will justly be counted among those who have no love for Him. For Christ even once said to the blessed Peter, " Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me? feed My sheep; feed My lambs." If therefore he who feeds his flock loves it, then of course he that neglects it, and leaves the flock that has been entrusted to him without oversight, hates it: and if he hate it he will be punished, and be liable to the condemnation pronounced upon the unbelievers, as being convicted by the very facts of being negligent and contemptuous. Such was he who received the talent to trade with in things spiritual, and did not do so, but on the contrary brought that which had been given him without increase, saying, "Lord, I knew that you are a hard man, that you reap where others have sown, and gather whence others have scattered; and I was afraid, and hid the talent: lo! you have what is yours." But those who had |433 received the five talents, or even yet more, and laboured and loved service, were honoured with glorious dignities. For they heard, the one of them, "Be you over ten," and the other, "Be you over five cities:" while that contumelious and slothful servant suffered the severest condemnation. To be negligent therefore in discharging the duties of the ministry is everywhere dangerous, or rather, brings upon men perdition: but to perform them with unwearying zeal earns for us life and glory. And this means to discourse to our fellow servants correctly and without error the things which relate to God, and whatsoever is able to benefit them in attaining both to the knowledge and the ability to walk uprightly. And the blessed Paul [Peter] also writes to certain persons, "Feed the flock of God which is among you, that when the Chief Shepherd shall appear, you may receive your reward." And as knowing that slothfulness is the door of perdition, he again said, "Woe is me, if I preach not."
And that bitter and inevitable punishment is threatened against those who are slothful in this duty, the Saviour immediately showed, by adding to what had been already said two examples one after the other. "For the servant," He says, "who knew his master's will, and did it not, neither prepared according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes: but he who knew it not, and did things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes." Now the guilt is indisputable in the case of him who knew his master's will, but afterwards neglected it, and did nothing that was fitting, and which it was his duty to do. For it is manifest contumely, and therefore the many stripes. But for what reason were the few stripes inflicted on him who neither knew nor did his master's will? For some one, for instance, may say, How can he who knew it not be guilty? The reason is, because he would not know it, although it was in his power to learn. But if he who is. entirely ignorant of it does not escape from anger, because when it was his duty to know he neglected the means of learning, what plea can deliver him from justly bearing many stripes, who knew, and disregarded it? "For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will require the more." |434
Very severe therefore is the condemnation of those who teach. And this Christ's disciple shows us, saying, "Let there not be many teachers among you, my brethren, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation." For abundant is the bestowal of spiritual gifts upon those who are the chiefs of the people: for so the wise Paul also somewhere wrote to the blessed Timothy; "The Lord shall give you wisdom in every thing." And, "Despise not the gift that is in you, which was given you by the laying on of my hands." From such as these then, the Saviour of all, in that He has given them much, requires much in return. And what are the virtues He requires? Constancy in the faith; correctness in teaching; to be well grounded in hope; unwavering in patience; invincible in spiritual strength; cheerful and brave in every more excellent achievement: that so we may be examples to others of the evangelic life. For if we will thus live, Christ will bestow upon us the crown; by Whom and with Whom, to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever, Amen. |435
SERMON XCIV.
12:49-53. I am come to cast fire upon the earth: and what will I, if already it be kindled? And I have a baptism to be baptized with: and how am I straitened, until it be accomplished! You think that I am come to give peace upon earth: I tell you, Nay, but division. For henceforth there shall be five in one house divided; three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
GOD the Father for the salvation of all sent down for us the Son from heaven. For to the Israelites indeed He gave the law to be their helper, according to the Scripture; and also spoke to them by the holy prophets such things as were profitable for their salvation, promising them the deliverance that is by Christ. But when the season had arrived, in which those things that had been prophesied of old were to be accomplished, He Who is God and Lord shone forth upon us. And He tells us the cause thereof in these words; "I am come to cast fire upon the earth; and what will I if already it be kindled? Come therefore, and let us examine of what nature is this fire, concerning which He here speaks. Is it useful for those upon earth? Is it for their salvation? Or does it torture men, and cause their perdition, like that which is prepared for the devil and his angels?
We affirm therefore that the fire which is sent forth by Christ is for men's salvation and profits': God grant that all |436 our hearts may be full thereof. For the fire here is, I say, the saving message of the Gospel, and the power of its commandments; by which all of us upon earth, who were so to speak cold and dead because of sin, and in ignorance of Him Who by nature and truly is God, are kindled unto a life of piety, and made "fervent in spirit," according to the expression of the blessed Paul. And besides this we are also made partakers of the Holy Spirit, Who is as fire within us. For we have been baptized with fire and the Holy Spirit. And we have learnt the way thereto, by what Christ says to us: for listen to His words; "Verily I say unto you, that except a man be born of water and spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
It is the custom moreover of the divinely inspired Scripture to give the name of fire sometimes to the divine and sacred words, and to the efficacy and power which is by the Holy Spirit, and whereby we are made, as I said, "fervent in spirit." For one of the holy prophets thus spoke as in the person of God respecting Christ our common Saviour: "The Lord, Whom you seek, shall suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, Whom you desire: behold He comes, says the Lord. And who shall endure the day of His coming? or who shall stand at the sight of Him? For lo! He comes like the fire of a furnace, and like the sulphur of the bleacher. And He shall sit, like one that smelts and purifies as silver and as gold." Now by the temple he here means the body, holy of a truth and undefiled, which was born of the holy virgin by the Holy Spirit in the power of the Father. For so was it said to the blessed virgin, "The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow you." And he styles Him the Messenger of the covenant," because He makes known and ministers unto us the good-will of the Father. For He has Himself said to us, "All things that I have heard of the Father, 1 have made known unto you." And the prophet Isaiah also thus writes respecting Him; "Unto us a Child is born; yes, unto us a Son is given: and His government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called, The Messenger of the great counsel." Just therefore as those who know how to refine gold and silver, melt out the dross contained in them by the use of fire; so also the Saviour |437 of all cleanses by the doctrines of the Gospel in the power of the Spirit, the mind of all those who have believed in Him.
And further the prophet Isaiah also said, that "He saw the Lord of Sabaoth sitting upon a throne high, and lifted up: and around Him stood the Seraphim, praising Him. Then said He to himself, Alas for me a sinner, for I repent me: in that being a man, and of unclean lips, I dwell among a people of unclean lips, and have seen with my eyes the King, the Lord of Sabaoth." But to this he adds, that " one of the Seraphim was sent unto me, and in his hand he had a live coal, which he had taken with the tongs from the altar, and he touched with it my mouth, and said, Lo! this has touched your lips, and it shall take away your sins, and cleanse you of your iniquities." What interpretation then are we to put upon the coal which touched the prophet's lips, and cleansed him from all sin? Plainly it is the message of salvation, and the confession of faith in Christ, which whosoever receives with his mouth is forthwith and altogether purified. And of this Paul thus assures us; "that if you say with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved."
We say then that the power of the divine message resembles a live coal and fire. And the God of all somewhere said to the prophet Jeremiah, "Behold, I have made My words in your mouth to be fire, and this people to be wood, and it shall devour them." And again, "Are not My words as burning fire, says the Lord? Rightly therefore did our Lord Jesus Christ say unto us, "I am come to throw fire upon earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled!" For already some of the Jewish crowd believed on Him, whose first-fruits were the divine disciples: and the fire being once kindled was soon to seize upon the whole world, immediately that the whole dispensation had attained to its completion: as soon, that is, as He had borne His precious passion upon the cross, and had commanded the bonds of death to cease. For He rose on the third day from the dead.
And this He teaches us by saying, "But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straitened until it be accomplished!" And by His baptism He means His death in the |438 flesh: and by being straitened because of it He means, that He was saddened and troubled until it was accomplished. For what was to happen when it was accomplished? That henceforth not in Judaea only should the saving message of the Gospel be proclaimed: comparing which to fire He said, "I am come to send fire upon earth:"----but that now it should be published even to the whole world. For before the precious cross, and His resurrection from the dead, His commandments and the glory of His divine miracles, were spoken of in Judaea only. But because Israel sinned against Him, for they killed the Prince of Life, as far as they were concerned, even though He arose having spoiled the grave: then immediately He gave commandment to the holy apostles in these words: "Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; and teaching them to observe all those things which I have commanded you." Behold therefore, yes see, that throughout all nations was that sacred and divine fire spread abroad by means of the holy preachers.
And of the holy apostles and evangelists Christ somewhere spoke by one of the prophets: "And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will make the heads of the thousands of Judaea like a firebrand among wood, and like a fiery lamp among reeds; and they shall devour on the right hand and on the left all the nations round about." For, so to speak, like fire they ate up all the nations, and fed upon the whole earth, kindling all its inhabitants, who as I said were cold, and had suffered the death of ignorance and sin.
Would you like to see the effects of this divine and rational fire? hear then again His words: "Or think you that I am come to give peace upon earth? I tell you, no, but division." And yet Christ is our peace, according to the Scriptures. "He has broken down the middle wall: He has united the two people in one now man, so making peace: and has reconciled both in one body unto the Father." He has united the things below to them that are above: how therefore did He not come to give peace upon earth? What then say we to these things? |439
That peace is an honourable and truly excellent thing when given by God. For the prophets also say; "Lord, grant us peace: for You have given us all things." But not every peace necessarily is free from blame: there is sometimes, so to speak, an unsafe peace, and which separates from the love of God those who, without discretion or examination, set too high a value upon it. As for instance: the determination to avoid evil men. and refuse to be at peace with them;----by which I mean the not submitting to entertain the same sentiments as they do;----is a thing profitable and useful to us. And in like manner the opposite course is injurious to those who have believed in Christ, and attained to the knowledge of His mystery: to such it is unprofitable to be willing to follow the same sentiments as those who wander away from the right path, and have fallen into the net of heathen error, or been caught in the snares of wicked heresies. With these it is honourable to contend, and to set the battle constantly in array against them, and to glory in holding opposite sentiments; so that even though it be a father that believes not, the son is free from blame who contradicts him, and resists his opinions. And in like manner also the father, if he be a believer, and true unto God, but his son disobedient and evilly disposed, and that opposes the glory of Christ, is also free from blame, if he disregard natural affection, and disowns him as his child. And the same reasoning holds with respect to mother and daughter: and daughter-in-law and mother-in-law. For it is right that those who are in error should follow those who are sound in mind: and not, on the contrary, that those should give way whose choice is to |440 entertain correct sentiments, and who have a sound knowledge of the glory of God.
And this Christ has also declared to us in another manner; "He that loves father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me: and he that loves son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me." When therefore you deny an earthly father for your piety's sake towards Christ, then shall you gain as Father Him "Who is in heaven. And if you give up a brother because he dishonours God, by refusing to serve Him, Christ will accept you as His brother: for with His other bounties He has given us this also, saying; "I will declare Your Name unto My brethren." Leave your mother after the flesh, and take her who is above, the heavenly Jerusalem, "which is our mother:" so will you find a glorious and mighty lineage in the family of the saints. With them you will be heir of God's gifts, which neither the mind can comprehend, nor language tell. Of which may we too be counted worthy by the grace and loving-kindness of Christ, the Saviour of us all; by Whom and with Whom, to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever, Amen. |441
SERMON XCV.
12:54-59. And He said also to the multitudes, When you have seen a cloud rising out of the west, straightway you say, that rain comes; and so it is. And when [you see] the south wind blowing, you say, There will be heat: and so it is. You hypocrites! you know how to prove the face of the sky, and of the earth: how then know you not how to prove this time? and why even of yourselves judge you not what is just? For whilst you are going with him who has a suit against you in the way to the magistrate, give diligence that you may be delivered, from him; lest he drag you to the judge, and the judge deliver you to the exactor, and the exactor cast you into prison. I tell you, you shall not come out thence, until you have made compensation unto the last mite.
THOSE physicians who are exact in their art, and have become proficients by great practice, deliver the sick from their maladies, by making use of many kinds of drugs, by the aid of which they appease the anguish of men's sufferings, gathering from all quarters whatever may benefit them. And this we also find Christ, the Saviour of all, here doing: for He is the Physician of spirits, and delivers us from the maladies of the soul For He even said by one of the holy prophets; "Return, you returning sons; and I will heal your breaches." And as knowing this, the prophet Jeremiah offered up his supplications unto Him in these words: "Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed: save me, O Lord, and I shall be saved: for You are my glory,"
Observe, therefore, how he prepares for us the medicine of admonition, not using as He so often did direct discourse, but mingling, so to speak, and entwining with it images drawn from examples, to make it the more abundantly profitable. For He cried unto the multitudes, saying; "When you see a cloud rising out of the west, straightway you say that rain |442 comes; and it is so. And when [you see] the south wind blowing, you say there will be heat: and so it is." For men fix their attention on things of this kind, and from long observation and practice tell beforehand when rain will fall, or gusts happen of violent winds: and one especially sees sailors very skilful in this matter. Well therefore, He says, well would it become those who can calculate things of this sort, and foretell, it may be, storms that are about to happen, to fix the penetrating glance of the mind also upon matters of importance. And what are these? The law showed beforehand the mystery of Christ; and that certainly He would shine forth in the last ages of the world upon the inhabitants of the earth, and submit to be a sacrifice for the salvation of all. For it even commanded a lamb to be sacrificed as a type of Him towards evening, and at lamp-lighting; that we might understand, that when, like the day, this world was declining to its close, the great and precious and truly-saving passion would be fulfilled: and the door of salvation be thrown widely open unto those who believe in Him, and abundant happiness be their lot. For also in the Song of Songs we find Christ calling to the bride there described, and who represents the person of the Church, in these words: "Arise, come, My neighbour, My beautiful dove: for lo! the winter is past, and the rain is gone: it has passed away. The flowers appear on the ground: the time of the pruning is come." As I said, therefore, a certain springlike calm was about to arise for those who believe in Him.
But against those, who, in the greatness of their wickedness, have scorned His goodness, and rejected the Saviour, there is decreed wrath and misery; and, as it were, a winter of torment and punishment, from the blast of which hard will it be to escape. For, as the Psalmist says; "Fire, and brimstone, and the whirlwind, is the portion of their cup." And why so? Because they have rejected, as I said, the grace that is by faith; and therefore the guilt of their sins cannot be wiped away, and they must bear, as they deserve, the punishment due to those who love sin. For so, when speaking of the Jews, He said; "Verily I say unto you, that if you believe not that I am He, you shall die in your sins." |443
And that the blessed prophets also in manifold ways preached the mystery of Christ, no one can doubt. For one of them thus speaks as in the person of God the Father: "Behold I lay in Sion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence: and whosoever believes in Him shall not be ashamed." For those who are in their sins are full of shame. For so it is somewhere said of the Israelites, who violated the law of Moses: "Like the shame of a thief when he is caught, so shall the children of Israel be ashamed." But those who are in Christ by faith, escaping from the pollutions of sin, are not only not full of shame, but have that boldness which becomes those who are free.
It was their duty, therefore, yes! their duty, He says, as being possessed of understanding, and able to discern the face of the sky and of the earth, to examine also things future, and not to let those tempests escape their observation, which come after this world. For there will be the south wind and rain: that is to say, fiery torment. For the south wind is hot: and the infliction of that punishment is vehement and inevitable, like the rain falling upon those overtaken by it. They must not, therefore, let the time of salvation pass by unnoticed: that time in which our Saviour came, and at which perfect knowledge of the truth reached mankind, and the grace shone forth which purifies the wicked. And that, not by means of the law: for "it made nothing perfect," having only types and shadows; but by faith rather in Christ, not rejecting the law, but fulfilling it by a spiritual service. For the very wise Paul wrote; "Do we then make void the law through faith? It may not be: but we establish the law." For we who are justified by Christ establish that law of faith, which in manifold ways was proclaimed beforehand by Moses and the prophets. |444
That it is our duty, therefore, to be watchful, in seeking quickly to attain to deliverance from our sins, and the means of escaping from blame, before we arrive at the termination of our natural lives, He has shown, by saying; "And why even of yourselves judge you not what is just? For while you are going with him who has a suit against you, in the way to the magistrate, give diligence that you may be delivered from him; lest he drag you to the judge, and the judge deliver you to the exactor, and the exactor cast you into prison. I tell you, you shall not come out thence, until you have made compensation unto the last mite."
Now perhaps it may be imagined that the sense of this passage is difficult to comprehend: but it will become very easy if we examine the metaphor by what takes place among ourselves. For let there be supposed, He says, some one who has brought a charge against you before one of those in authority, and has pointed you out to those whose office it is to carry the accused into court, and is causing you to be taken thither. "While therefore, He says, you are still with him on the way," that is, before you have come to the judge, "give diligence," that is, weary not, in using all your earnestness that you may be delivered from him. For otherwise he will give you up to the judge; and then, when you have been proved to be indebted to him, you will be delivered to the exactors, to those, that is, whose office it is to exact the money; and they will cast you into prison, and make you pay the last mite.
Now all of us, without exception, upon earth are guilty of offences: he who has a suit against us and accuses us is the wicked Satan: for he is "the enemy and the exactor." While therefore we are in the way: that is, ere yet we have arrived at the termination of our life here, let us deliver ourselves from |445 him: let us do away with the offences of which we have been guilty: let us close his mouth: let us seize upon the grace that is by Christ, which frees us from all debt and penalty, and delivers us from fear and torment: lest if our impurity be not cleansed away, we be carried before the judge, and given over to the exactors, that is, the tormentors, from whose cruelty no man can escape: yea, rather, who will exact vengeance for every fault, whether it be great or small.
Far removed from this danger are those who search for the time of Christ's corning, and are not ignorant of His mystery, but well know that the Word, though He be God, has shone forth upon the inhabitants of earth in likeness as one of us, that freeing them from all blame, He may bless with exceeding happiness those who believe in Him, and acknowledge Him as God and the Son of God: by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever, Amen. |446
SERMON XCVI.
13:6-9. And He spoke this parable. A certain man had a fig-tree planted in his vineyard, and he came and sought fruit thereon, but found none. Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Lo, three years indeed I come seeking fruit on this fig-tree, and find none. Out it down therefore: why does it make the ground also barren? But he answered and said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also: until I dig around it, and dung it: and if it bear fruit in the coming [year, well], and if not, you shall cut it down.
THE Psalmist shows the surpassing gentleness of Christ, the Saviour of us all, in these words; "Lord, what is man, that You art mindful of him, or the son of man, that You visit him?" For man upon earth, as far as his bodily nature is concerned, is dust and ashes: but he has been honoured by God, by having been made in His image and likeness: not in his bodily shape, that is, but rather because he is capable of being just and good, and fitted for all virtue. The Creator therefore takes care of him, as being His creature, and for the purpose of adorning the earth. For as the prophet Isaiah says; "He made it not in vain, but that it should be inhabited:"----inhabited of course by a rational animal, who can discern with the eyes of the mind the Creator and Artificer of the Universe, and glorify Him like the spirits that are above. Put because by the deceiving arts of the serpent he had turned aside unto wickedness, and was held fast by the chains of sin, and removed far from God, Christ, to enable him |447 once again to mount upwards, has sought him out, and fashioned him anew to what he was at first, and granted him repentance as the pathway to lead him unto salvation.
He proposes therefore a wise parable: but we ought perhaps first to explain what was the occasion which led to it, or what at all the necessity why He brought it forward.
There were therefore certain who told Christ, the Saviour of us all, that Pilate had put to death cruelly and without pity certain Galilaeans, and mingled their blood with their sacrifices. And others that the tower near Shiloh had fallen, and eighteen persons perished beneath the ruins. And afterwards referring to these things, Christ had said to His hearers; "Verily, I say unto you, that except you repent, you also shall in like manner perish." This was the head and root of the present parable, and that at which it was, as it were, aimed.
Now the outer sense of this passage needs not a single word for its explanation: but when we search into its inward and secret and unseen purport, it is, we affirm, as follows. The Israelites, after our Saviour's crucifixion, were doomed to fall into the miseries they deserved, Jerusalem being captured, and its inhabitants slaughtered by the sword of the enemy. Nor were they to perish thus only, but their houses were to be burnt with fire, and even the temple of God demolished. It is probable therefore that He likens the synagogue of the Jews to a fig tree; for the sacred Scripture also compares them to various plants: to the vine, for instance, and the olive, and even to a forest. For the prophet Jeremiah at one time says of Jerusalem, or rather of its inhabitants; "Israel is a vine with many branches." And again at another addressing it, he says; "The Lord has called your name a beautiful olive tree, well shaded in appearance: at its pruning time a fire was kindled in it: great was the tribulation that was upon it; its branches were destroyed." And another of the holy prophets, comparing it to Mount Lebanon, thus speaks; "Open your doors, O Lebanon, and the fire shall devour your cedars." For the forest that was in Jerusalem, even the people there, many as they were and innumerable, was destroyed as by fire. He takes therefore, as I said, the fig tree spoken of in the parable as a figure of the Jewish synagogue, that is, of the Israelites: and "three years," He says, "He |448 sought fruit upon it, and found none." By which, I think, are signified to us those three periods during which the Jewish synagogue bore no fruit. The first of these, one may say, was that in which Moses and Aaron and his sons lived: who served God, holding the office of the priesthood according to the law. The second was the period of Jeshua, the son of Nun, and the judges who succeeded him. And the third, that in which the blessed prophets flourished down to the time of John the Baptist During these periods Israel brought forth no fruit.
But I can imagine persons making to this the following objection; 'But lo! it did fulfil the service ordained by the law, and offered the sacrifices which consisted in the blood of victims and burning incense.' But to this we reply: that in the writings of Moses there was only a type of the truth, and a gross and material service: there was not as yet a service simple, pure, and spiritual, such as we affirm God chiefly loves, having so learnt of Christ, Who said; "God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth." As far therefore as regarded the good-will of the Father, and evidently that also of the Son, the service which consisted in shadows and types was unacceptable, being utterly without fruit in whatsoever appertains to a sweet spiritual savour. And therefore it was rejected: for so the Saviour teaches us, when saying to God the Father in heaven; "Sacrifice and offering You would not: and whole burnt offerings, and sin offerings You did not require." And again by the voice of Isaiah He says Himself to those who were seeking to fulfil it: "For who has required this at your hands? Tread My court no more: if you bring fine meal, it is in vain: incense is an abomination unto Me." How therefore can that which God hates and abominates be supposed to be the rational and spiritual fruit of the soul, and acceptable unto Him?
He says therefore, "Lo, three years do I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none. Cut it down therefore: why does it make the ground also useless." As though He would say, Let the place of this barren fig tree be laid bare: for then there will come up or may be planted there some other tree. And this too was done:. for the multitude of the Gentiles was summoned into its room, and took possession of |449 the inheritance of the Israelites. It became the people of God; the plant of Paradise; a germ good and honourable; that knows how to bring forth fruit, not in shadows and types, but rather by a pure and perfectly stainless service, even that which is in spirit and in truth, as being offered to God, Who is an immaterial Being.
The owner then of the ground said, that the fig-tree, which during so long a time had been barren and without fruit, must be cut down. But the vinedresser, it says, besought him, saying; "Lord, let it alone this year also: until I dig around it and dung it: and if it bear fruit in the coming [year, well;] and if not, you shall cut it down."
Now it is necessary to inquire, who is to be understood by the vinedresser. If then any one choose to affirm that it is the angel who was appointed by God as the guardian of the synagogue of the Jews, he would not miss a suitable interpretation. For we remember that the prophet Zechariah wrote, that one of the holy angels stood offering supplications for Jerusalem, and saying, "O Lord Almighty, how long will You not have mercy upon Jerusalem, and on the cities of Judah; which You have abandoned, lo! for seventy years?" And it is written also in Exodus, that when the ruler of the land of the Egyptians with his warriors was pursuing after the Israelites, and was already upon the point of engaging with them in battle, the angel of God stood between the camp of the Israelites and of the Egyptians, and the one came not near the other all the night. There is therefore nothing unbefitting in supposing here also, that the holy angel who was the guardian of the synagogue offered supplications in its behalf, and prayed for a respite, if perchance yielding to better influence it might yet bring forth fruit.
But if any one should say that the vinedresser is the Son, this view also, has a reason on its side not unbefitting right arguments. For "He is our Advocate with the Father," "and our propitiation," and the husbandman of our souls, Who prunes away constantly whatever is to our hurt, and fills us with rational and holy seeds, that so we may bring forth for Him fruits: and so He spoke of Himself. " A sower went out to sow his seed."
And it in no respect militates against the glory of the |450 Son, that He assumes the character of the vinedresser: for the leather is Himself also found to have taken it, without being exposed to any blame for so doing. For the Son said to the holy apostles, " I am the Vine: you are the branches: My Father is the Husbandman." For the verbal expression must from time to time be made to accord with the suppositions which are laid down.
Let Him therefore be supposed to be the Advocate in our behalf: and He says, "Let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and dung it." And what then is this year? But plainly this fourth year, this time subsequent to those former periods, is that in which the Only-begotten Word of God became man, to stir up like some husbandman by spiritual exhortations the Israelites who had withered away in sin, digging round them, and warning them, to make them "fervent in spirit." For He repeatedly denounced against them destruction and ruin, wars and slaughters, burnings and captivities, and immitigable wrath: while, on the other hand, He promised, if they would believe on Him, and now at length become fruitful trees, that he would give them life and glory, the grace of adoption, the communion of the Holy Spirit, and the kingdom of heaven. But Israel was incapable of being taught even thus. It was still a barren fig tree, and continued so to be. It was cut down, therefore, that it might not make the ground useless: and in its stead there sprung up, as a fertile plant, the gentile church, beautiful, and fruit-bearing, deeply-rooted, and incapable of being shaken. For they have been counted as children unto Abraham, and have been ingrafted into the good olive-tree: for a root has been preserved, and Israel has not utterly perished.
But that it was doomed to be cut down, on account of its utter barrenness, the blessed John the Baptist also declared in these words; "Behold the axe is laid at the root of the trees: every tree therefore that brings not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire." And one of the holy prophets also... * * * * * |451
[The rest of this (96th) Exposition, the whole of the 97th, and the commencement of the 98th, having perished, their place is supplied from Mai's Nov. Bib. Pat. vol. ii. pp. 315-321; and Cramer, ii. 107, where some of the following extract is given anonymously: and from the Aurea Catena, p. 201. ed. Venet. 1775. -- translator]
Behold there was a woman, who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years.
Now there was in the synagogue a woman who for eighteen years was bowed down by infirmity. And her case may prove of no little benefit to those who have understanding: for we must gather what is to our advantage from every quarter:----since by what happened to her we may see that Satan often receives authority over certain persons, such, namely, as fall into sin, and have grown lax in their efforts after piety. Whomsoever therefore he gets into his power, he involves, it may be, in bodily diseases, since he delights in punishment and is merciless. And the opportunity for this the all-seeing God most wisely grants him, that being sore vexed by the burden of their misery, men may sot themselves upon changing to a better course. For which reason St. Paul also delivered over to Satan a certain person at Corinth accused of fornication, "for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit might be saved." The woman therefore who was bowed down is said to have suffered this from the cruelty of the devil, according to our Master's words, "Whom Satan has bound for eighteen years:" God, as I said, so permitting it, either for her own sins, or rather by the operation of a universal and general law. For the accursed Satan is the cause of disease to the bodies of men, inasmuch as Adam's transgression was, we affirm, his doing, and by means of it our human frames have become liable to infirmity and decay. But when this was the state of men. God, Who by His very nature is good, did not abandon us when suffering under the punishment of a protracted and incurable malady, but freed us from our bonds, revealing as the glorious remedy for the sufferings of mankind His own presence and manifestation in the world. For He came to fashion our state again to what it was originally: for "God, as it is written, made not death: neither has He pleasure in the destruction of the living. For He created all things that they might have their being; and healthful were the generations of the world; and there is in them no |452 poison of destruction," " but by the envy of the devil death entered into the world."
The Incarnation of the Word, and His assumption of human nature took place for the overthrow of death and destruction, and of that envy nourished against us by the wicked serpent, who was the first cause of evil. And this is plainly proved to us by facts themselves. And so He set free the daughter of Abraham from her protracted sickness, calling out and saying, "Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity." A speech most worthy of God, and full of supernatural power: for with the kingly inclination of His will He drives away the disease. And He also lays His hands upon her: and immediately, it says, she was made straight. And hence too it is possible to sec that His holy flesh bore in it the power and activity of God. For it was His own flesh, and not that of some other Son beside Him, distinct and separate from Him, as some 4 most impiously imagine.
And the ruler of the synagogue answered, being indignant, that Jesus had healed on the sabbath day, &c.
And yet how ought he not rather to have wondered at Christ's having freed from her bonds this daughter of Abraham? You have seen her unexpectedly delivered from her misfortune: you were an eyewitness that the Physician prayed not, nor received as a boon from another the healing of the sick woman; but that He wrought it as a deed of power. As being the ruler of a synagogue, you know, I suppose, the writings of Moses. You saw him praying upon every occasion, and working nothing whatsoever by his own power. For when Mariam was struck with leprosy, for having merely spoken something against him in the way of reproach, and that true, "for he had taken, she says, unto himself an Ethiopian wife," Moses could not overcome the disease, but, on the contrary, fell down before God, saying, "O God, I beseech You, heal her." And not even so, though he besought it, was the penalty of her sin remitted her. And each one of the holy prophets, if anywhere at all they wrought any miracle, is seen to |453 have done it by the power of God. But here observe, 1 pray, that Christ, the Saviour of all, offers no prayer, but refers the accomplishment of the matter to His own power, healing her by a word and the touch of the hand. For being Lord and God, He manifested His own flesh as of equal efficacy with Himself for the deliverance of men from their diseases. And hence it was intended that men should understand the purport of the mystery concerning Him. Had therefore the ruler of the synagogue been a man of understanding, he would have perceived Who and how great the Saviour was from so wonderful a miracle, nor would he have talked in the same ignorant manner as the multitudes, nor have accused those occupied with healing of a breach of the law respecting the traditional abstinence from labour on the sabbath day.
'But plainly to heal is to labour.' Is the law then broken when God shows mercy even on the sabbath day? Whom did He command to desist from labour? Himself? or was it not rather you? If Himself, let His providence over us cease on the sabbath: let the sun rest from his daily course; let the rains not fall; let the springs of waters, and the streams of ever-flowing rivers, and the winds be still: but if He commanded you to rest, blame not God because with power He has shown mercy on any even on the sabbath. And why did He command men at all to rest upon the sabbath? It was, you art told, that your manservant, and your ox, and your horse, and all your cattle might rest. When therefore He gives men rest by freeing them from their diseases, and you forbidd it, plainly you break the law of the sabbath, in not permitting those to rest who are suffering under sickness and disease, and whom Satan had bound.
But the ruler of the unthankful synagogue, when he saw the woman whose limbs were crippled, and her body bent and crooked even to the ground, receiving mercy from Christ, and made perfectly upright by the touch alone of His hand, and walking with that erect gait which becomes man, and magnifying God for her deliverance, is vexed thereat, and burning with rage against the glory of the Lord, is entangled in envy, and calumniates the miracle; nevertheless he passes by our Lord, Who would have exposed his hypocrisy, and rebukes the multitudes, that his indignation might seem to be aroused for the |454 sake of the sabbath day. But his object really was to prevail upon those who were dispersed throughout the week, and occupied with their labours, not to be spectators and admirers of the miracles of the Lord upon the sabbath, lest ever they also should believe.
But tell me, O you slave of envy, what kind of work did the law forbid in commanding you to abstain on the sabbath day from all manual labour? Does it forbid the labour of the mouth and speaking? Abstain then from eating and drinking, and conversing, and singing psalms on the sabbath. But if you abstain from these things, and do not even read the law, what good is the sabbath to you? If however you confine the prohibition to manual labour, how is the healing of a woman by a word a manual labour? But if you call it an act because the woman was actually healed, you also perform an act in blaming her healing.
'But says he, He said, you are loosed from your infirmity: and she is loosed.' Well! do not you also unloose your girdle on the sabbath? Do not you put off your shoes, and make your bed, and cleanse your hands when dirtied with eating? Why then are you so angry at the single word "you art loosed?" And at what work did the woman labour after the word was spoken? Did she set about the craft of the brazier, or the carpenter, or the mason? Did she that very day begin weaving or working at the loom? 'No. She was made straight, he says. It was the healing absolutely that is a labour.' But no! you are not really angry on account of the sabbath: but because you see Christ honoured, and worshipped as God, you are frantic and choked with rage, and pine with envy. You have one thing concealed in your heart, and profess and make pretext of another; for which reason you art most excellently convicted by the Lord, Who knows your vain reasonings, and receive the title which befits you, in being called hypocrite and dissembler and insincere. |455
You hypocrite! does not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering?
You wonder, He says, at Me, Who have loosed a daughter of Abraham; and yet you give rest to your ox and your ass, loosing them from their labours, and leading them away to watering: but when a human being suffering from sickness is marvellously healed, and God has shown mercy, you blame both as transgressors: the One for having healed, and the other for being delivered from her malady.
Behold, I pray, the ruler of the synagogue, how a human being is of less account in his sight than a beast, since at least he counts his ox and his ass worthy of care on the sabbath, but in his envy would not have Christ deliver from her infirmity the woman who was bowed together, nor wishes her to recover her natural form.
But the envious ruler of the synagogue would have preferred the woman who was made straight to be bowed down after the manner of four-footed beasts, rather than that she should |456 recover the form fitting for man; having no other view than that Christ might not he magnified, nor he proclaimed as God by His deeds. But he is convicted of being a hypocrite, if at least he leads his dumb cattle upon the sabbath to watering, but is indignant that this woman, who was a daughter of Abraham by descent, and still more by her faith, should be freed from the chain of her infirmity. For he considers her deliverance from sickness as a transgression of the sabbath.
All His adversaries were ashamed.
Shame fell then on those who had uttered these corrupt opinions: who had stumbled against the chief corner stone, and been broken; who had resisted the Physician, who had clashed against the wise Potter, when busied in straightening His crooked vessels: and there was no reply which they could make. They had unanswerably convicted themselves, and were put to silence, and in doubt what they should say. So had the Lord closed their audacious mouth. But the multitudes, who reaped the benefit of the miracles, were glad. For the glory and splendour of His works solved all inquiry and doubt in those who sought Him without malice.
It is like a grain of mustard seed.
The comparison is an excellent one, and most fit to set before them what took place and happened at the divine and sacred preaching of the Gospel, to which He here gives the name of the kingdom of heaven; because it is through it that we gain the right of sharing Christ's kingdom. At first then it was addressed to few persons, and within a narrow range, but afterwards it widened its influence, and spread abroad unto all nations. For at first it was spoken in Judaea only, where also the blessed disciples were very few in number: but when Israel disobeyed, the commandment was given to the holy apostles, "having gone to make disciples of all the nations, &c." As therefore a grain of mustard seed is far |457 inferior in size to the seeds of other plants, but shoots up to a great height, far beyond what is usual among herbs, so as for it even to become the lodging of many sparrows, so also the kingdom of heaven, even the new and sacred preaching of salvation, by which we are guided into every good work, and learn Him Who both by nature and verily is God, being at first addressed to but few persons, and as it were small and limited, shot up afterwards into rapid growth, and became the refuge of those who fled to it for shelter, and who may be compared to sparrows, because human things are but of small measure in comparison with God.
The law of Moses was given to the Israelites: but inasmuch as the inhabitants of earth could not be saved by the shadow which alone it contained and its material service, as a necessary consequence the saving preaching of the Gospel sprang up, and is spread abroad unto all under heaven.
And this the letter of the Mosaic law has signified to us in an enigma: for it runs thus, "And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, You shall make unto thyself two trumpets of beaten metal, of silver shall you make them, and they shall be unto you to call the synagogue together, and to move the camp." And soon afterwards, "And the priests, the sons of Aaron, shall sound the trumpets, and it shall be a perpetual law for your generations." By this then you are intended to understand both the preparatory training of the law, and the perfectness attained to in Christ by the gospel mode of life, and the teaching which surpasses shadows and types. The law then is a trumpet, and equally so is the saving preaching of the Gospel; for by this name does the prophet Isaiah also make mention of it, saying, "And it shall come to pass on that day that they shall sound with the great trumpet," For in very deed a great trumpet sounded forth by the voice of the holy apostles, not setting at nought the first [trumpet], but 5 [Sermon 98 restarts here]containing it also within it; for they ever prove what they say concerning Christ by the law and the prophets, making use of the testimonies of older times.
There were then two trumpets made of beaten silver, in which the silver signifies splendour; for every word of God is |458 glorious, having in it none of the darkness of the world: and the hammering out of the metal showed that the sacred and divine trumpet, that is, both the old and new preaching, would advance and grow onward: for that which is hammered out advances as it were continually onward, and extends in breadth and length. "For at Christ's rising for the inhabitants of earth, both the ancient law was to advance unto its spiritual interpretation; for so we preach it who have attained unto spiritual illumination in Christ: and the message of the Gospel was to spread until it embraced the whole world. And to the priests the law gave the use of the trumpets to command the people: but Christ gave the ministers of the new proclamations, by whom are meant the holy apostles, the command to preach Him and His precepts. For they proclaim His mystery, using as it were two trumpets, both preaching Him, as having been "from the beginning eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word," and adding, in confirmation of their words, the true testimonies of the law and the prophets.
And it is no difficult thing to see, that the message of the Gospel preaching, being small at first, was soon to leap forth as it were unto great increase, inasmuch as God had foretold of it by the voice of Isaiah, "that the whole earth has been filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the deep waters that cover the seas." For the preaching of salvation is everywhere poured forth like a sea, and its onward course is irresistible. And this too the God of all clearly told us by the voice of the prophet, "And judgment shall roll as the waters, and righteousness as an impassable flood." For He gives the names of judgment and righteousness to the gospel message, and grants us the assurance that it shall roll over the world like waters and as a flood, whoso rushing streams, as it violently pours along, no man can stay.
And the same method of explanation will hold good of the kingdom of God being also compared unto leaven. For the leaven is small in quantity, yet forthwith it seizes upon the whole mass, and quickly communicates to it its own properties. And the word of God operates in us in a similar manner: for when admitted within us, it makes us holy and without blame, and pervading our mind and heart, it renders us spiritual, that as Paul says, "Our whole body and spirit and soul may be |459 "kept blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." And that the divine word is poured out even into the depth of our understanding, the God of all clearly shows, where He says by one of the holy prophets, "Behold the days come, says the Lord, and I will accomplish upon the house of Israel and upon the house of Judah a new covenant, not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, because they have not continued in My covenant, and I have also rejected them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant which I will make with them, after those days, says the Lord, I will put My laws in their mind, and will write them on their hearts."
We receive therefore the rational and divine leaven in our mind and understanding, that by this precious and holy and pure leaven we may be found spiritually unleavened, as having in us none of the wickedness of the world, but being rather pure and holy and partakers of Christ; by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever, Amen.
1. * The MS. having suffered in this place a slight injury from a rent, the words within brackets are added to complete the sense.
2. u The words within brackets have been added to supply the lacuna on the obverse side of the leaf occasioned by the rent spoken of above. Many single words have also been added chiefly on the authority of the Greek text in Mai, to supply the place of those which have perished in the Syriac, the whole folium being in an extremely mutilated state,
3. x "Eternal" is an erroneous addition, occasioned probably by S. Cyril having quoted the text from memory, as he does not read it in the heading, nor has it any MS. authority.
4. p The Nestorians, who are expressly named by Theophylact, who has either borrowed the latter part of this extract from Cyril, or the Catenist has mixed up the two together.
5. s The Syriac commences again at these words, forming part of Sermon 98.
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Early Church Fathers - Additional Texts
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Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke (1859) Sermons 99-109. (Luke 13:22-16:13) pp. 460-516.
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke (1859) Sermons 99-109. (Luke 13:22-16:13) pp. 460-516.
Sermon 99
Sermon 100
Sermon 101
Sermon 102
Sermon 103
Sermon 104
Sermon 105
Sermon 106
Sermon 107
Sermon 108
Sermon 109
SERMON XCIX.
13:22-30. And He went about among the cities and villages teaching; and journeyed towards Jerusalem. And one said unto Him, Lord, are they few that be saved? And He said unto them; Strive to enter in at the strait door: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able, directly that the master of the house arises, and shuts the door: and you begin to stand outside, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, open to us; and He shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence you are. Then you will begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in Your presence, and You have taught in our streets: and He will say, I tell you, I know you not, whence you are; depart from me, all you workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves cast out. And they shall come from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down to meat in the kingdom of God. And lo! there are last that shall be first, and first that shall be last.
A SHIP is guided to the right port by means of the helm; but the word of God pilots the soul of man, and leads him without risk of error to every thing that is necessary for salvation. For so spoke one of the holy prophets; "Take with you words:" even those which are inspired by the Holy Spirit: for no man of sense will say, that it means the words of the wise of this world. For their words lead men unto the pit of destruction, by bringing polytheism into the world, and by inciting unto carnal pleasure, and to the desire of the world's vain distractions: but the words of God point out the pathway to a better life, and beget in us an earnestness which makes us cheerfully advance unto the duty of performing all those things, by means of which we are made partakers of eternal life. |461
Let us listen therefore to the Saviour's words, which He addressed unto those who wanted to learn, whether they be few who are saved: and to whom the Saviour answered, "Strive to enter in by the strait door." Now this reply may seem perhaps, to wander from the scope of the question. For the man wanted to learn, whether they be few who are saved: but He described unto him the way whereby he might be saved himself, saying, "Strive to enter in by the strait door." What reply then do we make to this objection? We answer as follows; that it was the custom of our common Saviour Christ to meet His questioners, not of course according to what might seem good to them, but as having regard to what was useful and necessary for His hearers. And this He especially did when any one wanted to learn what was superfluous and un-edifying. For what good was there in wishing to learn, whether there be many or few that be saved? What benefit resulted from it to the hearers? On the contrary it was a necessary and valuable thing to know in what way a man may attain to salvation. He is purposely silent therefore with respect to the useless question which had been asked Him, but proceeds to speak of what was essential, namely, of the knowledge necessary for the performance of those duties by which men can enter in at the strait and narrow door. For this He has also taught us in another place, saying; "Enter in at the strait door: for wide is the door, and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many are they that go in thereby. For strait is the door, and narrow is the way that leads unto life, and few are they that find it."
Now I consider it my duty to mention why the door is narrow, through which a man goes unto life. Whosoever then would enter must of necessity first before everything else possess an upright and uncorrupted faith: and, secondly, a spotless morality, in which is no possibility of blame, according to the measure of human righteousness. For so the prophet David also somewhere says, very excellently framing his supplications unto God, " Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness; and according to my innocency requite me." For the innocency and righteousness of the holy angels, being in proportion to their nature and glory, is entirely distinct from that which belongs to the inhabitants of earth: for theirs is of |462 a lower kind, and inferior in every respect, just as they are inferior to them also in nature. Nevertheless those who wish to live holily cannot do so without labour: for constantly, so to speak, the pathway that leads unto virtue is rugged and steep, and for most men too difficult to walk upon. For labours spring up before us and we have need altogether of fortitude and patience, and nobleness of conduct: yes, moreover, and of a mind that cannot be prevailed upon dissolutely to take part in base pleasures, or to be led by irrational impulses into carnal lust. He who has attained unto this in mind and spiritual fortitude will enter easily by the strait door, and run along the narrow way. For it is written, that "by labours a man labours for himself, and violently gains the mastery over his destruction." You hear how the prophet plainly says, that he gains the mastery over his destruction by violence; for as the Lord himself again said, "The kingdom of heaven is gained by violence, and the violent seize it."
"For wide is the door, and broad the way that brings down many to destruction." And what are we to understand by its broadness? It means an unrestrained tendency to carnal lust; a base and pleasure loving life; luxurious feastings, and revellings and banquetings, and unresisted inclinations unto every thing which is condemned by the law, and displeasing to God: a stiff-necked mind that will not bow to the yoke of the law: a life accursed, and relaxed in all dissoluteness, thrusting from it the divine law, and utterly unmindful of the sacred commandments: wealth and the vices that spring from it, scorn and pride, and the vain imagining of transitory boastings. From all such things must those withdraw who would enter in by the strait door, and be with Christ, and keep festival with Him.
And that such as are not thus minded cannot walk upon this way, He showed at once by a plain example. For those who were too late, and so to say, did not arrive at the feast, their lot was to be at once rejected. "For when," He says, "the master of the house enters in, and shuts the door, and they begin to say from without, Lord, open to us; he will say, I know you not whence you are." For in the character as it were of some householder, who has gathered many of his neighbours to his house and table, and has afterwards entered |463 in with his guests and closed the door, He says that those who subsequently knock, shall have for answer, "I know you not whence you are:" and though, He says, you importune, saying, "we have eaten before You and drunk; and You have taught in our streets; you shall hear none the less, I know you not whence you are. Depart far from Me, all you workers of iniquity." For the light has no communion at all with the darkness: nor can any one he near unto the perfectly pure God who is held by the pollutions of sin, and whose stain is not yet washed away.
We must however next inquire who we are to understand by those who say unto Christ, 'We have eaten and drunk in Your presence, and You have taught in our streets? Such an assertion then would suit the Israelites, to whom also Christ said, "you shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves cast out." But how then were they eating and drinking before God? I answer, by performing the service enacted in the law: for when offering unto God sacrifices by the shedding of blood, they ate and made merry. And they heard also in their synagogues the writings of Moses, interpreting God's messages: for constantly he prefaced his words with, 'Thus says the Lord.' These then are they who say, "We have eaten and drunk in Your presence, and You have taught in our streets." But the worship by the shedding of blood is not sufficient for justification, nor verily does a man wash away his stains by having become a hearer of the divine laws, if he does nothing of what has been commanded.
And in another way, as long as they refused to accept the faith, which justifies the wicked, nor would follow the evangelic commands, by means of which it is possible to practice the excellent and elect life, how could they enter the kingdom of God? The type therefore profits not: for it justifies no man, and it is a thing impossible for the blood of bulls and of goats to take away sins. |464
With the above-named, you may number certain others also as able to say to the Judge of all, "we have eaten and drunk in Your presence, and You have taught in our streets." And who again are these? Many have believed in Christ, and celebrate the holy festivals in His honour; and frequenting the churches they also hear the doctrines of the Gospel: but they lay up in their mind of the truths of Scripture absolutely nothing. And it is with difficulty that the practice of virtue is brought with them even to this extent, while of spiritual fruitfulness their heart is quite bare. These too shall weep bitterly, and gnash their teeth; for the Lord shall deny them also. For He has said, that "not every one that says unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that does the will of My Father Who is in heaven."
But that the Jews were about to fall utterly from their rank of being in a spiritual sense His household, and that the multitude of the Gentiles should enter in their stead, He showed by saying, that "there shall come from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south, many who received the call, and shall rest with the saints; but they shall be driven away: and whereas they once had the first rank, they shall now take the second, by reason of others being preferred before them." Which also happened; for the Gentiles have been honoured far above the Jewish herd. For it was guilty both of disobedience and of the murder of the Lord: but they honoured the faith that is in Christ; by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever, Amen. |465
SERMON C.
13:31-35. That same hour there drew near certain Pharisees, saying unto Him, Depart, and go hence: for Herod desires to kill you. And He said unto them, Go you, and tell this fox, Behold I cast out devils, and I do cures today and tomorrow, and on the third I shall be perfected. Nevertheless I must walk today and tomorrow and the day afterward: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that kills the prophets, and stones them that are sent unto her, how often would I have gathered your children, as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not. Behold your house is abandoned for you: and I say unto you, that you shall not see Me, until you say, Blessed is He That comes in the name of the Lord.
THE Pharisaic crew was always, so to speak, wicked and designing, and eager for fraud, gnashing their teeth at Christ, whenever He was regarded with admiration, and with their heart consumed by the fire of envy. And yet how was it not rather their duty as being the people's guides, and set over the ordinary multitude, to lead them on unto the confession of Christ's glory, as being the purpose both of the enactment of the law, and of the preaching of the holy prophets. But this in their great wickedness they did not do: yes! rather in every way they resisted Him, and provoked Him incessantly to anger; and therefore Christ said unto them, "Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites: for you have taken away the key of knowledge: you enter not in yourselves, and those that were entering you have hindered." For one can see that they had fallen into such a state of malice, and into a disposition so contrary to the love of God, that they were not willing for Him even to dwell in Jerusalem, lest He should benefit men, partly by filling them with wonder at His divine miracles, and partly by shedding upon them the light of the |466 accurate vision of God by means of the teaching of truths superior to those of the law.
Such are the thoughts to which we are here led by the purport of the lessons now set before us. "For in that same hour, it says, certain Pharisees drew near, and said unto Him, Depart and go hence: for Herod desires to kill You." Come, then, and let us fix the scrutinizing eye of the mind on what is hero said by them. Let us accurately examine which of the two is the case, whether the speakers are to be reckoned among those who love Him, or among those who would oppose Him. But, as it appears, there is no difficulty whatsoever in perceiving that they were His thorough opponents. For Christ, for instance, raised the dead from the grave, employing therein a power such as belongs to God: for He cried, "Lazarus, come forth:" and to the widow's son, "Young man, I say unto you, arise." But they made the miracle food for their envy, and even said, when gathered together, "What do we, because this man does many miracles? If we thus leave Him alone, the Romans will come, and take away our people and our land." And then, even then, it was that Caiaphas, planning wicked murder against Him, said; "As for you, you know nothing at all, that it is expedient for you that one man die for the people, and not that the whole people perish."
And they resisted Him also in other ways; at one time treating Him with scorn, and mocking His miraculous power, and venturing even to accuse His godlike authority, saying, that whatever was done was wrought by the help of Beelzebub: and at another even endeavouring to give Him up to Caesar's satellites. For as though He prohibited the Israelites from paying tax unto Caesar, they drew near to Him in treachery and guile, saying, "Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar or not?" Can those then who laid for Him all kinds of snares; who, in their audacity and hardihood, did not even abstain from murder; who, being cunning for wickedness, attacked Him with remorseless violence, and readily practised all such arts as those do who hate utterly; how, I say, can such be reckoned among those who love Him?
Why then did they draw near, saying, "Depart hence: for |467 "Herod wishes to kill You:" and what object had they in so doing? The Evangelist tells us this, by saying, "That same hour they drew near to Him." And what is the meaning of this carefulness of language? Why was there this exactitude? or what hour does he mean as that in which the Pharisees said these things to Jesus? He was occupied in teaching the Jewish multitudes, when some one asked Him whether there be many that are saved. He passed by the question, however, as unprofitable, and turned to that which was fitting for Him to tell, the way, namely, by which men must walk to become heirs of the kingdom of heaven. For He said, "Strive to enter in at the strait door: and told them that if they refuse so to do, they will see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and themselves cast out." And He added thereunto, that "whereas they had been the first, they should be the last," upon the calling namely of the heathen. These remarks goaded the mind of the Pharisees unto anger: they saw the multitudes already repenting, and receiving with eagerness faith in Him; and that they needed now but a little more instruction to learn His glory and the great and adorable mystery of the incarnation. As being likely therefore to lose their office of being chiefs of the people, and as already fallen and expelled from their authority over them, and deprived of their profits,----for they were fond of wealth, and covetous, and given to lucre,----they made pretence of loving Him, and even drew near, and said, "Depart and go hence: for Herod desires to kill You." But, O stonyhearted Pharisee, had you been wise; had you been well acquainted with the law of the most wise Moses; had you really fixed your mind upon the declarations of the holy profits; it could not have escaped you that there was no possibility of your being undetected in feigning a false show of affection, while your mind was full of gall. He was not a mere man, and one of those like unto us, and so liable to deception; but God in our likeness: God Who understands everything, and "knows secrets," as it is written, and "tries the hearts and reins;" "to Whom all things are naked, and spread open," and from Whom nothing is hid. But you knew not this precious and mighty mystery: you thought that |468 you could deceive even Him Who says; "Who is this that hides from Me his mind, and shuts up words in his heart, and thinks that from Me he hides them?"
What then does Christ answer to these things? He replied to them gently, and with His meaning veiled, as was His wont: "Go and tell, He says, this fox." Attend closely to the force of the expression: for the words used seem forsooth to be directed, and to have regard, as it were, to the person of Herod: but they really rather refer to the craftiness of the Pharisees. For while He would naturally have said, "Tell that fox," He does not do so, but using very skilfully a middle sort of expression, He, so to speak, pointed to the Pharisee, who was close beside Him, and said, "this fox." And He compares the man to a fox: for it is constantly a very crafty animal, and, if I may so speak, malicious, such as were the Pharisees.
But what did He bid them say? "Behold, I cast out devils, and do cures today and tomorrow, and the third I shall be perfected." You see that He declares His intention of performing what He knew would grieve the troop of Pharisees: for they drive Him from Jerusalem, lest by the display of miracles He should win many unto faith in Him. But inasmuch as their purpose herein did not escape Him as being God, He declares His intention of performing what they hated, and says, that "He shall also rebuke unclean spirits, and deliver the sick from their sufferings, and be perfected;" which means, that of His own will He would endure the passion upon the cross, for the salvation of the world. He knew, therefore, as it appears, both how and when He would endure death in the flesh.
The Pharisees, however, imagined that the power of Herod would terrify Him, and humble Him unto mean fears, although He is Lord of powers, and begets in us spiritual bravery by His words, "Fear not them who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul," And that He too makes no account of the violence of men He showed, saying, "But I must walk today and tomorrow and the day after." And in saying, "I must," He does not imply that an inevitable necessity, so to speak, was laid upon Him, but rather that by the power of |469 His own will, freely and without danger He would go wherever He chose, and traverse Judaea without any one opposing Him or plotting Him ill, until of His own accord He received His consummation upon the precious cross.
Let not therefore those murderers of the Lord pride themselves, or superciliously vaunt themselves against Him. You did not win a victory over One Who fled from suffering. You didst not seize One unwilling. You didst not prevail over One Who refused to be caught in the meshes of your craftiness. Of His own will He consented to suffer, as being well assured that by the death of His flesh He would abolish death, and return again to life. For He arose from the dead, having raised up with Him the whole nature of man, and having fashioned it anew unto the life incorruptible.
But He shows that Jerusalem is guilty of the blood of many saints, declaring, "that it is not possible for a prophet to perish out of her." And what follows from this? That they were about to fall from being members of God's spiritual family; that they were about to be rejected from the hope of the saints, and entirely deprived of the inheritance of those blessings which are in store for them who have been saved by faith. For that they were forgetful of God's gifts, and intractable, and slothful unto everything that might have profited them, He showed, saying; "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that kills the prophets, and stones them that are sent unto her, how often would I have gathered your sons, as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not: behold your house is abandoned unto you." For He taught them by the most wise Moses, and ordained for them the law to direct them in their conduct, and be their ruler and guide in the life worthy of admiration, and which though it was but as yet in shadows, nevertheless possessed the type of the true worship: He admonished them by the holy prophets: He would have had them under His wings, under the protection, that is, of His power: but they lost blessings thus valuable by being evil-disposed and ungrateful, and despisers.
"But," says He, "you shall not see Me henceforth until you say, Blessed is he that comes in the Name of the Lord." And what again is this? The Lord withdrew from Jerusalem, |470 and left as unworthy of His presence those who said, "Depart and go hence." And afterwards having traversed Judaea, and saved many, and performed miracles which no words can adequately describe, He returned again to Jerusalem. And then it was, even then, that He sat upon a foal and an ass, while vast multitudes and young children, holding up branches of palm-trees, went before Him, praising Him, and saying, "Hosanna to the Son of David. Blessed is He That comes in the Name of the Lord." Having left them therefore as being unworthy, He says that He will then barely be seen by them when the time of His passion has arrived. For then again He went up to Jerusalem, and entered amid praises, and at that very time endured His saving passion in our behalf, that by suffering He might save, and renew unto incorruption the inhabitants of the earth. For God the Father has saved us by Christ: by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever, Amen. |471
SERMON CI.
14:1-6. And it came to pass, when He had gone into the house of one of the chief Pharisees on the sabbath day to eat bread, that they watched Him. And behold there was a certain man before Him who had the dropsy. And Jesus answered and spoke unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying; Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day or no? And they were silent. And He took him, and healed him, and sent him away. And He answered them, saying; Which of you shall have a son or an ox fall into a pit, and will not immediately draw him out on the sabbath day? And they could not return Him an answer to these things.
AGAIN the Lord works miracles, and exercising a divine and supreme power, performs His accustomed acts, and manifests His glory. He benefits then in more ways than one the intractable and contentious Pharisee. For just as maladies of more than usual violence will not yield to the skill of physicians, but require the main force of persons of blunter feelings: so also the human mind, that has turned aside to wickedness, rejects all that could benefit it, directly that it has once become the victim of an uncontrollable tendency to disobedience, being brought into this state by unreproved departures from the right path. 1
And that this is undeniably true, any one may see who will give his attention to the lessons here set before us. For a Pharisee, of higher rank than usual, invited Jesus to a banquet: and He, although He knew their malice, went with him, and dined in their company. And He submitted to this act of condescension, not to honour His inviter, but rather to benefit those in whose company He was, by such words and miraculous deeds as might lead them to the acknowledgment of the true service, even that which is taught us by the gospel. For He |472 know that even against their will He would make them eyewitnesses both of His power, and of His more than human glory, if perchance even so they might believe that He is God and the Son of God, Who assumed indeed our likeness, but continued unchanged, nor ceased to be that which He had been.
He became the guest then of His inviters, to fulfil, as I said, a necessary duty: "but they, it says, watched Him." And for what reason did they watch Him, and on what account? To see forsooth whether He would disregard the honour due to the law, and so do something or other forbidden on the sabbath day. But, O senseless Jew, understand that the law was a shadow and type, waiting for the truth: and the truth was Christ, and His commandments. Why then do you arm the typo against the truth? why do you set the shadow in array against the spiritual interpretation? Keep your sabbath rationally: but if you will not consent so to do, then art you cut off from that sabbath keeping which is well pleasing to God, and know not the true rest, which He requires of us Who of old spoke the law of Moses. Let us cease from our sins; let us rest from our offences; let us wash away our stains; let us abandon the impure love of the flesh; let us flee far from covetousness and extortion; and from disgraceful gains, and the love of lucre. Let us first gather provisions for our souls for the way, the meat that will suffice us in the world to come: and let us apply ourselves to holy works, thereby keeping the sabbath rationally. Those whose office it was to minister among you according to the law used to offer unto God the appointed sacrifices, even upon the sabbath: they slew the victims in the temple, and performed those acts of service which were laid upon them: and no man rebuked them, and the law itself was silent. It did not therefore forbid men ministering upon the sabbath. This then was a type for us: for, as I said, it is our duty, keeping the sabbath in a rational manner, to please God by a sweet spiritual savour. And, as I have already before said, we render this when ceasing from sins, we offer unto God as a sacred oblation a life holy and worthy of admiration, steadily advancing unto all virtue. For this is the spiritual sacrifice well pleasing unto God.
But if, having nought of this in your mind, you cleave |473 solely to the grossness of the legal Scripture, abandoning the truth as something you can not attain to, listen unto God, Who tells you by the voice of the prophet Isaiah; "The heart of this people is waxed gross, their eyes they have closed, and made their ears heavy, lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them." For how were not they heavy and without understanding, and of a mind past helping, who when they might have perceived that He was the Christ by His teaching being superior to the law, and by the wonderful works that He wrought, were obdurate, and regarded only their own preconceived idea of what was right: or rather that only which brought them down to the pit of destruction?
But what was the miracle of which they were spectators? There was a certain man before Him who had the dropsy: the Lord therefore asks the lawyers and Pharisees, whether it is lawful to heal on the sabbath day or not? "But they, it says, were silent." But why, O lawyer, were you silent? Quote something from the scriptures; show that the law of Moses ever blamed the doing good on the sabbath: prove to us that it wishes us to be hardhearted and unmerciful, because of the rest for our bodies;----that it forbids kindness, in order that we may honour the sabbath. But this you can not prove from any part of it. And as they were silent from malice, Christ refutes their immitigable shamelessness by the convincing arguments which He uses. For "whose son of yours," He says, "or whose ox shall fall into a pit, and he will not immediately draw him out on the sabbath day?" If the law forbids the showing mercy on the sabbath, why do you yourself take compassion on that which has fallen into the pit? Trouble not yourself about your son's danger upon the sabbath; rebuke the sting of natural affection, which incites you to feel a father's love. Commit your child with joy to the grave, that you may honour the Giver of the law, as knowing that He |474 is harsh and unmerciful. Let your friend be in danger, but pay not you the slightest heed thereto: nay though you hear a young child weeping, and asking for help, say to it, Die: such is the will of the law. But you will not assent to such reasonings; you will stretch out your hand to one who is distressed, esteeming him of more account than the honour due to the law, or rather than a senseless rest, even if you will not as yet acknowledge that the sabbath ought to be kept in a spiritual manner. The God of all ceases not to be kind: He is good and loving unto men: He instituted not the law of Moses as the mediator of harshness, nor appointed it as a teacher of cruelty, but rather to lead you on to the love of your neighbour. How you was it fitting that a commandment thus venerable and worthy of admiration should by the will of God lose its force upon the sabbath day? Why therefore were you silent, O lawyer? Confessedly because you had nothing to say. For the force of truth is something great, and invincible, able to confound the envious mind, and to muzzle the faultfinding tongue.
Paying then no further heed to the envyings of the Jews, He delivers from his malady the man afflicted with the dropsy, and tyrannized over by an incurable disease. You have seen O Jew, the miracle: extol then the Worker of it. Understand His might, and the gloriousness of His dominion: acknowledge that He is God: offer Him your faith: be not obdurate; but as the prophet Jeremiah says, "Rend your hearts, and not your garments." Expand your mind: open the eye of yours heart: understand that the acts which He works are those of Deity, even though in appearance He be a man like unto us. Recognize therefore Him Who for our sakes bore our likeness, but even so was far above us: or rather far above all creation by His ineffable generation from God the Father. For He is the Son of Him Who transcends all, but though He was Lord He |475 took the form of the slave, that He might make the slave like unto Himself: yet He did not cease to be God, but remains the Same, Whom angels worship, and principalities, and thrones, and lordships. The Seraphim praise Him: and let us also serve Him in faith, mounting upward by His aid to the lot of the saints; by Whom and with Whom, to God the Father be praise and dominion with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever, Amen. |476
SERMON CII.
14:7-11. And He spoke a parable unto them which were bidden preventing how they chose the foremost seats: saying unto them, When you are bidden of any one, seat not yourself at the head of the seat, lest a more honourable man than you be bidden of him; and when he that bade you and him comes, he say to you, Give this man place; and then you begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are bidden, go seat yourself in the lowest place, that when he that bade you comes, he may say unto you Friend, go up higher; then shall you have honour before all who sit with you at meat. For whosoever exalts himself shall be abased, and He that humbles himself shall be exalted.
NEVER does the Saviour cease from doing some act or other replete with benefit, guiding by admonitions and counsels all who draw near unto Him into propriety of conduct, and teaching them that sobriety which becomes saints, that as Paul says, "the man of God may be perfect, complete unto every good work." Seizing therefore every opportunity, however slight, for His words, He wove for us admonitions well worthy of our attention, therein resembling an active husbandman; for whatsoever is liable to blame and reprehension, and covers with utter infamy those who are guilty of it, this He cuts away from our minds, and plants, so to speak, every fruit of virtue: for "we, as Scripture says, are God's husbandry."
What benefit then He has here too discovered for us, we learn from the passage now read. For He was dining on the sabbath day with one of the Pharisees, at his special request. |477
And his purpose in so doing, and motive we explained unto you when last we met together. But inasmuch as He saw certain of those who were invited foolishly seizing the uppermost seats as a thing of importance, and worth the taking, and that they were eager after vainglory, for the benefit both of them and us He utters an urgent warning, saying; "When you are bidden of any one, seat not yourself at the head of the seat, lest a more honourable man than you be bidden of him, and when he that bade you and him comes, he say unto you, Give this man place; and then you begin with shame to take the lowest place."
Now such things may seem perchance to some to be but trifling matters, and not worthy of much attention. But when any one fixes upon them the eye of his mind, he will then learn, from what blame they deliver a man, and how great orderliness they produce in him. For in the first place to hurry inconsiderately after honours neither suitable,, nor due to us, shows us to be foolish, rude, and arrogant, seizing what is not fitting for us, but for others rather, who are greater than and superior to ourselves. Whoever he is that thus acts, is hated, and often too becomes an object of ridicule, when he has to restore to others, and that often against his will, the honour which in no respect belongs unto him. "For when, He says, a more honourable man than you comes, he that bade you and him will say, Give this man place." O! what great ignominy is there in having so to do! It is like a theft, so to speak, and the restitution of the stolen goods. He must restore what he has seized; for he had no right to take it. But the modest and praiseworthy man, who might without fear of blame have claimed the dignity of sitting among the foremost, seeks it not, but yields to others what might be called his own, that he may not even seem to be overcome by vainglory; and such an one shall receive honour as his due: for he shall hear, He says, him who bade him say, "Come up hither."
A modest mind therefore is a great and surpassing good: for it delivers those who possess it from blame and contempt, and from the charge of vaingloriousness. 'But yes! says the lover of vainglory, I wish to be illustrious and renowned, and not despised and neglected, and numbered among the |478 unknown.' If however you desire this transitory and human glory, you are wandering away from the right path, by which you might become truly illustrious, and attain to such praise as is worthy of emulation. For it is written, "All flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass." And the prophet David also blames those who love temporal honours; for he also thus spoke of them, "Let them be as the grass upon the housetops, which withers before it is plucked up." For just as the grass that springs up upon the housetops has no deep fixed root, and for this reason is easily parched up; so he who values worldly honour, after he has been for a short time conspicuous, and, so to speak, in flower, sinks at last into nothingness.
If then any one wish to be set above others, let him win it by the decree of heaven, and be crowned by those honours which God bestows. Let him surpass the many by having the testimony of glorious virtues; but the rule of virtue is a lowly mind that loves not boasting: yes! it is humility. And this the blessed Paul also counted worthy of all esteem: for he writes to such as are eagerly desirous of saintly pursuits, "Love humility." And' the disciple of Christ praises it, thus writing; "Let the poor brother glory in his exaltation: and the rich in his humiliation, because as the flower of the grass he passes away." For the moderate and bridled mind is exalted with God: for "God, it says, will not despise the contrite and abased heart."
But whosoever thinks great things of himself, and is supercilious, and elate in mind, and prides himself on an empty loftiness, is rejected and accursed. He follows a course the contrary of Christ's, Who said; "Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart." "For the Lord, it says, resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble." The wise Solomon also shows in many places the safety of the humble mind; at one time saying, "Exalt not yourself, that you fall not:" and at another time, he figuratively declares the same thing; "He that makes his house high, seeks an overthrow." Such a one is hated of God, and very justly, as having mistaken himself, and senselessly aimed above the limits of his nature. For upon what ground, I pray, does man upon earth think great things of himself? For certainly his mind is weak, and |479 easily led into base pleasures: his body is tyrannized over by corruption and death: and the duration of his life is short and limited. Nor is this all, for naked were we born, and therefore riches, and wealth, and worldly honour come to us from without, and are not really ours: for they belong not to the properties of our nature. For what reason therefore is the mind of man puffed up? What is there to exalt it to superciliousness and boasting? Were any one but to regard his state with understanding eyes, he would then become like Abraham, who mistook not his nature, and called himself "dust and ashes." And like another also who says; "Quit man who is rottenness, and the son of man who is a worm." But he who is a worm and rottenness; this dust and ashes: this very nothingness becomes great and admirable and honourable before God, by knowing himself; for so he is crowned by God with honour and praise: for the Saviour of all and Lord gives grace to the humble: by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever, Amen. |480
SERMON CIII.
14:12-14. Then said He also to him that bade Him, When you make a dinner or a supper, call not your friends, nor your brethren, neither your kinsmen, nor your rich neighbours; lest they also bid you again, and a recompense be made you. But when you make a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind. And you shall be blessed, because they cannot recompense you: for you shall be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.
REMARKABLE indeed is the beauty of the mind of man: and it shows itself in various ways, and is conspicuous in a diversity of manners. For just as those who are skilled in delineating forms in pictures cannot by one colour attain to perfect beauty in their painting, but rather use various and many kinds of hues; so also the God of all, Who is the Giver and Teacher of spiritual beauty, adorns our souls with that manifold virtue which consists in all saintlike excellence of living, in order to complete in us His likeness. For in His rational creatures the best and most excellent beauty is the likeness of God, which is wrought in us by the exact vision of God, and by virtue perfected by active exertion. Consider therefore how our Lord Jesus Christ makes our souls beautiful by every spiritual adornment. For here He had commanded the Pharisees and lawyers, or rather, the Scribes, to think lowly of themselves, and to cultivate a mind free from the love of vainglory, bidding them not to seize upon the foremost seats. For He was dining with them, that being in their company He might benefit them even against their will. And after them He next addressed him who had invited them, and assembled them to the entertainment, saying, "When you make a dinner or a supper, call not your friends, nor your brethren, neither your kinsmen nor your rich neighbours: but rather the lame, and the blind, and the maimed."
Would He then produce in us a morose state of mind? Is it His will that we be unsociable, and unloving, so as not even to deem our friends and relatives worthy of that affection which |481 especially is fitting and due to them? Are we to pay no regard to those who are near us in affection and love? Does He forbid the rights of hospitality? But how is it not absurd and ignorant to imagine that He contradicts His own laws? What then does He wish to teach? Something perhaps like what follows; Those who possess great store of wealth make much account, so to speak, of a constant display and ostentation. For oftentimes they bring men to banquet with them, and make entertainments at vast cost, with curiously prepared viands, and such as do not escape the blame of prodigality. And this it is their custom to do, in order to gain the praises and applause of their guests. And in receiving the praises of their flatterers, as the wages, so to speak, of their extravagance, they rejoice greatly, as though they had gained something of value. For it is the habit of flatterers to praise oven those things which deserve blame.
For what good is there in such prodigal abundance beyond what necessity requires? For as Christ Himself somewhere said, "Few things are needful, or one," for the necessary appeasing of the wants of the body. That we may escape therefore the danger of losing the reward of our outlay, by expending our wealth in such pursuits as will bear good fruit, He has commanded us to invite the poor, and the maimed, and the blind, and those who are suffering under other bodily maladies; that by our liberality in so doing, we may attain to the hope that comes from above from God.
The lesson therefore which He teaches us is love unto the poor, which is a thing precious in the sight of God. Do you feel pleasure in being praised when you have any friends of relatives feasting with you? I tell you of something far better: angels shall praise your bounty, and the rational powers above, and holy men as well: and He too shall accept it Who transcends all, and Who loves mercy and is kind. Lend unto Him fearing nothing, and you shall receive with usury whatever you gave: "for he, it says, who has pity on the poor lends unto God." He acknowledged the loan, and promises repayment. "For when the Son of man, He says, shall come in the glory of His Father, with the holy angels, and shall sit upon the throne of His glory, He shall set the sheep upon His right hand, and the goats upon His left. |482
And He shall say to them on His right hand, Come you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundations of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me meat: I was thirsty and you gave Me drink: I was naked and you covered Me: sick and you visited Me: in prison, and you came unto Me. And to this He added, Verily I say unto you, that whatsoever you have done to one of these little ones, you have done unto Me." The outlay therefore is not unfruitful: rather shall compassion upon the poor make your wealth breathe forth a sweet savour. Purchase the grace that comes from God; buy for your friend the Lord of heaven and earth: for verily we oftentimes purchase men's friendship with large sums of gold, and if those of high rank are reconciled unto us, we feel great joy in offering them presents even beyond what we can afford, because of the honour which accrues to us from them. And yet these things are but transitory, and quickly fade away, and are like the phantasies of dreams.
But to be members of God's household, must we not count that as a thing worth the gaining; and esteem it as of the highest importance? For certainly after the resurrection from the dead we must stand in Christ's presence; and there a recompense shall of necessity be made to the compassionate and merciful: but a condemnation commensurate with their deeds shall be the lot of those who were harsh and without mutual love; for it is written, "that there is judgment without mercy for those who have showed no mercy." And if so, how is it not the proof and perfection of a sound mind, that before we descend to the pit of torment we should take forethought for our life? For come, and let us discuss this among ourselves. Suppose that for some cause or other which the law condemned they had dragged us before the judges, and so a sentence such as our offences deserved had been passed upon us after our conviction; should we not with pleasure offer up our wealth to escape from all torment and punishment? And how can there be any doubt of this? For oneself is better than possessions, and life than wealth. Now we are guilty of many sins, and must give an account to the Judge of whatsoever we have done; and why then do we not deliver ourselves from judgment and the everlasting fire while time permits? And the |483 way in which to deliver ourselves is to live in virtue;----to comfort the brethren who are grieved with poverty, and open our hand wide to all who are in need, and to sympathize with the sick.
For tell me what is harder than poverty, that implacable beast of prey, that bane which no admonition can charm away, that worst of maladies, or rather more cruel than any malady? We therefore must give a helping hand to those who are suffering under it: we must open wide to them our heart, and not pass by their lamentation. For suppose a savage beast of prey had sprung upon some wayfarer, would not any one who witnessed the occurrence seize up any thing that came to hand, a stone for instance, or stick, and drive away the beast that was mercilessly rending and tearing the man fallen beneath its blow? Who is so hardhearted and full of hatred to mankind as to pass by one thus miserably perishing? And must not you own, that poverty, as I said, is more cruel than any beast of prey? Aid therefore those who are fallen under it: incline yours ear to the poor, and listen to him, as it is written, "For he, it says, who stops his ears that he may not hear the feeble, he also shall cry, and there shall be none to listen." Give that you may receive: hear that you may be heard: sow your little that you may reap much. And besides, the pleasure of the body is short and temporary, and ends in rottenness: but almsgiving and charity to the poor crown those who practise them with glory from God, and lead them to that incorruptible happiness which Christ bestows on those who love Him: by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever, Amen. |484
SERMON CIV.
14: 15-24. And when one of them that reclined at table with Him heard these things, he said unto Him, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. But He said unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many. And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come, for lo! all things are ready. And they at once began all of them to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a field, and I must needs go to see it: I pray you permit me to be excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them: I pray you permit me to be excused. And another said, I have taken a wife, and therefore I cannot come. And when the servant returned, he told his lord these things. Then the master of the house was angry, and said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and marketplaces of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the blind, and the lame. And the servant said, Lord, what you command is done, and yet there is room. And the lord said to his servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. For I say unto you, that none of those men that were bidden shall taste of my supper.
AGAIN, the purport of the lessons laid before us obliges me to say, that the fruit of good works is praiseworthy. For not unrewarded is the toil of the saints, as they strenuously labour to lead that life which is truly worthy of admiration both with God and men. For the wise Paul writes, "For God is not unrighteous to forget your labour and your love, which you have showed unto His Name." And again in another place he uses similar words, "For the lightness, he says, of our present affliction works for us abundantly and in a higher degree an eternal greatness of glory, when we look not at the things which are seen, but at those which are not seen; for the things which are seen are those of time, but the things which are not seen are for eternity." For the things of time are those of |485 earth; and these we say are what are here called "the things which are seen:" but those which are to come, and which at present are not seen, but consist in those hopes which, are with God, are stored up for us in mansions that cannot be shaken.
And who they are for whom these things are prepared, and unto whom they will be given, the Saviour has here shown, portraying as in a picture by the parable set before us, the nature and efficacy of the dispensation. It is necessary however for me first to say what was the occasion which led to this discourse.
Our Lord then was feasting at a certain Pharisee's, in company with many others assembled there, the friends of him who had bidden them to the entertainment, and the sharers of his sentiments. There again the Saviour of all, to benefit those who were gathered there,----for He loves mercy rather, and not honour and vainglory;----perfected him that invited them, by not permitting him to make lavish expense, or aim at what was beyond his means, to gain the praise of men. For He said, "When you make a dinner or a supper, call not your friends, nor your brethren, nor further, any others who are rich and your neighbours: but rather the poor, and the maimed, and the blind. For those, He said, who so act shall be blessed at the resurrection of the just." Upon which one of those who were reclining with them at meat, on hearing words thus excellent, said, "Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God." Probably however this man was not as yet spiritual, but rather animal, nor fitted to understand correctly what was spoken by Christ: for he was not one of those who believed, nor had he as yet been baptized. For he supposed that the rewards of the saints, for their mutual labours of love, would be in things pertaining to the body. Because then they were too dull in heart to comprehend a precise idea, Christ frames for them a parable which with sufficient appositeness sets forth the nature of the dispensation about to be instituted for their sakes: and says, "A certain man made a great supper, and bade many. And he sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come, for lo! all things are ready."
And here let us first of all inquire, what was the reason why it is rather to a supper than a dinner that the guests were |486 invited; or rather, even before this, who is to be understood by the man who sent one to invite to the supper; and who also is the inviter, and who in fine they are who were invited, but despised the summons.
By the man therefore is to be understood God the Father. For similitudes are formed to represent the truth, and are by no means the truth themselves. He therefore, the Creator of the universe, and the Father of glory, made a great supper, that is, a festival for the whole world, in honour of Christ. In the last times then of the world, and. so to speak, at this our world's setting, the Son arose for us: at which time also He suffered death for our sakes, and gave us His flesh to eat, as being the bread from heaven, Which gives life to the world. Towards evening also, and by the light of torches, the lamb was sacrificed, according to the law of Moses. And therefore with good reason the invitation that is by Christ is called a supper.
And next, who is he that was sent, and who it also says was a slave? Perchance Christ Himself: for though God the Word is by nature God, and the very Son of God the Father, from Whom He was manifested, yet He emptied Himself, to take the form of a slave. As being therefore God of God He is Lord of all; but one may justly apply the appellation of a slave to the limits of His humanity. Yet though He had taken, as I said, the form of a slave, He was even so Lord as being God.
And when was He sent? At supper time, it says. For it was not at the commencement of this world that the only-begotten Word of the Father descended from heaven, and was in form like unto us; but rather when the Omnipotent Himself willed it, even in these latter times, as also we have already said.
And what was the nature of the invitation? "Come: for lo! all things are ready." For God the Father has prepared in Christ for the inhabitants of earth those gifts which are bestowed upon the world through Him, even the forgiveness of sins, the cleansing away of all defilement, the communion of the Holy Spirit, the glorious adoption as sons, and the kingdom of heaven. Unto these blessings Christ invited by the commandments of the gospel Israel before all others. For somewhere He has even said by the voice of the Psalmist; "But I have been set as a king by Him; that is, by God the Father; |487 upon Zion His holy mount, to preach the commandment of the Lord." And again, "I was not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel."
And their determination then, was it for their own good? Did they regard with admiration the gentleness of Him Who bade them, and the office of Him Who ministered the call? Not so: for "they began, it says, all of them at once to make excuse:" that is, as with one purpose, without any delay, they made excuse. "For the first said, I have bought a field, and I must needs go to see it: I pray you, permit me to be excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them: I pray you, permit me to be excused. And another said, I have taken a wife, and therefore I cannot come." You perceive that by senselessly giving themselves up to these earthly matters, they cannot see things spiritual; for being overcome by the love of the flesh, they are far from holiness, and are covetous and greedy after wealth. They seek those things which are below, but make no account, no not in the slightest degree, of those hopes which are stored up with God. Far better would it have been instead of earthly fields to gain the joys of paradise: and instead of transitory tillage, for this was the object of the yokes of oxen, to gather the fruits of righteousness. For it is written, "Sow for yourselves righteousness; gather as vintage the fruit of life." Was it not their duty rather, instead of the carnal procreation of children, to have chosen spiritual fruitfulness? For the one is subject unto death and corruption: the other is an eternal and abiding; affluence for the saints.
When then the householder heard their refusal, he was angry, it says; and commanded that from the streets and marketplaces of the city there should be gathered the poor, and the maimed, and the blind, and the lame. And who then are to be understood by those who for the sake, as I said, of lands, and tillage, and the carnal procreation of children, refused to come? Certainly it must be those, who stood at the head of the Jewish synagogue; men with wealthy purses, the slaves of covetousness, with their mind set on lucre, on which they lavished all their earnestness. For so to speak throughout |488 the whole of inspired Scripture, one may see them blamed for this very thing.
Those then who were superior in station to the mass of the common people did not submit themselves to Christ, when, saying unto them, "Take My yoke upon you:" they rejected the invitation: they did not accept the faith; they remained away from the feast; and scorned the great supper by their hardened disobedience. For that the scribes and Pharisees did not believe in Christ, is manifest by what He says unto them, "You have taken away the key of knowledge: you enter not in yourselves: and those that are entering you have hindered." In their stead therefore those were called who were in the streets and market-places, who belonged, that is, to the Jewish common people, whose mind was sickly, and infirm, and dark, and halting: for such one may consider to be blind and lame. But they became strong and whole in Christ: they learnt to walk uprightly, and received the divine light into their mind. And that a multitude of the Jews not easy to number believed, one may learn from the Acts of the Apostles.
When then those, it says, who were in the streets had been called, he whose office it was to bid them to the supper said to the householder, "Still there is room. And the lord said to his servant. Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. For I say unto you, that no one of those men that were bidden shall taste of my supper."
Here observe, I pray, the calling of the Gentiles after that the Israelites had entered by faith.. For in old time the Gentiles were boorish in mind, and uncultivated in understanding, and so to say, outside the city, as living in lawlessness, and more like cattle than men, and with little use of reason. And on this account he who invites to the supper is sent unto the highways, outside the city, and to the hedges in the fields: |489 moreover he is commanded by him who seat him not merely to invite, and offer them exhortation only, but even to compel them. And yet in all men faith is a voluntary act, and by attaining unto it of their own free will, men are acceptable unto God, and largely endowed with His gifts. How then are men compelled? Yes, this also was said advisedly. For it was necessary, absolutely necessary for the Gentiles, as being fettered by an intolerable tyranny, and fallen under the yoke of the devil, and caught, so to speak, in the indissoluble meshes of their sins, and utterly ignorant of Him Who by nature and verily is God, that their calling should be very urgent, resembling the use of force, that they might be able to look up unto God, and taste the sacred doctrines, and leave off their former error, and spring away as it were from the hand of Satan. For Christ also said, "No man can come unto Me except My Father Who sent Me drag him." But dragging implies that the calling is an act of power such as God only can exercise. And the blessed David is also found addressing God in similar terms respecting them, "With bridle and bit shall You restrain the jaws of those that draw not near unto You." You see how the God of all as with a bridle turns unto Himself those who fiercely have departed from Him: for He is good and loving unto mankind, and wills that all men should be saved, and come unto the knowledge of the truth.
The chiefs therefore of the Israelitish populace remained aloof from the supper, as being obdurate and proud and disobedient, and scorned so surpassing an invitation, because they had turned aside to earthly things, and fixed their mind upon the vain distractions of this world. But the vulgar multitude was called in, and after them immediately and without delay the Gentiles. For when our Lord Jesus Christ arose from the dead, He cried out unto the holy apostles saying, " All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth: go make disciples of all nations, baptizing you them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit: and teaching you them to observe all those things that I have commanded you: and lo! I am with you every day even unto the end of the world." |490
SERMON CV.
14:25-35. And great multitudes went with Him: and He turned and said unto them; Whosoever cometh unto Me, and hates not his father and his mother, and his wife, and his children, and his brethren, and his sisters: yes, and his own self also, he cannot be My disciple. And whosoever does not bear his cross, and come after Me, cannot be My disciple. For which of you, that wishes to build a tower, sits not down first, and counts the cost, to see whether he have sufficient to finish it? Lest when he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him, saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish. Or what king going to make war with another king, sits not down first and consider, whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that comes against him with twenty thousand? And if he be not, while the other is yet afar off, he sends ambasssadors, and asks conditions of peace. So therefore every one of you that forsakes not all his possessions, cannot be My disciple. Halt therefore is good: but if the salt have no savour, with what shall it be seasoned? It is useful neither for the land, nor yet for the dunghill: they cast it out. He that has ears to hear, let him hear.
THOSE who command warlike armies, and have won for themselves martial glory, whenever the time for battle has arrived, instruct the troops under their orders in what way, arraying themselves manfully against the phalanxes of the enemy, they will gain a triumphant victory. And the Saviour of all, imitating the skilfulness of those here mentioned, very clearly shows unto all who would follow Him, the pathway of spiritual manfulness: that advancing with unrestrainable impetuosity unto every triumph of piety, and exerting a stern and irresistible earnestness, they may win by a just decree the right of being with Him, and following Him.
This lesson then clearly teaches us, what sort of persons He |491 would have us to be. "For whosoever comes unto Me, He says, and hates not his father and his mother, and his wife and his children, and his brethren, and his sisters, yes, and his own self also, cannot be My disciple." 'What then, O Lord, some perchance may say, do You despise the laws of natural affection? Do You command us to hate one another, and to disregard the love that is due to fathers from their sons, to wives from their husbands, to brethren from their brethren? Shall we make those enemies who are members of the same household; and those, whom it is our duty rather to love, must we count as foes, in order that we may be with you, and be able to follow you?'
This is not what the Saviour means. Away with so vain a a thought. For He Who commands even those who are violent enemies to be gentle, and forgiving to all who would do them wrong: for, "Love, He says, your enemies: and pray for them that spoil you:" how could He wish us to hate those who are born of the same family, and to disregard the honour due to parents, and think nothing of despising our brethren; yes! and our own children also, and even our own self? For He, Who has pronounced condemnation even upon those who disregard the law of mutual love, could not wish His friends to cherish a savage, and so to speak, a desperate state of minds. What however He does wish to teach in these commands is plain to those who can understand from what is said in another place expressly upon the same subject. "For he that loves, He says, father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me: and he that loves son or daughter more Me, is not worthy of Me." By adding then "more than Me," it is plain that He permits us to love, but not more than we do Him. For He demands for Himself our chief affection; and that very justly: for the love of God in those who are perfect in mind has something in it superior both to |492 the honour due to parents, and to the natural affection felt for children.
"We must explain however what the occasion was which directed our Lord's words to this subject. The passage then read from the Gospel at our last meeting described the celebration of a great supper, unto which many were invited by him who gave the feast. But they were men indifferent to it: for "they made excuse, it says, with one accord, and said, one that he had bought a field, and must needs go to see it: and another, that he had bought five yoke of oxen: and a third again, that he had married a wife:" and by employing these feigned excuses, they vexed him who invited them. We are therefore given most clearly to understand, that when God calls us unto Him, to make us partakers of His bounty, we must disregard the lusts that are of the flesh, and minister to the flesh, and set no value whatsoever upon the things of this world, but exerting all our force must advance unto those things which will never have to be abandoned, and which fill us with all blessedness, as God bestows with bounteous hand upon us His gifts, and like one welcoming us to a costly banquet, admits us to the right of rejoicing with the rest of the saints in the hope of future blessings. For the things of earth, are but of little value and last only for a time, and belong to the flesh solely, which is the victim of corruption: but those things which are divine and spiritual constantly and without ceasing accompany those who have once been counted worthy of receiving them, and reach onwards to unending worlds. What value therefore will men of sense set upon earthly farms, or the love of carnal pleasure, or the respect due to kinsmen in the flesh, if it be laid down that for love's sake unto Christ, we must disregard all these things that have been named? For many instances have there been of men desirous of a blameless life, who even after touching, so to speak, the dust of the palaestra, and making trial of the combats therein, and all but attaining to the right of receiving the crown of the heavenly calling, have been drawn backward, as it were, either from regard to relatives, or from being too weak to bear a struggle of endurance, or from being entangled in the snares of carnality, and foolishly preferring present pleasure to the |493 blessings laid up in hope. Many too the feav of death has terrified, and when the season called them unto persecutions, that being proved they might receive the crown of incorruption, they have denied the faith, have avoided, that is, the duty of suffering patiently, and having shown themselves weak and cowardly, have fallen from their steadfastness. To work in us therefore a mind incapable of being broken, and make us careless of every worldly matter for our love of Him, He commands us to hate even our relatives according to the flesh, and our own self also, if, as I have just said, the season call us thereto.
And next He uses two examples, to encourage unto an invincible fortitude those who are His friends, and to establish in an unwavering zeal those whose desire it is to attain to honours by patience and endurance. "For if, says He, any one wish to build a tower, he reckons first if he have means sufficient to finish it, lest when he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, men laugh at him." For those whose choice it is to lead a glorious and blameless life ought to store up beforehand in their mind a zeal sufficient thereunto, and to remember him who says, "My son, if you draw near to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for every temptation: make your heart straight, and endure.'" But those who have no such zeal, how will they be able to reach the mark that is set before them?
"Or what king, He says, wishing to make war with another king, does not consider with himself, whether with his ten thousand he can prevail over one who is more mighty than himself?" And what does this mean? "Our wrestle is not against blood and flesh, but against governments; against empires; against the worldholders of this darkness; against wicked spirits in the heavenly regions." We have too a crowd, as it were, of other enemies, the carnal mind, the law that rages in our members, passions of many kinds, the lust of pleasure, the lust of the flesh, the lust of wealth, and others: with these we must wrestle; this is our savage troop of enemies. How therefore shall we conquer? By believing that "in God we shall do valiantly, as Scripture says, and He shall bring to naught those that oppress us:" In this confidence one of the holy prophets said, "Behold the Lord helps |494 me: who shall make me ashamed?" And the divine David also sings, "The Lord is my light, and my Saviour: whom shall I fear? The Lord is the helper of my life, at whom shall I tremble?" For He is our strength, and by Him we shall gain victory: for He has given unto us to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy. As therefore He says, "Salt is good: but if the salt be tasteless, with what can it be seasoned? It is cast out," He says. Let there be therefore, He proceeds, salt in you," that is, the divine words which bring salvation: but which if we despise, we become without savour, and foolish, and utterly useless. Such things must the congregation of the saints cast out, by the gift unto them of mercy and love from Christ, the Saviour of us all; by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever, Amen. |495
SERMON CVI.
15:1-10. Now all the publicans and sinners used to draw near unto Him to hear Him. And the Pharisees and Scribes murmured, saying, This man receives sinners, and eats with them. And He spoke this parable unto them, saying, What man of you having a hundred sheep, and having lost one of them, does not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it. And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he has come home, he calls together his friends and his neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me: for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say unto you, that likewise there shall be joy in heaven over one sinner that repents, more than over ninety and nine just persons who need no repentance. Or what woman having ten drachms, if she lose one of them, does not light a lamp, and sweep the house, and search diligently till she find it. And when she has found it, she calls her friends and her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me: for I have found the drachm which I had lost. Likewise I say unto you, that there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner that repents.
YOU have no doubt attended here also to what has been read; you have wondered with me at the Saviour's words: have you also understood it thoroughly and spiritually, and fixed the searching eye of the mind upon its profounder interpretation? Has the sense of what has been said been caught by you? Or possibly has the word, after having rung in your hearing, flown away, and nothing settled there that would be to your profit. But as I imagine, in that you are believers, and love instruction, the Saviour illumines your understanding. For He it is "Who reveals the deep things of darkness, and puts the light of understanding in the hearts of those that love Him."
The two parables then that follow close upon one another depict to us an image of the divine gentleness, being both of |496 similar meaning, and, so to say, at concord with one another. But the senseless Jew is openly reproved, for refusing in every way to understand the great and profound mystery of the Incarnation. From him it was completely hidden, that God the Father sent the Son from heaven, not "to judge the world," as He Himself declares, but that the world might be saved through Him. In what manner then was it fitting for the world to be saved, which had been caught in the meshes of sin, and proved guilty of the charge of wickedness, and that was subject to a cruel tyrant, even Satan? Was it by demanding of it punishment, for having fallen into transgression and sin? Or was it not rather by helping it, in that God is long-suffering, and ready, so to speak, to cover over in forgetfulness those things wherein man had transgressed, and to renew unto holiness of life those who know not how to live uprightly?
Tell me therefore, O Pharisee, why you murmur, because Christ disdained not to be with publicans and sinners, but purposely provided for them this means of salvation? To save men He yielded Himself to emptiness, and became in fashion like unto us, and clothed Himself in human poverty. And do you then blame the dispensation of the Only-begotten in the flesh? Do you find fault with His humbling Himself from above in heaven, Who transcends all? Nay, leave you not the very Incarnation without censure? And yet the holy prophets wondered at the beautiful skill of the mystery. For the prophet David in the Psalms declares, "Sing you with understanding: God has set a King over all the nations." And the prophet Habakkuk says, "That he heard His hearing, and was afraid: and that he considered also His doings, and was astonished." How therefore are you not ashamed of blaming those things which you ought to have admired? Would you have the Lord of all stern and inexorable, or good rather and kind to men? The family upon earth had gone astray: it had wandered from the hand of the chief shepherd: and therefore He Who feeds the flocks above in heaven, became like unto us, that He might make us also dwell in His folds:----that He might unite us to those who had never gone astray, and drive from us the beast of prey, and ward off like some impious band of robbers those impure demons, who had led astray all beneath the sky. |497
He sought therefore that which was lost: and, to show that the Jewish fault-finding on this account was vain, He says unto them, "What man of you having a hundred sheep, and having lost one of them, does not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go to seek that which is lost. And if it chance to be found, he rejoices in it, He says, more than in those that went not astray." Understand from this, my beloved, the wide extent of the Saviour's kingdom, and the multitude past numbering of His subjects, and the skilful plan of the dispensation towards us. For the sheep, He says, are a hundred, so making the number of His subjects mount up to a multitude complete and altogether perfect. For constantly, so to speak, a hundred is a perfect number, being composed of ten times ten. And we have learnt also from the divinely-inspired Scripture, that a "thousand thousands minister to God, and ten thousand times ten thousand stand around His lofty throne." The sheep therefore are a hundred: and of them one has gone astray, even the family upon earth; which also the chief Shepherd of all sought, having left in the wilderness those ninety and nine. Was it therefore because He had no regard for the many, that mercy was shown to the one only? No! not because He had no regard for them; that were impossible: but because they are in security, guarded by His Almighty hand. It was right therefore that mercy should rather be shown to that which was lost, that evidently nothing might be wanting to that other multitude, but the one being restored thereto, the hundred might regain its beauty.
The search therefore after that which was lost was no act of contempt towards those who had not erred, but one of grace and mercy and love to mankind fit for the supreme and transcendent nature to bestow on His fallen creatures.
For come, and let us examine the matter by the help also of another example, in order that we may at all times defend the incomparable gentleness of Christ, the Saviour of us all. For let it be supposed that in one house there are many inmates, of |498 whom it so chances that one falls ill. For whom then are those skilled in healing summoned? Is it not for him only who has fallen ill? But it is not through any disregard of the many, that those who have been called in to heal attend only to him who is sick, and give him the benefit of their skill, as the time and his need require. In like manner therefore it was worthy, right worthy of God, Who rules over all, to stretch out His saving hand to that which had gone astray. The wild beast had seized it: it had led the family upon earth astray from the pasture, and had hurried it into all misery. The chief Shepherd saved it: for He sought that which had wandered, and has established for us a fold, unassailable and impregnable against wild boasts and robbers, even the Church; in admiration of which we may say, in the words of the prophet, "Behold, we have a strong and secure city: He will place (for us) a wall and rampart."
And the sense of the parable which immediately follows is exactly similar, in which, He says, that 'a woman who had ten drachms lost one of them, and having lit a lamp and found it, rejoiced greatly therein, and made it a reason for special joy.' By the former parable therefore, in which the wandering sheep signified the family upon earth, we learnt, that we are the property of God over all, in that He it is Who brought into existence those things which previously had no existence. For "He made us, and not we ourselves," as it is written. And "He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand." And by this second parable, in which that which was lost is compared to a drachma, and that again as one out of ten, that is of a perfect number, and of a sum complete in the reckoning;----for the number ten also is perfect, being the close of the series from the unit upwards;----it is clearly shown, that we are in the royal likeness and image, even that of God over all. For the drachma is, I suppose, the denarius, on which is stamped the royal likeness, |499 That we then who had fallen, and, so to speak, been lost, have been found by Christ, and transformed by holiness and righteousness into His image, how can any one doubt, when the blessed Paul has thus written, "But we all, with open face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, as of the Lord the Spirit." And he sends to the Galatians also in these words, "My children, of whom I am again in labour, until Christ is formed in you."
A search then was made for that which had fallen, for which purpose the woman lighted a lamp. For we were found, as I said, by the wisdom of God the Father, Which is the Son, when the divine and intellectual light shone upon us, and the sun arose, and "the day star ascended, and the day dawned," according to the Scripture. For God also has somewhere said by one of the holy prophets of Christ the Saviour of us all, "My righteousness quickly approaches, and My mercy to be revealed, and My salvation shall burn as a lamp." And He says of Himself, at one time, "I am the light of the world:" and again at another, "I am come a light into this world: he that follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall possess the light of life." By the light therefore that which was lost is saved, and there was joy thereby to the powers above. For they rejoice even in one sinner that repents, as He has taught us Who knows all things. If they then keep festival over one who is saved, in unison altogether with the divine purpose, and laud with never-ceasing praises the Saviour's gentleness, with how great joy must they be filled, when all beneath the heaven is saved, and called by faith in Christ to the acknowledgment of the truth, having put off the pollutions of sin, and loosed its neck from the bonds of death, and escaped from blame, even the blame of its wandering and fall! For all these things we gain in Christ: by Whom, and with Whom, to God the Father be praise and dominion with, the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever, Amen. |500
SERMON CVII.
15:11-32. And He said, A certain man had two sons: and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of your goods that comes to me. And he divided unto them his substance. And not many days after, the younger son gathered every thing together, and journeyed into a far country, and there scattered his goods by riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land, and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he desired to fill his belly with the husks which the swine were eating: and no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself he said, How many hired servants of my father have bread in abundance, and 1 perish here with hunger. I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before you, and am no more 'worthy to be called your son: make me as one of your hired servants. And he arose and went to his father. And while He was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and his bowels yearned, and he ran and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And his son said unto him, My father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, and am no more worthy to be called your son. But his father said to his servants, Bring forth quickly the chief robe, and clothe him: and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. And bring the fatted calf, and kill it, and we will eat, and be merry: for this my son was dead, and is alive: and was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.----Now his elder son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard the sound of music and rejoicing. And he called one of the servants, and asked him what these things meant. And he said unto him, Your brother is come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has received him sound. And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and besought him. But |501 he answered and said to his father, Lo! all these years do I serve you, and never have transgressed your commandment, and you never gave me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends. But when this your son, who has, eaten up your wealth with harlots, is come, you have killed for him the fatted calf. And he said unto him, My son, you are ever with me: and all that is mine is yours. But it was fitting to make merry and be glad: for this your brother was dead, and is alive: and was lost, and is found.
I HEAR one of the holy prophets trying to win unto repentance those who are far from God, and saying, "Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God: for you have become weak in your iniquity. Take with you words, and return to the Lord our God." What sort of words then did he, under the influence of the Spirit, command them to take with them? Or were they not such as become those who wish to repent; such namely, as would appease God, Who is gentle, and loves mercy. For He even said by one of the holy prophets, "Return you returning children, and I will heal your breaches." And yet again by the voice of Ezekiel, "Return you altogether from your wickednesses, O house of Israel. Cast away from you all your iniquities which you have committed, that they be not to you for a punishment of iniquity. For I have no pleasure in the death of the sinner, as that he should turn from his evil way and live." And the same truth Christ here also teaches us, by this most beautifully composed parable, which I will now to the best of my ability endeavour to discuss, briefly gathering up its broad statements, and explaining and defending the ideas which it contains.
It is the opinion then of some, that by the two sons are signified the holy angels, and we the dwellers upon earth: and that the elder one, who lived soberly, represents the company of the holy angels, while the younger and profligate son is the human race. And there are some among us who give it a different explanation, arguing that by the elder and well conducted son is signified Israel after the flesh: while by the other, whose choice it was to live in the lust of pleasures, and who removed far from his father, is depicted the company of |502 the Gentiles. With these explanations I do not agree: but I would have him who loves instruction, search after that which is true and unobjectionable. What then I say is as follows, "giving occasions to the wise, and to the just offering knowledge," as Scripture commands: for they will examine for a fitting meaning the explanations proposed to them. If then we refer the upright son to the person of the holy angels, we do not find him speaking such words as become them, nor sharing their feelings towards repentant sinners, who turn from an impure life to that conduct which is worthy of admiration. For the Saviour of all and Lord says, that "there is joy in heaven before the holy angels over one sinner that repents." But the son, who is described to us in the present parable as being acceptable unto his father, and leading a blameless life, is represented as being angry, and as even having proceeded so far in his unloving sentiments as to find fault with his father for his natural affection for him who was saved. "For he would not, it says, go into the house," being vexed at the reception of the penitent almost before he had come to his senses, and because there had even been slain the calf in his honour, and his father had made for him a feast. But this, as I said, is at variance with the feelings of the holy angels: for they rejoice and praise God when they see the inhabitants of the earth being saved. For so when the Son submitted to be born in the flesh of a woman at Bethlehem, they carried the joyful news to the shepherds, saying, "Fear you not: for behold I bring you glad tidings of great joy that shall be to all the people, that there is born to you today in the city of David a Saviour Who is Christ the Lord." And crowning with lauds and praises Him Who was born, they said, "Glory to God in the highest, and upon earth peace, and among men good-will."
But if any one say, that Israel according to the flesh is meant by the virtuous and sober son, we are again prevented from assenting to this opinion by the fact, that in no way whatsoever is it fitting to say of Israel that he chose a blameless life. For throughout the whole of the inspired Scripture, so to say, we may see them accused of being rebels and disobedient. For they were told by the voice of Jeremiah, "What fault have your fathers found in Me, that they have |503 wandered far from Me, and have gone after vanities, and become vain?" And in similar terms God somewhere spoke by the voice of Isaiah, "This people draws near unto Me; with their lips they honour Me, but their heart is very far from Me: but in vain do they fear Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men." And how then can any one apply to those who are thus blamed the words used in the parable of the virtuous and sober son? For he said, "Lo! all these years do I serve you, and never have I transgressed your commandment." But they would not have been blamed for their mode of life, had it not been that transgressing the divine commandments, they betook themselves to a careless and polluted mode of life.
And yet again,----for I think it right to mention this also,----some would refer to the person of our Saviour that fatted calf which the father killed when his son was called unto conversion. But how then could the virtuous son, who is described as wise and prudent, and constant in his duty, and whom some even refer to the person of the holy angels, treat it as a reason for anger and vexation that the calf was slain? For one can find no proof of the powers above being grieved when Christ endured death in the flesh, and, so to speak, was slain in our behalf. Rather they rejoiced, as I said, in seeing the world saved by His holy blood. And what reason too had the virtuous son for saying "you never gave me a kid." For what blessing is wanting to the holy angels, inasmuch as the Lord of all has bestowed upon them with bounteous hand a plentiful supply of spiritual gifts? Or of what sacrifice stood they in need as regards their own state? For there was no necessity for the Emmanuel to suffer also in their behalf. But if any one imagine, as I have already said before, that the carnal Israel is meant by the virtuous and sober son, how can he say with truth "you never gave me a kid?" For whether we call it calf or kid, Christ is to be understood as the sacrifice offered for sin. But He was sacrificed, not for the Gentiles only, but that He might also redeem Israel, who by reason of his frequent transgression of the law had brought upon |504 himself great blame. And the wise Paul bears witness to this, saying, "For this reason Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people by His blood, suffered outside the gate."
What then is the object of the parable? Let us examine the occasion which led to it; for so we shall learn the truth. The blessed Luke therefore had himself said a little before of Christ the Saviour of us all, "And all the publicans and sinners drew near unto Him to hear Him. And the Pharisees and Scribes murmured saying, This man receives sinners and eats " with them." As therefore the Pharisees and Scribes made this outcry at His gentleness and love to man, and wickedly and impiously blamed Him for receiving and teaching men whose lives were impure, Christ very necessarily set before them the present parable, to show them clearly this very thing, that the God of all requires even him who is thoroughly steadfast, and firm, and who knows how to live holily, and has attained to the highest praise for sobriety of conduct, to be earnest in following His will, so that when any are called unto repentance, even if they be men highly blameable, he must rejoice rather, and not give way to an unloving vexation on their account.
For we also sometimes experience something of this sort. For some there are who live a perfectly honourable and consistent life, practising every kind of virtuous action, and abstaining from every thing disapproved by the law of God, and crowning themselves with perfect praises in the sight of God and of men: while another is perhaps weak and trodden down, and humbled unto every kind of wickedness, guilty of base deeds, loving impurity, given to covetousness, and stained with all evil. And yet such a one often in old age turns unto God, and asks the forgiveness of his former offences: he prays for mercy, and putting away from him his readiness to fall into sin, sets his affection on virtuous deeds. Or even perhaps when about to close his mortal life, he is admitted to divine baptism, and puts away his offences, God being merciful unto him. And perhaps sometimes persons are indignant at |505 this, and even say, 'This man, who has been guilty of such and such actions, and has spoken such and such words, has not paid unto the judge the retribution of his conduct, but has been counted worthy of a grace thus noble and admirable: he has been inscribed among the sons of God, and honoured with the glory of the saints.' Such complaints men sometimes give utterance too from an empty narrowness of mind, not conforming to the purpose of the universal Father. For He greatly rejoices when He sees those who were lost obtaining salvation, and raises them up again to that which they were in the beginning, giving them the dress of freedom, and adorning them with the chief robe, and putting a ring upon their hand, even the orderly behaviour which is pleasing to God and suitable to the free.
It is our duty, therefore, to conform ourselves to that which God wills: for He heals those who are sick; He raises those who are fallen; He gives a helping hand to those who have stumbled; He brings back him who has wandered; He forms anew unto a praiseworthy and blameless life those who were wallowing in the mire of sin; He seeks those who were lost; He raises as from the dead those who had suffered the spiritual death. Let us also rejoice: let us, in company with the holy angels, praise Him as being good, and loving unto men; as gentle, and not remembering evil. For if such is our state of mind, Christ will receive us, by Whom and with Whom, to God the Father be praise and dominion with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever, Amen. |506
SERMON CVIII.
16:1-9. And He said unto His disciples, There was a certain rich man, who had a steward, and they accused him of scattering his goods. And he called him, and said unto him, What is this that I hear of you? Give up the account of your stewardship: for you can be no longer steward. And the steward said within himself What shall I do, for my lord takes away from me the stewardship? I cannot dig: and to beg I am ashamed. I am resolved what to do, that when I am removed from the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses. So he called each one of his lord's debtors, and said unto the first; How much do you owe unto my lord? And he said, A hundred baths of oil. And he said unto him, Take your writing, and sit down, and write fifty quickly. And afterwards he spoke to the second, And how much do you owe? And he said, A hundred cors 2 of wheat. And he said unto him, Take your writing, and write eighty. And the lord praised the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are wise in their generation more than the children of light. And I say unto you, Make for yourselves friends of the unrighteous mammon: that when it has failed, they may receive you into eternal tabernacles.
OUR Lord Jesus Christ, revealing His glory to the Jewish multitudes, or rather to all those who have believed on Him, said; "I am the light of the world:" and again, "I am come a light into this world." For He fills the mind of those who fear Him with a divine and intellectual light, that they may |507 not wander from the right way by walking in gloom and darkness; but may rather know how to advance uprightly in every good work, and in whatsoever aids a man in leading a saintly life. He would have us therefore to be good, and ready to communicate, loving one another, and merciful, and adorned with the honours of charity. Most wisely therefore did He prepare for us the present parable: which we being anxious to explain to the best of our ability, of necessity speak as follows to those who love instruction.
The parables then indirectly and figuratively explain to us much that is for our edification, provided only we consider their meaning in a brief and summary manner. For we are not to search into all the parts of the parable in a subtle and prying way, lest the argument by its immoderate length weary with superfluous matter even those most fond of hearing, and tire men with a crowd of words. For if, for instance, any one were to undertake to explain, who is to be regarded by us as the man who had a steward, who was accused unto him; or who possibly it is that accused him; and who too those are who owed the debts, and subtracted a portion from them; and for what reason one is said to have owed oil, and the other wheat; he will render his discourse at once obscure and redundant. All the parts of the parable therefore are not necessarily and in every respect useful for the explanation of the things signified, but, so to speak, have been taken to form an image of some important matter, which figuratively sets forth some lesson for the profit of the hearers.
The sense therefore of the present parable is something like the following: "The God of all wills that all men should be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth." For this reason "He also gave the law for a help," according to the expression of the prophet. And the law in such passages we say means, not of course that which was ministered by Moses, but rather the whole inspired Scripture, by means of which we learn the path which leads straight unto every good and saving thing. The Lord of all therefore requires us to be thoroughly constant in our exertions after virtue, and to fix our desires upon the better and holy life, setting ourselves free |508 from the distractions of the world, and from all love of riches, and of the pleasure which wealth brings, that we may serve Him continually, and with undivided affections. For He also says by the harp of the Psalmist; "Be constant, and know that I am God." And further, by His own mouth, the Saviour of all says to those who possess worldly riches, "Sell your possessions, and give alms: make for you purses that grow not old: a treasure for ever, unfailing in heaven." Now the commandment is indeed for our salvation, but the mind of man is very weak, fixed constantly, so to speak, upon things which are of earth chiefly, and unwilling to withdraw itself from the delight of riches. It loves vain boasting; is soothed much by the praises of flatterers; longs for beautiful equipments, and counts nothing better than temporal honour. And knowing this, the Saviour has Himself somewhere said of them, "How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!" And further, "that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than a rich man into the kingdom of God." For as long as a man lives in wealth and pleasure, he is careless about piety to God. For wealth renders men contemptuous, and sows in the minds of those that possess it the seeds of all voluptuousness.
Is there then no way of salvation for the rich, and no means of making them partakers of the hope of the saints? Have they fallen completely from God's grace? Is hell and the fire necessarily prepared for them, such as is the fitting lot of the devil and his angels? Not so: for lo! the Saviour has shown them a means of salvation in the present parable. They have been entrusted with worldly wealth by the merciful permission of Almighty God: according nevertheless to His intention |509 they have been appointed stewards for the poor. But they discharge not their stewardship rightly, in that they scatter, so to speak, what has been given them of the Lord: for they waste it solely on their pleasures, and purchase temporal honours, not remembering God, Who says, "You shall open wide your mercy unto your brother, even to him that has need of you." Nor moreover Christ Himself, the Saviour of us all, Who says, "Be you merciful, even as your Father Who is in heaven is merciful.'' But they, as I said, make no account whatsoever of showing mercy to their brethren, but study only their own pride. And this it is which accuses them before the Lord of all. And of course upon the approach of death they must cease from their stewardship, withdrawing them as it does from human affairs. For the net of death no man can escape from. What therefore would Christ have them to do? It is, that while they are yet in this world, if they are unwilling to divide all their wealth among the poor, that at least they should gain friends by a part of it; and numerous witnesses to their charitableness, even those who have received well at their hands: that when their earthly wealth fails them, they may gain a place in their tabernacles. For it is impossible for love to the poor ever to remain unrewarded. Whether therefore a man give away all his wealth, or but a part, he will certainly benefit his soul.
It is an act therefore that becomes the saints, and is worthy of perfect praises, and that wins the crowns above, to set no store by earthly wealth, but distributing it among those that are in need, to gather rather that which is in heaven, and obtain purses that grow not old, and possess a treasure that fails not: and next in order comes the employment of a sort of artifice, so as to obtain those for friends who are especially near unto God, by giving them some portion of their wealth, and comforting the many who are afflicted with poverty, that so they may share what is theirs. And something of this sort the very wise Paul also advises, saying unto those who love wealth: "Let your abundance be for their want, that their abundance also may be for your want."
It is our duty therefore, if we are right-minded; if we fix the eye of the mind on what will be hereafter; if we remember |510 the sacred Scripture, which says plainly, "that we shall all be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive retribution for the things done by means of the body, according to that he has done, whether good or bad;" if we fear the cruel and unappeasable flame; to remember God, Who requires us to show mercy upon the brethren, to suffer with those that are sick, to open our hand wide to those that are in need, and to honour the saints, of whom Christ says, "He that receives you receives Me: and he that receives Me, receives Him That sent Me." For that mercy towards the brethren is not without profit and benefit, the Saviour Himself teaches us, saying; "Whosoever shall give only a cup of cold [water] to drink in the name of a disciple, shall not lose his reward." For the Saviour of all is bounteous in giving: by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever, Amen. |511
SERMON CIX.
16:10-13. He that is faithful in little, is faithful also in much; and he that is unjust in little, is unjust also in much. If therefore you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will give you the true? And if you have not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you, that which is your own? No servant can serve two lords: for either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will honour the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
THE most distinguished and experienced teachers, when they wish to fix any important doctrine deep in the minds of their disciples, omit no kind of reasoning able to throw light upon the chief object of their thoughts; at one time weaving arguments together, at another employing apposite examples, and so gathering from every quarter whatever is serviceable for their use. And this we find Christ also, Who is the Giver unto us of all wisdom, doing in many places. For oftentimes He repeats the very same arguments upon the subject, whatever it may be, that the mind of those who hear may be led on to an exact understanding of His words. For look again, I pray, at the purport of the lessons set before us: for so you will find our words to be true. "He that is faithful in little," He says, "is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in little, is unjust also in much."
Before, however, I proceed further, I think it would be useful to consider, what was the occasion of a discourse such as this, and from what root it sprung: for so the sense of what is |512 said will become very evident. Christ then was teaching the rich to feel especial delight in showing kindness to the poor, and in opening their hand to whoever are in need, so laying up treasures in heaven, and taking forethought for the riches that are in store. For He said, "Make for yourselves friends of the unrighteous mammon: that when it has failed, they may receive you into eternal tabernacles." But as being God by nature, He well knew the slothfulness of the human mind in every earnest and good work. It escaped not His knowledge, that men, in their greediness after wealth, giving up their mind to the love of lucre, and being tyrannized over by this passion, become hard-hearted and unsympathizing with affliction, and show no kindness whatsoever to the poor, even though they have heaped up much wealth in their stores. That those therefore who are thus minded, have no share in God's spiritual gifts, He shows by most evident examples, and says, "He that is faithful in little, is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in little, is unjust also in much." O Lord, explain unto us the meaning: open You the eye of our heart. Listen therefore while He explains clearly and exactly what He said. "If therefore you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will give you the true? The little therefore is the unrighteous mammon: that is, worldly wealth, gathered often by extortion and covetousness. But those who know how to live virtuously, and thirst after the hope that is in store, and withdraw their mind from earthly things, and think rather of those things that are above, utterly disregard earthly wealth; for it offers nothing but pleasures, and voluptuousness, and base carnal lusts, and splendour that profits not, but is transitory and vain. And so one of the holy apostles teaches us, saying, "That all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of the world." But such things as these are absolutely nothing to those who lead a sober and virtuous life: for they are trifling, and temporary, and full of impurity, and provocative of the fire and judgment, and scarcely reaching to the end of the life of the body, even if they do not, when any danger suddenly befalls those that possess them, unexpectedly depart away. Christ's disciple therefore rebukes the rich, saying, "Come now, you rich men, weep, and lament over the miseries |513 that are coming upon you. Your wealth is decayed, your garments are motheaten. Your gold and your silver are rusted, and the rust of them shall be your testimony." How then are the gold and silver rusted? By being stored up in excessive abundance; and this very thing is the witness against them before the divine judgment seat, of their being unmerciful. For having gathered into their treasuries a great and unnecessary abundance, they made no account of those who were in need, although it was in their power, had they so wished, to do good easily to many; but they were not "faithful in the little."
But in what way men may become faithful, the Saviour Himself next taught us: and I will explain how. A certain Pharisee besought Him to eat bread with him on the sabbath day, and Christ consented: and having gone there, He sat down to meat: and there were many others also feasting with them. And none of them by any means resembled men who possessed nothing, but, on the contrary, they were all persons of distinction, and great haughtiness, and lovers of the foremost seats, and thirsting after vainglory, being clothed as it were in the pride of wealth. What then said Christ to His inviter? "When you make a dinner or a supper, call not your friends, nor your brethren, neither your kinsmen, nor your rich neighbours, lest they also invite you again, and a re-compense be made you. But when you make a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind. And you shall be blessed, because they cannot recompense you; for you shall be recompensed at the resurrection of the just." This then I think is a man's being faithful in little, that he have pity upon those who are in need, and distribute assistance from his means to such as are in extreme distress. But we, despising a way thus glorious and sure of reward, choose one dishonourable and without reward, by treating with contempt those who are in utter poverty, and refusing even sometimes to admit their words into our ears; while, on the other hand, we luxuriously provide a costly table, either for friends who live in pomp, or for those whose habit it is to praise and flatter, making our bounty an occasion for indulging our love of praise. But this was not God's purpose in permitting us to possess wealth. If therefore we are unfaithful in the little, by |514 not conforming ourselves to the will of God, and bestow the best portion of ourselves upon our pleasures and our boasts, how can we receive from Him that which is true? And what is this? The abundant bestowal of those divine gifts which adorn man's soul, and form in it a godlike beauty. This is the spiritual wealth, not that fattens the flesh, which is held by death, but rather that saves the soul, and makes it worthy of emulation, and honourable before God, and that wins for it true praises.
It is our duty therefore to be faithful unto God, pure in heart, merciful and kind, just and holy: for these things imprint in us the outlines of the divine likeness, and perfect us as heirs of eternal life. And this then is that which is true.
And that this is the purport and view of the Saviour's words, any one may readily learn from what follows. For He said, "If you have not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own?" And again, we say that which is another's is the wealth we possess. For we were not born with riches, but, on the contrary, naked; and can truly affirm in the words of Scripture, "that we neither brought anything into the world, nor can carry anything out. For the patient Job also has said something of this kind: "Naked was I born from my mother's womb; naked also shall I go onwards." It is therefore no man's own by right of nature that he is rich, and lives in abundant wealth: but it is a thing added on from without, and is a chance matter; and if it cease and perish, it in no respect whatsoever harms the definitions of human nature. For it is not by virtue of our being rich that wc are reasonable beings, and skilful in every good work: but it is the property of our nature to be capable of these things. That therefore, as I said, is another's which is not contained in the definitions of our nature, but, on the contrary, is manifestly added to us from without. But it is our own, and the property of human nature to be fitted for every good work: for as the blessed Paul writes, "We have been created unto good works, which God has before prepared, that we should walk in them."
When therefore any are unfaithful in that which is another's, in those things namely, which are added unto them from without, how shall they receive that which is their own? How, that is, shall they be made partakers of the good things which God |515 gives, which adorn the soul of man, and imprint upon it a divine beauty, spiritually formed in it by righteousness and holiness, and those upright deeds which are done in the fear of God.
Let such of us then as possess earthly wealth open our hearts to those who are in need; let us show ourselves faithful and obedient to the laws of God, and followers of our Lord's will in those things which are from without, and not our own, that we may receive that which is our own, even that holy and admirable beauty which God forms in the souls of men, fashioning them like unto Himself, according to what we originally were.
And that it is a thing impossible for one and the same person to divide himself between contraries, and still be able to live blamelessly, He shows by saying, "No man can serve two lords: for either he will hate the one, and love the other, or he will honour the one, and despise the other." And this indeed is a plain and evident example, and very suitable for the elucidation of the subject before us. For that which follows is, so to speak, the conclusion of the whole argument: "for you cannot serve God and mammon." For if, He says, a man be a slave of two masters, of diverse and contrary wills, and whose minds are irreconcilable with one another, how can he please them both? For being divided in endeavouring to do that which each one approves, he is in opposition to the will of both: and so the same person must inevitably appear bad and good. If therefore, He says, he determine to be true to the one, he will hate the other, and set him of course at nought. It is not therefore possible to serve God and mammon. For the unrighteous mammon, by which wealth is signified, is a thing given up to voluptuousness, and liable to every reproach, engendering boasting, and the love of pleasure, making men stiff-necked, the friends of the wicked, and contemptuous: yes, what base vice does it not produce in them that possess it?
But the goodwill of God renders men gentle, and quiet, and lowly in their thoughts; long-suffering, and merciful, and of exemplary patience, not loving lucre, nor desirous of wealth, content with food only and raiment, and especially fleeing from "the love of money, which is the root of all evils:" joyfully |516 undertaking toils for piety's sake; fleeing from the love of pleasure, and earnestly shunning all feeling of wearisomeness in good works, while constantly they value, as that which wins them reward, the endeavour to live uprightly, and the practice of all soberness. This is that which is our own, and the true. This God will bestow on those who love poverty, and know how to distribute to those who are in need that which is another's, and comes from without, even their wealth, which also has the name of mammon.
May it then be far from the mind of each of us to be its slaves, that so we may freely and without hindrance bow the neck of our mind to Christ the Saviour of us all; by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever, Amen.
1. y Cramer's Catena contains a summary of this Sermon, not found by Mai in his MSS.
2. p The bath contained about seven gallons and a half: while the cor was equal to ten baths.
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Early Church Fathers - Additional Texts
SOURCE SECTION: cyril_on_luke_11_sermons_110_123.htm
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke (1859) Sermons 110-123 (Luke 16:14-18:27) pp. 517-572
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke (1859) Sermons 110-123 (Luke 16:14-18:27) pp. 517-572
Sermon 110
Sermon 111
Sermon 112 (start)
Sermon 113-116 (fragments)
Sermon 117
Sermon 118
Sermon 119
Sermon 120
Sermon 121
Sermon 122
Sermon 123
SERMON CX.
16:14-17. And the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they derided Him. And He said unto them, You are they who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts: for that which is high among men, is an abomination before God. The law and the prophets until John: thenceforth the kingdom of God is preached, and every one takes it by force. And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away, than for one point of the law to fall.
THE love of money, my brethren, is a most wicked passion, and not easy to abandon. For when Satan has planted this malady in a man's soul, he next proceeds to blind him, nor does he permit him to listen to the words of exhortation, lest there be found for us a way of healing, able to save from misery those who are ensnared thereby. And observe again, I pray, how true my words upon this subject are from the instance even of the Pharisees. For they were lovers of riches, and enamoured of gain, and regarded a bare sufficiency with contempt. For even, so to speak, throughout the whole of the divinely inspired Scripture, one may see them blamed on this very account. For it is said by the voice of Isaiah to the mother of the Jews, I mean, Jerusalem, "Your princes are rebellious, the partners of thieves: loving bribes, pursuing after reward: they judge not the fatherless, neither do they regard the widow's suit." And the prophet Habbakuk also said, "How long, O Lord, shall I cry unto you, and You wilt not hear? and shout unto You, being oppressed, and You will not deliver? Judgment is before me, and the judge has taken a bribe: therefore is the law of none avail, and judgment comes not forth unto completion: for the wicked prevails over the righteous, therefore does judgment come forth perverted." For as being lovers, as I said, of lucre, they repeatedly gave judgment on the matters before them, |518 not according to what was agreeable to the laws of God, but, on the contrary, iniquitously, and in opposition to God's will.
Moreover, the Saviour Himself rebuked them, thus saying, "Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites: who tithe anise, and mint, and cummin; and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy and faith." For as the law had set apart for them the right of receiving tithes of every one, they extended the exactness of the search after them down to the most insignificant vegetables, while they made but slight account of the weightier matters of the law, that is, of those commandments which were of necessary obligation and for men's good.
"Because therefore the Pharisees, it says, were lovers of money, they derided Jesus," for directing them by His salutary doctrines to a praiseworthy course of conduct, and rendering them desirous of saintly glories. For it was their duty, He tells them, to sell their possessions, and make distribution to the poor; so would they possess in heaven a treasure that could not be plundered, and purses that could not be harmed, and wealth that would not have to be abandoned. And why then did they deride Him? For certainly the doctrine was salutary, a pathway of hope in things to come, and a door leading unto the life incorruptible: for they were being taught by Him the manners of true prosperity, and learning how they must seize the crown of the heavenly calling; how too they might become partakers with the saints, and children of the city that is above, the Jerusalem which is in heaven, and which is truly free, and the mother of the free. For as the blessed Paul writes, "Jerusalem, which is our mother and is above, is free." And why then did they mock Him?
Let us see the cause of their wickedness. The passion of avarice had possession of their heart, and their mind being tyrannized over by it was in subjection even against its will; humbled under the power of wickedness, and bound as it were by inevitable bonds. For so the writer of Proverbs somewhere says, "that every man is bound by the cords of his sins." For as the more virulent diseases of the body do not admit of the remedies of medicine, and flee away as it were from healing; and if any one apply that which is naturally adapted to do good, are irritated the more, and grow angry, however |519 gently treated by the art: so also those passions to which the souls of men are liable, are sometimes obdurate, and refuse to listen to admonition, and will not hear a single word that summons them to depart from evil, and directs them into a better course. And as horses that are hard-mouthed and unmanageable, and excessively spirited will not obey the reins; so also the mind of man when under the influence of passion, and thoroughly inclined to turn aside unto evil, is disobedient and intractable, and rejects with hatred the being healed.
When therefore the Saviour of all had expended upon them many words, but saw that they would not change from their crafty purposes and passions, but preferred rather to abide in their innate folly, He betakes Himself at length to sterner reproofs, the very occasion calling them thereto. He shows therefore that they are hypocrites, and liers in wait among the altars, and eager after the glory due to righteous and good men, without being such in reality: not being in earnest in meriting the approval of God, but hunting on the contrary eagerly after the honours which come from men. He said therefore, "You are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knows your hearts: for that which is high among men, is an abomination before God." This He is found also in another place saying unto them; "How can you believe, who receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that comes from the one God." For the God of all crowns with praises unto righteousness those who are truly good: but those who love not virtue, but are hypocrites, steal perchance by their own votes solely the reputation of being honourable. But no one, O worthy sirs, some perchance may say, crowns himself; and the man is justly ridiculed, who devises praises for himself: for it is written, "Let your neighbour praise you, and not your own mouth: a stranger, and not your own lips." But though hypocrites may be able possibly to remain undetected, and seize the honours which men bestow, "yet God, He says, |520 knows your hearts." The Judge cannot be deceived; He sees the depth of our mind; He knows who is the true combatant, and who steals by fraud the honour which another truly deserves: and while He honours him who is truly just, He "scatters the bones of the men-pleasers," according to the Psalmist's expression. For the desire of pleasing men is constantly, so to speak, the nurse, and head, and root of that accursed pride which is hated alike by God and men. For he who is the victim of this passion lusts after honour and praise: and this is hateful unto God: for He hates the proud, but accepts and shows mercy to him who loves not glory, and is lowly in mind.
And when Christ had crushed them with these reproofs He added thereto yet something more; even that which they were about to suffer by reason of their disobedience and wickedness; "For the law, He says, and the prophets were until John: thenceforth the kingdom of God is preached, and every one takes it by force. And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away, than for one point of the law to fall." Again does He conceal in obscurity that which would give them pain, and veils, so to speak, the prediction of those things that were about to happen to all who would not obey Him. For Moses, He says, and with him the company of the holy prophets, before announced the import of My mystery to the inhabitants of earth: both the law declaring by shadows and types that to save the world I should even endure the death of the flesh, and abolish corruption by rising from the dead; and the prophets also speaking words of the same import as the writings of Moses. It is nothing strange therefore, He says, or that was not known before, that you spurn My words, and despise everything that would avail for your good. For the word of prophecy concerning Me, and you, extends until the holy Baptist John: but ''from the days of John, the kingdom of heaven is preached, and every one takes it by force." And by the kingdom of heaven He here means justification by faith, the washing away of sin by holy baptism, sanctification by the Spirit, worshipping in the Spirit, the service that is superior to shadows and types, the honour of the adoption of sons, and the hope of the glory about to be given to the saints.
The kingdom of heaven therefore, He says, is preached, for |521 the Baptist has stood forth in the midst saying, "Prepare you the way of the Lord:" and has shown, that lo! He is already near, and as it were within the doors, even the true Lamb of God, Who bears the sin of the world. Whosoever therefore is a hearer and lover of the sacred message takes it by force: by which is meant, that he uses all his earnestness and all his strength in his desire to enter within the hope. For, as He says in another place, "The kingdom of heaven is taken by violence and the violent seize upon it."
"And it is easier, He says, for heaven and earth to pass away, before the day that God commands this to be, than for one point of the law to fall." Now sometimes by the word law He signifies collectively the whole divinely inspired Scripture, the writings, that is, of Moses and the prophets. What then did it foretell, which must also necessarily reach its accomplishment? It foretold, that by reason of their excessive unbelief and immorality, Israel would fall from being of God's family, even though he be the eldest son: and that Jerusalem would be thrust away from His indulgence and His love. For so He spoke concerning it by the voice of Jeremiah, "Behold! I will hedge up her way with stakes, and block up her ways, and she shall not find her path." For the way of those who fear God is straight, nor is there any steep part therein, but all is level and well beaten. But the path of the mother of the Jews is hedged up with stakes, in that the way of piety has been rendered impassable for them.
And that they were darkened in mind, and did not accept the light of the glory of Christ,----for they knew Him not;----He before proclaimed saying unto the multitude of the Jews; "I have likened your mother unto the night. My people is like unto one that has no knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, therefore will I reject you from being My priest. And you have forgotten the law of your God, and I will forget your children." You hear that the multitude of the disobedient are very justly compared unto darkness and the night: for the intellectual day star, and the Sun of |522 righteousness arises and shines in the mind and heart of those who believe: but the mind of those who treat with contumely a grace so splendid and worthy of our possessing, is blackened in darkness, and intellectual gloom. And thus much then concerning those things which the company of the holy prophets before announced respecting Israel.
But unto those who have acknowledged the revelation of the glory of Christ the Saviour of all, God the Father promised by one of the holy prophets, thus saying; "And I will strengthen them in the Lord their God, and in the name of their God they shall be established." And in accordance with this the Psalmist also says in the Spirit unto our Lord Jesus Christ: "They shall walk, O Lord, in the light of Your countenance: and in Your Name shall they rejoice all the day. For you are the glory of their strength, and in Your righteousness shall our horn be exalted." For we glory in Christ, and as being justified by Him are exalted, having cast off the abasement of sin, and living in the excellence of every virtue, we have been enriched also with the exact and unadulterated knowledge of the doctrines of truth. For this God promised us where He says by the voice of Isaiah, "And I will lead the blind by a way that they know not: and in paths which they have not known I will make them walk. I will make their darkness to be light, and all their steep places to be smooth." For we, who were once blind, have been enlightened, and travel in an unwonted pathway of righteousness; while those who boasted of the law as their schoolmaster, have become darkened. For as Christ Himself said; "Darkness has blinded their eyes: and blindness in part has happened unto Israel, that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not hear." For they sinned against the holy prophets; and even ventured to lift their hands against Him Who was calling them to salvation and life. Even though therefore, He says, you be disobedient, and though you foolishly deride My words, which would guide you in the attainment of that which is useful and becoming, yet this conduct, He says, was not |523 unforeknown, but already had been declared by the law and the prophets. And it is a thing impossible for the words of God to fail of their accomplishment: for He declared that which He knew must altogether and necessarily happen.
Unbelief therefore brings upon men destruction, as also does the stretching out of the haughty neck of the mind from excessive pride against Christ the Saviour of us all; by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever, Amen. |524
SERMON CXI.
16:19-31. But there was a certain rich, man, and he was clothed in purple and fine linen, feasting sumptuously every day. And a certain poor man whose name was Lazarus had been laid at his gate, full of sores; and desiring to satisfy himself with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass that the poor man died, and the angels carried him to Abraham's bosom. And the rich man also died, and was buried. And in Hades, having lifted up his eyes, being in torment, he saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried out and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue: for behold! I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that you received your good things in your life time; and Lazarus in like manner his evil things: but now he is comforted here, and you are tormented. And besides all this, between us and you a great gulf is placed, so that those who would pass from hence to you cannot; nor can those pass who would come from thence unto us. And he said, I pray you, father, to send him to my father's house: I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come unto this place of torment. But Abraham said unto him, They have Moses and the prophets: let them hear them. But he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one go unto them from the dead they will repent. But he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, they would not be persuaded even though one rose from the dead.
WHEN Solomon was offering up prayers in behalf of his kingdom, he somewhere said unto God, "Give me wisdom, even that which abides by Your throne." And God praised him for earnestly desiring such blessings as these; for there is nothing better for men than sacred gifts: of which one worthy of our acceptance, and that perfects in blessedness those who have been counted worthy of it, is the wisdom which |525 God bestows. For it is the sight of the mind and heart, and the knowledge of every good and profitable thing.
And it is our duty also to be enamoured of such gifts as these: that being counted worthy thereof we may rightly and without error approach the Saviour's words. For this is useful for us unto spiritual improvement, and leads unto a praiseworthy and blameless life. Come therefore, that being made partakers of the wisdom which is from above, we may examine the meaning of the parable now set before us.
It is necessary however, I think, in the first place to mention, what was the occasion which led to His speaking of these things; or what Christ intended to illustrate in so excellently sketching and describing the parable set before us. The Saviour therefore was perfecting us in the art of well-doing, and commanding us to walk uprightly in every good work, and to be in earnest in adorning ourselves with the glories which arise from virtuous conduct. For He would have us be lovers one of another, and ready to communicate: prompt to give, and merciful, and careful of showing love to the poor, and manfully persisting in the diligent discharge of this duty. And He especially admonished the rich in this world to be careful in so doing, and to guide them into the way winch altogether becomes the saints, He said, "Sell your possessions, and give alms: make you purses that grow not old; a treasure that does not fail for ever in heaven." Now the commandment indeed is beautiful, and good, and salutary: but it did not escape His knowledge, that it is impossible for the majority to practise it. For the mind of man has ever been, so to speak, infirm in the discharge of those duties which are arduous and difficult: and to abandon wealth and possessions and the enjoyment which they give, is not a thing very acceptable to any, inasmuch as the mind is early clothed and entangled, as it were, in indissoluble cords, which bind it to the desire of pleasure.
As being therefore good and loving unto men, He has provided for them a special kind of help, lest eternal and never-ending poverty should follow upon wealth here, and everlasting torment succeed to the pleasures of the present time. "For make for yourselves friends, He says, of the unrighteous mammon: that when it has failed, they may receive you into |526 eternal tabernacles.'" And this then is the advice of One providing them with something which they can do. For if, He says, you cannot he persuaded to give up this pleasure-loving wealth, and to sell your possessions, and make distribution to those who are in need, at least be diligent in the practice of inferior virtues." "Make for yourselves friends with the unrighteous mammon:" that is, do not consider your riches as belonging to yourselves alone; open wide your hand to those who are in need: assist those in poverty and pain: comfort those who have fallen into extreme distress: condole with those who are in sorrow, or oppressed with bodily maladies, and the want of necessaries: and comfort also the saints who embrace a voluntary poverty that they may serve God without distraction. Nor shall your so doing be unrewarded. For when your earthly wealth abandons you, as you reach the end of your life, then shall they make you partakers of their hope, and of the consolation given them by God. For He being good and kind to man, will lovingly and bountifully refresh those who have laboured in this world: and more especially such as have wisely and humbly and soberly borne the heavy burden of poverty. And somewhat similar advice the wise Paul also gives to those who live in wealth and abundance respecting those in misery: "Your abundance shall be to supply their falling short: in order that also their abundance may supply your falling short." But this is the advice of one who enjoins that simply which Christ spoke; "Make to yourselves friends of the unrighteous mammon:" so that the commandment is well worthy of our admiration.
And that our refusal so to act will cause our ruin, and bring us down to the inextinguishable flame, and to an unavailing remorse, He plainly shows by weaving for us the present parable. "For there was a certain rich man, He says, and he was clothed in purple and fine linen, feasting sumptuously every day. And a certain poor man whose name was Lazarus had been cast down at his gate, full of sores."
Here observe, I pray, and mark accurately the Saviour's words. For while it was easy to have said, "That there was such and such a rich man whoever it might be 1," He does not say so, but simply calls him a rich man: while He |527 mentions the poor man by name. What conclusion therefore must we draw? That the rich man as being uncompassionate was nameless in God's presence: for He has somewhere said by the voice of the Psalmist, concerning those who do not fear Him, "I will not make mention of their names with My lips:" while, as I said, the poor man is mentioned by name by the tongue of God.
But let us look at the pride of the rich man puffed up for things of no real importance; "he was clothed, it says, in purple and fine linen," that is, his study was to deck himself in beautiful attire, so that his raiment was of great price, and he lived in never-ceasing banquetings; for such is the meaning of his feasting every day: besides which it adds that he feasted sumptuously, that is, prodigally. All the luxury therefore of that rich man consisted in things of this sort: in clothing clean, delicate, and embroidered with linen, and dyed with purple, so as to gratify the eyes of beholders. And what is the result? Differing but little from the figures in statuary and painting, the rich man is indeed admired by those who are destitute of sense, but his heart is full of pride and haughtiness: he has high thoughts of himself and is boastful, and while there is nothing of excellence in his mind, he makes variously coloured hues a reason for his empty pride. His delight is in expensive banquets; in music and revellings; he has numerous cooks, who labour to provoke gluttony by carefully prepared meats: his cupbearers are beautifully attired; he has singing men and singing women, and the voices of flatterers. Such were the things in which the rich man lived; for the disciple of Christ certifies us. saying, "that all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of the world."
Meanwhile Lazarus, bound fast by sickness and poverty, was cast down, He says, at his gate. For the rich man dwelt in lofty halls, and spacious mansions nobly built: whereas the poor man was not so much laid as cast down, thrown there in neglect, and not deemed worthy of any account. Cut off from compassion and care, he would have liked, to satisfy his hunger, have gathered the worthless morsels that fell from the rich man's table 2. He was tormented moreover by a severe and |528 incurable malady; "Yes, even the dogs, it says, licked his sores," and that, as it seems, not to injure him, but rather, so to speak, as sympathizing with him, and tending him: for with their tongues they allay their own sufferings, removing with them that which pains them, and gently soothing the sore.
But the rich man was more cruel than the beasts; for he felt neither sympathy for him nor compassion; but was full of all mercilessness. And what the result was, the outline of the parable teaches us in what follows: but it is too long to tell it now. For lest my discourse should prove more than sufficient for my hearers, and a fatigue beyond due measure to him who speaks, stopping now from a due regard for the good both of myself and you, I will speak to you again upon these things at our next meeting, if Christ our common Saviour grant me the ability so to do: by Whom and with Whom, to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever, Amen 3. |529
SERMON CXII.
The same subject continued.
THE blessed prophet Isaiah has somewhere introduced those who by faith in Christ have been won unto life, as calling out eagerly, so to speak, unto one another, and saying; "Come, let us go up unto the mountain of the Lord, and unto the house of the God of Jacob, and they shall teach us His way, and we will walk in it." Now by the mountain here we affirm to be meant not any earthly mountain; for to imagine this would be foolish: but rather the church which Christ has rescued for Himself. For it is high and conspicuous to people everywhere, and, so to say, exalted, because there is nothing in it which brings men down to earth. For those who dwell within it care nothing for the things of earth, but rather desire those things that are above: and, as the Psalmist says, "They are exalted far above the earth;" as being altogether brave and courageous, and practising uninterrupted endeavours after all things whatsoever which please God.
And such we believe you to be; and your earnest desire after instruction is a plain proof thereof. For you have come of course to seek the fulfilment of the promise given unto you: but neither have we forgotten what we promised, but pay our debt, adding on to what has been already said that which is still wanting to the parable of Lazarus and the rich man.
"For it came to pass, He says, that Lazarus died, and was carried by angels to Abraham's bosom: and the rich man also died, and was buried." Observe carefully the Saviour's words. For of the poor man, He says, that he was carried by angels to Abraham's bosom: but of the rich man there is nothing of the sort, but only that he died and was buried. For those who have hope towards God find in their departure from the world a deliverance from anguish and pain. And something like this Solomon also has taught us, saying, "In the sight of men they seemed to die, and their departure was considered an injury and their going from among us a breaking to pieces: but they are at peace, and their hope is full of |530 immortality." For there is given unto them a measure of consolation commensurate with their labours: or even perhaps one which surpasses and exceeds their toils: for Christ has somewhere said, that "good measure, pressed down, and heaped up, and running over shall they give into your bosom." For like as ships that sail upon the sea stand the shock of savage waves, and struggle with the violence of mighty winds, but afterwards arriving at tranquil havens fit for their rest, cease there from tossing; so in like manner I think that the souls of men, when they emerge from the turbulence of earthly things, enter the mansions that are above, as into a haven of salvation.
"Lazarus then, He says, was carried by the holy angels unto Abraham's bosom: but the rich man died and was buried." For to that rich man who had shewn himself harsh and unmerciful the separation from the body was death. For he was going from pleasure to torment: from glory to shame: from light to darkness. Such were the things that the rich man must suffer, who had been voluptuous, and close-handed, and unready for mercy. And to torment him the more now that he dwells in Hades, he beheld, it says, Lazarus in the bosom of Abraham: and made supplication that he might be sent to drop a little water upon his tongue: for he was tormented, it says, as in a fierce flame. And what reply does the patriarch Abraham make? "Son, you received your good things in your life: and Lazarus his evil things." You were enamoured, He says, of these temporal things; you were clad in fine linen and purple IMPORTANT: NOTE ; you were boastful and haughty; all your time was spent in luxury; you offered up your wealth to your appetite and to flatterers; but you never once called to mind the sick and sorrowful: you had no compassion on Lazarus when you saw him thrown down at your portals. You beheld the man suffering incurable misery, and a prey to intolerable griefs: for two maladies at once possessed him, |531 each worse than the other, the cruel pain of his ulcers, and the want of the necessaries of life. The very beasts soothed Lazarus, because he was in pain; "the dogs licked his sores," but you were more hard-hearted than the beasts. "You have received therefore, He says, your good things in your life, and Lazarus his evil: and now here he is comforted, and you are tormented;" and, as the sacred Scripture says, "they shall have judgment without mercy who have wrought no mercy." You would have been a partner with Lazarus, and a portion of his consolation would have been given you by God, if you had admitted him to be a partner of your wealth. But this you did not do, and therefore you alone are tormented: for such is the fitting punishment of the unmerciful, and of those whose mind feels no sympathy for the sick.
Let us therefore make for ourselves friends of the unrighteous mammon: let us listen to Moses and the prophets calling us unto mutual love and brotherly affection: let us not wait for any of those now in Hades to return hither to tell us the torments there: the sacred Scripture is necessarily true: we have heard, that "Christ shall sit upon the throne of His glory to judge the world in righteousness, and that He shall set the sheep indeed on His right hand, but the goats on His left. And to those on His right hand He shall say, Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from before the foundations of the world: for I was hungry, and you gave Me to eat; and thirsty also, and you gave Me to drink: I was naked, and you clothed Me; in prison, and you came unto Me." But upon those upon the left hand He shall lay a heavy condemnation, saying, "Go to the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels." And the charge against them is, that they have done the very opposite of that for which the saints were praised. "For I was hungry, and you gave Me not to eat; and thirsty, and you gave Me not to drink: for inasmuch as you did it not, He says, to one of these little ones, you did it not to Me."
But to this perhaps some one will object, that there are many kinds of well living; for virtue is diversified, so to speak, and manifold: why therefore, having omitted those other kinds, does He make mention only of love to the poor? To this we reply, that the act is better than any other kind of |532 well doing: for it works in our souls a certain divine likeness which moulds us, so to speak, after God's image. For Christ also has said, "Be you merciful, as your Father also in heaven is merciful," He who is quick to show mercy, and compassionate and kind, is ranked with the true worshippers; for it is written, that "a pure and unpolluted sacrifice to God the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their poverty, and that a man keep himself unspotted from the world." And the wise Paul also has somewhere written, "But alms and communication forget not: for with such sacrifices God is content." For He loves not the incense of the legal worship, but requires rather the pleasantness of the sweet spiritual savour. But the sweet spiritual savour unto God is to show pity unto men, and to maintain love towards them. This also Paul advises us, saying, "Owe no man anything, but that you love one another:" and the daughter of love is pity for poverty.
Come therefore, you rich, cease from transitory pleasure: be earnest after the hope that is set before you: clothe yourselves with mercy and kindness: hold out the hand to them that are in need: comfort those who are in necessity: count as your own the sorrows of those who are in extreme distress.
* * * * [the remainder is lost] * * * * * * |533
SERMONS CXIII-CXVI. (fragments)
17:1. It is impossible but that offences come.
WHAT are the offences which Christ mentions as being in every way certain to happen? Offences then are of two kinds: for some are against the glory of the Supreme Being, and assail That Substance Which transcends all, as far at least as regards the purpose of the contrivers of them: while other offences happen from time to time against ourselves, and proceed no further than to the injury of some of the brethren, who are our partners in the faith. For whatever heresies have been invented, and every argument which opposes itself to the truth, resist really the glory of the supreme Godhead, by drawing away those who are caught therein from the uprightness and exactness of the sacred doctrines. And such wore the offences concerning which the Saviour Himself again somewhere said, "Woe to the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come: but woe to that man by whom the offence comes." For offences of this kind, caused I mean by unholy heretics, are not levelled against some single individual, but are aimed rather against the world, that is, against the inhabitants of the whole earth. And the inventors of such offences the blessed Paul rebukes, saying, "But in thus sinning against the brethren, and wounding their weak conscience, you sin against Christ." And that such offences might not prevail over the faithful, God somewhere spoke unto those who are the ambassadors of the upright word of truth, and skilful in teaching it, saying, "Go through My gates, and make a pathway for My people, and cast away the stones out of the way." And the Saviour has attached a bitter penalty against those who lay such stumbling-blocks in men's road.
Perhaps, however, these are not the offences here referred to, but those rather, which very frequently from human infirmity happen between friends and brethren: and the accompanying discourse which immediately follows these opening |534 remarks, and which speaks of our pardoning the brethren in ease they ever sin against us, leads us to the idea that these were the offences meant. And what then are these offences? Mean and annoying actions, I suppose; fits of anger, whether on good grounds or without justification; insults; slanders very frequently; and other stumbling-blocks akin and similar to these. Such, He says, must needs come. Is this then because God, Who governs all, obliges men to their commission? Away with the thought: for from Him comes nothing that is evil, yes! rather He is the fountain of all virtue. Why then must they happen? Plainly because of our infirmity: "for in many things we all of us stumble," as it is written. Nevertheless there will be woe, He says, to the man who lays the stumblingblocks in the way: for He does not leave indifference in these things without rebuke, but restrains it rather by fear of punishment. Nevertheless He commands us to bear with patience those who occasion them.
17:4. If seven times in the day he sin against you.
For if, He says, he who sins against you repent and acknowledge his fault, you shall forgive him: and that not once only, but very many times. For we must not show ourselves deficient in mutual love, and neglect forbearance, because any one is weak, and again and again offends; but must rather imitate those whose business it is to heal our bodily maladies, and who do not tend a sick man once only or twice, but just as often as he chances to fall ill. For let us remember that we also are liable to infirmities, and overpowered by our passions: and such being the case, we pray that those whose duty it is to rebuke us, and who possess the authority to punish us, may show themselves kind to us and forgiving. It is our duty therefore, having a common feeling for our mutual infirmities, "to bear one another's burdens; for so we shall fulfil the law of Christ." And observe also, that in the Gospel according to Matthew, Peter makes the inquiry, "How oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive Him?" And thereupon the Lord tells the Apostles, 'that though he sin seven times in the day; that is, frequently, and shall as often acknowledge his fault, you shall forgive him.' |535
17:5. The Apostles said to the Lord, Increase our faith.
That which necessarily gives joy to the soul of the saints is not the possession of transitory and earthly goods; for they are corruptible, and easily lost; but of such rather as render those that receive them reverend and blessed, even the spiritual graces which are God's gift. And of these one of special value is faith, by which I mean the having been brought unto a belief in Christ, the Saviour of us all: which also Paul recognised as being the chief of all our blessings; for he said, that "without faith it was impossible ever to have pleased (God): for by it the elders obtained their testimony." Observe therefore the holy apostles emulating the conduct of the saints of old time. For what do they ask of Christ? "Increase our faith," They do not ask faith simply, lest you should imagine them to be without faith; but they rather ask of Christ an addition to their faith, and to be strengthened therein. For faith partly depends upon ourselves, and partly is the gift of the divine grace: for the commencement of it depends upon ourselves, and to maintain confidence and faith in God with all our power; but the confirmation and strength necessary for this comes from the divine grace: for which reason, because all things are possible with God, the Lord says, that "all things are possible to him that believes." For the power which comes unto us through faith is of God. And knowing this, the blessed Paul also says in the first Epistle to the Corinthians: "For to one is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom: and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit: and to another faith in the same Spirit." You see that he has placed faith also in the catalogue of spiritual graces. And this the disciples requested they might receive of the Saviour, contributing also that which was of themselves: and He |536 granted it unto them after the fulfilment of the dispensation, by the descent upon them of the Holy Spirit: for before the resurrection their faith was so feeble, that they were liable even to the charge of littleness of faith.
For the Saviour of all was sailing once, for instance, with the holy apostles upon the lake or sea of Tiberias, and purposely permitted Himself to fall asleep: and when a violent storm agitated the surge, and raised a mighty wave against the vessel, they were greatly troubled, so that they even roused the Lord from sleep, saying, "Master, save us, we perish." And He, it says, arose, and rebuked the waves, and changed the savageness of the tempest into a calm. But He greatly blamed the holy apostles, saying, "Where is your faith?" For they ought not to have been troubled in any respect whatsoever, when the Sovereign of the universe was present with them, at Whom all His works tremble and shake. And if we must add a further and similar example, I will mention one. He commanded the holy apostles to go on board the vessel, and precede Him unto the opposite side of the lake: and they of course did so. And when they had rowed, it says, about thirty furlongs, they see Jesus walking on the sea, and were greatly terrified, imagining that they saw a spectre. But when He called out unto them, saying, "It is I: be not afraid;" Peter said, "If it is You, bid me come unto You on the water: and He said, Come," And having leaped down from the ship, he began to walk unto Him. But when, it says, he saw the wind and the wave, he was terrified: and beginning to sink, he cried out, "Lord, help me:" and He saved him in his danger, but again rebuked him, saying, "O you of little faith, wherefore did you doubt?" And that at the season of the passion, when the band of soldiers, and wicked officers, came to seize Jesus, they all forsook Him and fled, and Peter also denied Him, being terrified at a maidservant, is well known.
You have seen the disciples while still possessed of but little faith: now wonder at them when they had obtained an increase |537 of their faith from Christ, the Saviour of us all. He commanded them "not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Father's promise," until they should be clothed with power from on high. But when the power from on high had descended upon them in the shape of fiery tongues, even the grace which is through the Holy Spirit, then indeed they became bold and manly and fervent in the Spirit, so as even to despise death, and to count as nothing the dangers with which they were threatened from unbelievers; yes, and then too they became able to work miracles.
But that to be confirmed in the faith is a great and special grace, the Lord shows by saying, "If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, hot, that is, and fervent, you might have said to the sycamine tree, Be you uprooted in the sea, and it would have obeyed you." For he who confides in Christ trusts not to his own strength, but rather assigns to Him the power of performing all things. From Him then confessedly comes the accomplishment of all good things in men's souls: but they nevertheless must prepare themselves to receive this great grace. For if the power of faith remove that which is fixed and rooted in the ground, one may say absolutely that there is nothing so immovable as that faith cannot shake it, if its removal be required. The earth accordingly was shaken when the apostles were praying, as the Acts of the Apostles record: and so, on the other hand, faith stays those things which are in motion, as the rapid course of a running river, and the ceaseless way of the lights which move in heaven. This, however, we must carefully notice, that God does not excite an empty astonishment or vain wondering, but that such things are far from the divine Substance, Which is free from pride and boasting, and altogether true, for the solo good and safety of mankind. And this I say, that no one may expect from sacred faith and the divine power useless changes, for instance, of the elements, or the removal of mountains and plants; nor give way to impiety, as though the word were not true, if these things come not so to pass: nor again count faith weak, if it cannot accomplish such things. Let the thing be but useful for some real benefit, and the power will not be wanting. |538
17:7. But which of you having a servant ploughing or feeding cattle.
In the verses which precede a long and important discourse has been addressed to us by the Lord, to show unto us the paths which lead unto honour, and to manifest the glories of the blameless life, that making progress therein, and advancing zealously unto whatsoever is admirable we may attain unto "the prize of our high calling." But since it is the nature of the mind of man ever to be carried away unto vaingloriousness, and to be afflicted most readily with a tendency thereto; and since a pretext for this fault is often given by the being distinguished before God for some of the noblest virtues; and since it is a sin grievous and hateful unto God:----for the serpent, the author of evil, leads men sometimes into such a state of mind, as for them to imagine perhaps that God even owes them the highest honours, when their life is glorious and distinguished: ----to draw us away from such passions, He sets before us the purport of the lessons which have just been read, teaching us thereby, under the form of an example, that the might of sovereign authority demands everywhere of its slaves subjection as a debt. For the lord, He says, will not acknowledge any gratitude to the slave, even if all that is due be done by him, according to what becomes the condition of a slave.
Here observe, I pray, that the disciples, yes, all who are subject to the sceptre of Christ the Saviour of us all, are encouraged unto industry, but that, not as though they rendered unto Him their service as a favour, but as discharging the debt of obedience incumbent upon slaves. And hereby the accursed malady of vainglory is done away. For if you do that which is your due, why do you pride yourself? Do you not see that if you don't discharge your debt, there is danger: and that if you do discharge it, no gratitude is owed you? Which truth that admirable servant Paul having well learnt and understood, says, "If I preach the gospel, I have no cause of boasting; for a necessity is laid upon me: but woe unto me if I preach not the gospel." And again, "I am a debtor, he says, of the preaching of the doctrine, both to Greeks and barbarians, both to wise and foolish." If therefore you have done well, and have kept the divine commands, and have obeyed |539 your Lord, ask not honour of God as your due, but rather draw near, supplicating for the gifts of His bounty. Bear in mind that also among us, masters acknowledge no gratitude when any of their slaves perform their appointed service, though often by their bounty they gain the goodwill of their faithful servants, and so beget in them a more ready alacrity. Similarly God demands of us the service of slaves, using the right of His sovereign authority: but as being good and bountiful. He promises also rewards to those who labour. And the greatness of His bounty far surpasses the labours of His subjects, as Paul shall prove unto you, writing, "The sufferings of the present season are not worthy to the glory about to be revealed upon us." Yes! though we are slaves, He calls us sons, and crowns us with the honour which becomes children. And observe that each one, having first attended to his own flesh, so must take charge of the good of others: for he "who cannot govern his own house well, how shall he take care of the church?"
17:12. Ten lepers met him.
Again the Saviour manifests unto us His glory, and by working godlike miracles, endeavours to win senseless Israel unto faith, obdurate though he was, and unbelieving. What argument then will avail him at the day of judgment for refusing to accept salvation through Christ? Especially when they themselves heard His words, and were eyewitnesses of His ineffable miracles? For which reason He said Himself of them, "If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin." And again, "If I had not done among them the works which no other man did, they had not had sin, but now they have both seen and hated both Me and My Father." The cleansing of the lepers, as I said just above, was a plain demonstration (of His miraculous power): for by the law of Moses they were shut out of the cities and villages, as being impure.
This then will suffice, I suppose, for introductory remarks. The lepers then having met the Saviour, earnestly besought Him to free them from their misery, and called Him Master, that is, Teacher.
No one pitied them when suffering this malady: but He Who |540 had appeared on earth for this very reason, and had become man that He might show pity unto all, He was moved with compassion for them, and had mercy upon them.
17:14. He said unto them, Go and show yourselves unto the priests.
And why did He not rather say, "I will, be you cleansed;" as he did in the case of another leper: but commanded them rather to show themselves unto the priests? It was because the law gave directions to this effect to those who were delivered from leprosy: for it commanded them to show themselves to the priests, and to offer a sacrifice for their cleansing. He commanded them therefore to go, as being already healed, and, that they might, so to speak, bear witness to the priests, as the rulers of the Jews, and ever envious of His glory, that wonderfully, and beyond their hope, they had been delivered from their misfortune by Christ's willing that they should be healed. He did not heal them first, but sent them to the priests, because the priests knew the marks of leprosy, and of its being healed. He sent them to the priests, and with them He sent also the healing. What however was the law of leprosy, and what the rules for its purification, and what the meaning of each of the particulars commanded by the law, we have more fully described at the commencement of our Saviour's miracles as recorded by Luke, and referring thither such as are anxious for learning, let us now proceed to what follows. The nine then, as being Jews, falling into a thankless forgetfulness, did not return to give glory to God: by which He shows that Israel was hard of heart, and utterly unthankful: but the stranger,----for as being a Samaritan he was of foreign race, having been brought thither from Assyria: for the phrase is not without meaning, "in the middle of Samaria and Galilee:" ----returned with a loud voice to glorify God. It shows therefore that the Samaritans were grateful, but that the Jews, even when benefited, were ungrateful. |541
SERMON CXVII.
17:20-30. And having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God comes, He answered and said unto them, The kingdom of God comes not by watchings; neither shall they say, Lo! here, or Lo! there: for behold! the kingdom of God is within you. And He said unto the disciples, The days will come, when you shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and shall not see it. And if they shall say unto you, Lo! here, or Lo! there, go you not, neither run thither. For as the lightning that lightens from under heaven gives light to that which is under heaven, so shall the Son of man be in His day. But first He must suffer many things, and be rejected by this generation. And as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it also be in the days of the Son of man. They were eating, and drinking, and were taking wives, and being made the wives of men, until the day that Noah entered into the ark; and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot: they were eating and drinking; they were buying and selling; they were planting, were building: but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom, there rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. So shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.
AGAIN is the Pharisee fighting against God, nor feels that he is kicking against the pricks: for while assuming the appearance of being anxious to learn, he makes a mock at divine mysteries so holy, that "the angels desire to look into them," according to the word of the blessed Peter. For this reason "blindness in part has happened unto Israel," and darkness has blinded their eyes. For that they were dark and blind, so as even often to make the mystery of Christ an occasion of ridicule, any one may learn from what has now been read to us. For they drew near asking Him, and saying, "When will the kingdom of God come?" Moderate your pride, O foolish Pharisee: desist from a mockery that exposes you to |542 heavy and inevitable guilt. "For he, it says, that does not believe the Son, is condemned already, because he has not believed in the Name of the Son of God." For the divine Moses showed before by type and shadow that the Word is the world's way and door of salvation, in that though He is God, He appeared in human form, and endured the death of the flesh for the sake of the whole earth. And the declarations also of the holy prophets agree with what was said by Moses. For they foretold that He would come in due time in form like unto us. And this also came to pass: for He was manifested to those upon earth, having assumed the form of a slave; but even so He retained His natural lordship, and power, and glory such as befits God, as is proved by the splendour of the works He wrought. But you did not believe in Him: you did not accept justification by His means, in that you were obdurate and proud. And after this you ask, "When the kingdom of God shall come?"
As I said therefore, he mocks at a mystery thus truly holy and worthy of admiration. For because the Saviour of all in His public discourses spoke from time to time of the kingdom of God, therefore these miserable men, in contempt of Him,----or perhaps even having it in their mind that being entrapped by their malice, He will have to endure the death upon the cross,----ask in mockery, "When the kingdom of God will come;" as much as to say, that before this kingdom which You talk about, the cross and death will seize You. What therefore does Christ reply? Again He displays His long-suffering and incomparable love unto man: for "being reviled, He does not revile back: suffering, He does not threaten." He does not therefore harshly chide them, nor yet because of their wickedness does He deign to give them an answer to their question, but says that only which is for the benefit of all men, that "the kingdom of God comes not by watchings: for behold! the kingdom of God is within you." For ask not, He says, about the times in which the season of the kingdom of heaven shall again arise and come: but rather be in earnest, that you may be found worthy of it, for "it is within you," that is, it depends upon your own wills, and is in your own power, whether or not you receive it. For every man who has attained to justification by means of faith in Christ, and is |543 adorned by all virtue, is counted worthy of the kingdom of heaven s.
Having therefore made this plain to all men, He now transfers His words to the holy disciples, to whom as His true companions He says, "The days will come when you shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and shall not see it." Is the Lord then in so speaking working cowardice in His disciples? Does He enervate them beforehand, and make them without heart for the endurance of those persecutions and temptations which they would have to bear? This is not His meaning, but the contrary: for He would have them prepared for all that can grieve men, and ready to endure patiently, that so being approved, they may enter the kingdom of God. He forewarns them therefore that before His advent from heaven, at the consummation of the world, tribulation and persecution will precede Him, so that they will wish to see one of the days of the Son of man; that is, one such as those when they were still going about with Christ, and conversing with Him. And yet the Jews even then were guilty of no little violence against Him. They stoned Him with stones: they persecuted Him not once only, but oftentimes: they led Him to the brow of the hill, that they might throw Him down from the precipice: they vexed Him with reproaches and calumnies, and there was no form of wickedness which the Jews did not practise against Him. How then did He say that the disciples would desire to sec one of His days? It was because, by comparison with the greater evils, the less are, so to speak, desirable.
But that He will descend from heaven in the latter times of the world, not obscurely nor secretly, but with godlike glory, and as "dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto," He declared, saying, that His coming shall he as the lightning. He was born indeed in the flesh of a woman, to |544 fulfil the dispensation for our sakes, and for this reason He emptied Himself, and made Himself poor, and no longer showed Himself in the glory of the Godhead: for the season itself, and the necessity of the dispensation, summoned Him to this humiliation. But after the resurrection from the dead, having ascended to heaven, and sat down with God the Father, He shall descend again, not with His glory withdrawn, nor in the meanness of human nature, but in the majesty of the Father, with the companies of the angels guarding Him, and standing; before Him as God and Lord of all. He shall come therefore as the lightning, and not secretly.
Nor must we believe any one saying, "Lo! Christ is here, or lo! He is there. But first He must suffer many things, and be rejected by this generation," He cuts away another expectation from the heart of the disciples: for they supposed, that when He had gone round about Judaea, and afterwards been in Jerusalem, that He would immediately manifest the kingdom of God. They even drew near to Him and said, "Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" Yes, even the mother of Zebedee's sons, expecting that this would be the case, drew near and said, "Lord, say that my two sons shall sit, the one on Your right hand, and the other on Your left, in Your kingdom." That they might know therefore that He was about first to undergo His saving passion, and to abolish death by the death of His flesh, and put away the sin of the world, and bring to nought the ruler of this world, and so to ascend unto the Father, and in due time to appear to "judge the world in righteousness," He says, that "He must first suffer many things."
And to show that He will appear unexpectedly, and with no man knowing it, and the end of the world come, He says, that the end shall be "as it was in the days of Noah and Lot. For they were eating, He says, and drinking: and were taking wives, and being made the wives of men: they were selling and buying, and building; but the coming of the waters destroyed the one, while the others were the prey and food of brimstone and fire." What therefore is signified by this? That He requires us to be always watchful, and ready to make our defence before the tribunal of God. For as Paul says, "We are all about to be revealed before the judgment-seat of |545 Christ, that every man may receive a retribution for the things that are by the body, according to that he has done, whether good or bad." "Then shall He set the sheep on His right hand, and the goats on His left: and He shall say unto the sheep, Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundations of the world." But upon the goats He will utter a terrible sentence; for He will send them to the flame that shall never be appeased.
If therefore, O Pharisee, you desire to be accounted worthy of the kingdom of God, become one of the sheep. Offer unto Christ the fruit of faith in Him, and the praise of holy conduct, even that which is by the Gospel. But if you continue to be a goat, that is, one unfruitful, and destitute both of faith and good works, why do you enquire when the kingdom of God will come? For it does not concern you. Fear rather because of the torment which is decreed against the unbelieving, and the unappeasable flame appointed for those who sin against Christ: by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever, Amen. |546
SERMON CXVIII.
17:31-37. In that day, he who is upon the housetop, and his goods in the house, let him not go down to carry them away: and he who is in the field, let him in like manner not return back. Remember Lot's wife. Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it: and whosoever shall lose it, shall save it alive. 1 tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed: the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at a mill together; the one shall be taken, and the other left. And they answer and say unto Him, Where, Lord? And He said unto them, Where the body is, there will also the eagles be gathered.
THE sacred Scripture has some where said, "Prepare your works for your departure, and make yourself ready for the field." Now by our departure I imagine is meant our going from this world, and removal hence. For this time must of course overtake every one: for, as the Psalmist says, "What man is there that shall live and not see death, and that can save his soul from the hand of hell?" For the nature of man was condemned in Adam, and fell away unto corruption, because he foolishly transgressed the commandment given him. But those who are careless and contemptuous, lead a shameful and pleasure-loving life, not even perhaps admitting into their mind the thought of the world to come, and the hope prepared for the saints, nor feeling moreover any alarm at the torment that is appointed for those who love sin. But those who embrace a virtuous life rejoice in labours for probity's sake, bidding, so to speak, farewell to the desire after earthly things, and paying but slight attention to the vain turmoil of the world.
To a purpose thus excellent, and a proportionate earnestness the Saviour bids us hold fast, thus saying; "In that day he who is upon the housetop, and his goods in the house, let him not go down to carry them away: and he who is in the field, let him in like manner not return back." He was speaking of the last day, that is, of the end of this world; |547 for as it was, He said, in the days of Noah and Lot: they were eating, and drinking, and were taking wives, and being made the wives of men, until the flood came; and upon Sodom fire descended, and destroyed them all: so shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed." Strengthening them therefore for the remembrance of the last day, and the final time, He commands them to disregard all earthly and temporal matters, and look only unto one end, the duty namely of every one saving his soul. "He therefore, He says, that is upon the housetop, let him not go down to the house to carry away his goods." And in these words He apparently means the man who is at ease, living in wealth and worldly glory: for always those that stand upon the housetops are conspicuous in the eyes of them who are round about the house. If therefore, He says, there be any one in this condition, let him at that time make no account of the goods stored up in his house. For vain henceforth are such things, and unavailing to his advantage. For, as it is written, "Treasures profit not the wicked: but righteousness delivers from death."
But even "if any one be, He says, in the field, in like manner let him not return back." That is, if any one be found devoted to industry, and occupied in labours, earnestly desirous of spiritual fruitfulness, and gathering the wages of virtuous toil, let him hold firmly to this diligence: "let him not return back:" for, as Christ Himself again has somewhere said, "No man that puts his hand to the plough, and turns back, is fit also for the kingdom of heaven." For it is our duty to maintain our religious exertions without wavering, and to persevere in them with undaunted wills, lest we suffer some such fate as befell the woman at Sodom, taking whom as an example, He says, "Remember Lot's wife," For when she had been rescued from Sodom, but would afterwards have returned, she became a pillar of salt, became, that is, foolish and stone-like.
On that day therefore, He says, and at that time, both those who are accustomed to live in luxury must entirely abstain from such pride, and readily labour, in order that they may save themselves: and in like manner those who are industrious, and honour useful exertion, must bravely hold to the mark that has been set before them. "For whosoever shall seek to save |548 his life shall lose it: and whosoever shall lose it, shall save it alive."
But the way in which a man loses his life that he may save it, and how he who imagines that he is saving loses it, Paul clearly shows, where he says of the saints, "They that are Jesus Christ's have crucified the flesh, with its affections and lusts." For those who have really become true [followers] of Christ our common Saviour, crucify their flesh, and put it to death, by being constantly engaged in labours and struggles unto piety, and by mortifying its natural desire. For it is written, "Mortify your members that are upon earth; fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil lust, and covetousness." But those who love a voluptuous course of life, imagine probably that they are gaining their soul by living in pleasure and effeminacy: whereas certainly they lose it. "For he that sows, it says, to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption."
But on the other hand, whosoever loses his life shall of a certainty save it. This the blessed martyrs did, enduring conflicts even unto blood and life, and placing on their heads as their crown their true love unto Christ. But those who, from weakness of resolution and mind, denied the faith, and fled from the present death of the flesh, became their own murderers: for they will go down into hell to suffer the penalties of their wicked cowardice. For the Judge shall descend from heaven: and those who with all their heart have loved Him, and earnestly practised entire virtuousness of life, He will call, saying, "Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundations of the world." But those who have led careless and dissolute lives, nor maintained the glory of faith in Him, on them will He pass a severe and overwhelming sentence, saying unto them, "Depart, you cursed, into everlasting fire."
This He teaches us by saying, "In that night there shall be two men in one bed: one shall be taken, and one shall be left. Two women shall be grinding at a mill together, the one shall be taken, and the other left." Now by the two who are in one bed, He seems to hint at those who live in rest and plenty, and are equal to one another, as far as regards their being possessed of worldly affluence: for the bed is the |549 symbol of rest. "But one of them, He says, shall be taken, and one shall be left." How, or in what manner? It is because not all those who are possessed of wealth and ease in this world are wicked and merciless. For what if a man be rich, but be gentle and merciful, and not destitute of the praise of compassion upon the poor; if he be ready to share his wealth with others, and affable of address; thoroughly liberal and sober-minded; upright in the faith, and of an urgent zeal for piety; if too, according to the Saviour's expression, he have made for himself friends by his use of the unrighteous mammon, this man is taken: but the other, who was not thus minded, shall be left.
"Two women, He says, shall be grinding at a mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left." And by these again He seems to mean such as live in poverty and labour: but even in these, He says, there is a certain vast difference. For some have borne the burden of poverty manfully, honouring a sober and virtuous course of life: while others have been of a different character, crafty for every wicked practice, and the contrivers of all baseness. There will be therefore even in their case a full and exact investigation of their manners, and he that is good will be taken, and he that is not so will be left.
As Christ however, our common Saviour, had used the expression "shall be taken," the disciples usefully and necessarily ask, "Whither, Lord? And He said unto them, Where the body is, there will also the eagles be gathered." And what does this mean? By the use of a common and very plain fact, He hints at a great and profound mystery. And what is this? That He shall descend from heaven "to judge the world in righteousness." But, as He Himself says, "He will send His angels, and they shall choose the righteous and the holy from among the sinners, and bring them near unto Him:" but those others they will leave on earth, as doomed to torment and condemned to the punishment which is by fire.
Something to this effect the very wise Paul also declares, where he writes, "For I say unto you, that we who are left alive shall not arrive before those who have slept. Suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump. For it shall sound, and the dead in Christ shall rise incorruptible: and we who are left alive shall be caught up together with them |550 in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord."
Just therefore, He says, as when a dead corpse is exposed, carnivorous birds assemble unto it; so when the Son of man shall appeal', then certainly shall the eagles, even those who fly aloft, and rise superior to earthly and worldly things, hasten to Him.
And He calls the time of judgment night, because, as I imagine, of His advent being unknown and unexpected. For we remember also one of the holy prophets crying out to them who love sin, and saying, "Woe unto them that desire the day of the Lord! What will the day of the Lord be unto you? and it is darkness and not light; and thick darkness that has no brightness in it." And again, Christ Himself has somewhere said to the holy apostles: " I must work the works of Him That sent Me while it is day: the night comes, when no man can work." And one also of the holy apostles wrote, "The day of the Lord comes as a thief," that is, without being foreknown.
In order therefore that we may be taken by Christ, let us abandon all earthly anxieties, and devote ourselves to every kind of good work. For so will He accept us, and make us His own, and crown us with honours from on high: by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever, Amen. |551
SERMON CXIX.
18:1-8. And He spoke a parable to them, to the intent that men ought always to pray, and must not grow weary; saying, There was in a certain city a judge, who feared not God, neither felt shame at man. And there was a widow in that city, and she came to him and said, Avenge me of my adversary. And he would not for a time: but afterwards he said within himself Though I fear not God, and have no reverence for man, yet because this widow wearies me, I will avenge her, lest finally she annoy me by her coming. And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge says. And shall not God avenge His elect, who cry unto Him day and night, and He is longsuffering towards them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of man comes, shall He find faith upon the earth?
THE fountain of every blessing is Christ; "Who of God was also made unto us wisdom:" for in Him we are made wise, and filled with spiritual gifts. Now any one who is right-minded will affirm that the knowledge of those things by means of which we may prosper in every method of saintly excellence of life, and advance in virtue, is God's gift, and one well worthy of our winning. And we find one who asked it of God, saying, "Show me Your ways, O Lord: and teach me Your paths." Now the paths which lead those onward to an uncorrupt life, who eagerly advance therein, are indeed numerous; but one, which especially benefits those who practise it, is prayer: and the Saviour was Himself careful to teach us by the parable now set before us, that we must make diligent use of it. "For He spoke, it says, a parable unto them, to the intent that men ought always to pray, and must not grow weary."
For it is, I affirm, the duty of those who set apart their lives for His service, not to be sluggish in their prayers, nor again to consider it as a hard and laborious duty: but rather to rejoice, because of the freedom of access granted them by God; for He would have us converse with Him as sons with a |552 father. Is not this then a privilege worthy of being valued by us most highly? For suppose that some one of those possessed of great earthly power were easy of access to us, and were to permit us to converse with him with full license, should we not consider it as a reason for extraordinary rejoicing? What possible doubt can there be of this? When therefore God permits us each one to offer our addresses unto Him for whatever we wish, and has set before those who fear Him an honour so truly great and worthy of their gaining, let all slothfulness cease that would lead men to an injurious silence therein; and rather let us draw near with praises, and rejoicing that we have been commanded to converse with the Lord and God of all, having Christ as our Mediator, who with God the Father grants us the accomplishment of our supplications. For the blessed Paul somewhere writes, "Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ." And He somewhere Himself said to the holy apostles, "Hitherto you have asked nothing in My Name: ask, and it shall be given unto you." For He is our Mediator, our Propitiation, our Comforter, and the Bestower of every request, it is our duty therefore to "pray without ceasing," according to the words of the blessed Paul, as well knowing, and being thoroughly assured, that He Whom we supplicate is able to accomplish all things. "For let a man, it says, ask in faith, in nothing divided: for he who is divided is like a wave of the sea, troubled and blown about by the wind. For let not, it says, that man think that he will receive anything of the Lord." For he that is divided is really guilty of mockery: for if you do not believe that He will incline unto you, and gladden you, and fulfil your request, do not draw near to Him at all, lest you be found an accuser of the Almighty, in that you foolishly art divided. We must avoid therefore so base a malady.
But that God will incline His ear to those who offer Him their prayers, not carelessly nor negligently, but with earnestness and constancy, the present parable assures us. For if the constant coining of the oppressed widow prevailed upon the unjust judge, who feared not God, neither had any shame at men, so that even against his will he granted her redress, how shall not He Who loves mercy, and hates iniquity, and Who |553 ever gives His helping hand to them that love Him, accept those who draw near to Him day and night, and avenge them as being His elect?
But come now, and let us examine who it is that offend against them: for the examination of this question will beget much that is of profit to all who are well taught. For very many, and those of various classes, offend against the saints. For the holy ministers and teachers, who rightly divide the word of truth, are assailed by all who are the truth's enemies; men ignorant of the sacred doctrines, and estranged from all uprightness, who walk in the crooked path, remote from the straight and royal road. Such are the impure and polluted gangs of heretics, whom one may justly call the gates of destruction, the snares of hell, the pitfalls of the devil, the slough of destruction. These bring persecutions and distresses upon such as walk uprightly in the faith; and just as men drunk with wine, and unable to stand, take hold often of those near them, that they may not fall to the earth alone, so also those, as being lame and halt, often bring to ruin with them those who are not steadfast. Against such men must all who are known of God make supplications, imitating the holy apostles, who, calling out against the wickedness of the Jews, said, "And now, Lord, behold their threatenings, and grant unto Your servants that with freedom of speech they may declare Your word."
But perchance some one will say, 'But lo! Christ somewhere said to the holy apostles, "Love your enemies: pray for them who use you despitefully:" how then can we cry out against them, without despising the divine command?' To this we answer, Shall we then pray that boldness and power may be given them by God, that they may more strenuously attack those who praise His doings, not permitting them to teach, and resisting the glory of Him to Whom we address the supplication? But how would not this be thorough folly? Whenever therefore offences are committed by any against us personally, let us immediately even count it our glory to be forgiving towards them, and full of mutual love; and imitating the holy fathers, even though they smite and scorn us, yes, even though they inflict violence upon us of every kind, let us free them from all blame, and be superior both to wrath |554 and vexation. Such glorying becomes the saints, and is pleasing to God.
But when any sin against the glory of God, heaping up wars and distresses against those who are the ministers of the divine message, then indeed let us at once draw near unto God, beseeching His aid, and crying out against those who resist His glory: just as also the mighty Moses did; for he said, "Arise, O Lord, and let Your enemies be scattered, and let all those who hate Your Name flee away." And the prayer also uttered by the holy apostles shows, that it is not without advantage for the success of the divine message for the hand, so to speak, of the persecutors to be weakened. "For behold, they say, their threatenings," that is, prove their opposition to be in vain, and grant unto "Your servants, that with freedom of speech they may speak Your word."
But that men would make merchandize of the word of uprightness, and prevail on many to abandon a sound faith, involving them in the inventions of devilish error, and "belching forth, as Scripture says, things out of their own hearts, and not out of the mouth of the Lord," He foretold, saying, "When the Son of man comes, shall He find faith upon the earth?" It escaped not His knowledge: how could it, seeing that He is God Who knows all things? He tells us then, to use his own words, that "the love of many will grow cold," and that "in the latter times some shall depart from a correct and blameless faith, going after seducing spirits, and giving heed to the false words of men who are seared in mind." Against whom we draw near unto God as faithful servants, praying Him that their wickedness, and their attempts against His glory, may be brought to no effect.
And others also there are who wrong the servants of God, and whom we may without sin attack in prayer. And who again are these? They are the evil and opposing powers, and Satan the adversary of us all, who fiercely resists those who would live well; who casts into the pitfalls of wickedness whoever slumbers; who plants in us the seeds of every sin. For with his satellites he presses upon us furiously. And on this account the Psalmist called out against them, saying, "How long set you yourselves against man? and you slay all of you, as it were a leaning wall, and a bowing fence." For just as a |555 wall that already leans on one side, and a fence that bows over as having been loosened, readily fall when any one pushes against them, so also the mind of man, by reason of its own great inclination of itself to the love of worldly pleasures, readily falls into them whenever any one draws and entices it thereto. And this is Satan's business: and therefore we say in our prayers to Him Who is able to save, and to drive away from us that wicked being, "Avenge me of my adversary." And this the Only-begotten Word of God has indeed done by having become Man: for He has ejected from his tyranny over us the ruler of this world, and has delivered and saved us, and put us under the yoke of His kingdom.
Excellent therefore is it to make request by constant prayer; for Christ will receive our supplications, and fulfil our petitions: by Whom and with Whom, to God the Father, be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever, Amen. |556
SERMON CXX.
18:9-14. And He spoke also this parable unto certain who trust in themselves that they are righteous, and despise others. Two men went up unto the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. And the Pharisee stood and prayed thus to himself: God, I thank You that 1 am not like the rest of mankind, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or as this publican. I fast twice in the week: I pay tithe of all that I gain. But the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up even his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful unto me the sinner. I tell you that this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For every one that exalts himself shall be abased, and he that abases himself shall be exalted.
You who love instruction, and are eager to listen, receive once again the sacred words: delight yourselves in the honey of wisdom; for so it is written, "Good words are honeycombs, and their sweetness is the healing of the soul." For the labour of the bees is very sweet, and benefits in many ways the soul of man: but the divine and saving (honey) makes those in whom it dwells skilful in every good work, and teaches them the ways of (spiritual) improvement. Let us therefore, as I said, receive again in mind and heart the Saviour's words. For He teaches us in what manner we ought to make our requests unto Him, in order that the act may not prove unrewarded to them who practise it; and that no one may anger God, the bestower of gifts from on high, by means of those very things by which he imagines that he shall gain some benefit. For it is written. "There is a righteous man, who perishes in his righteousness."
For see, I pray, an instance of this clearly painted, so to speak, in the parable set before us. One who prayed is condemned because he did not offer his prayer wisely. "For two men, it says, went up unto the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican." And here we must |557 admire the wise arrangement of Christ our common Saviour, in all things whatsoever He does and says. For by the parable previously read to us, He called us to diligence, and to the duty of offering prayer constantly: for the Evangelist said, "And He spoke unto them also a parable, to the intent that men ought always to pray, and must not grow weary." Having then urged them to diligence in constant prayer, yet, as I said, lest by doing so sedulously but without discretion, we should enrage Him Whom we supplicate, He very excellently shows us in what way we ought to be diligent in prayer. "Two men then, He says, went up unto the temple to pray." Observe here, I pray, the impartiality and entire fairness of the unerring Nature: for He calls those who were praying men, since He looks not so much at wealth or power; but regarding their natural equality, He considers all those who dwell upon earth as men, and as in no respect different from one another.
And what then was the manner of their prayer? "The Pharisee, it says, prayed thus to himself. God, I thank You that I am not like the rest of mankind, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or as this publican." Many at once are the faults of the Pharisee: for first of all he is boastful, and without sense; for he praises himself, although the sacred Scripture cries aloud, "Let a neighbour praise you, and not your own mouth: a stranger and not your own lips." But, O excellent sir, one may well say to him, Behold, those who live in the practice of good and holy actions, as any one may see, are not very ready to listen to the words of flatterers: yes, and even if men extol them, they often are covered with shame, and drop their eyes to the ground, and beg silence of those that praise them. But this shameless Pharisee praises and extols himself because he is better than extortioners, and the unjust, and adulterers. But how did it escape your notice, that a man's being better than the bad does not necessarily and of course prove him to be worthy of admiration: but that to vie with those who habitually excel, is a noble and honourable thing, and admits a man into the number of those who are justly praised.
Our virtue therefore must not be contaminated with fault, but must be single-minded and blameless, and free from all that can bring reproach. For what profit is there in fasting |558 twice in the week, if your so doing serve only as a pretext for ignorance and vanity, and make you supercilious and haughty, and selfish? You tithe your possessions, and make a boast thereof: but you in another way provoke God's anger, by condemning men generally on this account, and accusing others; and you are yourself puffed up, though not crowned by the divine decree for righteousness, but heap, on the contrary, praises upon yourself. "For I am not, he says, as the rest of mankind." Moderate yourself, O Pharisee: "put a door to your tongue, and a lock." You speak to God Who knows all things. Await the decree of the Judge. None of those skilled in the practice of wrestling ever crowns himself: nor does any man receive the crown of himself, but awaits the summons of the arbiter. Lower your pride: for arrogance is both accursed and hated by God. Although therefore you fast with puffed up mind, your so doing will not avail you: your labour will be unrewarded; for you have mingled dung with your perfume. Even according to the law of Moses a sacrifice that had a blemish was not capable of being offered to God: for it was said unto him, "Of sheep, and ox, that is offered for sacrifice, there must be no blemish therein." Since therefore your fasting is accompanied by pride, you must expect to hear God saying, "This is not the fast that I have chosen, says the Lord." You offer tithes: but you wrong in another way Him Who is honoured by you, in that you condemn men generally. This is an act foreign to the mind that fears God: for Christ even said, "Judge not, and you shall not be judged: condemn not, and you shall not be condemned." And one also of His disciples said, "There is one Lawgiver, and Judge: why then do you judge your neighbour?" No man because he is in health ridicules one who is sick for being laid up and bedridden: rather he is afraid, lest perchance he become himself the victim of similar sufferings. Nor does any man in battle, because another has fallen, praise himself for having escaped from misfortune. For the infirmity of others is not a fit subject for praise for those who are in health: nay, even if any one be found of more than usually vigorous health, even then scarcely does he gain glory thereby. Such then was the state of the self-loving Pharisee. |559
But what of the publican? He stood, it says, "afar off," not even venturing, so to speak, to raise up his eyes on high. You see him abstaining from all boldness of speech, as having no right thereto, and smitten by the reproaches of conscience: for he was afraid of being even seen by God, as one who had been careless of His laws, and had led an unchaste and dissolute life. You see also that by his external manner, he accuses his own depravity. For the foolish Pharisee stood there bold and broad, lifting up his eyes without scruple, bearing witness of himself, and boastful. But the other feels shame at his conduct: he is afraid of his Judge, he smites upon his breast, he confesses his offences, he shows his malady as to the Physician, he prays that he may have mercy. And what is the result? Let us hear what the Judge says, "This man, He says, went down to his house justified rather than the other."
Let us therefore "pray without ceasing," according to the expression of the blessed Paul: but let us be careful to do so aright. The love of self is displeasing to God, and He rejects empty haughtiness and a proud look, puffed up often on account of that which is by no means excellent. And even if a man be good and sober, let him not on this account suffer himself to fall away into shameful pride: but rather let him remember Christ, Who says to the holy apostles, "When you have done all those things, those namely which have been commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants, we have done that which was our duty to do.'' For we owe unto God over all, as from the yoke of necessity, the service of slaves, and ready obedience in all things. Yes, though you lead an excellent and elect life, don't exact wages from the Lord; but rather ask of Him a gift. As being good, He will promise it you: as a loving Father, He will aid you. Restrain not yourself then from saying, "God be merciful to me the sinner." Remember Him Who says by the voice of Isaiah, "Declare you your sins first, that you may be justified:" remember too that He rebukes those who will not do so, and says, "Behold, I have a judgment against you, because you say |560 'I have not sinned'." Examine the words of the saints: for one says, "The righteous is the accuser of himself in the beginning of his words." And another again, "I said, I will confess against myself my transgression unto the Lord: and you forgave the iniquity of my heart."
What answer then will those make to this, who embrace the new tenets of Novatus, and say of themselves that they are pure? Whose prayer do they praise? That of the Pharisee, who acquitted himself, or that of the Publican, who accused himself? If they say that of the Pharisee, they resist the divine sentence; for he was condemned as being boastful: but if that of the Publican, why do they refuse to acknowledge their own impurity? Certainly God justifies those who know well their transgressions, and are willing to confess them: but these men will have the portion of the Pharisee.
We then say, that in many things we "all of us offend," and that no man is pure from uncleanness, even though his life upon earth be but one day. Let us ask then of God mercy; which if we do, Christ will justify us: by Whom and with Whom, to God the Father, be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever, Amen. |561
SERMON CXXI.
18:15-17. And they brought also unto Him infants, that He should touch them: but when the disciples saw them, they rebuked them. But Jesus called them and said, Suffer little children to come unto Me, and hinder them not; for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, that whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, shall not enter therein.
EVERY manner of benefit does Christ weave for us, and opens wide the pathways of salvation. For His purpose is to save the dwellers upon earth, and produce in them a knowledge of the pursuits of piety, and make them skilful in all virtue, that they may be acceptable, being filled with spiritual fruitfulness. Let us see therefore what benefit He begets in us by what has just been read. For you have heard the holy Evangelist saying, "That they brought unto Him infants that He should touch them: and when the disciples prevented them, He took them and said, Suffer them to come unto Me, and hinder them not: for of such is the kingdom of God." It was their mothers who brought the babes, desiring His blessing, and begging for their infants the touch of His holy hand. But the blessed disciples rebuked them for so doing, not because they envied the babes, but rather as paying to Him as their teacher a due respect, and preventing, so to speak, unnecessary fatigues, and as setting much value upon order.
And infants even to the present time are brought near and blessed by Christ by means of consecrated hands: and the pattern of the act continues even until this day, and descends unto us from the custom of Christ as its fountain. Only the bringing near of infants takes not place now in an unbecoming or disorderly manner, but with proper order, and sobriety and fear. |562
Since then Christ has said, "Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and hinder them not; for of such is the kingdom of God," come then, yes come, and let us carefully examine, what sort of persons those must be, who desire eternal life, and are enamoured of the kingdom of heaven. For some one forsooth may say, 'What is there in babes that is worthy of emulation? Is it their want of firmness and intelligence? And how then is it not incredible, to affirm or imagine anything of the kind?' Christ however does not wish us to be without understanding, but would have us perfectly know every thing that is useful and necessary for our salvation. For wisdom even promises that she will give "to them that are simple, craftiness, and to the young the beginning of sense and understanding." And she is found also in the book of Proverbs like one that raises her voice on high and says, "You, O men, do I beseech, and utter my voice unto the sons of men: understand, O you simple ones craftiness, and you fools, put a heart within you." It follows therefore, that the fool has no heart, and is deficient in craftiness; not in that which is blamable, how could that be? but in that which is praiseworthy. But how a man may at once be both simple and crafty, the Saviour Himself elsewhere explains to us, saying, "Be you crafty as serpents, and simple as doves." And similarly the blessed Paul also writes, "My brethren, be you not children in your minds: but in wickedness be you babes, and in your minds grown men."
It is necessary however to examine, what is the meaning of being babes in wickedness, and how a man becomes so, but in mind a grown man. A babe then, as knowing either very little, or nothing at all, is justly acquitted of the charge of depravity and wickedness: and so it is also our duty to endeavour to be like them in the very same way, by putting entirely away from us habits of wickedness, that we too may be regarded as men who do not even know the pathway which leads unto guile, but who, unconscious of malice and fraud, live in a simple and innocent manner, practising gentleness, and a priceless humility, and readily forbearing from wrath and |563 spitefulness. For such we affirm are the qualities found in those who are still babes.
But while such is our character in simplicity and innocence, we must be perfect in mind; having our understanding firmly established in the clear knowledge of Him Who by nature and in truth is the Creator of the Universe, and God and Lord: acknowledging along with Him no other God whatsoever, new, and falsely so named: and avoiding as that which would bring upon us perdition, the being seduced into the abandonment of Him by the adoption of the customs of the heathen. Our mind then must be firmly fixed, so to speak, and safe, and unwavering in holding unto the living and true God: and we must further also flee far away from other pitfalls, and withdraw from the stumbling-blocks of the devil; for such those men are, who corrupt the orthodox doctrine respecting God, and falsify the truth, and lift up their horn on high, and speak wickedly against God. For they belch forth things out of their own heart, and lead astray the souls of the simple, warring against the glory of the Only-begotten Son of God, and saying that He is to be numbered among things created, whereas it was by Him that they all were brought into existence. And bringing down severe and inevitable condemnation upon their own heady, they fear not to say the very same things also against the Holy Spirit. Whosoever then says of them that they are the gates of hell, errs not from the mark. And the wise Paul also protests unto us, that we must turn away our faces from such, men: "For if, he says, any one preach unto you other than that you have received, let him be accursed."
The chief perfection therefore of the mind is to be established in the faith, and for our understanding to be uncorrupted therein: and the second, which neighbours upon this chief perfection, and is akin to it, and its constant companion, is the clear knowledge of that way of conduct which pleases God, and is taught us in the Gospel, and is perfect and blameless. Those who travel thereon lead a life of simplicity |564 and innocence, while nevertheless they know what opinions they ought to hold, and what acts are right for them to do. These enter in by the narrow gate, refusing neither those labours which piety unto God requires, nor such as are necessary for leading a glorious life. And so they duly advance into the broadness of the abundance which is in God, and rejoice in His gifts, and win for themselves the kingdom of heaven by Christ; by Whom and with Whom, to God the Father, be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever, Amen. |565
SERMON CXXII.
18:18-27. And a certain ruler asked Him, saying, Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, Why do you call Me good? No-one is good, but one, God. You know the commandments: You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear witness falsely; honour your father and your mother. And he said, All these have I kept from my youth. And when Jesus heard these things, He said unto him; You still lack one thing: sell all that you have, and distribute to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven: and come, follow Me. And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich. And Jesus seeing it said, How hardly shall they that have gold enter into the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to enter in through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. And they that heard it said, And who can live? And He said, The things which are impossible with men, are possible with God.
THOSE who believe that the Word, Who shone forth from the very substance of God the Father, is by nature and truly God, draw near to Him as unto an omniscient God, Who, as the Psalmist says, "tries the hearts and reins;" and sees all that passes in us: "for all things are naked, and spread out before His eyes," according to the expression of the blessed Paul. But we do not find the Jewish multitudes thus disposed: for they with their princes and teachers were in error, and saw not with the eyes of their mind the glory of Christ. Rather they looked upon Him as one like unto us: as a mere man, I mean; and not as God rather, Who had become man. They approached Him therefore to make trial of Him, and lay for Him the nets of their craftiness.
And this you may learn by what has now been read. For a ruler, it says, asked Him, saying, "Good teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" And Jesus said unto him, |566 "Why do you call Me good? None is good but one, God." Now he, who is here called a Ruler, and who fancied himself to be learned in the law, and supposed that he had been accurately taught therein, imagined that he could convict Christ of dishonouring the commandment spoken by the most wise Moses, and of introducing laws of His own. For it was the object of the Jews to prove that Christ opposed and resisted the former commandments, to establish, as I said, new laws, of His own authority, in opposition to those previously existing, that their wicked conduct towards Him might have a specious pretext, he draws near therefore, and makes pretence of speaking kindly: for he calls Him Teacher, and styles Him Good, and professes himself desirous of being a disciple. For "what, he says, shall I do to inherit eternal life?" Observe therefore how he mixes up flattery with fraud and deceit, like one who mingles wormwood with honey: for he supposed that he could in this way deceive Him. Of such men one of the holy prophets said, "Their tongue is a piercing lance: the words of their mouth are deceitful. To his neighbour he speaks peacefully: but there is enmity in his soul." And again the wise Psalmist also thus speaks of them: "Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness." And again, "Their words are smoother than oil: and yet are they spears."
He therefore flatters Jesus, and attempts to deceive Him, making pretence of being well-disposed to Him. And what does the Omniscient reply, "Who, as it is written, takes the wise in their craftiness?" "Why do you call Me good? None is good but one, God," You see how He proved at once that he was neither wise nor learned, though the ruler of a synagogue of the Jews. For if, He says, you did not believe that I am God, and the clothing of the flesh has led you astray, why did you apply to Me epithets suitable to the supreme nature alone, while still you supposed Me to be a mere man like unto yourself, and not superior to the limits of human nature? In the nature that transcends all, even in God only, is found the attribute of being by nature, and unchangeably good: but the angels, and we upon earth, are good by resembling Him, or rather by participation of Him. For as He is what He is, and this is His Name, and His everlasting memorial for all generations; but we exist and |567 come into being by being made partakers of Him Who really exists: so He indeed is good, or the good absolutely, but angels and men are good, only by being made, as I said, partakers of the good God. Let therefore the being good be set apart as the special property of God over all alone, essentially attached to His nature, and His peculiar attribute. If, however, He says, I do not seem to you to be truly God, then you have ignorantly and foolishly applied to Me the properties and virtues of the divine nature, at the very time when you imagine me to be a mere man, one that is who never is invested with goodness, the property of the unchangeable nature, but only gains it by the assent of the divine will. And such then was the purport of what Christ spoke.
But those perchance will not assent to the correctness of this explanation, whose minds are perverted by sharing in the wickedness of Arius. For they make the Son inferior to the supremacy and glory of God the Father: or rather, they contend that He is not the Son; for they both eject Him from being by nature and truly God, and thrust Him away from having really been born, lest men should believe that He is also equal in substance to Him Who begat Him. For they assert, as though they had obtained a reason for their blasphemy from the passage now before us, 'Behold, He has clearly and expressly denied that He is good, and set it apart as something appropriate to God the Father only: but truly had He been equal to Him in substance, and sprung from Him by nature, how would not He also be good as being God?'
Let this then be our reply to our opponents. Since all correct and exact reasoning acknowledges a son to be consubstantial with the father, how is He not good, as being God? For He cannot but be God, if He be consubstantial with Him Who is by nature God. For surely they will not affirm, however extreme may be the audacity into which they have fallen, that from a good father a son has sprung who is not good. For to this we have the Saviour's own testimony, Who thus speaks; "A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruits." How from a good root has there shot forth an evil sprout? Or how from a sweet fountain can there How a bitter river? Was there ever a time when there was no Father, seeing that He is the Father eternally? But He is the Father, because He has begotten, and |568 this is the reason why He bears this name, and not as being one who borrows the title by resemblance to some other person. For from Him all paternity in heaven and earth is named. We conclude therefore that the fruit of the good God is the good Son.
And in another way: as most wise Paul, says, "He is the image of the invisible God:" and the image, because He displays in His own nature the beauty of Him Who fathered Him. How therefore can we see in the Son, Who is not good, the Father, Who is by nature and truly good? "He is the brightness and likeness of His person:" but if He be not good, as the senseless heretic asserts, but the Father is by nature good, it is a brightness different in nature, and that possesses not the splendour of Him Who bade it shine. And the likeness too is counterfeit, or rather is now no likeness at all: for it represents not Him Whose likeness it is, if, as all must allow, that which is not good is the contrary of that which is good.
And much more might one say in opposition to them upon this point: but that our discourse may not extend to an unreasonable length, and be burdensome to any, we will say no more at present, and hold in as with a bridle our earnestness in this matter; but at our next meeting we will continue our explanation of the meaning of this passage from the Gospel, should Christ once again assemble us here: by Whom and with Whom, to God the Father, be praise and dominion with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever, Amen. |569
SERMON CXXIII.
THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.
I PERCEIVE you assembled here with great earnestness and zeal; and, as I suppose, you have come to exact a debt. I then, for my part, acknowledge that I promised at our last meeting to complete what was wanting to my discourse: and I have come to pay it as unto children, praying Christ, our common Saviour, to impart to my mind His divine light, and give utterance to my tongue, that I may benefit both you and myself. For Paul has somewhere written, "The husbandman who labours must first eat of the fruits."
Let me then bring back to your remembrance first of all what has already been considered, and then we will proceed to what remains.
The blessed Evangelist therefore said, "And a certain ruler asked Him, saying, Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And He said unto him, Why do you call Me good? No-one is good, but one, God:" and so on with the rest of the lesson. Now we have already explained what is the meaning of this passage in the Gospel, and enough has been said to you upon that point: for we showed both that by nature and truly the Son is good as also He is Who begat Him; and that the answer, "Why do you call Me good? No-one is good, but one, God," was spoken relatively to the questioner. Let us therefore direct our inquiry to the Scriptures which follow.
What then says this chief of the synagogue of the Jews? "What shall I do to inherit eternal life?" He does not ask with a view to learn; for then his question would have been worthy of all praise: but his object was to prove, that Christ did not permit them to retain the Mosaic commandments, but led rather His disciples and followers unto new laws enacted by Himself. For on this pretext they rebuked the people under their charge, saying of Christ, our common Saviour, "He has a devil, and is mad: why hear you Him?" For |570 they said that He had a devil, and was mad, on the supposition that He had set up his own laws against those which had been given from above, from God. True rather would it be to affirm of them that they had a devil, and were utterly mad, for resisting the Lord of the law, Who had come not so much to destroy the commandment which had been given of old, and of which Moses was the minister, as to fulfil it, according to His own words: for He transformed the shadow into the truth.
The chief of the synagogue therefore expected to hear Christ say, Cease, O man, from the writings of Moses; abandon the shadow; they were but types, and nothing more; draw near therefore rather to My commandments, which you have in the Gospel: but He did not so answer, because He discerned by His godlike knowledge the object of him who tempted Him. As though then He had no other commandments, but those only given by Moses, He sends the man unto them, and says, "You know the commandments." And lest he should say, that He referred to His own commandments, He enumerates those contained in the law, and says; "You shall not kill: you shall not commit adultery: neither shall you bear false witness." And what reply does this cunning schemer in wickedness make, or rather this very ignorant and senseless person? For he thought that even though He Whom he asked was God, yet nevertheless he could easily cajole Him into answering whatever he chose. But as the sacred Scripture says, "The prey falls not to the lot of the crafty."
For though he had shot wide of his mark, and missed his prey, he yet ventures to bait for Him another snare: for he said, "All these have I kept from my youth." He might therefore well hear from us in answer, O foolish Pharisee, "you bear witness of yourself; your witness is not true." But omitting now this argument, let us see in what way Christ repelled His bitter and malignant foe. For while He might have said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit: for their's is the kingdom |571 of heaven: blessed are the meek: blessed are the pure in heart:" He tells him nothing of this kind, but because he was fond of lucre and very rich, He proceeds at once to that which would grieve him, and says, "Sell all that you have, and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me," This was torture to the heart of that covetous man, who so prided himself upon his keeping of the law. It proved him at once both frail and weak, and altogether unfit for the reception of the new message of the gospel. And we too learn how true that is wdiich Christ spoke; "No man puts new wine into old wine-skins; else the skins burst, and the wine is spilt: but new wine is put into new wine-skins." For the chief of the synagogue of the Jews proves to be but an old wine-skin, that cannot hold the new wine, but bursts and becomes useless. For he was saddened, although he had received a lesson that would have won for him eternal life.
But those who have received in them by faith Him Who makes all things new, even Christ, are not rent asunder by receiving from Him the new wine. For when they have but newly received from Him the word of the gospel message, which gladdens the heart of man, they become superior to wealth and the love of lucre: their mind is established in courage: they set no value on temporal things, but thirst rather after things eternal: they honour a voluntary poverty, and are earnest in love to the brethren. For, as it is written in the Acts of the holy Apostles, "As many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them at the apostles' feet; and distribution was made unto every one according to his need,"
As the ruler therefore was too infirm of purpose, and could not be prevailed upon even to listen to the advice of selling his possessions, although it would have been good for him, and full of reward, our Lord lays bare the malady which has its lair in the rich, thus saying, "How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! And I say unto you, that it is easier for a camel to enter in through the eye of a needle, than a rich man into the kingdom of God." Now by a camel He means not the animal of that name, but a thick cable |572 rather: for it is the custom of those well versed in navigation to call the thicker cables "camels."
Observe however, that He does not altogether cut away the hope of the rich, but reserves for them a place and way of salvation. For He did not say that it is impossible for a rich man to enter in, but that he does so with difficulty.
When the blessed disciples heard these words, they objected, saying, "And who can live?" And their plea was for those who had wealth and possessions. For we know, they say, that no one will ever be persuaded to abandon his wealth and riches: "Who then can be saved?" But what does the Lord reply? "The things that are impossible with men, are possible with God." He has reserved therefore for those who possess wealth the possibility of being counted worthy, if they will, of the kingdom of God: for even though they refuse entirely to abandon what they have, yet it is possible for them in another way to attain unto honour. And the Saviour has Himself showed us how and in what way this can happen, saying, "Make to yourselves friends of the unrighteous mammon: that when it has failed, they may receive you into eternal tabernacles." For there is nothing to prevent the rich, if they will, from making the poor partakers and sharers of the abundance which they possess. What hinders him who has plentiful possessions from being affable of address, and ready to communicate to others, easily prevailed upon to give, and compassionate, and full of that generous pity which is well-pleasing to God. Not unrewarded, nor unprofitable shall we find carefulness in this respect; for "mercy boasts over judgment," as it is written.
By every argument therefore, and in every way does our common Saviour and Lord benefit us: by Whom and with Whom, to God the Father, be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.
1. a The Catenist adds, "as was done in the case of Job."
2. b The following passage is found in MS. 14,725, but is acknowledged neither by the principal MS. nor the Greek; besides the late date of the MS., which is on paper of the thirteenth century, I have little doubt of its spuriousness, from, first, its extremely rhetorical style; secondly, the strangeness of several of its words: and thirdly, the difficulties in its grammar. It is however as follows;
"He desired truly to satisfy himself with the morsels which remained over from the rich man's table, and no one gave unto him. O the meanness of life! For the rich man was set in manifold enjoyments, and the poor man had nothing, and was withering in the woe of poverty: and from the excessiveness of his want his person was exposed to the hailstones. He had no lands nor cornfields to bring him increase: he had no vineyards nor trees to bear him fruits, but was cast down, exposed to the sun, and day and night his couch was the dunghill. Poor Lazarus was cast down at the rich man's door: he was not cast down at a distance, but close by, lest, were he removed far away, some excuse might be found for the rich man's cruelty."
3. c Of the extracts gathered by Mai, the first is the only one not recognised by the Syriac. It starts the question, whether this parable, expressly mentioning Lazarus by name, and thereby giving some colour to the tradition, that he was an actual person, may be taken as a proof, that the retribution of men's good or evil deeds takes place immediately after death. This Cyril answers in the negative, showing from Scripture that the judgment does not take place till after the resurrection. This Mai says requires "a somewhat more accurate explanation on account of the fatal error of the Greeks, that the reward of human actions is delayed until after the resurrection." But his explanation is in fact an attempt at a refutation of S. Cyril's doctrine: for the extract really is S. Cyril's, being the sixteenth chapter against the Anthropomorphitae.
4. d The rest of the translation is from the Cod. 14,725, referred to above. It is a volume of miscellaneous sermons, containing of S. Cyril's only the two upon this parable, made up into one, and ending with the latter portion of Sermon XCI, beginning with the words, "Withdraw your attention from these temporal things." Cf. p. 421. In the main MS. the rest of this sermon, and the whole of the four following, have perished.
This text was transcribed by Roger Pearse, 2008. All material on this page is in the public domain - copy freely.
Early Church Fathers - Additional Texts
SOURCE SECTION: cyril_on_luke_12_sermons_124_134.htm
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke (1859) Sermons 124-134 (Luke 18:28-20:18) pp. 573-623.
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke (1859) Sermons 124-134 (Luke 18:28-20:18) pp. 573-623.
Sermon 124
Sermon 125
Sermon 126
Sermon 127 (fragments of the first half, plus the complete second half)
Sermon 128
Sermon 129
Sermon 130
Sermon 131
Sermon 132
Sermon 133
Sermon 134
SERMON CXXIV.
18:28-30. And Peter said, Lo we have left all, and followed You. And He said to them. Verily I say to you. There is no man that has left house, or wife, or brethren, or parents, or children, for the kingdom of God's sake, who shall not receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come eternal life.
HE Who is the fountain of sacred doctrines causes here also a healthful stream to flow for us, and the very season, as it seems, bids us say to those who search into the divine words, "You who thirst, come to the waters." For there is set before you that you may partake thereof "the torrent of pleasure,'' even Christ. For by this name the prophet David makes mention of Him, saying to God the Father in heaven; "But the sons of men shall trust in the protection of Your wings: they shall be satisfied with the fatness of Your house, and You shall make them drink of the torrent of Your pleasure."
And what the stream is which here gushes forth for us from Him, the purport of the evangelic lessons now set before us clearly teaches: "For Peter, it says, said to Him, Lo! we have left all and followed You." And to this another Evangelist, Matthew, adds, "What then shall we have?" Let us however, before proceeding to any of the other points, first enquire into the occasion which brought the discourse to this present subject.
When therefore our common Saviour Christ said to one of the chiefs of the synagogue of the Jews, "Go, sell all that you have, and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven, and come, follow Me," the disciples ask, What they shall have from God who keep this precept: and usefully they take upon themselves, as representing a class, the outline of the matter. But, as I imagine, to this some may reply, 'What after all had the disciples given up? for they were men who gained the necessaries of life by their sweat and labour, being by trade fishermen, who at most perhaps owned somewhere a boat and nets: who had neither well-built houses, nor any other possessions. What therefore had they left, or for what |574 did they ask of Christ a recompense? What therefore do we answer to this? Chiefly, that for this very reason they made this most necessary enquiry. For inasmuch as they possessed nothing but what was trifling and of slight value, they would learn in what manner God will requite, and gladden with His gifts those who likewise have left but little for the sake of the kingdom of God, for the desire, that is, of being counted worthy of the kingdom of heaven for their love's sake towards Him. For the rich man, as one who has disregarded much, will confidently expect recompense: but he who possessed but little, and abandoned it, how was it not right to ask, what hopes he might entertain? For this reason, as representing those in like condition with themselves, in respect of their having left but little, they say, "Behold, we have left all and followed You."
And it is further necessary to observe this also; that, correctly considered, the pain of abandoning is the same whether it be of much or little. For come let us see the real import of the matter by a trifling example. Supposing that two men had to stand naked, and in so doing the one stripped himself of raiment of great price, while the other put off only what was cheap and easy of acquisition, would not the pain of the nakedness be equal in both cases? What possible doubt can there be upon this point? As far therefore as regards obedience and good-will, those must be placed upon an equal footing with the rich, who though differently circumstanced, yet practised equal readiness, and willingly bore the selling of what they had. And the very wise Paul also takes up their cause, where he thus wrote: "For if there be a ready mind, it is accepted according to what a man has, and not according to what he has not." The enquiry therefore of the holy apostles was not an unreasonable one.
What then said Christ to them, Who does not discriminate between rich and poor? "Verily I say to you, There is no man who has left houses or brethren, or children, or parents, for the kingdom of God's sake, who shall not receive manifold more in this present time, and in that which is to come eternal life." Worthy of God is the declaration, and holy and admirable the decree. For observe how He raises up all who hear to an assured hope, promising not merely the fulness of the bounteous gift which is bestowed upon the saints, but confirming |575 His promise by an oath, by prefixing to His declaration the word Verily, which, so to speak, performs the part of an oath. And not only does He include within His promises those who disregard wealth, but those also, He says, who leave father or mother, or wife or brethren, for the kingdom of God's sake, shall receive manifold more in this world, and in that which is to come eternal life.
But that those who have led a virtuous life necessarily gain the life eternal, there can be no doubt whatsoever: some inquiry is however necessary, in the first place, as to who they are who leave father and mother, and wife, and brethren, and houses: and secondly, a still more exact examination of the way in which those who thus act shall receive manifold more in this world.
Men therefore leave father and mother, and wife and brethren, and oftentimes count for nought the natural affection due to the ties of kindred, for love's sake to Christ. And in what manner they do so, He teaches us by saying, at one time, "He that loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he that loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me:" and at another time again, "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth; I tell you nay, I am not come to send peace, but division: for I am come to divide a man from his father, and the daughter from her mother, and the daughter-in-law from her mother-in-law." For when the divine message of the gospel is catching as in a net the whole world to faith in Him, and raising it up to the light of the true knowledge of God, there are those who would readily enter in, did they not suffer from an injurious shame, as being afraid either on their father's account, or their mother's, and taking too much into consideration their anger or their sorrow. For if these are idolaters, they will not consent that their sons or daughters should yield themselves to Christ's service, and abandon the error in which they have been brought up, and which has become habitual with them. And often when the sons are unbelieving and ill-disposed, their fathers have not the courage to vex them by hastening to the faith, and seizing the salvation which is by Christ. And the same explanation may be given respecting brethren with brethren, and the daughter-in-law with her mother-in-law, and the latter |576 with the former. But those who are strong in mind, and prefer nothing to the love of Christ, eagerly grasp the faith, and earnestly endeavour to gain admission into His household hy a spiritual relationship, heeding nothing the wars, or rather divisions which will follow, with those who are their kindred according to the flesh. And in this way then men leave house and kindred for Christ's sake, that they may win His Name, being called Christians; or rather for His glory's sake, for frequently His Name means His glory.
But next let us see, in what way one who leaves house or father or mother or brethren, or it may be his wife even, receives manifold more in this present time. Shall he become the husband of many wives, or find on earth many fathers instead of one, and thus have his earthly kindred greatly multiplied? This is not what we say, but rather, that abandoning these carnal and temporal things, he shall receive what is far more valuable, and so to speak, manifold times as much as what was disregarded by him. For let us take, if you please, the holy apostles as our examples; and we say then of them, that they were men not distinguished in worldly station, nor skilled in eloquence, nor did they possess a polished tongue, or elegance of words; on the contrary they were untrained in speech, and by trade fishermen, who gathered by their labour the means of life: but whatever they had they left, that they might be the constant attendants and ministers of Christ; nor could any thing hinder them, or draw them away to other occupations, or worldly pursuits. Having left them but little, what did they gain? They were filled with the Holy Spirit: they received power over unclean spirits, to cast them out: they wrought miracles: the shadow of Peter healed those that were sick: they became illustrious among mankind everywhere: foremost in glory; worthy of emulation, and renowned, both while they were still living, and afterwards as well. For who knows not those who taught the world Christ's mystery? Who wonders not at the crown of glory that was bestowed upon them?
But perchance you say, 'Shall we all of us therefore |577 become like them?' To this we answer, that each one of us also who have believed in Christ and loved His Name, if he have left a house shall receive the mansions that are above: and if he have abandoned a father, shall gain that Father Who is in heaven. If he be abandoned by his brethren, yet will Christ admit him to brotherhood with Him. If he leave a wife, he shall have as the inmate of His house Wisdom who comes down from above, from God. For it is written, "Say to Wisdom that she is your sister, and make Understanding your friend." By her shall you bring forth beautiful spiritual fruits, by means of which you shall be made a partaker of the hope of the saints, and join the company of the angels. And though you leave your mother, you shall find another incomparably more excellent,----even "the Jerusalem that is above, which is free, and our mother." How are not these things manifold times more than those that were left? For they were but transitory, and rapidly do they waste, and lightly fail us utterly! for as the dew, and like a dream, so they pass away. But he who is counted worthy of these things becomes even in this world illustrious and enviable, being adorned with glory both before God and men. Manifold more therefore are these things than all that is earthly and carnal, and the Giver of them is our common Lord and Saviour: by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever, Amen. |578
SERMON CXXV.
18:31-34. And He took the twelve, and said to them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all those things shall be accomplished which are written in the prophets about the Son of man. For He shall be delivered up to the heathen, and shall be mocked, and shamefully entreated, and spit upon. And when they have scourged Him, they shall put Him to death: and on the third day He shall rise again. And they understood none of these things, and this word was hid from them, and they knew not what was said.
THE blessed prophet David has spoken one of those things which are of great importance for our benefit, especially as it refers to what is of constant occurrence, so to speak, to men's minds. "For I was prepared, he says, and was not troubled." For whatever happens unexpectedly, whenever it is of a serious character, exposes even courageous persons to agitation and alarm, and sometimes to unendurable terrors. But when it has been mentioned before that it will happen, its attack is easily averted. And this, I think, is the meaning of, "I was prepared, and was not troubled."
For this reason the divinely-inspired Scripture very fitly says to those who would attain to glory by leading a course of holy conduct, "My son, if you draw near to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for temptation. Direct your heart, and endure." For it does not so speak in order to produce in men an abject slothfulness which will win no reward, but that they may know that by practising patience and endurance, they will overcome the temptations which happen to all who would live virtuously, and prove superior to every thing that could harass them. And so here also the Saviour of all, to prepare beforehand the disciples' minds, tells them that He shall suffer the passion upon the cross, and death in the flesh, as soon as He has gone up to Jerusalem. And he added too. that He should also rise, wiping out the pain, and obliterating the shame of the passion by the greatness of the miracle. For |579 glorious was it, and worthy of God, to be able to sever the bonds of death, and hasten back to life. For testimony is borne Him by the resurrection from the dead, according to the expression of the wise Paul, that He is God and the Son of God.
It is necessary, however, for us to explain what the benefit was which the holy apostles received from having learnt the approach of those things which wore about to happen. By this means then He cuts away beforehand both unseemly thoughts and all occasion for stumbling. How, you ask, or in what way? The blessed disciples then, I answer, had followed Christ, our common Saviour, in His circuit through Judaea: they had seen that there was nothing, however ineffable, and worthy of all wonder, which He could not accomplish. For He called from their graves the dead when they had already decayed: to the blind He restored sight: and wrought also other works, worthy of God and glorious. They had heard Him say, "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and not one of them falls to the ground without your Father's knowledge." And now they who had seen these things, and been emboldened by His words to courageousness, were about to behold Him enduring the ridicule of the Jews, crucified, and made a mock of, and receiving even buffets from the servants. It was possible therefore, that being offended because of these things, they might think thus within themselves, and say: He Who is so great in might, and possesses such godlike authority; Who performs miracles by His nod alone; Whose word is almighty, so that even from their very graves He raises the dead; Who says too that His Father's providence reaches even to the birds; Who is the Only-begotten, and first-born: how did He not know what was about to happen? Is He too taken in the nets of the foe, and made the prey of His enemies, Who even promised that He would save us?. Is He then disregarded and despised of that Father, without Whose will not even a tiny bird is taken? These things perchance the holy apostles might have said or thought among themselves. And what would have been the consequence? They too, like the rest of the Jewish multitude, would have become unbelieving, and ignorant of the truth. |580
That they might therefore be aware both that He foreknew His passion, and though it was in his power easily to escape, that yet of His own will He advanced to meet it, He told them beforehand what would happen. In saying then, "Behold, we go up to Jerusalem," He, so to speak, testified urgently and commanded them to remember what had been foretold. And He added necessarily, that all these things had been foretold by the holy prophets. For Isaiah, as in the person of Christ, says; "I have given My back to scourgings, and My cheeks to buffetings: and My face I have not turned away from the shame of spittings." And again, in another place, He says of Him, "As a sheep He was led to the slaughter, and was silent, as a lamb before its shearer." And again, "All we like sheep have gone astray: every one has gone astray in his path: and the Lord has delivered Him up because of our sins." And again the blessed David also in the twenty-first 1 Psalm, painting as it were beforehand the sufferings upon the cross, has set before us Jesus speaking as one that lo! already was hanging upon the tree, "But I am a worm, and not a man: the reproach of men, and a thing rejected of the people. All those that have seen Me, have derided Me: they have spoken with their lips, and shaken their heads; He trusted in the Lord: let Him deliver Him." For some of the Jews did shake their wicked heads at Him, deriding Him, and saying, "If You are the Son of God, come down now from the cross, and we will believe You." And again He said, "They parted My garments among them, and upon My vesture they cast the lot." And again in another place He says of those that crucified Him, "They gave gall for My food, and for My thirst they made Me drink vinegar."
Of all therefore that was about to happen to Him, nothing was unforetold, God having so ordered it by His Providence for our use, that when the time came for it to happen, no one might be offended. For it was in the power of one Who knew beforehand what was about to happen, to refuse to suffer |581 altogether. No man then compelled Him by force, nor again were the multitudes of the Jews stronger than His might: but He submitted to suffer, because He knew that His passion would be for the salvation of the whole world. For He endured indeed the death of the flesh, but rose again, having trampled upon corruption, and by His resurrection from the dead, He planted in the bodies of mankind the life that springs from Him. For the whole nature of man in Him hastened back to incorruption. And of this the wise Paul bears witness, saying, at one time, "For since by man was death, by man was also the resurrection of the dead." And again. "For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all live." Let not those therefore who crucified Him indulge in pride: for He remained not among the dead, seeing that as God He possesses an irresistible might: but rather let them lament for themselves, as being guilty of the crime of murdering the Lord. This the Saviour also is found saying to the women who were weeping for Him, "Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for Me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children." For it was not right that they should lament for Him, Who was about to arise from the dead, destroying thereby corruption, and shaking death's dominion; but more fitly, on the contrary, would they lament over their own afflictions.
The Saviour of all then declared these things beforehand to the holy apostles: "but they, it says, understood not what was said, and the word was hidden from them." For as yet they knew not accurately what had been before proclaimed by the holy prophets. For even He Who was first among the disciples heard the Saviour once say that He should be crucified, and die; and arise: but in that he did not as yet understand the depth of the mystery, he resisted it, saying, "That be far from You, Lord: this shall not be to You." But he was rebuked for so speaking: because he as yet knew not the purport of the Scripture inspired of God relating thereunto. But when Christ arose from the dead, He opened their eyes, as another of the holy Evangelists wrote; for they wore enlightened, being enriched with the abundant participation of the Spirit. For they who once understood not the words of the prophets, exhorted those who believed in Christ to study |582 their words, saying, "We too have a more sure prophetic word, whereunto you do well to look, as to a lamp that shines in a dark place, until the day shine forth, and the light-star arise in your hearts." And this has also reached its fulfilment: for we have been enlightened in Christ; by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever, Amen. |583
SERMON CXXVI.
18:35-43. And it came to pass, that as He drew near to Jericho, a certain blind man sat by the way side begging: and hearing a multitude passing by, he asked what it meant. And they told him that Jesus of Nazareth passes by. And he cried, saying, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy upon me. And they who went before rebuked him that he should hold his peace. But he cried out so much the more, Son of David, have mercy upon me. And Jesus stood still, and commanded that they should bring him to Him. And when he drew near, He asked him. What do you want me to do for you? And he said, Lord, that I may receive my sight. And Jesus said to him, Receive your sight: your faith has made you live. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Him, glorifying God. And all the people when they saw it gave glory to God.
WHOSOEVER are yet without understanding, and accept not the faith in Christ, may justly have that said to them which was spoken by the voice of David, "Come and see the works of God, the miracles that He has put upon earth." For He wrought miracles after no human fashion, though He was in appearance a man such as we are; but with godlike dignity rather, for He was God in form like to us, since He changed not from being what He was, as the purport of the passage now read from the Gospels proves to us. "For the Saviour, it says, was passing by. And a blind man cried out, saying, Son of David have mercy on me." Let us then examine the expression of the man who had lost his sight; for it is not a thing to pass by without enquiry, since possibly the examination of what was said will beget something highly advantageous for our benefit.
In what character then does he address to Him his prayer? Is it as to a mere man, according to the babbling of the Jews, who stoned Him with stones, saying in their utter folly, "For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; because |584 that You being a man make Thyself God?" But must not that blind man have understood that the sight of the blind cannot be restored by human means, but requires, on the contrary, a divine power, and an authority such as God only possesses? for with God nothing whatsoever is impossible. He drew near to Him therefore as to the Omnipotent God; but how then does he call Him the Son of David? What therefore can one answer to this? The following is perhaps, as I think, the explanation. As he had been brought up in Judaism, and was by birth of that race, the predictions contained in the law and the holy prophets concerning Christ of course had not escaped his knowledge. He had heard them chant that passage in the book of the Psalms: "The Lord has sworn the truth to David, and will not reject it, that of the fruit of your loins will I set upon your throne." He knew also that the blessed prophet Isaiah had said, "And there shall spring forth a shoot from the root of Jesse, and from his root shall a flower grow up." And again this as well; "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bring forth a son, and they shall call His Name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us." As one therefore who already believed that the Word, being God, had of His own will submitted to be born in the flesh of the holy virgin, he draws near to Him as to God, and says, "Have mercy upon me, Son of David." For Christ bears witness that this was his state of mind in offering his supplication, by saying to him, "Your faith has saved you."
Let those then be ashamed who imagine themselves not to be blind, but who, as the wise Peter says, are "sightless, and have darkness in their mind." For they divide into two the one Lord Jesus Christ: even Him Who is the Word of the Father, [but 2 Who became a man, and was made flesh. For they deny that He Who was born of the seed of David was really the Son of God the Father: for so, they say, to be born is proper to man only, rejecting in their great ignorance His flesh,] and treating with contempt that precious and ineffable dispensation by which we have been redeemed: and even |585 perhaps foolishly speaking against the Only-begotten, because He emptied Himself, and descended to the measure of human nature, and was obedient to the Father even to death, that by His death in the flesh He might abolish death, might wipe out corruption, and put away the sin of the world. Let such imitate this blind man: for he drew near to Christ the Saviour of all as to God, and called Him Lord and Son of the blessed David. He testifies also to His glory by asking of Him an act such as God only can accomplish. Let them wonder also at the constancy wherewith he confessed Him. For there were some who rebuked him when confessing his faith; but he did not give way, nor cease his crying, but bade the ignorance of those who were rebuking him be still. He was justly therefore honoured by Christ: for he was called by Him, and commanded to draw near. Understand from this, my beloved, that faith sets us also in Christ's presence, and so brings us to God, as for us to be even counted worthy of His words. For when the blind man was brought to Him, He asked him, saying, "What do you want me to do for you? Was his request then unknown to Him? For was it not plain that he sought deliverance from the malady that afflicted him? How can there be any doubt of this? He asked him therefore purposely, that those who were standing by, and accompanying Him, might learn, that it was not money he sought, but rather that regarding Him as God, he asked of Him a divine act, and one appropriate solely to the nature that transcends all.
When then he had declared the nature of his request, saying, "Lord, that I may receive my sight:" then, yes! then the words that Christ spoke were a rebuke of the unbelief of the Jews: for with supreme authority He said, "Receive your sight." Wonderful is the expression! right worthy of God, and transcending the bounds of human nature! Which of the holy prophets ever spoke ought such as this? or used words of so great authority? For observe that He did not ask of another the power to restore vision to him who was deprived of sight, nor did He perform the divine miracle as the effect of |586 prayer to God, but attributed it rather to His own power, and by His almighty will wrought whatever He would. "Receive, said He, your sight;" and the word was light to him that was blind: for it was the word of Him Who is the true light.
And now that he was delivered from his blindness, did he neglect the duty of loving Christ? Certainly not: "For he followed Him, it says, offering Him glory as to God." He was set free therefore from double blindness: for not only did he escape from the blindness of the body, but also as well from that of the mind and heart: for he would not have glorified Him as God, had he not possessed spiritual vision. And further, he became the means of others also giving Him glory, for all the people, it says, gave glory [to 3 God. It is plain therefore from this, that great is the guilt of the scribes and Pharisees; for He rebukes them for refusing to accept Him though working miracles, while the multitude glorified Him as God because of the deeds which He wrought. No such praise is offered on their part: yes, rather] the miracle is made an occasion of insult and accusation; for they said that the Lord wrought it by Beelzebub: and by thus acting they became the cause of the destruction of the people under their rule. Therefore the Lord protested against their wickedness by the voice of the prophet, saying; "Alas for the shepherds, who destroy and scatter the sheep of My inheritance." And again; "The shepherds have become foolish, and have not sought the Lord: therefore did none of the flock understand, and were scattered.'''
Such then was their state: but we are under the rule of the chief Shepherd of all, even Christ: by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and over, Amen. |587
SERMON CXXVII.
19:1-10. [The first half of this Sermon has not survived in the Syriac. The following fragments are from Mai, p. 385. and Cramer, p. 137.]
19:2. Behold a man named Zacchaeus.
Zacchaeus was chief of the publicans, a man entirely abandoned to covetousness, and whose sole object was the increase of his gains: for such was the practice of the publicans, though Paul calls it "idolatry," possibly as being fit only for those who have no knowledge of God. And as they shamelessly made open profession of this vice, the Lord very justly joined them with the harlots, thus saying to the chiefs of the Jews, "The harlots and the publicans go before you into the kingdom of God." But Zacchaeus continued not among their number, but was counted worthy of mercy at Christ's hands: for He it is Who calls near those who are afar off, and gives light to those who are in darkness.
But come then, and let us see what was the manner of Zacchaeus' conversion. He desired to see Jesus, and climbed therefore into a sycamore tree, and so a seed of salvation sprang up within him. And Christ saw this with the eyes of Deity: and therefore looking up, He saw him also with the eyes of the manhood, and as it was His purpose for all men to be saved, He extends His gentleness to him, and encouraging him, says, "Come down quickly." For he had sought |588 to see Him, but the multitude prevented him, not so much that of the people, as of his sins; and he was little of stature, not merely in a bodily point of view, but also spiritually: and in no other way could he see Him, unless he were raised up from the earth, and climbed into the sycamore, by which Christ was about to pass. Now the story contains in it an enigma: for in no other way can a man see Christ and believe in Him, except by mounting up into the sycamore, by rendering foolish his members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, &c. And Christ, it says, was about to pass by the sycamore: for having taken for His path the conversation which is by the law, that is, the fig tree, He chose the foolish things of the world, that is, the cross and death. And every one who takes up his cross, and follows Christ's conversation, is saved, performing the law with understanding, which so becomes a fig tree not bearing figs but follies; for the secret conduct of the faithful seems to the Jews to be folly, consisting as it does in circumcision from vice, and idleness from bad practice, though they be not circumcised in the flesh, nor keep the |589 sabbath. He knew therefore that he was prepared for obedience; and fervent for faith, and ready to change from vice to virtue; wherefore also He calls him, and he will leave (the fig tree) to gain Him. And with haste he came down, and received Him joyfully, not only because he saw Him as he wished, but because he had also been called by Him, and because he received Him (to lodge with him), which he never could have expected.
19:5. Zacchaeus, come down quickly: for to-day I must abide at your house.
This was an act of divine foreknowledge; for He well knew what would happen. He saw the man's soul prepared most readily to choose a holy life, and converted him therefore to piety. [The Syriac recommences] The man therefore received Jesus joyfully: and this was the commencement of his turning himself to good, of his departure from his former faults, and of his manfully betaking himself to a better course.
But perchance some one possibly may say to our common Saviour Christ, 'What do You, O Lord? Go You to lodge with Zacchaeus? and deign You to abide with the chief of the publicans? He has not yet washed away the stain of his greedy love of lucre: he is still sick with covetousness, the mother of all crimes: still full of the blame of rapine and extortion.' But yes, He says, I indeed know this, in that I am God by nature, and see the ways of every individual upon earth. And more than this, I know also things to come. I have called him to repentance, because he is ready thereto: and though men murmur, and blame My gentleness, facts themselves shall prove that they are wrong. "For Zacchaeus, it says, stood up, and said to the Lord, Behold, the half of whatever I possess I give to the poor, and if I have defrauded any man, I make fourfold restoration."
You behold his repentance; his rapid change to a better course; his haste to piety; the bountifulness of his love for the poor. He who lately was a publican, or rather the chief of the publicans, given up to covetousness, and set upon gain, at once becomes merciful, and devoted to charity. He promises that he will distribute his wealth to those who are |590 in need, that he will make restoration 4 to those who have been defrauded: and he who was the slave of avarice, makes himself poor, and ceases to care for gains.
Let not the Jewish multitudes therefore murmur when Christ saves sinners; but let them answer us this. Would they have physicians succeed in effecting cures when they visit the sick? Do they praise them when they are able to deliver men from cruel ulcers, or do they blame them, and praise those who are unskilful in their art? But, as I suppose, they will give the sentence of superiority in favour of those who arc skilful in benefiting such as suffer from diseases. Why therefore do they blame Christ, if when Zacchaeus was, so to say, fallen and buried in spiritual maladies, He raised him from the pitfalls of destruction?
And to teach them this He says, "To-day there is salvation for this house, in that he also is a son of Abraham:" for where Christ enters, there necessarily is also salvation. May He therefore also be in us: and He is in us when we believe: for He dwells in our hearts by faith, and we are His abode. It would have been better then for the Jews to have rejoiced because Zacchaeus was wonderfully saved, for he too was counted among the sons of Abraham, to whom God promised salvation in Christ by the holy prophets, saying, "There shall come a Saviour from Zion, and He shall take away iniquities from Jacob, and this is my covenant with them, when I will bear their sins."
Christ therefore arose, to deliver the inhabitants of the earth from their sins, and to seek them that were lost, and to save them that had perished. For this is His office, and, so to say, the fruit of His godlike gentleness. Of this will he also count all those worthy who have believed in Him: by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit for ever and ever, Amen. |591
SERMON CXXVIII.
19:11-27. And as they hear these things, He added and spoke a parable, because He was nigh to Jerusalem, and they thought that the kingdom of God was about immediately to be manifested. He said therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far country, to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return. And when he had called ten of his servants, he gave them ten minas 5, and said to them, Traffic until I come. But his citizens hated him, and sent an embassy after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us. And it came to pass that when he had received the kingdom and returned, he commanded them to call to him those servants, to whom he had given the money, that he might know what they had gained by trading. And the first came saying, Lord, your mina has gained ten minas more. And he said to him, Well, you good servant: because you have been faithful in a little, you shall have authority over ten cities. And the second came, saying, Lord, your mina has gained five minas. And he said also to him, And you shall be over five cities. And the other came, saying, Lord, behold your mina that I had, laid up in a napkin. For I was afraid of you, because you art a hard man; because you take up what you did not lay down, and reap what you did not sow. And he said to him, Out of your mouth will I judge you, you wicked servant. You knew that I am a hard man; that I take up what I did not I lay down, and reap what I did not sow. Why did you not give my money to the table [of the moneychanger], and I on my return should have exacted it with its usury. And he said to those that stood before him, Take from him the mina, and give it to him that has ten minas. And they said to him, Lord, he has ten minas! For I say to you, that to every one that has shall be given; but from him that has not, |592 even that which he has shall be taken away from him. But these my enemies, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them hither and slay them before me.
APPROACH yet once again, that opening widely the eye of the mind, we may receive the light of the sacred doctrines, which Christ richly sheds on those who love Him. For He also is the true light, 'Who enlightens angels, and principalities, and thrones and dominions, and even the holy seraphim, and also shines into the hearts of those that fear Him. Let us ask therefore the illumination which He bestows, that understanding exactly the force of the parable set before us, we may store up in our minds as a spiritual treasure the benefit which it offers us.
The scope therefore of the parable briefly represents the whole purport of the dispensation that was given to us, and of the mystery of Christ from the beginning even to the end. For the Word being God became man: but even though He was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, and on this account is also called a servant, yet He was and is free born, by His being ineffably begotten of the Father:----yes! and He is God also, transcending all in nature and in glory, and surpassing the things of our estate, or rather even the whole creation, by His incomparable fulness. The man therefore is freeborn, as being the Son of God: and not as we are called to this appellation by His goodness and love to mankind, but because it belongs to Him by nature, both to be of the Father by generation, and also to transcend every thing that is made. When then the Word, Who was in the likeness of, and equal with the Father, was made like to us, "He became obedient to death, and the death of the cross: and therefore, God also, it says, has highly exalted Him, and given Him a Name that is above every name: that at the Name of Jesus Christ every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and of those under the earth; and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father, Amen." Did the Father therefore give the Name Which is above every |593 name to the Son as one Who is not God by nature? And how then, if this be true, has there not been a new God manifested to us? And yet the sacred Scripture cries aloud, "There shall no new God be in you: neither shall you worship any strange God." But He would be different and alien from God, were He not of Him by nature.
The Son therefore certainly is God by nature: and how then did the Father give Him that Name which is above every name! To this we say, that when He was flesh, that is, man like to us, He took the name of a servant, and assumed our poverty and low estate: but when He had finished the mystery of the dispensation in the flesh, He was raised to the glory that belonged to Him by nature; not as to something unwonted and strange, and that accrued to Him from without, and was given Him from another, but rather as to that which was His own. For He spoke to God the Father in heaven, "Father, glorify You Me with the glory which I had with You before the world was." For existing before the ages, and before the worlds, as one That was of God, and was God, He was clothed with the glory which belongs to the Godhead; and when He became a man, as I said, He endured neither mutation nor change, but continued rather in that state in which He had constantly existed, and such as the Father was Who begot Him, that is to say, like Him in every thing. For He is also "the image of His person," Who by right of His nature possesses every thing that He is Who fathered Him, by being, I mean, of the selfsame substance, and of an equality admitting of no variation, and of a similarity to Him in every thing. Being therefore by nature God, He is said to have received of the Father the Name which is above every name, when He had become man, that He might be believed in as God and the King of all, even in the flesh, that was united to Him.
But when He had endured for our sakes the passion upon the cross, and by the resurrection of His body from the dead had abolished death, He ascended to the Father, and became as a man journeying to a far country: for heaven is a different country from earth,----and He ascended that He might receive for Himself a kingdom. Here again remember, |594 I pray, the blessed Paul, who says, "That we must destroy reasonings, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and lead captive every thought to the obedience of Christ." For how does He Who reigns over all with the Father ascend to Him to receive a kingdom? I answer, that the Father gives this also to the Son in respect of His having become man. For when He ascended into heaven, He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high, henceforth expecting until His enemies are put under His feet. For it was said to Him by the Father, "Sit at My right hand, until I place Your enemies as the footstool for Your feet."
"But his citizens, it says, hated him." And similarly Christ reproaches the Jewish multitudes, saying, "If I had not done among them the works which no one else has done, they had not had sin: but now they have both seen and hated both Me and My Father." They would not have Him reign over them: and yet the holy prophets were constantly uttering predictions of Christ as of a King. For one of them even said, "Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion, for lo! your King comes to you, just, and a Saviour; He is meek, and riding upon an ass, and upon a new foal." And the blessed Isaiah says of Him and of the holy apostles, "Behold a just king shall reign, and princes shall rule with judgment." And again, Christ Himself has somewhere said by the voice of the Psalmist, "But I have been appointed King by Him upon Zion, His holy mount, and I will declare the commandment of the Lord."
They then denied His kingdom: for when they drew near to Pilate saying, "Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him," he asked them, or rather said to them in derision, "Shall I crucify your king?" And they answering with wicked words, said, "We have no king but Caesar." Having denied therefore the kingdom of Christ, they fell under the dominion of Satan, and brought upon themselves the yoke of sin, which cannot be thrown off. For they would not have their neck free, though Christ invited them thereunto, saying, that "Every one that does sin is the slave of sin: but the slave does not continue in the house for ever; the Son abides for ever: if therefore the Son make you free, you will become |595 truly free." And again, "If you abide in My Word, you are truly My disciples. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free." But Israel in its madness was not open to instruction, and therefore it has continued in slavery, because it refused to know Christ, Who makes free.
And thus far I will proceed on the present occasion, reserving for some other time the consideration of the rest of the parable; lest too long a discourse be found both fatiguing to him who speaks, and wearisome to those who hear. And may He Who is the Bestower and Giver of all good bless you all, even Christ: by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever, Amen. |596
SERMON CXXIX.
THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.
MEN who are in debt run away from their creditors, because they know them to be importunate. But not so with me; for I have come to pay my debt, and to fulfil what I promised: and I rather pursue after my creditors than am pursued by them. What therefore is that which I promised, or what is the debt? At our last meeting then, a long parable having been read to us, we completed our exposition only of a certain portion of it, and reserved the remainder for this our holy meeting. And the parable was as follows; "A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return. And when he had called ten of his servants, he gave them ten minas, and said to them, Traffic until I come. But his citizens hated him, and sent an embassy after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us." And moreover to this He added, that when the nobleman returned after he had received the kingdom, he demanded of those servants to whom he had distributed the talents an account of their trafficking.
Now in our previous exposition we reined in our words, which, so to speak, were at full speed, at the sentence "but his citizens hated him: and would not have him reign over them." Now then I shall address you upon those servants who had been entrusted by their Lord with the minas; enquiring both who they were that traded and therefore were honoured; and who, on the other hand, is signified by that indolent and sluggish servant, who hid the talent, and added nothing thereunto, and thereby brought upon himself severe condemnation.
The Saviour therefore distributes to those who believe in Him a variety of divine gifts: for this we affirm to be the meaning of the talent. And great indeed is the difference between these [who receive the talents], and those who have even completely denied His kingdom. For they are rebels, |597 who throw off the yoke of His sceptre: while the others arc invested with the glory of serving Him. As faithful servants therefore they are entrusted with their Lord's wealth, that gaining something by trafficking therewith, they may earn the praises due to faithful service, and also be accounted worthy of those honours which abide for ever.
The manner therefore of the distribution and who the persons are, and what the talents signify which He distributes,----for He continues to distribute even to this day,----the sacred Scripture clearly shows. For the blessed Paul has said; "There are distributions of gifts, but the same Spirit: and there are distributions of ministries, but the same Lord: and there are distributions of things to be done, but the same God Who works all in every man." And subsequently, explaining what he said, he further states the kinds of the gifts, as follows; "For to one is given the word of wisdom: and to another the word of knowledge: and to another faith: and to another gifts of healing:" and so on. The diversity therefore of the gifts is made plain in these words.
But next I think that I ought to mention who they are who have been entrusted by Christ with these gifts, according to the measure of each one's readiness and disposition. For He knows whatsoever is in us, in that He is very God, Who spies the reins and hearts. Let us notice, however, that another Evangelist is aware of a difference in the amount of the distribution that was made of the talents. "For to one, he says, He gave five talents; and to another two, and to an-other one" You see that the distribution was made suitably to the measure of each one's faculties. And as to those who were entrusted with them, come, and let us declare who they are to the best of our ability. They are then those who are "perfect in mind, to whom also strong meat is fitting, and whose intellectual senses are exercised for the discerning of good and evil." They are those who are skilled in instructing rightly, and acquainted with the sacred doctrines: who know how to direct both themselves and others to every better work: such, in short, as above all others the wise disciples were. And |598 again, next to these come such as succeeded to their ministry, or who hold it at this day, even the holy teachers, who stand at the head of the holy churches: who are the rulers of the nations, and know how to order to every thing that is useful those who arc subject to them. Upon these the Saviour bestows a diversity of divine gifts, that they may be "lights in the world, holding the word of life:" and they, by admonishing the people under their charge, and giving them such counsel as is useful for life, and rendering them steadfast, and of an upright and blameless faith, gain by traffic to their talent, and seek spiritual increase. Greatly blessed are they, and win the portion that becomes the saints. For when the nobleman, even Christ, shall have returned after he has received the kingdom, they will be accounted worthy of praises, and rejoice in surpassing honours. For having multiplied the talent tenfold, or fivefold, by winning many men, they will be set over ten or five cities; that is, they will again be rulers, not merely over those whom they ruled before, but even also over many others. For on this account we find the saints, by the voice of the Psalmist, extolling and making the praises of their gratitude mount up to Christ, Who crowns them; and saying, "He has subjected the Gentiles to us, and nations under our feet." And that it is the practice and earnest purpose of the saints to make those who are taught by them partakers of the grace given them by Christ, any one may learn from the message which the blessed Paul sent to certain, saying, "For I desired to see you, that I might give you some spiritual gift, that you may be established." And he testifies also to his disciple Timothy, "Despise not the gift that is in you, which was given you by the laying on of my hands." For he wished him to excel in his teaching. And the Saviour Himself also somewhere said in another parable, "Who therefore is the faithful and wise servant, whom his lord shall set over his household, to give them their food at its season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he comes shall find so doing. Verily I say to you, that he will set him over all that he has." And what is the meaning of his giving his follow servants food, except it be the distributing to the people committed to his charge the benefit of |599 spiritual instruction, and the satisfying, so to speak, with spiritual victuals those who hunger after righteousness?
There are honours, therefore, and triumphs, and crowns for those who have laboured, and loved service: but shame for those who have been overcome by sloth. For he who hid his mina in a napkin became liable to a terrible condemnation. He drew near, saying, "Lo! you have that is yours!" But the purpose, He says, for which you received it, was not that you should keep it in concealment. And if you knew that I am a hard man. that I reap where I have not sowed, and that I gather whence I have not scattered; lo! this very thing, He says, even makes your guilt the heavier, and gives no specious pretext for your slothfulness. For if I am a hard man who reap where I have not sowed, why did you not give the grace that was bestowed upon you;----for this is the meaning of the mina;----to the money-changers: why, that is, did you not lay it out for the happiness or the benefit of those who would well know how to put to the test what they had received from you? "For so when I came, I should have exacted, that is, should have received back my own with its increase." For it is the duty of teachers to sow, and plant, as it were, in their hearers beneficial and saving counsel: but to call to obedience those whom they teach, and render their mind very fruitful, is the effect of that power which God bestows. And this is the increase. For when those who have heard the divine words, receive into their mind the benefit of them, and labour with joy in doing good, then do they offer that which was given them with increase.
"Take therefore, he says, from him the mina, and give it to him that has ten minas; for to him that has, there shall more be given: but from him that has not, even that which he seems to have shall be taken away from him." For that slothful servant was stripped even of the gift which had been bestowed upon him: but those who have advanced in the better course, and proved superior to indolence and sloth, will receive fresh blessings from above, and being filled with divine gifts, will mount up to a glorious and admirable lot.
We have seen the honours of the saints: come and let us examine the torments of the wicked, who would not have that |600 man of noble lineage to rule over them. " But those, my enemies, He says, who would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before Me." This was the fate of the Israelitish race: for having denied the kingdom of Christ, they fell into extreme miseries: being evil, they evilly perished. And the gangs too of wicked heretics deny the kingdom of Christ, and so also do all those, who, disregarding the duty of living uprightly, spend their lives in impurity and sin. And these also suffering a penalty like to that of those mentioned above shall go to perdition.
But over us Christ rules as King, and we have a good hope, that we shall also be counted worthy of the portion of the saints, and twine around our heads the crown that becomes the steadfast; for this also is the gift of Christ our common Saviour; by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever, Amen. |601
SERMON CXXX.
THIS EXPOSITION IS FIT TO BE READ ON THE HOLY DAY OF HOSANNAS. 6
19:28-40. And when He had said these things, He went onwards, going up to Jerusalem. And it came to pass, that when He was come close to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount called of Olives, He sent two of His disciples, saying, Go into the village over against us, in which at your entering you shall find a colt, tied, whereon yet never man sat: loose, and bring it. And if any man ask you, Why loose you it? thus shall you say to him, It is wanted for the Lord. And when they that were sent had gone their way, they found even as He had said to them. And as they loosed the colt, the owners thereof said to them, Why loose you the colt? And they said, It is wanted for the Lord. And they brought it to Jesus: and when they had cast their garments upon the colt, they made Jesus ride thereon: and as He went, they spread their garments before Him in the way. And when He had now arrived at the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began with joy to praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, Blessed be the King that comes in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest. And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said to Him, Teacher, rebuke Your disciples. And He answered, and said to them, I tell you, that if these be silent, the stories will cry out.
THE disciples praise Christ the Saviour of all, calling Him King and Lord, and the peace of heaven and earth: and let us also praise Him, taking, so to speak, the Psalmist's harp, and |602 saying; "How great are your works, O Lord: in wisdom have You made them." For there is nothing whatsoever of the works wrought by Him but is in wisdom; for He guides all useful things each in its proper manner, and assigns to his acts that season which suiteth them. As long then as it was fitting that He should traverse the country of the Jews, endeavouring to win by lessons and admonitions superior to the law many to the grace that is by faith, He ceased not so to do: but inasmuch as the time was now at length calling Him to that Passion which was for the salvation of the whole world, to free the inhabitants of the earth from the tyranny of the enemy, and abolish death, and destroy the sin of the world, He goes up to Jerusalem, pointing out first to the Israelites by a plain fact, that a new people from among the heathen shall be subject to Him, while themselves are rejected as the murderers of the Lord.
What then was the sign? He sat upon a colt, as we have just heard the blessed Evangelist clearly telling us. And yet perchance some one will say, 'that when He traversed the whole of Judaea;----for He taught in their synagogues, adding also to His words the working of miracles;----He had not asked for an animal to ride upon. For when He might have purchased one, He would not, though wearied often by His long journeys by the way. For when traversing Samaria, He was "wearied with His journey," as it is written. Who therefore can make us believe, that when He was going from the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem, places separated from one another by so short an interval, that He would require a colt? And why, when the colt was accompanied by its dam, did He not rather take the mother, instead of choosing the colt? For that the ass also, that bore the colt, was brought to Him, we learn from the words of Matthew, who says, "that He sent the disciples to a village over against them; and said to them, that you will find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose and bring them to Me. And they brought, it says, the ass, and the colt with her."' We must consider therefore what is the explanation, and what the benefit which we derive from this occurrence, and how we make Christ's riding upon the colt a type of the calling of the Gentiles. |603
The God of all then created man upon the earth with a mind capable of wisdom, and possessed of powers of understanding. But Satan deceived him, though made in the image of God, and led him astray even until he had no knowledge of the Creator and Artificer of all. He humbled the dwellers upon earth down to the lowest stage of irrationality and ignorance. And the blessed prophet David knowing this, and even, so to speak, weeping bitterly for it, says, "Man being in honour understood it not: he is to be compared to the beast without understanding, and has become like one." It is probable therefore that that older ass contains the type of the synagogue of the Jews, which, so to speak, had become brutish, because it had paid but small heed to the law given by Moses, and had despised the holy prophets, and had added thereto disobedience to Christ, Who was calling it to faith, and the opening of its eyes. For He said, "I am the light of the world; he that believes in Me shall not walk in darkness, but possesses the light of life." But the darkness which He speaks of is undoubtedly that of the mind, even ignorance and blindness, and the malady of extreme irrationality.
But the colt, which as yet had not been broken in, represents the new people, called from among the heathen. For it also was by nature destitute of reason, having wandered into error. But Christ became its wisdom, "for in Him are all the treasures of wisdom, and the secret things of knowledge."
The colt therefore is brought, two disciples having been sent by Christ for this purpose. And what does this signify? It means that Christ calls the heathen, by causing the light of truth to shine upon them: and there minister to him for this purpose two orders of His subjects, the prophets, namely, and the apostles. For the heathen are won to the faith by means of the preachings of the apostles; and they always add to their words proofs derived from the law and the prophets. For one of them even said to those who have been called by faith to the acknowledgment of the glory of Christ, |604 "And we have the more sure prophetic word, to which you do well to look, as to a torch that shines in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the light-star arise in your hearts." For before the coming of the Saviour, the predictions of the law and the prophets concerning Christ, were as some torch in a dark place. For the mind of the Jews was always gross, and, so to speak, full of thick darkness. For they understood not in the least what was said concerning Christ. But when the day dawned, when the light that is of truth arose, henceforth the prophetic word is no small torch, but resembles rather the bright rays of the morning star.
And next the colt is brought from a village, in order that He may by this means also point out the uncivilized state of mind of the heathen, who, so to speak, had not been educated in the city, nor in lawful habits, but, on the contrary, lived boorishly and rudely. For constantly those who dwell in villages live in this way. But they did not continue in this uncivilized state of mind, but, on the contrary, were changed to peacefulness and wisdom. For they became subject to Christ, Who teaches these things.
The ass then was rejected, for Christ rode not thereon, although it had been broken in already, and practised to submit itself to its riders: but He took the colt, although it was untrained and unproved in carrying a rider, and in yielding to the reins. For, as I said, He rejected the synagogue of the Jews, although it had once borne a rider in the law, nor was obedience a thing to which it was untrained: still He refused it as aged, and spoiled, and as having gone astray already into wilful disobedience to God over all: but He accepted the colt, a people, that is, taken from among the Gentiles.
And this is the meaning of the praise rendered by the voice of the Psalmist to Christ the Saviour of all, where he says of those that were in error, "With bridle and bit shall You restrain the jaws of them that draw not close to You." And it is easy to see from sacred Scripture, that the multitude of the Gentiles was also summoned to repentance and obedience by the holy prophets. For God thus spoke in a certain place, "Be assembled and come: take counsel together, you who are saved from among the Gentiles."
Christ therefore sits upon the colt: and as He had now |605 come to the descent of the mount of Olives, close, that is, to Jerusalem, the disciples went before Him, praising Him. For they were called to bear witness of the wonderful works which He had wrought, and of His godlike glory and sovereignty. And in like manner we also ought always to praise Him, considering Who and how great He is Who is praised by us.
But another of the holy Evangelists has mentioned, that children also, holding aloft branches of palm trees, ran before Him, and, together with the rest of the disciples, celebrated His glory; so that by their means also we see the new people, gathered from among the heathen, represented as in a painting. For it is written, that "the people that shall be created shall praise the Lord."
And the Pharisees indeed murmured because Christ was praised; and drew near and said, "Rebuke your disciples." But what wrong action have they done, O Pharisee? What charge do you bring against the disciples, or how would you have them rebuked? For they have not in any way sinned, but have rather done that which is praiseworthy. For they extol, as King and Lord, Him Whom the law had before pointed out by many figures and types; and Whom the company of the holy prophets had preached of old: but you have despised Him, and grieve Him by your numberless envyings. Your duty rather it was to join the rest in their praises: your duty it was to withdraw far from your innate wickedness, and to change your manner for the better: your duty it was to follow, the sacred Scriptures, and to thirst after the knowledge of the truth. But this you did not do, but transferring your words to the very contrary, you desired that the heralds of the truth might be rebuked. What therefore does Christ answer to these things? "I tell you, that if these be silent, the stones will cry out."
For it is impossible for God not to be glorified, even though those of the race of Israel refuse so to do. For the worshippers of idols were once as stones, and, so to speak, hardened; but they have been delivered from their former error, and rescued from the hand of the enemy. They have escaped from demoniacal darkness; they have been called to the light of truth: they have awakened as from drunkenness: they have acknowledged the Creator. They praise |606 Him not secretly, and in concealment; not in a hidden manner, and, so to speak, silently, but with freedom of speech, and loud voice; diligently, as it were, calling out to one another, and saying, "Come, let us praise the Lord, and sing psalms to God our Saviour." For they have acknowledged, as I said, Christ the Saviour of all; by Whom and with Whom, to God the Father, be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen. |607
SERMON CXXXI.
19:41-44. And as He drew near, He beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, Would that you had known on this day, even you, the things of your peace: but now they are hid from your eyes: that the days shall come upon you, when your enemies shall raise a rampart against you, and encircle you, and keep you in on every side; and shall dash you to the ground, and your children within you, and shall not leave in you stone upon stone, because you knew not the time of your visitation.
THE blessed prophet Jeremiah loudly condemned the ignorance, at once, and pride of the Jews, rebuking them in these words; "How say you that we are wise, and the word of the Lord is with us? In vain is the lying cord of the scribes. The wise men are ashamed: they trembled, and were taken: what wisdom have they, in that they have rejected the Word of the Lord!" For being neither wise, nor acquainted with the sacred Scriptures, though the scribes and Pharisees falsely assumed to themselves the reputation of being learned in the law, they rejected the Word of God. For when the Only Begotten had become man, they did not receive Him, nor yield their neck obediently to the summons which He addressed to them by the Gospel. Because therefore by their wicked conduct they rejected the Word of God, they were themselves rejected, being condemned by God's just decree. For He said, by the voice of Jeremiah, "Call them rejected silver: because the Lord has rejected them." And again, "Shave your head, and cast it away, and take lamentation upon your lips, because the Lord has rejected and thrust away the generation that has done these things." And what these things are, the God of all has Himself declared to us, saying, "Hear, O earth: behold! I am bringing upon this people evils; the fruit of their turning away; because they regarded not My word, and have rejected My law." For neither did they keep the commandment that was given to them by Moses, "teaching for doctrines the |608 commandments of men:" and further, they also rejected the Word of God the Father, having refused to honour by faith Christ, when He called them thereunto. The fruits therefore of their turning away were plainly the calamities which happened to them: for they suffered all misery, as the retribution due for murdering the Lord.
But their falling into this affliction was not in accordance with the good will of God. For He would rather have had them attain to happiness by faith and obedience. But they were disobedient, and arrogant: yet even so, though this was their state of mind, Christ pitied them: for "He wills that all men should be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth." For it even says, that "when He saw the city, He wept;" that we hereby might learn that He feels grief, if we may so speak of God, Who transcends all. But we could not have known that He pitied them, wicked as they were, had He not made manifest by some human action that sorrow which we could not see. For the tear which drops from the eye is a symbol of grief, or rather, a plain demonstration of it. So He wept also over Lazarus, that we again might understand that it grieved Him that the nature of man had fallen under the power of death. For "He created all things to incorruption; but by the envy of the devil death entered into the world:" not indeed because the envy of the devil is more powerful than the will of the Creator, but because it was necessary that there should follow, upon the transgression of the divine commandment, a penalty that would humble to corruption whosoever had despised the law of life.
We say therefore that He wept also over Jerusalem for a similar reason: for He desired, as I said, to see it in happiness, by its accepting faith in Him, and welcoming peace with God. For it was to this that the prophet Isaiah also invited them, saying, "Let us make peace with Him: let us who come make peace." For that by faith peace is made by us with God, the wise Paul teaches us, where he writes, "Being justified therefore by faith, we have peace with God by our Lord Jesus Christ." But they, as I said, having hurried with unbridled violence into arrogancy and contumely, persisted in despising the salvation which is by Christ: and Christ therefore blames them for this very thing, saying, |609 "Would that you had known, even you, the things of your peace:" the things, that is, useful and necessary for you to make your peace with God. And these were faith, obedience, the abandonment of types, the discontinuance of the legal service, and the choice in preference of that which is in spirit and in truth, even that which is by Christ, of a sweet savour, and admirable, and precious before God. "For God, He says, is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth."
"But they are hidden, He says, from your eyes." For they were not worthy to know, or rather to understand, the Scriptures inspired of God, and which speak of the mystery of Christ. For Paul said, "Seeing then that we have so great a hope, we use great freedom of speech: and not as Moses, who put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel might not behold the glory of his countenance, which was fading away. But their minds were blinded; for even to this day the same veil remains upon the reading of the old covenant: for when Moses is read, the veil is laid upon their hearts, and is not taken off, because it is done away in Christ.'' But in what way is the veil done away in Christ? It is because He, as being the reality, makes the shadow cease: for that it is His mystery which is represented by the shadow of the law, He assures us, saying to the Jews, "Had you believed Moses, you would have believed also Me: for he wrote of Me." For it was because they had not carefully examined the types of the law, that they did not see the truth. "For callousness in part has happened to Israel," as Paul, who was really learned in the law, tells us. But callousness is the certain cause of ignorance and darkness: for so Christ once spoke; "It is not any thing that goes into the mouth which defiles the man." And even then the Pharisees again reproached Him, for so speaking, with the breaking of the law, and overthrowing of the commandment |610 given them by Moses. And afterwards the disciples drew near to Him, saying, "Do you know that the Pharisees, who heard the word, were offended? And He answered them, Every plant that My heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted up: let them alone: blind are they, leaders of the blind." The plant therefore which the Father planted not,----for He calls to the acknowledgment of the Son those who shall be accounted worthy of His salvation, ----shall be rooted up.
Far different is the case with those who have believed in Him: how could it be otherwise? For, as the Psalmist says concerning them, "They are planted in the house of the Lord, and shall flourish in the courts of our God." For they are the building and workmanship of God, as the sacred Scripture declares. For it is said to God by the voice of David, "Your sons shall be as the young olive plants round about your table."
But the Israelites, even before the Incarnation, proved themselves unworthy of the salvation which is by Christ, in that they rejected communion with God, and set up for themselves gods falsely so called, and slew the prophets, although they warned them not to depart from the living God, but to hold fast to His sacred commandments. But they would not consent so to do, but grieved Him in many ways, even when He invited them to salvation.
And this the Saviour Himself teaches us, thus saying, "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that kills the prophets, and stones them that are sent to her, how often would I have gathered your sons, as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and you would not." You see that He indeed often desired to bestow upon them His mercy, but they rejected His aid. And therefore they were condemned by God's holy decree, and put away from being members of His spiritual household. For He even said by one of the holy prophets to the people of the Jews, "I have compared your mother to the night: My people is like to him that has no knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being My priest: and because you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your sons." Observe therefore that He compares Jerusalem to |611 the night; for the darkness of ignorance veiled the heart of the Jews, and blinded their eyes: and for this reason they were given over to destruction and slaughter. For the God of all spoke by the voice of Ezechiel: "As I live, says the Lord, surely inasmuch as you have defiled My holy things with all your impurities, I will also reject you; My eye shall not spare, nor will I pity." "They that are in the plain shall die by the sword: and them that are in the city famine and pestilence shall consume. And those of them that are saved shall be delivered, and shall be upon the mountains as meditative doves." For Israel did not perish from the very roots, nor, so to speak, stock and branch: but a remnant was delivered, of which the foremost and the first-fruits were the blessed disciples, of whom it is that he says, that they were upon the mountains as meditative doves. For they were as heralds throughout the whole world, forth-telling the mystery of Christ, and their office is praise and song, and, so to speak, to cry aloud in psalms, "My tongue shall meditate on Your righteousness: and all the day on Your praise."
The means therefore of her peace with God were hidden from Jerusalem: and of these the first and foremost is the faith which justifies the wicked, and unites by holiness and righteousness those who possess it to the all pure God.
That the city then, once so holy and illustrious, even Jerusalem, fell into the distresses of war, may be seen from history: but the prophet Isaiah also assures us of it, where he cries aloud to the multitudes of the Jews, "Your country is desolate: your cities are burnt with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence: and it is desolate as overthrown by foreign nations." This was the wages of the vainglory of the Jews, the punishment of their disobedience, the torment that was the just penalty of their pride. But we have won |612 the hope of the saints, and are in all happiness, because we have honoured Christ by faith: by Whom and with Whom, to God the Father, be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen. |613
SERMON CXXXII.
19:45-48; 20:1-8. And having entered into the temple, He began to cast out those who sold therein, saying to them, It is written that My house is a house of prayer: but you have made it a den of thieves. And he taught daily in the temple: but the chief priests and scribes and rulers of the people sought to destroy Him; and found not what they might do to Him, for all the people were hanging upon Him to hear Him. And it came to pass on one of the days, as He taught the people in the temple, and preached, the chief priests and scribes, with the elders, rose up against Him, and said to Him, Tell us by what authority You do these things? or who it is that gave You this authority? But He answered and said to them, I also will ask you one word, and tell Me: the baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men? And they considered with themselves, saying, That if we shall say, From heaven; He will say, Why therefore did you not believe him? But if we say, Of men; all the people will stone us: for they are persuaded, that John is a prophet. And they answered, that they knew not whence it was. And Jesus said to them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things.
IT is written, that "there is a light always for the righteous; but the light of the wicked shall be put out." For to those who have embraced the righteousness that is in Christ, God the Father imparts the inextinguishable light of the true knowledge of the true vision of God: for He reveals to them the Son; as the Saviour Himself also in a certain place said to the Jews, "Murmur not one with another: no man can come to Me, except the Father Who sent Me draw him." But He draws, of course, by light and knowledge, and the cords of love. But those who are not so disposed in will, but wickedly reject Christ's commandments, from their mind even that light, which they had by the commandment of Moses, vanishes away, and is extinguished, while the darkness of ignorance usurps its place. |614
And that this is true, and the real state of the case, the blindness of the Jews proves to us. For they were dark, and unable to see the glory of the Word, Who became man for our sakes, although He revealed Himself to them by the working of many miracles, and a godlike authority, an instance of which we have in what happened in the temple. For there was in it a multitude of merchants, and others also, guilty of the charge of the base love of lucre, moneychangers, I mean, or keepers of exchange tables; sellers of oxen, moreover, and dealers in sheep, and sellers of turtle doves and pigeons; all which things were used for the sacrifices according to the legal ritual. But the time had now come for the shadow to draw to an end, and for the truth, so to speak, to shine forth; even the lovely beauty of Christian conduct, and the glories of the blameless life, and the sweet rational savour of the worship in spirit and in truth.
For this reason very justly did the Truth, even Christ, as One Who with His Father was also honoured in their temple, command that those things that were by the, law should be carried away, even the materials for sacrifices and burning of incense, and that the temple should manifestly be a house of prayer. For His rebuking the dealers, and driving them from the sacred courts, when they were selling what was wanted for sacrifice, means certainly this, as I suppose, and this alone.
We must observe however that another of the holy Evangelists mentions, that not only did the Lord rebuke those dealers by words, but that He also made a scourge of cords, and threatened to inflict stripes upon them; for it was right for those who honoured the legal service after the manifestation of the truth, to know, that by retaining the spirit of bondage, and refusing to be set free, they became subject to stripes, and liable to slavish torture. The Saviour therefore |615 of all, and Lord, manifests to them His glory for their benefit, in order that they may believe in Him. For as one Who possessed authority over the temple, He both took care of it, and also called God His Father. For as that other holy Evangelist wrote, He said to the dealers, "Make not My Father's house a house of merchandize." And again, " It is written, that My house shall be called a house of prayer: but you have made it a den of thieves." It was their duty therefore, I say their duty, rather to worship Him, as One who with God the Father was Lord of the temple. But this in their great folly they did not do: but rather being savagely eager for hatred, they both set up against Him the sharp sting of wickedness, and hastened to murder, the neighbour and brother of envy. For "they sought, it says, to destroy Him, but could not: for all the people were hanging upon Him to hear Him." And does not this then make the punishment of the scribes and pharisees, and all the rulers of the Jewish ranks, more heavy? that the whole people, consisting of unlearned persons, hung upon the sacred doctrines, and drank in the saving word as the rain, and were ready to bring forth also the fruits of faith, and place their neck under His commandments: but they whose office it was to urge on their people to this very thing, savagely rebelled, and wickedly sought the opportunity for murder, and with unbridled violence ran upon the rocks, not accepting the faith, and wickedly hindering others also.
And how is not what I have said true? For the Saviour Himself reproached them, saying, "And to you, lawyers, woe! for you have taken away the key of knowledge: you enter not in yourselves, and those that are entering in you have hindered." They rise up therefore against Christ as He teaches, and wickedly and abominably call out and say, "Tell us, by what authority You do these things? Who gave You this authority? 'The law, they say, given by |616 Moses, and the commandment which regulates all these our institutions, enjoined that those only who are of the lineage of Levi should approach these sacred duties: they offer the sacrifices: they regulate whatever is done in the divine temple: to them is given the office of instructing, and the government of the sacred trusts. But You, as being of another tribe,----for You are sprung from Judah, ---- seize upon honours which have been set apart for us. "Who gave You this authority?"' O foolish Pharisee, come and let me tell you somewhat you cannot gainsay, pleading to you the cause of Christ our common Saviour. If you were acquainted with the Scriptures, which are inspired by God, and the words and predictions of the holy prophets, you would have remembered perchance the blessed David, who says in the Spirit to Christ the Saviour of all, "The Lord has sworn, and will not repent, You are a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedek." Explain, therefore, what Pharisee or Scribe has ministered to God after the order of Melchisedek, who blessed and received tithes of Abraham? And as the very wise Paul writes, "Without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better." The root and commencement therefore of the very existence of Israel, even the patriarch Abraham, was blessed by the priesthood of Melchisedek: but Melchisedek and his priesthood was a type of Christ the Saviour of us all, Who has been made our High Priest and Apostle; not bringing near to God the Father those who believe in Him, by means of bloody sacrifices and offerings of incense, but perfecting them to holiness by a service superior to the law: for "such a High Priest have we, Who has sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty on high."
The difference, however, between the two services is very great: for the Saviour of all offers as a priest to God the Father the confession of our faith, and the "torrent of the sweet spiritual savour:"----for "God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth." But the bloody sacrifices which they offer are not well-pleasing to God. For He even said to them, "I have hated, and have rejected your festivals, and I will not smell at your solemn assemblies. Because even though you bring Me whole burnt |617 offerings and sacrifices, I will not accept them, nor will I regard the salvation of your appearance. Take away from Me the sounding of your praises: nor will I hear the psalmody of your instruments." Understand therefore that He says, that He hated their festivals, and that as well their praises as their sacrifices were rejected by Him. And yet God rejoices in being praised; but not by impure mouths, nor by a defiled tongue: for it is written in the book of Psalms, "But to the sinner God has said, Why do you declare My commandments, and take My covenant in your mouth; whereas you have hated instruction, and have cast out My words behind you? And again He said, "Add no more to tread My court: if you bring fine wheaten flour, it is in vain: and your spices are an abomination to Me." Why therefore, O Pharisee, do you murmur at those things being expelled from the sacred courts which were employed for the legal sacrifices, when the appointed time now summoned men to a life better than types, and to true justification by faith in Christ, Who is Himself the truth.
But the series of subjects now set before us leads us on to discussions of too great length: and whatever is beyond due limit, is everywhere disagreeable as well to those who hear, as to those who teach. Let then what has been said suffice for the present: and whatever still remains, we will complete when Christ again assembles us here; by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever, Amen. |618
SERMON CXXXIII.
THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.
YOU have again assembled, I suppose, to be taught; and I praise your conduct, and count your willingness worthy of all admiration: for it is written, that "wisdom is better than stones of costly price; and all precious things are not comparable to her." For the wisdom that comes from above, from God, is an incomparable blessing; and when we attain to it by means of the holy Scripture, inspired of God, and gain the divine light to dwell in our minds, we then advance without wandering to whatsoever is useful for our spiritual profit. Come therefore, and let us now also scrupulously examine the meaning of the Evangelic lessons which have already been read to us.
At our previous meeting then the discourse which we addressed to you was upon the ignorance of the Pharisees, and their utter madness, and base attacks. For they drew near to Christ, the Saviour of us all, saying, "By what authority do You do these things, and who gave You this authority?" For what had Christ done? He had cast out of the temple those who were selling sheep and oxen, turtle doves and pigeons; and overturned the tables of the moneychangers, saying, "Take these things hence: and make not My Father's house a house of merchandize." And again, "My house is a house of prayer: but you make it a den of thieves."
We then spoke of these things as follows; that as the Lord was gathering up the shadow of the law, as a thing already unprofitable and superfluous, He sought to prohibit the sacrifices that were by the shedding of blood, because the time was now close at hand, and present, at which the worship in spirit and in truth must be declared. For He was Himself the truth, |619 and as the truth had now appeared, types necessarily had become superfluous. Yet for this reason those wretched beings furiously attacked the Lord of all. And thus far our discourse had proceeded at our last meeting.
We will now show that the chiefs and teachers of the Jewish synagogue in another way also violently attacked Christ. For the Saviour was teaching in the temple, setting forth most certainly for the instruction of His hearers things superior to the law; even the pathway of evangelic conduct. But they, being indignant at this also, wickedly drew near questioning Him, and saying, "Who gave You this authority?" What then again does this mean? 'You are teaching, they say, in the temple, and yet You are sprung from the tribe of Judah, and are not numbered among those whose office it is to minister as priests in the temple. And why do You teach what is repugnant to the commandment of Moses, and agrees not with the law that was given us of old?'
To those, therefore who thus speak let us say, Does this bite your mind, and provoke you to savage envy? Tell me, do you accuse the Lawgiver of the abrogation of the law? Do you blame Him, and make an outcry, because He does not obey His own laws? Tell me therefore, is God subject to His own law? Was it for us, or for Himself perhaps I suppose, that He enacted the commandments spoken by the holy prophets? But it is certain, even though you don't acknowledge it, that God transcends all law, and that it is we who are under the yoke of His commandments. When therefore any man, such as we are, transgresses the law, blame and condemn him for his transgression: but He Who enacted laws, not for Himself, but rather for us to obey, from time to time changes according to His own good pleasure whatever has been commanded; intending thereby not to humble those who are under the law to any thing evil, but rather to raise them up to that which is better. And so then now the season had arrived for the cessation of those things which were by types, and when that teaching of the law, which was given for the instruction of them of old time must pass away, in order that something better might be revealed, even the instruction given us in the Gospel.
But you say, 'Was this therefore in accordance with the |620 will of Him Who instituted by Moses that former commandment for those of old time? Yes, I answer; and I arrive at this conclusion, not of my own mind, but as having proof thereof in the prophetic Scriptures. For God has somewhere said by the voice of Isaiah, "And the laws of My people shall be made to disappear." How have the laws of the people been made to disappear? Because, as I said, they have been brought to nought by the manifestation of a new and better commandment, which the Son has spoken to us by Himself; and which also He proclaimed of old by the voice of Ezechiel, thus speaking of those of the race of Israel; "Behold, I will gather them from every land whither I have scattered them in My anger, and hot displeasure, and great wrath; and I will make them return to this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely, and they shall be to Me a people, and I will be to them a God, and I will give them another way and another heart, that they may fear Mo all their days." Another way therefore has been given them, by the gathering up, as I said, of the legal service, and of the teaching which consisted in writings and types, and the entrance in of that of the Gospel, of which the very beginning and pathway is faith, which by a spiritual service perfects to justification, and raises up to sanctification those who draw near to God.
For that the institutions of Moses were intended to come to an end, and a new law and a new covenant to be given by Christ, any one may easily see, inasmuch as He says plainly; "Behold the days come, says the Lord, that I will appoint a new covenant for the house of Israel, and for the house of Judah; not according to the covenant that I appointed for their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, because they did not abide in My covenant, and I despised them, says the Lord." He promises therefore a new covenant: and as the very wise Paul writes, "In that He said, a new, He has made the former one old: but that which is made old, and growing old, is ready for destruction." Inasmuch therefore as the former (covenant) was made old, it was necessary that that which is new should enter in its place: and this was done not by one of the holy prophets, but by Him rather Who is the Lord of the prophets. |621
Why therefore do you murmur, O Pharisee, at seeing the divinely inspired Scripture fulfilled, and those things which had been spoken of old by the holy prophets attaining also their fulfilment?
When then they asked, "By what authority do You do these things?" the Saviour replied, "I also will ask you one word, and tell Me: the baptism of John, was it from heaven or of men? And they, it says, considered with themselves, saying, that if we shall say, From heaven, He will say, Why therefore did you not believe him? but if we say, Of men, all the people will stone us: for they are persuaded that John is a prophet. And they answered, that they knew not whence it was. And Jesus said to them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things." Observe the great malice of the Pharisees: they flee from the truth; they refuse the light; they feel no horror at committing sin. For God the Father sent the blessed Baptist as the forerunner of Christ, crying out and saying, "Prepare you the way of the Lord: and make straight the pathways of our God." Of him too the wise evangelist John wrote; "There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came for a testimony to bear witness of the light: he was not the light, but to bear witness of the light;" even of Christ. And he bore witness by saying, that "He That sent me to baptize in water. He said to me, that upon Whom you see the Spirit descend from heaven, and abide upon Him, He it is That baptizes with the Holy Spirit. And I saw and bore witness, that This is the Son of God." The blessed Baptist therefore, as being so great and admirable, is one worthy of our acceptance to move us to faith, and to be a witness concerning Christ. But because it was the custom of the Jews lightly to slander the saints, and to call them false speakers, and to say that they had not been sent of God, but falsely assumed a knowledge of prophecy of their own mind, Christ asked them, what opinion they entertained of the Baptist? was he one who came from above, from God; did they honour him, that is, as one who had been sent to baptize in accordance with the will of God? or according to their custom, did they, from human considerations and wishes, deny that he came for this purpose? And they were afraid indeed to speak the truth, lest they |622 should be told, Why then did you not believe Him? but neither will they accuse the forerunner, not however from being afraid of God, but rather of the multitudes. And therefore they hide the truth, and say, "We know not."
As not being then worthy to learn the truth, and to see the pathway which leads directly to every good work, Christ answered them, "And neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things." The Jews therefore knew not the truth: for they were not "taught by God," that is, of Christ. But to us who have believed in Him, Christ Himself reveals it, so that we, receiving in mind and heart His divine and adorable mystery, or rather the knowledge of it, and being careful to fulfil those things which are well-pleasing to Him, shall reign with Him: by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever, Amen. |623
SERMON CXXXIV.
20:9-18. And He began to speak to the people this parable: A man planted a vineyard, and let it out to husbandmen, and went on a journey for a long time. And at the season he sent a servant to the husbandmen, that they might give him some of the fruit of the vineyard: but the husbandmen beat him, and sent him away empty. And again he sent to them another servant, but they beat him also, and shamefully entreated him, and sent him away empty. And again he sent a third: and they wounded him also, and cast him out. And the lord of the vineyard said, What shall I do? I will send my beloved son: perhaps they will reverence him. But when the husbandmen saw him, they reasoned among themselves, saying, This is the heir: come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may be ours. And they cast him out of the vineyard, and killed him. What therefore shall the lord of the vineyard do to them? He shall come and destroy those husbandmen, and shall give the vineyard to others. And when they heard it, they said, Heaven forbid. But He looked upon them, and said. What is this then that is written, That the stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner? Every one that falls upon this stone shall be broken: but upon whomsoever it shall fall, it will crush him.
CHRIST has somewhere said, "The kingdom of heaven is like to a treasure hid in a field." And there is nothing more certain than that those who love lucre, and seek for treasures, most certainly do not find them ready for them, nor placed above ground, but hidden rather and buried out of sight; and only by digging laboriously do they find them, and that with difficulty. Come therefore, and let us seek after the knowledge of the lessons of the Gospel as for some treasure; let us search deep into the thoughts therein contained: for so shall we find what we seek by Christ revealing this also to us: "for in Him are all the treasures of wisdom, and the |624 hidden things of knowledge;" and He is the Giver of wisdom and understanding to the whole rational creation.
What therefore does He say to the chiefs of the Jews, when setting forth to them those things which are useful for salvation? "A man planted a vineyard, and let it out to husbandmen, and went on a journey for a long time." Now if any one will examine with the penetrating eyes of the mind the purport of what is here said, he will find the whole history of the children of Israel briefly summed up in these words. For who the man is who planted the vineyard, and what, in fact, is to be understood by the vineyard which was planted, the Psalmist makes clear, where he says to Christ, the Saviour of all, respecting the Israelites; "You brought a vine out of Egypt; You removed the nations, and planted it: You made a way before it, and planted its roots, and it filled the land." And further, the blessed prophet Isaiah also, declaring this very thing, says, "My beloved had a vineyard on a hill, in a fertile place." And afterwards he adds thereto, making more evident the force of what had been spoken enigmatically, "For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the man of Judah. a plant new and beloved." He therefore Who planted the vineyard is God; Who also went abroad for a long time. And yet God fills every thing, and in no way whatsoever is absent from any thing that exists; how therefore did the Lord of the vineyard go abroad for a long time? It means, that after He had been seen by them in the shape of fire at His descent upon Mount Sinai with Moses, who spoke to them the law as the mediator, He did not again grant them His presence in a visible manner, but, to use a metaphor taken from human affairs, His relation to them was, so to speak, like that of one who had made a long journey abroad.
As I said, then, He went abroad: but plainly He had care for His farm, and kept it in His mind. For He sent faithful servants to them at three different times to receive produce, or fruit, from the tillers of the vineyard. For there was no period in the interval, during which there were not sent by God prophets and righteous men to admonish Israel, and urge it to bring forth as fruits the glories of a life in accordance with the law. But they were wicked, and disobedient, and obdurate, |625 and their heart was hardened against admonition, so that they would in no way listen to the word that would have profited thorn. For even the prophet Isaiah, as one who was, so to speak, fainting under labours and fatigues without avail, says: "Lord, who has believed our report?" By disregarding therefore those who had been sent to thorn, "they drove them away empty," as having, that is, nothing good to say of them to God Who sent them. For the prophet Jeremiah also blamed the Jewish multitudes with their rulers because of their excessive arrogance, saying, "To whom shall I speak, and testify, and he will hear? Behold, their ears are uncircumcised, and they cannot hear; behold the Word of the Lord has become to them a derision: they will not hear it." And in another place He thus spoke of Jerusalem: "We healed Babel, and she was not healed: let us leave her, and depart every one to his land, because her judgment has reached to the heaven." And as I said then, he calls Jerusalem Babel, because it differed not from Persia 7 in its disobedience and apostasy, and because it would not submit itself to the sacred laws: or even perhaps because it was reckoned as having no knowledge of God, for having chosen to worship the creature instead of the Creator, and the works of its own hands. For Israel was guilty of the charge both of apostasy and of idol-worship. And this then was the way in which they shamefully cast out those who were sent to them.
But the lord of the vineyard considers with himself, saying, "What shall I do?" And we must carefully examine in what sense he says this. Does then the householder use these words because he had no more servants? Certainly not: for there were not wanting to Him other ministers of His holy will. But just as if a physician were to say of a sick man, What shall I do? we should understand him to mean, that every resource of medical skill had been tried, but without avail: so we affirm that the lord also of the vineyard, having practised all gentleness and care with his farm, but without in any respect |626 benefiting it, says, What shall I do? And what is the result? He advances to still greater purposes; for "I will send, He says, My Son, the beloved one. Perhaps they will reverence Him." Observe in this, that after the servants the Son is sent, as One not numbered among the servants, but as a true Son, and therefore the Lord. For even though He put on the form of a servant for the dispensation's sake, yet even so He was God, and very Son of God the Father, and possessed of natural 8 dominion. Did they then honour Him Who was sent as Son and Lord, and as One Who possesses by inheritance whatsoever belongs to God the Father? By no means. For they slew Him outside the vineyard, having plotted among themselves a purpose foolish and ignorant and full of all wickedness. For they say, "Let us kill Him, that the inheritance may be ours." But tell me, How did you imagine this? For are you also son of God the Father? Does the inheritance descend by right of nature to you? If you remove the heir out of the way, how will you become lord of what you covet? But further, How is not your supposition ridiculous? For the Lord indeed, as being Son, and Heir by right of His substance of the authority of God the Father, having become man, called those who believed in Him to communion and participation of His kingdom: but these men wanted to take possession of the kingdom solely for themselves, without admitting even Him to any participation at all therein, usurping for themselves alone the lordly inheritance. But this was a purpose impossible, and full of ignorance: and therefore the blessed David says of them in the Psalms, "He that dwells in the heaven shall laugh at them, and the Lord shall deride them."
The chiefs therefore of the synagoge of the Jews were cast out for resisting the Lord's will by rendering the vineyard which had been entrusted to them unfruitful. For God has somewhere said, "Many shepherds have destroyed My vineyard: they have profaned My portion: they have made My |627 desirable inheritance into a pathless wilderness: it has become a desolation of destruction." And it is also said by the voice of Isaiah, "But the Lord will immediately arise in judgment: the Lord Himself shall come for judgment with the elders and princes of the people. But you, why have you burnt My vineyard?" As those therefore who had rendered the land sterile, being evil, they perished evilly. For it was just, most just, that as being slothful, and murderers of the Lord, they should be the prey of extreme miseries.
"And the farm was given to other husbandmen." And who are they? I answer, the company of the holy apostles, the preachers of the evangelic commandments, the ministers of the new covenant; who were the teachers of a spiritual service, and knew how to instruct men correctly and blamelessly, and to lead them most excellently to every thing whatsoever that is well-pleasing to God. And this you learn by what God says by the voice of Isaiah to the mother of the Jews, that is, the synagogue: "And I will turn My hand upon you, and, search you to purify you: and those who obey not I will destroy, and I will take out of you all wicked doers, and will humble all that boast: and I will establish your judges as at the first, and your counsellors as in the beginning." And by these, as I said, are signified the preachers of the new covenant, to whom God somewhere said by the voice of Isaiah; " But you shall be called the priests of the Lord, and the ministers of God." But that the farm was given to other husbandmen, and not solely to the holy apostles, but to those also who come after them, even though not of Israelitish blood, the God of all plainly reveals, where He says by the voice of Isaiah to the church of the Gentiles, and to the remnant of Israel; "And aliens in race shall come; they shall feed your flocks: and aliens in tribe shall be ploughmen and vinedressers." For many indeed of the Gentiles were called, and holy men of their number became teachers and instructors; and even to this day men of Gentile race hold high place in the churches, sowing the seeds of piety to Christ in the hearts of believers, and rendering the nations entrusted to their charge like beautiful vineyards in the sight of God. |628
What therefore did the scribes and pharisees say when they heard the parable? "Heaven forbid," were their words. And by this one may see, that having understood its profounder signification, they put away from them the impending suffering, and were afraid of the coming danger. But they did not escape, because they could not be restrained from disobedience, nor would they submit to believe in Christ.
"But He, it proceeds, looked upon them, and said, What is this then that is written, That the stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner? Every one that falls upon this stone shall be broken: but upon whomsoever it shall fall, it will crush him." For the Saviour, although He was a chosen stone, was rejected by those whose duty it was to build up the synagogue of the Jews in every thing that was edifying: and yet He became the head of the corner. Now the sacred Scripture compares to a corner the gathering together, or joining of the two people, Israel I mean, and the Gentiles, in sameness of sentiment and faith. "For the Saviour has built the two people into one new man, by making peace and reconciling the two in one body to the Father." And the so doing resembles a corner, which unites two walls, and, so to speak, binds them together. And this very corner, or gathering together of the two people into one and the same, the blessed David wondered at, and said; "The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner. This----that is the corner----has been done of the Lord, and is marvellous in our eyes." For Christ, as I said, has girded together the two people in the bonds of love, and in sameness as well of sentiment as of faith.
The stone therefore is the safety of the corner which is formed by it: but breaking and destruction to those who have remained apart from this rational and spiritual union. "For he that falls, He says, upon this stone shall be broken: but upon whomsoever it shall fall it will crush him." For when the multitudes of the Jews stumbled at Christ, and fell against Him, they were broken: for they would not hearken to the voice of Isaiah, where he says, "Sanctify the Lord Himself, and He shall be your fear: and you shall not strike against Him as upon a stone of stumbling, nor as a |629 rock of falling." Those therefore who did not believe were broken: but Christ has blessed us who have believed in Him: by Whom and with Whom, to God the Father, be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.
1. p In the Septuagint, the ninth and tenth Psalms are incorporated into one, and therefore all the subsequent Psalms are numbered one less than in our version.
2. q From the mutilated state of the MS. the text of this passage is chiefly conjectural.
3. s Again the MS. is so mutilated, as to render the text chiefly conjectural.
4. k The Catenist adds, that fourfold restitution was enacted by the law, Ex. xxii. 1, and enjoined by David in 2 Sam. xii. 6.
5. 1 The mina was worth rather more than 4 pounds sterling.
6. d By the day of Hosannas, Palm Sunday is meant. That the palm branch was an ordinary symbol of rejoicing among the Jews, may be seen by 1 Mac. xiii. 51.
7. m Regarding Babylon as the capital of Persia, S. Cyril treats the terms as identical, and means that Jerusalem was called by the prophet by the name of the capital of Persia because it resembled that famous city in the greatness of its wickedness.
8. n That is, a dominion which belongs to Him by right of His substance, and not as a thing given or imparted to Him. Elsewhere repeatedly it will be noticed how constantly S. Cyril calls Him " the Son by nature," in opposition to adopted sons.
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Early Church Fathers - Additional Texts
SOURCE SECTION: cyril_on_luke_13_sermons_135_145.htm
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke (1859) Sermons 135-145 (Luke 20:19-22:38) pp. 630-682.
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke (1859) Sermons 135-145 (Luke 20:19-22:38) pp. 630-682.
Sermon 135
Sermon 136
Sermon 137
Sermon 138
Sermon 139
Sermon 140
Sermon 141
Sermon 142
Sermon 143
Sermon 144
Sermon 145
SERMON CXXXV.
20:19-26. And the chief priests and scribes sought that same hour to lay hands upon Him; and they feared the people: for they knew that He had spoken this parable concerning them. And having watched for an opportunity, they sent to Him spies, making pretence of being just men, to find occasion against Him in His speech, that they might deliver Him to the rule and authority of the governor. And they asked Him, saying, Teacher, we know that You speak and teach rightly, and don't discriminate in favour of important persons, but teach the way of God in truth. Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or not? But He perceived their wickedness, and said to them, Show me a denarius. And they showed one to Him. And He said, Whose is the image upon it and superscription? And they said, Caesar's. And He said to them, Give therefore to Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and to God the things which are God's. And they could not blame the word before the people; and they wondered at His answer, and were silent.
AGAIN is the gang of the Pharisees inflamed with unbridled rage: they draw the bow of their envy; they gnash their teeth at Him Who calls them to life; they savagely attack Him Who seeks to save, and Who humbled Himself from His supreme and godlike glory to our estate; and they plot His death Who became man that He might abolish death. And the sole cause which hindered their shameless audacity, the wise Evangelist shows us by saying, that "they feared the people." He understood therefore that they were restrained by no feeling whatsoever of piety towards God; the commandment given by Moses, which plainly says, "You shall not kill the holy and the just," put no bridle |631 upon their violence: but they had regard to the fear of man far more than to the reverence due to God.
But what was the cause of their giving way to such harsh and unmitigated fury? "They knew, it says, that He had spoken this parable concerning them." And what parable? Plainly that by which He had shown that as being wicked and faithless husbandmen, they had mocked and slain the holy prophets, who had been sent to them by God, to stir them up to honour Him, by bringing forth abundant spiritual fruits: and had similarly treated even the Son Himself, the Lord of the vineyard. For they slew Him also, saying, "This is the heir: come, let us kill Him, that the inheritance may be ours." But they missed their mark, and provoked God to anger, or rather resisted the decrees from above, and whetted against themselves the divine wrath. For "being evil, they perished evilly;" and were rejected from being husbandmen, and the Lord of the farm gave the vineyard to others. This then was the reason for which they murmured against Christ: and yet, how was it not rather their duty, having been taught what was about to happen, to escape from the danger, and leap over its toils? And the way so to do was straightforward and easy. Let them accept Him Who calls them to salvation: let them honour by faith Him Who justifies the wicked; Who absolves from all guilt; and by His grace, that remembers not evil, saves those who are entangled in sins.
But these bold and obdurate men, being ready for evil only,. entertain no such purpose as this, but with their mind full of the craftiness of the devil, betake themselves to wicked devices. They lay snares for Christ, and contrive a trap for an accusation against Him, and gather pretexts for falsely accusing Him. Already are they meditating, and plotting in their bitterness, the lying words they uttered against Him before Pilate. They suborned men therefore who falsely assumed to themselves the reputation of goodness, like a borrowed mask; while really they were wicked in their characters, and their heart full of gall and error and all false speaking. They made pretence then of being kind and just: they imagined that they could deceive Him Who knows secrets, when having one purpose in mind and heart, they utter words altogether unlike their wicked knaveries. For they perchance |632 forgot God, Who says, "Who is this that hides from Me his purpose? and shuts up his words in his heart, and thinks that from Me he hides them? For, as Solomon says, Hell and destruction are open to the Lord: how therefore must not also the minds of men?" But you drew near to Christ the Saviour of all as to a mere man, and therefore you thought that you could deceive Him. This was the cause of your ignorant behaviour: but it had been better to have reflected, that the Word being God was made in fashion like to us; but was nevertheless proved by divine and ineffable miracles, and by His godlike glory, not to be a mere man only, such as you are, but to be God, as the splendour of His deeds proclaimed. He was in appearance a man like to us, but He gave sight to the blind; He raised the dead from their graves; He commanded those who already had seen corruption to hasten back to life; He rebuked the seas, and appeared to the disciples, walking upon the waves, as they were sailing once upon the sea of Tiberias. It was in their power therefore to have seen from actual facts that He was not a man only, but rather God also as well as man.
But this they would not even admit into their minds: how could they? but drew near, tempting Him; and hiding from Him their fraudulent purpose, they address Him with gentle words, being like savage beasts wrapped in lambs' clothing. Such were they whom the prophet David also rebuked, saying, "Their words are smoother than oil: and yet are they the points of spears." And again, "Their tongue pierces like the point of a spear: the words of their mouth are deceitful: he speaks peaceably to his neighbour: and there is enmity in his soul." But what do they say? " Teacher, we know that You speak and teach rightly, nor do You discriminate in favour of important persons, but teach the way of God in truth: Is it lawful for us to give tribute to Caesar, or not?" O what polluted knavery! For the God of all willed indeed for Israel to be exempt from human dominion: but because they trampled under foot the divine laws, and despising utterly the commandment given to them, betook themselves to their own devices, they had fallen under the hand of those who at that time held dominion over them: who also imposed upon them tribute, and tax, and the yoke of an unwonted slavery. |633 For the prophet Jeremiah also lamented over Jerusalem as though she had already suffered this fate, saying, "How has the populous city sat solitary! She that was chief of the countries has become tributary!"
Their object therefore, it says, was to deliver "Him to the authority of the governor:" for they expected that certainly and without doubt they would hear Him say, that it was not lawful to give tribute to Caesar. How therefore did Christ overcome their craftiness? "Show Me, He says, a denarius." And when it was shown Him, again He asks, "Whose is the image upon it and superscription? And they said, Caesar's." And what does Christ reply thereto? "Give to Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and to God the things which are God's." For those whose office it is to govern impose a tribute of money upon their subjects: but God requires of us of things corruptible and transitory even nothing, but rather willing obedience and submission; faith and love; and the sweet savour of good works. These things the Israelites ought to have offered to God: but they were careless and contemptuous, and too ready to betake themselves to every thing that was base.
"They wondered therefore at His answer," and that "before all the people," that is, before many witnesses. And yet, as though they had forgotten these things, when they led Jesus to Pilate, they brought this very accusation against Him: for they said, "We found this man perverting the people, and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar." You wonder at His answer; you were unable to deceive Him; you went away ashamed: and how then made you your own wickedness the point of an accusation against Him? What therefore does the Saviour say of them by the voice of the Psalmist? "That without cause have they hid for Me the destruction of their snare: without reason have they reproached My soul. Let a snare come upon them which they know not: and let the net which they hid for Me catch themselves, and let them fall into their own snare." For so verily they did fall; for because they delivered Jesus to Pilate, they were themselves given over to destruction, and the Roman host consumed them with fire and sword, and burnt up all their land, and even the glorious temple that was among them. |634
Such were the wages of their wicked behaviour against Christ: but let us, carefully avoiding these sins, and honouring by faith the Word of God, Who for our sakes and in our stead became man, be diligent in crowning Him with unceasing praises: by Whom and with Whom, to God the Father, be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen. |635
SERMON CXXXVI.
20:27-38. And certain Sadducees drew near, who say there is no resurrection; and they asked Him, saying, Teacher, Moses wrote to us, that if any man's brother die having a wife, and he die without children, that his brother shall take his wife, and raise up seed to his brother. There were therefore seven brethren, and the first took a wife, and died without children. And the second and the third took her; and in like manner also the seven: and they died, and left no children. And afterwards the woman died also. Therefore at the resurrection whose wife of them will she be? for the seven had her to wife. And Jesus said to them, The children of this world marry, and are married: but they who have been accounted worthy to attain to that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry nor are married; for neither can they die any more; for they are equal with the angels, and are the children of God, in that they are the children of the resurrection. But that the dead rise, even Moses indicated at the bush, saying, The Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob: but God is not of the dead, but of the living: for all live to Him.
IGNORANCE is constantly, so to speak, accompanied by rashness, and leads men on to attach great importance to their wretched fancies; and thus those who are the victims of this malady entertain a great idea of themselves, and imagine themselves possessed of such knowledge as no man can gainsay. For they forget, as it seems, Solomon, who says, "Be not wise in your own eyes," that is, according to your own single judgment: and again, that "wisdom not put to the proof goes astray." For we do not necessarily possess true opinions upon every individual doctrine that we hold, but often |636 perhaps abandoning the right path, we err, and fall into that which is not fitting. But I think it right, that exercising an impartial and unprejudiced judgment, and not rendered rash by passion, we should love the truth, and eagerly pursue it.
But the foolish Sadducees had no great regard for such considerations. They were a sect of the Jews, and what was the nature of the opinion which they entertained concerning the resurrection of the dead, Luke has explained to us in the Acts of the Apostles, thus writing, "For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit: but the Pharisees confess all." They draw near therefore to Christ our common Saviour, Who is the Life and Resurrection, and endeavour to disprove the resurrection: and being men contemptuous and unbelieving, they invent a story replete with ignorance, and by a string of frigid suppositions wickedly endeavour violently to shake into nothingness the hope of the whole world. For we affirm, that the hope of the whole world is the resurrection from the dead, of whom Christ was the first-born and first-fruits: and therefore the wise Paul also, making our resurrection to depend upon His, says, "If the dead rise not, neither did Christ rise:" and again adds thereto, as if urging the converse thought to its conclusion, "But if Christ rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection from the dead?" And those who said this were the Sadducees, of whom we are now speaking.
But let us examine, if you will, this senseless fiction of their framing. They say then that there were seven brethren, who successively became the husbands of one wife, according to the requirements of the law of Moses; and she died without children: at the resurrection therefore whose wife will she be? The enquiry however was but a senseless one, nor did the question at all accord with the inspired Scriptures: and the answer of our Saviour amply suffices to prove the folly of their narrative, and make us reject both their fiction, and the idea upon which it was founded.
Still I think it right to convict them plainly of foolishly resisting the inspired Scriptures, and to show that they completely mistook the sense of what the sacred writings teach. For come and let us see what the company of the holy prophets has spoken to us upon this point, and what are the |637 declarations which the Lord of hosts has made by their means. He said therefore of those that sleep, "I will deliver them from the hand of the grave; I will redeem them from death: Where is your condemnation, O death? O grave, where is your sting?" Now what is meant by the condemnation of death, and by its sting also, the blessed Paul has taught us, saying, "But the sting of death is sin: and the strength of sin is the law." For he compares death to a scorpion, the sting of which is sin: for by its poison it slays the soul. And the law, he says, was the strength of sin: for so he himself again elsewhere protests, saying, "I had not known sin but by the law:" "for where there is no law, there is no transgression of the law." For this reason Christ has removed those who believe in Him from the jurisdiction of the law that condemns: and has also abolished the sting of death, even sin: and sin being taken away, death, as a necessary consequence, departed with it; for it was from it, and because of it, that death came into the world.
As God therefore gives the promise, "I will deliver them from the hand of the grave, and from death I will redeem them;" so the blessed prophets also accord with the decrees from on high: for they speak to us, "not of their own heart, nor of the will of man, but from the mouth of God," as it is written; inasmuch as it is the Holy Spirit which speaking within them declares upon every matter, what is the sentence of God, and His almighty and unalterable will. The prophet Isaiah therefore has said to us, "Your dead men shall arise: and those in the graves shall be raised; and they who are in the earth shall rejoice: for the dew from You is healing to them." And by the dew I imagine he means the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit, and that influence which abolishes death, as being that of God and of life.
And the blessed David also somewhere in the Psalms says of all those upon earth, "You take away their spirit, and they die, and return to their dust: You send Your Spirit, and they are created, and You renew the face of the earth." Do you hear that the working and life-giving grace of the Holy Spirit will renew the face of the earth? And by its face is meant its beauty; and the beauty of human nature is justly understood to be incorruption. "For it is |638 sown, it says, in corruption, it is raised in incorruption; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory." For the prophet Isaiah again assures us that death which entered in because of sin does not retain its power over the dwellers upon earth for ever, but is abolished by the resurrection from the dead of Christ, Who renews the universe, and refashions it to that which it was at the beginning----" for God created all things for incorruption," as it is written; for he says, "He has swallowed up death, having waxed mighty: and God shall again take away all weeping from every countenance; He shall remove the reproach of the people from the whole earth." Now sin is what he calls the reproach of the people, and when this has been taken away, death also is extinguished with it, and corruption departs from the midst: and by having brought it to an end, He removes every one's weeping; and lamentation also is put to silence; for henceforth there is no more cause for men to weep and lament.
And thus much for our own argument in refutation of the infidelity of the Jews: but let us see also what Christ said to them: "The children indeed of this world," He says, those, that is, who lead worldly carnal lives, full of fleshly lust, for the procreation of children "marry and are married:" but those who have maintained an honourable and elect life, full of all excellence, and have therefore been accounted worthy of attaining to a glorious and marvellous resurrection, will be necessarily raised far above the life which men lead in this world; for they will live as becomes saints, who already have been brought near to God. "For they are equal with the angels, and are the children of God." As therefore all fleshly lust is taken away, and no place whatsoever is left in them for bodily pleasure, they resemble the holy angels, fulfilling a spiritual and not a material service, such as becomes holy spirits; and are at the same time counted worthy of a glory such as that which the angels enjoy. |639
But the Saviour also demonstrated the great ignorance of the Sadducees, by bringing forward their own hierophant Moses, as well and clearly acquainted with the resurrection of the dead. For he has set before us God, He says, as saying in the bush, "I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." But of whom is He God, if, according to their argument, these have ceased to live? for He is the God of the living: and therefore certainly and altogether they will rise, when His almighty right hand brings them thereunto; and not them only, but also all who are upon the earth.
And for men not to believe that this will happen, is worthy perhaps of the ignorance of the Sadducees; but altogether unworthy of those who love Christ. For we believe in Him who says, "I am the Resurrection and the Life." For He will raise the dead, "suddenly, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump. For it shall resound, and the dead in Christ shall rise incorruptible, and we shall be changed." For Christ, our common Saviour, shall transfer us to incorruption, and to glory, and to a life incorruptible: by Whom and with Whom, to God the Father, be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for over and ever. Amen. |640
SERMON CXXXVII.
20:41-47. And He said to them. How say they of Christ that He is David's Son? For David himself says in the book of Psalms, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit You on My right hand until I place Your enemies as a footstool under Your feet. David therefore calls Him Lord; and how is He his Son? And in the hearing of all the people, He said to His disciples, Beware of the scribes, who desire to walk in stoles, and love greetings in the marketplaces, and the foremost seats in the synagogues, and the highest part of the couches at feasts: who devour widows' houses, and in pretence prolong their prayers: these shall receive more abundant condemnation.
THOSE who love instruction and are fond of hearing receive with joy the profitable word of God, and store it up in the treasure-house of their heart as the seed of life. And what is. the result of their so doing? The divine light rises upon them, and they gain a correct and unerring knowledge of the sacred doctrines. And this quickens them to life, as the Son Himself teaches us, where He says to God the Father in heaven, "And this is life eternal, to know You the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom You have sent."
See therefore, I say, see Him Who is the Giver to us of all wisdom and understanding, even Christ, endeavouring to implant this great and invaluable blessing in those first of all who were the chiefs of the Jews, the scribes, I mean, and Pharisees. For it was right, as they were the pastors and teachers and governors of the people, that His mystery should not he hidden from them: even that which the law of Moses had proclaimed of old, delineating it by type and shadow in manifold ways; and which the great and glorious company also of the holy prophets had preached. For it is for this reason that Christ is called "the accomplishment of the law and the prophets."
The Saviour therefore asked them, saying, "How say they of Christ that He is David's Son? For David himself says |641 in the book of Psalms, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit You on My right hand, until I place Your enemies as a footstool under Your feet. David therefore calls Him Lord: and how is He his son?" The beginning of understanding is faith: "for if, He says, you will not believe, neither can you understand:" but the examination also of important truths tends to salvation. Confessedly then Emanuel is both the Son and the Lord of David: but if any one would learn in what manner he is to understand this, he must certainly betake himself to the exact and blameless examination of His mystery, which was "kept in silence indeed from the foundation of the world, but has been revealed in the latter ages of the world."
The Pharisees however gave no answer to Christ's question: and this they did in malice, or rather against their own selves, lest being pricked by the enquiry, the word of salvation should shine forth in them. For they did not wish to know the truth, but sinfully seizing for themselves the Lord's inheritance, they denied the heir, or rather wickedly slew Him. For from love of rule, and greed of lucre, and for their base gains, they rejected the faith. For once indeed they even stoned Him with stones, and when asked the reason of their violence, they foolishly said, "For a good work we stone You not, but for blasphemy: because that You being a man make Yourself God." And on another occasion they called Him a Samaritan, a drunkard, and a winebibber, and the carpenter's son, meaning that He was an ignoble person, and born of ignoble parents. Nor verily canst you wonder at this, when they ventured even to accuse His birth in the flesh of the holy virgin, saying, darkly and bitterly, "We are not born of harlotry."
To remove therefore from them the habit of thinking and speaking of Him in a derogatory and contemptuous manner, |642 He asked them, saying, "How say they that Christ is David's Son?" But they, as I have already remarked, were silent from malicious motives, and thereby condemned themselves as unworthy of eternal life, and of the knowledge of the truth.
And we too will put to the Pharisees 1 of later days a similar question: Let them, who deny that He Who was born of the holy virgin is very Son of God the Father, and Himself also God, and divide the one Christ into two sons; let them, I say, explain to us, in what manner David's son is his Lord, and that not so much with regard to human lordship as divine. For to sit at all at the right hand of the Father is the assurance and pledge of supreme glory. For those who share the same throne are equal also in dignity: and those who are crowned with equal honours are understood of course to be equal in nature. But to sit by God can signify nothing else than sovereign authority, and the throne declares to us that He possesses empire over every thing, and supremacy by right of His substance. How therefore is the Son of David David's Lord, and seated also at the right hand of God the Father, and on the throne of Deity? Or is it not altogether according to the unerring word of the mystery, that the Word being God, and sprung from the very substance of God the Father, and being in His likeness and on an equality with Him, became flesh, that is, man, perfectly, and yet without departing from the incomparable excellence of the divine dignities, continuing rather in that estate in which He had ever been, and |643 still being God, though He had become flesh and in form like to us. He is David's Lord therefore according to that which belongs to His divine glory and nature and sovereignty: but his son according to the flesh.
It was the duty therefore, the duty, I say, of the chiefs of the Jews, as they prided themselves so much upon their knowledge of the divine laws, not to let the words of the holy prophets escape their notice. For the blessed Isaiah says, "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a Son: and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us." But the Word was with us as God, when He took our likeness, and despised not the low estate of human kind, in order that He might save all beneath the heaven. And it is written again, "And you Bethlehem, the house of Ephrata, are small to be among the thousands of Judah: out of you shall He come forth for Me Who shall be the Head of Israel." For Bethlehem was indeed small, and in comparison with the general populousness of the Jews, its inhabitants were very few; yet from it came forth Christ, as having been born in it of the holy virgin: not as one subject to the shadows of the law, but rather as ruler both over the law and the prophets.
We therefore follow neither the ignorance nor the newness of the foolish talking of men, lest with them we fall into a reprobate mind: but join ourselves rather to the pure teachings of the holy apostles and evangelists, who every where show that Christ the Saviour of all is at once both the Son and the Lord of David, in the manner we have already described.
"There is therefore one Lord, one faith, one baptism:" one Lord has purchased us, "not with corruptible things, with silver or with gold, but with His own blood rather," as it is written, in order that we may serve Him, and by and with Him the Father. For in Him and by Him we have an access (to the Father).
But, as I said, the rulers of the Jews had no regard whatsoever for the truth: and if any one would learn the reason of their obdurate dislike of instruction, he shall hear it from me. It was their determination not to depart from their inbred love of praise, nor to abandon their accursed lust of lucre. For the Saviour Himself once rebuked them, saying; "How can you |644 believe, who receive glory one of another, and wish not for the glory that comes from the one God?" For it was their duty to desire the glory which comes from God, rather than that of men, which is but for a time, and like a dream vanishes away.
Usefully therefore, that He may keep the company of the holy disciples free from faults so disgraceful, He testifies, saying, "Beware of the Scribes and Pharisees;" that is, expose not yourselves to be the prey of their vices, nor be you partakers of their disregard of God. For what was their custom? To walk in the streets beautifully attired, dragging with them a pompous dignity, to catch thereby the praises of those who saw them. And while they were wicked, and their heart full of all improbity, they falsely assumed to themselves the reputation of piety: and with a gravity of manners not founded on reality, they diligently lengthened out their speaking in their prayers, supposing perchance that unless they expended many words, God would not know what their requests were. But the Saviour of all did not permit His worshippers to act so shamefully, saying, "When you pray, babble not as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking:" but He commanded them to be humble, and not lovers of boasting, nor to pay any regard to the desire of vain glory, but rather to seek the honour that comes from above, from God. In such He deposits the knowledge of His mystery: such He appoints instructors of others, as possessing an exact and blameless knowledge of the sacred doctrines: such He makes to know how David's Son is also David's Lord: with whom we also will range ourselves, God the Father illuminating us with divine light in Christ: by Whom and with Whom, to God the Father, be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever, Amen. |645
SERMON CXXXVIII.
21:1-4. And as He looked He saw the rich casting their gifts into the treasury: and He saw also a certain poor widow who cast in thither two farthings: and He said, Of a truth I say to you, that this poor widow has cast in more than they all. For they all of their superabundance have cast in to the offerings; but she of her want has cast in all the substance that she had.
TO-DAY opens to us the sight of a spectacle of piety, with Christ as the exhibitor of the games, Who by just decree distributes the honours to those who are called to the course. And the men whom these games bring forward and offer to our admiration, are neither trillers of harps, nor skilful wrestlers, nor again such as are accustomed to gain glory by the tuneful sounds of pipes; but such rather as the Saviour of all deigns to regard because He loves virtue: and of these the most honoured class, preferred before all others, are those who are kind and merciful, and of whom the Saviour Himself bears witness, saying, "Blessed are the merciful: for upon them shall be shown mercy."
These Christ watches as they cast their offerings into the treasury: for so we have heard the holy evangelist here declaring to us. But what mouth will suffice for those who would praise God over all! "The praise of the Lord, as Scripture says, conceals the word." For it is impossible worthily to praise His surpassing gentleness, and the greatness of His incomparable love to mankind. He counts as offerings, and takes to Himself, what we do for the brethren who are grieved by poverty. For He has said, "Verily I say to you, that whatsoever you have done to one of these little ones, |646 you have done it to Me." And it is written, that "he that is charitable to the poor lends to the Lord." At this one of the saints very beautifully expressed his admiration, thus saying somewhere to us, or rather to all the sons of men; "For in that you are righteous, what will you give Him? Or what will He receive at your hand? Your wickedness is to the man that is your equal: and your righteousness to the son of man." Our deeds then are indeed done, as I said, to those who are our fellows and brethren, but God takes it to Himself, because He is loving to man, and counts it as spiritual fruitfulness, in order that He may have an occasion of showing mercy upon those who habitually thus act, and may free them from all sin. For it is written, that mercy glories against judgment."
Let us then watch, if you please, the contest of the merciful, and see what is its nature, and to whom the Saviour chiefly assigns His praises by His holy and godlike decree. Some of the rich then drew near, bringing the appointed gifts, and casting their offerings into the treasury: and as being possessed of great wealth, and ample riches, the gifts that each one offered were, as is likely, in themselves large: and yet, on the other hand, small, and not in proportion to the offerers' means. And so after them there came in a woman oppressed by hard and unendurable poverty, and whose whole hope of sustenance lay in the kindness of the compassionate, and who by scraps scarcely and laboriously gathered a scant and miserable provision, barely sufficient for the day. And finally, she offered two farthings: for it was not possible for her to bestow more, but rather, so to speak, she had stripped herself of all that she had, and was leaving the sacred courts with empty hands. Wonderful deed! She who constantly asked alms of others, lends to God, making even poverty itself fruitful to His honour. She therefore vanquishes the rest, and by a just sentence is crowned by God.
But this perchance may vex some among the rich: and therefore we will address a few remarks to them. You delight, O rich man, in the abundance of your possessions: your portion is fertile beyond what your necessities require. You reap fields and districts: you have numerous and |647 broad vineyards, and orchards laden with flavourless 2 delicacies: winepresses, and granaries, and an excessive abundance of cattle: a house beautifully built at great expense, and plentiful stores therein; garments woven in divers colours: and finally you offer not so much in proportion to your means, as merely that which when you givest, you will never miss:----out of great abundance, a little. The woman offered two farthings: but she possessed nothing more than what she offered: she had nothing left: with empty hand, but a hand bountiful of the little she possessed, she went away from the treasury. Did she not therefore justly carry off the crown? Did not the decree of superiority befall her by a holy judgment? Did she not surpass your bountifulness, in regard at least of her readiness?
Something of this sort the wise Paul also writes; "For if the will be ready, a man is accepted according to that he has, and not according to that he has not." Not only may the rich man obtain favour with God by offering fruit to the brethren:----for the Saviour of all will accept his sacrifice:----but even he who possesses but very little may also obtain favour by offering his little; nor will he suffer any loss on this account. For the Omniscient will praise his readiness, and accept his intention, and make him equal with the rich: or rather, will crown him with more distinguished honour.
And this further deserves both our regard and admiration: that multitudes were going up to the temple, some of whom were offering fatted oxen; and some sheep; and frankincense, and other things besides, indispensable for the duo performance of the sacrifices commanded by the law: but the Saviour's look was not fixed upon these so much as upon those who were making their offerings to the treasury: on those, that is, who were kind and charitable. For He accepts the sweet savour of the spiritual service, but turns away His eyes from what is done in types and shadows. For He knew that types profit not, and that the shadow is weak. He therefore honours charity to the poor; and knowing this, one of the holy apostles |648 wrote; "that a pure and undefiled sacrifice before God the Father is this; to visit the fatherless and widows in their afflictions, and that a man should keep himself unspotted from the world."
And we find also that the commandment given by Moses urges us to love for the poor, and arouses us to charity. For it was not one God Who of old appointed the commandment by Moses, and another Who set before us the pathway of Gospel conduct; but rather it was One and the Same, inasmuch as He does not change. For by one of the holy prophets He has said, "I that speak to you am near." He therefore thus spoke by Moses; "But if there be among you a poor man of your brethren in one of your cities in the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not turn2 away your heart, nor shut your hand from your brother that is in need. You shall open your hands wide to him; lend him readily whatsoever he needeth, and according to that which he lacks." You hear him call their almsgiving a loan; for it is God that receives, and requites it, not with equal, but rather with overflowing measure. "For good measure, He says, pressed down, and running over, shall they pour into your bosom." And as the very wise Paul says, "God loves a cheerful giver." And that it is right to be compassionate to the brethren, not niggardly, nor as a matter of necessity, but of love rather without respect of persons, and blameless mutual affection, even the law of old made clear by saying, "And you shall not be grieved in your heart when you give to him: for therefore the Lord your God shall bless you in all your works, in whatsoever you put thereto your hand." As therefore Paul says, "He that gives, (let him do so) with bountifulness: he that holds preeminence with earnestness: he that has compassion, with cheerfulness." For love shown to poverty is not unfruitful, but is a debt that will be largely repaid.
We ought therefore to be diligent in fulfilling this duty, as being well assured, that if we distribute with bountiful hand, we shall benefit ourselves: for so the blessed Paul again |649 teaches us. saying, "But this,----he that sows sparingly shall reap also sparingly: and he that sows with blessings shall also reap in blessings: every man as he is prepared in his heart." And, as if to cut away the slothfulness of our good exertions, immediately he adds these words; "And God is able to make all grace abound in you, that in every thing always possessing every sufficiency you may abound in every good work. As it is written, He has dispersed and given to the poor: his righteousness abides for ever." For he who shows mercy to the poor, shall never be forsaken, but shall be counted worthy rather of indulgence from Christ, the Saviour of us all; by Whom and with Whom, to God the Father, be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen. |650
SERMON CXXXIX.
21:5-13. And as some spoke of the temple, that it was adorned with goodly stones and offerings, He said; As for these things that you behold, the days will come in which there shall not be left here stone upon stone which shall not be thrown down. And they asked Him, saying, Teacher, when therefore shall these things be, and what is the sign when these things are about to happen? But He said, Look! Be not deceived: for many shall come in My name, saying, That I am He: and the time is near. Go you therefore not after them. And when you have heard of wars and commotions, be not troubled: for these things must first happen; but the end is not immediately. Then said He to them, Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: great earthquakes shall be in all places, and famines, and pestilences: and terrors from, heaven, and there shall be great signs. But before all these things they shall lay their hands upon you, and persecute you, delivering you up to synagogues and prisons, and bringing you before kings and rulers for My name sake: but this shall prove to you a witnessing.
FROM Christ we have received the knowledge of things about to happen: for it is even He Who "reveals the deep things out of darkness," and knows those that are hidden: and "in Him are all the treasures of wisdom, and the hidden things of knowledge.'" He changes times and seasons: and refashions the creation to that which it was at the beginning. For it was by His means that when it existed not, it was brought into existence according to the will of God the Father: for He is His living and personal power and wisdom: and again by His means it will easily be changed into that which is better. For as His disciple says, "We expect new heavens, and a new earth, and His promises." |651
Now the cause of this digression has been in part the question put to our common Saviour Christ respecting the temple, and the things therein, and partly the answer He made thereto. For some of them showed Him the mighty works that were in the temple, and the beauty of the offerings; expecting that He would admire as they did the spectacle, though He is God, and heaven is His throne. But He deigned, so to speak, no regard whatsoever to these earthly buildings, trifling as they are, and absolutely nothing, compared I mean to the mansions that are above; and dismissing the conversation respecting them, turned Himself rather to that which was necessary for their use. For He forewarned them, that however worthy the temple might be accounted by them of all admiration, yet at its season it would be destroyed from its foundations, being thrown down by the power of the Romans, and all Jerusalem burnt with fire, and retribution exacted of Israel for the slaughter of the Lord. For after the Saviour's crucifixion, such were the things which it was their lot to suffer.
They however understood not the meaning of what was said, but rather imagined that the words He spoke referred to the consummation of the world. They asked therefore, "When shall these things be? and what is the sign when they are about to happen? What therefore is Christ's answer? He meets the view of those who put to Him the enquiry, and omitting for the present what He was saying about the capture of Jerusalem, He explains what will happen at the consummation of the world, and, so to speak, warns them and testifies, saying, "Look! Be not deceived: for many shall come in My Name, saying, that I am He, and the time is near. Go you not after them.'" For before the advent of Christ the Saviour of us all from heaven, various false Christs and false prophets will appear preceding Him, falsely assuming to themselves His person, and coming into the world like eddies of smoke springing up from a fire about to break forth. "But follow them not," He says. For the Only-begotten Word of God consented to take upon Him our likeness, and to endure the birth in the flesh of a woman, in order that He might save all under heaven. And this to Him was an emptying of Himself, and a humiliation. For what is the measure of humanity compared with |652 the divine and supreme majesty and glory? As one therefore Who had humbled Himself to emptiness, He deigned to remain unknown, even charging the holy apostles before His precious cross that they should not reveal Him. For it was necessary that the manner of His dispensation in the flesh should remain hid, that by enduring as a man for our sakes even the precious cross, He might abolish death, and drive away Satan from his tyranny over us all. For, as Paul says; "The wisdom that was in Christ, by which is meant that which is by Christ, none of the rulers of this world knew: for if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." It was necessary therefore that He should remain unknown during the time that preceded His passion: but His second advent from heaven will not happen secretly as did His coming at first, but will be illustrious and terrible. For He shall descend with the holy angels guarding Him, and in the glory of God the Father, to judge the world in righteousness. And therefore He says, "when there arise false Christs and false prophets, go you not after them.'"
And He gives them clear and evident signs of the time when the consummation of the world is now near. "For there shall be wars, He says, and tumults: and famines and pestilences everywhere: and terrors from heaven, and great signs." For, as another evangelist says, "all the stars shall fall: and the heaven be rolled up like a scroll, and its powers shall be shaken."
But in the middle the Saviour places what refers to the capture of Jerusalem: for He mixes the accounts together in both parts of the narrative. "For before all these things, He says, they shall lay their hands upon you, and persecute you, delivering you up to synagogues and to prisons, and bringing you before kings and rulers for My Name's sake. But this shall prove to you a witnessing." For before the times of consummation the land of the Jews was taken captive, being overrun by the Roman host; the temple was burnt, their national government overthrown, the means for the legal worship ceased;----for they no longer had sacrifices, now that the temple was destroyed,----and, as I said, the country of the Jews, together with Jerusalem itself, was utterly laid waste. And before those things happened, the blessed disciples were |653 persecuted by them. They were imprisoned: had part in unendurable trials: were brought before judges: were sent to kings; for Paul was sent to Rome to Caesar. But these things that were brought upon them were to them for a witnessing, even to win for them the glory of martyrdom.
And He testifies to them, 'Meditate not beforehand what defence you will make: for you shall receive of Me wisdom and a tongue which all those who stand against you shall not be able to resist or to speak against.' And cutting away the grounds of human pusillanimity, He tells them, 'that they shall be delivered up by brethren and friends and kinsfolk:' but He promises that certainly and altogether He will deliver them, saying, that "a hair of your head shall not perish."
And, to make His prediction yet again more clear, and more plainly to mark the time of its capture, He says, "When you have seen Jerusalem girt about with armies, then know that its destruction is nigh." And afterwards again He transfers His words from this subject to the time of the consummation, and says; "And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity: from the sound of the sea, and its surging, as the souls of men depart: from fear and expectation of the things which are coming upon the world: for the hosts of heaven shall be shaken." For inasmuch as creation begins, so to speak, to be changed, and brings unendurable terrors upon the inhabitants of earth, there will be a certain fearful tribulation, and a departing of souls to death. For the unendurable fear of those things that are coming will suffice for the destruction of many.
"Then, He says, they shall see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory." Christ therefore will come not secretly nor obscurely, but as God and Lord, in glory |654 such as becomes Deity; and will transform all things for the better. For He will renew creation, and refashion the nature of man to that which it was at the beginning. "For when these things, He says, come to pass, lift up your heads, and look upwards: for your redemption is near." For the dead shall rise, and this earthly and infirm body shall put off corruption, and shall clothe itself with incorruption by Christ's gift, Who grants to those that believe in Him to be conformed to the likeness of His glorious body. As therefore His disciple says, "The day of the Lord will come as a thief; in which the heavens indeed shall suddenly pass away, and the elements being on fire shall be dissolved, and the earth and all the works that are therein shall be burnt up." And further, he adds thereunto, "Since therefore all these things are being dissolved, what sort of persons ought we to be, that we may be found holy, and without blame, and unreproved before Him?" And Christ also Himself says, "Be you therefore always watching, supplicating that you may be able to escape from all those things that are about to happen, and to stand before the Son of Man." "For we shall all stand before His judgment seat," to give an account of those things that we have done. But in that He is good and loving to mankind, Christ will show mercy on those that love Him; by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever, Amen.3 |655
SERMON CXL.
This Exposition is fit to be read on the Thursday of the Mystery. 4
21:37-22:6. And by day He was teaching in the temple, and at night He went out and abode in the mount called of Olives: and all the people came early to Him in the temple to hear Him. And the feast of unleavened bread drew near, which is called the Passover, and the chief priests and scribes sought how they might kill Him: for they feared the people. But Satan entered into Judah, surnamed Iscariot, who was of the number of the twelve, and He went and spoke to the chief priests and captains, how he might deliver Him to them. And they were glad, and covenanted to give him money: and he promised, and sought a fitting season when he could deliver Him to them without the multitude.
THE throng of the Jews, together with their ruler, stood up against the glory of Christ, and contended with the Lord of all. But any one may perceive that it was against their own souls that they prepared their snare, for they dug for themselves pitfalls of destruction, and, as the Psalmist says, "The heathen are taken in the snare which they have made: in the trap which they have laid is their foot taken.'" For the Saviour and Lord of all, though His right hand is almighty, and His power overthrows both corruption and death, yet submitted Himself of His own accord by becoming flesh to the tasting of death for the life of all, in order that He might make corruption cease, and do away with the sin of the world, and deliver those that were under the hand of the enemy from his unendurable tyranny. But that rebellious serpent perhaps imagined that He had prevailed even over Him, in that He suffered, as I said, death in the flesh for our sakes, as the dispensation required: but the wretched being was disappointed of his expectation. |656
Let us then see how he missed his game, and shot wide of his mark, when he made Christ his prey, and delivered Him into the hands of those murderers. It says then, that "by day He taught in the temple, but lodged during the nights in the mount called of olives." Now plainly what He taught were things which surpass the legal service: for the time had come when the shadow must be changed into the reality. And they heard Him gladly; for oftentimes they had wondered at Him, "because His word was with power." For He did not, like one of the holy prophets, or as the hierophant Moses, call out to men, "These things says the Lord:" but as Himself being He Who of old spoke by Moses and the prophets, and the Lord of all, He transferred with godlike authority to a spiritual worship what had been prefigured in types, and the weakness of the letter: "for the law made nothing perfect."
And He lodged during the nights, as I said, in the Mount of Olives, avoiding the uproars there were in the city, that He might in this also be a pattern to us. For it is the duty of those who would lead a life quiet and calm, and, so to speak, full of rest, to avoid as far as possible the crowd and tumult.
But let us see the course of the devil's malice, and what was the result of his crafty designs against Him. He had then implanted in the chiefs of the synagogue of the Jews envy against Christ, which proceeded even to murder. For always, so to speak, this malady tends to the guilt of murder. Such, at least, is the natural course of this vice: so it was with Cain and Abel; so plainly it was in the case of Joseph and his brethren; and therefore the divine Paul also very clearly makes these sins neighbours, so to speak, of one another, and akin: for he spoke of some as "full of envy, murder." They sought therefore to slay Jesus, at the instigation of Satan, who had implanted this wickedness in them, and who also was their captain in their wicked enterprises. For he is himself the inventor of murder, and the root of sin, and the fountain of all wickedness. And what was the contrivance of this many-headed serpent? "He entered, it says, into Judah Iscariot, who was one of the twelve." Why not rather into the blessed Peter, or into James, or John, or some other of the rest of the apostles, but into Judah Iscariot? What place did Satan find in him? Of all whom we have here mentioned he could approach |657 none, because their heart was steadfast, and their love to Christ immoveable; but there was a place for him in the traitor. For the bitter malady of covetousness, which the blessed Paul says is "the root of all evil," had overpowered him. For once also when a woman had poured ointment upon the Saviour, he alone of all rebuked her, saying, "To what purpose is this waste? For it could have been sold for much, and given to the poor." But the wise Evangelist rose, so to speak, against his feigned words: for immediately he adds: "But this he spoke, not because he had forethought for the poor, but because he was a thief, and carried the purse, and whatever fell therein, he was the bearer of." And Satan, being crafty in working evil, whenever he would gain possession of any man's soul, does not attack him by means of vice generally, but searches out rather that particular passion which has power over him, and by its means makes him his prey. As he knew therefore that he was covetous, he leads him to the Pharisees and captains; and to them he promised that he would betray his teacher. And they purchase the treachery, or rather their own destruction, with sacred money. Oh! what tears could suffice, either for him who betrayed Jesus for hire, or for those who hired him, and purchased with consecrated money a guilty murder! What darkness had come upon the soul of him who received the bribe! For a little silver, he lost heaven; he missed the crown of immortality, and the desirable honour of the apostleship, and to be numbered among the twelve, to whom Christ somewhere said, "You are the light of the world." He cared not to be a light of the world: he forgot Christ, Who says, "You who have followed Me in My temptations, when the Son of man shall sit upon the throne of His glory, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, and judge the twelve tribes of Israel." But he wanted not to reign with Christ. What a confusion too of error blinded the mind of that covetous man! He delivered to death Him Who is greater than death. Did you not know that Lazarus was raised on the fourth day from the grave, and that at His nod the widow's son also revived, and the daughter of the chief of the synagogue? Did you not hear Him say to the Jews concerning His body, "Destroy this temple: and in three days I will raise it up again?" Did you forget His words, "I am |658 the resurrection and the life?" What therefore was the cause of such utter frenzy? The Evangelist tells us, where he says, "Satan entered into him," having obtained as his pathway and door the passion of avarice. And yet "the fear of God with a sufficiency is great gain:" and, as the sacred Scripture says, "We neither brought anything into the world, nor can we carry [anything] out." And "those who seek to be rich, fall into numerous and unprofitable lusts, which sink men in pitfalls and destruction." And of this the disciple who became a traitor is a manifest proof: for he perished for the sake of a few wretched shekels.
And what shall one say of those who hired him? That they fell into the very same pitfalls with him. Plainly they were the victims of a like intoxication, even though they had the reputation of being well acquainted with the law and the words of the holy prophets. It was their duty to have known the meaning of what had been spoken of old, as being before decreed by God concerning them. For among others are words like these, "My wrath is kindled against the shepherds, and I will visit the lambs." For the wicked shepherds perished miserably: while the calling of those who were obedient to salvation was a kind of visitation; for a remnant of Israel was saved. And, as if already, so to speak, they had fallen into ruin and destruction, and were wailing and weeping on this account, the prophet hoard, he says, "the voice of shepherds wailing, because their might was brought low: the voice of lions roaring, because the pride of Jordan was spoiled." He calls the lions the pride of Jordan, by whom wore figured the chiefs of the Jewish synagogue: who, in just requital of their wickedness against Christ, wailed with their fathers and children, being consumed as with fire and sword, while the temple at Jerusalem was also burnt, and the cities throughout all Judaea abandoned to utter desolation.
Such then was their fate: but Christ saves us by His merciful will; by Whom and with Whom, to God the Father, be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen. |659
SERMON CXLI.
This Exposition is fit to be read on Thursday in the week of the Mystery.
22:7-16. Then came the day of unleavened bread, on which it was fitting for the passover to be sacrificed. And He sent Peter and John, saying, Go and prepare for us the passover, that we may eat. And they said to Him, Where will You that we prepare? And He said to them, Behold, when you have entered into the city, there shall meet you a man carrying a pitcher of water: follow him to the house into which he enters. And say to the master of the house, The Teacher says to you, Where is the guest-chamber, where I may eat the passover with My disciples? And he will show you a large upper room, provided with couches; there make ready. And they went, and found as He said to them; and they made ready the passover. And when the time was come, He lay down to meat, and the twelve apostles with Him. And He said to them, I have desired a desire to eat this passover with you before I suffer: for 1 say to you, that henceforth I twill not eat of it, until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.
THE law by its shadows prefigured from of old the mystery of Christ: and of this He is Himself the witness where He said to the Jews, "If you had believed Moses, you would have believed also Me: for he wrote concerning Me." For everywhere He is set forth, by means of shadows and types, both as slain for us, as the Lamb without blame and true; and as sanctifying us by His life-giving blood. And we further find the words of the holy prophets in complete accordance with those of most wise Moses. But when "the fulness of time was come," as Paul says, in which the Only-begotten Word of God was about to submit to the emptying of Himself, and to endure the birth in the flesh of a woman, and subjection also to the law, according to the measure that was fitting for human |660 nature, then He was also sacrificed for us, as the lamb without blame and true, on the fourteenth day of the first month. And this feast-time was called Phasek, a word belonging to the Hebrew language, and signifying the passing over: for so they explain it, and say that this is its meaning.
We must explain then what it is from which we pass over, and on our journey to what country, and in what manner we effect it.
As then Israel was delivered from the tyranny of the Egyptians, and having loosed its neck from the yoke of bondage, was now free; and fleeing from the violence of the tyrant passed with dry foot in a manner wonderful and beyond the power of language to describe through the midst of the sea, and journeyed onwards to the promised land: so must we too, who have accepted the salvation that is in Christ, be willing no longer to abide in our former faults, nor continue in our evil ways, but manfully cross over the sea, as it were, of the vain trouble of this world, and the tempest of affairs that is therein. We pass over therefore from the love of the flesh to temperance; from our former ignorance to the true knowledge of God; from wickedness to virtue: and in hope at least, from the blame of sin to the glories of righteousness, and from death to incorruption. The name therefore of the feast on which Emmanuel bore for us the saving cross, was the Passover.
But let us behold Him Who is the Truth still honouring the types, and Him Who was represented therein still permitting the shadows to hold good. "For when the day, it says, had come, on which it was fitting for the passover to be sacrificed, He sent to the city two men chosen from the holy apostles, Peter namely and John, saying, that there shall |661 meet you a man carrying a pitcher of water: follow him to the house into which he enters; and say to the master of the house, The Teacher says to you, where is the guest-chamber, where I may eat the passover with My disciples?" 'But why, some one perchance may say, did He not plainly mention the man to those whom He sent? For He did not say, Having gone to such and such a person, whoever it might be, there prepare for us at his house the passover: but simply gave them a sign,----a man bearing a pitcher of water.' To this then what do we reply? That lo! already Judas the traitor had promised the Jews to deliver Him to them, and was continuing in His company watching for an opportunity; and while still making profession of the love that was the duty of a disciple, he had admitted Satan into his heart, and was travailing with the crime of murder against our common Saviour Christ. He gives a sign therefore, to prevent him from learning who the man was, and running to tell those who had hired him. "For there shall meet you, He says, a man carrying a pitcher of water."
Or even perchance He so speaks signifying something mystical and necessary thereby. For whither the waters enter, even those of holy baptism, there lodges Christ. How, or in what manner? In that they free us from all impurity, and we are washed by them from the stains of sin, that we may also become a holy temple of God, and partakers of His divine nature, by participation of the Holy Spirit. In order therefore that Christ may rest and lodge in us, let us receive the saving waters, confessing moreover the faith that justifies the wicked, and raises us aloft so as for us to be accounted "an upper room." For those in whom Christ dwells by faith have a mind raised aloft, unwilling to creep upon the dust, and refusing, so to speak, to be set upon the earth, and everywhere seeking that which is exalted in virtue. For it is written, that "the mighty ones of God are raised high above the earth." "For here they have no abiding city, but seek that which is to come:" and while walking upon earth, their thoughts are set upon those things which are above, and "their dwelling is in heaven." |662
We may also notice something true, but wonderful, that happens, so to speak, constantly among us: namely that those who prize their carnal life are often puffed up, and have their heart full of pride accursed and hated of God; but yet perhaps they are brought to humiliation even upon earth: while those who are poor in spirit obtain exaltation by the honour and glory which comes from God. For as the disciple of Christ writes, "Let the humble brother glory in his exaltation, but "the rich in suffering humiliation: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away." He therefore would not miss the truth, who should say that the soul of every saint is "an upper room."
When then the disciples had prepared the passover, Christ ate it with them, being long-suffering towards the traitor, and deigning to admit him to the table from His infinite loving-kindness: for he was already a traitor, because Satan was lodging within him. And what did Christ also say to the holy apostles? "I have desired a desire to eat this passover with you." Let us examine the deep purport of this expression: let us search out the meaning concealed therein, and what it is which the Saviour intends.
As then I have already said that covetous disciple was seeking an opportunity to betray Him: and, that he might not deliver Him to His murderers before the feast of the passover, the Saviour did not declare either the house or the person with whom He would celebrate the feast. To explain therefore to them the cause of His unwillingness openly to tell them with whom He would lodge, He says, "I have desired a desire to eat with you this passover:" apparently meaning, I have used all diligence to enable me to escape the wickedness of the traitor, that I might not endure My passion before the time.
"But I will not eat of this passover until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God." And in this again Christ utters a profound and mysterious truth, of which He Himself, however, reveals to us the meaning. For it is His custom to give the name of "the kingdom of heaven" to justification by faith, to the cleansing that is by holy baptism and the participation of the Holy Spirit, and to the offering of spiritual service, now rendered possible by the entering in of the gospel laws. But these things are the means of our being made partakers of the |663 promises, and of our reigning together with Christ: and therefore He says, "I will no more draw near to such a passover as this," one namely that consisted in the typical eating,----for a lamb of the flock was slain to be the type of the true Lamb,----"until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God:" that is, until the time has appeared in which the kingdom of heaven is preached. For this is fulfilled in us, who honour the worship that is superior to the law, even the true passover; nor is it a lamb of the flock which sanctifies those who are in Christ, but Himself rather, being made a holy sacrifice for us, by the offering of bloodless oblations, and the mystical giving of thanks, in which we are blessed and quickened with life. For He became for us "the living bread that came down from heaven, and gives life to the world:" by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen. |664
SERMON CXLII.
22:17-22. And He took a cup, and gave thanks, and said, Take this, and divide it with one another: for I say to you, that I will not drink henceforth of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God is fulfilled. And He took bread, and gave thanks, and broke it, and gave to them, saying, This is My body, which is given for you: do this in remembrance of Me. In like manner also the cup, after He had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in My blood, which is shed for you. But, behold! the hand of him that betrays Me is with Me at the table. And the Son of man indeed goes, according to that which was determined: but woe to that man by whom He is betrayed!
TO be made partakers of Christ, both intellectually and by our senses, fills us with every blessing. For He dwells in us, first, by the Holy Spirit, and we are His abode, according to that which was said of old by one of the holy prophets. "For I will dwell in them, He says,. and lead them: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people."
But He is also within us in another way by means of our partaking in the oblation of bloodless offerings, which we celebrate in the churches, having received from Him the saving pattern of the rite, as the blessed Evangelist plainly shows us in the passage which has just been read. For He tells us that "He took a cup, and gave thanks, and said, Take this, and divide it with one another." Now by His giving thanks, by which is meant His speaking to God the Father in the manner of prayer, He signified to us that He, so to speak, shares and takes part in His good pleasure in granting us the life-giving blessing which was then bestowed upon us: for every grace, and every perfect gift comes to us from |665 the Father by the Son in the Holy Spirit. And this act then was a pattern for our use of the prayer which ought to be offered, whenever the grace of the mystical and life-giving oblation is about to be spread before Him by us: and so accordingly we are wont to do. For first offering up our thanksgivings, and joining in our praises to God the Father both the Son and the Holy Spirit, we so draw near to the holy tables, believing that we receive life and blessing both spiritually and corporeally: for we receive in us the Word of the Father, Who for our sakes became man, and Who is Life, and the Giver of life.
Let us then enquire, to the best of our ability, what is the view held among us of this mystery: for it is our duty to be "ready to give an answer concerning the hope that is in us," as the wise Peter says. "The God of all therefore created all things for immortality, and the beginnings of the world were life; but by the envy of the devil death entered the world:" for it was that rebel serpent who led the first man to the transgression of the commandment, and to disobedience, by means of which he fell under the divine curse, and into the net of death: for it was said to him, "Earth you are, and to the earth you shall return." Was it then right that one who was created for life and immortality should be made mortal, and condemned to death without power of escape? Must the envy of the devil be more unassailable and enduring than the will of God? Not so: for it has been brought to nought; and the clemency of the Creator has transcended the evil effects of his malignity. He has given aid to those upon earth. And what then was the manner in which He aided them? One truly great, and admirable, and worthy of God; yes, worthy in the very highest degree of the supreme Mind. For God the Father is by His own nature Life; and as alone being so, He caused the Son to shine forth Who also Himself is Life: for it could not be otherwise with Him |666 Who is the Word That proceeded substantially from the Life: for He must, I say must, also Himself be Life, as being One Who sprang forth from Life, from Him Who begat Him.
God the Father therefore gives life to all things by the Son in the Holy Spirit: and every thing that exists and breathes in heaven and on earth, its existence and life is from God the Father by the Son in the Holy Spirit. Neither therefore the nature of angels, nor any thing else whatsoever that was made, nor aught that from non-existence was brought into being, possesses life as the fruit of its own nature: but, on the contrary, life proceeds, as I said, from the Substance which transcends all: and to it only it belongs, and is possible that it can give life, because it is by nature life.
In what manner therefore can man upon earth, clothed as he is with mortality, return to incorruption? I answer, that this dying flesh must be made partaker of the life-giving power which comes from God. But the life-giving power of God the Father is the Only-begotten Word: and Him He sent to us as a Saviour and Deliverer. And how He sent Him, the blessed John the Evangelist clearly tells us, saying, "And the Word became flesh, and dwelt in us." But He became flesh, not by having undergone any change or alteration into what He had not been, nor again by having ceased to be the Word;----for He knows not what it is to suffer the shadow of a change;----but rather by having been born in the flesh of a woman, and taken to Himself that body which He received from her, in order that, having implanted Himself in us by an inseparable union, He might raise us above the power both of death and corruption. And Paul is our witness, where he says of Him and of us, "For inasmuch as the children are partakers of blood and flesh, so He in like manner was partaker of the same, that by death He might bring him to nought who has dominion over death, that is, the devil; and deliver all them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For He does not take hold of angels, "but He took hold of the seed of Abraham: for which reason it was right for Him in all things to be made like to His brethren:" that is, to us. For He was made in our |667 likeness, and clothed Himself in our flesh, that by raising it from the dead He might prepare a way henceforth, by which the flesh which had been humbled to death might return anew to incorrupt-ion. For we are united to Him just as also we were united to Adam, when he brought upon himself the penalty of death. And Paul testifies thereunto, thus writing on one occasion, "For because by man is death, by man is also the resurrection of the dead:" and again upon another, "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all live." The Word therefore, by having united to Himself that flesh which was subject to death, as being God and Life drove away from it corruption, and made it also to be the source of life: for such must the body of (Him Who is) the Life be.
And do not disbelieve what I have said, but rather accept the word in faith, having gathered proofs thereof from a few examples. When you cast a piece of bread into wine or oil, or any other liquid, you find that it becomes charged with the quality of that particular thing. When iron is brought into contact with fire, it becomes full of its activity; and while it is by nature iron, it exerts the power of fire. And so the life-giving Word of God, having united Himself to His own flesh in a way known to Himself, endowed it with the power of giving life. And of this He certifies us Himself, saying, "Verily, I say to you, he that believes in Me has everlasting life. I am the bread of life." And again, "I am the living bread, that came down from heaven; if a man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I shall give is My flesh for the life of the world. Verily, I say to you, that if you eat not the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh, and drinks My blood, has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. He that eats My flesh, and drinks My blood, abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father; so He that eats Me shall also live because of Me." When therefore we eat the holy flesh of Christ, the Saviour of us all, and drink His precious blood, we have life in us, being made |668 as it were, one with Him, and abiding in Him, and possessing Him also in us.
And let none of those whose wont it is to disbelieve say, 'Since therefore the Word of God, being by nature life, dwells in us also, is the body of each one of us too endowed with the power of giving life?' Rather let him know that it is a perfectly different thing for the Son to be in us by a relative participation, and for Himself to become flesh, that is, to make that body His own which was taken from the blessed Virgin. For He is not said to become incarnate and be made flesh by being in us: but rather this happened once for all when He became man without ceasing to be God. The body therefore of the Word was that assumed by Him from the holy virgin, and made one with Him; but how, or in what manner this was done, we cannot tell: for it is incapable of explanation, and altogether beyond the powers of the mind, and to Himself alone is the manner of the union known.
It was titling therefore for Him to be in us both divinely by the Holy Spirit, and also, so to speak, to be mingled with our bodies by His holy flesh and precious blood: which things also we possess as a life-giving eucharist, in the form of bread and wine. For lest we should be terrified by seeing (actual) flesh and blood placed upon the holy tables of our churches, God, humbling Himself to our infirmities, infuses into the things set before us the power of life, and transforms them into the efficacy of His flesh, that we may have them for a life-giving participation, and that the body of (Him Who is the) Life may be found in us as a life-producing seed. And do not doubt that this is true, since Himself plainly says, "This is My body: "This is My blood:" but rather receive in faith the Saviour's word; for He, being the Truth, cannot lie. And so will you honour Him; for as the very wise John says, "He that receives His witness has set his seal that God is true. For He Whom God sent speaks the words of God." For the words of God are of course true, and in no manner whatsoever can they be false: for even though we understand not in what way God works acts such as these, yet He Himself knows the way of His works. For when Nicodemus could not understand His words concerning holy baptism, and foolishly said, |669 "How can those things be?" he heard Christ in answer say, "Verily I say to you, that we speak that which we know, and testify that which we see, and you receive not our testimony. If I have spoken to you the earthly things, and you believe not, how will you believe if I tell you the heavenly things?" For how indeed can a man learn those things which transcend the powers of our mind and reason? Let therefore this our divine mystery be honoured by faith.
But Judas the traitor, who was eating with Him, was reproved in those words which Christ spoke, "But behold the hand of him who betrays Me is with Me at the table." For he imagined perchance in his great senselessness, or rather as being filled with the haughtiness of the devil, that he could deceive Christ, though He be God. But, as I said, he was convicted of being altogether wicked, and hateful to God, and traitorous: and yet admission was deigned him to the table, and he was counted worthy of the divine gentleness even to the end: but thereby is his punishment made the more severe. For Christ has somewhere said of him by the Psalmist's voice, "That if an enemy had reproached Me, I had borne it: and if he that hated Me had spoken against Me proud things, I had hid myself from him. But it was you, My like in soul, My neighbour and My acquaintance, who in My company had sweetened for Me meats, and we went to the house of the Lord in concord." Woe therefore to him, according to the Saviour's word! For He indeed, according to the good will of God the Father, gave Himself in our stead, that He might deliver us from all evil: but the man who betrayed into the hands of murderers the Saviour and Deliverer of all, will have for his inheritance the condemnation which is the devil's fitting punishment. For his guilt was not against one such as we are, but against the Lord of all: by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever, Amen. |670
SERMON CXLIII.
22:24-30. And there was also a strife among them, Which of them seems to be the most important. And He said to them, The kings of the Gentiles are their lords: and they who rule over them are called benefactors. But with you it is not so; but he who is great among you, let him be as the youngest 5: and let him who governs be as he that serves. For which is the chief he that reclines at table, or he that serves? Is not he that reclines? But I am in the midst of you as he that serves. But you are they who have remained with Me in My temptations: and I will make a covenant with you, as My Father has appointed for Me a kingdom, that you shall eat and drink at My table in My kingdom: and you shall sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
"AWAKE you, and watch," is the summons to us of one of the holy apostles: for every where the net of sin is spread, and Satan makes us his prey in various ways, seizing hold of us by many passions, and so leading us on to a reprobate mind. Those therefore must be awake who would not willingly be subject to his power: for thereby they will gain the victory by Christ's help, Who cares for our souls, and delivers them from every passion, that so with sound and vigorous mind they may run along the praiseworthy and gainful pathway of that mode of life which is pleasing to Him. For how great His mercy is towards us, the purport of the lessons set before us once again declares. For the disciples had given way to a human infirmity, and were contending with one another, who of them is the chief, and superior to the rest; for those perchance who held the second rank among them were not willing to give way to those who held the first. But even this arose, and was recorded for our benefit, that that which happened to the holy apostles may prove a reason for humility in us. For Christ immediately rebukes the malady, and like a vigorous physician cut away, by an earnest and deep-reaching commandment, the passion which had sprung up among them. |671
Now it was from an unprofitable love of glory, the root of which is pride, that this vain and senseless ambition had, so to speak, shot up. For the very fact of wishing at all to be sot over others, and to strive for this end, renders a man liable to be justly blamed: though, on the other hand, it is not absolutely destitute of that which may fitly be praised. For to be exalted in virtue is worthy of all estimation: but those who would attain to it must be of modest mind, and possess such humbleness of feeling as to abandon out of love to the brethren all idea of preeminence. And such the blessed Paul would also have us be, thus writing, "Consider as regards your companions, that in honour they are better than you." For so to feel is highly worthy of the saints, and renders them glorious, and makes our piety to God more worthy of honour: it tears the net of the devil's malice, and breaks his manifold snares, and rescues us from the pitfalls of depravity: and finally, it perfects us in the likeness of Christ the Saviour of us all. For listen how He sets Himself before us as the pattern of a humble mind, and of a will not set on vainglory: for "Learn, He says, of Me, Who am meek and lowly in heart."
Here, however, in the passage which, has just been read He says, "For which is the chief, he that reclines at table, or he that serves? Is not he that reclines? But I am in the midst of you as he that serves." And when Christ thus speaks, who can be so obdurate and unyielding as not to cast away all vaingloriousness, and banish from his mind the love of empty honour? For He Who is ministered to by the whole creation of rational and holy beings; Who is lauded by the seraphim; Who is tended by the services of the universe; He Who is the equal of God the Father in His throne and kingdom; taking a servant's place, washed the holy apostles feet. And in another way moreover He holds the post of servitude, by reason of the dispensation in the flesh. And of this the blessed Paul bears witness, where he writes; "For I say that Christ was a minister of the circumcision to fulfil the promises of the fathers; and the Gentiles shall praise God for mercy." He therefore Who is ministered to became a minister; and the Lord of glory made Himself poor, "leaving us an example," as it is written.
Let us therefore avoid the love of vainglory, and deliver |672 ourselves from the blame attached to the desire of chieftainship. For so to act makes us like to Him Who submitted to empty Himself for our sakes: while superciliousness and haughtiness of mind make us plainly resemble the princes of the Gentiles, to whom an arrogant bearing is ever, so to speak, dear, or even perhaps fitting. "For they are called, He says, benefactors," that is, are flattered as such by their inferiors. Be it so then, that they, as not being within the pale of the sacred laws, nor obedient to the Lord's will, are the victims of these maladies: but let it not be so with us; rather let our exaltation consist in humility, and our glorying in not loving glory; and let our desire be set upon those things which are well-pleasing to God, while we bear in mind what the wise man says to us, "The greater you are, humble yourself the more, and you shall find grace before the Lord." For He rejects the proud, and counts the boastful as His enemies, but crowns with honours the meek and lowly in mind.
The Saviour therefore drives away from the holy apostles the malady of vaingloriousness: but they perchance might think among themselves, and even say, 'What therefore will be the reward of fidelity? or what advantage shall they receive, who have laboured in attendance upon Him, when temptations from time to time befall? In order therefore that being confirmed by the hope of the blessings that are in store, they may cast away from their minds all slothfulness in virtuous pursuits, and choose rather with earnest mind to follow Him, and take pleasure in labours for His sake, and count the doing so a cause of gain, and the pathway of joy, and the means of eternal glory, He necessarily says, "You are they who have remained with Me in My temptations: and I will make a covenant with you, as My Father has appointed for Me a kingdom, that you shall eat and drink at My table in My kingdom: and you shall also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." Observe, I pray, that He does not yet quit the limits of humanity, but for the present confines Himself within them, because He had not as yet endured the precious cross; for He speaks as one of us: but after the resurrection from the dead He revealed His glory, the season calling Him thereto: for He said, "All power has been given Me in heaven and in earth." He speaks therefore, as I said, |673 in human fashion, as not having yet mounted above the measure of His humiliation. For this reason He says, that "as My Father has made with Me a covenant of a kingdom, so I also will make a covenant with you, that you shall eat and drink constantly at My table in My kingdom." Is it the case then, that even after the resurrection from the dead, when the time has come in which we shall be with Christ, and He will endow us with the likeness of His glorified body; even after we have thus put on incorruption, is it, I say, the case, that we shall again be in need of food and of tables? Or is it not then utterly foolish to say or wish to imagine anything of the sort? For when we have put off corruption, of what bodily refreshment shall we henceforth be in need? And if so, what is the meaning of the expression, "You shall eat at My table in "My kingdom?" I answer, that once again from the ordinary matters of life He declares to us things spiritual. For those who enjoy the foremost honours with earthly kings banquet with them, and eat in their company: and this is counted by them the summit of glory. And there are too others, esteemed worthy of honour by those in power, who nevertheless are not permitted to draw near to the same table with them. To show then that they will enjoy the highest honours with Him, He uses an example taken from ordinary life, and says, "I will make a covenant with you, that you shall eat and drink at My table in My kingdom: and you shall sit also upon twelve thrones judging Israel."
How or in what manner? It means that the disciples being of Israelitish race, obtained the foremost honours with Christ, the Saviour of all, because by faith and constancy they seized upon the gift: whom may we also endeavour to imitate, for so will He Who is the Saviour and Lord of all receive us into His kingdom: by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit for ever and ever, Amen. |674
SERMON CXLIV.
22:31-34. Simeon, Simeon, behold Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you that your faith fail not: and do you also hereafter when converted strengthen your brethren. And he said to Him, Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death. But He said, I tell you, Peter, that the cock shall not crow to-day until you have thrice denied that You know Me.
THE prophet Isaiah bids those who embrace a life of piety towards Christ to go to the proclamations of the Gospel, saying, "You who thirst, go to the waters." But these waters are not the material waters of earth, but rather are divine and spiritual, poured forth for us by Christ Himself. For He is the river of peace, and the torrent of pleasure, and the fountain of life. And so we have heard Himself plainly saying, "Whosoever thirsts, let him come to Me and drink." Come therefore, that here also we may delight ourselves in the sacred and divine streams which now from Him: for what says He to Peter? "Simeon, Simeon, behold Satan has asked for you to sift you like wheat: but I have prayed for you that your faith fail not."
Now it is, I think, both necessary and profitable for us to know what the occasion was which led our Saviour's words to this point. The blessed disciples then had been disputing with one another, "which of them was the great one:" but the Saviour of all, as the means whereby they obtained whatsoever was useful and necessary for their good, delivered them from the guilt of ambition, by putting away from them the striving after objects such as this, and persuading them to escape from the lust of preeminence, as from a pitfall of the devil. For He said, "he who is great among you, let him be as the youngest, and he who governs as he that serves." And He further taught them that the season of honour is not so much this present time as that which is to be at the coming of His kingdom. For there they shall receive the rewards of |675 their fidelity, and be partakers of His eternal glory, and wear a crown of surpassing honour, eating at His table, and sitting also upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
But lo! He also offers them a third assistance, as we read in the lessons before us. For He teaches us, that we must think humbly of ourselves, as being nothing, both as regards the nature of man and the readiness of our mind to fall away into sin, and as strengthened and being what we are only through Him and of Him. If therefore it is from Him that we borrow both our salvation, and our seeming to be something in virtue and piety, what reason have we for proud thoughts? For all we have is from Him, and of ourselves we have nothing. "For what have you that you did not receive? But if you also received it, why do you glory, as though you did not receive it?" So spoke the very wise Paul: and further, the blessed David also at one time says, "In God we shall make strength:" and at another again, "Our God is our house of refuge and our strength." And the prophet Jeremiah also has somewhere said, "O Lord, my strength and my house of refuge, and my help in the days of trouble." And the blessed Paul also may be brought forward, who says with great clearness, "I can do all things through Christ, Who strengthens me." Yes, Christ Himself also somewhere says to us, "Without Me you can do nothing.11
Let us then glory not in ourselves, but rather in His gifts. And if this be the state of any one's mind, what place can the desire of being set above other men find in him, when thus we are all both partakers of the same one grace, and also have the same Lord of hosts as the Giver both of our existence and of our ability to do well. To humble therefore our tendency to superciliousness, and to repress ambitious feelings, Christ shows that even he who seemed to be great is nothing and infirm. He therefore passes by the other disciples, and turns to him who is the foremost, and set at the head of the company, and says; "that Satan has many times desired to sift you as wheat:" that is, to search and try you, and expose you to intolerable blows. For it is Satan's wont to attack men of more than ordinary excellence, and, like some fierce and arrogant barbarian, he challenges to single combat those of chief repute in the ways of piety. So he challenged Job, but was defeated |676 by his patience, and the boaster fell, being vanquished by the endurance of that triumphant hero. But human nature he makes his prey, for it is infirm, and easy to be overcome: while he is harsh and pitiless and unappeasable in heart. For, as the sacred Scripture says of him, "His heart is hard as a stone: and he stands like an anvil that cannot be beaten out 6." Yet he is placed under the feet of the saints by Christ's might: for He has said, "Behold, I have given you to tread on serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you." "Satan therefore, He says, has desired to sift you like wheat: but I have offered supplication in your behalf, that your faith fail not."
See again, He humbles Himself to us, and speaks according to the limits of man's estate, and yet He is God by nature, even though He became flesh. For though He is the power of the Father, by Whom all things are preserved, and from Whom they obtain the ability to continue in well-being, He yet says that He offers supplication as a man. For it was necessary, yes necessary, for Him Who, for the dispensation's sake, became like to us, to use also our words, when the occasion called Him thereto in accordance with what the dispensation itself required. "I have supplicated therefore, He says, that your faith fail not." Now by this then He shows, that if he had been yielded up to Satan to be tempted, he would have proved altogether unfaithful: since, even when not so yielded up, he proved weak from human feebleness, being unable to bear the fear of death. For he denied Christ, when a young girl troubled him in the high priest's palace by saying, "And you also are one of His disciples."
The Saviour then forewarned him what would have been the result had he been yielded up to Satan's temptation: but at the same time He offers him the word of consolation, and says, "And do you also hereafter, when converted, strengthen your brethren:" that is, be the support, and instructor and teacher of those who draw near to Me by faith. And moreover, admire the beautiful skill of the passage, and the surpassing greatness of the divine gentleness! For, lest his impending fall should lead the disciple to desperation, as though he would be expelled from the glories of the apostleship, and |677 his former following (of Christ) lose its reward, because of his proving unable to bear the fear of death, and denying Him, at once Christ fills him with good hope, and grants him the confident assurance that he shall be counted worthy of the promised blessings, and gather the fruits of steadfastness. For He says, "And do you also, when converted, strengthen your brethren." O what great and incomparable kindness! The disciple had not yet sickened with the malady of faithlessness, and already he has received the medicine of forgiveness: not yet had the sin been committed, and he receives pardon: not yet had he fallen, and the saving hand is held out: not yet had he faltered, and he is confirmed: for "do you, He says, when converted, strengthen your brethren." So to speak belongs to One Who pardons, and restores him again to apostolic powers.
But Peter, in the ardour of his zeal, made profession of steadfastness and endurance to the last extremity, saying that he would manfully resist the terrors of death, and count nothing of bonds; but in so doing he erred from what was right. For he ought not, when the Saviour told him that he would prove weak to have contradicted Him, loudly protesting the contrary; for the Truth could not lie: but rather he ought to have asked strength of Him, that either he might not suffer this, or be rescued immediately from harm. But, as I have already said, being fervent in spirit, and warm in his love towards Christ, and of unrestrainable zeal in rightly performing those duties which become a disciple in his attendance upon his Master, he declares that he will endure to the last extremity: but he was rebuked for foolishly speaking against what was foreknown, and for his unreasonable haste in contradicting the Saviour's words. For this reason He says, "Verily I tell you, that the cock shall not crow to-night, until you have thrice denied Me." And this proved true. Let us not therefore think highly of ourselves, even if we see ourselves greatly distinguished for our virtues: rather let us offer up the praises of our thanksgivings to Christ Who redeems us, and Who also it is that grants us even the desire to be able to act rightly: by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for over and ever, Amen. |678
SERMON CXLV.
22:35-38. And He said to them, When I sent you without purse and without bag and shoes, lacked you anything? And they said, Nothing. And He said to them, But now, he that has a purse, let him take it: and in like manner also a bag: and he that has not one, let him sell his garment, and buy a sword. For I say to you, that this that is written must be accomplished in Me, that he was numbered also with the transgressors. For that which concerns Me has an end. And they said, Lord, behold here are two swords. And He said to them, It is enough.
THE blessed Moses impressed the fear of God upon the Israelites by saying, "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God: for our God is a consuming fire." And another holy prophet has also said concerning Him, "His wrath consumes the princes, and the rocks are melted at Him." Moreover the blessed David says of Him somewhere in the Psalms, "You are to be feared, and who shall rise up before You at Your wrath?" For what power of man, or of ought whatsoever that is created, can stand against the irresistible force of Almighty God? But His wrath does not descend upon any righteous man whatsoever;----for God does not commit injustice;----but upon those rather whose sins are numerous and intolerable, and their wickedness beyond bounds.
And as an example of what we have said, take that which happened to the Jewish multitudes after Christ rose from the dead, and ascended up to heaven. For God the Father sent to them His Son, inviting them to a service superior to the law, and to the knowledge of all good: He sent Him to free them from all guilt, and deliver them from the stains of sin; to bring them to the adoption of sons, to glory, to honour, and to the communion of the Holy Spirit; to life incorruptible; to never-ending glory; and to the kingdom of heaven. But though they ought eagerly to have hastened to this |679 grace, and with grateful praises have honoured Him Who came to aid them, and joyfully have accepted the grace that is by faith, they did verily nothing of the kind, but betook themselves to the very reverse: for they rose up against Him, setting Him at nought by their disobedience, reviling even His divine signs, and after doing and saying every thing that was abominable, finally they crucified Him. And so it became their lot to suffer those things which the company also of the holy prophets had before proclaimed. For one of them said, "God shall put them far away, because they did not hear Him, and they shall be wanderers among the nations." And again, "Because Jerusalem is forsaken, and Judah is fallen, and their tongues are with iniquity; they disobey the Lord; therefore now is their glory brought low, and the shame of their faces has stood up against them." And in another place they are thus addressed as in the person of God over all; " And now, because you have done all these works, and I spoke to you and you did not hear, and I called to you and you answered not: therefore will I do to this house, on which My name is called, and wherein you trust; and to this place which I have given to you and to your fathers as I did to Shilom: and I will cast you from before My face, as I cast away your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim." For they were delivered up, as I have said, to desolation, and were dispersed over all the earth, their temple being consumed with fire, and all Judaea taken captive.
That this would be the case Christ had before announced to the disciples, the occasion which caused Him to speak upon this subject being some such as follows: He had forewarned the admirable Peter, that he would thrice deny Him, at the time namely of His seizure, when the band of Pilate's soldiers with the officers of the Jews brought Him to the chief priests for judgment: for there Peter denied Him. And inasmuch as mention had now once been made of His seizure, and of his being taken before Caiaphas, there naturally followed upon this allusion a reference to that also which was next to come to pass, even His passion upon the cross: and then it was that He foretold the war about to burst upon the Jews, and which with unendurable violence spread like some |680 river over all their land. On this account He says; "When I sent you without purse and without bag and shoes, lacked you anything? And they said, No." For the Saviour sent the holy apostles, with the command to preach to the inhabitants of every village and city the gospel of the kingdom of heaven, and to heal every grief and every sickness among the people. And on their journey He bade them not to occupy themselves with things that concern the body, but rather without baggage and unencumbered, and resting all their hope of sustenance on Him, so to traverse the land: and this they also did, making themselves an example of praiseworthy and apostolic conduct. "But now, He says, he that has a purse, let him take it, and a bag in like manner." Tell me then, was this because on second thoughts a more serviceable plan was devised? Would it have been better on the former occasion also to have had bag and purse? Or if not, what was the cause of so sudden a change? What need had the holy apostles of purse and bag? What answer must we give to this? That the saying in appearance had reference to them, but in reality applied to the person of every Jew: for they it rather was. whom Christ addressed. For He did not say that the holy apostles must get purse and bag, but that "whosoever has a purse, let him take it," meaning thereby, that whosoever had property in the Jewish territories, should collect all that he had together, and flee, so that if he could any how save himself, he might do so. But any one who had not the means of equipping himself for travel, and who from extreme poverty must continue in the land, let even such one, He says, sell his cloak, and buy a sword: for henceforth the question with all those who continue in the land will not be whether they possess anything or not, but whether they can exist and preserve their lives. For war shall befal them with such unendurable impetuosity, that nothing shall be able to stand against it.
And next He tells them the cause of the evil, and of a tribulation so severe and irremediable befalling them, saying, "that He is about according to the Scriptures to be numbered with the transgressors," plainly referring to His being hung upon the cross with the thieves who were crucified with Him, and so enduring a transgressor's punishment: "and the |681 dispensation, having come to this, will now have an end." For He endured indeed for our sakes His saving passion, and thus far the daring wickedness of the Jews proceeded, and this was the consummation of their unbridled fury: but after the passion upon the cross every hand was powerless, "for the enemy had no advantage over Him, and the Son of wickedness could no more hurt Him.'" For He arose, having trampled upon the grave; He ascended up into heaven, He sat down on the right hand of God the Father; and hereafter He shall come, not in mean estate, as of old, nor in the measure of human nature, but in the glory of the Father, with the holy angels as His body-guard; and He shall sit also upon the throne of His glory, "judging the world in righteousness," as it is written. Then, as the prophet says, "they shall look on Him Whom they pierced:" and Him Whom these wretched beings ridiculed, as they saw Him hang on the precious cross, they shall behold crowned with godlike glory, and in just retribution of their wickedness towards Him, shall fall into the pit of destruction. "What therefore, He says, concerns Me, has an end," as far, that is, as relates to My suffering death in the flesh. And then shall those things which were foretold by the holy prophets in old time, happen to those who slew Him.
And in foretelling these things, the Lord was speaking of what was about to happen to the country of the Jews. But the divine disciples did not understand the deep meaning of what was said, but supposed rather that He meant that swords were necessary, because of the attack about to be made upon Him by the disciple who betrayed Him, and by those who were assembled to seize Him. For this reason they say, "Lord, behold, here are two swords." And what is the Saviour's reply? "It is enough." Observe how, so to say, He even ridicules their speech, well knowing that the disciples not having understood the force of what was said, thought that swords were required, because of the attack about to be made upon Himself. Fixing His look therefore upon those things which happened to the Jews because of their wicked conduct towards Him, the Saviour, as I said, ridicules their speech, and says, "It is enough:" yes, forsooth, two swords are enough to bear the brunt of the war about to come upon them, to meet which |682 many thousand swords were of no avail. For a mighty resistance was made by the pride of the Jews against the forces of Augustus Caesar: but they availed nothing; for they were besieged with overpowering might, and suffered all misery. For as the prophet Isaiah says, "That which the holy God purposes, who shall bring to nought? and His hand, when lifted up, who shall turn aside?" Let us beware therefore of provoking God to anger: for it is a fearful thing to fall into His hands. But to those who believe in Christ He is merciful; even to those who praise Him; who call Him their Redeemer and Deliverer; who minister to Him with spiritual service, and by all virtuous conduct: for if so we act and speak, Christ will make us His own; by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever, Amen.
1. u The Nestorians, as explained in the margin. I have before however shown that Nestorius denied that he held the doctrine of two sons: and so S. Cyril quotes his words in lib. ii. c. 6. adversus Nest. (Aubert vol. vi. 44.)
"For we hold not two Christs, nor two Sons; for in our view there is no first and second, nor one and another, nor one again and again another: but the same one Son is twofold not in rank, but in nature."
Against this Cyril argues, that "Christ is not twofold, but one and the same Lord and Son, being the Word from God the Father, not without flesh;" and concludes with these words,
"You then who say that we ought not to speak of two Christs, nor to acknowledge two Sons, putting on the semblance of dogmatic orthodoxy upon this point, are nevertheless convicted of saying that there are two Christs, and of separating into their specific difference man and God."
In Cyril's view therefore the essence of Nestorianism consists in the endeavour to distinguish the limits of the two natures in Christ: and so to do, he argued, was virtually to make two Sons.
2. y Explained in the margin thus: "Plantations of trees laden with fruit which has passed the season, and become flavourless."
3. f Mai has two passages on v. 27. not found in the Syriac, the first of which is principally a string of quotations to prove that the Deity is always described as sitting on a cloud: and the second is as follows; "For just as if one say of a man, that he received of his father the property of being rational, it really signifies that the rational is begotten of the rational, so also the Only-begotten God of God proceeded as Judge from Him Who judges all the earth. And though the Father gave all judgment to the Son, He is not Himself left destitute of sovereign authority: for the Only-begotten is inseparable from God as the light is from the sun; for He exists in Him by nature, and all that the Father has is the Son's, and vice versa." He has also a rather fuller exposition of vv. 29-36, consisting evidently of short detached passages collected from various places, and given as such in Cramer. One of them to the effect that by "generation" is meant not the people then living, but those like them in morals, has occurred verbatim before, and was not then acknowledged by the Syriac.
4. g By the Thursday of the Mystery is meant Thursday in Passion week.
5. p Or rather, "as the serving-boy."
6. q That is, not ductile, incapable of being spread out by hammering.
This text was transcribed by Roger Pearse, 2008. All material on this page is in the public domain - copy freely.
Early Church Fathers - Additional Texts
SOURCE SECTION: cyril_on_luke_14_sermons_146_156.htm
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke (1859) Sermons 146-156 (Luke 22:39-24:45) pp. 683-781
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on Luke (1859) Sermons 146-156 (Luke 22:39-24:45) pp. 683-781
Sermon 146
Sermon 147
Sermon 148
Sermon 149
Sermon 150
Sermon 151
Sermon 152
Sermon 153 (end portion is missing)
Fragments of sermons 154, 155 and 156
SERMON CXLVI.
22:39-42,45,46. And He came out and went, as He was wont, to the Mount of Olives; and the disciples also followed Him. And when He was at the place, He said to them, Pray that you enter not into temptation. And He went apart from them about a stone's throw, and knelt down and prayed, saying, Father, if You will, put away this cup from Me: but not My will, but Yours be done. And He rose up from prayer, and went to the disciples, and found them asleep from sorrow. And He said to them, Why sleep you? Arise, pray that you enter not into temptation.
OUR Lord Jesus Christ requires those who love Him to be accurate investigators of whatsoever is written concerning Him: for He has said, "that the kingdom of heaven is like to a treasure hid in a field." For the mystery of Christ is deposited, so to speak, at a great depth, nor is it plain to the many: but he who uncovers it by means of an accurate knowledge, finds the riches which are therein, and resembles that wise woman, even Mary, of whom Christ said, that "she had chosen the good part, that should not be taken away from her." For these earthly and temporal things fade away with the flesh: but those which are divine and intellectual, and that benefit the life of the soul, are firmly established, and their possession cannot be shaken. Let us look therefore into the meaning of the lessons set before us. "By day then the Saviour abode in Jerusalem," instructing evidently the Israelites, and revealing to them the way of the kingdom of heaven; but when the evening came, He continued with the holy disciples on the Mount of Olives at a spot called Gethsemane: for so the wise Evangelist Matthew tells us. |684
When therefore Christ came thither, as the same Matthew again somewhere says, "He took Peter and James and John, and began to be grieved and sore distressed; and to say to them, My soul is sorrowful even to death. And again, having gone a little forward, He kneeled and prayed, saying, Father, if You will, put away from Me this cup; but not My will, but Yours be done." Behold here, I pray, the profoundness of the dispensation in the flesh, and the height of that wisdom which no words can tell: fix upon it the penetrating eye of the mind: and if you can see the beautiful art of the mystery, you also will say, "O! the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! His judgments are unsearchable, and His ways past finding out." "He began, it says, to be grieved, and sore distressed." For what reason, O Lord? Were You also terrified at death? Did You being seized with fear draw back from suffering? And yet did not You teach the holy apostles to make no account of the terrors of death, saying, "Fear not them who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul." And if too any one were to say that the grace of spiritual fortitude is Your gift to the elect, he would not err from the truth: for all strength is from You, and all confidence and heartiness of mind in every more excellent encounter. You are by nature Life, and the cause of life. You we look for as a Saviour and Deliverer, and the Destroyer of corruption. From You all receive their life and being. You have made every thing that breathes. The angels are for You, and from You, and by You, and so is the whole rational creation. Unto You the blessed David spoke concerning us, "You send Your Spirit, and they are created: and You renew the face of the ground." How therefore are You grieved, and sore distressed, and sorrowful, even to death? For plainly You knew, in that You are God by nature, and know whatsoever is about to happen, that by enduring death in the flesh You would free from death the inhabitants of all the earth, and bring Satan to shame:----that You would set up a trophy of victory over every evil and opposing power: that You would be known by every one, and worshipped as the God and Creator of all. You knew that You would plunder hell:----that You would |685 deliver those that are therein, from bonds that had endured for many ages: that You wouldst turn to You all that is under heaven. These things You did Yourself announce to us of old by the holy prophets. We have heard You clearly saying, when You were like to us, "Now is the judgment of this world: now will the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, shall draw all men to Me." "Verily I say to you, that if a grain of wheat fall not into the ground and die, it abides alone: but if it die, it brings forth much fruit." For what reason therefore are You grieved and sore distressed? Yes, He says, not unbefittingly am I found thus in anguish. For I know indeed that by consenting to suffer the passion upon the cross, I shall deliver all beneath the heaven from every evil, and be the cause of unending blessings to the inhabitants of the whole earth. I am not unaware of the unloosing of death, and the abolition of corporeal corruption, and the overthrow of the tyranny of the devil, and the remission of sin. But all the same it grieves Me for Israel the firstborn, that henceforth He is not even among the servants. The portion of the Lord, and the cord of My inheritance, will be "the portion of foxes," as it is written. He Who was the beloved one is greatly hated: he who had the promises is utterly stripped of My gifts: the pleasant vineyard with its rich grapes henceforth will be a desert land, a place dried up, and without water. "For I will command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it." "I will break through its hedge, and it shall be a spoil: and I will beat down its wall, and it shall be trampled under foot." And tell me then, what husbandman, when his vineyard is desert and waste, will feel no anguish for it? What shepherd would be so harsh and stern as, when his flock was perishing, to suffer nothing on its account? These are the causes of My grief: for these things I am sorrowful. For I am God, gentle, and that loves to spare. "I have no pleasure in the death of a sinner, but rather that he should turn from his evil way and live." Right therefore is it, most right, that as being good and merciful, I should not only be glad at what is joyful, but also should feel sorrow at whatsoever is grievous.
But that He pitied Jerusalem, as being well aware of what was about to happen, and that it would have to endure all |686 misery because of its crimes against Him, you may learn even from this. For He went up from Judaea to Jerusalem, and, as the Evangelist says, "When He beheld the city, He wept over it, and said, Would that you, even you, had known the things of your peace; but now they are hid from your eyes." For as He wept over Lazarus, in pity for the whole race of mankind, which had become the prey of corruption and of death; so we say that He was grieved at seeing Jerusalem all but involved in extreme miseries, and in calamities for which there was no cure.
And that we might learn what was His wish concerning Israel, He told the disciples, that He is in grief and anguish. For it would have been impossible for them to have learnt what was hidden within Him, if He had not revealed by words what His feelings were.
And this too I think it necessary to add to what has been said: that the passion of grief, or malady, as we may call it, of sore distress, cannot have reference to the divine and impassive nature of the Word; for that is impossible, inasmuch as It transcends all passion: but we say that the Incarnate Word willed also to submit Himself to the measure of human nature, by being supposed to suffer what belongs to it. As therefore He is said to have hungered, although He is Life and the cause of life, and the living bread; and was weary also from a long journey, although He is the Lord of powers; so also it is said that He was grieved, and seemed to be capable of anguish. For it would not have been fitting for Him Who submitted Himself to emptiness, and stood in the measure of human nature, to have seemed unwilling to endure human things. The Word therefore of God the Father is altogether free from all passion: but wisely and for the dispensation's sake He submitted Himself to the infirmities of mankind, in order that He might not seem to refuse that which the dispensation required: yes, He even yielded obedience to human |687 customs and laws, only, as I said, He did not bear ought of this in His own nature.
There is however much, yes, very much, to be added to what has been said; but for the present we hold in our narration, and reserve what is wanting for another meeting, should Christ our common Saviour gather us here once again: by Whom and with Whom, to God the Father, be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen. |688
SERMON CXLVII.
UPON THE SAME SUBJECT.
ONCE again I am come to pay you what I promised, and to add a fitting conclusion to my discourse concerning Christ. For on all occasions it is dangerous to be guilty of untruth; but when any thing of the kind is committed in those things which are important for our edification, well may we then fear lest we bring down upon us condemnation from on high, and also become an object of general ridicule.
We said therefore at our last meeting, that Christ the Saviour of all was with the holy disciples upon the mount of Olives, while that many-headed serpent, even Satan, was preparing for Him the snare of death; and the chiefs of the Jewish synagogue and the disciple that betrayed Him were, so to speak, leaving nothing undone to gain possession of His person, and had already gathered those who were to seize Him, and who consisted of a band of the soldiers of Pilate, and a multitude of wicked officers. Just therefore as the attempt was about to be made, He was sorrowful, and admonished the disciples to act in like manner suitably to the season, saying, "Watch and pray, that you fall not into temptation." And that He might not benefit them by words only, but be Himself an example of what they should do, "having gone apart a little, about a stone's throw, He knelt down, it says, and prayed, saying, Father, if You be willing, remove this cup from Me." Now some one perhaps may ask, 'Why did He not pray with the holy disciples, but having gone apart from the rest, prayed by Himself?' It was that we might learn the pattern of that mode of prayer which is well pleasing to God. For it is not right when we pray that we should expose ourselves to the public gaze, nor seek to be beheld of many, lest perchance, sinking ourselves in the mire of endeavours after pleasing men, we make the labour of our prayers altogether unprofitable. Of this fault the scribes and Pharisees were guilty; for our Lord even once rebuked them for loving to pray in the corners of the streets, and for the long |689 supplications which they offered in the synagogues, that they might be seen of men. But for those whose purpose it is to live uprightly, and who are anxious to hold fast by their love to Him, He lays down the law of prayers in these words: "But you, when you pray, enter your chamber, and close your door, and pray to your Father Who is in secret, and your Father Who sees in secret shall reward you." Every where therefore we find Him praying alone, that you also may learn that we ought to hold converse with God over all with a quiet mind, and a heart calm and free from all disturbance. For the wise Paul writes, "I will therefore that men pray, lifting up pious hands, without wrath and doubtings."
He was praying therefore, when already those who were to seize Him were at the door. And let no man of understanding say, that He offered these supplications as being in need of strength or help from another:----for He is Himself the Father's almighty strength and power:----but it was that we might hereby learn, ever to put away from us carelessness when temptation harasses, and persecution presses upon us, and perfidy contrives for us its snare, and makes ready the net of death. For it is the very means of our salvation to watch and fall upon our knees, and make constant supplications, and ask for the aid that comes from above, lest perchance it be our lot to grow weak, and suffer a most terrible shipwreck.
For spiritual bravery is indeed a thing right worthy of the saints: but those who would resist the violence of temptations must, I tell you, have a determined and, so to speak, an unflinching mind: for it is the act of utter ignorance to be over confident in conflicts, nor is a man free from the charge of boastfulness, who is thus disposed: we must therefore, I repeat, unite courage and patience with humbleness of mind; and should any temptation then happen, our mind will be prepared bravely to resist it. Yet let us ask of God the ability to endure manfully: for we are commanded in our prayers to say, "Lead us not into temptation: but deliver us from evil." |690
Behold then, yes, see, the pattern for your conduct depicted for thee in Christ the Saviour of us all: and let us also observe the manner of His prayer. "Father, He says, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me." Do you see that Christ made His prayer against temptation with a reverence befitting man? "For if You be willing, He says, remove it." And here too remember what the blessed Paul wrote concerning Him; "He Who in the days of His flesh offered up prayers and supplications to Him Who was able to save Him from death, with strong crying and tears, and was heard because of His reverence, even though He was a Son, yet learned obedience by what He suffered, and being made perfect became the cause of eternal life to all them that obey Him." For as though one of us, He assigns to His Father's will the carrying out of whatever was about to be done. And if therefore it happen that we also at any time fall into unexpected troubles, and have to endure any mental conflict, let us beseech God not so much that it may end according to our will, but rather let us ask that whatever He knows to be fit and expedient for the benefit of our souls may be brought to pass. "For we know not what to pray for as we ought:" but He is a treasure house of every thing, and to those who love Him He gives whatever is suitable for them.
Now what I have said is, I trust, useful for the benefit of you all; but if we must further contrive some other explanation for the prayer, we may also say, that it rebukes the wickedness of the Jews: and in what way let us now explain. You have heard Christ say, "Father, if You will, remove this cup from Me." Was then His passion an involuntary act? and was the necessity for Him to suffer, or rather the violence of those who plotted against Him, stronger than His own will? Not so, we say. For His passion was not an involuntary act, though yet in another respect it was grievous, because it implied the rejection and destruction of the synagogue of the Jews. For it was not His will that Israel should be the murderer of its Lord, because by so doing it would be exposed to utter condemnation, and become reprobate, and rejected from having part in His gifts, and in the hope prepared for the saints, whereas once it had been His people, and His only one, and His elect, and adopted heir. For Moses said to |691 them, "Behold, the heavens and the earth are the Lord's your God: and you has the Lord chosen out of all nations to be His people." It was right therefore that we should clearly know, that through pity for Israel He would have put from Him the necessity to suffer: but as it was not possible for Him not to endure the passion, He submitted to it also, because God the Father so willed it with Him.
But come and let us examine further this also. 'Did the decree of God the Father, and the will of the Son Himself, call Him as of necessity to His passion? And if so, and what I have said be true, was it not a matter of necessity for some one to be the traitor, and for the Israelites to proceed to such a pitch of daring as to reject Christ, and put Him to shame in manifold ways, and contrive for Him also the death upon the cross?' But if this were so, how would He be found saying, "Woe to that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed: good had it been for him if he had not been born?" And what just cause would there have been for Israel to perish, and be condemned to the miseries of war? For how could it oppose God's decree, and His irresistible purposes? God is not unjust, but weighs what we do with holy judgment. How therefore can He treat as voluntary that which was involuntary? For God the Father had pity upon the dwellers upon earth, who were in misery, caught in the snares of sin, and liable to death and corruption; bowed also beneath a tyrant's hand, and enslaved to herds of devils. He sent from heaven His Son to be a Saviour and Deliverer: Who also was made in form like to us. But even though He foreknew what He would suffer, and the shame of His passion was not the fruit of His own will, yet He consented to undergo it that He might save the earth, God the Father so willing it with Him, from His great kindness and love to mankind. "For He so loved the world, that He gave even His Only-begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." As regards therefore the ignominy of His passion, He willed not to suffer: but as it was not possible for Him not to suffer, because of the cruelty of the Jews, and their disobedience, and unbridled violence, "He endured the cross, despising the shame," "and was obedient to the Father, |692 even to death, and that the death of the cross. But God, it says, has greatly exalted Him, and given Him a name that is above every name; that at the name of Jesus Christ every knee should bow of things in heaven, and things in earth, and of things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." Amen. |693
SERMON CXLVIII.
22:47-53. While He was speaking, behold a multitude; and he that was called Judas, one of the twelve, went before them, and drew near to Jesus to kiss Him. For he had given them this sign, Whomsoever I kiss is He. But Jesus said to him, Judas, do you betray the Son of man with a kiss? But when they that were with Him saw what was about to be done, they said, Lord, shall we smite with the sword? And one of them struck the servant of the chief priest, and cut off his right ear. But Jesus answered, and said, Let alone thus far. And He touched his ear and healed him. And Jesus said to those who had come out against Him, and who were the chief priests, and captains of the temple, and elders, Are you come out as against a thief with swords and staves to take Me? When I was daily with you in the temple, you stretched not out your hands against Me: but this is your hour, and the power of darkness.
MANY and bitter passions wage war with the soul of man, and, attacking it with unendurable violence, humble it to unseemly deeds: but worse than all the rest is that root of all evil, the love of money, into whose inextricable nets that traitorous disciple so fell, that he even consented to become the minister of the devil's guile, and the instrument of the wicked chiefs of the synagogue of the Jews in their iniquity against Christ.
And this the purport of the evangelic lessons again plainly shows. For the Saviour had forewarned the holy apostles that He should be seized, and endure by the hand of sinners His passion upon the cross. And with this He also commanded, that when temptation pressed upon them they must not be weary, nor sleep at an unseasonable time, but rather must watch and be constant in prayers. When then He was still speaking of these things, "Behold, it says, a multitude, and he that was called Judas, one of the twelve, went before them." Do you see that the blessed Evangelist grieves, and, so to speak, |694 even faints? For he does not permit himself even to retain in his remembrance the disciple who was so easily bought: he refuses even to name that wicked one: for he says, "he that was called Judas." For what? did he not know that the man was numbered with the elect, and counted in the company of the holy apostles? But, as I have already said, he hated even his name, and therefore the expression, "he that was called Judas."
To this, however, he adds, that he was one of the twelve: and this also is a matter of great importance to demonstrate more fully the guilt of the traitor's crime. For he who had been equally honoured with the rest, and adorned with apostolic dignities; he, the elect and beloved, deigned admittance to the holy table, and the highest honours, became the pathway and the means for the murderers of Christ. What lamentation can suffice for him, or what floods of tears must not each shed from his eyes, when he considers from what happiness that wretched being fell into such utter misery! For the sake of worthless pence he ceased to be with Christ, and lost his hope toward God, and the honour, and crowns, and life, and glory prepared for Christ's true followers, and the right of reigning with Him.
It will be worth while, however, to see what the nature was of his artifice. He had given then those murderers a sign, saying, "Whomsoever I kiss is He." Completely had he forgotten the glory of Christ, and in his utter folly imagined perhaps that he could remain undetected when offering indeed a kiss, which is the type of love, but with his heart full of bitter and iniquitous deceit. And yet even when he was accompanying Christ our common Saviour in His journeys with the other apostles, he often had heard Him foretelling what was about to happen: for, as being God by nature, He knew all things, and expressly told him of his treachery; for He said to the holy apostles, "Verily I say to you, that one of you betrays Me." How then could his purposes remain unknown? No: but there was the serpent within him struggling against God; he was the dwelling-place of the devil: for one of the holy evangelists has said, that as he was reclining at table with the rest of the disciples, the Saviour gave him a piece of bread, having dipped it in the dish: "and after the bread |695 Satan entered into him." He approaches Christ therefore as one beside himself with wine; and though the instrument of fraud and treachery, he makes a show of extraordinary affection: and therefore Christ very justly condemned him with the greater severity, saying, "Judas, do you betray the Son of man with a kiss?" And Matthew says, that when the traitor drew near to Christ, our common Saviour, he both kissed Him, and added thereto, "Hail, Master." Do you say hail to Him Who by your instrumentality is made the prey of death? How could such a word possibly be true? So that we see, that inasmuch as that false one, Satan, was within Him, he used falsehood even in saying, Hail. Because of such deeds the prophet somewhere says, "Their tongue is a piercing spearhead: the words of their mouth are deceitful: to his neighbour he speaks things of peace, but in his soul there is enmity."
But further, we must also call to mind what is written by the divine John respecting this event; for he has related, "that the officers of the Jews drew near to seize Jesus: and He advanced to meet them, saying, Whom seek you? When then the officers said, Jesus of Nazareth, He yielded Himself into the hands of those murderers, saying, I am He. But they, it says, went back; and this happened three times." What therefore was the purpose of this? and for what reason did the Saviour offer Himself to them, but they fell down when they heard Him say, "I am He?" It was that they might learn that His passion did not happen to Him without His own will, nor could they have seized Him, had He not consented to be taken. For it was not the effect of their own strength that they took Christ, and brought Him to the wicked rulers, but He yielded Himself up to suffer, as well knowing that His passion upon the cross was for the salvation of the whole world.
And the blessed disciples, pricked with the goading of divine love, drew their swords to repel the attack. But Christ would not permit this to be done, but rebuked Peter, saying, "Put up your sword into its sheath: for all who have taken swords shall die by swords." And herein He has given us also a pattern of the manner in which we must hold fast by our love to Him, and of the extent to which the burning zeal of our |696 piety may proceed. For He would not have us use swords wherewith to resist our enemies, but rather employing love and prudence, we so must mightily prevail over those who oppose us. And similarly Paul teaches us, saying, "Casting down reasonings and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing captive every thought to obedience to Him." For the war for truth's sake is spiritual, and the panoply that becomes saints is intellectual, and full of love to God. "For we must put on the breastplate of righteousness, and the helmet of salvation; and take the shield of faith, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." And so then the Saviour moderates the unmeasured heat of the holy apostles: and by preventing the example of such an act, declares that those who are the chief in His religion have no need in any way whatsoever of swords. And He healed with divine dignity him who had received the blow, so giving to those who came to seize Him this godlike sign also for their condemnation.
But that no one prevailed by force over His power and will, He shows by saying; "Are you come out as against a thief with swords and staves to take Me? When I was daily with you in the temple, you stretched not out your hands against Me." Does Christ then blame the chiefs of the Jews for not having prematurely contrived for Him the deadly snare? Not such is His meaning, but this rather: when it was easy for you to take Me, as each day I taught in the temple, you seized Me not. And why? Because I did not will as yet to suffer, but rather was waiting for a fitting season for My passion. And this season has now arrived: for be not ignorant that "this is your hour and the power of darkness:" that is, that a short time is granted you during which you have power over Me. But how has it been given you, and in what manner? By the will of the Father consenting thereunto with My will. For I willed that for the salvation and life of the world I should submit Myself to My passion. You have therefore one hour against Me, that is a very short and limited time, being that between the precious cross and the resurrection from the dead. And this too is the power given to darkness: but darkness is the name of Satan, for he is utter night and darkness, and the blessed Paul also says of him. "that the God of this world |697 has blinded the minds of those that believe not, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ should shine to them." Power therefore was granted to Satan and the Jews to rise up against Christ: but they dug for themselves the pitfall of destruction. For He indeed saved by means of His passion all under heaven, and rose the third day, having trampled under foot the empire of death: but they brought down upon their own heads inevitable condemnation in company with that traitorous disciple. Let them hear therefore the Holy Spirit, Who says by the voice of the Psalmist, "Why have the heathen raged, and the nations meditated vain things? The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ." But what follows this? "He that dwells in heaven, it says, shall laugh at them, and the Lord shall deride them." These wretched beings then involved themselves in the crime of murdering their Lord; but we praise as our Saviour and Deliverer our Lord Jesus Christ: by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever, Amen. |698
SERMON CXLIX.
22:54-62. And they took Him, and led Him away, and brought Him into the high priest's house: and Peter followed afar off. And when they had kindled a fire in the midst of the court, and were set down together, Peter sat down among them: and a certain maid beholding him as he sat at the light, looked earnestly at him and said, this man also was with Him. But he denied Him, saying, Woman, 1 know Him not. And after a little while another saw him, and said, You also are one of them. And Peter said, Man, I am not. And about the space of an hour after, another confidently affirmed, saying, Of a truth this man also was with Him: for he is a Galilaean. But Peter said, Man, I know not what you say. And immediately while he was yet speaking the cock crew. And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter: and Peter remembered the word of the Lord that He had said to him, To-day before the cock crow you shall deny Me thrice. And he went out and wept bitterly.
OUR, Lord Jesus Christ, to make us careful in whatever holy occupations we undertake, commanded us to offer up our supplications continually, and to make it a portion of our prayer to say, "Lead us not into temptation." For the violence of temptations is often sufficient to shake even a thoroughly steadfast mind, and to humble to wavering, and expose to extreme terrors even a courageous and strong-hearted man. And this it was the lot of the chosen disciple to experience, by whom I mean the sacred Peter. For he proved weak, and denied Christ the Saviour of all. And this denial he made not once only, but thrice, and with oaths. For Matthew has said, that "he began to curse and to swear, I know not the Man." Now there are some who would have us believe that what the disciple swore was, that he did not know that Jesus was a man: but their argument fails them, |699 though their object was to give the disciple loving help. For if he swore, as they say, that he did not know that Jesus was a man, what else did he than deny Him in thus overturning the mystery of the dispensation in the flesh? For he knew that the Only-begotten Word of God was made like to us, that is, a man: for this he openly confessed, saying, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Now he did not intend in saying this to affirm, that as being one merely such as we are He is the Son of God, but that though he saw Him standing there in the limits of human nature,----Him Who is the Word Which transcends everything that is made, and Who sprung forth from the Substance of God the Father,----even so, I say, he did not shrink from acknowledging and confessing that He is the Son of the living God. It is therefore a thing-very absurd to suppose, that though he knew the mystery of the dispensation in the flesh, he yet said that he did not know that Jesus was a man. What therefore is the fact? He was really infirm: for it was not possible for Jesus to speak falsely, Who forewarned him, that "before the cock crow you shall deny Me three times."
Nor verily do we say, that the denial took place in order that Christ's words might come true, but rather that His object was to forewarn the disciple, inasmuch as what was about to happen did not escape His knowledge. The misfortune therefore happened to the disciple from the cowardice of human nature. For as Christ had not yet risen from the dead, nor death as yet been abolished, and corruption wiped away, the fear of undergoing death was a thing past men's endurance. For that this miserable act arose, as I said, from the malady of human cowardice, and that the disciple was condemned by his own conscience, is proved both by his lamentation immediately afterwards, and by his tears upon his repentance, which fell from his eyes as for a grievous sin. "For having gone out, it says, he wept bitterly," after Christ had looked upon him, and recalled to his remembrance what He had said to him.
But next, it is worth our while observing, in what way his sin was forgiven, and how he put away his fault; for the event may prove of no slight benefit to us also ourselves. He did not then defer his repentance, nor was he careless about |700 it: for as rapid as was his descent into sin, so quick were his tears because of it; nor did he merely weep, but wept bitterly; and as one that had fallen, so bravely did he spring up again. For he knew that the merciful God somewhere says by one of the prophets, "Shall not he that falls arise? and he that backslides, shall he not return?" In returning therefore he missed not the mark: for he continued to be what he had been before, a true disciple. For when he was warned that he should thrice deny before the cock crow, even then he won also the hope of forgiveness: for Christ's words to him were, "And do you also, in time to come, when you are converted, strengthen your brethren." Words such as these belong to One Who again appoints and restores him to apostolic powers: for He entrusts him again with the office of strengthening the brethren; a thing which also he did.
And this too we say; that though we are taught the failures of the saints in the sacred Scriptures, it is not that we may be caught in similar snares from disregarding the duty of steadfastness, but that if it do chance that we prove weak in anything that is necessary for salvation, we may not despair of being able once again to mount up to fortitude, and, so to speak, recover our health after an unexpected illness. For the merciful God has provided for the inhabitants of earth repentance as the medicine of salvation: and this I know not how men 1 endeavour to dispense with, saying of themselves that they are clean, and in their great madness not understanding, that to entertain such an idea of themselves is full of all impurity. For "no man is free from defilement," as it is written. And besides this we say, that it makes God angry for us to imagine that we are free from all impurity: for He is even found saying to one of those who led polluted lives, "Behold I have a lawsuit with you because you say I have not sinned, in that you have acted very contemptuously in repeating your ways." For the repetition of the way to sin is for us, when we are overtaken by offences, to refuse to believe that we are guilty of the defilement which arises from them.
'But yes, verily! they say, the God of all pardons the sins |701 of those who are not as yet baptized, but not so of those who have been already admitted to His grace.' And what do we say to this? That if they lay down laws according to their own fancy, their words do not much concern us. But if they cleave to the divinely-inspired Scriptures, when was the God of all unmerciful? Let them hear Him when He cries aloud, "Tell you your former iniquities, that you may be justified." Let them also call to mind the blessed David, who says in the Psalms, "Shall God forget to be merciful: or shall He gather up His mercies in His wrath?" And again, "I said, I will acknowledge against myself my iniquity to the Lord: and You forgave the wickedness of my heart." And besides this, they ought not to forget that before Christ was seized, or Peter denied Him, he had been a partaker of the body of Christ, and of His precious blood. "For He took bread and blessed, and gave to them, saying, This is My body. And in like manner also of the cup, saying, Drink you all of it: for this is My blood of the new covenant." Behold then, manifestly, that after having been a partaker of the mystical eucharist, he fell into sin, and received forgiveness upon his repentance. Let them then not find fault with the gentleness of God: let them not think scorn of His love to mankind, but call to mind Him Who plainly says, "The wickedness of the wicked shall not hurt him in the day wherein he turns away from his iniquity." And when God thus offers us conversion on whatever day a man be willing to practise it, why do they not rather crown with grateful praises Him Who aids them, instead of foolishly, and, so to say, contumaciously opposing Him? for by so doing they bring condemnation upon their own heads, and call down upon themselves inevitable wrath. For the merciful God does not cease to be so; since, according to the voice of the prophet, "He wills mercy.'" Let us therefore strive with all our might, lest we fall into |702 sin, and lot a steadfast love to Christ be fixed unchangeably in us while we say in the words of the blessed Paul, "Who shall separate me from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? But if temptation assail us, and so it chance that we prove but weak, let us weep bitterly; let us ask forgiveness of God: for He heals those that are contrite; He raises up the fallen; He stretches out His saving hand to those who have gone astray: for He is the Saviour of all, by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever, Amen. |703
SERMON CL.
22:63-71. And the men who held Him mocked and struck Him: and when they had blindfolded Him, they asked Him, saying, Prophesy, who is he that struck you? And many other things blasphemously spoke they against Him. And when it was day, the council of the elders of the people, composed of the chief priests and scribes, came together, and they led Him into their assembly: and they said, If You are the Christ, tell us. And He said to them, If I tell you, you will not believe: and if I also ask you, you will not return Me an answer. But hereafter shall the Son of man sit on the right hand of the power of God. Then they all said, Are You therefore the Son of God? And He said to them, You say that I am. And they said, What further need have we of witness? For we ourselves have heard of His mouth.
HERE too let the prophet Jeremiah say of the race of Israel, "Who will grant for my head to be waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I may weep for this people day and night?" For what lamentation can suffice for those who fell into the pit of destruction because of their wicked conduct to Christ, and for guilt so great, that not with words only did they grieve Him, and mock Him with blasphemous cries, but even laid sinful hands upon Him, and made ready for Him the snare of death? And so contumeliously did they treat him, wickedly making Him their sport, as even to venture to smite Him: for so we have this day heard the holy evangelist say, "For the men who held Him mocked and struck Him, saying, Prophesy, who is he that struck You?" "But He, when He was reviled, reviled not again: and when He suffered, He threatened not, but committed His cause to Him that judges righteously." Well therefore might we utter that which was said of certain men by one of the holy prophets, "The heavens were astonished thereat, and shuddered very greatly, says the Lord." For the Lord of earth and heaven, the Creator and Artificer of all, the King of kings and Lord of lords, Who is of such surpassing greatness in glory and majesty, the foundation of everything, and that in which |704 it exists and abides----"for all things exist in Him"----He Who is the breath of all the holy spirits in heaven, is scorned like one of us, and patiently endures buffetings, and submits to the ridicule of the wicked, offering Himself to us as a perfect pattern of longsuffering, or rather manifesting the incomparable greatness of His godlike gentleness.
Or perhaps even He thus endures to rebuke the infirmity of our minds, and show that the things of men fall as far below the divine excellencies as our nature is inferior to His. For we who are of earth, mere corruption and ashes, attack at once those who would molest us, having a heart full of fierceness like savage beasts. But He, Who in nature and glory transcends the limits of our understanding and our powers of speech, patiently endured those officers when they not merely mocked, but even struck Him. "For when they had blindfolded Him, it says, and afterwards struck Him, they asked Him, Prophesy, who is he that struck You?" They ridicule, as if He were some ignorant person, Him Who is the Giver of all knowledge, and Who even sees what is hidden within us: for He has somewhere said by one of the holy prophets, "Who is this that hides from Me counsel, and shuts up words in his heart, and thinks that from Me he hides them? He therefore Who tries hearts and reins, and Who is the Giver of all prophecy, how could He not know who it was that struck Him? But as Christ Himself said, "Darkness has blinded their eyes, and their minds are blinded." Of them too therefore may one say, "Woe to them that are drunken, but not with wine!" "For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and their tendril of Gomorrah."
But when at the dawn of day their wicked assembly was gathered together, He Who is the Lord of Moses, and the Sender of the prophets, after having been thus lawlessly mocked, was brought into the midst; and they asked if He were the Christ? O senseless Pharisee, if you ask because you know not, surely until you had learnt the truth you ought in no wise to have grieved Him, lest haply you should grieve God: but if you make pretence of ignorance, while really you know well that He is the Christ, you must hear what the sacred Scripture says, "God is not deceived." |705
But tell me, why do you question Him, and wish to learn of Himself, whether He be the Christ? For it is easy enough to obtain the knowledge of Him from the law and the prophets. Search the writings of Moses: you will see Him depicted there in manifold ways. For He was sacrificed as a lamb: He vanquished the destroyer by His blood: and was prefigured also in many other forms. Examine too the writings of the prophets; you will hear them proclaiming His divine and wonderful miracles. "For then, they say, shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the dumb shall hear: then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be plain." And again, "The dead shall arise, and those who are in the graves shall awake: for the dew from You is healing to them." Since therefore even you yourselves see the perfect clearness of the accomplishment of the prophecies respecting Him, why do you not rather acknowledge Him on the evidence of His divine miracles, and of His ineffable works? And this too Christ Himself said to you; "The works which My Father gave Me to do, those works bear witness of Me that He sent Me." And again, "If I had not done among them the works which no other man did, they had not had sin: but now they have both seen and hated both Me and My Father." The rulers therefore of the Jews, together with the people under their charge, were in very truth unbelieving, and thoroughly without understanding.
I think, however, that we ought to examine the words used by Christ: for they were a reproof of the want of love to God of which the Scribes and Pharisees were guilty. When therefore they ask whether He is in truth the Christ, and would learn this very thing, He says, "If I tell you, you will not believe; and if I ask, you will not return an answer." Come therefore, and let me explain to you, as to men glad to be taught, what the occasion was on which they heard, and would not believe; and that on which they were silent when questioned. When Christ then went up to Jerusalem, He found in the temple people selling sheep and oxen and doves, and moneychangers sitting: and having made, it says, a kind of scourge of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, saying, "Take these things hence: and make not My Father's house |706 a house of merchandize." Because therefore He called God His Father, those who were sacrificing in the temple murmured and attacked Him, saying, "By what authority do You do these things? And who gave You this authority?" And to this Christ replied, "I will also ask you a word, which if you tell Me, I also will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, whence was it, from heaven, or from men? And they, it says, reasoned with themselves, saying, If we say, From heaven, He will say to us, Why did you not believe him? But if we say, Of men, we fear the multitude: for all held John as a prophet. And they answered and said, We do not know. And Christ said thereto, Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things."
And on another occasion He asked them, saying, "What say you of Christ? Whose Son is He? And they said, David's. And afterwards the Lord said to them, How therefore does David in spirit call Him Lord, saying, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit You on My right hand, until I place Your enemies as a footstool under Your feet. If therefore David call Him Lord, how is He his Son?" And to this again they were silent. You see that Christ speaks truly when He says, "And if I ask you, you will not return Me an answer."
You shall see too that the other declaration is equally true: and what is this? "If I tell you, you will not believe." For the blessed John the Evangelist writes, that "it was the feast of the dedication at Jerusalem, and it was winter: and Jesus was walking in the temple in Solomon's porch. The Jews therefore came round about Him, and said to Him, How long will You lift up our soul? If You are the Christ, tell us plainly. And Jesus answered them, I told you, and you will not believe: the works that I do in My Father's name, they bear witness of Me; but you will not believe."
And to make their condemnation more severe, in respect, I mean, of their refusing to believe on Him, He further clearly sets before them His glory, saying, "But hereafter the Son of man shall sit on the right hand of the power of God." When, He says, I was in form like to you, though by nature and in |707 truth the Son of God the Father, you made no account of Me. And yet how was it not right that the excellent art of the dispensation in the flesh should not escape your notice, inasmuch as you are learned in the law, and nurtured in the writings of Moses, nor are the predictions of the holy prophets unknown to you. But since you have brought yourselves to so great want of knowledge, and being filled with utter ignorance, recognise not the mystery concerning Me, I tell you of necessity that there is granted you but a short and narrow season for your pride and wickedness against Me, even until My precious cross. For immediately after this I clothe Myself in honour: I ascend to the glory which I had from the beginning: I am made even in the flesh the partner of God the Father on His throne, and possess sovereignty over all, even though I have taken upon Me your likeness. When Christ was thus speaking, the troop of Pharisees was inflamed with uncontrollable wrath: they catch at the expression as a pretext for blasphemy, and accuse the truth itself: they say, that "no longer need we any testimony," as being themselves the hearers of His words. And what then had they heard Him say? O vile and senseless men, you wanted to learn whether He were the Christ: He taught you therefore that by nature and in truth He is the Son of God the Father, and with Him shares the throne of Deity. Therefore, as you confessed, henceforth you have no need of testimony, for you have heard Him speak: hence might you best have learnt that He is the Christ: and this would have proved for you the pathway to faith, had you only been one of those who would know the truth. But they, making even the pathway of salvation an occasion for their souls' ruin, understand not: senselessly they slay Him, keeping but one aim in view in contempt of all law, and utter disregard of the divine commands: for it is written, "The holy and the just you shall not kill." But they, as I said, paid no regard whatsoever to the sacred commands, but rushed down, as it were, some steep descent, to fall into the snares of destruction.
Such then was their conduct: but we offer our praises to God the Word, Who for our salvation became man; by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen. |708
SERMON CLI.
23:1-5, 18, 19. And the whole multitude arose and led Him to Pilate. And they began to accuse Him, saying, We found this man perverting our people, and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, and saying of Himself that He is Christ, a King. And Pilate asked Him, saying, Are You the King of the Jews? And He answered him, and said, You say. Then said Pilate to the chief priests and the multitudes, I find no cause at all in this Man. But they vehemently asserted, that He perverts the people, teaching in all Judaea, and having begun from Galilee even to this place. And they cried out, the whole multitude at once, saying, Away with this Man, and release to us Barabbas: who for some sedition made in the city and for murder was cast into prison.
A disgraceful malady, my brethren, is want of understanding and folly of heart, accompanied by the inventions of base thoughts, which lead men on to every thing that is wicked, and often even make us sin against the glory of God. And this we can see was the case with the synagogue of the Jews; for they sinned against Christ, and therefore they have suffered all misery, being condemned by the just sentence of God to that fate to which they brought Him, Who would have raised them up to life. For they led Jesus to Pilate, and were themselves too delivered up to the hosts of the Romans, who took all their land captive, and stormed also their city which previously had been the holy and the noble, and gave those who were dwelling therein as a prey to sword and fire. In them therefore were fulfilled the predictions of the holy prophets: for one says, "Woe to the wicked: evils shall happen to him, according to the works of his hands." |709 And another, "As you have done, so shall it be done to you: your retribution shall be recompensed upon your head."
But let us see what was the manner of their wickedness, and what also they said to Pilate, when framing their accusations against our common Saviour Christ. "We found this man perverting our people, and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, and saying of Himself that He is Christ a King." And yet, but a short time before He was tried by you, and of questions such as this no point was raised; only He was asked, whether He were the Christ. This it was which you then sought to learn, and beside it absolutely nothing. And so, meeting your questions, He sought to show both that He is the Christ, and that by nature and truly He is the Son of God the Father. For He said, "You shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power." And tell me, I pray, whose is it to sit with the Father, but His Who by nature is the Son? For of all that is made nothing whatsoever may boast of sitting on the throne of Deity: for every created being is put under the feet of the divine and supreme nature, Which rules over all, and transcends every thing whatsoever which has been brought into being. God the Father alone is set upon the throne high and lifted up, but He shares His seat with the Son, Who is ever with Him, and sprang by nature from Him. You had obtained therefore for yourselves by your question the full assurance that He is the Christ. But in your eagerness to accuse of blasphemy Him Who had revealed to you His glory, you said, "Why need we any further witnesses? for we have heard from His mouth." And how then forgetting all this, or rather in your malice passing by those things for which He was judged by you, make you an array of charges of an entirely different nature, saying, "We found this man perverting our people?" Tell us in what this perversion consisted! What He taught was repentance. Where did He forbid to give tribute to Caesar? In reality you sent certain of your body to Him, |710 with those who are called Herodians, to tempt Him, saying, "Teacher, is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar, or not?" And thereupon Christ said to them, "Show me a denarius of the poll tax: and asked, Whose is the image and superscription on the denarius which you have brought? And when they replied; Caesar's, He said, Give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." Where then did He forbid to give tribute to Caesar? But their sole purpose was to bring down to death Him Who was raising them up to life. This was the object of their stratagems, and of the base deeds which they contrived, and of the falsehoods they invented, and the bitter words which ran from their wicked tongue. And yet the law loudly proclaims to you, "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour." And again, "The holy and the just you shall not kill."
At language thus unbridled in its violence God in his anger has somewhere said, by one of the holy prophets, "But draw you near, you wicked children, you seed of adulterers and the harlot: at Whom made you merry? and against Whom opened you your mouth? and against Whom sent you forth your tongue? Are you not sons of perdition; and an iniquitous seed?" And the prophet David also somewhere describes them in the Psalms, thus addressing God the Father in heaven, "Scatter them in Your might, and restrain them, O Lord, my helper. The sin of their mouth is the word of their lips, and they shall be taken in their pride." For having given loose to their unbridled tongue against Christ, and, so to speak, "lifted up their horn on high, and spoken iniquity against God," as it is written, they fell in their pride. Surely it was their duty, priding themselves as they did upon their knowledge of the divine laws, to have remembered that God says, "The pious and the just you shall not kill:" but they had no regard whatsoever to the respect due to the law, but being led on by an unrestrainable impetuosity into whatsoever pleased themselves alone, without examination of its nature, they invented numerous charges, heaping up against Christ accusations which were neither true nor capable of being |711 proved. But they were convicted of being even more wicked than an idolater. For Pilate, acquitting Jesus of all blame, openly said, "I find no cause at all in this Man:" and this, not once only, but three times.
"But they vehemently protested, He perverts the people, "teaching in all Judaea, and having begun from Galilee (continues) even to this place." Again they change from their former accusations, and invent pretexts for laying sins to His charge, and gather fresh opportunities for slandering Him. "For He perverts, they say, the people, teaching throughout all Galilee even to this place." But while they accuse Him of teaching, they are silent as to what He taught, being afraid, I imagine, lest perhaps even Pilate himself should be found among the number of the believers. For if he had heard Christ unfold His mystery, he might have ceased perhaps from serving henceforth gods falsely so called, as having admitted the light of the true knowledge of God to dwell within him, and possessing in his mind and heart the medicine of that sacred and saving message which is by Christ. For what were the doctrines of Christ? He called to the true knowledge of God them that were in error, and serving the creature in His stead. Whoever drew near to Him He desired should be resplendent with the glories of righteousness; that they should be irreproachable and good; gentle and merciful; wise and holy; of upright and blameless lives. With great cunning therefore they say that He taught, but were silent as to the nature of His doctrines. But even when so speaking, Pilate rebuked them, excusing himself, and saying, "I find no cause at all in Him." " For you have brought me, he says, This Man, as one Who upturns the people, and behold, I having tried Him in your presence, have not found in This Man any cause of those things whereof you accuse Him. No, nor yet Herod: for he has sent Him back to us: and, behold, nothing is done by Him worthy of death." Lo! those who know the divine laws, and with haughty countenance say, "We are Moses' disciples," beseech that He may be condemned to death, Who is guilty of no base action, yes, rather Who is the Head and Teacher of all piety, and Who renders those who believe in Him skilful in every virtue: and when he whose duty it was to judge Him acquitted Him, to make their |712 doom of torment more severe, they earnestly beg that He Who was guilty of no base deed might suffer as from them the penalty of death. " For the whole multitude cried out, saying, Away with this Man: but loose to us Barabbas." Plainly therefore "they denied the Holy and the Just, and, as the blessed Peter says, asked for a murderer to be granted to them," that they might be sharers of his lot, and partners in his guilt. And this it was their lot to suffer. For they were given up to destruction and slaughter, and perished together with their whole race. "For they cried out, it says, saying, Crucify Him, crucify Him." And this their unholy cry the Lord blamed, saying, by the voice of Jeremiah, "I have left My house, I have abandoned My inheritance: I have given My dearly beloved, My soul, into the hand of her enemies. My inheritance has become to Me like a lion in a thicket: it has uttered its voice against Me; therefore I have hated it." It was hated therefore because as a lion it sprang upon Christ, and uttered a cruel and pitiless cry against Him: but we praise Christ, Who for our sakes and in our stead suffered in the flesh: by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and over. Amen. |713
SERMON CLII.
23:24-31. And Pilate gave sentence that their request should be done. And he released him who for sedition and murder was cast into prison, for whom they asked: but he delivered Jesus to their will. And as they led Him away, they laid hold upon Simon, a Cyrenian, coming out of the country; and on him they laid the cross to carry it after Jesus. And there followed Him a great company of people, and of women, who bewailed and lamented Him. And Jesus turned Himself to them, and said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for Me, but weep for yourselves and your children. For behold the days come, in which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps that never gave nurture. Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall upon us: and to the hills, Cover us. For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?
"THE fear of God is an abomination to evildoers:" and the saying is true; for the sacred Scripture cannot lie. For the desire to live in an upright and holy manner is altogether alien from those who love wickedness: and because the violence of their passions attacks thorn like a savage beast, they will not listen to the words of those who admonish them, but reckon as their enemies whoever would instruct them in the duty of living well. It was this feeling which made the Jewish multitudes hate Christ: and yet what He summoned them to was salvation, and the forgiveness of sin: to a mode of life worthy of admiration: to a righteousness superior to the law; and to a spiritual service higher than types and shadows.
They had brought the holy One and the Just to Pilate, uttering against Him language violent and unrestrained, and pouring forth falsely-invented accusations: and so long did they persist in the vehemence wherewith they accused Him, that at length Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they desired, although he had publicly said, "I find no wickedness in this man." But they, it says, cried out, "Away |714 with Him, crucify Him." For this very cry, unmerciful and unlawful, the Lord had reproved them by the voice of the prophet Isaiah; for thus it is written, "For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts, a plant new and beloved, is the man of Judah: and I looked that he should do justice, but he wrought iniquity: and not righteousness, but a cry." And in another place He said of them, "Woe to them, in that they have gone far from Me: wretched are they, for they have sinned against Me: but I redeemed them, and they spoke falsely against Me." And again, "Their princes shall fall by the sword, because of the rudeness of their tongue."
Pilate therefore, it says, gave sentence that what they desired should be done: but better for them had it been, if the will of Pilate had prevailed, and the sentence had been, to set the Lord free from all fault, and to deliver the Innocent and the Just from His bonds. But they resisted, and vehemently opposed, and so gained a victory that was the mother of their undoing; that prepared for them the snare; that was the nurse of their ruin; and affianced them to severe and inevitable misery.
Yet here behold, I pray, that rebellious serpent driven from his empire over us all, and digging for himself and the wicked hosts that serve him the pit of destruction. For as the Psalmist says, "The heathen are caught in the destruction they have made: in the snare which they set is their own foot taken. The Lord is known as executing judgments: in the works of his hands is the sinner taken." For the works of his hands proved his snare, and "he fell into the pit that he had made: and his labour returned upon his head, and his iniquity descended upon his own pate:" for he was driven away, as I said, from his pride over us. And this the Saviour has taught us: for when He was about to endure for us His saving passion, He said, "Now is the judgment of this world: now is the prince of this world cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, shall draw all men to Me," He led Jesus therefore to the cross, that being lifted up He might draw all men to Him, and that thus he might be left stripped of his worshippers, who in the height of his pride had ventured to say, "The whole world will I hold in my hand as a nest, and as eggs that are left will I take it up, and there is no one shall |715 escape from me, or speak against me." You did not expect then that any one would rise up against you when you were seizing what was not your own. The prophets however dared to do so, though by your instigations the Israelites were incited continually to violence and foul murders. Then there rose up against you and spoke against you the Lord of all, having taken the form of a slave; appearing in prophetic measure, though the Giver of all prophecy and knowledge; in lowliness of glory, though high and transcending all; in weakness such as ours, though the Lord of hosts. And you did not recognise the Saviour, and as the prophet Jeremiah says, "You were found and caught, because you stood up against the Lord." And how were you caught? In that those who were in darkness and the ignorance which you caused received light; those who wandered in error were brought into the right way; your harsh and overbearing dominion fell; the sting of sin was done away; and death was slain by Christ's death. Such are the benefits wrought for us by the Redeemer's passion. Lead therefore, yes, lead Jesus to the cross that shall be your ruin: pile up for yourself the inextinguishable flame: dig the pit into which you shall be cast, being trampled under foot of those that fear Him. If you behold Him crucified and hung upon a tree, and laugh therefore; you shall see Him, and that soon, risen from the dead, and then shall you wail for death because it has fallen. Weep without restraint at the sight of destruction overthrown: weep as He refashions man's nature to life; as He reduces sin into subjection which with you had savagely tyrannized over us: and henceforth no more accuse any one who is weak; "for it is God That justifies: who is he that condemns?" and as the Psalmist says, "All iniquity shall stop its mouth."
The Redeemer therefore was led to His saving passion: but they laid His cross, it says, upon Simon the Cyrenian. Another holy evangelist, however, tells us that the Lord Himself carried, the tree: and necessarily both the one and the other are true. For the Saviour indeed bore the cross, but in the middle of the way perhaps the Cyrenian met them, and they seized him, and made him carry it instead. And there is an important reason for the fact, that Christ the Saviour of all did carry the cross: for it is said of Him by the voice of Isaiah, that "to |716 us a Child is born: a Son also is given us, Whose government is upon His shoulder." For His government was the cross, by which He became King over the world, if so be that it is true that " He became obedient to the Father to death, even the death of the cross: for this reason God also has greatly exalted Him, and given Him a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus Christ every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and of things under the earth: and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father."
And this also, I think, it is important here to observe, that when the blessed Abraham went up to the mountain that had been shown him, that there he might sacrifice Isaac, according to God's command, he laid the wood upon the lad; and he was a type of Christ carrying His own cross upon His shoulders, and going up to the glory of His passion. For that His passion was Christ's glory, He has Himself taught us, saying, "Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in Him, If God be glorified in Him, God shall also glorify Him in Himself, and shall immediately glorify Him."
He was going therefore to the place of crucifixion: and there followed Him women weeping, as well as many others. For constantly, so to speak, the female sex is given to tears, and of a disposition ready to sink at the approach of aught that is sorrowful. 'But, O daughters of Jerusalem, He says, stay those tears on My account: cease your wailings: and weep rather for yourselves, and your children: for the days, He says, shall come, in which barrenness shall be preferable to women than to have borne children." How, or in what manner? Because when the war fell upon the country of the Jews, they all perished utterly, small and great: and infants with their mothers, and sons with their fathers, were destroyed without distinction. Then, He says, shall men count it above all price to be crushed under hills and mountains; for in extreme miseries those misfortunes which are less severely cruel become, so to speak, desirable. "For if, says He, they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?"
But it is worth our while to see what the Saviour's meaning is in these words. For the saying is shaped in the form of a parable, or an example rather, but is pregnant with a spiritual |717 signification: and it intends, I think, to suggest perhaps what follows. He calls Himself the green tree, that namely which has leaves and fruit and flowers. But His fruits were doctrines and exhortations and the manifestation of a godlike power in His divine and ineffable miracles. For which of His works is not more than our admiration can equal? He raised the dead to life, He cleansed lepers, He healed the blind, and the other deeds He wrought are such as arouse in us the most perfect praise. But though these were His works, yet did the Roman officers, or rather Pilate who condemned Him, and passed upon Him an unjust sentence, inflict upon Him these cruel mockeries. When therefore, He says, the Roman commanders have inflicted upon Me such things, though they see Me adorned with such great glory and praise, what will they do to Israel, perceiving him to be a dry and fruitless stock? For in him they will behold nothing admirable, for the sake of which he might perchance have been counted by them worthy of honour and mercy. Plainly they will burn him with fire, without showing him mercy, yes rather he will suffer the cruelties prompted by savage rage. For such were the miseries into which the Israelites fell, when God, Who judges righteously, exacted of them the punishment of their wickedness against Christ. But upon us, who have believed in Him, Christ bestows grace and blessing; by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen. |718
SERMON CLIII.
23:32-43. And there were led also two others, who were malefactors, to be put to death with Him. And when they came to the place which is called a skull, there they crucified Him and the malefactors, one on the right hand and the other on the left. And dividing His garments, they cast lots. And the people stood looking on. And the rulers also derided Him, saying. He saved others; let Him save Himself if This is the Christ the elect of God. And the soldiers also mocked Him, coming to Him, and offering Him vinegar, and saying, If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself And there was also a writing written over Him, This is the King of the Jews. And one of the malefactors which were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us. But the other answered rebuking him, and said, Do you not fear God, seeing you are in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due retribution of our deeds: but this man has done nothing that is hateful. And he said, Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom. And Jesus said to him, Verily I say to you, To-day shall you be with Me in paradise.
THE blessed Paul counts the mystery of the incarnation of the Only-begotten worthy of all admiration, and, so to speak, is in amaze at the wisdom and excellence of the plan of salvation, saying, "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God." For consider how the Saviour of all and Lord, by Whom the Father brought all things into existence, refashions man's nature, restoring it to that which it was in the beginning by becoming Himself like to us, and |719 bearing our sufferings for our sakes. For the first man was indeed in the beginning in the paradise of delight, being ennobled by the absence both of suffering and of corruption: but when he despised the commandment that had been given him, and fell under a curse and condemnation, and into the snare of death, by eating the fruit of the forbidden tree, Christ, as I said, by the very same thing restores him again to his original con-dition. For He became the fruit of the tree by having endured the precious cross for our sakes, that He might destroy death, which by means of the tree had invaded the bodies of mankind. He bore suffering that He might deliver us from sufferings: "He was despised and not esteemed," as it is written, that He might make us honourable: He did no sin, that He might crown our nature with similar glory: He Who for our sakes was man submitted also to our lot; and He Who gives life to the world submitted to death in the flesh. Is not therefore the mystery profound? Must we not own that the dispensation is more than language can describe? What doubt can there be of this? Let us therefore, as we offer Him our praise, repeat that which was sung by the Psalmist's harp; "How great are Your works, O Lord! in wisdom have You made them all."
When therefore He hung upon the precious cross, two thieves were hung with Him. And what follows from this? It was verily mockery as far as regards the object of the Jews; but the commemoration of prophecy: for it is written, that "He was also numbered with the transgressors." For our sakes He became a curse, that is, accursed: for it is written again, that "Cursed is every one that hangs on a tree." But this act of His did away with the curse that was upon us: for we with Him and because of Him are blessed. And knowing this, the blessed David says: "Blessed are we of the Lord, Who made heaven and earth:" for by His sufferings blessings descend to us. He in our stead paid our debts: He bore our sins; and as it is written, "in our stead He was stricken." "He took them up in His own body on the tree:" for it is true that "by His bruises we are healed." He too was sick because of our sins, and we are delivered from the sicknesses of the soul. He bore derision, and mockeries, and spittings: for the rulers of the synagogue of the Jews scoffed Him, shaking their polluted heads, and pouring out |720 upon Him bitter laughter, as they said, "He saved others: let Him save Himself, if He is the Christ." But if you did not really believe that He was the Christ, why did you kill Him as the heir? Why did you wish to seize His inheritance? If He saved others, and you know that this indeed was so, how could He want the power to save Himself from your hands? You heard in the temple those whose office it was to sing and recite in chorus constantly chanting; "They pierced My hands and My feet: they counted all My bones: and themselves watched and gazed at Me. They divided My garments among them, and on My clothing did they cast the lot." And again, "They gave gall for My eating, and for My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink." Since then you were learned in the law,----for such you considered yourself to be,----how came you to leave prophecy, and what had been foretold concerning these things unexamined? It was your duty to have enquired Who it was That spoke these things; to Whose person, I mean, you should have referred these verses. You heard your great chieftain Moses foretelling the savageness of your attacks: for he said, that "you shall see your Life hanging upon a tree:" you shall see, that is, Him Who is the cause of life, or rather Life Itself, hung upon a tree. And how then did you entirely disregard the prophecy of Moses, of whom you made so great boast? For we have heard you expressly declaring, "We are Moses' disciples." Tell me what you mean by shaking your head at Him? Is it the meek endurance of the Sufferer that you despise? or is it to prove the stony hardness of your mind? Are you eager to subject the Prince of Life to the death of the flesh? Why meddle you with holy cares? Why purpose you a counsel that you will not be able to establish? "He that dwells in heaven shall laugh at them: and the Lord shall deride them," as it is written.
Two thieves therefore were hanged with Him, as I said, in mockery even of the passion which brings salvation to the whole world: but of these, the one, it says, resembled in his conduct the impiety of the Jews, belching forth the same words as they did, and giving free utterance to blasphemous expressions. "For if, says he, You be the Christ, save Yourself, and us." But the other, following a different course, is justly worthy of |721 our admiration: for he believed in Him: and while suffering so bitter a punishment, he rebuked the vehement outcries of the Jews, and the words of him who was hanging with him. He "confessed his sin, that he might be justified:" he became the accuser of his own wicked ways, that God might remit his guilt; for it is written, "I said that I will confess of myself my iniquity to the Lord, and You forgave the wickedness of my heart." He bore to Christ a blameless testimony, and reproved the Jewish want of love to God, and condemned the sentence of Pilate: "for This Man, he says, has done nothing that is hateful." O how beautiful is this confession! how wise the reasonings, and how excellent the thoughts! He became the confessor of the Saviour's glory, and the accuser of the pride of those who crucified Him. What reward therefore did he receive? Of what honours was he counted worthy? Or what benefit did the thief gain who was the first to profess faith? He lit upon a treasure worth the having: he became rich unexpectedly, and possessed of every blessing: he won the inheritance of the saints, and to have his name written above, in heaven: he was in the book of life who was bearing the sentence of death, and is numbered with the dwellers in the city that is above.
And let us look at his most beautiful confession of faith. "Jesus, he says, remember me when You come in Your kingdom." You see Him crucified, and call Him a king: Him Who was bearing scorn and suffering, you expect to come in godlike glory: you see Him surrounded by a multitude of the Jews, and the wicked gang of the Pharisees, and Pilate's band of soldiers,----all these were mocking Him, and no single one of them confessed...
* * * * * * * * *
[Here the Syriac finally stops altogether. A table of contents prefixed to part 2 of the Syriac indicates that there were originally only three more sermons in the manuscript: namely, Sermon CLIV. on 23:44 ff.; Serm. CLV. on 23:54 ff.; and Serm. CLVI. on c. 24:36 ff. S. Cyril therefore must have passed over most of the circumstances of Christ's resurrection and ascension, or have referred to them very briefly.
The fragments that follow are taken from Mai, though probably some portion of it does not belong to the Commentary.]
|722
Fragments of sermons CLIV, CLV and CLVI.
23:44. There was darkness over all the land.
He who excels all created things, and shares the Father's throne, humbled Himself to emptying, and took the form of a slave, and endured the limits of human nature, that He might fulfil the promise made of God to the forefathers of the Jews: but they were so obdurate and disobedient as even to rise up against their Master. For they made it their business to deliver the Prince of life to death, and crucified the Lord of glory. But when they had affixed to the cross the Lord of all, the sun over their heads withdrew, and the light at midday was wrapped in darkness, as the divine Amos had foretold. For there was "darkness from the sixth hour until the ninth hour:" and this was a plain sign to the Jews, that the minds of those who crucified Him were wrapped in spiritual darkness, for "blindness in part has happened to Israel." And David in his love to God even curses them, saying, "Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see."
Yes! creation itself bewailed its Lord: for the sun was darkened, and the rocks were rent, and the very temple assumed the garb of mourners, for its "veil was rent from the top to the bottom." And this is what God signified to us by the voice of Isaiah, saying, "And I will clothe the heaven with darkness, and wrap it around with sackcloth."
23:47. And when the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God.
Again observe, I pray, that no sooner had He endured the passion upon the cross for our sakes, than He began to win many to a knowledge of the truth: "for the centurion, it says, when he saw what had happened, glorified God, saying, that truly This Man was righteous." And certain Jews also struck upon their breasts, being pricked doubtless by their |723 consciences, and looking up with the eyes of their mind to the Lord, and it may he perhaps clearing themselves of their impious conduct against Christ by crying out against those who crucified Him, even though they dared not do so openly, because of the impiety of the rulers. With truth therefore did our Lord say, "When I have been lifted up from the earth, I shall draw all men to Me."
23:55. And women also followed, who had come with Him from Galilee.
Wise women followed our common Saviour Christ, gathering whatever was both useful and necessary for faith in Him. And when He gave His flesh as a ransom for the life of us all, they wisely betook themselves to tend His body: for they supposed that the corpse would continue in the grave. |724
24:4. It came to pass, as they were perplexed at this.
THE women came to the sepulchre, and when they could not find the body of Christ,----for He had risen,----they were much perplexed. And what followed? For their love's sake to Christ, and their earnest zeal thereunto, they were counted worthy of seeing holy angels, who even told them the joyful tidings, and became the heralds of the resurrection, saying, "Why seek you the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen." For the Word of God ever lives, and is by His own nature Life: but when He humbled Himself to emptying, and submitted to be made like to us, He tasted death. But this proved to be the death of death: for He arose from the dead, to be the way whereby not Himself so much but we rather return to incorruption. And let no one seek Him Who ever lives among the dead; for He is not here, with mortality, that is, and in the tomb: but where rather is He? in heaven plainly, and in godlike glory. And more firmly to settle the faith of the women in these things, they recall to their minds what Christ had said, that "He must necessarily be given up into the hands of sinners, and suffer, and the third day rise again."
Angels too brought the joyful tidings of the nativity to the shepherds in Bethlehem, and now they tell His resurrection: and heaven yields its service to proclaim Him, and the hosts of the spirits which are above attend the Son as God, even when He had become flesh.
24:9. And they returned from the sepulchre, and told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest.
The women having been taught the mystery by the voice of angels, run to tell these things to the disciples. For it was fitting that this grace, though so splendid, should be granted to women. For she who of old was the minister of death is now freed from her guilt by ministering to the voice of the holy angels, and by being the first both to learn and tell |725 the adorable mystery of the resurrection. The female sex therefore gained both acquittal from their reproach and the reversal of their curse. For He Who of old had said to them, "In pains shall you bear children," gave them deliverance from their misfortune, by having met them in the garden, as another Evangelist mentions, and said, Hail. To the holy apostles however the account of the resurrection seemed absolutely but an idle tale, and falsehood; for even they did not know the inspired Scripture, and so they were incredulous, and mocked at the news and rejected it.
How did the disciples in John's Gospel, having heard Mary, and having run to the sepulchre, believe? For to this also the Scripture bears witness in their behalf, saying, "When therefore they entered, the other disciple who came first to the sepulchre both saw and believed." But in Luke it is said, "And they returned from the sepulchre, and told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest,----it was Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the wife" of James, and the rest with them, who told these things to the apostles, ----and they disbelieved them."
24:13. Behold two of them went that same day to a village.
As two of the disciples walk to a village called Emmaus, they conversed with one another concerning Christ, regarding Him as no longer living, but mourning Him as dead. And as they conversed, Jesus Himself drew near and went with them, without being recognised by them, "for their eyes were held that they should not know Him. And He says to them, |726 "What is it, I pray, of which you converse with one another as you walk thus mournfully? And one of them whose name was Cleopas answered and said, Are You only a stranger in Jerusalem," &c. And then they tell Him of the rumours of the resurrection brought by the women, and of that by Peter, but believe them not. For by saying, "And women also astonished us, who found not the body," they show that they had not been induced to believe the news, nor regard it as true tidings, but as a cause of trouble and astonishment: and Peter's testimony, who had seen only the linen bandages at the sepulchre, they did not consider as a trustworthy proof of the resurrection, because he did not say that he had seen Him, but inferred that He had risen from His being no longer there. And you must know that those two belonged to the number of the seventy, and that Cleopas' companion was Simon,----not Peter, nor he of Cana,----but another of the seventy.
24:27. Having begun from Moses and from all the prophets.
In this discourse the Lord shows that the law was necessary to make ready the way, and the ministry of the prophets to prepare men for faith in this marvellous act, that so when the resurrection really took place, those who were troubled at its greatness might remember what was said of old, and be induced to believe. He brings forward therefore Moses and the prophets, interpreting their hidden meaning, and making plain to the worthy what to the unworthy was obscure, so settling in them that ancient and hereditary faith taught them by the |727 sacred books which they possessed. For nothing which comes from God is without its use, but all and several of them have their appointed place and service. In their due place servants were sent before to make ready for the presence of the Master, by bringing in beforehand prophecy as the necessary preparative for faith, that, like some royal treasure, what had been foretold might in due season be brought forward from the concealment of its former obscurity, being unveiled and made plain by the clearness of the interpretation. Having thus then stirred up their minds by the writings of the law and the prophets, He afterwards more plainly sets Himself before them, when, having consented to their request to go with them to the village, He took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and divided it among them. " For their eyes, it says, "were held that they might not know Him," until namely the word had entered stirring up their heart to faith, and then, rendering what they had before heard and believed visible, He offered them the sight seasonably after the hearing. He does not, however, continue with them, for "He vanished, it says, out of their sight." For our Lord's relation to men after His resurrection does not continue the same as before, for they too have need of renovation, and a second life in Christ, that the renewed may associate with the renewed, and the incorruptible approach the incorruptible. For which reason, as John tells us, He did not permit Mary to touch Him, until He should go away and return again.
24:33. They rose up that same hour.
Cleopas, it says, and his companions, rose up that same hour, the same of course in which Jesus had vanished out of their sight, and returned to Jerusalem: but it does not say that they found the eleven gathered together that same hour, |728 and told them what had happened concerning Jesus, 2 but this took place on the fortieth day after His resurrection, on which day He was also taken up. This evangelist therefore has omitted the events which took place in the intervening time, and which Cleopas and his companions found the eleven discussing in private, and saying, that "the Lord is risen, and has been seen by Simon:" and of him he has not mentioned either where, or when, or how this took place. It was during these days that those events also took place which were done in Galilee, and which Matthew has recorded.
24:36. Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them.
And 3 now, keeping to the order of events, we say, that the account of the resurrection having already reached the apostles from many quarters, and their desire to see Him having thus been roused, He comes according to their desire, and stands visible and revealed before them as they seek for and expect Him. And no longer does He appear to them with their eyes held, nor converse with them as concerning some other person, but permits them to see Him plainly, and bids them be of good cheer. But they even so were in doubt and affright; for they thought that they saw not Himself, but some apparition and shadow: but He quiets the perturbation occasioned by such thoughts, addressing them with His usual and customary speech, and saying, "Peace be to you."
24:38. He said to them, Why are you troubled? and why do reasonings arise in your hearts?
To convince them firmly and indubitably, that He is the same Who suffered, He immediately shows that being God |729 by nature, He knows what is hidden, and that the tumultuous thoughts within them escape Him not: for He said, "Why are you troubled? And this is a very plain proof that He Whom they see before them is not some other person, but the very same Whom they had seen both suffering death upon the cross and laid in the tomb, even Him Who sees reins and heart, and from Whom nothing that is in us is hid. This therefore He gives them as a sign, His knowledge namely of the tumult of thoughts that was within them. And to prove moreover in another way that both death is conquered, and that human nature has put off corruption in Him as the foremost, He shows His hands and His feet, and the holes of the nails, and permits them to handle Him, and in every way convince themselves that the very body which had suffered was, as I said, risen. Let no one therefore cavil at the resurrection: and though you hear the sacred Scripture say of the human body, that "it is sown an animal body, it is raised a spiritual body," do not deny the return even of human bodies to incorruption. For as the animal is that which follows after, and is subject to animal, that is, to fleshly lusts, so also the spiritual is that which submits itself to the will of the Holy Spirit. For after the resurrection from the dead, there will be no longer the opportunity for carnal affection, but, the goad of sin will be entirely powerless. That very (body) therefore which has been brought down to the earth, shall be clothed with incorruption.
That the disciples therefore might be quite sure that it is the very same Who suffered and was buried and rose again, He shows, as I said, both His hands and feet: and He bids them be fully convinced that it is not a spirit, as they thought, but rather in very truth a body, saying, "And you see that a spirit has not flesh and bones, as you see Me have." For a shadow and spirit and apparition merely could not endure the touch of the hand.
Having then, as we have said, shown His hands and feet to |730 the disciples, the Lord fully convinced them that the body which had suffered had risen: but, to produce in them still further a yet more firmly-settled faith therein, He asked for something to eat. And what was brought was a piece of broiled fish, which He took and ate in the presence of them all. Now this He did for no other reason than clearly to show them that He Who had risen from the dead was the same Who in old time had eaten and drunk with them during the whole period of the dispensation, and conversed with them as a man, according to the prophet's voice: intending them to perceive that the human body does indeed need sustenance of this kind, but a spirit by no means so. Who therefore that claims to be faithful, and receives unhesitatingly the witness of the holy evangelists, can any longer listen to the fictions of heretics, can any longer endure the apparition-mongers? For the power of Christ surpasses human enquiry, nor is it on the level of the understanding of ordinary events. He ate then a piece of fish because of the resurrection: but the natural consequences of eating by no means followed in the case of Christ, as the unbeliever might object, knowing that "whatsoever enters in at the mouth, must necessarily be cast out and go into the draught." But the believer will admit no such cavils into his mind, but leave the matter to the power of God.
24:45. Then He opened their mind to understand the Scriptures.
When He had quieted their reasonings by what He said, by the touch of their hands, and by partaking of food, He then opened their mind to understand, that "so it was necessary for Him to suffer," even upon the wood of the cross. The Lord therefore recalls the minds of the disciples to what Me had before said: for He had forewarned them of His sufferings upon the cross, according to what the prophets had long before spoken: and He opens also the eyes of their heart, so as for them to understand the ancient prophecies.
The Saviour promises the disciples the descent of the Holy Spirit, which God had announced of old by Joel, and power |731 from above, that they might be strong and invincible, and without all fear preach to men everywhere the divine mystery.
He says to them now that they had received the Spirit after the resurrection, "Receive you the Holy Spirit," and adds, "But tarry you at Jerusalem, and wait for the promise of the Father, which you have heard of Me. For John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit;" in water no longer, for that they had received, but with the Holy Spirit: He does not add water to water, but completes that which was deficient by adding what was wanting to it.
Having blessed them, and gone a little in advance, He was carried up to heaven, that He might share the Father's throne even with the flesh that was united to Him. And this new pathway the Word made for us when He appeared in human form: and hereafter in due time He will come again in the glory of His Father with the angels, and will take us up to be with Him.
Let us glorify therefore Him Who being God the Word became man for our sakes: Who suffered willingly in the flesh, and arose from the dead, and abolished corruption: Who was taken up, and hereafter shall come with great glory to judge the living and the dead, and to give to every one according to his deeds: by Whom and with Whom to God the Father be glory and power with the Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.
PRAISE GOD.
1. y Said in the margin to be "against the Novatians."
2. o This passage is given so much more probably in Cramer, that I append it: 'But not that they found the eleven gathered together that same hour, and told them what had happened concerning the Lord Jesus, but after the lapse of as many hours as sufficed for walking the sixty furlongs between the two places; and during this interval it was that the Lord was seen by Simon.'
3. p The Aurea Catena ascribes this to Cyril.
This text was transcribed by Roger Pearse, 2008. All material on this page is in the public domain - copy freely.
Early Church Fathers - Additional Texts
SOURCE SECTION: cyril_on_john_00_eintro.htm
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, LFC 43, 48 (1874/1885). Preface to the online edition.
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, LFC 43, 48 (1874/1885). Preface to the online edition.
Some time ago I became aware that the Oxford Movement Library of the Fathers series contained a translation of the Commentary on the gospel of St. John by Cyril of Alexandria. The translation was split into two volumes, 43 and 48, each of more than 600 pages. The first volume was translated by P.E. Pusey, who also edited the Greek text during the 1870's. The volume is very uncommon, since most collections of this series tend to end with the volumes issued before 1850; all volumes issued during the 1870's are rare. But still more uncommon is the second volume, which was the last volume in the series and was issued in 1885 after the death of both P. E. Pusey and his father, Oxford Movement founder E. B. Pusey. This was translated by Thomas Randell. Through the cooperation of a faraway academic library I was enabled to obtain photocopies of both. The circumstances under which the second volume was produced are detailed in the preface to it by H. P. Liddon, which is online here.
The language of the first volume is called 'quaint' by Liddon. Readers may find other words for language which might be described as pseudo-Jacobean, except that King James I undoubtedly would have found it as baffling as we do. I commend to a reader with time on his hands the exercise of modifying a sentence or two into modern English. My own experience was that a complete recasting was necessary. It seems that a contemporary reviewer harshly criticised this strange version, thereby inducing Pusey to abandon the effort. Fortunately Randell's volume is rather more readable.
Volume 1 contained a 50 page preface, mainly by E. B. Pusey. This hardly refers to the Commentary at all. I did attempt to scan it, but after scanning 20 pages with great labour I abandoned the attempt. I will complete this if there is any public demand for it.
The text of Cyril's work has not come down to us complete. Books 7 and 8 are lost. However P. E. Pusey included in his edition a number of fragments of these books. I learn from the Patrology of J. Quasten (vol. 3) that the authenticity of these fragments is questionable, however. The source of these is unfortunately not indicated by Pusey.
The preface should have discussed the source of these fragments, and also the manuscript tradition of the work. In its absence, I have here translated and abbreviated the following from the praefatio to Pusey's edition of the Greek text in 3 volumes, Sancti Patri nostri Cyrilli archiepiscopi Alexandrini In divi Joannis evangelium; Accedunt fragmenta varia necnon tractatus ad Tiberium diaconum duo / edidit Philippus Edwardus Pusey. Oxford (1872):
These volumes of Cyril's works contain those surviving works of this holy man which comment on the New Testament;---- excluding the fragments of his work on St. Luke, which were edited from the Syriac by Rob. P. Smith, Dean of Canterbury; for many of the Greek and Syriac sources are printed in his English translation ---- and likewise excluding some relics of the lost commentary on St. Matthew.
We have been able to considerably improve the text of Cyril's largest work, the Commentary on John. Our predecessors had at most access to a single manuscript, the Codex Barbarinus which Aubert also was allowed to inspect; this contains the first six books. Our most diligent helper, Theodorus Heysius, supplied us with this many years ago; see the description of this codex in vol. 1, p. 645.
The Vatican library contains two other manuscripts; Cod. Vat. 592, containing the first four books, and 593, containing the first four and the last four books. Both are 15th century, and equally well written. Very close to 593 is the manuscript of San Marco in Venice 121, of the same age, which is a copy of this manuscript. No other manuscripts are known, and the last four books only exist in Vat. 593 and the Venice manuscript: to which can be added enough material quoted by other writers from this work, that the text has come down to us more or less complete.
These manuscripts are referenced as follows:
B = Codex Barberinus, saec. xii., containing the first six books, newly collated with the greatest care by our friend Heysius.
D = Cod. Vaticanus 592, saec. xv., containing the first four books, collated by Heysius.
E = Cod. Vaticanus 593, saec. xv., containing the first four books and the last four. This edition is the first to use this manuscript for the first four books, as collated by Heysius. The last four were supplied for this edition by Hugo Hinckius, Ph.D. With this agrees
Cod. S. Marci 121, which we spoke of above; which restores some passages lost in E through ὁμοιοτέλευτον. Aubert used both of these. I was unable to obtain a new collation of the Marcianus codex, but I consulted it in many places for the last four books, and refer to it as F.
Books seven and eight have long since perished. Aubert gave what could be fragments from them, from the Catena on S. John by Nicetas, using a manuscript which once belonged to D. de Harlay, Bishop of St. Malo, now in Paris in the Bibliothèque Imperiale, Ms. Suppl. Gr. 159, bomb. saec. ca. xiv. But Nicetas cites from many other works of Cyril, and it seemed necessary to omit many on these grounds.
The good quality of B appears clearly from various witnesses and indicators. One error must be noted, which is common to the other manuscripts also; when the scribe made a careless mistake, often he corrected it, but instead of erasing the mistake he added above it the conjuction καὶ or ἤγουν.
Two further manuscripts of a Catena on St. John have been used. Both were composed by Nicetas, bishop of Heraclea in Thrace, who flourished in the 11th century. An older catena, composed by an unknown author, was printed by Corderius at Antwerp in 1630. The following manuscripts have been used:
a = Cat. in S. Joannem Nicetiana, in the Moscow Library, Cod. 93 (once 94).
b = Cat. on the gospels in the Moscow Library, Cod. 41 (once 42), written in saec. x, cited occasionally from the same source as Corderius.
c = The fragment of the Corderian catena (between p.447 and p.889 in Cod. Bodleian Barrocian. 225, saec. xii.ex.)
I = Some folios of the same text. Some are preserved in the library of the Holy Synod in Moscow, Cod. 119 (once 120), pp.50; others in codex 2, pp.181, 182, among the Greek manuscripts of Archbishop Wake in the Cathedral Church library at Oxford; others in a codex (containing homilies of Chrysostom, pp.140-147) in the library of S. Dionysius on the Holy Mountain. These folios seem to have been written after the middle of the 10th century.
Catenae were not used very much for the text of the first four books, as Nicetas does not quote very much from these books, except for bits in the oldest catena edited by Corderius. (In the same way Nicetas in his great catena on the Psalms derived material from an older epitome of a catena on the Psalms, now extant in Cod. Reg. Par. 139 and Cod. S. Marci. Ven. 17).
In books five and six, Nicetas quotes much, but B gave a better, more complete text. For books 9-12, some use was made where gaps appeared in the manuscript. Everything available from the fragments of books seven and eight was used. I did not dare to go against the authority of the books.
Two other recensions of the Catena of Nicetas on S. John seem to have been produced, of which one appears in a Moscow ms. and a Paris one, which I call k. The other, visible in the Catena Corderiana, is in the Cod. Harlaiensis, and no copy of this is known to me.
Other quotations from this Commentary on John are given in Euthymius Zigabenus, in Panoplia Dogmatica, and appear in the early pages of the commentary. For this I used Cod. Viennensis Theol. Nessel 76, membr. One or more excerpts of S. Cyril exist in Cod. Med. Laur. plut. vi.12, saec. xiv (= p); see vol. 1, p. 552. But p often stands apart from EF, and seems to have come from the same archetype.
The punctuation is that of Migne.
One very interesting feature of the work is the chapter titles and numeration. Cyril indicates at the end of the preface that these are authorial, both titles and numbers. Chapter titles were not generally used in antiquity, although summaries sometimes were prefixed to the start of each book of Greek histories. The work is therefore one of the first which we know to have been divided by its author into numbered chapters, and the fact that Cyril explicitly discusses this suggests that it was a novel practice in his day. Since the subject of summaries, chapter titles and numeration is one that the world of scholarship has yet to properly address, this piece of evidence may be of value.
Roger PEARSE
14th December 2005
POSTSCRIPT: (31st December 2005)
Since writing these words, I have learned of a revision of this translation being undertaken at the moment, from a post in usenet:
Alive in Christ, the official magazine of the Diocese of Eastern Pa. of the OCA [Orthodox Church of America], has been serializing an updated and corrected version of the above text. The revision process, conducted with frequent reference to Cyril's Greek text, has included:
updating the language to contemporary English
simplifying the convoluted sentence structure by freeing it somewhat more from that of the original Greek than does Pusey, and adapting somewhat more to English
retranslating some words by reference to Lampe's Patristic Greek Lexicon (which was not available to Pusey) and more recent Greek lexica
correcting some errors in the earlier translation
adding some additional footnotes
This is not a wholesale retranslation; the weaknesses of Pusey's work are also its strengths; namely its attempt to be a faithful translation of St Cyril's work. A recent installment, #20, is online at www.doepa.org and covers John 5:39-6:15. As a sample, here is of a paragraph from Pusey's text,
followed by the revision:
"We will then, looking to what is more profitable and agreeable to what preceded, read it not imperatively, but rather as in connection and with a comma. Of this kind again will be the meaning of the passage before us. For when He saw that they were ever running to the books of Moses, and ignorantly collecting thence materials for gainsaying, but seeking for nothing else, nor receiving what would avail them for due belief: needs therefore does He shew them that their labour in searching for these things is useless and unprofitable, and clearly convicts them of exercising themselves in a great and most profitable occupation in a way not becoming its use. For what tell me (saith He) is the use of your searching the Divine Scriptures, and supposing that by them ye will attain unto everlasting life, but when ye find that they testify of Me and call Me everlasting life, ye will not come to Me that ye might have life? Whence then ye ought to be saved (He saith) ye perceive not that thence ye get the greatest damage to your own souls, ye who are sharpened from the Mosaic books only unto gainsaying, but the things whereby ye could gain eternal life, ye do not so much as receive into your minds."
and here is the revised version:
"Looking then to what is more profitable and consistent with what preceded, we will not read it imperatively, but rather as connected and as with a comma. The meaning then of the passage before us will be something like this. For when he saw that they were always running to the books of Moses and ignorantly gathering from them materials for argument, but not seeking for anything else, nor receiving what would be useful to them for due belief, he therefore necessarily shows them that their labor in searching for these things is useless and unprofitable, and clearly convicts them of exercising themselves in a great and most profitable occupation in a way not becoming its use. For he says, Tell me, what is the use of your searching the Divine Scriptures, and supposing that by them you will attain to everlasting life, but when you find that they testify of me and call me everlasting life, you are not willing to come to me that you may have life? So, while you ought to be saved by [studying] this, he says, you do not perceive that from it you are getting the greatest damage to your own souls -- you who are sharpened from the Mosaic books only for argument, but the things by which you could gain eternal life, you do not so much as receive into your minds."
It is planned to publish the revised revised version now being serialized. The published version will include further emendations and will add most of the critical footnotes and margin comments in the original, some of which are being omitted from the current serialization. The pace of the serialized version has picked up significantly, and, God willing, publication of the commentary should be completed to the half-way point within about 2 1/2 years. That would be a logical point at which to publish the first of two volumes.
I think we must all commend the initiative of those responsible. It seems that this will be published commercially, but under copyright. The work is being done at St. Tikhon's Seminary, which of course has to support itself financially.
POSTSCRIPT: (27th January 2006)
The OCA is not the only group involved in making this work available again. Some time ago I received a query from Br. John of the Dormition Skete monastery in Colorado. They were seeking a copy of the second volume, with the intention of making both volumes available again in an edited form. My own efforts to first obtain and then scan a copy of Cyril on John were prompted by this exchange. I mentioned the OCA work to him, and he commented:
We are preparing our own edition for printing, and it will be different from the OCA translation. Ours will in general follow Pusey's translation with a few corrections where he has been a little less than exact, where differences in meaning are important.
I have also heard from other people who have been scanning passages of the text, for yet other purposes. It seems that the availability of this text online fills a long-felt need. But of course printed editions are more desirable yet. If anyone else is interested in this work, I am very happy to hear from them using this link.
POSTSCRIPT: (9th February 2006)
I have now examined Pusey's Greek text, and incorporated a chunk of his praefatio into this page.
This text was transcribed by Roger Pearse, 2005. All material on this page is in the public domain - copy freely.
Greek text is rendered using unicode.
Early Church Fathers - Additional Texts
SOURCE SECTION: cyril_on_john_00_intro .htm
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, LFC 43, 48 (1874/1885). Vol.2 Introduction. pp. iii-xvi.
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, LFC 43, 48 (1874/1885). Vol.2 Introduction. pp. iii-xvi.
A
LIBRARY OF FATHERS
OF THE
HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH,
ANTERIOR TO THE DIVISION OF THE EAST AND WEST.
TRANSLATED BY MEMBERS OF THE ENGLISH CHURCH.
YET SHALL NOT THY TEACHERS BE REMOVED INTO A CORNER ANY MORE, BUT
THINE EYES SHALL SEE THY TEACHERS. Isaiah XXX. 20.
LONDON:
WALTER SMITH (LATE MOZLEY),
34 KING STREET, COVENT GARDEN.
1885.
TO THE MEMORY
OF THE MOST REVEREND FATHER IN GOD
WILLIAM
LORD ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY,
PRIMATE OF ALL ENGLAND,
FORMERLY REGIUS PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY IN THE THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD,
THIS LIBRARY
OF
ANCIENT BISHOPS, FATHERS, DOCTORS, MARTYRS, CONFESSORS,
OF CHRIST'S HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH,
UNDERTAKEN AMID HIS ENCOURAGEMENT
AND
CARRIED ON FOR TWELVE YEARS UNDER HIS SANCTION,
UNTIL HIS DEPARTURE HENCE IN PEACE,
IS
GRATEFULLY AND REVERENTLY INSCRIBED.
COMMENTARY
ON
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO S. JOHN
BY
S. CYRIL
ARCHBISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA
VOL. II
S. JOHN IX-XXI
LONDON:
WALTER SMITH (late MOZLEY),
34, KING STREET, COVENT GARDEN.
1885
|iii
PREFACE.
More than eleven years have passed since the first volume of a translation of S. Cyril's Commentary on S. John was given to the world by the late Mr. P. E. Pusey. The volume was introduced by a Preface, the greater part of which was written by the translator's father, Dr. Pusey, and mainly with a view to showing that S. Cyril's language on the subject of the Procession of God the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son is substantially identical with that of the Greek Fathers of an earlier age. This Preface was in part intended as a contribution to the then expected discussion of the subject at the Reunion Conferences which, in the event, were held at Bonn, under the presidency of Dr. Döllinger, in the autumns of 1874 and the following year. The translation itself was reviewed by an English critic in terms which rendered its humble and too self-distrusting author unwilling to resume it. At his death, on Jan. 15th, 1880, nothing more had been done. But Dr. Pusey, who all along had been anxious for the completion of the work, entrusted it to a scholar who was at the time |iv taking up his residence in Oxford, the Rev. Thomas Randell, M. A., of S. John's College.
Mr. Randell's distinction as a Classical Student had heen already attested by the honours gained by him in the London University; and Dr. Pusey early formed and expressed a very high opinion of his "wide and solid" accomplishments as an Orientalist----an opinion which has been amply justified by the successes which Mr. Randell has achieved in his adopted University.
The text from which the present translation, as well as that in the previous volume, has been made, is that which the unwearied labours of Mr. P. E. Pusey himself had based on the earlier work of Aubert. Of this noble enterprise his father writes:----
"It was at my wish that, in his uniform filial love, my son took as the central work of his life to make the text of S. Cyril's works as exact as it could be made. For this he visited libraries in France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Russia, Mount Athos, Cairo, Mount Sinai, and applied to this the knowledge of Syriac which he had perfected in view of another object 1."
The work of editing the original text was to have been completed in ten volumes. It remains, alas! a splendid fragment, consisting of six volumes and a-half; which, unhappily, do not include the |v Thesaurus. But in Dr. Pusey's judgment the greatest of S. Cyril's works is his Commentary on S. John 2, the original text of which is given in the third, fourth, and fifth volumes of Mr. Pusey's edition. This original text consists of 1636 pages octavo, partly Greek and partly Syriac. Of these the first 863 pages were translated into English by Mr. P. E. Pusey himself; the translation forms the first volume of the present work. For the translation of the remaining 773 pages contained in the present volume Mr. Randell is responsible.
Dr. Pusey commissioned Mr. Randell to complete his son's work in 1880, and took the greatest interest in its progress. On March 10th, 1880, he writes to Mr. Randell:----
"There is no hurry about the translation of S.Cyril. I only wished to have my dear son's work completed. Mr. Jebb, I think, thought his translation rather quaint; so it would not be a model for you. Every one must translate in the way most natural to himself. I should think that you would do well to read yourself into S. Cyril's style before you begin the actual translation. It will flow rapidly then. Your translation will, I fear, be at a disadvantage, because it begins with fragments of the lost books."
Mr. Randell, it need not be said, acted on the advice contained in this letter. In November, 1881, Dr. Pusey again writes to Mr. Randell, expressing |vi his pleasure at the progress of the work, and adding: "At 81, I am glad not to leave things unsettled." In January, 1882, Dr. Pusey once more writes:----
"I have just had the first 52 pages of your MS., as set up, to read over. I have ventured to change the προτείχισμα, which you had rendered 'fortification,' into 'outer wall,' for it represents [Hebrew]; but perhaps you left it on purpose, as our version always renders by some general term 3. I only looked at the pages to see that they came to you, as they should. But I found that they read pleasantly, which is a great gain for a writer who uses so many compound words as S. Cyril."
In truth, the difficulty of translating S. Cyril lies not only in his compound words but in his long and involved sentences----the product of his sustained and anxious thought. But the correction thus suggested is the only one made by Dr. Pusey. Dr. Pusey read through and approved of the first 176 pages of the present volume, which alone were set up in type before he was himself taken from us, at Ascot Priory, on September 16th, 1882.
Dr. Pusey's death, as was inevitable, seriously interrupted the progress of the work. The Holy Rood Press, at which the book was being printed, was broken up. In Dr. Pusey the last surviving editor of the Library of the Fathers was withdrawn from this earthly scene. Dr. Pusey's executors were for |vii some time engaged in making arrangements with a new publisher, and other difficulties presented themselves. But at length a fresh beginning was made. From page 177 onward the volume has been printed at the Oxford Clarendon Press; and every care has been taken to secure uniformity, not only between the two portions of this volume, but also between the whole volume and its predecessor.
Indeed the work, as a whole, has been considerably enriched by Mr. Randell's industry. Through an inadvertence, some copies of the first volume had no Table of Contents, while other copies were furnished with an erroneous one. In order to remedy this as far as possible, Mr. Randell has provided the present volume with a Table of the Contents of both. The first volume, too, was published without any Index. At the end of the present volume are subjoined full Indexes to both. The translator has also been careful to note in the margin of the second volume those passages of the Commentary in which the translation has been made from the Syriac version.
It may not be undesirable to remind the reader that S. Cyril used a text of the New Testament which is not quite identical either with that of any known ancient manuscript, or with any conjectural text that has been constructed by modern scholars, or with the Textus Receptus. Accordingly, in translating passages of the New Testament that occur in the present volume----whether passages of the Holy Evangelist upon whom S. Cyril is commenting, or |viii incidental quotations in the Commentary itself----especial care has been taken to render S. Cyril's own text as exactly as possible. Whenever therefore the rendering is not identical either with the Authorised or the Revised Version, the reader may be assured that there is a corresponding difference in the Greek or Syriac text as exhibited by S. Cyril. Moreover, quotations from the Old Testament will often be found to differ from the corresponding passages of our English Bible, because they are taken from the Greek version of the Septuagint, and not from the original Hebrew text.
Mr. Randell is anxious to express his gratitude for generous assistance which he has received from many kind friends in the course of his work. Among Greek Scholars who have helped him are Sir William J. Herschel, Bart., M.A.; C. H. Sampson, Esq., M.A., Fellow of Brasenose College; H. P. Palmer, Esq., M.A., and A. P. Moore, Esq., M.A., both of Wadham College; and, in one case of considerable difficulty, the Rev. Dr. Bright, Regius-Professor of Ecclesiastical History. In translating the Syriac he has been aided by the Very Rev. Dr. Payne-Smith, Dean of Canterbury, and his accomplished daughter, Miss Jessie Payne-Smith; by the Rev. Dr. Driver, Regius Professor of Hebrew; and by the Rev. F. H. Woods, B.D., of S. John's College. When correcting the proofs and preparing the Indexes, he had to thank Arthur T. Bott, Esq., B.A., for time and trouble freely placed at his disposal. |ix
Not many weeks after his son's death, Dr. Pusey said, in the course of conversation, to the present writer:----
"I cannot help hoping, that if dear Philip is allowed, now or hereafter, to be anywhere near S. Cyril in another world, S. Cyril may be able to show him some kindness, considering all that Philip has done in these later years to make S. Cyril's writings better known to our countrymen."
Since these words were uttered father and son have met again after their brief separation. And it may be that they have also been permitted to hold converse with the great Alexandrian Father before the Throne of that adorable and deeply-loved Redeemer, Whose Glory, Divine and Human, each of the three, according to his measure and opportunity in the days of earthly work and trial, did so much to set forth.
H. P. LIDDON.
CHRIST CHURCH,
Feast of All Saints, 1885.
[Footnotes moved to the end]
1. 1 Preface to Translation of S. Cyril against Nest., p. cv.; dated Christmas Eve, 1881.
2. 2 Vol. I., Preface, p. viii.
3. 3 This correction was adopted, cf. p. 10.
|xi
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
VOL. I.
PREFACE to Vol. I. by Dr. Pusey............................................ vii
Introduction......................................................................... 1
BOOK I.
Comprising S. John i. 1-i. 26.
CHAP.
Introduction to Book I............................................................. 7
1. Comprising the First Part of S. John i. 1.............................. 11
2. " " Second Part of S. John i. 1........................... 16
3. " " Third Part of S. John i. 1............................... 22
4. " S. John i. 2...................................................... 34
5. " " i. 3...................................................... 50
6. " the First Part of S. John i. 4.............................. 57
7. " " Second Part of S. John i. 4-i. 8..................... 62
8. " " First Part of S. John i. 9.............................. 75
9. " " Second Part of S. John i. 9-i. 17.................. 84
10. " S. John i. 18-i. 26.......................................... 120
BOOK II.
Comprising S. John i. 29-v. 34.
Introduction to Book II., comprising S. John i. 29-i. 31............ 131
1. Comprising S. John i. 32-iii. 30.......................................... 134
2. " " iii. 31, 32............................................. 184
3. " " iii. 33, 34............................................. 190
4. " " iii. 35-iv. 21......................................... 195
5. " " iv. 22-v. 18......................................... 212
6. " " v. 19-v. 21........................................... 246
7. " " v. 22.................................................... 258
8. " " v. 23-v. 29........................................... 261
9. " " v. 30-v. 34........................................... 274
|xii
BOOK III.
Comprising S. John v. 35-vi. 37.
CHAP. PAGE
1. Comprising S. John v. 35-v. 37.......................................... 286
2. " " v. 37-v. 46......................................... 294
3. Concerning the Prophecy in Deut. xviii. 15-19..................... 307
4. Comprising S.John vi. 1-vi. 27.......................................... 312
5. " " vi. 27-vi. 31....................................... 348
6. " " vi. 32-vi. 37....................................... 361
BOOK IV.
Comprising S. John vi. 38-vii. 24.
1. Comprising S. John vi. 38-vi. 47....................................... 883
2. " " vi. 48-vi. 56....................................... 406
3. " " vi. 57-vi. 67....................................... 424
4. " " vi. 68-vi. 71....................................... 444
5. " " vii. 1-vii. 22....................................... 458
6. " " vii. 23, 24.......................................... 487
7. " " vii. 24................................................ 498
BOOK V.
Comprising S. John vii. 25-viii. 43.
Introduction to Book V., comprising S. John vii. 25-vii. 29... 512
1. Comprising S. John vii. 30-vii. 88....................................... 523
2. " " vii. 39-viii. 19.................................... 546
3. " " viii. 20-viii. 23.................................... 577
4. " " viii. 23-viii. 28.................................... 586
5. " " viii. 28-viii. 43..................................... 606
BOOK VI.
Introduction, comprising S. John viii. 44-ix. 1..................... 650
|xiii
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
VOL. II.
Preface to Vol. II. by Dr. Liddon............................................. iii
BOOK VI.
CHAP.
1. Comprising S. John ix. 2-x. 17.......................................... 1
BOOK VII. (Fragments of).
Comprising S. John x. 18-xii. 2...................................... 92
BOOK VIII. (Fragments of).
Comprising S. John xii. 3-xii. 48....................................... 138
BOOK IX.
Comprising S. John xii. 49-xiv. 20.
Introduction, comprising S. John xii. 49-xiv. 10................ 167
1. Comprising S.John xiv.11-xiv. 20.................................... 264
BOOK X.
Comprising S. John xiv. 21-xvi. 13.
Introduction, comprising S. John xiv. 21-xiv. 28................. 324
1. Comprising S. John xiv. 28-xiv. 31.................................... 344
2. " " xv. 1-xvi. 13....................................... 363
|xiv
BOOK XI.
Comprising S. John xvi. 14-xviii. 23.
CHAP. PAGE
1. Comprising S. John xvi. 14................................................ 454
2. " " xvi. 15-xvi. 33.................................... 457
3. " " xvii. 1................................................ 478
4. " " xvii. 2................................................ 483
5. " " xvii. 3................................................ 487
6. " " xvii. 4, 5............................................. 491
7. Comprising S.John xvii. 6-xvii. 8....................................... 498
8. " " xvii. 9-xvii. 11.................................... 506
9. " " xvii. 11-xvii. 17................................. 511
10 " " xvii. 18, 19.......................................... 533
11. " " xvii. 20, 21.......................................... 544
12. " " xvii. 22-xviii. 23................................. 553
BOOK XII.
Comprising S. John xviii. 24-xxi. 25.
Introduction, comprising S. John xviii. 24-xx. 17.................. 590
1. Comprising S. John xx. 17-xxi. 25....................................... 661
|xv
SUBJECTS DISCUSSED OR ILLUSTRATED IN VOL. I.
God the Father: Love of, 174. Mercy of, 176. Omnipotence of, 14.
The Father and Son: Co-existent, 13, 15. Co-inherence of, 13, 32, 123, 192, 427 et seq., 572, 575, 665, 674. Consubstantial, 17, 22, 58 et seq., 147, 174, 243, 246 et seq., 266 et seq., 349 et seq., 389, 404. Equality of, 23 et seq., 54, 55, 245 et seq., 261 et seq., 274 et seq., 576, 607, 611.
The Son: Atonement of, 132, 148. Begotten of the Father, 13, 14, 159, 478, 520, 568, 584. Bridegroom, 157, 182. Conception bv the Holy Ghost, 637, 642. Divinity of, 111, 115, 153, 183, 166, 174, 281, 292, 295, 308, 322, 395, 400, 415, 424, 522, 556, 586, 600, 604, 607 et seq., 661, 676, et passim. Eternity of, 7 et seq., 193, 254, 644, 680. Incarnation of, 108 et seq., 138, 197, 547 et seq. Inherent authority of, 258. Judge, 270 et seq., 432, 570, 597. Lawgiver, 309, 313. Manhood of, 204, 214, 218, 252, 293, 309, 328, 334, 424, 671. Mediator, 308. Omniscience of, 201, 457, 477, 611. Oneness of, 172, 348, 435, 453, 455, 563. Perfect God, 24 et seq., 62 et seq., 135 et seq.
The Holy Spirit: Divinity and Consubstantiality of, 107, 167. Gift of, 142, 194, 207, 547. The Spirit of the Son, 80, 106, 108, 111, 143, 145, 251, 436, 438, 547, 548, 550, 552. Union of Son and, 145, 194, 436 et seq.
The Holy Trinity: Distinction of Persons in, 17 et seq., 43, 54, 147, 300, 355 et seq., 402, 612. Equality of the Persons of, 264. Unity in, 53, 277, 304, 386, 401, 425, 618.
Arius, 22 et seq., 204.
Baptism, Holy, 129,168,178,182, 294, 551.
Eucharist, The, 347, 374 et seq., 411, 417 et seq.
Eunomius, 35.
Faith, Gradual growth of, 165.
Free-will, 526 et seq.
Gentiles, Reception of, and rejection of Jews, 102, 158, 160, 202, 223, 230, 235, 316, 332, 334, 379, 440, 458, 467, 542, 563, 596, 603, 683 et seq.
Law, Prophecies and types of, 126, 127, 173, 307 et seq., 317, 361 et seq., 400, 407, 412, 445 et seq., 466, 474, 491 et seq., 543 et seq., 624, 636, 653, et passim. Superiority of Gospel to, 118,119, 176. Typical and imperfect nature of, 106, 158, 228.
Marriage, 155.
Resurrection, 199, 270, 410.
Sabbath, The, 242.
SOUL, Immortality of, 109. Not pre-existent, 90 et seq.
|xvi
SUBJECTS DISCUSSED OR ILLUSTRATED IN VOL. II.
God the Father, 500 et seq. Perfection of, 9.
The Father and Son: Co-inherence of, 264 et seq., 544 et seq. Consubstantial, 93, 99, 105, 153, 162,165,168,171,175, 221, 242 et seq., 255 et seq., 352 et seq., 363 et seq., 481, 498, et passim. Equality of, 94, 102, 105, 344 et seq., 431. One Will of, 93.
The Son, 55, et passim. Begotten of the Father, 83, 128, 162, 169, 247, 258 et seq. Creator, 19, 27, 419. Divinity of, 50, 57, 81, 82, 84, 86, 92, 99, 101, 117, 130, 141, 148, 149, 155, 157, 162, 164, 169, 181, 202, 209, 213, 235, 246 et seq., 256 et seq., 352, 427, 439, 471, 486 et seq., 511 et seq., 523 et seq., 564 et seq., 613, 664, 666, 683, et passim. Incarnation of, 93, 100, 139, 169, 170, 233, 245, 263, 315 et seq., 345, 394, 441 et seq., 517, 521, 541. Manhood of, 83, 84, 86, 101, 121, 122,126,148,150,155,165,243, 301, 348, 439,482,503,526,665. Mediator, 243, 465. Omnipotence of, 516. Omniscience of, 111, 173, 202, 473. Oneness of, 56, 146, 213, 693. Perfect God, 128, 221. Procession of, 265. Uncreate, 257.
The Holy Spirit: Divinity of, 304. Faith in, 305. Gift of, 73, 386, 675. Procession of, 265. The Spirit of the Son, 269, 302, 318, 321, 326, 338, 451, 454 et seq. Uncreate, 331. The Work of, 363 et seq., 443, 444, 449, 536 et seq., 551, 592, 680.
The Holy Trinity: Distinction of Persons in, 102, 108, 233, 264, 303. Faith in, 233, 244. Unity in, 102, 107, 108, 127, 159, 162, 165, 192, 234, 250, 255, 262 et seq., 296, 307 et seq., 355, 364 et seq., 432, 534.
Arius, 154.
Baptism, Holy, 19, 20, 54, 109, 119, 177, 645, 659.
Eucharist, The, 19, 20, 100, 200, 370, 550, 645, 659, 684.
Eunomius, 154.
FAITH, Confession of, necessary, 119. Power of, 125. Produces spiritual worship, 58. Proper object of, 55. Rewarded, 54, 470, 691. Safeguard, A, 233. Without works is dead, 187, 376, 389 et seq.
Free-will, 188, 518 et seq.
Gentiles, Reception of, and rejection of Jews, 18, 22, 43, 57, 87, 88, 109, 134, 142, 145, 146, 156, 379, 626.
Law, Prophecies and types of, 38, 45, 47, 80, 87, 88, 157, 160, 167, 168, 197, 208, 236, 346, 348, 359, 429, 507, 583, 594, 605, 606, 609, 615, 618, 621, 622, 628, 630, 636, 637, 639, 645, 686, 689. Superiority of Gospel to, 66, 100, 156, 216, 217, 406, 424, 430, 528, 574, 576, 696 et seq. Typical and imperfect nature of, 43, 168, 335, 627, 631, 639, 673.
Manes, 152, 165.
Ordination, 66, 672.
Prayer, 128.
Punishments, 1 et seq. Resurrection, 73, 85, 117, 131, 315, 557, 682. The life after, 74, 325, 467.
Sabbath, The, 23 et seq.
Soul, Not pre-existent, 2.
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Early Church Fathers - Additional Texts
SOURCE SECTION: cyril_on_john_00_praefatio.htm
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, LFC 43, 48 (1874/1885) Praefatio. pp. 1-5.
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, LFC 43, 48 (1874/1885) Praefatio. pp. 1-5.
S. CYRIL,
ARCHBISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA.
INTERPRETATION OR COMMENT ON THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN.
[Translated by P. E. Pusey]
INTRODUCTION.
THE LORD will give utterance to them who evangelize with much power, declareth exceeding well the Psalmist. But I deem that they who ought to approach this, are, not mere chance persons, but those who have been illumined with the grace that is from above, seeing that both All wisdom is from the Lord, as it is written, and Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights. For a thing unsure and not unfraught with peril to the many, is the speaking concerning the Essence that is above all, and the Mysteries belonging thereunto, and silence on these subjects is free from danger. Us nevertheless albeit deeming that we have much need of silence, God Who is over all excludes from this, saying to one of the Saints (this was Paul), Speak and hold not thy peace. And no less does the ordinance of the Law shew this, indicating things spiritual in the grosser type. For it enjoins those who have been called to the Divine Priesthood, to declare to the people by the sound of trumpets, about those things which they ought to learn. For God, when He willed to set forth in His laws most excellent things, did not I deem intend that the leaders of the people should lay their hand on their mouth, as it is written, and, in fear of appearing rashly to attempt things above the mind of man, hold back from the doctrine that is so necessary for those who are being instructed in piety and the knowledge of God, and choose a silence perilous to those who are their disciples. But the Disciple of Christ again terrifies us, saying Be not many masters, and moreover the |2 most wise Preacher too, darkly shewing the peril that exists in the teaching of such things. For, says he, he that cleaveth wood, shall be endangered thereby; if the iron head fall, both himself hath troubled his face and he shall strengthen powers. For he likens the keenness of the mind to the iron-head, in that it is of a nature to pierce through, and sinks in to the innermost parts, even though it be resisted by the thickness and close texture of the wood. Wood again he in a figure calls the thoughts that are in Holy Scripture, which render the Books wherein they are a kind of Spiritual Paradise, and yet more than this, full with the fruitfulness that comes of the Holy Ghost. He that endeavours therefore to unfold the spiritual wood, that is the Divine and Mystic thoughts of Divinely-inspired Scripture by means of insearch, and most accurate grasp and keenness of mind, will run very deep risk, saith he, when the iron-head slippeth, that is when the mind not carried to a true understanding of the things which are written, misses the right perception, and having left, as it were, the straight path, is borne on some other way of thought turned aside from what is fitting. Whereupon he will place in jeopardy the face of his soul, that is, his heart, and will invigorate against himself the bad opposing powers, who with their bitter perverse words sophisticate the mind of those who have gone astray; not suffering it to behold the beauty of truth, but manifoldly perverting it and persuading it to go astray after mad thoughts. For no one calleth Jesus Anathema save in Beelzebub.
And let no one deem, himself astray, that the exposition of the above is astray, or otherwise of false reasoning. For Divine Scripture does sometimes, as we said before, call the thoughts of Holy Scripture wood. And indeed the God Who is over all says something on this sort through the all-wise Moses to those at that time: When thou shalt besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof by forcing an axe against them, for thou mayest eat of them and thou shalt not cut them down: (is the tree of the forest a man, to go before thee unto the palisade?) Only the trees which thou knowest that they be |3 not trees for meat, thou shalt destroy and cut them down, But that the God of all would not have deemed it worth to prescribe to us such things, if it were to be understood only of trees of the earth, is I suppose clear to every one, yet I think one ought to shew from another command also that He is very unsparing of these, and takes not account of them. For what I pray does He enjoin should be done to the false-called gods? Ye shall destroy their altars, saith He, and break down their images, and cut down their groves. And by His own altar He no way suffers any tree to be cultivated. For He plainly declares: Thou shalt not plant thee a grove of any trees near unto the altar of the Lord thy God. And if one must add anything to this, I will speak after the manner of most wise Paul. Both God take care for trees? or saith He it altogether for our sakes? by grosser examples leading us by the hand to the idea of spiritual things.
Let us now say that the writings of the unholy heretics may be considered as cities, and fortified, haply not without skill, by the wisdom of the world, and the intricate deceits of their cogitations. There comes to storm them, and in some sort environs and sits round them taking the shield of the faith and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, every one who agonizes for the holy dogmas of the Church, and sets himself in array with all his strength against their false-speaking, studying to cast down imaginations, as Paul saith, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. When then, He says, such a soldier of Christ compasses, as a land of aliens, the bitter writings of heresies, and lights upon the best cultivated trees, that is, if he find words from the Divinely-inspired Scripture, or things spoken by the Prophets or even testimonies from the New Testament, wrested unto their own purpose, let him not apply his mental acumen, like a sort of tool, to destroy and cut them down. For not because taken hold of by those who know not to interpret it aright, is therefore that which proceeds of the Mouth of God to be wholly rejected too: but since it is fruit-bearing, it shall be to thee rather as a help |4 and for food. For turning round unto the right argument of the faith that which is sometimes foolishly taken by them, not only shall we not be caught unstrung, but rather are we nerved into words against heresy. But he subjoins forthwith an argument persuading the hearers, that the onslaught of the advocate for the truth should be made, not for the overthrow of the Divine oracles, but for the destruction of what is non-rightly said by the opponents. For is, it says, the tree of the forest a man, to go before thee unto the palisade? For do you suppose, he says, that the utterance of the holy writings, will of its own self rise up against thee to battle, like one of the arch-heretics, and is not rather wronged by their madness? Do not then cut it down, says it, but let it be to thee as food also; only the trees which thou knowest that they be not trees for meat, thou shalt destroy and cut them down. For uneatable by them who would think aright, is the fruit of those men's writings: against them let every tool come: there let the might of the spiritual wood-men be shewn, upon them let the axe of strength in advocacy glitter. For the uselessness and unprofitableness of the babbling of the heterodox the Prophet Hosea also most excellently interprets to us saying: A stalk having no strength to yield meal; if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up. For they that are diligent to estrange themselves from friendship with God, shall feast themselves on the weak and old-wife tale of those people's unlearning. As then I was saying at the beginning (for I think we must go back to that), most exceeding hard is the exposition of the Divine mysteries, and better perchance were silence, but since thy much speech persuadeth us, O most labour-loving brother, to offer the work, as a sort of fruit of our lips, and spiritual sacrifice, this too will I not shrink from doing, encouraging myself in God who maketh wise the blind, and seeketh at our hands not surely that which is above us, but accepteth equally the offerings of poor men. For him that would offer a gift for a burnt-sacrifice to the Lord, as is put in the beginning of Leviticus, the lawgiver having enjoined an offering of the herd and having moreover herein set down |5 the measure of the honour of the type, he again lowers it, saying that they who cannot attain to this, should sacrifice of the flock. And well did he know that sad and inexorable poverty will render some powerless even to this: therefore he says, he shall bring his offering of turtledoves or of young pigeons. But him that comes yet short of these too, and approaches with the most insignificant offerings, he honours. For says he, his offering shall be fine flour, defining an offering easily procurable I suppose by every one and not too oppressive to the deepest poverty. For the lawgiver well knew (I think) that better and more excellent is it to bear fruit even a little, than to be wholly bereft of it and through shame of seeming to come short of others' gifts, to rush forward to the conclusion that it needs not to honour the Lord of all.
Persuaded then with reason by all these things, and having dismissed from my mind unreadiness, the ally of silence, I will deem it my duty to honour my Lord with what I have, discourse wholesome and joyous to the readers, like fine flour bedewed with oil: and we will begin the Book of John, taking in hand an exceeding great work, yet by reason of faith, not unstrung. And that we shall say and think less than is meet, we must unhesitatingly confess. But the great difficulty of the book, or to speak more truly, the weakness of our understanding, will persuade us to ask meet pardon for this.
Turning about on every hand our discourse to the more dogmatical exposition, we will set it in array, according to our power, against the false doctrines of them that teach otherwise, not stretching it forth to its full extent, but even retrenching superfluity, and studying to render it not lacking fitness. The subjoined subscription of the chapters, will shew the subjects over which our discourse extends, to which we have also annexed numbers, that what is sought may be readily found by the readers.
[Page running titles]
2 Danger of speaking of sacred things, uncalled.
Books of heretics, like cities of aliens. 3
4 God accepts the offerings
of poor men. 5
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Greek text is rendered using unicode.
Early Church Fathers - Additional Texts
SOURCE SECTION: cyril_on_john_01_book .htm
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, LFC 43, 48 (1874/1885) Book 1. pp. 6-129.
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, LFC 43, 48 (1874/1885) Book 1. pp. 6-129.
[Translated by P. E. Pusey]
|6
CHAPTERS IN BOOK I.
CHAPTER 1. That Everlasting and before the ages is the Only-Begotten, on the words, In the beginning was the Word.
CHAPTER 2. That the Son being Consubstantial with the Father is also God in His own Person, even as also the Father, on the words, And the Word was with God.
CHAPTER 3. That the Son is also God by Nature, in nowise either inferior to, or unlike the Father, on the words, And the Word was God.
CHAPTER 4. Against those who dare to say, that the conceived and natural Word in God the Father is one, and He that is called Son by the Divine Scriptures another (such is the misconceit of Eunomius' party), on the words, This was in the beginning with God.
CHAPTER 5. That the Son is by Nature Creator with the Father, as being of His Essence, and not taken to Him as a minister, on the words, All things were made by Him.
CHAPTER 6. That the Son is by Nature Life, and therefore not originate, but of the Essence of God the Father, on the words, That which was made, in it was Life.
CHAPTER 7. That the Son is by Nature Light, and therefore not originate, but of the Essence of God the Father as Very Light' from Very Light, on the words, And the Life was the Light of men.
CHAPTER 8. That the Son of God alone is Very Light, the creature not at all, being participate of Light, as originate, on the words, He was the Very Light.
CHAPTER 9. That the soul of man does not exist prior to the body, nor is the embodiment a consequence of former sins, as some say, on the words, He was the Very Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world: He was in the world.
CHAPTER 10. That the Only-begotten is alone by Nature the Son from the Father, as being of Him and in Him, on the words, No man hath seen God at any time. |7
EXEGETIC COMMENTARY
GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN
OF OUR
HOLY FATHER CYRIL
Archbishop of Alexandria.
BOOK I.
[Introduction]
Exact of a truth, and God-taught is the mind of the holy Evangelists, from the splendour of their power to behold, as from some lofty mountain-spur and watch-peak, on all sides observing what is of profit to the hearers, and tracking with intent zeal whatever may seem to be of profit to those who thirst after the truth of the Divine dogmas and with good purpose search after the mind that is hidden in the Divine Scriptures. For not in those who search too curiously, and take pleasure in the many-tangled wiles of reasonings, rather than rejoice in the truth, does the Spirit make His revelation, since neither does He enter into a malicious soul, nor otherwise does He suffer His precious 'pearls to be rolled at the feet of swine. But with exceeding pleasure does He have fellowship with simpler minds, as having a more guileless motion, and shunning superfluous subtleties, whereto specially pertains the meeting with sudden fear, and from too great turning aside unto the right hand to err from the straight and royal road. For he that walketh simply walketh surely, as saith Solomon.
But while the holy Evangelists have a marvellous exactness in writing (for it is not they that speak, as the Saviour saith, but the Spirit of the Father which is in them): reasonably may one grant that the Book of John has been composed beyond all marvel, looking both to the supereminence of his thoughts, the keenness of his intellect, and the constant and |8 close-succeeding cumulation of conceptions. For course-fellows are they one with, another in the exposition of the Divine dogmas, and loosing as it were from the starting line they course charioteers to one goal. But a diverse fashion of speech is wrought out by them, and they appear to me to resemble persons, who are ordered to come together unto one city, but care not to approach it by one and the same beaten road. Thus one may see the other Evangelists with great exactness giving the account of our Saviour's genealogy in the Flesh, and bringing down step by step those from Abraham unto Joseph, or again carrying up those from Joseph to Adam. But we find the blessed John not caring to be over-studious about these, but with a most fervent and fire-full motion of intellect endeavouring to lay hold of those very things that are above human mind, and daring to explain the unspeakable and unutterable Generation of God the Word. For he knew that the glory of God hideth speech, and greater than our idea and utterance is the God-befitting dignity, and hard to utter and most difficult of unfolding are the properties of the Divine Nature.
But since it was necessary in some sort to mete out heaven with the span, and to suffer the scant measures of human nature to approach to what is by all unattainable and hard to be explained, that the approach might not be opened out for those who teach otherwise to come against the more simple, in that no voice of the saints who have been eyewitnesses and ministers of the word held in check their ill-surmisings, keen comes he to the very essence of the Divine dogmas, crying aloud, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word, was with God and the Word was God: the Same was in the beginning with God.
But I think that those who are engaged on the Holy Scriptures ought to admit all writings that are honest and good and free from harm. For thus collecting together the varied thoughts of many and bringing them together into one scope and understanding, they will mount up to a good measure of knowledge, and imitating the bee, wise workwoman, will compact the sweet honeycomb of the Spirit. |9
Some then of those of most research, say that after our Saviour's Cross and Ascension into Heaven, certain false shepherds and false teachers falling like wild beasts on the Saviour's flocks terrified them not a little, speaking out of their own heart, as it is written, and not out of the mouth of the Lord; yea rather, not merely out of their own heart, but out of the teachings of their own father, I mean the devil. For if no one can call Jesus Anathema, save in Beelzebub, how is not what we say of them clearly true? What things then are they which these men belched forth against their own head? They ignorantly and impiously affirmed that the Only-Begotten Word of God, the Eternal Light, in Whom we both move and are, was then first called into being, when He was born Man of the Holy Virgin, and taking this our common fashion, shewed Himself upon earth, as it is written, and conversed with men. On those then who are thus disposed, and who dare to slander the ineffable and eternal Generation of the Son, the word of the Prophet comes heavily, saying thus: But draw near hither, ye sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulteress and the whore, against whom do ye sport yourselves? against whom make ye a wide mouth and draw out the tongue? not bringing forth good things out of a good heart, but spueing forth the venom of the blood-defiled dragon, of whom saith the Psalmist unto the one God That is over all: Thou brakest the heads of the dragons in the waters.
But since there was no slight disturbance in regard to these things amongst them that had believed, and the ill of the scandal thereof was consuming like a plague the souls of the simpler (for some drawn away from the true doctrines by their prattle imagined that the Word was then barely called to the beginning of Being, when He became Man), those of the believers who were wiser being assembled and met together, came to the Disciple of the Saviour (I mean this John) and declared the disease that was pressing upon the brethren, and unfolded to him the prattle of them that teach otherwise, and besought that he would both strenuously assist themselves with the illumination through the Spirit, |10 and stretch forth a saving hand to those who were already within the devil's meshes.
The disciple grieving then over them that were lost and corrupted in mind, and at the same time thinking it most unnatural to take no forethought for those that should succeed and come after, betakes himself to making the book: and the more human side, the genealogy of the legal and natural Birth according to the flesh, he left to the other Evangelists to tell at fuller length; himself with extreme ardour and courage of soul springs upon the prattle of those who are introducing such things, saying, IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD. |11
CHAPTER I. That Everlasting and before the ages is the Only-Begotten.
What do they say to this [namely, In the beginning was the Word] who introduce to us the Son, as one new and of late, that so He may no longer be believed to be even God at all. For, says the Divine Scripture, there shall no new God be in thee. How then is He not new, if He were begotten in the last times? How did He not speak falsely when He said to the Jews, Verily I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am? For plain is it and confessed by all, that many ages after the blessed Abraham was Christ born of the Holy Virgin. How at all will the words was in the beginning remain and come to anything, if the Only-Begotten came into being at the close of the ages? See I pray by the following arguments too how great absurdity, this cutting short the Eternal Being of the Son, and imagining that He came into being in the last times, yields.
But this same word of the Evangelist shall be proposed again for a finer test:
In the Beginning was the Word.
Than the beginning is there nothing older, if it have, retained to itself, the definition of the beginning (for a beginning of beginning there cannot be); or it will wholly depart from being in truth a beginning, if something else be imagined before it and arise before it. Otherwise, if anything can precede what is truly beginning, our language respecting it will go off to infinity, another beginning ever cropping up before, and making second the one under investigation.
There will then be no beginning of beginning, according to exact and true reasoning, but the account of it will recede unto the long-extended and incomprehensive. And |12 since its ever-backward flight has no terminus, and reaches up to the limit of the ages, the Son will be found to have been not made in time, but rather invisibly existing with the Father: for in the beginning was He. But if He was in the beginning, what mind, tell me, can over-leap the force of the was? When will the was stay as at its terminus, seeing that it ever runs before the pursuing reasoning, and springs forward before the conception that follows it?
Astonishment-stricken whereat the Prophet Isaiah says, Who shall declare His generation? for His Life is lifted from the earth. For verily lifted from the earth is the tale of the generation of the Only-Begotten, that is, it is above all understanding of those who are on the earth and above all reason, so as to be in short inexplicable. But if it is above our mind and speech, how will He be originate, seeing that our understanding is not powerless to clearly define both as to time and manner things originate?
To look in another way at the same, In the Beginning was the Word.
It is not possible to take beginning, understood in any way of time, of the Only-Begotten, seeing that He is before all time and hath His Being before the ages, and, yet more, the Divine Nature, shuns the limit of a terminus. For It will be ever the same, according to what is sung in the Psalms, But Thou art the Same and Thy years shall have no end. From what beginning then measured in respect of time and dimension will the Son proceed, Who endureth not to hasten to any terminus, in that He is God by Nature, and therefore crieth, I am the Life? For no beginning will ever be conceived of by itself that does not look to its own end, since beginning is so called in reference to end, end again in reference to beginning. But the beginning we are pointing to in this instance is that relating to time and dimension. Hence, since the Son is elder than the ages themselves, He will be free of any generation in time; and He ever was in the Father as in a Source, according to that which |13 He Himself said, I came forth from the Father and am come. The Father then being considered as the Source, the Word was in Him, being His Wisdom and Power and Express Image and Radiance and Likeness. And if there was no time when the Father was without Word and Wisdom and Express Image and Radiance, needs is it to confess too that the Son Who is all these to the Everlasting Father, is Everlasting. For how at all is He Express Image, how Exact Likeness, except He be plainly formed after that Beauty, Whose Likeness He also is?
Nor is it any objection to conceive of the Son being in the Father as in a Source: for the word source here only means the "whence." But the Son is in the Father, and of the Father, not as made externally, nor in time, but being in the Essence of the Father and flashing forth from Him, as from the sun its radiance, or as from fire its innate heat. For in such examples, one may see one thing generated of another, but yet ever co-existing and inseparable, so that one cannot exist of itself apart from the other, and yet preserve the true condition of its own nature. For how can there be sun which has not radiance, or how radiance without sun being within to irradiate it? how fire, if it have not heat? whence heat, save from fire, or from some other thing not removed from the essential quality of fire? As then in these, the in-existence of the things that are of them does not take away their co-existence, but indicates the things generated ever keeping pace with their generators and possessed of one nature so to speak with them, so too is it with the Son. For even if He be conceived and said to be in the Father and of the Father, He will not come before us as alien and strange and a Being second to Him, but as in Him and co-existing ever, and shining forth from Him, according to the ineffable mode of the Divine generation.
But that God the Father is spoken of by the saints too as the Beginning of the Son in the sense only of "whence," hear the Psalmist through the Holy Ghost foretelling the second Appearance of our Saviour and saying as to the Son: With Thee the Beginning in the Day of Thy Power in the beauty of |14 Thy Saints. For the day of the Son's Power is that whereon He shall judge the world and render to every one according to his works. Yerily shall He then come, Himself in the Father, and having in Himself the Father, the so to say unbeginning Beginning of His Nature in regard only to the "whence," by reason of His Being of the Father.
In the Beginning was the Word.
Unto many and various ideas does our discourse respecting the here signified beginning diversify itself, on all sides zealous to capture things that tend to profit, and after the manner of a hound, tracking the true apprehension of the Divine dogmas, and exactitude in the mysteries. For search, saith the Saviour, the Holy Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of Me. The Blessed Evangelist, then, seems here to name the Father Ἀρχὴ 1, that is the Power over all, that the Divine Nature Which is over all may be shewn, having under Its feet every thing which is originate, and borne above those things which are by It called into being.
In this Ἀρχὴ then that is above all and over all was the Word, not, with all things, under Its feet, but apart from all things, in It by Nature as Its Co-Eternal Fruit, having the Nature of Him Who begat Him as it were a place the most ancient of all. Wherefore He Begotten Free of Free Father, will with Him possess the Sovereignty over all. What then now too will be the nature of the argument in this, it is meet to see.
Hazardful have certain, as we said above, asserted that the Word of God was then first called into being, when taking the Temple that is of the Holy Virgin He became Man for us. What then will be the consequence, if the Son's Nature be thus, or originate and made and of like nature with all things else, to which birth out of not being, and the name and fact of servitude, are rightfully and truly predicated? For what of things that are made can with impunity escape servitude under the God That is Lord of all? |15 what does not stoop under the sovereignty and power and lordship that is over all, which Solomon himself too signifies to us when he says, For the throne of Sovereignty is established with righteousness? For ready and exceeding prepared unto righteousness is the Throne of the Sovereignty, that I mean which is over all. And what throne that is of which we are now speaking, hear God saying by one of the Saints, The Heaven is My Throne. Ready therefore unto righteousness is the Heaven, that is, the holy spirits in the heavens.
Since then one must needs confess that the Son is with the rest of the creatures subject to God the Father, as having the position of a servant, and together with the rest falling under the authority of the Ἀρχὴ, if He be according to them late in Birth and one of those who have been made in time:----of necessity does the Blessed Evangelist spring with energy on those who teach otherwise, and withdraw the Son from all bondage. And he shews that He is of the Essence that is Free and Sovereign over all, and declares that He is in Him by Nature saying, In the beginning was the Word.
But to the word Ἀρχὴ he fitly annexes the was, that He may be thought of as not only of renown, but also before the ages. For the word was is here put, carrying on the idea of the thinker to some deep and incomprehensible Generation, the Ineffable Generation that is outside of time. For that was, spoken indefinitely, at what point will it rest, its nature being ever to push forward before the pursuing mind, and whatever point of rest any might suppose that it has, that it makes the starting point of its further course? The Word was then in the Ἀρχὴ, that is in Sovereignty over all things, and possessing the dignity of Lord, as being by Nature from It. But if this be true, how is He any longer originate or made? And where the was wholly is, how will the "was not" come in, or what place will it have at all as regards the Son? |16
CHAPTER II. That the Son being Consubstantial with the Father is also God in His Own Person, even as also the Father.
And the Word was with God.
Having sufficiently shewn that already out of date and astray from the truth is the senseless mind of those who hold such opinions, and having, by saying In the beginning was the Word, closed every loophole to those who say that the Son is of the things that are not, and having utterly stripped off all their nonsense in these words, he goes to another akin and most perverse heresy. And like as some gardener at once most excellent and enduring, delights much in the toils of the mattock, and girding his loins, and in the working-dress befitting him, gives all diligence to present the appearance of his park free from the unseemliness of thorns, and ceases not throwing one upon another, and, ever going round about, removes the troublesome root, applying the stern tooth of the mattock; so the blessed John too, bearing in his mind the quick and powerful and most sharp word of God and considering with keenest glance and clearest attention the bitter shoots of the naughtiness of those who think otherwise, comes upon them so to speak at a run, and with mighty resolution cuts them off on every side, to those who read his books ministering defence in the right faith.
For see now again I pray, the vigilance of this bearer within him of the Spirit. He taught in the foregoing, that the Word was in Ἀρχὴ, that is, in God the Father, as we said. But since, with the eye of his understanding illumined, he was not ignorant, as we may suppose, that certain would arise, of their great ignorance saying that the Father and Son are one and the same, and distinguishing the Holy Trinity only |17 by name, but not suffering Them to exist in Their several Persons, so that the Father should be conceived of as in truth Father and not Son, the Son again to be by Himself Son, not Father, as the word of truth is:----needs against this heresy too as already confronting him, and mooted at that time, or about so to be, does he arm himself, and for its destruction, by the side of In the beginning was the Word he puts forthwith, And the Word was with God: every where adding of necessity the was on account of His Generation before the ages, yet by saying that the Word was with God, shewing that the Son is One, having existence by Himself, God the Father again, with Whom was the Word, Another. For how can that which is one in number be conceived of as itself with itself, or beside itself?
But that the reasoning of the heretics about these things also will be found without learning, we will teach by the considerations below, making an exact test of the questions regarding it.
Proof by demonstration and Scripture testimonies, that the Father is in His Own Person, and the Son likewise, the Holy Ghost being counted with Them as God, even though nothing is for the present enquired into regarding Him.
Consubstantial is the Son with the Father and the Father with the Son, wherefore They arrive at an unchangeable Likeness, so that the Father is seen in the Son, the Son in the Father, and Each flashes forth in the Other, even as the Saviour Himself says, He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father, and again, I in the Father and the Father in Me. But even though He be in the Father, and have again the Father in Him, Himself full well, as has been already said, perfectly exact unto the Form of Him Who begat Him, and depicting again in Himself without any shortcome, the Father whence He is:----not therefore will He be deprived of His separate existence, nor will the Father lose His own special Being; but neither will the surpassing Likeness and Resemblance work any confusion of Persons, so that the Father Who begat and the Son Who is Begotten of Him should be considered as one |18 in number. But sameness of Nature will be confessed of Both, yet the Individual Existence of Each will surely follow, so that both the Father should be conceived of as indeed Father, and the Son as Son. For thus, the Holy Ghost being numbered with them and counted as God, the Holy and Adorable Trinity will have Its Proper Fullness.
Another. If the Son Himself is Father too, what place has the distinction of names? For if He begat not at all, why is He called Father? How Son, if He were not begotten of the Father? For the Names ask as of necessity such an idea regarding them. But since the Divine Scriptures preach that the Son was Begotten, and the truth is so, He has therefore an existence by Himself. The Father too is again by Himself, if indeed that which is begotten is plainly one thing from another as regards that which begets.
Another. The blessed Paul writing his letter to the Philippians says of the Son, Who being in the Form of God, thought it not robbery to be Equal with God. Who then is He Who would not that His being Equal with God should be thought robbery? For must one not needs say, that One is He Who is in the Form of God, Another again He Whose Form it was? But this is clear and confessed by all. Therefore not one and the same in number are Father and Son, but of distinct Being and beheld in One Another, according to sameness of Essence, even if They be One of One, to wit the Son of the Father.
Another. I and My Father are One, said the Saviour, as knowing, that is, that Himself has a separate existence and the Father too. But if the truth of the fact be not so, why did He not, keeping what belongs to oneness, say, I and My Father am One? But since He explains what He means by the plural number, clearly He overthrows the surmise of those who think otherwise. For we are will not be with sense taken of one.
Another. At the fashioning of man the voice of God is introduced saying, Let Us make man in Our Image, after Our likeness. If then the amplitude, if I may so call it, of |19 the Holy Trinity is contracted into a One in number, and they impiously take away from the Father and the Son Their separate Existence: who is he who says, and to whom, Let us make man in Our Image? For He ought forsooth to say, if it be as they in their silly nonsense say, Let us make man in my image, after my likeness. But now the writer of the Book, not saying this indeed, but allotting the creation to the plural number and adding Our image, well-nigh with clear and mighty voice proclaims the enumeration of the Holy Trinity to be above One.
Another. If the Son is the Brightness of the Father, as Light of Light, how is He not other than Him, as of distinct Being? For that which is the embrightened, is so in very deed from other, that namely which brightens it, and not itself from itself.
Another. The Son shewing Himself of the Essence of God the Father says again, I came forth from the Father and am come; again I go to the Father. How then will He not be Other than the Father in Person and number, when all reason persuades us to conceive of that which proceeds from ought as other than that from whence it proceeded? Not true therefore is the contrary argument.
Another. Believing in God the Father, in His Only-Begotten Son, and in the Holy Ghost we are justified. Wherefore the Saviour Himself too enjoins His own Disciples saying Go ye therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. If then the difference of the Names is to contribute nothing to our conception, but when one says the Father, he means the Son, and in naming the Son makes mention of the Father, what need was there of bidding that the believers should be baptized not into Unity but into Trinity? But since the tale of the Divine Nature runs forth into the number three, it is I suppose wholly manifest to all that Each of those so numbered exists in His Own Person, but by reason of there being no change in the Nature, It arrives at One Godhead and has the same worship.
Another. The Divine Scripture says that the cities of the |20 Sodomites were burned by the Anger of God, and explaining how the Divine wrath was brought upon them, and clearly describing the mode of the destruction, The Lord, it says, rained upon Sodom brimstone and fire from, the Lord, since this too is the portion of the cup most befitting those who are wont to commit such sins. What Lord then from what Lord sent the fire on and consumed the cities of the Sodomites? It is clear that it was the Father Who worketh all things through the Son, since He is too His Might and His Arm, Who caused Him to rain the fire upon the Sodomites. Since therefore the Lord sends the fire from the Lord upon them, how is not the Father Other, in respect to His own Being, than the Son,, and the Son again than the Father? For the One is here signified as being from One.
Another. Moved by prophetic spirit, and through it foreknowing things to come, the blessed Psalmist had perceived that the human race could no otherwise be saved, except by the alone Appearing of the Son of God, Who is able easily to trans-order all things to whatsoever He will. Wherefore he besought that the Son might be sent to us, as alone able to save those who were under subjection and oppression of the devil, and said, as though to God the Father, O send out Thy Light and Thy Truth. What then the Light is, and what the Truth, hear the Son Himself saying, I am the Light and I am the Truth. But if the Light and the Truth of the Father, that is the Son, be sent to us, how is He not Other than He, as far as His own Being, even if He be One with Him as regards Sameness of Essence? For if any imagine that it is not so, but that Father and Son are one and the Same, why does not he who bears within him the Spirit make the fashion of his prayer different and cry, Come to us, O Light and Truth? But since he says O send out, plainly he knew that One is the Sender, Another the Sent: be the mode of the Sending conceived of as befits God.
Another. The Divine Scriptures say, that through the Son were made all things that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, and thus believing, we the worshippers of the truth go on our way in rightness of conception, |21 and within the dogmas of piety. Let us then scrutinize the expression through the Son, and examine what sense it gives us. It is clear that it would have us conceive of the Doer and Worker as One, Him through Whom all things are wrought as Another. For the expression through the Son gives, as of necessity, a sort of exhibition of two Persons. Else let them say how the word through the Son in His being said to do anything, will rightly and truly admit the one in number and in the reckoning thereto pertaining, if none other be conceived of with Him and concurring with Him. But I suppose that our opponent will be wholly at a loss. But since both the Divine Scriptures proclaim that the Father hath wrought all things through the Son, and we believe it and I suppose that they too: how is it not of necessity to conceive that the Father exists separately and by Himself, and in like manner the Son, nor does this any way overthrow the fact that the Holy Trinity is seen in sameness of Essence. |22
CHAPTER III. That the Son is both God by Nature and in no wise either inferior to or unlike the Father.
And the Word was God.
He who bare within him the Spirit was not ignorant that there should arise some in the last times who should accuse the Essence of the Only Begotten and deny the Lord that bought them, by supposing that the Word Who appeared from God the Father is not by Nature God, but should bring in besides Him some so to speak spurious and false-called god, having about him the name of Sonship and Deity, but not so in truth. Such do they, who give the Jewish impiety of Arius an abode in their own mind; wherefore they put forth out of a dead heart, no life-giving word of pious thought, but that which looketh and tendeth unto death. Their tongue verily is as an arrow shot out; deceitful the words of their mouth.
As though then some one were already resisting the words of truth, and were almost saying to the Holy Evangelist; The Word was with God, Sir, be it so, we agree fully to what you have written as to this. Be the Father and Exist He separately, and the Son likewise. What now ought one to suppose that the Word is by Nature? for His Being with God, does not at all reveal His Essence. But since the Divine Scriptures proclaim One God, we will allot this to the Father only, with Whom the Word was. What then replies Truth's herald? Not only was the Word with God, but He was also God, that through His being with God, He might be known to be Other than the Father and might be believed to be Son distinct and by Himself; through being |23 God, He might be conceived of as Consubstantial and of Him by Nature, as being both God and coming forth from God. For it were inconceivable, since the Godhead is by all confessed to be One, that the Holy Trinity should not in every wise arrive at Sameness of Essence and so reach one relation of Godhead. He was then also God. He did not become so at last, but He was, if indeed eternal being will most specially and surely follow on being God: for that which became in time, or was at all brought from not being into being, will not be by Nature God.
Seeing then that God the Word has Eternity through the word was, Consubstantiality with the Father through being God, how great punishment and vengeance must we needs think that they shall be found to incur, who think that He is in ought whatever inferior, or unlike Him who begat Him, and shudder not to go forward to that height of impiety, as even to dare to utter such things to others also, understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm?
But that the Son Who is of Him of a truth is in no wise inferior to the Father, we shall know again from the accompanying considerations.
Another. By many and varied names do the Divine Scriptures call the Son. For they say that He is the Wisdom and Power of the Father, according to what is said by Paul, Christ the Power of God and the Wisdom of God. He is called again both His Light and His Truth, as is sung in the Psalms by one of the Saints, O send out Thy Light and Thy Truth. He is called also Righteousness, as, Quicken me in Thy Righteousness: for the Father quickens in Christ those who believe on Him. He is called also the Counsel of the Father, as it is said, Thou shalt guide me with Thy Counsel, and again, The Counsel of the Lord standeth for ever. Since then the Son is all these to God the Father, let them tell us who fawn on the error of Arius and are filled with that man's folly, how He is lesser than He. For if they be right, it is time to say that the Father is not wholly wise, not wholly Mighty, not wholly Light, not wholly Truth, not wholly Righteous, yea, not even Perfect |24 in Counsel, if the Son Who is all these to Him, by reason of being inferior is shewn to be not Perfect. But to think or say thus is impious. Perfect is the Father, because He has all things perfectly in Himself: Perfect then clearly the Son too, the Wisdom and the Power, the Light and the Truth, the Righteousness and the Counsel of the Father. But He Who fulfilleth Perfection in His own Father, how can He be conceived of as inferior?
Another. If the Son having inferiority to God the Father, is worshipped both by us and by the Holy Angels, we shall be taken in the act of serving two gods, since that which lacks perfection will never attain to sameness of essence with the Perfect; but vast is the difference sundering unto alienship things unlike as regards their nature. But the faith is not in plurality of gods, but One is God the Father, the Son and Holy Ghost attaining unto unity with Him. The charge against the Son then comes to nothing. For how yet will that which is inferior be admitted into unity with the Perfect Father, and be united as to Nature in unity of Essence?
Another. If the Son is fulness (for of His fulness have all we received) how will what is inferior have a place? for things that are contrary to one another are irreconcileable in one subject at the same time.
Another. If the Son who has the lesser filleth all things, where will the greater of the Father have place? For the argument shall be used in more corporeal form, in the way of example, while the superiority and inferiority in the unembodied is otherwise conceived of.
Another. If God is That Which is above every name, and the Son Who is His Heir attains not to be Perfect by reason of the lesser, there is no greatness in that which is above all things, that is God. But it is absurd either to think or to say this: Perfect therefore is the Son, as being above every name, and God.
Another. If the Divine Nature is without quantity, and the lesser is cognizant of degree, how can the Son Who is by Nature God be conceived of as inferior? For He will |25 not be beyond the province of quantity, if they say that He has inferiority to the Father.
Another. The blessed John says of the Son that 2 He giveth not the Spirit by measure, to those that is who are worthy. Since then there is not measure in the Son, He is immeasurable, and surpasses all comprehension in quantity as being God. How then is the not-measured less?
Another. If the Son is lesser, the Father greater, differently, it is plain, and in proportion to the measures that Either hath, will they contribute to our sanctification. And the Father will sanctify in a greater degree, the Son in a less and separately. The Spirit therefore will be twofold, and less in the Son, greater in the Father. And they who are sanctified by the Father will be sanctified perfectly, they who by the Son, not perfectly. But great is the absurdity of reasoning herein. For One is the Holy Ghost, one and perfect the Sanctification, freely given by the Father through the Son Naturally. Not lesser then is He Who has the same operation with the Perfect Father, and Who has the Spirit of Him Who begat Him, a good of His own Nature, Living and inexisting, even as the Father hath.
Another. If the Son were in the Form and Equality of God, as Paul saith, how is He lesser that He? For the mode of the dispensation with Flesh and the humiliation thereupon mentioned, which has the Second Appearance from Heaven as its termination, will not, I suppose, bare the Son of the dignity by Nature belonging to Him. For He will surely come, as we heard Him say, in the glory of His Father. How then is he at all in the glory of the Perfect Father who is inferior to Him?
Another. God the Father is somewhere found to say by one of the prophets, I will not give My glory unto another. We must ask therefore those who impiously dishonour the Son, nay rather through Him the Father too (for he that honoureth not the Son, neither doth he honour the Father), |26 whether the Son being, as they suppose, less than God the Father is Consubstantial with Him, or no? If then they shall say that He is Consubstantial, why do they for nought put on Him the less? For things that are of the same essence and nature, will never have the greater in themselves, as regards the mode of their being: for this altogether is it that is under consideration.
But they will not perhaps agree, nor will grant that the Son is Consubstantial with the Father, He being according to them less: He will therefore be wholly other and alien from the Father. How then has He His glory? For there was given Him, says blessed Daniel, glory and a kingdom. For either God the Father will lie in saying, I will not give My glory unto another: or if He is true, and did give His glory to the Son, then is He not other than He, the Fruit of His Essence and His True Offspring. And He Who is so situated towards the Father in regard of Essence, how will He be less than He?
Others, simple and without connection. If the Father is Almighty, and the Son likewise Almighty, how is He lesser than He? for I do not suppose that according to the law of sequence, the imperfect will mount up to the measure of the perfect. And if the Father is Lord, and the Son likewise Lord; how is He less than He? For He will be not perfectly free, if He be less in lordship, and have not the full dignity in Himself. And if the Father be Light, and the Son likewise Light, how is He less than He? For He will be not perfectly Light, but will be in part comprehended by darkness, and the Evangelist will lie in saying, The darkness comprehended it not. And if the Father is Life, and the Son likewise Life, how is He less than He? For in us life will not exist in perfect measure, even if Christ dwell in the inner man: but they who believe are still to some degree dead, if so be that the Son having the less, is not perfectly life. But since one must needs put as far away as possible the absurdity of this, we say that Perfect is the Son, being. made equal to the Perfect Father by reason of the exact Likeness of His Essence. |27
Another. If the Son be less than the Father, and therefore not Consubstantial; He is as a consequence other by nature and wholly alien: hence He is not Son, yea not even God at all. For how will he be called Son who is not of the Father, or how will he be any longer God who is not of God by Nature? But since our faith is in the Son, we are still it seems in error, not knowing the True God. But this is absurd. Believing therefore in the Son, we believe in the Father too and in the Holy Ghost. The Son is not therefore alien from God the Father as lesser, but has unity with Him, by reason of being of Him by Nature, and is therefore both Equal and Perfect.
Another. If God the Word Who beamed forth from God the Father is in truth Son, of necessity must our opponents even against their will confess that He is of the Essence of the Father; for this is what sonship in truth means. Then how is Such inferior to the Father, if He be Fruit of His Essence, Which is nowise receptive of the lesser within Itself? For all things are in perfect degree in God. But if He be not of the Essence of the Father, neither is He Son, but some counterfeit and falsely-called: yea neither will the Father Himself be rightly and truly called Father. For if there be no Son by Nature, on account of Whom He is Father, how is He conceived of as Father? But this is absurd, for God is Very Father; for so do all the Divine Scriptures cry aloud. He Who is of Him by Nature is therefore surely Son: if so, not lesser; for He is Consubstantial as Son.
Another. The name of family or fathership not God has of right from us, but we rather clearly received it from Him. And trusty is the word of Paul crying on this wise, Of Whom every family in heaven and earth is named. But since God is that which is most ancient of all, by imitation are we fathers, who are called to His Pattern by reason of our being made after His Image. Then how, tell me, are we who are made after His Likeness, by nature fathers of our own children, if this be not the case in the Archetype, after Which we too have been formed? How will any one |28 grant that the name of family or fathership passed even unto the rest from God, if He be not in very deed a Father? For, if it were so, the nature of the thing would be wholly overturned and we should rather give to Him to be called Father in imitation of us, than He give it to us. For this the argument will compel the heretic even against his will to admit. The witness therefore of the truth lies in saying that from Him is every family both in heaven and earth. But to say this is most absurd: for true is he who is bold to say, Do ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me? and from God does the name of family flow down to us also. He is therefore by Nature the Father of the Word, He begat Him in all respects not unlike Himself, through His having the lesser than whatever Himself has. For we who are made after an imitation of Him, do not so have those that are begotten of us, but altogether equal, as regards the nature.
Another. Let not the heretic manifold in arguments deal subtilly with the truth, nor confessing that the Word of God is Son, honour Him in mere words, saying that He is not of the Essence of the Father. For how is He Son at all, except He be so by Nature? Let them then either, stripping off the mask of hypocrisy, blaspheme openly, confessing that He is neither God nor Son: or if convicted by the whole Divine Scripture and wounded by the words of the Saints as by sling-stones they feel shame in presence of the truth, and say that He is Son and God, let them not think that He is lesser than He Who begat Him. For how will the Word, being God, admit of the lesser, compared to God the Father? although man too is both called and is son of man, yet will he not be inferior to his father so far as he is man. For man will not be greater or less than man, in respect of his being man, nor yet angel than angel, in regard of his being angel, nor ought else of things that are that is con-natural to any-thing whatsoever, and has a share of the same essence allotted to it. Therefore if He is truly Son, one must needs say that He is of the Essence of the Father, having all His Father's properties in Himself of Nature. And if the Father be God by Nature, God by Nature plainly is also the Word Who is |29 begotten of That Nature. How then will God be less than God in regard to being God?
Another. Whence, sirs, did ye get the daring to say that the Son is in lesser condition than He Who begat Him? How will He admit the lesser? As regards the date of being, no one I suppose, even though exceeding silly, would surmise. For before the ages is the Son, and Himself is the Maker of the ages: and it will be with reason conceived that He Who has His Generation elder than all time, will not be defined by time. But neither is He lesser than He in the dimension that belongs to size: for the Divine Nature is conceived of and is without size, dimension and body. How then is the lesser to be taken of Him Who is begotten? In glory, perhaps one will say, in power, in wisdom. Let them say then, how great and large the Father is herein (if one must speak thus), in order that the Son may be conceived of as less, when measured with Him? Or if the Father is in good inconceiveable and immeasurable, and that far outstrips the measure of our understanding, whence do the Arians, readily daring all things, say that the Son is lesser, to the overthrow of the dignity that belongs to Him by nature? For the lesser is proved by the juxtaposition of the greater; but if the Dignity of the Father is unmeasured, what is the proof of its diminution in the Son?
Another. One may indeed with truth reply to the abomination of the unholy heretics, Our enemies are without understanding. For how are they not full of all unlearning, understanding neither what they say nor whereof they affirm, as Paul saith? The reason why we think it needful to accuse them is this. If they say that the Son is of a truth begotten God of God the Father, and so believe, how is He lesser than the Father? For great absurdity of ideas will hence be generated, on every side containing blasphemy, and such that one would refuse only to hear them. For if the Son being God by Nature can any whit admit in Himself the lesser, we must needs at length conceive that there is something greater than God. The Essence then of the Father is not conceived of as being in Perfection of every |30 thing, even though He be by Nature God, but He will Himself progress in some direction towards the greater, convicted in the Son His Image that He Himself too is of the essence that admits the lesser. And He will suffer this virtually, even if He have not yet suffered it; since things that are capable of ought, will altogether admit the things whereof they are capable, and when the time calls them to suffer it, they will not refuse it. But great is the blasphemy that is apparent herein. For neither will the Father advance in any direction towards the greater, nor yet will He admit of the lesser, by reason that He is by Nature God. Therefore neither will the Son admit in Himself the lesser, in that He too is God by Nature, lest the syllable or two 2which was devised by the unlearning of the heretics, should be imagined to be an accusal of the Essence that is above all.
Another. If the Word of God the Father being by Nature His Son is lesser than He, either in regard of God-befitting Dignity, or as not by Nature Unchangeable, or in any sort of inferiority, the accusal will be not so much of Him as of the Essence Whereof He is believed to be, if It altogether generate the lesser, or the worse, than Itself, although the originate and constructed creation would not endure to do such a thing. For everything that is fruit-bearing, brings forth what is wholly like itself. But if they say that the Divine Nature of the Father is above all passion, It will manifestly be beyond this charge, and being the Archetype of the good things that are in us, will beget the Son not lesser, but Equal and Consubstantial, lest the God That is so far above us be inferior even to us.
Another by the method of reductio ad absurdum. Christ shewing that He is Equal with God the Father says to His own Disciples, He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father. Then how will He that is by Nature Such, and so IS as Himself with truth declares, have the lesser, according to the uncounsel of some? For if being lesser He shews in Himself the Father, without any intervening change, the lesser will reach to the Father, as appearing in His Unchanged |31 Image, the Son. But this is absurd: therefore not lesser is the Son, in whom the Father being Perfect is imaged. Another. And how will the Son admit the lesser, than wherein is the Father, seeing that He says without blame, All things that the Father hath are Mine: and again, as to God the Father, All Mine are Thine and Thine are Mine? For if indeed the Son is, according to the uncounsel of some, lesser; since He speaks truth in saying to the Father, Mine are Thine and Thine are Mine, the lesser will make its way to the Father too, and likewise the greater to the Son, the order of things being indifferent, if what belongs to either are seen in the other, and whatsoever is the Father's, this is the Son's also, and again whatever appears as the special property of the Son, this is the Father's too. Nothing then will hinder our saying that the Father is lesser than the Son, and the Son greater than the Father. But this is most absurd only to conceive of: Equal therefore and not lesser is He Who hath the Prerogatives of Essence in common with the Father.
Another of the same. If all that the Father hath, are wholly the Son's, and the Father hath Perfection, Perfect will be the Son too, Who hath the properties and excellencies of the Father. Therefore is He not lesser, according to the impiety of the heretics.
Another by the method of reductio ad absurdum, with combination of arguments. Let them tell us who are pouring down the flame unquenchable on their own head, and who reject the uprightness that is in the Divine Dogmas, devising wiles of many-coloured arguments unto the deceiving and overthrow of the simpler, whether the Father is superior to the Son, having the greater in comparison with Him, if He be less, as they in their silly talk say, or not? But I entirely suppose that they will say, He is superior: or let them say what advantage the Father hath in possessing the greater, if He be not superior. For if nothing at all, the whole charge against the Son immediately comes to nought: but if there is any great difference, He is then superior, as having the greater. Let them answer then and tell us, if they are indeed wise, |32 why the Father begetting the Son, begat Him not Equal to Himself but lesser. For if it were clearly better to beget the Son in all things Equal to Himself, who hindered His doing it? For if there is ought that hindered as of necessity, they will admit even against their will, that there is somewhat greater than the Father. But if there were nothing at all to hinder, but having the power and knowing that it is better to beget the Son equal He begot Him lesser, this is plainly envy towards Him and an evil eye: for He chose not to give equality to the Son. Either then the Father is impotent in regard to His Begetting, or it will be evil eye, according to the result collected out of the arguments, if the Son have the lesser according to their account. But this is absurd; for the Divine and Untaint Nature is above all passion. Therefore not less is the Son, that He lose not the equality, the Father being in no wise powerless to beget His Offspring equal to Himself, nor yet hindered by evil eye from choosing the better.
Another. The Saviour Himself somewhere says that He is in the Father and the Father likewise in Him. But it is plain to every one, that we are not to suppose that like as one body is in another, or one vessel in another, so the Father is contained in the Son, or the Son again in some way placed in the Father: but One appears in the Other, and He in Him in the Unchanged Sameness of Essence, and in the Unity and Likeness that belongs to Nature. As though a person beholding his own form in an image were to say truly to any, and marvelling at the finished likeness of his figure to cry out, I am in this picture and this picture in me.
Or in another way:----As if the sweetness of the honey when laid on the tongue should say of itself, I am in the honey and the honey in me; or as though again the heat that proceeds naturally from fire, emitting a voice were to say, I am in the fire and the fire in me. For each of the things mentioned is I suppose divisible in idea, but one in nature, and the one proceeding by a sort of indivisible and continuous forthcome from the other, so as to seem to be even |33 severed from that wherein it is. Yet though the force of ideas regarding these things takes this form, still one appears in the other and both are the same as regards essence. If then by reason of the unchangeableness of Their Essence, and the entire exactness in express Image, the Father is in the Son, how will the greater find place and appear in the Son Who is according to them lesser? But since He is wholly in Him, altogether Perfect is the Son, Who is able to contain the Perfect and is the express Image of the Mighty Father. |34
CHAPTER IV. Against those who dare to say that the conceived and Natural word in God the Father is one, and He that is called Son by the Divine Scriptures another: such is the misconceit of Eunomius' party.
2 This was in the beginning with God.
The Evangelist herein made a sort of recapitulation of what had been already before said. But adding the word This, he is seen all-but crying aloud. He Who is in the beginning, the Word with the Father, He Who is God of God, He it is and none other, regarding Whom our august book is set forth. But he seems again not idly to add to what has been said the words, This was in the beginning with God. For he, enlightened by the Divine Spirit unto the knowledge of things to come, was not ignorant, as seems to me and as we may truly say, that certain would appear, perdition's workpeople, the devil's nets, death's snares leading down to the chambers and depth of hell those who from unlearning give heed to the things that them belch forth out of an evil heart. For they will rise up and be valiant against their own head, saying that one is the word that is conceived in God the Father, and that some other most similar and like to the conceived one, is the Son and Word through Whom God works all things; in order that He may be conceived of as word of word and image of image and radiance of radiance.
The Blessed Evangelist then, as though he had already heard them blaspheming and with reason stirred against the absurd follies of their writings, having already defined, and by many words, as was due, shewn that the Word is One, and Only and Very, of God and in God and with God, with |35 flashing eye he adds, This was in the beginning with God, as Son, that is, with the Father, as inborn, as of His Essence, as Only-Begotten; This, there being no second.
But since I deem that we ought, zealously declaring such impiety, to lay yet more open their blasphemy, for the greater security of the simpler ones (for he who has learnt it will give heed and will spring out of its reach, as though a serpent lurking in the midst of the path), needs will I expose their opinion, after the form of antithesis. For it shall receive its refutations in order, according to the modes which God who giveth wisdom to all shall grant.
Eunomius' opinion as to the Son of God.
"The Only-Begotten Son of God, says he, is not of very right His Word, but the conceived word of God the Father moves and is ever in Him; while the son who is said to have been begotten of Him, becoming recipient of his conceived word, knoweth all things from having learnt them and, after the likeness of the former, is called and is word."
Then in confirmation, as he imagines, of his blasphemy, he weaves some such arguments of perverted ideas, that, as it is written, the wretched man may be holden with the cords of his sins.
"If the Son Himself, says he, be the Word Natural and Conceived in God the Father, and is Consubstantial with Him Who begat Him, what hinders the Father too from being and being called Word, as Consubstantial with the Word?"
And again: "If the Son be the Word of God the Father and there is none other than He, by means of what word, says he, is the Father found saying to Him: Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee? For it is very clear that not without a word did the Father address Him, since every thing that is uttered, is altogether uttered in word, and no otherwise. And the Saviour Himself somewhere says, I know the Father and keep His saying, and again, The word which ye hear is not Mine, but the Father's Which sent Me. Since then the Father addresses Himself to Him in word, and He Himself acknowledges, one while that He keeps |36 the Father's word, at another again, that the Jews heard, not His word, but the Father's; how will it not, he says, be confessed beyond a doubt, that the Son is other than the word that is conceived or that stands in motion of the mind, whereof participating and replete, the utterer and exponent of the Father's Essence, that is the Son, is called word?"
Such ills then does the foolish man sow to himself and gainsaying all the Divine Scriptures at once is not ashamed, shewing that true is that which is written of himself. When the wicked man cometh into the depth of evils, he despiseth. For verily exceeding deep unto naughtiness hath the fighter against God of his folly dug, refusing the uprightness that is of truth, and halting with the rottenness of his own arguments. For that the Only-Begotten Son of God the Father is of very right His Word, we shall know by the subjoined.
Refutation in order of the misconceit of Eunomius.
Slow to learn is the silly heretic. For how into a malicious soul will wisdom at all enter? or what, tell me, can be more malicious than such men, who, as it is written, turn away their ears from the truth and run more easily unto the fables of their own cogitations, that justly too they may hear, uttering things not of the Divine Scriptures, Woe to them that prophesy of their own heart and not out of the mouth of the Lord? For who speaking out of the mouth of the Lord calleth Jesus Anathema? which thing indeed some do in unbridled haughtiness against the doctrines of piety, and as one of the holy Prophets said, perverting all equity. For they say that the natural and conceived word in God the Father is one, him that is called Son and Word again another: and they bring in support of their own, as they deem, opinion, but more truly, their unbridled impiety, our Lord Jesus Christ in His discourses with the Jews saying, I know the Father and keep His word: and moreover that which was said to Him by the Father, From the womb before the Day-star begat I Thee. Then they say belching forth the venom of their own father, If the speaker is other than he whom he addresses, and the Father addresses the Son by word, the innate word |37 wherewith the Father conversed will be other than the Son. And again: If, says he, the Son Himself declared that He keeps the Father's word, how will not he that keepeth be other than that which is kept? To this it is perhaps not hard to reply (for the Lord will give utterance to them that evangelize with much power). But those who are sick of such unlearning ought to remember Him Who says, Ah they who leave the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness, and for us it is meet that we should cry unto our Guide Who is in the heavens, Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity. For vanity of a truth and rubbish and nought else are the vain utterances of their uninstructedness. For not as though He had another word of the Father in Himself did the Son say that He kept the Father's word, nor yet did He declare that He had come to us, bringing him with Him as though a pedagogue, but as Alone in-being in the Father by Nature, and having again likewise in Himself the Father, none else intervening, I, says He, in the Father and, the Father in Me, not the innate, nor yet any other word, but the Father, in Me. How then ought one to conceive of what was said by Him to the Jews, may one ask us, and that with reason. To this we say with truth what comes up upon our mind. The Saviour was teaching the most incredulous people of the Jews and, drawing by little and little His hearers from the worship of the law, did ofttimes call out to them, I am the Truth, all but saying, Throw off, sirs, the yoke of the law, receive the spiritual worship; let shadow now depart, type recede afar, the Truth hath beamed. But He did not seem to all to be doing rightly, subverting Moses' precepts, yea rather leading them to what was more true, so that some even cried, If this man were of God, He would not have broken the Sabbath, which was to openly condemn of sin Him Who knew it not.
To such like follies then of the Jews He replying puts away all boast in His words, and lowlily and darkly designs to teach them, that the Son Who knows not sin would not work ought other than seemed good to God the Father; lest saying more nakedly, I know not sin, He should |38 again stir them up to stone Him. For they straightway boiling with wrath would have sprung upon Him saying, Not to sin belongs to God Alone: Thou then being a Man, utter not the things that beseem God Alone. Which thing they even did at another time, saying that with reason do they stone Him, because being a Man He makes Himself God. Obscurely did the Saviour, in that He was both Man and as under the law with those who were under the law, say that He kept the Father's word, all-but saying, I will never transgress the Father's Will. For by stepping aside from the Divine law is sin born, but I know not sin Who am God by Nature. Therefore I offend not the Father in My teaching. For the rest let no one find fault with Him Who is by Nature Lawgiver, but because of His Likeness unto us is Law-keeper. But He says that He knows the Father, not simply as do we, only the very same thing more simply for that He is God, but from what Himself is does He declare that He understands the Nature of the Father. But since He knows that He Who begat Him knows not to endure change, He knows, it is plain, that Himself is Unchangeable of an Unchangeable Father. And that which knows not change, how can it be said to sin, and not rather to stand unswerving in its own natural endowments?
Yain then is the accusal of the Jews imagining that the Son thinks ought beside the Counsel of the Father: for He keeps, as He says, His word, and by Nature knows not sinning: for He knows that the Father cannot suffer this, with Whom He is Consubstantial as Very Son. But since they meet this by citing what has been annexed to their objection, From the womb before the Day-star begat I Thee, come let us unfold the word of piety as to this also. For not because the Father says such things to the Son, ought we therefore to think, that there is in Him an innate word and to conceive of the Son as other than it. But first of all let us think this with ourselves that a prophet versed in uttering mysteries in the Spirit puts on for us the person of the Son, and introduces Him hearing of the Father, Thou art My Son, and what follows. And the form of speech, in that it is constructed after human |39 fashion, will not I presume at all compel us to conceive of two words, but referring to our own habits [of speech] the unavoidable arrangement herein, we shall blame, if we do rightly, the weakness of our own nature, which has neither words, nor modes of idea which accurately serve unto the mysteries that are above us, or that are adequate to express faultlessly things more Divine: and to the Divine Nature again we shall attribute the superiority over our mind and speech, not conceiving of Its relations exactly as they are spoken of, but as befit It and as It wills. Or if any of the unholy heretics imagine that we unrightly abuse such words, and do not admit that the form of speech comes up to our usage of it, they will rightly hear: Let the Father be conceived of as also begetting as we do, let Him not deny the womb and the pangs of birth. For from the womb begat I Thee, says He to the Son. But perchance, yea rather of a certainty, they will say that from the likeness to us the Father's True Begetting of the Son is signified. Therefore let the other too be piously understood, even if it be uttered in human guise, and their bitter and unholy difficulty is solved.
And these things were, I suppose, sufficient. But since we thought that we ought to smite down the difficulties devised of their stubbornness (as it were some swarm of foes), with the uprightness of pious dogmas, come let us now bringing them forward in the manner befitting each, raise up against each its opponent, and with more zealous thoughts let us arm against them the ever victorious truth. The objection again, as from them, shall be set forth in order before the arguments which confute it, inciting the vigilance of the argument to proceed to more accurate test, and like the rush of some mountain-torrent, ever bearing down headlong the good readiness of the readers to desire ever to learn the answer.
Oppositions or objections, as from the heretics.
"If there exist not, says he, in God the Father a word essential and conceived, other than the Only-Begotten Son That |40 is of Him, Who is also called word in imitation of that one, the result will be absurd, and we who deem we think rightly must needs confess, that if the Word is Consubstantial with the Father and the Father with the Word, there is nothing yet to hinder the Father from being and being called word, as Consubstantial with the Word."
Refutation of this.
No argument, O most excellent, will ever constrain us to think that we ought to believe and call the Father Word, or even to believe that He could be so, because He is Consubstantial with the Word. For in no wise will things that are of the same essence admit of a mutual interchange, and receive a sort of mixture, as from one into the other, so that the things named could be reduced from many into one, or from duality into unity. For not because our forefather Adam was consubstantial with the son born of him, will father therefore advance unto son, son again mount up into father; but being one with him as far as regards the unity of essential quality, he will retain what is his own: and he who is of any father will be conceived of as a son, and again the begetter of any will clearly be father. But if ye imagine that ye are constructing a clever argument hereupon, and that consubstantiality will surely constrain consubstantial to be one with consubstantial, and will suffer no distinction to prevail, so that each should exist by itself and in whatever it is, what was it persuaded the Judge of all not to punish the father for the son, nor to demand of the son satisfaction for the father? For the soul, says he, that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son. But since the sentence of Him Who judges righteously does not bring down the father, albeit consubstantial with the son, into the position of sonship, nor yet does it bring up the son into the condition of fatherhood, but knoweth each individually, not this progressing into that, nor that stepping into this; it is I suppose evident, that no argument will constrain God the Father, because He is Consubstantial with the Word, to change into being the Word. |41 For He abideth wholly in Himself, that is Father, even though He Who is begotten of Him be conceived to be and be Word and therefore Son, that things Divine may not appear in worse state than ours are.
Another in equal guise with the objection, by the method of reductio ad absurdum.
The Son, as having no difference from His Father, but being His most exact Likeness and the express Image of His Person, is found saying to His disciples, He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father. But if He being thus, is Consubstantial with the Father, and things consubstantial admit of utter confusion with one another, there will be nothing it seems to hinder the Son from being conceived of as Father, in that He is Consubstantial with the Father, and capable of passing over into this, nought hindering it, if consubstantiality suffice unto this kind of change or transposition. Let the Son then be conceived of as Father, and let Him say, as now being so, to the real Father, From the womb before the Day-star begat I Thee; and let Him assume to Himself every word in short that belongs to the Father. When this at length has taken place, every thing is now thrown into confusion, and That Which ever so existeth, I mean the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity will be reduced to Unity, if That which rightly and separately belongs to Each vanishes on account of the Con-substantiality, and the sameness of nature overthrows the distinction of Persons. But this is absurd. Hence the Father will not be the Word, because Consubstantial with the Word, but will abide unchanged, being What He is, even though He have Co-nature or Consubstantiality with His Own Word. And their objection has been proved to be nought.
Another. If every word be the word of some one, pouring it forth from the tongue, that is, or belching it forth and bringing it up from the heart; and the Father be Word, because He is Consubstantial with the Word: He will be His own word, or rather no one's, or will even have no existence at all (for how will there be word, when he whose word it is, is not?). But this is absurd: for never will the Divine and Untaint Nature be receptive of non-being, nor will the Father |42 ever pass into the Word, even though He be Consubstantial with the Word, but will remain Father, Whose Wordalso the Son is.
Another. If the Divine Nature be believed non-recipient of all turn and change as regards Essence, how will the Father, leaving His own position, pass into being the Word? For He will be recipient of change, suffering it as of necessity, and will not be the same, as not keeping what He was from the beginning. But if this be absurd (for to change is wholly foreign from the Divine Nature), the Father will not have the change into the Word, but will be Father ever, having immutability and unchange as God.
Another as of the same, at length.
The Only-Begotten Word and Son of God, shewing that He is Very God of Very God the Father says, All things that the Father hath are Mine. But though the Son is Heir of all the properties that are in the Father of Nature, as being of Him by Nature, yet He will never have that of being Father (for this too is one thing that belongs to the Father); but the Son will remain bereft of nought that is inherent in the Father, though He be not deemed of as Father, but having in Himself perfectly all the properties and endowments of the Father's Essence. Applying this very same method of reasoning to the Person of the Father also, we say that He has all the properties of the Son by Nature, yet not the power of passing into sonship and into being Word, but that as un-turning by Nature He remains what He is, that in addition to being God the Father, He may be also without change, having Unchanged in Himself the Word That appeared from Him, the Son.
Another. God the Lawgiver found fault with certain by the holy Prophets saying, They have put no difference between the holy and profane. For great indeed is the difference or contrariety of manners which is seen between them by those who will discern. But if it be admissible to commingle the nature of things consubstantial one with another, and things that are in separate and individual persons can run off to whatever they please of congenerate or connatural;----what is there to separate the profane from |43 the holy, if the distinction of separate being or of who one is, is never seen, but one exists in another because of sameness of essence? Be then (the knowledge in regard to each being hence indifferent), all jumbled up together, and let the traitor Judas be Peter or Paul, because consubstantial with Peter and Paul; be Peter again or Paul, Judas, because consubstantial with him. But so to think is most unreasoning; and the being of the same substance will by no means take away the difference of things congenerate or connatural from one another. Our weakness then will not so set itself to contend with the Divine Essence, as to compel God the Father to be called and be the Word, because He is Consubstantial with the Word. For He abides ever Father, in no wise able to lose the distinction of what He is in regard to this, nor yielding to sameness of Essence that He should possess nothing distinctively. And He will no way wrong the Son by this, but rather will shew Him as His own, and possessing from Him by Nature the Unturning and Unchangeableness of Him That begat Him, both by His possessing properly and alone Sonship and not being changed into the Father, even as neither does He into Son.
Opposition, or another objection as on the part of the heretics.
"Not reasonably, say they, do ye blame as not thinking rightly those who say that the Word innate in God the Father is other than the Son, although ye hear Him clearly say in the Gospel narrative, I know Him and keep His word. But if, as Himself affirmed, He keeps the Father's word, other in all respects, I suppose, and of necessity will he be than him; since needs must the distinction of being other exist between him who keeps and that which is kept."
Different solutions in order shewing clearly that the Son is the Word of God the Father.
If the Only-Begotten Son of God the Father is not Himself His Word, but some other than He, which they call conceived, exists in God, let those who put forth this contrary opinion tell us whether the word which is the conception of their own ignorance be hypostatic or no. For if they say |44 that it exists of itself conceived of as in separate being, they will surely confess that there are two sons: but if they say that it has no existence, then, since nothing any longer conies between and severs the Son, how will He be third from the Father and not rather next Him, as Son with Father?
Another by the same considerations. The opponents define that there is in God the Father a word, the conceived, by means of which, according to their most unlovely imagination, the Son is taught the counsel of the Father. But how great folly their dogma hereupon has, we must see.
"We must consider the argument about this matter thus. The name father, has of necessity no mean in relation to the son. For what will be the mean of father as regards the son, or again of son as regards the father? But if, according to their unlearning, there severs the Son from the Father an intervening will and a conceived word, which they say is interpretative thereof, no longer will the Father be conceived of as altogether father nor yet the Son as son, if we conceive that the will of God and the word that interprets it, exist in their own hypostases. But if we grant that these are without hypostasis, then the Son is in God the Father without any thing mediate and next to Him; where then will the conceived word retire, or what place will the will have, conceived of as other than the Son?
Another by the reductio ad absurdum. We believe that the Holy and Adorable Trinity is Consubstantial, even if the madness of the heretics will it not. But I think that there ought to be admitted with regard to things consubstantial, a likeness also with one another in all things, in regard to natural properties. If then there be, according to the uncounsel of some, in God the Father some conceived word other than the Son, the Son too will surely have a conceived word in Himself, as being His Likeness and the unchangeable Express Image of His Person, as it is written: the Holy Ghost will have one equally with Him, according to the equal analogy of conceptions. The Trinity then has come to be in double, and the Divine Nature is shewn to be compound. But this is absurd. But in simple essences, there is nothing whatever save |45 themselves. Nothing then will hinder the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity from being closely connected, nought intervening. Another at length. When Divine Scripture puts forth nouns with the article prefixed, then it means some one thing which alone is properly and truly that which it is said to be; but when it does not prefix the article, it makes a more general declaration of every thing that is so called, as for example (for our discourse shall attain clear demonstration) many are called gods, but when God is spoken of with the article it signifies Him Who alone and properly is so; more simply and without the article, one perchance of those called hereto by grace. And again there are many men. But when the Saviour says with the article, The son of man, He signifies Himself as one picked out of ten thousand. Since then names have this character in Divine Scripture, how ought we to understand, In the beginning was the Word? For if every word of God is hereby meant as being in the beginning, let them shew it, and it is we who are the triflers. But if the Evangelist prefixing the article, signifies One and that is so properly, crying, In the beginning was the Word, why strive they in vain, bringing in another besides, only that they may expel the Son from the Essence of the Father? But we ought, considering the absurdity herein, to refuse the uncounsel of those who think otherwise.
Another, shewing that not after the conceived word, as they say, is the Son formed, but He is the Likeness of the Father Himself.
If the Only-Begotten Son of God is and is called, according to them, therefore Word, because, receiving the conceived word of the Father, He is as it were formed thereafter, why is He not found to say to His Disciples, I and the word of the Father are one, He that hath seen Me hath seen the word of the Father? But since overstepping all things, He likens Himself Alone to the Father Alone, none intermediate coming forward to the Likeness, the Son will be conceived of as likening Himself to Him Who begat Him, and to none other than Him.
Opposition, as from the opponents.
"We find, they say, the Son to be other than the |46 conceived word of God, giving heed not to our own thoughts thereon, but to considerations from the Divine Scripture. For what shall we say when we hear the Son saying to the Father, Glorify Thy Son, the Father again answering and saying, I have both glorified, and will glorify again? Shall we not altogether acknowledge that the Father replies to the Son in a word? How then is not he through whom the Father answers the Son other than He?"
Different solutions to this in order.
Worthy of utter marvel, yea rather of mourning too, are the unholy heretics, and moreover that one should say over them that which is spoken in the Prophets: Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him, but weep sore for him that thinketh and sayeth such things respecting the Only Begotten. For what more wretched than such, if they fancied that this was actually and truly the voice of the Father, which not only the Saviour heard, but also this crowd of the Jews which stood around, yea rather the choir of the holy disciples? For they should rather have imagined God-befitting excellencies, and not have attempted to submit things above us to the laws that guide our affairs. For upon the bodily hearing strikes a bodily voice, and noise which through the lips is emitted into the air, or contrived by any other instrument. But the Will of the Father, in ineffable voice gently and as it were in the mind revolved, the Son Alone knoweth Who is in Him by Nature as His Wisdom. But to suppose that God uses a voice consisting in sound is wholly incredible, if we would retain to the Nature That is above all things Its superiority to the creation. Besides, our Lord Jesus Christ Himself says that this was not the voice of God the Father, and moreover shews that He needs no interpretation from another to be able to learn the Father's will saying, This voice came not because of Me, but for your sakes. He should rather have said, my good friends, if ye are right in holding such opinions regarding Him, Ye have heard with Me the voice of the Father; but now, turning His declaration right round to the exact contrary, He avers that He had no need |47 of the voice, but asserts that it came rather for their sakes, not that it was uttered by the Father, but came and that for their sakes. And if God the Father works all things through Him, through Him altogether was this also, yea rather He was Himself the voice, not to Himself interpreting the disposition of the Father (for He knew it as Son), but to the hearing of the by-standers, that they might believe.
Another. If they say that the Son needs some innate word, that thereby He may be taught the Will of God the Father, what will become of Paul who says, Christ the Power of God and the Wisdom of God? For how is the Son the Wisdom of the Father, if lacking in wisdom He receive perfection from another, through learning what forsooth He knows not? or how must one not needs say, that the wisdom which is in the Father is not perfect? and if the Son be the Wisdom of the Father, how can His Will be conceived of as other than He? We come then to say that the Will of God the Father is not perfected in wisdom. But great is the impiety of this, and full of blasphemy the statement. Not therefore as partaker of instruction from another does the Son know what belongs to His own Father, but as Himself the Word and the Wisdom and the Will, does He search all things, yea, the deep things of God, as it is written concerning the Spirit too.
Another. As the Likeness and the exact express Image of the Father do the Divine Scriptures introduce to us the Son: and the Saviour Himself saith, He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father. But if with that likeness to Him, He knows not of Himself what is in Him, but needs so to speak expositions from another in order to learn it, it is time to think that the Father Himself is in the same case, if He is in the Likeness of the Son, and He will Himself too need one to unfold to Him what lies hid in His Offspring. And thus in addition to the absurdities that result from hence, the Divine Nature becomes also a recipient of ignorance. But since it is impious thus to think, we must betake ourselves to more fitting thoughts: for this clearly is what is profitable and helpful.
Another. The Spirit, says the blessed Paul, searcheth |48 all things, yea the deep things of God; and he adds, For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God That is in Him. Since then the Holy Spirit Which accurately discerneth all things, is Spirit not only of the Father, but of the Son too, how can He having within Him by Nature the Spirit Which knoweth all things be yet ignorant of ought that is in the Father? Superfluous then in truth does it plainly appear to imagine that the Son learns of another the Will of the Father; and utterly will vanish the need of a word to mediate in vain, according to their ill-instructedness. For the Son knows all things of Himself.
Another, by the method of reductio ad absurdum. They who accuse the Essence of the Only-Begotten, saying that He knew not the Will of the Father, but made use of in order to learn, another teacher, the word invented by them, which they call conceived, let them tell us, if they think that their own opinion hereupon ought to prevail, whether they will say that the conceived word is by nature equal to the Son (for let it be supposed to have a separate existence of itself) or not equal, but inferior perchance or even superior. If then they suppose it inferior, they will commit impiety against the Father Himself also: for there will be of a surety in Him what is worse than He, and other than He, the conceived word. But if they do not say worse, but shall allot to it a superiority to the Son, the charge against the Son will operate two-fold against the Father. For first of all He will be found to have begotten what is in worse condition than Himself. Then moreover He too will have the conceived word superior to Him, if the Father is Consubstantial with the Son who according to them has got an inferior position. But it is likely I suppose that the opponents will start back from the blasphemy that results from either alternative: and will say that the conceived word of the Father is equal to the Son as regards essence. The question then is at an end. For how will the one teach the other, as one who knows one who does not know, if both are equal by nature? The argument of these people being |49 then on all sides weak, it will be superfluous to imagine that the Son has any mean, and not rather to believe that He is in God the Father, God the "Word Who was in the beginning.
Another. The blessed Paul says that in the Son are hid the treasures of all wisdom and all knowledge. But if he is true in saying such things, how yet shall we suppose that He needed teaching from another, or in whom shall we any more seek perfectness in knowledge, if He Who has it all is made wise by another? how is he Wisdom who is made wise? But since we must needs give heed not to their words, but to those through the Spirit, and the Son hath, as Paul saith, in Himself the treasures of wisdom and of all knowledge, not from any one else will He know the things whereby He is wisdom, but being in the Father He knows all that is the Father's, as His Wisdom. |50
CHAPTER V. That the Son is by Nature Creator with the Father, as being of His Essence, and not taken to Him as a minister.
3 All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made.
The blessed Evangelist, having overthrown the intricate objections of the unholy heretics, and having completed his subtil and most exact utterance respecting the Only-Begotten, comes to another snare of the devil compounded of the ancient deceit, and putting forth to us the sting of the polytheic error, which has wounded and cast down many, and widening the way of perdition, and throwing open the broad and spacious gate of death, heaped up souls of men in herds unto hell and set rich food as it were before the devil and brought before him choice meat. For since the children of the Greeks applying themselves to the wisdom of the world, and having plenteously in their mind the spirit of the ruler of this world, were carried away unto polytheic error, and perverted the beauty of the truth and, like to those who walk in mist and darkness, went down to the pit of their own ignorance, serving lifeless idols, and saying to a stock, Thou art my father, and to a stone, Thou hast brought me forth: others again transgressing akin to them, devising nevertheless a more polished error, deemed that they ought to worship the creature more than the Creator, and lavished the glory that befitted the Divine Nature Alone on the elements that were made by It, of necessity does the Divine introduce to us the Only-Begotten as Maker and Creator by Nature, saying that all things were made by Him and that without Him nothing passed into being, that he might close for the future the entrance for their deceits, and might shew to them that know Him |51 not the Creator of all things, and by the very words wherein he says that the creation was made, might clearly teach that other than it is He Who called it into being, and by His Ineffable Power brought things that are from not being unto birth. For thus at length was it possible by the beauty of the creatures proportionally to see the Maker, and to recognize Him Who is in truth God, through Whom all things have been already made, and made are preserved. Against the false-worship then of the Greeks do I deem that he thus well arrayed the Gospel word, and for this cause do we believe that the Only-Begotten was introduced by the voice of the saint as Maker and Creator.
But since it is meet to consider the crooked inventions of the heretics, I think that we ought looking to their ways too to say again a little.
All things, says he, were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made.
This God-befitting dignity too does he put about the Son, on all sides shewing that He is Consubstantial with God Who begat Him and saying that all things that belong to Him by Nature are in His Offspring: that He may be conceived of as truly God of God, not (as we) having the appellation adventitious and accruing to us by grace alone, according to the words, I have said, Ye are gods and all of you are children of the most High. For if all things were made by Him, He will be Other than they all. For in this, All things, there is nothing which is not seen among all things. As the blessed Paul too is found to have understood the all things: for when in one of his Epistles he was discoursing of our Saviour and said that all things were put in subjection under His feet, excellently does he subjoin, For in that he saith all, he left nothing that is not put under Him. Therefore since we believe that all things were made by the Son, we will not think that He is one of all, but will conclude that He is external to all, and severing Him from the nature and kin of things originate, will at length confess that He is none else save God of God by Nature. For what will intervene between |52 God and the creature? I do not mean in regard of essence, for much intervenes, but only in regard to the position of anything that is, in conception. Or what other position will the Son have, Who surpasses the nature of things made, yea rather is Himself the Maker? For all things were made "by Him, as by the Power, as by the Wisdom of God the Father, not hidden in the Nature of Him Who begat Him, as in man is for instance his innate wisdom and power, but existing separately and by Himself, yet proceeding according to the ineffable mode of Generation from the Father, that the Wisdom and Power of the Father may be conceived of as truly-existing Son.
But though the blessed Evangelist says that all things were made through Him, the saying will not I deem at all minister damage to the words concerning Him. For not because it is said that the things that are were made through Him, will the Son be introduced as an underworker, or a minister of others' wills, so that He should be no longer conceived of as being by Nature Creator, nor will He be one given the power of Creation by some other, but rather being Himself Alone the Strength of God the Father, as Son, as Only-Begotten, He works all things, the Father and the Holy Ghost co-working and co-with Him: for all things are from the Father through the Son in the Holy Ghost. And we conceive of the Father as co-with the Son, not as though He were powerless to work ought of things that are, but as being wholly in Him, by reason of unchangeableness of Essence, and His entire kin and the absence of any medium towards His Natural Procession from Him. As though one were to say that to the sweet scent of a flower, the flower itself was co-present for the operation of the sweet scent, since it proceeds from it naturally. But the force of the example is slight and the Nature That is above all will overpass this too, receiving of it little-impresses of ideas. Since how shall we understand, My Father worketh hitherto and I work? For not separately and by Himself does the Son say that God the Father works ought regarding things that are, and that Himself again likewise works apart from the Father, the Essence |53 Whence He is after some sort resting: for so the Creator would be two and not One, if Either work apart and separately. Moreover the Father will be recipient of the power of not having the Son ever in Him, and the Son likewise will be seen to not have the Father ever in Him, if it were possible that Either should work apart and separately with regard to things that are, as we said before, and the Son will not be true, when He says, I am in the Father and the Father in Me. For it is not, I suppose, merely after likeness of Essence, that we see the Son in the Father as Express Image, or again the Father in the Son as Archetype; but we hold that the Son beams forth by Generation from the Essence of the Father, and is and subsists in It and of It in distinct Being, God the Word: and that the Father again is in the Son, as in Consubstantial Offspring, Connaturally, yet severally, according to simply the difference of being, and being conceived of as that which He is. For the Father remains that which He is, even though He be Connaturally in the Son, as we say that the Sun is in its brightness. And the Son again will be conceived of, as not other than He is, even if He be Connaturally in the Father, as in the sun its brightness. For thus, the Father being conceived of and being in truth Father, the Son again being and conceived of as Son, the Holy Ghost having His place with them, the number of the Holy Trinity mounts to One and the Same Godhead.
For how will God be at all conceived of as One, if Each of the Persons mentioned withdraw into a complete individuality, and, while wholly removed from Connature and Essential participation with the Other, be called God? Therefore let us conceive of Father, Son and Spirit, according to the mode of individual being, not mixing up the difference of the Persons or names in regard to That Which Each IS: but while we reserve severally to each the being and being called what He IS, and thus believe, referring them still of Nature to One Godhead, and refusing to hold a complete severance, because the Son is called the Word and Wisdom and Brightness and Express Image and Might of the Father. For He is Word and |54 Wisdom, by reason of these being, immediately and without any intervention, of the mind and in the mind, and because of the reciprocal interpassing into one another so to say of both. For the mind is seen in word and wisdom, and word in its turn in the mind, and there is nought that intervenes, or severs the one from the other. He is called Power again, as being a quality inherent without any interval in those who have it, and that can nowise be severed from them in the manner of an accident, apart from the destruction of the subject: Express Image again, as being even connate, and unable to be severed from the essence of which it is the express image.
Hence since Either is naturally and of necessity in Other, when the Father works the Son will work, as being His Natural and Essential and Hypostatic Power. Likewise when the Son works, the Father too works, as the Source, of the Creating Word, Naturally In-existent in His Own Offspring, even as the fire too in the heat that proceeds from it.
It is clear then, that vainly has been iterated the accusation of the opponents against the Only-Begotten, who introduce Him to us as creator by having learnt, yea rather as minister too; because of the Blessed Evangelist saying, All things were made through Him and without Him, was not anything made. Much do I marvel at the unholy heretics: for whatever seems any way to undo the Dignity of the Only-Begotten and to shew Him second to Him Who begat Him, according to their own view, this they hunt with much zeal, and from all sides bring to it the drugs of their own stubbornness; whatever again are healthfully and rightly said and bring the Son up to the Glory of the Father, these things they bury most surely in deep silence, as having one sole aim, to in vain revile Him Who is glorified of all the creation. For when they hear that All things were made through Him, they hotly bring on Him the name of service, dreaming that the Son is bond instead of free, and worshipper rather than Lord. But when they learn that without Him was not anything made, they do not mount up to think ought great and marvellous of Him. For since it is not in God the Father to create otherwise than by His own Offspring, Which is His Wisdom |55 and Power, the Evangelist says that nought at all was made without Him. For therefore is the Only-Begotten the Glory of God the Father (for He is glorified as Creator through the Son); for He worketh all things and bringeth into being things that are not.
And well will one conceive of the words, without Him, was not anything made, if he consider with himself what was said at the creation of man. For Let us make man, says he, in Our image after Our likeness. For here specially one can behold in the Son of a truth nought that is lowly, as in a minister according to their phrase. For God the Father does not command the Word, Make man, but as Co-with Him by Nature and His inseparably so to say In-existing Co-worker, He made Him also Partaker of His Counsel respecting man, not anticipating the knowledge that is in the Son in regard to any conception, but as Mind inseparably and apart from time manifested in the in-imaged and in-existing Word.
Let God-befitting contemplations again be above the reach of the example. Yet we say that He co-works with the Son, not conceiving as of two severally, lest there be conceived to be two gods, nor yet as though both together were one, in order that neither the Son be compressed into Father, nor again the Father into Son, but rather in such sort as if one allowed to be co-existent in the brightness from light the light whence it flashed forth: for in such examples the generator seems to be separated in idea from the generated and that which springs forth from it indivisibly; yet are both one and the same by nature, and the one in no wise separate from the other. But above this too will God again be, inasmuch as He is both Super-substantial and has nothing wholly like Him in things originate, that it should be taken as a image of the Holy Trinity, without any difference, in exactness of doctrine. But if they deem that the word, through Whom, said of the Son, can bring down His Essence from Equality and Natural likeness to the Father, so as to be minister rather than Creator, let those insane consider and come forward and make answer, what we are to conceive of |56 the Father Himself also, and Whom we are to suppose Him too to be, seeing that He clearly receives the words through Whom in the Divine Scripture: for God, says he, is faithful, through Whom ye were called unto the fellowship of His Son, and Paul an Apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God: and again Paul writeth to some, Wherefore thou art no more a servant but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God 3. All these then have reference to the Person of God the Father, and no one I suppose will rush to that extreme of madness (except perchance he hold with the above mentioned), as to say that the name and fact of service, is reasonably predicated of the very glory of the Father, because the word through Whom is applied to Him too. For the Divine Scripture is sometimes indifferent in regard to its words, in no wise wronging the subject thereby, but applying to the things signified in a less proper sense both the words themselves and those whereby it deems that they are well explained. But it is well to say of those, that The glory of the Lord veileth speech. For little in truth is all might of words unto the exact exposition of the Ineffable and God-befitting glory. Wherefore one must not be offended at the meanness of the things uttered, but must rather yield supremacy, and might in tongue, and keenness of every mind, to the Divine and unutterable Nature, for thus shall we be and not in small degree pious. |57
CHAPTER VI. That the Son is by Nature Life and therefore not originate, but of the Essence of God the Father.
4 4 That which was made, in it was Life.
Yet doth the Blessed Evangelist make to us his discourse concerning God the Word, and he seemeth to me profitably to go through all that pertains to Him by Nature, that he may both put to shame the outrages of the heretics, and may fortify those who would fain excel in right faith, with reasonings thereunto tending, not providing from words of worldly wisdom unpersuasion, but in demonstration of the Spirit marvelling at the beauty of the truth.
What he would then teach through the words before us, is this. He shewed us just now that the Son is by Nature Maker and Creator, saying that all things were made by Him and that without Him not so much as one thing was called into being. But since on the creation He bestows not only to be called into being, but also holds it together when made through Himself, immingling in some way Himself with those who have not by their own nature eternity of being, and becoming life to those that are, that having become they may abide, and that each may be preserved according to its own limit of nature;----needs does he say, That which was made, in it was life. Not only, says he, were all things made by Him, but also whatever was made, in it was the Life, that is, the Only-Begotten Word of God, the Beginning and Subsistence of all things both visible and invisible, heavenly and earthly and infernal. For Himself being the by-Nature Life, bestows manifoldly on things that are, being and life and motion, not in any way of partition and change passing into each one of things that are by nature distinct: but their |58 nature, viewed by itself, is variously fashioned by the ineffable Power and Wisdom of the Creator, while One is the Life of all passing into each, in such sort as befits it, and it is able to partake thereof. But since that which is brought from not being into being must needs also decay, and that which has beginning surely hasteth unto its end (for to the Divine and All-superior Nature Alone beseemeth the being preceded by no beginning and being free from ending): the Creator wisely deviseth for the weakness that is in things made, and contriveth for them by His skill an eternity. For the perpetual succession unto each of its like, and the natural progression of things connatural or kin unto one another looking ever towards onward course, make the creation ever-visible and ever-co-enduring with God its Maker. And this (contrivance) is that every one of things that are, soweth seed in itself after its kind and after its likeness, according to the unspeakable sentence of its Creator. In all then was the Life; for this is our subject. But, excellent sir, may one with reason say to the heretic warring against the truth, what will you say to this too, when you hear him who bears within him the Spirit say, that in all things that were made was the Life, that is, the Word That is in the beginning? Will you dare to say now too, that the Son is not of the Essence of God the Father, that He may be deemed of as originate and created? How then will one not cry out against thine unlearning, O thou, and that with justice? For if in things that were made was the Word, as Life by Nature, immingling Himself by participation with things that are, He is then Other than those wherein He is believed to be. But He being by Nature Other than what the creation is, how will He not be the God over all? But if you remain shameless, and cease not to imagine that originate is the Son Who is in things made, as Life:----first of all He will be conceived of as being somewhat in Himself, then besides. He will Himself be partaker of Himself 5, and |59 Life, if being in things made, He be conceived to be Himself too one of them. But the fighter against God sees surely himself too, how great the absurdity of thinking thus. Therefore if the Word Who quickens them is by participation in things originate, He will not be Himself too among the participators, but other than they. And if so, not originate, but in them as by Nature Life.
This again we shall see by the subjoined considerations.
Thoughts or arguments.
If the Son be not of the Essence of God the Father, but from without He have subordinated Him according to them, He is originate and made. How then does He quicken all things, Who is among things made? Or what distinction shall we find any longer in the Divine Nature? or how does the most wise Paul say, as something admirable of Him That is by Nature God, Who quickeneth all things? For if the Son being originate, quickeneth all things, the creation quickeneth itself, in no wise needing thereto God its Maker. There is then nothing in God more than in the creation; For it inworketh not less than God can do. But this is absurd. Not originate then is the Son, but God and therefore by Nature Life also.
Another. The Psalmist marvelleth exceedingly and that with reason at the Divine Nature, and in particular attributeth to It a most fair dignity saying, For with Thee is the Fountain of life. But if the Father have set the Son below Him, and have Him not of His own Nature, and He even being so, quickens things originate and is by Nature Life as quickening, why vainly strives the Psalmist saying that the fountain of life is with God Alone? For the nature of things originate also is recipient of this, if the Son, albeit not of the Divine Essence according to the uncounsel of some, quickens. But this is absurd. Therefore Life by Nature is the Son, as God of God, and Life of Life.
Another. If the Son being by Nature Life be originate and created, as not having His Being of the Essence of God the Father, according to their fantasy, the nature of things originate will be recipient of being and being called life, and |60 all things will be life in potential, even if they have not yet the exercise of the thing itself. For that which has the natural power of being ought, will surely be so I ween, even if it be not so as yet; for it has the power inherent in its nature. When then the being life is common to the creature, the special and alone prerogative of none, why vainly does the Son vaunt of Himself, I am the Life? for He should, I suppose, have rather said, I am along with you the life. This would I suppose have been truer, if being indeed originate He is Life too. But since He puts about Himself Alone as His special good the being Life, it is at length clear that He classes Himself, not with things originate, but with the Divine Essence of the Father, whereto the being Life also pertains.
Another. That which is participate of life is not in its own right life, for it is clearly in it as other than itself. If then the Son is by participation in things originate as Life, He will be other than the things that are participate of Him and lack life. Therefore not originate is He, nor seeking to be quickened by another. He is therefore God as quickening; but if so, He will be confessedly of the Essence of the Father, if we worship One God, and serve none other than Him Who is.
Another. Accurately testing the nature of things that are, we see God and the creation and nought else besides. For whatever falleth short of being God by Nature, that is surely originate; and whatever escapeth the catalogue of creation, will surely be within the limits of Deity. Since then we have well established this, let them tell us who thrust forth the Son from the Essence of God the Father, how He can quicken as Life, seeing that the Divine Nature has this as its own property, and yields it to none else. But if being originate He can be Life also, the grace of the excellence will surely overtake all things that are originate, and all will be by nature life. What need will they have therefore of participation of the Son, or what more will they gain hence? for they too possess the being by nature life. But this is not true, but they partake of necessity as |61 needing life, of the Son. Alone then is the Only-Begotten by Nature Life, and therefore will He not be reckoned among things originate, but will mount up unto the Nature of Him Who begat Him: for Life by Nature is the Father too.
Another. The Son being by Nature Life, is either Other than the creation, I mean by nature, or con-natural with it. If then He be connatural and consubstantial, how will He not lie in saying, I am the Bread of Life Which cometh down from Heaven and giveth life unto the world? for the creation hath from its own the being life, but life is imparticipate of life, that it may shew itself life. But if He is not connatural, He will also escape being originate, withdrawing from the creation together with Himself His own proper good also. For the creation will not be by nature Life, but rather lacking and participate of life.
Another. If the Son being by Nature Life is connatural with things made, by reason of not being of the Essence of God the Father, according to their speech, wherefore does the blessed Psalmist say that the heavens shall perish, and shall wax old like a garment: but to Him did he attribute His own proper prerogative, crying aloud, But Thou art the Same and Thy years shall have no end? For either He will perish and fail along with us, as connatural, and will no longer be conceived of as Life, or our natural connection with Him will draw up us too to be ever the same and to unfailing number of years. But verily He shall be ever the same, and we shall fail: He is therefore not originate as we; but since He is of the Life by Nature He will also quicken as Life the things that lack life.
Another. If nought is participate of itself, but the creation partakes of the Son as Life; He is not the creation, nor yet is the creation Life, which the Son is.
Another. If to quicken is one thing, to be quickened another, as action and passion, and the Son quickens, the creation is quickened: therefore not the same is Son and creation, since neither is the inworker with the inwrought. |62
CHAPTER VII. That the Son is by Nature Light and therefore not originate, but of the Essence of God the Father, as Very Light from Very Light.
And the Life was the light of men.
In these words too does the blessed Evangelist shew us that the Son is by Nature God and Essentially Heir of the good things of Him Who begat Him. For having taught before that being by Nature Life, He was in all things that were made by Him, holding them together and quickening them and granting them of His unutterable Power to pass from not being into being, and preserving them when made, he advances to another train of ideas, from all sides minded to lead us by the hand unto the apprehension of the truth, as was right. Therefore in things made was the Word, as Life. But since the rational living creature among them on earth recipient both of mind and knowledge and participant of the wisdom that is from God, is man, needs does the Spirit-bearer shew us clearly the Word as Bestower of the wisdom that is in man, that God the Father may be conceived of being all things in all through the Son;----life in them that lack life, light again and life in them that lack life and light. And therefore he says, And the Life was the light of men, that is, God the Word Who quickeneth all things, the Life in all that are, both enlighteneth the rational creature, and lavisheth understanding upon those who are recipient of understanding: that so that may be kept and have full force that is said to the creature, for what hast thou that thou didst not receive? For nought of wealth from itself hath the originate and created nature, but whatever it is seen to possess, this is surely of God, Who bestoweth both being, and |63 how one ought to be. And well was the was put of the life, that it might signify in every way the eternal Being of the Word, and might cut off the triflings of those void of understanding, who introduce to us the Son, of the things that are not, which manifestly warreth against the whole of Divine Scripture.
In regard then of the Eternity of the Word with the Father;----having already sufficiently gone through it both in the present Book, and in that called the Thesaurus, we deem that we may be silent. But what the mind of the words before us introduces, this with all readiness examining to the extent of our power, we will be diligent to profit both ourselves and those who shall hereafter read it, God again opening to us both doors and a mouth to our words.
What then will the fighter against Christ say to us, when he learns that the Life, that is, the ever-living God the Word, is the Light of men? What arguments will he sling at us, when we come forward and say, If the Son be not by Nature God, and Fruit of the Essence That begat Him, if He have not beamed forth to us Very Light from Very Light, but Himself too being from without is subordinated according to your unlearning: He is connatural with things made, and will in no wise escape being originate. How then, O ye filled full of all folly, doth He illuminate, they receive illumination from Him? For is not that which illuminates one thing, that which is illuminated another? but this is plain and clear to every one. For if we grant that they are the same, as regards kind of essence and the mode of existence, what is there more in that which has power of illumining, what again less in that which lacketh light? For whatsoever cometh, will come to both of them, and apart to each, and that which is in need of light will be light, and the light will not differ from the illumined. But great is the confusion of ideas manifest herein, and necessity of reason severs each of the things named and puts in its own proper nature the supplier herein apart from the supplied. Not therefore connatural with things made is the Son, but He will abide in the Essence of the Father, being Very Light of Very Light. |64
And it were nothing hard, by transferring the method of reasoning in the foregoing, which we made concerning the Son being by Nature Life, and demonstrated that He is Other than the things wherein He is, to give clear proof in this chapter too.----But in order not to leave the labour of this to others, nor to appear overmastered by sloth, I myself will endeavour, so far as I can, to transfer the form of argument used in the foregoing reasonings. For as in those, He being Life by Nature, is shewn to be Other than those wherein He is, so here too, said to be and in verity being the Light of men, He will be found to be Other than things that lack light and partake thereof; as we shall see more clearly in the following.
Proofs by demonstrations, that the Son who illumineth is Other than the creation that is illumined.
If the Word was in the things spoken of, as Light by Nature, immingling Himself by means of participation in things that are, He is then Other than the things wherein He is believed to be. But He That is by Nature Other than what the creation participant of Him and by Him illumined is, how will He not needs be the God Who is over all?
Another. If the fighter against God says that the Son being by Nature Light is in things originate as originate, illumining things that lack light:----first of all He will be conceived of as being in Himself, then besides, He will Himself be partaker of Himself and Light, if being in things originate, He one and the same be conceived to be of them. But he that has applied his heart unto wisdom, as it is written, sees surely how great the absurdity of thinking thus. Therefore if the Word Who illuminateth them is by participation in things originate, He will not Himself be among the participants and illumined, but Other therefore than they. And if so, He is then not originate, but as Light by Nature and God in things that lack Light.
Another. If the Son be not of the Essence of God the Father, but being from without He have subordinated Him according to them, He is then originate and created: how |65 then is He in things made, enlightening them? or what special shall we find any longer in the Divine Essence? or how does the most wise Psalmist say as something marvellous of Him Who is by Nature God, In Thy Light shall we see light? For if the Son being originate illumines all things, the creation will illumine itself, having no wise need thereto of God its Maker. There is then nothing more in God than in the creature, and it inworks no less than God could do. But this is absurd. The Son then is not originate, but God rather, and therefore Light by Nature, as is the Father.
Another of the same. If the Son being the Light of God the Father (as is said, In Thy Light shall we see Light and, O send out Thy Light and Thy Truth), is originate and brought into being, there is no longer ought to hinder, by equal analogy, all things originate from being called the Light of God the Father. For if the nature of things created at all admits this, it will be in potential common to them all, and not the own property of the One Son. But this is absurd: for to the Son Alone will it pertain to be called and to be the Light of God the Father. Not therefore originate is He, but Light, as God from God Who illumineth through Him things lacking light.
Another. If the Son being by Nature Light is not of the Essence of the Father, but being from without is subordinated, according to the uninstructed speech of the fighters against God, it follows that He is connatural and kin to things created, as having forsooth fallen away from the Divine Essence. How then is He called and is Light, but of the holy Baptist it is said, He was not the Light, albeit the blessed Baptist is light in potential, and not he alone, if it be once granted that the Son being originate, can be by Nature Light? For that which has once had place in the nature, is I suppose common to each that partakes of such nature, according to the law of consequence. But John was not Light, the Son Light. Other therefore by Nature is He and not connatural with things made.
Another of the same. If the Son being by Nature Light is originate and created, as not possessing forsooth the being |66 of the Essence of God the Father, as some surmise, the nature of things originate will admit of being and being called light; it will be altogether light according to the law of potential. For that which has in its nature to be anything, will I suppose surely be so, even if it have not yet been. Since then the being light is common to the nature of things originate, and the property in aloneness of none, why in vain does the Son vaunt of Himself, saying, I am the Light? for He ought I suppose to say, I am with you the Light. But since He puts it about Himself Alone as His own proper good, joining to Himself no one else, He clearly classes Himself, not with things originate, but with the Divine Essence of God the Father, whereto belongs the being by Nature Light..
Another. That which is participate of light is not in its own right the Light; for it is clearly one thing in another. If then the Son be by participation in things originate, as Light; He will be other than those that partake of Him and lack Light. Therefore not originate is He, nor seeking, as things originate, to be illumined by another: it remains therefore that He is God and able to illuminate. If so, He will be conceived of also as sprung of the Essence of the Father, if we worship One God, and serve none other than the True God.
Another. Accurately testing the nature of things that are, we behold God and the creature, and nought else besides. For whatever faileth of being by Nature God, is wholly originate, and whatever escapeth the category of being made, is wholly and entirely within the limits of Divinity. Since then we have established this, let them tell us who thrust forth the Son from being of the Essence of God the Father, how He can illumine as Light, seeing the Divine Nature retaineth this as Its own, and yields it to none else. But if the Son being originate, can be also Light, the grace of this excellence will surely overtake all things originate, and all will be by nature light. What further need then have they of participation with the Son, or what more will they gain hence, having themselves too the being by |67 nature light, even as the Son hath it in them? But the creature does need the Illuminator, not having this of its own. God then by Nature is the Son, and therefore Light, as able to illumine things that lack Light.
Another. The Son being by Nature Light, is either Other than the creature, in regard that is of the mode of being, or connatural with it. If then He be cognate and consubstantial, vainly, as it seems, did He come to us saying, I am come a Light into the world; for the creation has of its own itself also the being light: but light is impartici-pate of light, that it may be understood to be light. But if He be not connatural, but the creature lack light to whom belongs, What hast thou that thou didst not receive? needs will the Son escape being originate, withdrawing from the creation together with Himself His own proper good. For the creature will not be by nature light, but rather lacking and participate of light.
Another. If nought be participate of itself and the creature partake of the Son as Light: He is not a creature, nor yet the creature Light, which the Son is.
Another. If to illumine be one thing, to be illumined another, as action and passion, and the Son illumines, the creature is illumined; therefore not the same is Son and creature, since neither is the inworker with the inwrought.
5 And the Light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.
Needs does the most wise Evangelist hasten to expand to us by this too that is now before us the thought expressed above. For he did not think, I suppose, that it would suffice to the hearers unto being able to think unerringly of God the Word, that He is verily the Light of men, by only saying, And the Life was the Light of men. For it was like I suppose that some would arise who should hear the things uttered without weighing them, and should moreover set forth or try to teach others also that the Word of God is indeed verily Light, but not Giver of light to all, but in whomsoever He will He infuses the light of understanding, approving him who |68 ought to receive it and is worthy of so bright a gift: and that the nature of the rest of the rational creation either gets the power of understanding from its natural seed, or God the Father ingrafts into it mind and understanding, as though the Son were unable to do this. In order then that God the Word, Who was in God the Father, may be clearly shewn to be both Life and Light, not of some individually, of others not, but by some ineffable mode of participation, as wisdom and understanding (which is what is called light in things rational), immingling Himself in all things that are, that the things rational may become rational, and things recipient of sense may have sense, which in no other way they could have had:----needs does he say, And the Light shineth in darkness and the darkness comprehended it not.
As though he with all exactitude crieth aloud to his hearers after this sort: I said, sirs, teaching the truth with all my power, that the Life was the Light of men, not that any should suppose from these words that they who shew themselves righteous and good receive from another, as the reward of their conduct, the illumination from Him, but that ye might learn, that as the Word is Life in all things that have been made, quickening things recipient of life; so He is in them Light also, rendering things recipient of understanding and sense, what they are. For God the Father through the Son in the Spirit is all things in all.
Darkness he calls the nature that lacks illumination, i. e. the whole originate nature. For since he calls Him the Light, to shew that the rational creation which lacks and is imparticipate thereof is other than It, he turns the force of the epithet used to the very contrary, doing this also, after my judgment, not without an aim, but considering in himself this above all, that the nature of things originate, producing nothing whatever from its own self, but receiving its whole being and well-being such as it is from its Creator, has rightly said to it, What hast thou that thou didst not receive? And since along with the rest, it has light itself also God-given, not possessing it does it receive it: but that which has not of itself light, how will it not be the contrary, or how |69 will it not be called darkness? For that the Light shineth in darkness is a credible demonstration (yea rather one following from very necessity), that the creation is darkness, the Word of God Light. For if the nature of things originate receive the Word of God by participation, as Light, or as of Light: it receives it then as itself darkness, and the Son shineth in it, as the light doth in darkness, even though the darkness know not a whit the Light. For this, I suppose, is the meaning of The darkness comprehended it not. For the Word of God shineth upon all things that are receptive of His Irradiance, and illumineth without exception things that have a nature receptive of illumining. But He is unknown of the darkness. For that which is the rational nature upon earth, I mean man, served the creature more than the Creator: it comprehended not the Light, for it knew not the Creator, the Fountain of wisdom, the beginning of understanding, the root of sense. Things originate possess nevertheless, of His love to man, the light, and are provided with the power of perception implanted concurrently with their passing into being.
But we must again note here, that no argument will permit to suppose that the Son of God is originate or created, but in every way does He surpass our measure, and rise above the nature of the creature, and is wholly Other than they are and far removed as regards quality of essence, even as the light is not the same as darkness, but soothly contrary and parted by incomparable diversity into physical alieniety.
Having now sufficiently gone through the method of reasoning hereupon in the foregoing, we will go on to what follows.
6, 7 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light.
Having before Explained about God the Word, and most accurately gone through the things whereby He is shewn to be by Nature Son of God the Father, he fortifies their faith in what they had already heard by his words. And since (according to what was said by God through Moses), At |70 the mouth of two and three witnesses shall every word be established, wisely does he bring in addition to himself the blessed Baptist, and introduces him along with himself a most noteworthy witness. For he did not suppose that he ought, even if of gravest weight, to demand of the readers in his book concerning our Saviour credence above that of the law, and that they should believe him by himself when declaring things above our understanding and sense.
Therefore the blessed Evangelist himself testifies that The Word was in the beginning and the Word was God and was in the beginning with God and that all things were made by Him, and He was in the things made as Life, and that the Life was the Light of men, that by all these he might shew that the Son is by Nature God. And the Divine Baptist too testifies in addition to him, crying aloud, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of our God. For soothly one will say that He is Very God, in Whom is by Nature inherent the dignity of lordship and it accrues not to any other rightly and truly, since to us there is one God the Father, and one Lord Jesus Christ, as Paul saith; and though there be many called gods by grace and lords both in heaven and earth, yet the Son is One with the Father Very God.
Therefore, most noteworthy is the pair of holy witnesses, and credence no longer capable of blame is due to the things said, both as having received the fulness of the law, and supported by the notability of the persons. For the blessed Evangelist then to say ought concerning himself, and to take hold of his own praises, were in truth burdensome and moreover ill-instructed. For he would rightly have heard, Thou bearest record of thyself, thy record is not true. Therefore he commits to those who know him to form their opinion of him, and goes to his namesake, doing well in this too, and says that he was sent by God. For it behoved him to shew that not of his own accord nor with self-invited zeal does the holy Baptist come to his testimony respecting our Saviour, but yielding to the commands from above, and ministering to the Divine Will of the Father. Wherefore he |71 says, There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
But we must notice how unerringly and fitly he expressed himself as to each, and correspondently to the nature of the things indicated. For in the case of God the Word, was is fitly introduced indicating every way His Eternity, and His being more ancient than all beginning that is in time, and removing the idea of His having been created. For that which always is, how can it be conceived of as originate? But of the blessed Baptist, befittingly does he say, There was a man sent from God, as of a man having an originate nature. And very unerringly does the Evangelist herein seem to me not merely to say that There was, but by adding the word a man, to overthrow the most unadvised surmise of some.
For already was there a report bruited of many, commonly saying that the holy Baptist was not really a man by nature but one of the holy angels in heaven, making use of human body and sent by God to preach. And the plea for this surmise they found in its being said by God, Behold I send, My messenger before Thy Face, which shall prepare Thy way; before Thee. But they err from the truth who imagine thus, not considering that the name of Angel is indicative of ministry rather than of essence, even as in the history of the blessed Job messengers 6 one after the other run to announce. his manifold sufferings and ministering to those incurable afflictions. Something like this does the most wise Paul himself define respecting the holy angels, writing thus: Are l they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?
John the blessed Baptist then is called an angel by the mouth of the Lord, not as being actually by nature an angel, but as sent to announce and crying aloud, Prepare ye the way of the Lord. Very profitably does he declare moreover that the angel was sent by God, shewing that his witness is most sure. For he that was sent by God to preach, would not |72 utter anything in his teaching that was not wholly according to the will of Him Who put the mission on him. True therefore is the witness as being God-taught. For the most wise Paul also telling us that he was sent by Jesus Christ, affirmed that he learned the power of the mystery not of any other, but by revelation of Him Who sent him, signifying the revelation in sum so to say and briefly, in saying that he was sent by Jesus Christ. Hence the being God-taught wholly follows on being sent by God. And that freedom from lying is wholly the aim of the ministers of the truth is undoubted.
The man's name he says was John. It needed that he who was sent should be recognized by the mark of the name, which introduces, as I suppose, great authenticity to what is said. For an angel (namely Gabriel that stand in the presence of God, as himself says) when he declared to Zacharias the good tidings of his birth of Elizabeth, added this to what he said, namely that his name shall be John. It is I suppose clear and confessed by all that he was so named of the angel according to the Divine purpose and appointment. How then will not he who was crowned by God with so great honour be conceived of as above all praise? Wherefore the mention of his name is profitably and necessarily brought in.
But since the Evangelist has added that the holy Baptist was sent by God for a witness that all men through him might believe, we will further say when our opponents fall foul and say, "Why did not all believe the God-sent? how came he who was fore-appointed by the decree from above to be powerless to persuade any?"----It is meet, sirs, that we should not blame John for want of zeal herein, but should exclaim against the obstinacy of those who disbelieved. For so far as pertains to the aim of the herald, and the mode of his apostolate from above, none would have been found imparticipate in the teaching, nor would have remained in unbelief: but since there was diversity of disposition in the hearers and each has power over his own free-choice, some receiving not the faith missed what was profitable. Wherefore we must say to them (as it is in the prophet), He that heareth, let him hear; and he that forbeareth, let him forbear. |73
This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light.
The word This is full of declaration of virtue and praise of person. For he that was sent, he says, from God, he that with reason struck with astonishment the whole of Judaea, by the gravity of his life and its marvellous exercise in virtue, he that is fore-announced by the voice of the holy Prophets: called by Isaiah, The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, and by the blessed David, a lamp fore-ordained for Christ 7; This man came for a witness to hear witness of the Light. He here calls God the Word Light, and shews that He is One and strictly the very actual Light, with Whom there is by nature nought else that has the property of illumining, and that is not lacking light. Therefore foreign and, so to say, of other nature than the creature is the Word of God, since verily and truly is He strictly Light, the creature participate of light. He then that is unclassed with things made, and conceived of therefore as being of other nature than they, how will He be originate, rather how will He not be within the limits of Deity and replete with the Good Nature of Him who begat Him?
8 He was not the Light, but was sent to bear witness of the Light.
The Baptist having esteemed desert-abodes above the haunts of the cities, and having shewn forth an unwonted persistence in exercise of virtue, and having mounted to the very summit of the righteousness attainable by man, was most rightly wondered at, and even by some imagined to be Christ Himself. And indeed the rulers of the Jews led by his achievements in virtue to some such notion, send some to him bidding them to inquire if he be the Christ. The blessed Evangelist then not ignorant of the things that were by many bruited of him, of necessity puts, He was not the Light, that he might both uproot the error as to this, and again build up some weight of credence to him who was sent from God for a witness. For how is he not eminent exceedingly, how is he not every way worthy of marvel, who is so clad with great virtue and so illustrious in righteousness as to imitate |74 Christ Himself, and by the choice beauty of his piety, to be even imagined to be the Light Itself?
He was not then, says he, the Light, but sent to bear witness of the Light. In saying the Light, with the addition of the article, he shews that it is really one: for so it is in truth. For that both the blessed Baptist and each of the other saints, may be rightly called light we will not deny, seeing that it is said of them by our Saviour, Ye are the light of the world. And again it is said of the holy Baptist, I have ordained a lamp for My Christ, and, He was a burning and a shining light, and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light. But even though the saints be light, and the Baptist a lamp, we are not ignorant of the grace that was given them and of their supply from the Light. For neither is the light in the lamp its own, nor the illumination in the saints, but they are rendered bright and lightsome by the enlightening of the Truth and are lights in the world, holding forth the word of life. And what is the Life, whose word they holding forth are called light, save surely the Only-Begotten, Who saith, I am the Life? Therefore, One of a truth is That Which is verily Light, lighting, not enlightened: and by participation of the One, whatever is called light, will be so deemed of by imitation of It. |75
CHAPTER VIII. That the Son of God alone is Very Light, the creature not at all, being participate of Light, as originate.
9 That was the true Light.
The Divine Evangelist again profitably recapitulates what has been said, and clearly marks off That Which is in truth the Light, the Only-Begotten, from those that are not so, namely things originate: he severs clearly That Which is by nature from them which are by grace, That Which is partaken of from those which are participate of it, That Which ministereth Itself to those who lack from those who are in enjoyment of Its largess. And if the Son is Very Light, nought save He is in truth Light, nor hath of its own in potential the being called and being Light, nor yet will things originate produce this as fruit of their own nature; but just as from not being they are, so from not being Light will they mount up to being light, and by receiving the beams of the Very Light, and irradiated by the participation of the Divine Nature, will they in imitation of It alike be called and be light.
And the Word of God is Essentially Light, not being so of grace by participation, nor having this dignity as an accident in Himself, nor yet imported, as grace, but the unchangeable and immutable good of the Uncreated Nature, passing through from the Father into the Heir of His Essence. But the creature, not so will it bear about it the being light, but as not having it receives, as darkness it is illumined, it has, as an accruing grace, the dignity from the love to man of Him Who giveth it. Hence the One is Very Light, the other not at all. So great therefore being the difference |76 between, and so great a notion severing off, the Son of God from the creature in respect to sameness of nature, how must one not and with reason deem that they are foolish, yea rather outside of all good understanding, who say that He is originate, and rank with things made the Creator of all, not seeing, as seems to me, how great impiety their daring will risk, not knowing either what they say nor whereof they affirm.
For that to those who are used to test more accurately the truth in the words before us, the Only-Begotten, that is, the True Light, will be shewn to be in no way originate or made, or in any thing at all con-natural with the creature, one may on all sides see and that very easily, and not least through the thoughts that are in order subjoined, collected for the consideration of what is before us.
Thoughts or syllogisms whereby one may learn that the Son Alone is Very Light, the creature not at all; hence neither is He connatural therewith.
If the Son being the Brightness of the glory of God the Father, is therefore Very Light, He will not be connatural with the creature, that the creature too be not conceived of as the brightness of the glory of God the Father, having in potential the being by nature this which the Son is.
Another. If the whole creation have the power of being Very Light, why is this attributed to the Son Alone? For one ought I suppose by reason of equality to give to things made also the title of being the Very Light. But no one of things originate will this befit, but it will be predicated of the Alone Essence of the Son. Of right therefore and truly will it rest on Him, on created things not at all. How then will He be connatural with the creation, and not rather belong to what is above the creation, as being above it with the Father?
Another. If that which is not in truth light be not the same as the in truth Light (for the enunciation of either has somewhat of diversity), and the Son be called Very Light, and be so of a truth: the creature will therefore not be Very Light. |77 Hence neither are things thus severed from one another connatural.
Another. If not only the Only-Begotten be the Very Light, but the creature too possesseth the being very light, wherefore does He light every man that cometh into the world? For since the originate nature too possesseth this of its own, the being lightened by the Son were superfluous. Yet verily doth He light, all we are partakers of Him. Not therefore the same in regard to quality of essence, are the Son and the creature: as neither with the participator that whereof it is participate.
Another. If not only to the Son by Nature accrues the being Very Light, but the creature too have it, clearly of superfluity as I think will the Psalmist say to some, Look unto Him and be ye lightened. For that which is wholly of a truth light, will not become light by participation of some other, neither will it be illumined by enlightenment from other, but rather will be endowed with perfect purity from its own nature. But we see that man lacks light, being of created nature; and true is the Psalmist crying aloud as to the Word of God, For Thou wilt light my candle, the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness. Not then of a truth light are we, but rather participate of the Word that lighteth, and alien by nature from the Very Light, which is the Son.
Another of the same. If the mind of man is called a candle, as it is sung in the Psalms, For Thou wilt light my candle, how shall we be of a truth light? for to the candle the light is imported and given. And if the Only-Begotten Alone lights the darkness that is in us, how is not He rather of a truth light, we not at all? But if this be true, how can He be connatural with the creature, Who is so far above it?
Another. If to be very light can accrue to the creature, even as to the Son, man will be very light, as being a portion of it. To whom then did God the Father promise by the holy Prophets saying, But unto you that fear My Name shall the Sun of Righteousness arise? For whatever need of the Sun to illumine it had the of a truth light? Yet did God the Father promise to give it us as being in need, and we have |78 received it and are lighted. Other then than we and the creature in regard to identity of essence is the Only-Begotten, being Very Light and able to lighten things that need light.
Another. If not the Son Alone is Very Light, but the creature too possess this, it will be consequently in us too. What then induced the saints to cry aloud to God, O send out Thy Light and Thy Truth? Wherein thinking to help us thereby did they oftentimes send forth, tell me, those words? For if they knew that man is in need of light and that he lacks this addition from another, how will any say with truth, that he too is Very Light? but if he needed not the lighting word, why to no purpose did they call on Him Who could in no wise aid them? But one cannot say that the mind of the saints failed of the truth, and God the Father Himself sends the Son as to those who lack light. Other therefore by Nature in respect of the creature is the Only-Begotten, as lighting things that lack Light.
Another. If we say that the creature lacks light, and that the Only-Begotten lightens it, the creature does not bring itself to the Light; hence neither is it Very Light as the Son is.
Another. If that which is by nature and truth light does not admit of darkness, and the Only-Begotten is Very Light, and the creature likewise Very Light, why does the Scripture say of the Son, The darkness comprehended it not: but of us Paul saith, In whom the god of this world hath blinded the eyes of them which believe not? and again the Saviour Himself, While ye have the light, walk in the light, lest darkness come upon you. For it is I suppose clear to all, that unless it were possible for some of us to be apprehended by the darkness, our Saviour would not have said ought of this. How then will any longer be the same in nature the Only-Begotten and the creature, the Unchangeable with the changing, He Who may not suffer ought that injures with the darkened and that can acquire lighting, as something, that is, accruing to it, and not inherent in it by nature?
Another. If the Only-Begotten be not Alone Very Light, but the creature have it too, as connatural with Him, how |79 cry we aloud to God the Father, In Thy Light shall we see light? For if we be very light, how shall we be enlightened in another? But if we as needing light from without us say this, we clearly are not in truth light. Hence neither are we connatural with the Word Who is by Nature so far above us.
Another expository. Our Lord Jesus Christ is found to say in the Gospel, And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light. But if the Only-Begotten is the Very Light, and the creature is capable of being likewise very light: how cometh He in order to lighten it, and it loved darkness? How at all cometh it not to the light, if itself be the very light? For things that pertain to any by nature have their possession inherent: things that are eligible of the will, have not that inherence: as for example;----not of one's own will does one attain to being a rational man; for one has it by nature: but one will have it of one's own will to be bad or good, and will likewise of one's own power love righteousness or the reverse. If the creature is by nature the light (for this is the meaning of very), how cometh it not to the light? or how loveth it the darkness, as though it possessed not by nature the being very light, but made through choice rather its inclination to the better or the worse?
Either therefore let our opponents dare to say that the endowments above those of the creature are not naturally inherent in the Son, that they may be convicted of more naked blasphemy and may hear from all, The Lord shall cut off all deceitful lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things, or if they surely confess that these goods are in Him Essentially, let them not connect with Him in unity of nature, the nature that is not so, as we have just shewn.
Another. If the Word of God be not Alone the Very Light, but the creature too possess the being very light, as He does, why does He say, I am the light of the world? or how shall we endure one to despoil our nature of its most |80 excellent prerogative, if it is any way possible that we too should be very light, the originate nature likewise possessing this? But if the Only-Begotten says truly, I am the Light of the world, by participation it is plain with Him, and no otherwise, will the creature be light. If so, it is not connatural with Him.
Another. If the Son be not Alone in truth Light, but this exist in things originate also:----what shall we say, when the most wise Paul writes to us, But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should shew forth the praises of Him Who hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous Light? For what kind of darkness at all is there in us, or in what darkness were we, being ourselves also the in truth light? how have we been called unto the light, who are not in darkness? But neither does the herald of truth speak untrulySvho was bold to say, Do ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me? and we are called into His marvellous Light, as from darkness that is, and no otherwise. But if this be true, the creature is not of a truth light, but the Son is alone truly and strictly Light, and things originate are so by participation of Him, and therefore they are not connatural with Him.
Others with citation of utterances, gathering the readers by simpler thoughts to the confession that the Son of God Alone is the Very Light, the nature of things originate lighted by largess from Him, not possessing the being light essentially as He is.
The Psalmist says, The light of Thy Countenance was impressed upon us, O Lord. And what is the Countenance of God the Father Whose Light has been impressed upon us? Is it not surely the Only-Begotten Son of God, the Express Image, and Which therefore says, He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father? But it was impressed on us, making us of like form with Himself and engraving the illumination which is through His own Spirit as a Divine Image upon those who believe on Him, that they too may now be called as He both gods and sons of God. But if ought of things originate were the very light, how was it impressed upon us? For |81 the Light shineth in darkness, according to the unlying voice of the Spirit-clad. For how will light be manifest in light?
Another. The Psalmist says, Light sprang up for the righteous. If to him who hath and lacketh not, it is superfluous. But if the Light springeth up as to one who hath it not, the Only-Begotten Alone is Light, the creature participate of Light and therefore alien-in-nature.
Another. The Psalmist says, For they got not the land in possession with their own sword, neither did their own arm save them: but Thy Right Hand and Thine Arm and the Light of Thy Countenance. The light of the countenance of God the Father he here calls His revelation from the Son through the Spirit, and His conducting thereof unto all things that are, which alone was what saved Israel and liberated them from the tyranny of the Egyptians. If then not the Only-Begotten Alone be the very light, but an equal dignity be inherent in the creature too, why were these of whom he speaks not saved by their own light, but are set forth as supplied by additions from an alien and needless light? But it is clear that the Only Begotten shone forth as on those lacking Light. Hence is He (and that alone) the Very Light, and the creature borrows of Him the grace. If so, how will it any longer be connatural with Him?
Another. The Psalmist says, Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O Lord, in the Light of Thy Countenance. Why shall not they too walk rather in their own light? why, tell me, do they gathering illumination from another, hardly attain for themselves salvation, if they too are in truth light, as is the Countenance of God the Father, that is, the Son? But it is I suppose plain to every one from this too, that the Word bestoweth illumination on the creature, as lacking it, it is saved by receiving what it has not. How then are the Only-Begotten and the things made through Him any longer the same in essence?
Another. The Psalmist says, Unto the upright He hath sent forth light in the darkness. How was the upright in darkness at all, being himself too very light, if the nature of |82 things originate have this, just as the Only-Begotten? But if the Light is sent to the upright as not having it, we shall not need many words; for the very nature of things will proclaim aloud that not the same in essence is the needy with the Perfect, the Bestower out of abundance with the lacking.
Another. Arise, shine, O Jerusalem: for thy Light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. If the nature of things originate have light from its own resources, and this be strictly what we say that the Only-Begotten is in regard of being Very Light, how did Jerusalem lack one to light her? But since she receives illumination as a grace, Very Light Alone is the Son Who lights her and gives her what she has not. If so, how is He not wholly Other by Nature than she?
Another. Behold I have given Thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles. For how should the rational creature that is on earth at all need light, if to be very light is inherent in it by nature? For God the Father gives His Own Son to it as having it not already: and it receiving Him proclaims by the very nature of the thing, both the poverty of its own nature and the Rich Dignity of Him Who lights it.
Another. O house of Jacob, come ye and let us walk in the light of the Lord. Why do these not rather walk in their own light, but the Only-Begotten holds forth light to them, implanting in them the own good of His Essence? But trusting not in what is their own, do they borrow what is another's: as not having therefore, they know how to do this.
Another. The Saviour saith, I am the Light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness but shall have the Light of life. Let the creature too dare to utter such a word, if it too be by nature light. But if it shrink back from the word, it will also flee the thing itself, confessing the true Light, that is, the Son.
Another. The Lord saith, While ye have light, believe in the Light, that ye may be the children of light. Would they who were by nature light, by not believing, lose the light? if it |83 be indeed any way possible for the originate essence to be the very light. And how could this be? For not as to things that of essence accrue to any does the loss of them at all happen through negligence, but as to things whereof the will works the possession, and that can accrue and depart without the damage of the subject. As for example, a man is rational by nature, a ship-builder by will, or infirm in body by accident. He cannot at all become irrational; he may lose his ship-building experience, if for example he be negligent, and he may drive away what befalls him of sickness, hastening to improvement through medicine. Therefore things that accrue to any essentially have their position radical. If then the nature of things originate can at all be the very light, how do they who will not believe lose the light, or how will they who believe become children of light? For if they too are by nature the light, they are called children of themselves. And what is the reward to them that believe? for they who do not receive the faith are rather their own children. From such considerations inferring the truth, we shall say that the Only Begotten is Alone the Very Light, the creature lacking light and hence other in nature.
Another. Jesus then said unto them, Yet a little while is the light with you: walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you. To this too you may apply well the argument used above. For that which is by nature light, will never be apprehended by darkness.
Another. John saith, He that saith he is in the light and hateth his brother is in darkness even until now. Of choice then is the light in us, and of will rather than of essence accrues it to things originate, if he that hateth his brother is in darkness. But the Only-Begotten is Light by Nature, for He hath not the dignity as the fruit of choice. Hence neither is He connatural to things originate Who is so far above them.
Another akin to this. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light. Love imparteth to things originate what they have not, Light that is, but the Only-Begotten is Light: Other therefore is He than they in whom through love He is. |84
CHAPTER IX. That the soul of man does not exist prior to the body, nor is the embodiment as some say a consequence of former sins.
Which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
Sure is the Divine, for he not only thinks that he ought to declare that the Only-Begotten is indeed the Very Light, but he adds forthwith to the things that he has said the demonstration thereof, all but crying aloud with most earnest voice, I say that He is the Very Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
Do then, (may one say who would fain receive the Divine doctrines not without search,) the angels not lighten the mind of men? Cornelius, tell me, from whom did he learn that he must by Baptism be saved by God? And Manoah the father of Sampson, was he not by an angel's voice fore-instructed of things to come? The Prophet Zechariah likewise does he not clearly tell us, And the angel that talked with me said unto me I will shew thee what these be? And again going through the same words, does he not clearly shew that angels used to reveal the knowledge of hidden things spiritually to him? And behold, says he, the angel that talked with me went forth and another angel went out to meet him and said unto him Run, speak to this young man saying, Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein. What, tell me, does not the most wise Daniel too, falling in with marvellous visions, gain through the voice of angels the revelation of the things beheld by him? For hear him saying And it came to pass when I, I Daniel had seen the vision and sought for the meaning, then behold there stood before me as the |85 appearance of a man, and I heard a man's voice between the banks of Ulai which called and said Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision. Hence the power of lighting is in angels, and not only in them, but even man too borrows illumination from man. And of a truth that Eunuch eager after learning when he understood not the prophecies about our Saviour says to Philip, I pray thee, of whom speak-eth the Prophet this? of himself or of some other man? And they who hasten to this world's teachers, go to them I suppose for no other reason than this alone. And why do we yet linger in these things, when it is in our power to free ourselves easily, producing as proof what was said by our Saviour to the holy Apostles, Ye are the light of the world?
Such things is it like that one in his perplexity will say, but he will hear from us the reply, We see my friend that in the creature is what is compound, and nought of simple is in it: hence he who can give wisdom to others, if he be originate, is not wisdom itself, but a minister of the wisdom that is in him: for in wisdom is the wise man wise. And he who teaches the prudent, is not prudence itself, but the minister of prudence that is in him; for in prudence are these too prudent. And he again who has skill to enlighten others, is not the light itself, but the lender of the light that is in him, imparting it to others also by teaching, and communicating to the rest the good that he has received. Wherefore it was said to the holy Apostles also, Freely ye have received, freely give. For whatever goods there were in them, these were surely God-given, and the nature of men may not a whit boast itself of its own goods, nor yet that of the holy Angels. For after the being called into being, each of things that are has of God the mode of its existence, and we lay it down for certain that nought is in them essentially which is not a gift of the liberality of Him Who created, and has for its root the Favour of the Maker.
Since therefore things originate are compound, there will be in them no light strictly and simply or without compound, but this too with everything else they will have of participation and receiving it of God. But the Very Light, |86 is that which lightens, not which is lighted of another; and this the Only-Begotten is, considered in simple and uncompounded nature: for the God-head withdraws from ought of double.
These things then are thus. But the opponent will haply say again to us, If the saints were not by nature light, why did the Saviour call them not partakers of light, but light? And how is the creature other in nature than He, if as He is called Light, so too is the rational creation? For Ye are the light of the world, did the disciples hear.
What then, excellent sir, will we reply? Sons of God and gods are we called by the Divine Scriptures, according as it is said, I have said Ye are gods and all of you are children of the Most High. Shall we then, leaving off being what we are, mount up to the Divine and unutterable Essence, and deposing the Word of God from His very Sonship, in place of Him sit with the Father and make the kindness of Him Who honours us a pretext for impiety? God forbid; but the Son will be unchangeably in that which He is, we, adopted unto sonship and gods by grace, not ignorant of what we are: and in this way do we believe that the saints are light.
I think that we should consider and look at this also. The rational portion of the preation being enlightened enlightens by participation of ideas out of the mind inpoured into another's understanding, and such sort of enlightenment will rightly be called teaching rather than revelation. But the Word of God lighteth every man that cometh into the world, not after the manner of teaching, as the angels for example or men, but rather as God after the mode of creation He engrafteth in each of those that are called unto being, the seed of wisdom or of Divine knowledge, and implanteth a root of understanding and so rendereth the living creature rational, shewing it participate of His own Nature, and sending into the mind as it were certain luminous vapours of the Unutterable Brightness, in way and mode that Himself knoweth: for one may not, I deem, say on these subjects anything overmuch. Therefore our forefather |87 Adam too is seen to have attained the being wise not in time, as we, but straightway from the first beginnings of his being does he appear perfect in understanding, preserving in himself the illumination given of God to his nature as yet untroubled and pure, and holding the dignity of his nature unadulterated.
The Son therefore lights after the manner of creation, as being Himself the Very Light, and by participation with the Light the creature shines forth, and is therefore called and is light, mounting up to what is above its nature by the kindness of Him Who glorified it and Who crowneth it with divers honours, so that each one of those who have been honoured, may with reason come forth and lifting up prayers of thanksgiving, sing with loud voice, Bless the Lord O my soul and forget not all His benefits, Who forgiveth all thine iniquities, Who healeth all thy diseases, Who redeemeth thy life from destruction, Who crowneth thee with loving kindness and tender mercies, Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things. For verily doth the Lord mercies, rendering those that are little and a mere nothing according to their own nature, great and worthy of marvel through His Goodness toward them, even as He has, as God, willed to adorn us ungrudgingly with His own goods, and hence calls us gods and light, and what of good things does He not call us?
What does he say next? That He was in the world. Profitably does the Divine add this also, introducing thereby a thought most needful for us. For when he said, He was the Very Light which lighteth every man coming into the world, and it was not wholly clear to the hearers, whether it meant that the Light lighteth every man that cometh into the world, or that the Very Light itself, passing as from some other place into the world, maketh its illumination of all men: needs does the Spirit-bearer reveal to us the truth and interpret the force of his own words, saying straightway of the Light, that He was in the world: that hence you might understand the words coming into the world of man, and that it might be predicated rather of the enlightened nature, as being called out of not being into being. For like a |88 certain place seen in thought is the not being to things originate, whence in a sort of way passing into being, it takes at length another place, that namely of being. Hence more properly and fitly will the nature of man admit of itself that it was lighted immediately from the first periods, and that it received understanding coincident and co-fashioned with its being from the Light Which is in the world, that is the Only-Begotten, Who fills all things with the unspeakable light of the God-head, and is present with the angels in Heaven, is with those on the earth, leaves not even Hellitself empty of His God-head, and everywhere abiding with all removes from none, so that with reason does the most wise Psalmist marvelling thereat say: Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy Presence? If I ascend up into Heaven, Thou art there: if I make my bed in Hell, behold Thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall Thy Hand lead me, and Thy Right Hand shall hold me. For the Divine Hand graspeth every place and all creation, holding together into being things made and drawing together unto life things lacking life, and implanting the spiritual light in things recipient of understanding. Yet It is not in place, as we have already said, nor does it endure motion of place (for this is the property of bodies), but rather fulfils all things as God.
But perhaps some one will say to this, What then do we say, good sir, when any brings forward to us Christ saying, I am come a light into the world? what when the Psalmist speaks, O send out Thy Light and Thy Truth 1 For lo here He Himself clearly says that He is come into the world, as not being in it, that is: and the Psalmist again was entreating that He Who was not yet present should be sent, according, that is, to the meaning of the words, and its declaration of His being sent to us.
To this we say, that the Divine having clad the Only-Begotten with God-befitting dignity says that He is ever and unceasingly in the world, as Life by Nature, as Light by Essence, fulfilling the creation as God, not circumscript |89 by place, not meted by intervals, not comprehended by quantity, neither compassed at all by ought, nor needing to pass from one place to another, but in all He dwells, none He forsakes: yet he asserted that He came in the world (although present therein) by the Incarnation. For He shewed Himself upon earth and conversed with men with flesh, making His Presence in the world more manifest thereby, and He Who was aforetime comprehended by idea, seen at length by the very eyes of the body also, implanted in us a grosser so to speak perception of the knowledge of God, made known by wonders and mighty deeds. And the Psalmist entreats that the Word of God may be sent to us to enlighten the world, in no other way as seems to me, but in this. But I think that the studious should consider this again, that keener is the mind than all speech, sharper the motion of the understanding than the tongue. Hence as far as pertains to the delicacy of the mind and its subtil motion, we behold the varied beauty of the Divine Nature: but we utter the things respecting it in more human wise and in the speech that belongs to us, the tongue not being able to stretch forth unto the measure of the truth. Wherefore Paul too, the steward of the Mysteries of the Saviour, used to ask of God utterance to open his mouth. Nought then will the poverty of our language hurt the Natural Dignities of the Only-Begotten, but what belongs to Him will be conceived of after a Divine sort, but will be uttered as matter of necessity in more human wise, both by Him for our sakes and by the Saints of Him according to the measure of our nature.
It were then, it seems, not amiss to be content with what has been already said in explanation of the words before us. Yet since I deem that the pen that ministers to the Divine doctrines should be above sloth, come let us bringing forward the lection again examine more exactly how the words coming into the world predicated of man, as is fit, should be understood. For the light was in the world, as the Evangelist also himself testified to us, and we have maintained that it was not the Light that cometh into the world but rather the man |90 who is being lighted. Some therefore say, belching forth of their own heart and not out of the mouth of the Lord, as it is "written, that the souls of men were pre-existent in Heaven before the fashioning of their bodies, passing long time in un-embodied bliss, and enjoying more purely the true Good. But when the sate of better things came into them and, declining at length to the worser, they sank to strange thoughts and desires, the Creator justly displeased sends them forth into the world, and entangled them with bodies of earth compelling them to be burdened therewith, and having shut them as it were in some cave of strange pleasures, decreed to instruct them by the very trial itself, how bitter it is to be carried away to the worser, and to make no account of what is good. And in proof of this most ridiculous fable of theirs, they wrest first of all this that is now before us: He was the Very Light Which lighteth every man coming into the world, and, besides, certain other things of the Divine Scripture, such as, Before I was afflicted I went astray, and moreover not ashamed of such foolish prating say, Lo the soul says that before its humiliation, that is, its embodiment, it transgressed and that therefore it was justly afflicted, brought in bondage to death and corruption, even as Paul too stileth the body saying O wretched man that I am I who shall deliver me from, the body of this death? But if the soul, he says, goeth astray before it was afflicted, it also cometh into the world, as having that is a previous being (for how could it sin at at all if it existed not yet?); and cometh into the world, setting out that is from some quarter. Such things as these they stringing against the doctrines of the Church and heaping up the trash of their empty expositions in the ears of the of the faithful will rightly hear, Woe unto the foolish prophets that follow their own spirit and have seen nothing! For visions in truth, and auguries by birds and prophecies of their own heart they setting against the words spoken by the Spirit, do not perceive to how great absurdity their device will run; as the Psalmist says unto God, Thou, Thou art to be feared: and who may stand in Thy Sight when once Thou art angry? |91
But that it is most exceedingly absurd to suppose that the soul pre-exists, and to think that for elder transgressions it was sent down into bodies of earth, we shall endeavour to prove according to our ability by the subjoined considerations, knowing what is written, Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning.
Thoughts or considerations of a complex kind in the way of demonstration.
1. If the soul of man have existence prior to the formation of the body, and, declining to evil according to the surmises of some, has for punishment of its transgression a descent into flesh, how, tell me, does the Evangelist say that it is lighted on coming into the world? For this I suppose is honour and the addition of fair gifts. But not by being honoured is one punished, nor yet chastised by being made recipient of the Divine good things, but by meeting with what is of the wrath of the punisher. But since man on his coming into the world is not in this condition, but on the contrary is even lighted, it is I suppose clear that he that is honoured with flesh has not his embodiment for a punishment.
2. Another. If before the body the soul were a mind yet pure, living in bliss, and by turning aside to ill fell, and therefore came to be in flesh, how is it lighted on its entry into the world? For one must needs say that it was destitute of light before it came: if so, how any longer was that pure mind which had then scarce a beginning of being lighted, when it came into the world, and not without flesh?
3. Another. If the soul of man existed before the body; and the mind therefore existed yet pure, attached more properly to the desire of good things, but from turning aside to the worser is sent into earthly body, and being therein, no longer rejects the will to transgress, how is it not wronged, not then specially entrusted with the doing of this, when it existed with a greater aptness for virtue, not as yet in bondage to the ills that proceed from the body, but when it |92 had come into the turbid waters of sin, then out of season compelled to do this? But the Divinity will not miss of the befitting time, nor that injure to Whose Nature doing injury belongeth not. In season then and rightly do we refuse sin when in the flesh, having this season alone of being, in which with bodies we come into the world, leaving the former not being, as though a certain place, and from it passing into a beginning of being.
4. Another. What reason is there, I would fain ask them, in the soul that sinned prior to the body being sent into the body, that it might learn by experience the disgrace of its own lusts? For they are not ashamed to set forth this too, although it ought rather to have been withdrawn from the very imagination of its ills, not thrust down to the very depth of base pleasures. For this rather than the other were a mode of healing. If then it has the embodiment an increase of its disease in order that it may revel in the pleasures of the body, one would not praise the Corrector, injuring that which was sick by the very means whereby He thought to advantage it. But if it has it in order that it may cease from its passions, how is it possible that it having fallen into the very depth of lust should arise, and not rather have spurned the very beginning of the disease, while it was free from that which dragged it down into sin?
5. Another. If the soul in pre-existence transgressed and was for this reason entangled with flesh and blood, receiving this in the nature of punishment, how is it not the duty of them who believe in Christ and who received thereby the remission of sin, to go forthwith out of their bodies and to cast away that which is put about them as a punishment? How, tell me, does the soul of man have perfect remission while yet bearing about it the method of its punishment? But we see that they who believe are so far from wishing to be freed from their bodies, that together with their confessions in Christ they declare the resurrection of the flesh. No method of punishment then will that be which is honoured even with the confession of the faith, |93 witnessing, through its return back to life, to the Divine Power of the Saviour the being able to do all things easily.
6. Another. If the soul pre-existing according to them sinned and was for this reason entangled with flesh, why does the Law order the graver offences to be honoured with death, and suffer him who has committed no crime to live? For I suppose that it would rather have been right to let those who are guilty of the basest ill linger long in their bodies, that they might be the more heavily punished, and to let those who had committed no crime free from their bodies, if the embodiment ranks as a punishment. But on the contrary, the murderer is punished with death, the righteous man suffers nothing in his body. The embodiment does not therefore belong to punishment.
7. Another. If souls were embodied for previous sins, and the nature of the body were invented as a species of punishment for them, how did the Saviour profit us by abolishing death? how was not rather decay a mercy, destroying that which punished us, and putting an end to the wrath against us? Hence one might rather say that it were meeter to give thanks to decay than on the contrary to Him Who laid on us endless infliction through the resurrection of the dead. And yet we give thanks as freed from death and decay through Christ. Hence embodiment is not of the nature of punishment to the soul of man.
8. Another from the same idea. If the souls of men were entangled with earthly bodies in satisfaction of elder transgressions, what thank tell me shall we acknowledge to God Who promises us the Resurrection? For this is clearly a renewal of punishment and a building up of what hurts us, if a long punishment is clearly bitter to every one. It is then hard that bodies should rise which have an office of punishment to their wretched souls. And yet nature has from Christ, as a gift renewing it unto joy, the resurrection. The embodiment is not therefore of the nature of punishment.
9. Another. The Prophetic word appears as publishing to us some great and long desired-feast. For, says it, the |94 dead shall arise, and they that be in the tombs shall be raised. But if the embodiment were indeed of the nature of punishment to the wretched souls of men, how would not the Prophet rather sorrow when proclaiming these things as from God? How will that proclamation be in any way good which brings us the duration of what vexes us? For he should rather have said, if he wished to rejoice those who had received bodies by reason of sin, The dead shall not arise, and the nature of the flesh shall perish. But on the contrary he rejoices them saying that there shall be a resurrection of bodies by the will of God. How then can the body wherein both ourselves rejoice and God is well pleased be (according to the uncounsel of some) of the nature of a punishment?
10. Another. God, in blessing the blessed Abraham promised that his seed should be as the multitude innumerable of the stars. If it be true that the soul sinning before the body is sent down to earth and flesh to be punished, God promised to the righteous man, an ignoble multitude of condemned, runagates from good, and not a seed participant of blessing. But God says this as a blessing to Abraham: hence the origin of bodies is freed from all accusal.
11. Another. The race of the Israelites spread forth into a multitude great and innumerable. And indeed justly marvellous at this does the hierophant Moses pray saying to them, And behold ye are this day as the stars of heaven for multitude: the Lord God of your fathers make you a thousand times so many more as ye are. But if it were punishment to the souls of men to be in the world with bodies, and they must needs so be, and not bare of them, Moses' saying will be found to be verily a curse, not a blessing. But it is not so, it was made as a blessing: the embodiment therefore is not of the nature of punishment.
12. Another. To those who attempt to ask amiss God endures not to give. And an unlying witness to us will be the disciple of the Saviour, saying, Ye ash and receive not, because ye ash amiss. If then it were a punishment to a soul to be embodied, how would not one with reason say that Hannah the wife of Elkanah missed widely of what was |95 fit, when she so instantly poured her prayer unto God and asked for a man child. For she was asking for the downfall of a soul and its descent into a body. How then came God to give her the holy Samuel as her son, if it were wholly of necessity that a soul should sin, in order that so, entangled with a body, it might fulfil the woman's request. And yet God gave, to Whom it is inherent to give only good things and, by readily assenting to her, He frees her request from all blame. Hence embodiment is not a result of sin, nor yet of the nature of punishment as some say.
13. Another. If the body has been given as a punishment to the soul of man, what induced Hezekiah the king of Jerusalem, although good and wise, to deprecate not without bitter tears the death of the body, and to shrink from putting off the instrument of his punishment, and to beseech that he might be honoured with an increase of years, although he surely ought, if he were really good, not to have deprecated death, but to have thought it a burden to be entangled with a body and to have acknowledged this rather than the other as a favour. And how did God promise him as a favour saying, Behold I will add unto thy days fifteen years, albeit the promise was an addition of punishment, not a mode of kindness, if these set forth the truth? Yet the promise from above was a gift and the addition a kindness. Hence the embodiment is not a punishment to souls.
14. Another. If the body is given to the soul of man in the light of punishment, what favour did God repay to the Eunuch who brought up Jeremiah out of the dungeon, saying, I will give thy life for a prey and will save thee from the Chaldeans? For He should rather have let him die that He might also honour him, releasing him from the prison and punishment. What tell me did He give to the young men of Israel, in delivering them from the flame and from the cruelty of the Babylonians? why did He rescue the wise Daniel from the cruelty of the lions? But verily He doeth these things in kindness and is glorified because of them. The dwelling in the flesh is not then of the nature of |96 punishment, in order that honour and punishment at God's hands may not be one and the same.
15. Another. Paul teaching us that there shall be in due time an investigation before the Divine Judgment-seat of each man's life says, For we must all appear before the judgement-seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he done, whether it be good or bad. But if it be only for the things done in the body that a man either receiveth punishment at the hands of the Judge, or is accounted worthy of befitting reward, and no mention is made of prior sins, nor any charge previous to his birth gone into: how had the soul any pre-existence, or how was it humbled in consequence of sin, as some say, seeing that its time with flesh is alone marked out, for that the things alone that were done in it are gone into?
16. Another. If souls were embodied on account of previous sins, how does Paul write to us saying, Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God? For if in the nature of punishment they were given to our wretched souls, how should we present then for an odour of a sweet smell to God? how will that be acceptable through which we received our sentence? or what kind of virtue at all will that admit of, whose nature is punishment, and root sin?
17. Another. Shewing that corruption is extended against the whole nature of man, because of the transgression in Adam, Paul saith, Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression. How then does he say that death reigned even over them that had not sinned, if the mortal body were given us in consequence of former sins? For where at all are they that have not sinned, if the embodiment be the punishment of faults, and our being in this life with our body is a pre-existing charge against us? Unlearned then is the proposition of our opponents.
18. Another. The Disciples once made enquiry of our Saviour concerning one born blind, and said, Master who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? For since it is written in the prophetic Scriptures, of God, that |97 He visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, the disciples began to imagine that such was the case with this man. What then does Christ say to this? Verily I say to you, neither hath this man sinned nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. How then does He exempt them from sin, although not free from blame as to their lives? for being men, they were surely liable also to faults. But it is manifest and clear that the discourse pertains to the period prior to birth, during which they not yet existing, neither had they sinned, that Christ may be true.
19. Another. The blessed Prophet Isaiah explaining the reason of the earth being made says, He created it not in vain, He formed it to be inhabited. But it was altogether right that the earth should be inhabited, not filled with bare spirits, nor with fleshless and unclad souls, but with bodies suitable to it. Was it then Divine Counsel that wrought that souls should sin, in order that the nature of bodies should also come into being, and thus at length the earth be shewn to have been created not in vain? But this is absurd; the other therefore has the better.
20. Another. Wisdom the Artificer of all things says of herself in the book of Proverbs I was she in whom He rejoiced, the Creator of all that is, and I daily rejoiced always before Him when He rejoiced in having consummated the world and took delight in the sons of men. When then on His completion of the world, God rejoices exceedingly in the forming of man, how will he not be bereft of all sense who subjects the soul to previous sins and says that it was therefore embodied, and was punished after this fashion? For will not God be the maker of a prison rather than a world? will He not be delighting contrary to reason in those who are undergoing punishment? And how will He be Good who delights in things so absurd? But verily He is Good and therefore the Maker of things good: the embodiment will not therefore be of the nature of punishment.
21. Another. If the soul of man by its entanglement |98 with flesh pays the penalty of transgressions prior to its birth in the world, and the body occupies the position of a punishment to it, why was the Flood brought in upon the world of the ungodly, and Noah being upright was preserved and has this recompense of his faith from God? For ought not rather those who had sinned exceedingly to have lingered longer time in the body that they might be punished also more severely, and the good to have been set free from their bonds of flesh and received the release from the body as the recompense of their piety toward God? But I suppose that the Creator of all being Righteous lays on each rank the sentence due to it. Since then He being Righteous punishes the ungodly with the death of the body, gladdens again the righteous with life together with the body: bodies are no punishment to the souls of men, that God be not unrighteous, punishing the ungodly with favour, honouring again the righteous with punishment.
22. Another. If to pay the penalty of previous offences the soul has descended into flesh and body, how did the Saviour love Lazarus, raising him, and compelling him. who was once set free from his bands to return to them again? But Christ did it helping him and as a friend did He honour the dead by raising him from the dead. To no purpose then is the proposition of the opponents.
23. Another. If, as those in their nonsense say, the body was given to the soul in the light of a punishment, devised on account of former sin of its, it was sin that brought in the nature of human bodies. But again also death entered by sin: sin therefore clearly appears arming itself against itself, undoing the beginning by what follows, and Satan is therefore divided against himself, how then shall his kingdom stand? as our Saviour saith. But verily so to think is incredible: the contrary therefore is true.
24. Another. God created all things in incorruption and He made not death, but through envy of the devil came death into the world. But if it be true, that the body was given in nature of punishment to the soul of man, why, sirs, should we accuse the envy of the devil for bringing in to us the |99 termination of wretchedness and destroying the body which is our punishment? And for what in the world do we offer thanks to the Saviour for having again bound us to the flesh through the resurrection? yet we do indeed give thanks, and the envy of the devil has vexed our nature, procuring corruption to our bodies. No mode of punishment then is the body nor yet is it the wages of our former sin.
And the world was made by Him.
The Evangelist in these words needfully indicates that the world was made through the Very Light, that is, the Only-Begotten. For although, having called Him most distinctly Word at the beginning, he affirmed that all things were made through Him, and that without Him nothing was brought into being, and demonstrated thereby that He was their Maker and Creator: yet it was necessary now most particularly to take this up again anew, that no room of error and perdition might be left to those who are wont to pervert the uprightness of the Divine dogmas. For when he said of the Light that it was in the world, that no one wresting the saying to senseless conceptions, should make the Light connumerate with the visible portions of the universe (as sun and moon and stars for example are in the world, but as parts of the universe, and as limbs of one body), profitably and of necessity does the Evangelist introduce the Only-Begotten as Fashioner and Artificer of the whole universe, and thereby again fully stablishes us and leads us into an unerring and right apprehension of the truth. For who would be so silly or have such great folly in his mind, as not to conceive that wholly other than the universe is He through Whom it is said to have been made, and to put the creature in its own place, to sever off the Creator in reasoning and to conceive that His Nature is Divine? For the thing made must needs be other in nature than the Maker, that maker and made appear not the same.
For if they be conceived of as the same, without any inherent distinction as to the mode of being, the made will mount up to the nature of the Maker, the Creator descend to that of the creatures, and will no longer have Alone the |100 power of bringing into being, but this will be found to exist in potential in things made also, if nothing at all severs them from being consubstantial with God: and so at length the creature will be its own creator and the Evangelist will endow the Only-Begotten with a mere title of honour when he says that He was in the world, and the world, was made by Him. But he knows that the Creator of all things is One in Nature. Not as the same then will made and Maker, God and creature be conceived of by those who know how to believe aright, but the one will be subject as a bondman, acknowledging the limit of its own nature: the Son will reign over it, having Alone with the Father the power both to call things which he not as though they were and by His ineffable Power to bring that which is not yet into being.
But that the Son being by Nature God, is wholly Other than the creature, we having already sufficiently gone through in the Discourse of the Holy Trinity, will say nothing more here. But we will add this for profit, that in saying that the world was made through Him he brings us up to the thought of the Father, and with the "Through Whom" brings in also the "Of Whom." For all things are from the Father through the Son in the Holy Ghost.
And the world knew Him not.
The bearer of the Spirit is watchful and hastens to forestall the sophistry of some; and you may marvel again at the reasoning in his thoughts. He named the Son Very Light, and affirmed that He lighteth every man that cometh into the world, and besides says that He was in the world and the world was made through Him.
But one of our opponents might forthwith say, "If the Word, sirs, were light and if it lighted the heart of every man, unto Divine knowledge that is and unto the under-standing that befits man, and if it were always in the world and were Himself its Maker, how came He to be unknown even during so long periods? He therefore was not lighting nor yet was He at all the Light."
These things the Divine meets with some warmth saying |101 The world knew Him not: not on His own account was He unknown, says he; but let the world blame its own weakness. For the Son lighteth, the creature blunts the grace. It had imparted to it sight to conceive of Him Who is God by Nature, and it squandered the gift, it made things made the limit of its contemplation, it shrank from going further, it buried the illumination under its negligence, it neglected the gift which that it might not befall him Paul commands his disciple to watch. Nought then to the light is the ill of the enlightened. For as the light of the sun rises upon all, but the blind is nothing profited, yet we do not therefore reasonably blame the sun's ray, but rather find fault with the disease of the sight (for the one was lighting, the other received not the lighting): so (I deem) ought we to conceive of the Only-Begotten also, that He is Very Light. But the god of this world, as Paul too saith, hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the knowledge of God should shine among them. We say then that the man was subjected to blindness herein, not that he reached a total deprivation of light (for the God-given understanding is surely preserved in his nature) but that he was quenching it with his more foolish manner of life and that by turning aside to the worse he was wasting and melting away the measure of the grace. Wherefore the most wise Psalmist too when representing to us the character of such an one, then indeed (and rightly) begs to be enlightened, saying to God, Open Thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law. For He gave them the law to be their help, which re-kindled in us the Divine Light and purged away like a sort of humour from the eyes of the heart the darkness which came upon them from the ancient unlearning.
The world then is under the charge of unthankfulness alike and want of perception in this matter, both as ignorant of its own Creator, and shewing forth no good fruit from being lighted, that that again may be manifestly true of it, which was sung by prophet's voice of the children of Israel, I looked that it should bring forth grapes, but it brought forth |102 thorns. For the fruit of being enlightened is verily the true apprehension of the Only Begotten, hanging like a grape-bunch from the vine branch, I mean man's understanding, and not on the contrary the uncounsel that leads to polytheistic error, like the sharp briar rising up within us and wounding to death our mind with its deceits.
11 He came unto His own and His own received Him not.
The Evangelist pursues his plea that the world knew not its Illuminer, that is the Only-Begotten, and from the worse sin of the children of Israel, he hastens to clench the charges against the Gentiles and shews the disease of ignorance alike and unbelief which lay upon the whole world. Very appositely does he drive forward to discourse of the Incarnation, and from speaking of the Godhead 8, he comes down by degrees to the exposition of the Dispensation with Flesh, which the Son made for our sakes.
For it were no marvel if the world knew not, says he, the Only-Begotten, seeing that it had left the understanding that befits man, and was ignorant that it is and was made in honour, and compared to the beasts that perish, as the Divine Psalmist also said; when the very people who were supposed above all to belong to Him shook Him off when present with the Flesh and would not receive Him when He came among them for salvation to all, recompensing to faith the kingdom of Heaven. But observe how exact is his language about these things. For the world he accuses of not at all knowing Him Who lighteth it, elaborating for it a pardon so to speak just on this account, and preparing beforehand reasonable causes for the grace given to it: but of those of Israel who were reckoned among those specially belonging to Him, he says, Received Him not. For it would not have been true to say, Knew Him not, when the older law preached Him, the Prophets who came after led them by the hand to the apprehension of the truth. The sentence therefore of severity 9 upon them was just, even as the |103 goodness too upon the Gentiles. For the world, or the Gentiles, having lost their relation 10 with God through their downfall into evil, lost besides the knowledge of Him Who enlighteneth them: but the others, who were rich in knowledge through the law and called to a polity pleasing to God, were at length voluntarily falling away from it, not receiving the Word of God Who was already known to them and Who came among them as to His own. For the whole world is God's own, in regard of its creation, and its being brought into being from Him and through Him: but Israel will more fitly be called His own 11, and will gain the glory hereof, both on account of the election of the holy fathers and for that he was named the beginning and the first-born of the children of God. For Israelis My son, My first-born, says God somewhere to Moses: whom also setting apart for Himself as one and picked out, He was wont to call His own people, saying to Pharaoh king of Egypt Let My people go. Proof from the books of Moses also shews that Israel specially pertains unto God. For when, it says, the Most High was dividing the nations, when he was separating the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the nations according to the member of the angels of God, and his people Jacob became the Lord's portion, Israel the lot of his inheritance. Among whom He also walked, as in His own lot and special portion, saying, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
But when He was not received, He transfers the grace to the Gentiles, and the world which knew Him not at the beginning is lighted through repentance and faith, and Israel returns to the darkness whence he had come forth. Wherefore the Saviour too saith, For judgement I am come into this world, that they which see not might see, and that they which see might be made blind.
12 But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, to them that believe on His Name.
A right judgement verily and worthy of God! The firstborn, Israel, is cast out; for he would not abide in ownness |104 with God, nor did lie receive the Son, Who came among His own, he rejected the Bestower of Nobility, he thrust away the Giver of Grace: the Gentiles received Him by faith. Therefore will Israel with reason receive the wages of their folly, they will mourn the loss of good things, they will receive the bitter fruit of their own ill-counsel, bereft of the sonship; and the Gentiles will delight them selves in the good things that are through faith, they shall find the bright rewards of their obedience and shall be planted out in his place. For they shall be cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and be grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree. And Israel shall hear, Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters, they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger: but one of Christ's disciples shall say to the Gentiles, But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people, that ye should shew forth the praises of Him Who hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous Light. For since they received the Son through faith, they receive the power to be ranked among the sons of God. For the Son gives what is His alone and specially and of nature to be in their power, setting it forth as common, making this a sort of image of the love for man that is inherent to Him, and of His love for the world. For in none other way could we who bore the image of the earthy escape corruption, unless the beauty of the image of the heavenly were impressed upon us, through our being called to sonship. For being partakers of Him through the Spirit, we were sealed unto likeness with Him and mount up to the primal character of the Image after which the Divine Scripture says we were made. For thus hardly recovering the pristine beauty of our nature, and re-formed unto that Divine Nature, shall we be superior to the ills that have befallen us through the transgression. Therefore we mount up unto dignity above our nature for Christ's sake, and we too shall be sons of God, not like Him in exactitude, but by grace in imitation of Him. For He is Very Son, existing from the Father; we adopted by His Kindness, through |105 grace receiving I have said, Ye are gods and all of you are children of the Most High. For the created and subject nature is called to what is above nature by the mere nod and will of the Father: but the Son and God and Lord will not possess this being God and Son, by the will of God the Father, nor in that He wills it only, but beaming forth of the Very Essence of the Father, He receives to Himself by Nature what is Its own Good. And again He is clearly seen to be Very Son, proved by comparison with ourselves. For since that which is by Nature has another mode of being from that which is by adoption, and that which is in truth from that which is by imitation, and we are called sons of God by adoption and imitation: hence He is Son by Nature and in truth, to Whom we made sons too are compared, gaining the good by grace instead of by natural endowments.
13 Which were begotten, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God.
They who, he says, have been called by faith in Christ unto sonship with God, put off the littleness of their own nature, and adorned with the grace of Him Who honoureth them as with a splendid robe mount up unto dignity above nature: for no longer are they called children of flesh, but rather offspring of God by adoption.
But note how great guardedness the blessed Evangelist used in his words. For since he was going to say that those who believe are begotten of God, lest any should suppose that they are in truth born of the Essence of God the Father and arrive at an exact likeness with the Only-Begotten, or that of Him too is less properly said, From the womb before the Day star begat I Thee, and so at length He too should be brought down to the nature of creatures, even though He be said to be begotten of God, needs does he contrive this additional caution. For when he had said that power was given to them from Him Who is by Nature Son, to become sons of God, and had hereby first introduced that which is of adoption and grace, without peril does he |106 afterwards add were begotten of God; that he might shew the greatness of the grace which was conferred on them, gathering as it were into kinness of nature that which was alien from God the Father and raising up the bond to the nobility of its Lord, by means of His warm love to it.
What more then, will one perchance say, or what special have they who believe in Christ over Israel, since he too is said to have been begotten of God, as in, I begat and exalted sons, but they rejected Me? To this I think one must say, first, that the Law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, did not give to the children of Israel to have even this in truth, but limned as in type and outline upon them, until the time of reformation, as it is written, wherein they should at length be manifested who should more fitly and truly call God Father, because the Spirit of the Only-Begotten dwells in them. For the one had the spirit of bondage to fear, the other the spirit of adoption unto liberty, whereby we cry Abba, Father. Therefore the people who should attain unto sonship through faith that is in Christ, were fore-described in Israel as it were in shadow, even as we conceive that the circumcision in Spirit was fore-typified in theirs of old in the flesh, and in short, all of ours were in them in type. Besides, we say that Israel was called to sonship typically through the mediator Moses. Wherefore they were baptized into him too, as Paul saith, in the cloud and in the sea, and were refashioned out of idolatry unto the law of bondage, the commandment contained in the letter being ministered by angels: but they who by faith in Christ attain unto sonship with God, are baptized into nought originate, but into the Holy Trinity Itself, through the Word as Mediator, Who conjoined to Himself things human through the Flesh which was united to Him, being conjoined of nature to the Father, in that He is by Nature God. For so mounteth up the bond unto sonship, through participation with the in truth Son, called and so to say raised up to the dignity which is in Him by Nature. Wherefore we who have received the regeneration by the Spirit through faith, are called and are begotten of God. |107
But since some in mad peril dare to lie, as against the Son, so against the Holy Ghost too, saying that He is originate and created, and to thrust Him forth altogether from. Consubstantiality with God the Father, come let us again arraying the word of the true Faith against their unbridled tongues, beget occasions of profit both to ourselves and to our readers. For if neither God by Nature, O sirs, nor yet of God, is He Who is His Own Spirit and therefore Essentially inexistent in Him, but is other than He, and not removed from being connatural with things made, how are we who are begotten through Him said to be begotten of God? For either we shall say that the Evangelist certainly lies, or (if he is true and it be so and not otherwise), the Spirit will be God and of God by Nature, of Whom we too being accounted worthy to partake through faith to Christ-ward, are rendered partakers of the Divine Nature and are said to be begotten of God, and are therefore called gods, not by grace alone winging our flight to the glory that is above us, but as having now God too indwelling and lodging in us, according to what is said in the prophet, I will dwell in them and walk in them.
For let them tell us who are filled full with so great unlearning, how, having the Spirit dwelling in us, we are according to Paul temples of God, unless He be God by Nature. For if He be a creature and originate, wherefore does God destroy us, as defiling the temple of God when we defile the body wherein the Spirit indwells, having the whole Natural Property of God the Father and likewise of the Only-Begotten? And how will the Saviour be true in saying: If a man love Me, he will keep My Words: and My Father will love him and we will come unto him and make Our abode with him and rest in him? albeit it is the Spirit Who dwells in us, and through Him do we believe that we have the Father and the Son, even as John himself said again in his epistles, Hereby know we that we dwell in Him and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit. And how at all will He be called Spirit of God, if He be not of Him and in Him by Nature and therefore God? For if being, as those say, originate, He is the Spirit of God, there is nothing to hinder |108 the other creatures too from being called spirits of God. For this will have already overtaken them in potential, if it is at all possible that originate essence should be Spirit of God.
And it were meet in truth to set forth a long discourse upon these things and to satiate more at length, overturning the uncounsels of the heretics. But having already sufficiently gone through what relates to the Holy Ghost, in the De Trinitate, we shall therefore forbear to say much yet.
14 And the Word was made Flesh.
He has now entered openly upon the declaration of the Incarnation. For he plainly sets forth that the Only-Begotten became and is called son of man; for this and nought else does his saying that the Word was made Flesh signify: for it is as though he said more nakedly The Word was made Man. And in thus speaking he introduces again to us nought strange or unwonted, seeing that the Divine Scripture ofttimes calls the whole creature by the name of flesh alone, as in the prophet Joel: I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh. And we do not suppose that the Prophet says that that the Divine Spirit should be bestowed upon human flesh soul-less and alone (for this would be by no means free from absurdity): but comprehending the whole by the part, he names man from the flesh: for thus it was right and not otherwise. And why, it is needful I suppose to say.
Man then is a creature rational, but composite, of soul that is and of this perishable and earthly flesh. And when it had been made by God, and was brought into being, not having of its own nature incorruption and imperishableness (for these things appertain essentially to God Alone), it was sealed with the spirit of life, by participation with the Divinity gaining the good that is above nature (for He breathed, it says, into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul). But when he was being punished for his transgressions, then with justice hearing Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return, he was bared of the grace; the breath of life, that is the Spirit of Him Who says I am the Life, departed from the earthy body and the creature falls |109 into death, through the flesh alone, the soul being kept in immortality, since to the flesh too alone was it said, Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return. It needed therefore that that in us which was specially imperilled, should with the greater zeal be restored, and by intertwining again with Life That is by Nature be recalled to immortality: it needed that at length the sentence. Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return should be relaxed, the fallen body being united ineffably to the Word That quickeneth all things. For it needed that becoming His Flesh, it should partake of the immortality that is from Him. For it were a thing most absurd, that fire should have the power of infusing into wood the perceptible quality of its inherent power and of all but transfashioning into itself the things wherein it is by participation, and that we should not fully hold that the Word of God Which is over all, would in-work in the flesh His own Good, that is Life.
For this reason specially I suppose it was that the holy Evangelist, indicating the creature specially from the part affected, says that the Word of God became Flesh, that so we might see at once the wound and the medicine, the sick and the Physician, that which had fallen unto death and Him Who raised it unto life, that which was overcome of corruption and Him Who chased away the corruption, that which was holden of death and Him Who is superior to death, that which was bereft of life and the Giver of life.
But he says not that the Word came into flesh but that It was made Flesh, that you may not suppose that He came to it as in the case of the Prophets or other of the Saints by participation, but did Himself become actual Flesh, that is man: for so we just now said. Wherefore He is also God by Nature in Flesh and with Flesh, as having it His own, and conceived of as being Other than it, and worshipped in it and with it, according to what is written in the prophet Isaiah, Men of stature shall come over unto thee and they shall be thine: they shall come after thee; in chains they shall come over and they shall fall down unto thee, they shall make supplication unto thee, for God is in thee, and there is no God |110 beside thee. Lo they say that God is in Him, not severing the Flesh from the Word; and again they affirm that there is none other God save He, uniting to the Word that which He bears about Him, as His very own, that is the temple of the Virgin: for He is One Christ of Both.
And dwelt among us.
The Evangelist profitably goes over again what he has said, and brings the force of the thought to a clearer comprehension. For since he said that the Word of God was made Flesh, lest any out of much ignorance should imagine that He forsook His own Nature, and was in truth changed into flesh, and suffered, which were impossible (for the Godhead is far removed from all. variableness and change into ought else as to mode of being): the Divine exceeding well added straightway And dwelt among us, that considering that the things mentioned are two, the Dweller and that wherein is the dwelling, you might not suppose that He is transformed into flesh, but rather that He dwelt in Flesh, using His own Body, the Temple that is from the Holy Virgin. For in Him dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, as Paul saith.
But profitably does he affirm that the Word dwelt in us, unveiling to us this deep Mystery also: for we were all in Christ, and the community of human nature mounteth up unto His Person; since therefore was He named the last Adam,, giving richly to the common nature all things that belong to joy and glory, even as the first Adam what pertained to corruption and dejection. The Word then dwelt in all through one that the One being declared the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, the dignity might come unto all the human nature and thus because of One of us, I have said Ye are gods and all of you are children of the Most High might come to us also. Therefore in Christ verily is the bond made free, mounting up unto mystic union with Him Who bare the form of the servant; yet in us after the likeness of the One because of the relation after the flesh. For why doth He take on Him not the nature of |111 angels but the seed of Abraham, whence in all things it behoved Him to he made like unto His brethren, and to become in truth Man? Is it not clear to all, that He descended unto the condition of bondage, not Himself giving thereby ought to Himself, but bestowing Himself on us, that we through His Poverty might be rich, and, soaring up through likeness to Him unto His own special good, might be made gods and children of God through faith? For He Who is by Nature Son and God dwelt in us, wherefore in His Spirit do we cry Abba Father. And the Word dwells in One Temple taken for our sakes and of us, as in all, in order that having all in Himself, He might reconcile all in one body unto the Father, as Paul saith.
And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
Having said that the Word was made Flesh, that is Man, and having brought Him down to brotherhood with things made and in bondage, he preserves even thus His Divine dignity intact and shews Him again full of the own Nature of the Father inherent to Him. For the Divine Nature has truly stability in Itself, not enduring to suffer change to ought else, but rather always unvarying and abiding in Its own Endowments. Hence even though the Evangelist says that the Word was made Flesh, he yet affirms that It was not overcome by the infirmities of the flesh, nor fell from Its pristine Might and Glory, when It clad Itself in our frail and inglorious body. For we saw, he says, His Glory surpassing that of others, and such as one may confess befits the Only-Begotten Son of God the Father: for full was He of grace and truth. For if one looks at the choir of the saints and measures the things that are wondrously achieved by each, one will with reason marvel and be delighted at the good things that belong to each and will surely say that they are filled with glory from God. But the Divines and witnesses say that they have seen the glory and grace of the Only-Begotten, not competing with that of the rest, but very far surpassing it and mounting up by incomparable excellencies, having no measured grace, as though another gave it, but perfect and |112 true as in the Perfect, that is, not imported nor supplied from without in the way of accession, but essentially in-existent, and the fruit of the Father's essential Property passing Naturally to the Son Who is of Him.
And if it seem good to any to test more largely what has been said, let him consider with himself both the deeds that are wonderfully done by each of the saints and those of our Saviour Christ and he will find the difference as great as we have just said. And there is this besides;----they are true servants about the house, He as a Son over his own house. And the Divine Scripture says of the Only-Begotten Blessed be he that cometh in the Name of the Lord, but of the saints God the Father says, I have even sent unto you all my servants the prophets. And the one were recipients of the grace from above, the other as Lord of Hosts says, If I do not the works of My Father, believe Me not: but if I do, though ye believe not Me, believe My works. If then the Only-Begotten is seen by the very works to be as great in power as the Father, He will conformably be celebrated by equal honours, as the Doer of equal works, and will surely as much surpass, even when in the Flesh, those who have been called unto brotherhood, as God by Nature overleaps the limits of men, and the Very Son the sons by adoption.
But since it is written in the blessed Luke, And Jesus increased in wisdom and grace, we must observe here that the Spirit-clad said that the Son hath His glory full of grace. Whither then will that which is full advance, or what addition will that at all admit, beyond which there is nought? Hence He is said to increase, not in that He is Word and God, but because He ever more greatly marvelled at, appeared more full of grace to those who saw Him, through His achievements, the disposition of those who marvelled advancing, as is more true to say, in grace, than He Who is Perfect as God. Be these things then spoken for profit, though they be somewhat discursive.
15 John bare witness of Him and cried.
The most wise Evangelist follows again the course of his |113 thoughts and makes the sequel duly correspondent to what preceded. For when he said of the Son of God, we beheld His Glory, the Glory as of the Only-Begotten of the Father, that he might not appear to alone say this (the word we have seen not suiting a single person), he joins with himself his namesake witness, having one and the same piety with himself. I then, says he, bear witness (for I have beheld what I said), and the Baptist likewise bears witness. A most weighty pair of Spirit-clad, and a notable pair of men foster-brothers in truth and unknowing how to lie.
But see how exceeding forcible he made his declaration. For he not only says that John bears witness of Him, but profitably adds and cried, taking his proof from the words The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, and this too exceeding well. For it was possible that some of the opponents might say, When did the Baptist witness to the Only-Begotten or to whom did he impart the things regarding Him? He cried then, says he, that is, not in a corner does he utter them, not gently and in secret does he bear witness: you may hear him crying aloud more clear than a trumpet, (not you alone hearing these things,) widespread and to all is his speech, glorious the herald, remarkable the voice, great and not unknown the Forerunner.
This was He of Whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred [has become] before me, for He was before me.
Having named the witness same-minded and same-named with himself, and having shewn that he used a great voice for the service of his preaching, he profitably adds the mode too of his testimony: for it is in this in particular that the whole question lies. What then do we find the great John crying regarding the Only-Begotten? He that cometh after me has become before me for He was before me. Deep is the saying and one that demands keen search into its meaning.
For the obvious and received meaning is thus: As far as belongs to the time of the Birth according to the Flesh, the Baptist preceded the Saviour, and Emmanuel clearly followed and came after by six whole months, as the blessed |114 Luke related. Some suppose that John said this, that it may be understood thus, He that cometh after me, in point of age, is preferred before me. But he who fixes a keener eye on the Divine thoughts may see, in the first place, that this view introduces us to futile ideas and carries us far from the needful subject of consideration. For the holy Baptist is introduced as a witness, not in order to shew that Christ was once later, then again earlier in the time of His Birth, but as a co-witness of His Glory, the Glory as of the Only-Begotten of the Father full of grace and truth.
What meaning then can one give to such unseasonably introduced explanations as these? or how can one give us any clear interpretation, by understanding of time the words before us, He That cometh after me became before me? For be it laid down beyond a doubt that the Lord came after the Baptist, as being second to him in time according to the Flesh: how will He be also before him, I mean in time? for due order and sequence call us to this sense analogously to what preceded. But I think that it is evident to every one, that this is an impossibility. For that which cometh short of anything in point of time will never have the start of its leader. Hence it is a thing utterly senseless and altogether past belief, to imagine that the holy Baptist said of time after the Flesh,. He that cometh after me has become before me. But understanding it rather in accordance with the line of thought that preceded, we will believe that it was said in some such sense as this. The blessed Baptist meetly carries up his mode of speaking from a customary phrase to its spiritual import, and advances as it were from an image drawn from our affairs to the exposition of subtler thoughts.
For that which leads is ever considered to be more glorious than those which are said to follow, and things which succeed yield the palm to those that precede them. As for example, he who is a skilled worker in brass, or carpenter, or weaver, takes the lead and has superiority over him who is conceived as following by being a learner and advancing to perfect knowledge. But when such an one has surpassed the skill of his teacher and leaving that behind attains |115 to something superior, I deem that he who is surpassed may not unfitly say of his outstripping pupil, He that cometh after me, has become before me.
Transferring then after this sort the force of our idea to our Saviour Christ and the holy Baptist, you will rightly understand it. Take now the account of each from the beginning. The Baptist was being admired by all, he was making many disciples, a great multitude of those who came for Baptism was always surrounding him: Christ, albeit superior, was unknown, they knew not that He was Very God. Since then He was unknown, while the Baptist was admired, He seemed I suppose to fall short of him; He came a little after him who had still the higher position in honour and glory from men. But He That cometh after has become before, being shewn to be greater and superior to John. For the One was at length revealed by His works to be God, the other not surpassing the measure of human nature, is found at last to have become after.
Hence the blessed Baptist said darkly, He that cometh after me has become before me, instead of, He who was once behind me in honour, is beheld to be more glorious, and surpasses by incomparable excellencies the measure that befits and belongs to me. Thus understanding the words, we shall find him a witness of the Glory of the Only-Begotten and not an unseasonable setter forth of useless things. For his saying that Christ is greater than himself who has a great reputation for holiness, what else is it than witnessing to His especial glory?
For He was before me.
Having said that He has become before me, he needfully adds, For He was before me, ascribing to Him glory most ancient, and affirming that the precedence of all things accrued not to Him in time, but is inherent in Him from the beginning as God by Nature. For He was before me, says he, instead of, Always and every-way superior and more glorious. And by His being compared with one among things originate, the judgment against all is concentrated in |116 behalf of Him Who is above all. For we do not contemplate the great and glorious dignity of the Son as consisting in this alone that He surpassed the glory of John, but in His surpassing every originate essence.
16 And of His fulness have all we received.
The Evangelist in these words accepts the true testimony of the Baptist, and makes clear the proof of the superiority of our Saviour, and of His possessing essentially the surpassing every thing originate, both in respect of glory itself (whereof he is now more especially speaking) and of the bright catalogue of all the other good things.
For most excellently, says he, and most truly does the Baptist appear to me to say of the Only-Begotten, For He was before me, that is far surpassing and superior. For all we too, who have been enrolled in the choir of the saints, enjoy the riches of His proper good, and the nature of man is ennobled with His rather than its own excellences, when it is found to have ought that is noble. For from the fulness of the Son, as from a perennial fountain, the gift of the Divine graces springing forth comes to each soul that is found worthy to receive it. But if the Son supplies as of His Natural fulness, the creature is supplied:----how will He not be conceived of as having glory not similar to the rest, but such as will beseem the Only-Begotten of God, having the superiority over all as the fruit of His own Nature, and the pre-eminence as the Dignity of His Father's Being? And I think that the most wise Paul too when defining as to the nature of all things, was moved thereby to true ideas, so as hence at length to address the creature, For what hast thou that thou didst not receive? For together with being, the well-being after such and such wise, is God's gift to the creature, and it has nothing of its own, but becomes rich only with the munificence of Him Who gives to it. But we must note again that he says that the Son is full, that is, All-perfect in all things, and so greatly removed from being lacking in anything whatever, that He can bestow even on all, refusing diminution, and preserving the greatness of His own excellence always the same. |117
17 And grace for grace, for the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
Having said that the glory of the Only-Begotten was found more brilliant than any fame among men, and introducing the greatness in holiness incomparable above all saints that is in Him, he studies to prove this from those who have mounted up to the height of virtue. Of John then the Saviour saith, Verily I say unto you, Among them that are horn of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist. But this so great and exalted man, he brought forward but now, as himself says, crying and saying with a loud voice, He that cometh after me is preferred before me for He was before me. But since John's glory was inferior and gave place to the Only-Begotten, how must one not needs suppose that no one of the saints besides is brought up to equal measure with the Saviour Christ in regard of the glory which appears in the splendour of their actions? The Saints then that lived at the time of the Advent, not being able to surpass the virtue of John, nor mounting up to the measure that accrued to him, will with him yield the victor's palm to Christ, if the blessed Baptist gaining the highest summit in what is good, and having failed in no manner of excellence, receives not through the voice of another the judgment of inferiority to Him, but himself sealed it against himself, speaking, as a saint, truly. But since it was necessary that Emmanuel should be shewn to be greater and better than the saints of old, needs does the blessed Evangelist come to the hierophant Moses first; to whom it was said by God, I know thee before all and thou didst find grace in My sight. For that he was known before all to God, we shall know by this again: If, he says, there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make Myself known unto him in a vision and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all Mine house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently and not in dark speeches. The all-wise Moses having therefore so great excellency above the elder saints, he shews that the Only-Begotten is in every way superior and of more renown, that He might be shewn in all things to have |118 the pre-eminence, as Paul saith: and therefore he says, And grace for grace, for the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ: for I think that the blessed Evanglist would indicate something of this kind: The great Baptist, he says, made true confession declaring openly respecting the Only-Begotten, He that cometh after me is preferred before me, for He was before me, for of His fulness have all we received. And let no one suppose that the Only-Begotten surpasses John or the rest of the saints who belonged to the times of the Advent, but came short of the glory of the elder saints, who were illustrious in holiness in the times before the Advent; for he will see Him, says he, far surpassing the measure of Moses, although he possessed the superiority in holiness as compared with them; for the Lawgiver clearly affirmed that He knew him before all. John then was convicted by his own mouth of coming behind the glory of Christ: he comes short of His splendour, and there is no question at all about him, or anything to embarrass the finding out of the truth.
Whence then shall we find that the hierophant Moses himself also came short of the glory of the Lord? Let the student, he says, diligently examine the evangelic grace given to us by the Sayiour, in contrast with the grace of the law that was through Moses. For then will he see that the Son was as much superior, as He is proved to be the Lawgiver of better things than the polity of the law and introducing things superior to all those which were through Moses. For the law, he says, was given through Moses, grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. What then is the distinction between the law and the grace that comes through the Saviour, let him again see who is fond of search and an ally of good labours; we will say a little out of much, believing that boundless and vast is the number of the thoughts thereto belonging. The Law therefore was condemning the world (for God through it concluded all under sin, as Paul saith) and shewing us subject to punishments, but the Saviour rather sets it free, for He came not to judge the world but to save the world. And the Law too used to give grace |119 to men, calling them to the knowledge of God, and drawing away from the worship of idols those who had been led astray and in addition to this both pointing out evil and teaching good, if not perfectly, yet in the manner of a teacher and usefully: but the truth and grace which are through the Only-Begotten, does not introduce to us the good which is in types, nor limn things profitable as in shadow, but in glorious and most pure ordinances leads us by the hand unto even perfect knowledge of the faith. And the Law used to give the spirit of bondage to fear, but Christ the spirit of adoption unto liberty. The Law likewise brings in the circumcision in the flesh which is nothing (for circumcision is nothing, as Paul writes to certain): but our Lord Jesus Christ is the Giver of circumcision in the spirit and heart. The Law baptizes the defiled with mere water: the Saviour with the Holy Ghost and with fire. The Law brings in the tabernacle, for a figure of the true: the Saviour bears up to Heaven itself and brings into the truer tabernacle, which the Lord pitched and not man. And it were not hard to heap up other proofs besides, but we must respect our limits.
But we will say this for profit and need. The blessed Paul in few words solved the question, saying of the law and of the Saviour's grace, For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. For he says that the commandment by Moses is the ministration of condemnation; the grace through the Saviour, he calls the ministration of righteousness, to which he gives to surpass in glory, most perfectly examining the nature of things, as being clad with the Spirit. Since then the Law which condemns was given by Moses, the grace which justifies came by the Only-Begotten, how is not He, he says, superior in glory, through Whom the better things were ordained? The Psalmist then will also be true, crying aloud in the Spirit that our Lord Jesus Christ surpasses the whole illustrious multitude of the saints. For who, he says, among the clouds shall be made equal unto the Lord? or who shall be likened unto the Lord among the sons |120 of God? For the spiritual clouds, that is the holy Prophets, will yield the palm to Christ, and will never think that they ought to aim at equal glory with Him, when he who was above all men known of God, Moses, is brought down to the second place: and they who were called sons of God at the time of the Advent, will not be wholly likened to Him Who is by Nature Son, but will acknowledge their own measure, when the holy Baptist says that he himself is far behind, of whom He That knoweth the hearts says, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist. True therefore is the blessed Evangelist, saying that he has seen His glory, the glory as of the Only-Begotten of the Father, that is, which beseems the Only-Begotten Son of God the Father, and not rather those who are called to brotherhood with Him, of whom He is Firstborn. |121
CHAPTER X. That the Only-Begotten is Alone by Nature the Son from the Father, as being of Him and in Him.
18 No man hath seen God at any time; the Only-Begotten God 12, Which is in the Bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.
See again herein the vigilance of the Spirit-clad. He was not ignorant that some would surely say, bitterly searching into the things which are spoken of the Only-Begotten: You said, good sir, that you had beheld His Glory, the glory as of the Only-Begotten of the Father: then when you ought to unfold to us the explanation of this and to tell us some thing God-befitting and due, you made your demonstration from His superiority to Moses and to the measure of John, as though one could not in any other way see His Glory, although the blessed Prophet Isaiah says, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up and His train filled the temple. Above it stood the Seraphim, each one had six wings, with twain he covered his face and with twain he covered his feet and with twain he did fly; and one cried unto another and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory: Bzekiel again cried openly to us that he both saw the Cherubim, having a firmament like a sapphire resting upon their heads, and upon a throne likewise the Lord of Hosts: his words are these, And there was a voice, says he, from the firmament that was over their heads, and above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it: and I saw as the colour of |122 amber, from the appearance of his loins even upwards and from the appearance of his loins even downwards, I saw as it were the appearance of fire and it had brightness round about, as the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.
Since therefore it was not unlikely that not a few of the more unlearned would say some such things to us, needs does the blessed Evangelist hasten to cut short their attempts, saying, No man hath seen God at any time; for the Only-Begotten Himself being God, Which is in the bosom of God the Father, made this declaration to us, saying most clearly to the hierophant Moses, There shall no man see My Face and live: and sometime to His own disciples, Not that any man hath seen the Father, save He Which is of God, He hath seen the Father. For to the Son Alone That is by Nature is the Father visible and that in such wise as one may think that the Divine Nature Divinely sees and is seen, and to none other of things which are. Yet will the speech of the holy Prophets in no way be false when they cry aloud that they saw the Lord of Hosts: for they do not affirm that they saw that very essential Thing that the Nature of God is, but they themselves too openly cry out, This is the appearance of the likeness of the Glory of the LORD. Therefore the fashion of the Divine Glory was darkly formed out of things such as are ours, and was rather a likeness giving things Divine as it were in a picture, while the truth of them mounts up to excellence above mind and speech. Most excellently then does the most wise Evangelist saying, And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only-Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, bring in the demonstration thereof from His superiority to all. For like as from the beauty of the creatures proportionably is the Power of the Creator of all beheld, and the heavens without voice declare the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth His handywork: so again will the Only-Begotten be proved superior in Glory and more resplendent, surpassing apprehension, as regards the |123 power of the eye, as God; and wherein He surpasses the creature, therein deemed of and glorified as being above it. Such thought then and no other I deem that the words now before us are replete with. But we must note again that he both calls the Son Only-Begotten God, and says that He is in the Bosom of the Father, that He may be shewn again to be outside of any connaturality with the creature and to have His own proper Being of the Father and in the Father. For if He is verily Only-Begotten God, how is He not Other in nature than they who are by adoption gods and sons? For the Only-Begotten will be conceived of not among many brethren, but as the Only one from the Father. But since, while there are as Paul saith many who are are called gods in heaven and earth, the Son is Only-Begotten God, He will clearly be outside of the rest and will not be reckoned among those who are gods by grace, but will rather be Very God with the Father. For so does Paul conjoin Him, saying to us, But to us One God the Father of Whom are all things, and One Lord Jesus Christ by Whom are all things. For the Father being by Nature One God, the Word That is of Him and in Him will not remain external from being God, eminent in the ownness of Him Who begat Him, and ascending essentially to equal Dignity, because He is by Nature God.
Therefore does he say that He is in the Bosom of the Father, that you may again conceive His being in Him and of Him according to what is said in the Psalms: From the womb before the day-star begat I Thee. For as here he puts From the womb, because of His being of Him and that really, from likeness of things belonging to us (for things born of men proceed from the womb); so too when he says in the bosom, he would plainly shew the Son all but in the womb of the Father which begat Him forth, (as it were in some Divine gleaming forth and unspeakable forth-come unto His own Person), but which yet possesses Him, since not by cutting away or division after the flesh, did the Divine Offspring come forth of the Father. And indeed the Son somewhere says that He is in the Father and has again the |124 Father in Him. For the very own of the Father's Essence passing essentially into, the Son, shews the Father in Him, and the Father again has the Son rooted in Himself in exact sameness of Essence and begotten of Him, yet not by division or interval of place, but inherent and ever co-existing; thus rather shall we piously understand that the Son is in the Bosom of the Father, not as some of those who are wont to fight against God have taken it, whose damnation is just: for they pervert all equity, as the Prophet says, undoing the ears of the simpler ones and sinning without heed against the brethren, for whom Christ died.
What it is then that these both think and say and try to teach others, we must needs say. When the holy Evangelist says that the Son is in the Bosom of God the Father, and the children of the Church think rightly, and affirm that He is therefore of the Father and in the Father, and contend and that aright, that the true mode of Generation must be preserved; straightway they that are drunk with all unlearning laugh outright and even dare to say: Your opinion, sirs, is all nonsense: for not well-instructedly do ye think of God, deeming that because the Son is said to be in the Bosom of the Father, He is therefore wholly of His Essence, and foolishly imagining that He is the Fruit of the Inoriginate Nature. For have ye not heard, say they, in the Gospel parables, when Christ Himself was discoursing of the Rich man and Lazarus, that it came to pass that Lazarus died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom? will ye then grant, because Lazarus was in the bosom of Abraham, that therefore he is of him and in him by nature, or will ye not rightly refuse to say this, and yourselves too with us allow that love is meant by the "bosom"? we say therefore that the Son is in the Bosom of God the Father, instead of in His love, as Himself also says, The Father loveth the Son.
But when the fault-finders hit us with these words, though they be zealous to nought but railing, then we too will answer them, arraying against them the right word of the truth: The bosom, good sirs, according to you means love: for this we just now heard you say. Shall we then, since God |125 loved the world, as the Saviour saith, and The Lord loveth the gates of Sion, according to the holy Psalmist, fearlessly say that both the world itself and the gates of Sion are in the bosom of God the Father? And when He says too to the hierophant Moses, Put thine hand into thy bosom, does He bid him, tell me, love his hand and not rather keep it hidden? Then how shall we not incur great laughter hereby, yea rather how shall we not behave with impiety towards the Father Himself, if we say that all things are in His Bosom, and make that common to the rest which is the special prerogative of the Only-Begotten, in order that the Son may have nought above the creature?
Hence bidding good bye to their ill-counsel, we will go on the straight road of thoughts of the Truth, when the Son is said to be in the Bosom of the Father, conceiving of Him as of Him and in Him: and accurately taking in the force of the thought, we shall find it thus and not otherwise. The Only-Begotten God, he says, Which is in the Bosom of the Father, He hath declared. For when he said Only-Begotten and God, he straightway says, Which is in the Bosom of the Father, that He may be conceived of as Son of Him and in Him Naturally, saying Bosom of the Father instead of Essence, as by corporeal simile. For things manifest are types of things spiritual, and things among us lead us by the hand to the apprehension of the things which are above us: and the corporal things are often taken in the way of image and introduce to us the apprehension of subtler thoughts, even though they be in their proper time understood as they were uttered, as I mean that to Moses, Put thine hand into thy bosom. And it will no way hurt our argument to say that Lazarus was laid in Abraham's bosom, but will aid it rather and will go along with our thoughts. For the Divine Scripture says so to speak thus: Lazarus having died and deceased from his life in the body, was carried into Abraham's bosom, instead of "was numbered among Abraham's children." For "I have made thee a father of many nations," said God to him, for so is it somewhere written of him, For a father of many nations have I made thee. |126
19, 20 And this is the record of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, Who art thou? And he confessed and denied not; but confessed, I am not the Christ.
The Evangelist recalls his own words and endeavours to explain to us more fully (doing exceeding well) what he had already told us told us briefly as in summary. For having said There was a man sent from God, whose name was John: the same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, needs does he bring in the mode also of the witness given by him. For when, he says, the chiefs of the Jewish divisions after the Law, sent priests and Levites to him, bidding them ask him, what he would say of himself, then very clearly did he confess, spurning all shame for the truth's sake. For he said, I am not the Christ. Therefore neither do I, says he, the compiler of this Book, lie saying of him, He was not the Light but to bear witness of the Light.
21 And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? and he saith, I am not. Art thou that Prophet? And he answered, No.
Having said by way of explanation, he confessed, I am not the Christ; he tries to shew how or in what manner the confession was made; and he appears to me to wish thereby to lay bare the ill-instructedness of the Jews. For professing themselves to be wise they became fools, and puffed up at their knowledge of the Law, and ever putting forward the commandments of Moses and asserting that they were perfectly instructed in the words of the holy Prophets, by their foolish questions they are convicted of being wholly uninstructed. For the hierophant Moses saying that the Lord should be revealed as a Prophet foretold to the children of Israel, The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me, unto Him shall ye hearken; according to all that thou desiredst of the Lord thy God in Horeb. The blessed Isaiah, introducing to us the forerunner and fore-messenger, says, The voice of one crying in the wilderness Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight: and in addition to these the Prophet Joel 13 says of |127 the Tishbite (he was Elias) Behold, I send you Elijah the Tishbite 14 who shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.
There being then three, who were promised should come, Christ and John and Elias, the Jews expect that more will come, that they may rightly hear, Ye do err not knowing the Scriptures. For when they enquired of the blessed Baptist and learned that he was not the Christ, they answer, What then? art thou Elias? and on his saying I am not, when they ought to have asked respecting the fore-runner (for he it was that remained) they ignorantly return to Christ Himself, Who was revealed through the Law as a Prophet. For see what they say, not knowing what was told them through Moses, Art thou the Prophet? and he answered, No. For he was not the Christ, as he had already before declared.
22, 23 What sayest thou of thyself? I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness.
He accuses them sharply as knowing nothing, and accredits the design or purpose entrusted to him by Prophetic testimony. For I come, he says, to say nothing else than that He, The Looked for, is at length at the doors, yea rather the Lord within the doors. Be ye ready to go whatsoever way He bids you, ye have gone the way given you through Moses, take up that by Christ: for this the choir of the holy Prophets foretold you.
A setting forth of sayings concerning the way that is after Christ.
Isaiah. Come ye and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob, and He will teach us of His ways and we will walk in His paths.
The same. And an highway shall be there and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; no lion shall be there nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, but the redeemed shall walk there. |128
The same. I will give beginning 15 to Sign, and will exhort Jerusalem unto the way.
The same. And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not: I will lead them in paths that they have not known.
Jeremiah. Stand ye in the ways and see and ask for the old paths, where is the good way and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for you souls.
What then is the good way and that purifies those who walk in it, let Christ Himself say: I am the Way.
24 And they had been sent from the Pharisees. 16
They who were sent from the Jews (they were Levites and certain of those who belonged to the priesthood) were convicted of asking foolish questions. For supposing that Christ was one person, the Prophet declared by the Law another, they said, after the holy Baptist had said, I am not the Christ, Art thou the Prophet? But lo, the multitude of the Pharisees also is caught in conceit of wisdom rather than having really an accurate knowledge of the Divine oracles. For why, it says, baptizest thou at all, if thou be not the Christ nor Elias neither the Prophet? and they are shewn again to be full of no small senselessness against the Baptist. For they do not, it seems, vouchsafe to put him in the number of those expected, but sick with the haughtiness that was their foster-sister 17, they deem that he is nought, albeit he be fore-announced by the Prophet's voice. For though they heard, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness Prepare ye the way of the Lord: receiving not his word, they rebuke him without restraint saying after this sort: There is nought in thee, Sir, worthy of credit, nor wondrous nor great: why baptizest thou even at all? why dost thou, who art absolutely nothing, take in hand so great a thing? It was the habit of the ungodly Pharisees to act thus, to disparage one who was already |129 come, to pretend to honour one who was to come. For in order that they might always procure for themselves honours at the hand of the Jews, and might procure to themselves incomes of money, they desire that none save themselves should appear illustrious. For thus slew they the heir Himself also, saying Come let us kill Him and let us seize on His inheritance.
26 I baptize with water.
Much enduringly does the blessed Baptist bear with the fault finders: and very seasonably does he make the declaration regarding himself a basis of saving preaching: and teaches those who were sent from the Pharisees now even against their will that Christ was within the doors. For I, he says, am bringing in an introductory Baptism, washing those defiled by sin with water for a beginning of penitence and teaching them to go up from the lower unto the more perfect. For this were to accomplish in act, what I was sent to preach, Prepare ye, I mean, the way of the Lord. For the Giver of the greater and most notable gifts and Supplier of all perfection of good things, standeth among you, unknown as yet by reason of the veil of flesh, but so much surpassing me the Baptist, that I must deem myself not to have the measure even of a servant's place in His Presence. For this I deem is the meaning of, I am not worthy to unloose His shoe-latchet.
And in saying what is true, he works something else that is useful, for he persuades the haughty Pharisee to think lowlily, and brings himself in as an example of this.
But he says that these things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, putting this too as a sign of accurate and careful narration. For we are all accustomed, so to speak, in our accounts of things that require it to mention also the places where they happened.
Cyril Arch-Bishop of Alexandria on the Gospel according to John, Book I.
[Page running titles]
8 S. John writes on the Son's Eternal Generation.
Origin of S. John writing his Gospel. 9
10 S. John begins with the Son's Eternal Generation.
12 "Beginning" the most backward point that thought can reach.
Examples of co-existence and in-existence together. 13
14 "Beginning" may also mean Sovereignty.
"Was" prior to any beginning. 15
The Father and Son distinct in Person. 17
18 The Father and the Son One in Essence,
distinct in Person. 19
20 The Father and the Son One in Essence,
distinct in Person. 21
The Son in nothing less than the Father. 23
24 The Son Perfect God.
The Son Perfect even as the Father. 25
26 God the Son Perfect God.
The Son God, because Son. 27
28 The Son God, lest the Father be inferior even to us.
The Son Equal to the Father, because not less. 29
30 The Son Perfect, lest the
Father be imperfect. 31
32 Examples of things
inexisting. 33
Blasphemies of Eunomius. 35
36 Words uttered against the Son
mere emptiness. 37
38 Christ Lawgiver and Law-keeper.
Human language weak to express things Divine. 39
40 Sameness of nature does
not destroy individuality. 41
42 Properties of the Father and the Son common,
except only being Father and Son. 43
44 Between the Father and the Son nothing intervenes.
The article limits to a strict sense. 45
46 The Jews never heard
the Father's Voice. 47
48 The Son knows Perfectly
His Father. 49
God the Son external to all things. 51
52 The Father and Son co-work, not as separate.
The Persons of the Holy Trinity not severed One from Another. 53
54 Heretics take only what seems on their side.
God the Son created man Equally with the Father. 55
56 Through does not imply inferiority.
58 God the Son in all as Life.
The Son quickens as God. 59
60 God the Son God, because
He gives Life. 61
God the Son, Who giveth Light, God. 63
64 God the Son God because
He giveth Light. 65
66 God the Son God,
Who giveth Light. 67
68 The creature darkness,
the Son Light. 69
70 The Evangelist and Baptist
two witnesses. 71
72 S. John Baptist accredited, as sent.
God the Son Light, the Baptist a lamp. 73
74 The Saints have light, not from themselves.
76 God the Son God,
Who giveth light. 77
78 God the Son Light,
the creature lighted. 79
80 God the Son Light,
the creature lighted. 81
82 Testimonies that God the
Son is our Light. 83
The creature aids from what it receives. 85
86 The Son lights and gladdens
the creature with His own Light. 87
88 Christ in the world and everywhere.
the creature enters at its creation. 89
90 Foolish imagination of some.
The soul not prior to the body. 91
92 Souls not created
before their bodies. 93
94 Souls and bodies alike created
in Blessing to us from God. 95
96 Bodies given us not for punishment
but in God's good pleasure. 97
98 Bodies a kindness, not a punishment.
God the Son Uncreated Light. 99
100 The world knew not God the Son,
through its own fault. 101
102 God the Son not received
by Israel, who was His own. 103
104 Israel rejected,
the Gentiles received. 105
106 Israel had the type,
we the verity. 107
108 God the Son was made Flesh,
giving of His own life to our flesh. 109
110 God the Son made Flesh a new
first-fruit to the whole human nature. 111
112 God the Son works as God, the rest as servants.
The two witnesses to our Lord. 113
114 How to understand, He that cometh
after me has become before me. 115
116 All that we have a gift from the Son's fulness.
S. John the Baptist confessed his Lord's superiority. 117
118 God the Son's gifts contrasted
with those given of old through Moses. 119
120 Christ's glory that of God, the saints' that of men.
122 The Unseen God how said to have been seen.
God the Son in the Father and from the Father. 123
124 The Bosom of the Father, the Intimate
Oneness with Him of God the Son. 125
126 S. John Baptist's testimony.
Prophecies of Christ. 127
128 The Pharisees pretending to honour
the coming, reject the come. 129
[Most of the footnotes, moved to the end and renumbered. The margin contains mainly biblical references and fragments of Greek. These have been omitted]
1. a Taking Ἀρχὴ to include its meaning of Sovereignty.
2. a "For God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him." E. V. The Alexandrine family of Greek MSS, (to which S. Cyril's copy of New Testament plainly belonged) and the Codex Sinaiticus, omit the nominative.
3. a S. Cyril with the uncial MSS. ABC. has through God in the place of of God through Christ.
4. a S. Cyril punctuates thus, with many of the Fathers and with the uncial MSS. CDL.
5. b S. Cyril means to say that first, He would have His own actual Being: and that over and above this, if He were originate, since all things originate partake of Him as their source of Life, He must needs partake of Himself as source of Life to Himself.
6. a ἄγγελοι. The Greek word "angel" signifying literally a messenger and used in classic Greek in that meaning.
7. b "Mine Anointed," E. V. "My Christ," LXX.
8. a ἐξ ἀκράτου θεολογίας "from pure Theology," speaking of the Divine feature apart from the Dispensation with the Flesh.
9. b ἀποτομίας as in Rom. l. c. "cutting off."
10. c οἰκείωσις, the relation of belonging to the household.
11. d τῷ τῆς ἰδιότητος ἀποκεκλήσεται λόγῳ.
12. a "The Only-Begotten God." So read the uncial MSS. BCL of the Alexandrine family and the Codex Sinaiticus and so S. Cyril here.
13. b Joel. S. Cyril quotes apparently from memory.
14. c Tishbite LXX. "Prophet" Heb.
15. d ἀρχὴν, "beginning" or "sovereignty"; vide supra p. 14.
16. e So the uncial MSS. ABCL & the Codex Sinaiticus read, giving ἀπεσταλμένοι in place of οἱ ἀπεσταλμένοι.
17. f τὴν δὲ ἑαυτοῖς συντεθραμμένην νοσοῦντες ἀλαζανείαν.
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Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, LFC 43, 48 (1874/1885). Book 2. pp. 130-284.
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, LFC 43, 48 (1874/1885). Book 2. pp. 130-284.
[Translated by P. E. Pusey]
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CHAPTERS IN BOOK II.
Chapter 1. That the Holy Ghost is in the Son, not by participation, nor from without, but Essentially and by Nature: on the words, And John bare record, I saw the Spirit descending from Heaven like a dove and It abode upon Him.
Chapter 2. That the Son is not in the number of things originate, but above all, as God and of God, on the words, He that cometh from above is above all.
Chapter 3. That the Son is God and of God by Nature, on the words, He that hath received His testimony, hath set to his seal that God is true.
Chapter 4. That not by participation are the Properties of God the Father in the Son, but Essentially and by Nature, on the words, The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into His Hand.
Chapter 5. That the Son is not in the number of worshippers, in that He is Word and God, but rather is worshipped with the Father, on the words, Ye worship ye know not what, we know what we worship.
Chapter 6. That the Son is not inferior to the Father, either in power, or in operation for any work, but is Equal in Might, and Consubstantial with Him, as of Him and that by Nature, on the words, The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do: for what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.
Chapter 7. That nought of God-befitting dignities or excellences is in the Son, by participation, or from without, on the words, For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son.
Chapter 8. That the Son being God and of God by Nature, and the Exact Image of Him Who begat Him, hath equal honour and glory with Him, on the words, That all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father.
Chapter 9. That the Son is in nothing inferior to God the Father, but is of Equal Might in operation as to all things, as God of God, on the words, I can of Mine own Self do nothing: as I hear, I judge.
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OUR FATHER AMONG THE SAINTS
CYRIL
Archbishop of Alexandria
ON THE
GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN.
BOOK II.
[Introduction]
29 The next day he seeth Jesus coming to him.
In a very little time, the Baptist is declared to be Prophet alike and Apostle. For Whom he was heralding as coming, Him now come he points out. Therefore, he bounded beyond even the measure of prophets, as the Saviour Himself saith when discoursing with the Jews concerning him, What went ye out into the wilderness for to see? A prophet, yea, I say unto you and more than a prophet. For they in their times prophesied that Christ should be revealed, but he, crying that He shall come, also pointed Him out come. For the next day, saith he, he seeth Jesus coming to him.
And saith, Behold the Lamb of God, Which taketh away the sin of the world.
No longer has prepare ye the way fit place, since He at length is seen and is before the eyes for Whom the preparation is made: the nature of the thing began to need other words. It needed to explain, Who He is Who is come, and to whom He maketh His descent Who hath come to us from Heaven. Behold, therefore, saith he, the Lamb of God Which taketh away the sin of the world, Whom the Prophet Isaiah did signify to us, saying, He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb: Whom of old, too, saith he, the law of Moses typified, but then it saved in part, not extending mercy to all (for it was a type and shadow): but now He Who of old was dimly pictured, the very Lamb, the spotless Sacrifice, is led to the slaughter for all, that He |132 might drive away the sin of the world, that He might overturn the destroyer of the earth, that dying for all He might bring to nought death, that He might undo the curse that is upon us, that He might at length end Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return, that He might become the second Adam, not of the earth, but from heaven, and might be the beginning of all good to the nature of man, deliverance from the imported corruption, Bestower of eternal life, foundation of our reconciliation to God, beginning of godliness and righteousness, way to the Kingdom of Heaven. For one Lamb died for all, saving the whole flock on earth to God the Father, One for all, that He might subject all to God, One for all, that He might gain all: that at length all should not henceforth live to themselves but to Him Which died for them and rose again. For since we were in many sins, and therefore due to death and corruption, the Father hath given the Son a redemption for us, One for all, since all are in Him, and He above all. One died for all, that all should live in Him. For death having swallowed up the Lamb for all, hath vomited forth all in Him and with Him. For all we were in Christ, Who on account of us and for us died and rose again. But sin being destroyed, how could it be that death which was of it and because of it should not altogether come to nothing? The root dying, how could the shoot yet survive? wherefore should we yet die, now that sin hath been destroyed? therefore jubilant in the Sacrifice of the Lamb of God we say: O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? For all iniquity, as the Psalmist sings somewhere, shall stop her mouth, no longer able to accuse those who have sinned from infirmity. For it is God that justifieth, who is he that condemneth? Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, that we might escape the curse from transgression.
30 This is He of Whom I said.
He leads the hearers to remembrance of his words, and yields to Christ the superiority in glory, accomplishing the work, not of love, but rather of truth and necessity. For the creature is subject, even if it willeth not, to the Creator? |133 the bond to the Lord, the supplied to the Giver. But in what manner Christ was after John, but preferred before him, for He was before him, as himself confesseth, we have spoken sufficiently in what has preceded.
31 And I knew Him not, but that He should be made manifest to Israel, therefore am I come baptizing with water.
He that leaped in the depth of the womb of his mother at the voice of the Holy Virgin while yet bearing the Lord, prophet before the travail-pang, disciple in the womb, says of the Saviour, I knew Him not, and says truly, for he does not lie. For God knows all things of Himself and untaught, but the creature, by being taught. For the Spirit indwelling in the Saints, fulfils what is lacking, and gives to human nature His Own good, I mean, knowledge of things to come, and of the hidden mysteries. Therefore the holy Baptist saying that he does not know the Lord, will by no means speak untruly, in regard of the property of human nature, and the measure befitting the creature, but will attribute the knowledge of all things to God Alone, Who through the Holy Ghost enlighteneth man to the apprehension of hidden things. And very profitably doth he say that of himself he knew not Christ, but is come for that very purpose, to make Him manifest to Israel, that he may not seem to run of his own accord to bear testimony, nor be thought by any the minister of his own will, but the worker of the Divine dispensation, the minister of the Counsel from above revealing to him the Lamb Which taketh away the sin of the world.
In order therefore that the Jews may the more easily come to believe on our Saviour Christ, and may have the most worthy conception of Him, he says that having not known Him, he knows Him, that they may understand then at length God Who revealed Him, and awestruck at the judgment from above, may receive his word concerning Him, and, seeing the servant so great, may proportionally estimate the Dignity of the Master. For his saying, that he was come to make Him manifest to Israel, how does it not denote the care belonging to a servant? |134
CHAPTER I. That the Holy Ghost is in the Son not by participation, not from without, but Essentially and by Nature.
32, 33 And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from Heaven like a dove, and It abode upon Him. And I knew Him not: but He That sent me to baptize with water, the Same said unto me, Upon Whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, the Same is He Which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.
Having said above that he knew Him not, he profitably explains and uncovers the Divine Mystery, both shewing that He Who told him was God the Father, and clearly relating the manner of the revelation. By all does he profit the mind of the headers; and whereby he says that the Mystery of Christ to men-ward was taught him of God, he shews that his opposers are fighting against the decree from above, and to their own peril arraying themselves against the mighty purpose of the Father. For this was the part of one skillfully persuading them to desist from their vain counsel, and to receive Him Who by the goodwill of the Father came for the salvation of all. He therefore testifieth, both that he saw the Spirit descending from Heaven upon Him, in the form of a Dove, and that It abode upon Him. Then besides, he says that himself was the ear-witness of Him Who sent him to baptize with water, that He upon Whom the Spirit came and abode upon Him is He which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. Most worthy of belief then the witness, supernatural the sign, above all the Father Who revealed.
And these things are thus. But perchance the heretic fond of carping will jump up, and with a big laugh, say; What again, sirs, say ye to this too, or what argument will ye bring |135 forth, wresting that which is written? Lo, he saith that the Spirit descendeth upon the Son; lo, He is anointed by God the Father; That Which He hath not, He receives forsooth, the Psalmist co-witnessing with us and saying, as to Him: Wherefore God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows. How then will the Son any more be Consubstantial with the Perfect Father, not being Himself Perfect, and therefore anointed? To this then I think it right to say to those who overturn the holy doctrines of the Church, and pervert the truth of the Scriptures: Awake, ye drunkards, from your wine, that viewing the clear beauty of the truth, ye may be able with us to cry to the Son: Of a truth Thou art the Son of God. For if thou fully believe that He is by Nature God, how will He not have perfection? For time is it that ye now speak impiously against the Father Himself also: for whence must He needs, as thou sayest, have perfection? how will He not be brought down to the abasement of His Offspring, which according to you is imperfect, in that the Divine Essence in the Son has once received the power of not having Perfection, according to your unlearned and uninstructed reasoning? For we will not divide that Great and Untaint Nature into different Words, so that it should be imperfect perchance in one, and again Perfect in the other. Since the definition of human nature too is one in respect of all men, and equal in all of us, what man will be less, qua man? but neither will he be considered more so than another. And I suppose that one angel will differ in nothing from another angel in respect of their being what they are, angels to wit, from sameness of nature, being all linked with one another unto one nature. How then can the Nature Which is Divine and surpassing all, shew Itself in a state inferior to things originate in Its own special good, and endure a condition which the creature cannot endure? How will It be at all simple and uncompounded, if Perfection and imperfection appear in It? For It will be compounded of both, since Perfection is not of the same kind as imperfection. For if they be of the same kind, and there be no difference between them, every thing which is perfect will without |136 distinction be also imperfect: and if ought again be imperfect, this too will be perfect. And the charge against the Son will be nought, even though according to your surmisings He appear not Perfect: but neither will the Father Himself, though witnessed to in respect of His Perfection, surpass the Son, and there is an end of our dispute. But if much interval severs imperfection from perfection, and the Divine Nature admits both together, It is compound, and not simple.
But perchance some one will say, that contraries are incompatible, and not co-existent in one subject at the same time, as for instance in a body white and black skin together. Well, my friend, and very bravely hast thou backed up my argument. For if the Divine Nature be One, and there be none other than It, how, tell me, will It admit of contraries? How will things unlike to one another come together into one subject? But since the Father is by Nature God, the Son too is by Nature God. He will therefore in nothing differ, in respect of being Perfect, from the Father, since He is begotten of His Divine and most Perfect Essence. For must not He needs be Perfect Who is of a Perfect Parent, since He is both His exact Likeness, and the express Image of His Person, as it is written? But every one will I suppose consent and agree to this. Or let him come forward and say, how the Son is the exact Image of the Perfect Father, not having Perfection in His Own Nature, according to the uncounsel of some. For since He is the Impress and Image, He is Himself too perfect as He, Whose Image He is.
But, says one, John saw the Spirit descending from Heaven upon the Son, and He has Sanctification from without, for He receives it as not having it. Time then is it to call Him openly a creature, barely honoured with a little excellence, perfected and sanctified in equal rank with the rest, and having His supply of good things an acquired one. Then how does the Evangelist not lie, when he says, Of His fulness have all we received? For how will He be full in His Own Nature, Who Himself receiveth from Another? Or how |137 will God be at all conceived of as Father if the Only-Begotten is a creature, and not rather Son? For if this be so, both Himself will be falsely called Father, and the Son will not be Truth, having upon Him a spurious dignity, and a title of bare words. The whole therefore will come to nothing; the Father being neither truly father, nor the Son this by Nature, which He is said to be. But if God be truly Father, He surely has whereof He is Father, the Son, that is, of Himself.
Then how will the Godhead Holy by Nature beget that of Itself which is void of holiness, and bring forth Its own Fruit destitute of Its own inherent Properties? For if He hath sanctification from without, as they babbling say;----they must needs confess, even against their will, that He Was not always holy, but became so afterwards, when the Spirit descended upon Him, as John saith. How then was the Son holy even before the Incarnation? for so did the Seraphim glorify Him, repeating the Holy, in order, from the first to the third time. If then He was holy, even before the Incarnation, yea rather being ever with the Father, how needed He a sanctifier, and this in the last times, when He became Man? I marvel how this too escapes them, with all their love of research. For must we not needs conceive, that the Son could at any time reject sanctification, if it be not in Him essentially, but came to Him as it does to us, or any other reasonable creature? But that which falls away from sanctification, will it not be altogether under the bonds of sin, and sink to the worse, no longer retaining power to be apart from vice? Therefore neither will the Son be found to be unchangeable, and the Psalmist will lie crying in the Spirit as to Him, But Thou art the Same.
Besides what has been already said, let this too be considered, for it brings in a kindred idea: All reasoning will demonstrate that the partaken is somewhat other by nature than the partaker. For if this be not true, but that shall in no wise differ from this, and is the same; that which partakes of ought partakes of itself, which is incredible even to think of (for how can any one be imagined to partake of |138 himself?). But if the things mentioned lie altogether in natural diversity one to another, and the necessity of reasoning separates them, let them who give the Spirit by participation to the Only-Begotten, see to what a depth of impiety they sink unawares. For if the Son is partaker of the Spirit, and the Spirit is by Nature holy, He Himself will not be by Nature holy, but is shewn to be hardly so through combination with another, transelemented by grace to the better, than that wherein He was at first. But let the fighter against God again see, into how great impiety the question casts him down. For first some change and turning, as we said before, will be found to exist respecting the Son. And being according to you changed, and having advanced unto the better, He will be shewn to be not only not inferior to the Father, but even somehow to have become superior: and how this is, we will say, taking it from the Divine Scripture. The divine Paul says somewhere of Him: Be each among you so 1 minded, according to what was also in Christ Jesus, Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but emptied Himself, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a Man, He humbled Himself. Since then even before the Incarnation, He was in the form and equality of the Father, but at the time of the Incarnation receiving the Spirit from Heaven was sanctified, according to them, and became by reason of this better alike and greater than Himself, He surpasses at length it is plain even the measure of His Father. And if on receiving the Spirit He mounted up unto dignity above that of the Father, then is the Spirit superior even to the Father Himself, seeing that He bestows on the Son the superiority over Him. Who then will not shudder at the mere hearing of this? For hard is it in truth even to go through such arguments, but no otherwise can the harm of their stubbornness be driven off. Therefore we will say again to them: If when the Word of God became Man, He is then also sanctified by receiving |139 the Spirit: but before the Incarnation was in the Form and Equality of the Father, not yet according to them sanctified, time is it they should boldly say, that God the Father is not holy, if the Word Who is in all things altogether Con-formal and Equal to Him, was not holy in the beginning, but barely in the last times became so. And again, if He is truly the Word of God, Who receiveth the Spirit, and is sanctified in His Own Nature, let our opponents say, whether in doing this, He became greater or less than Himself, or remained the Same. For if He hath nothing more from the Spirit, but remaineth the same as He was, be not offended at learning that It descended on Him. But if He was injured by receiving It, and became less, you will introduce to us the Word as passible, and will accuse the Essence of the Father as wronging rather than sanctifying. But if He became better by receiving the Spirit, but was in the Form and Equality of the Father, even before, according to you, He became bettered, the Father hath not attained unto the height of glory, but will be in that measure of it, in which the Son Who hath advanced to the better was Con-formal and Equal to Him. Convenient is it then, I deem, to say to the ill-instructed heretics, Behold o foolish people and without understanding, which have eyes, and see not; which have ears and hear not; for the god of this world hath indeed blinded the eyes of them, which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine unto them: worthy of pity are they rather than of anger. For they understand not, what they read.
But that the reasoning is true, will be clear from hence, even if we have not, by our previous attempts, made the demonstration perfectly clear. Again shall this that is spoken by the mouth of Paul be brought forward: Be each among you, saith he, so minded, according to what was also in Christ Jesus, Who being in the Form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but emptied Himself, and took upon Him the Form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a Man, He humbled Himself. Lo, he much marvels at the Son, as being Equal and Con-formal |140 with God the Father, not, by reason of His Love to us, seizing this, but descending to lowliness, through the Form of a servant, emptied by reason of His Manhood. But if, sirs, He on receiving the Spirit were sanctified rather, when He became Man, and were, through the sanctification, rendered superior to Himself, into what kind of lowliness shall we see Him to have descended? How is That made low that was exalted, how did That descend that was sanctified, or how did it not rather ascend, and was exalted for the better? What emptiness hath filling through the Spirit? or how will He at all be thought to have been Incarnate for our sakes, Who underwent so great profit in respect of Himself? How did the Rich become poor for our sakes, who was enriched because of us? How was He rich even before His Advent, Who according to them received in it what He had not, to wit the Spirit? Or how will He not rather justly offer to us thank-offering for what by means of us He gained? Be astonished, as it is written, O ye heavens, at this: and be horribly afraid, saith the Lord: for the people of the heretics have in truth committed two evils, understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm, and think it not grievous thus to incur such danger in the weightiest matters. For else would they, shedding bitter tears from their eyes, and lifting up a mighty voice on high, have approached, saying, Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth, keep the door of my lips. Incline not my heart to words of wickedness. For words of wickedness in truth are their words, travailing with extremest mischief to the hearers. But we, having expelled their babbling from our heart, will walk in the right way of the faith, bearing in mind that which is written: Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Come then, and bringing into captivity our mind as to the subjects before us, let us subject it to the glory of the Only-Begotten, bringing all things wisely to His obedience, that is, to the mode of the Incarnation. For, being Rich, for our sakes He became poor, that we through His poverty might be rich. |141
Receive then, if you please, our proof through that also which is now before us, opening a forbearing ear to our words. The Divine Scripture testifies that man was made in the Image and Likeness of God Who is over all. And indeed, he who compiled the first book for us (Moses, who above all men was known to God) says, And God created man, in the Image of God created He him. But that through the Spirit he was sealed unto the Divine Image, himself again taught us, saying, And breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. For the Spirit at once began both to put life into His formation and in a Divine manner to impress His own Image thereon. Thus the most excellent Artificer God, having formed the reasonable living creature upon the earth, gave him the saving commandment. And he was in Paradise, as it is written, still keeping the Gift, and eminent in the Divine Image of Him That made him, through the Holy Ghost That indwelt him. But when perverted by the wiles of the devil, he began to despise his Creator, and by trampling on the law assigned him, to grieve his Benefactor, He recalled the grace given to him, and he that was made unto life then first heard Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. And now the Likeness to God was through the inroad of sin defaced, and no longer was the Impress bright, but fainter and darkened because of the transgression. But when the race of man had reached to an innumerable multitude, and sin had dominion over them all, manifoldly despoiling each man's soul, his nature was stripped of the ancient grace; the Spirit departed altogether, and the reasonable creature fell into extremest folly, ignorant even of its Creator. But the Artificer of all, having endured a long season, at length pities the corrupted world, and being Good hastened to gather together to those above His runaway flock upon earth; and decreed to trans-element human nature anew to the pristine Image through the Spirit. For no otherwise was it possible that the Divine Impress should again shine forth in him, as it did aforetime.
What then He contrives to this end, how He implanted in us the inviolate grace, or how the Spirit again took root in man, |142 in what manner nature was re-formed to its old condition, it is meet to say. The first man, being earthy, and of the earth, and having, placed in his own power, the choice between good and evil, being master of the inclination to each, was caught of bitter guile, and having inclined to disobedience, falls to the earth, the mother from whence he sprang, and over-mastered now at length by corruption and death, transmits the penalty to his whole race. The evil growing and multiplying in us, and our understanding ever descending to the worse, sin reigned, and thus at length the nature of man was shewn bared of the Holy Ghost Which indwelt him. For the Holy Spirit of wisdom will flee deceit, as it is written, nor dwell in the body that is subject unto sin. Since then the first Adam preserved not the grace given him of God, God the Father was minded to send us from Heaven the second Adam. For He sendeth in our likeness His own Son Who is by Nature without variableness or change, and wholly unknowing of sin, that as by the disobedience of the first, we became subject to Divine wrath, so through the obedience of the Second, we might both escape the curse, and its evils might come to nought. But when the Word of God became Man, He received the Spirit from the Father as one of us, (not receiving ought for Himself individually, for He was the Giver of the Spirit); but that He Who knew no sin, might, by receiving It as Man, preserve It to our nature, and might again inroot in us the grace which had left us. For this reason, I deem, it was that the holy Baptist profitably added, I saw the Spirit descending from Heaven, and It abode upon Him. For It had fled from us by reason of sin, but He Who knew no sin, became as one of us, that the Spirit might be accustomed to abide in us, having no occasion of departure or withdrawal in Him.
Therefore through Himself He receives the Spirit for us, and renews to our nature, the ancient good. For thus is He also said for our sakes to become poor. For being rich, as God and lacking no good thing, He became Man lacking all things, to whom it is somewhere said and that very well, What hast thou that thou didst not receive? As then, being by |143 Nature Life, He died in the Flesh for our sakes, that He might overcome death for us, and raise up our whole nature together with Himself (for all we were in Him, in that He was made Man): so does He also receive the Spirit for our sakes, that He may sanctify our whole nature. For He came not to profit Himself, but to be to all us the Door and Beginning and Way of the Heavenly Goods. For if He had not pleased to receive, as Man, or to suffer too, as one of us, how could any one have shewn that He humbled Himself? or how would the Form of a servant have been fittingly kept, if nothing befitting a servant were written of Him? Let not then the all-wise account of the dispensation be pulled to pieces, whereof the divine Paul himself rightly cries in admiration: To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. For wisdom indeed and God-befitting, is the great mystery of the Incarnation seen to be.
Such an apprehension of our Saviour do I suppose that we who choose to be pious, and rejoice in orthodox doctrines, ought to have. For we too will not descend to such lack of reason as to suppose that in the Son by Nature was the Spirit by participation and not rather essentially inherent even as in the Father Himself. For as of the Father, so also of the Son, is the Holy Ghost. So did we also read in the Divine Scriptures. For it says: After they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus 2 suffered them not.
But if it seem good to any one, with over contentious zeal, to object to our words hereon, and to assert again, that the Spirit is in the Son by participation, or that, not being in Him before, He then came to be in Him, when He was baptized, in the period of His Incarnation, let him see, into what and how great absurdities he will fall. For first, the Saviour saith: Among them that are born of women there |144 hath not arisen a greater than John the Baptist. And the word is true: but we see him who hath attained to the summit of glory and virtue that belong to us, honouring Christ with incomparable excellencies. For I am not worthy, says he, to stoop down and unloose the latchet of His shoes. How then is it not absurd, yea rather impious, to believe that John was filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb, because it is so written of him: and to suppose that his Master, yea rather the Master and Lord of all, then first received the Spirit, when He was baptized, albeit holy Gabriel says to the holy Virgin: The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the Power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore also that holy Thing which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God. And let the lover of learning see, with how great a meaning the word travaileth. For of John, it saith, he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost (for the Holy Ghost was in him as a gift, and not essentially), but of the Saviour, he no longer saith shall be filled, (in rightness of conception,) but that holy Thing which shall be born of thee. Nor did he add shall be, for It was always Holy by Nature, as God.
But since I deem that we ought to seek after what is profitable from all quarters; the voice of the archangel having been once brought forward, come, let us exercise ourselves a little in it. The Holy Ghost, says he, shall come upon thee, and the Power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore also That Holy Thing which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God. Let him then, who from great unlearning, opposeth the right doctrines of the Church, tell us, whether even before the Incarnation the the Word of God the Father was Son, or had the glory in name only, but was a bastard, and falsely called. For if he say that He was not the Son at all, he will deny the Father (for of whom will He be the Father, if He have no Son?): and he will think contrary to all the Divine Scriptures. But if he confess that the Son even before the Incarnation both was and was called Son, how does the Archangel tell us that That which should be born of the holy Virgin shall |145 be called the Son of God, albeit He was this by Nature even long before? As therefore the Son being from eternity with the Father, as having Origin of Being, is at the time of His Incarnation called Son of God, from His appearing in the world with a Body; so, having in Himself Essentially His Own Spirit, He is said to receive It as Man, preserving to the Humanity the order befitting it, and with it appropriating for our sakes the things befitting it. But how can the Word be thought of at all apart from Its Own Spirit? For would it not be absurd to say, that the spirit of man, which is in him, according to the definition of nature, and for the completeness of the living-being, was separated from him? But I suppose that this is most evident to all. How then shall we sever the Spirit from the Son, Which is so inherent and essentially united, and through Him proceeding and being in Him by Nature, that It cannot be thought to be Other than He by reason both of Identity of working, and the very exact likeness of Nature. Hear what the Saviour saith to His own disciples, If ye love Me, keep My Commandments, and I will pray the Father, and He shall give you Another Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, Whom the world cannot receive. Lo, plainly He calls the Holy Ghost Spirit of Truth. But that He and none other than He is the Truth, hear Him again saying, I am the Truth. The Son by Nature then being and being called Truth, see how great Oneness with Him the Spirit hath. For the disciple John saith somewhere of our Saviour, This is He that came by water and blood and the spirit 3, Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood: and it is the Spirit That beareth witness, because the Spirit is Truth. Therefore also, the Holy Ghost indwelling in our inner man, Christ Himself is said to dwell therein, and so it is. And indeed the blessed Paul most clearly teaching this, says, But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. And if Christ be in you, the body |146 is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. Apply, sir, a quick ear to what is said. Having named the Spirit of Christ That dwelleth in us, he straightway added, If Christ be in you, introducing the exact likeness of the Son with the Spirit, Which is His Own and proceeding from Him by Nature. Therefore He is called the Spirit of adoption also, and in Him we cry Abba, Father. And as the blessed John somewhere says, Hereby know we that He dwelleth in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit.
I think then that these things will suffice, to enable the children of the Church to repel the mischief of the heretics. But if any one be soused in the unmixed strong drink of their unlearning, and suppose that the Son then first received the Spirit, when He became Man: let him shew that the Word of God was not holy before the Incarnation, and we will hold our peace.
But one may well wonder that the holy Evangelist every where preserves with much observance what befits the Divine Nature. For since he said above, that no man hath seen God at any time, and now says that the blessed Baptist saw the Spirit descend from Heaven upon the Son, he adds of necessity, I saw the Spirit, but in the form of a Dove, not Himself by Nature, as He is, but shadowed in the gentlest animal; that in this again He might be shewn to preserve His Natural Affinity and Likeness to the Son, Who saith, Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart. Therefore the Spirit will not fall away from being God by Nature: for the never having been seen at any time has been preserved to Him, save under the form of a dove, by reason of the need of the disciple. For the blessed Baptist says that the descent of the Spirit was given him by way of a sign and token, adding to his testimonies respecting our Saviour, He that sent me to baptize with water, the Same said unto me, Upon Whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remaining on Him, the Same is He Which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. Therefore I think we may fitly laugh to scorn those senseless heretics who take as matter of fact, that which was set forth by way of sign, even though |147 it took place as part of the oeconomy, as hath been already said, for the need's sake of the human race.
34 And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God.
Sure is the witness; who, what he hath actually seen, that he also speaketh. For haply he was not ignorant of that which is written, That which thine eyes have seen, tell. I saw then, says he, the sign, and understood That Which was signified by it. I bear record that this is the Son of God, Who was proclaimed by the Law that is through Moses, and heralded by the voice of the holy Prophets. The blessed Evangelist seems to me again to say with some great confidence, This is the Son of God, that is, the One, the Only by Nature, the Heir of the Own Nature of the Father, to Whom we too, sons by adoption, are conformed and through Whom we are called by grace to the dignity of sonship. For as from God the Father every family in Heaven and earth is named, from His being properly, and first, and truly Father, so is all sonship too from the Son, by reason of His being properly and Alone truly Son, not bastard nor falsely-called, but of the Essence of God the Father, not by off-cutting or emanation or division or severance (for the Divine Nature is altogether Impassible): but as One of One, ever Co-existing and Co-eternal and Innate in Him Who begat Him, being in Him, and coming forth from Him, Indivisible and without Dimensions; since the Divinity is neither after the manner of a body, nor bounded by space, nor of nature such as to make progressive footsteps. But like as from fire proceedeth the heat that is in it, appearing to be separate from it in idea, and to be other than it, though it is of it and in it by nature, and proceedeth from it without suffering any harm in the way of offcutting, division, or emanation (for it is preserved whole in the whole fire): so shall we conceive of the Divine Offspring too, thinking thereon in a manner most worthy of God, and believing that the Son subsists of Himself, yet not excluding Him from the One Ineffable Godhead, nor saying that He is Other in substance than the Father. For then would He no longer be rightly conceived |148 of as Son, but something other than He, and a new god would arise, other than He That Only Is. For how shall not that which is not consubstantial with God by Nature, wholly fall away from being Very God? But since the blessed Baptist is both trustworthy, and of the greatest repute, and testifieth that This is the Son of God: we will confess the Son to be altogether Very God, and of the Essence of the Father. For this and nothing else, does the name of Sonship signify to us.
35, 36 Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples, and looking upon Jesus as He walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God, Which taketh away the sin of the world.
Already had the blessed Baptist pointed Him out before; but lo, repeating again the same words, he points Jesus out to his disciples, and calls Him the Lamb of God, and says that He taketh away the sin of the world, all but bringing his hearers to remembrance of Him Who saith in the Prophets: I, even I, am He That blotteth out thy transgressions, and will not remember thy sins. But not in vain does the Baptist repeat the same account of the Saviour. For it belongs to skill in teaching, to infix in the souls of the disciples the not yet received word, not shrinking at repetition, but rather enduring it for the profit of the pupils. For therefore does the blessed Paul too say, To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe.
37 And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.
Seest thou the fruit, handmaid of teaching, yielded therefrom? Seest thou how great gain accrued from repetition? Let him then who is entrusted with teaching learn from this, to shew himself superior to all indolence, and to esteem silence more hurtful to himself than to his hearers, and not to bury the Lord's talent in listless sloth, as in the earth, but rather to give His money to the exchangers. For the Saviour will receive His own with usury, and will quicken as seed the word cast in. You have here a most excellent proof of |149 what has been said. For the Baptist, not shrinking from pointing out the Lord to his disciples, and from saying a second time, Behold the Lamb of God, is seen to have so greatly profited them, as to at length even persuade them to follow Him and already to desire discipleship under Him.
38 Then Jesus turned and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye?
Fitly does the Lord turn to them that follow Him, that thou mayest learn in act that which is sung, I sought the Lord, and He heard me. For while we do not yet seek the Lord by good habits and Tightness in believing, we are in some sort behind Him: but when, thirsting after His Divine law, we track the holy and choice way of righteousness, then at length will He look upon us, crying aloud what is written, Turn ye unto Me, and I will turn unto you, saith the Lord of Hosts. But He saith unto them, What seek ye? not as though ignorant (whence could it be so?), for He knoweth all things, as God; but making the question a beginning and root of His discourse.
They said unto Him, Rabbi, where dwellest Thou?
Like people well instructed do they that are asked reply. For already do they call Him, Master, thereby clearly signifying their readiness to learn. Then they beg to know His home, as about therein to tell Him at a fit season of their need. For probably they did not think it right to make talk on needful subjects the companion of a journey. Be what is said again to us for a useful pattern.
39 He saith unto them, Come and see.
He doth not point out the house, though asked to do it, but rather bids them come forthwith to it: teaching first, as by example, that it is not well to cast delays in the way of search after what is good (for delay in things profitable is altogether hurtful): and this too besides, that to those who are still ignorant of the holy house of our Saviour |150 Christ, that is, the Church, it will not suffice to salvation that they should learn where it is, but that they should enter into it by faith, and see the things mystically wrought therein.
They came and saw where He dwelt, and abode with Him that day: for it was about the tenth hour.
Assiduously did the disciples apply themselves to the attainment of the knowledge of the Divine Mysteries. For I do not think that a fickle mind beseems those who desire to learn, but rather one most painstaking, and superior to feeble mindedness in good toils, so as during their whole life time to excel in perfect zeal. For this I think the words, they abode with Him that day, darkly signify. But when he says, it was about the tenth hour, we adapting our own discourse to each man's profit, say that in this very thing, the compiler of Divinity through this so subtle handling again teacheth us, that not in the beginning of the present world was the mighty mystery of our Saviour made known, but when time now draws towards its close. For in the last days, as it is written, we shall be all taught of God. Take again I pray as an image of what has been said about the tenth hour, the disciples cleaving to the Saviour, of whom the holy Evangelist says that having once become His guests they abode with Him: that they who through faith have entered into the holy house, and have run to Christ, may learn that it needs to abide with Him, and not to desire to be again estranged, either turning aside into sin, or again returning to unbelief.
40, 41, 42 One of the two which heard John speak and followed Him, was Andrew Simon Peter's brother. He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messias, which is, being interpreted, the Christ. And he brought him to Jesus.
They who even now received the talent, straightway make traffic of their talent, and bring it to the Lord. For such are in truth obedient and docile souls, not needing many words for profit, nor bearing the fruit of their instruction, |151 after revolutions of years or months, but attaining the goal of wisdom along with the commencement of their instruction. For give, it says, instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning. Andrew then saves his brother (this was Peter), having declared the whole mystery in a brief summary. For we have found, he says, Jesus, as Treasure hid in a field, or as One Pearl of great price, according to the parables in the Gospels.
And when Jesus beheld him, He said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona, thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, a stone.
He after a Divine sort looketh upon him, Who seeth the hearts and reins; and seeth to how great piety the disciple will attain, of how great virtue he will be possessed, and at what consummation he will leave off. For He Who know-eth all things before they be is not ignorant of ought. And herein does He specially instruct him that is called, that being Very God, He hath knowledge untaught. For not having needed a single word, nor even sought to learn who or whence the man came to Him; He says of what father he was born, and what was his own name, and permits him to be no more called Simon, already exercising lordship and power over him, as being His: but changes it to Peter from Petra 4: for upon him was He about to found His Church.
43 The day following Jesus would go forth into Galilee; and findeth Philip, and saith unto him, Follow Me.
Likeminded with those preceding was Philip, and very ready to follow Christ. For Christ knew that he would be good. Therefore also He says Follow Me, making the word a token of the grace that was upon him, and wherein he bid him follow, testifying to him that most excellent was his conversation. For Ho would not have chosen him, if he had not been altogether good. |152
45 Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found Him, of Whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth the Son of Joseph.
Exceeding swift was the disciple unto the bearing fruit, that hereby he might shew himself akin in disposition to them that had preceded. For he findeth Nathanael, not simply meeting him coming along, but making diligent search for him. For he knew that he was most painstaking and fond of learning. Then he says that he had found the Christ Who was heralded through all the Divine Scripture, addressing himself not as to one ignorant, but as to one exceedingly well instructed in the learning both of all-wise Moses and of the prophets. For a not true supposition was prevailing among the Jews as regards our Saviour Jesus Christ, that He should be of the city or village of Nazareth, albeit the Divine Scripture says that He is a Bethlehemite, as far as pertains to this. And thou, Bethlehem, it says, in the land of Judah, house of Ephrata, art little to be among the thousands of Judah, for out of thee shall He come forth unto Me That is to be ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. For He was brought up in Nazareth, as the Evangelist himself too somewhere testified, saying, And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; but He was not thence, but whence we said before, yea rather, as the voice of the prophet affirmed. Philip therefore following the supposition of the Jews says, Jesus of Nazareth.
46 Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?
Nathanael readily agrees that something great and most fair is that which is expected to appear out of Nazareth 5. It is, I suppose, perfectly clear, that not only did he take Nazareth as a pledge of that which he sought, but bringing together knowledge from the law and Prophets, as one fond of learning he gained swift understanding.
Come and see.
Sight will suffice for faith, says he, and having only |153 conversed with. Him you will confess more readily, and will unhesitatingly say that He is indeed the Expected One. But we must believe that there was a Divine and Ineffable grace, flowing forth with the words of the Saviour, and alluring the souls of the hearers. For so it is written, that all wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of His Mouth. For as His word is mighty in power, so too is it efficacious to persuade.
47 Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile.
Not having yet used proof by means of signs, Christ endeavoured in another way to persuade both His own disciples, and the wiser of those that came to Him, that He was by Nature Son and God, but for the salvation of all was come in human Form. What then was the mode that led to faith? God-befitting knowledge. For knowledge of all things befitteth God Alone. He receiveth therefore Nathanael, not hurrying him by flatteries to this state, but by those things whereof he was conscious, giving him a pledge, that he knoweth the hearts, as God.
48 Whence knowest thou me?
Nathanael begins to wonder, and is called to a now firm faith: but desires yet to learn, whence He has the knowledge concerning him. For very accurate are learning-seeking and pious souls. But perhaps he supposed that somewhat of him had been shewn to the Lord by Philip.
Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig-tree, I saw thee.
The Saviour undid his surmise, saying that even before his meeting and conversing with Philip, He had seen him under the fig-tree, though not present in Body. Very profitably are both the fig-tree and the place named, pledging to him the truth of his having been seen. For he that has already accurate knowledge of what was with him, will readily be admitted. |154
49 Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God, Thou art the King of Israel.
He knows that God Alone is Searcher of hearts, and giveth to none other of men to understand the mind, considering as is likely that verse in the Psalms, God trieth the hearts and reins. For as accruing to none else, the Psalmist hath attributed this too as peculiar to the Divine Nature only. When then he knew that the Lord saw his thoughts revolving in his mind in yet voiceless whispers, straightway he calls Him Master, readily entering already into discipleship under Him, and confesses Him Son of God and King of Israel, in Whom are inexistent the Properties of Divinity, and as one well instructed he affirms Him to be wholly and by Nature God.
50 Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these.
Thou shalt be firmer unto faith, saith He, when thou seest greater things than these. For he that believed one sign, how shall he not by means of many be altogether bettered, especially since they shall be more wonderful than those now wondered at?
51 Verily, verily I say unto you, hereafter ye shall see Heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.
Common now to all is the word which seals the faith of Nathanael. But in saying that angels shall be seen speeding up and down upon the Son of Man, that is, ministering and serving His commands, for the salvation of such as shall believe, He says that then especially shall He be revealed as being by Nature Son of God. For it is not one another that the rational powers serve but surely God. And this does not take away subjection among the angels (for this will not be reasonably called bondage). But we have heard of the Holy Evangelists, that angels came to our Saviour Christ, and ministered unto Him. |155
Chap. ii.2,3 And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there; and both Jesus was called, and His disciples, to the marriage. And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto Him, They have no wine.
Seasonably comes He at length, to the beginning of miracles, even if He seems to have been called to it without set purpose. For a marriage feast being held (it is clear that it was altogether holily), the mother of the Saviour is present, and Himself also being bidden comes together with His own disciples, to work miracles rather than to feast with them, and yet more to sanctify the very beginning of the birth of man: I mean so far as appertains to the flesh. For it was fitting that He, Who was renewing the very nature of man, and refashioning it all for the better, should not only impart His blessing to those already called into being, but also prepare before grace for those soon to be born, and make holy their entrance into being.
Receive also yet a third reason. It had been said to the woman by God, In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children. How then was it not needful that we should thrust off this curse too, or how else could we escape a condemned marriage? This too the Saviour, being loving to man, removes. For He, the Delight and Joy of all, honoured marriage with His Presence, that He might expel the old shame of child-bearing. For if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; and old things are passed away, as Paul saith, they are become new. He cometh therefore with. His disciples to the marriage. For it was needful that the lovers of miracles should be present with the Wonderworker, to collect what was wrought as a kind of food to their faith. But when wine failed the feasters, His mother called the Lord being good according to His wonted Love for man, saying, They have no wine. For since it was in His Power to do whatsoever He would, she urges Him to the miracle.
4 Jesus saith unto her Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come.
Most excellently did the Saviour fashion for us this |156 discourse also. For it behoved Him not to come hastily to action, nor to appear a Worker of miracles as though of His Own accord, but, being called, hardly to come thereto, and to grant the grace to the necessity rather than to the lookers on. But the issue of things longed for seems somehow to be even more grateful, when granted not off-hand to those who ask for it, but through a little delay put forth to most lovely hope. Besides, Christ hereby shews that the deepest honour is due to parents, admitting out of reverence to His Mother what He willed not as yet to do.
5 His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever He saith unto you, do.
The woman having great influence to the performing of the miracle, prevailed, persuading the Lord, on account of what was fitting, as her Son. She begins the work by preparing the servants of the assembly to obey the things that should be enjoined.
7, 8, 9, 10 Jesus saith unto them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim. And He saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast. And they bare it. When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was (but the servants which drew the water knew); the governor of the feast called the bridegroom and saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine, and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse; but thou hast kept the good wine until now.
The ministers accomplish what is commanded, and by unspeakable might was the water changed into wine. For what is hard to Him Who can do all things? He that calleth into being things which are not, how will He weary, trans-ordering into what He will things already made? They marvel at the thing, as strange; for such are Christ's works to look upon. But the governor of the feast charges the bridegroom with expending what was better on the latter end of the feast, not unfitly, as appears to me, according to the narration of the story. |157
11 This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested forth His glory, and His disciples believed on Him.
Many most excellent things were accomplished at once through the one first miracle. For honourable marriage was sanctified, the curse on women put away (for no more in sorrow shall they bring forth children, now Christ has blessed the very beginning of our birth), and the glory of our Saviour shone forth as the sun's rays, and more than this, the disciples are confirmed in faith by the miracle.
The historical account then will stop here, but I think we ought to consider the other view of what has been said, and to say what is therein signified. The Word of God came down then from Heaven, as He Himself saith, in order that having as a Bridegroom, made human nature His own, He might persuade it to bring forth the spiritual offspring of Wisdom. And hence reasonably is the human nature called the bride, the Saviour the Bridegroom; since holy Scripture carries up language from human things to a meaning that is above us. The marriage is consummated on the third day, that is, in the last times of the present world: for the number three gives us beginning, middle, end. For thus is the whole of time measured. And in harmony with this do we see that which is said by one of the prophets, He hath smitten, and He will bind us up. After two days will He revive us, in the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His Sight. Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord; His going forth is prepared as the morning. For He smote us for the transgression of Adam, saying, Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. That which was smitten by corruption and death He bound up on the third day: that is, not in the first, or in the middle, but in the last ages, when for us made Man, He rendered all our nature whole, raising it from the dead in Himself. Wherefore He is also called the Firstfruits of them that slept. Therefore in saying it was the third day, whereon the marriage was being consummated, he signifies the last time. He mentions the place too; for he says it was in Cana of |158 Galilee. Let him that loves learning again note well: for not in Jerusalem is the gathering, but without Judaea is the feast celebrated, as it were in the country of the Gentiles. For it is Galilee of the gentiles, as the prophet saith. It is I suppose altogether plain, that the synagogue of the Jews rejected the Bridegroom from Heaven, and that the church of the Gentiles received Him, and that very gladly. The Saviour comes to the marriage not of His own accord; for He was being bidden by many voices of the Saints. But wine failed the feasters; for the law perfected nothing, the Mosaic writing sufficed not for perfect enjoyment, but neither did the measure of implanted sobriety reach forth so as to be able to save us. It was therefore true to say of us too, They have no wine. But the Bounteous God doth not overlook our nature worn out with want of good things. He set forth wine better than the first, for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. And the law hath no perfection in good things, but the Divine instructions of Gospel teaching bring in fullest blessing. The ruler of the feast marvels at the wine: for every one, I suppose, of those ordained to the Divine Priesthood, and entrusted with the house of our Saviour Christ, is astonished at His doctrine which is above the Law. But Christ commandeth it to be given to him first, because, according to the voice of Paul, The husbandman that laboureth must be first partaker of the fruits. And let the hearer again consider what I say.
14 And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting.
The Jews are again hereby too convicted of despising the laws given them, and making of no account the Mosaic writings, looking only to their own love of gain. For whereas the law commanded that they who were about to enter into the Divine temple should purify themselves in many ways; those who had the power of forbidding it hindered not the bankers or money-changers, and others besides, whose employment was gain, usury and increase, in their lusts (for the whole aim of merchants is comprised in these things): they |159 hindered them not from defiling the holy court, from entering into it as it were with unwashen feet, yea rather they themselves altogether used to enjoin it, that God might say truly of them, Many pastors have destroyed My vineyard, they have: trodden My portion under foot, they have made My pleasant portion a desolate wilderness, they have made it desolate. For of a truth the Lord's vineyard was destroyed, being taught to trample on the Divine worship itself, and through the sordid love of gain of those set over it left bare to all ignorance.
15 And when He had made a scourge of small cords, He drove them all out of the temple.
Reasonably is the Saviour indignant at the folly of the Jews. For it befitted to make the Divine Temple not an house of merchandise, but an house of prayer: for so it is written. But He shows His emotion not by mere words, but with stripes and a scourge thrusts He them forth of the sacred precincts, justly devising for them the punishment befitting slaves; for they would not receive the Son Who through faith maketh free. See I pray well represented as in a picture that which was said through Paul, If any man dishonour the Temple of God, him shall God dishonour.
16 Take these things hence; make not My Father's House an house of merchandise.
He commands as Lord, He leads by the hand to what is fitting, as teacher; and along with the punishment He sets before them the declaration of their offences, through shame thereof not suffering him that is censured to be angry. But it must be noted that He again calls God His own Father specially, as being Himself and that Alone by Nature of Him, and truly Begotten. For if it be not so, but the Word be really Son with us, as one of us, to wit by adoption, and the mere Will of the Father: why does He alone seize to Himself the boast common to and set before all, saying, Make not My Father's House, and not rather, our Father's House. For this I suppose would have been more meet to |160 say, if He had known that Himself too was one of those who are not sons by Nature. But since the Word knows that He is not in the number of those who are sons by grace, but of the Essence of God the Father, He puts Himself apart from the rest, calling God His Father. For it befits those who are called to sonship and have the honour from without, when they pray to cry, Our Father Which art in Heaven: but the Only Begotten being Alone One of One, with reason calls God His Own Father.
But if we must, applying ourselves to this passage, harmonize it more spiritually with that above, the lection must be considered differently.
And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep, &c.
See again the whole scheme of the Dispensation to usward drawn out by two things. For with the Cananites, I mean those of Galilee, Christ both feasts and tarries, and them that bade Him, and hereby honoured Him, He made partakers of His Table; He both aids them by miracles and fills up that which was lacking to their joy (and what good thing does He not freely give?): teaching as in a type that He will both receive the inhabitants of Galilee, that is the Gentiles, called as it were to them through the faith that is in them, and will bring them into the Heavenly Bridal-chamber, that is unto the church of the first-born, and will make them sit down with the saints (for the holy disciples sat down with the feasters): and will make them partake of the Divine and spiritual feast, as Himself saith, Many shall come from the east and west and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of Heaven, nought lacking unto their joy. For everlasting joy shall be upon their heads. But the disobedient Jews He shall cast forth of the holy places, and set them without the holy inclosure of the saints; yea, even when they bring sacrifices He will not receive them: but rather will subject them to chastisement and the scourge, holden with the cords of their own sins. For hear Him saying, Take these things hence; that thou mayest understand again those things which long ago by |161 the mouth of the Prophet Isaiah He saith, I am full of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts, and I delight not in the blood of bullocks and of he goats, neither come ye to appear before Me, for who hath required this at your hand? tread not My courts any more. If ye bring an offering of fine flour, vain is the oblation, incense is an abomination unto Me; your new moons and sabbaths and great day I cannot endure, your fasting and rest and feasts My soul hateth: ye are become satiety unto Me, I will no longer endure your sins. This He most excellently signifies in type, devising for them the scourge of cords. For scourges are a token of punishment.
17 And His disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of Thine House hath eaten Me up.
The disciples in a short time get perfection of knowledge, and comparing what is written with the events, already shew great progress for the better.
18 What sign shewest Thou unto us, seeing that Thou doest these things?
The multitude of the Jews are startled at the unwonted authority, and they who are over the temple are extremely vexed, deprived of their not easily counted gains. And they cannot convict Him of not having spoken most rightly in commanding them not to exhibit the Divine Temple as a house of merchandise. But they devise delays to the flight of the merchants, excusing themselves that they ought not to submit to Him off-hand, nor without investigation to receive as Son of God Him Who was witnessed to by no sign.
19 Destroy this temple.
To them who of good purpose ask for good things, God very readily granteth them: but to them who come to Him, tempting Him, not only does He deny their ambition in respect of what they ask, but also charges them with wickedness. Thus the Pharisees demanding a sign in other parts of |162 the Gospels the Saviour convicted saying, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: for as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. What therefore He said to those, this to these too with slight change: for these (as did those) ask, tempting Him. Nor to those who were in such a state of mind would even this sign have been given, but that it was altogether needful for the salvation of us all.
But we must know that they made this the excuse of their accusation against Him, saying falsely before Pontius Pilate, what they had not heard. For, say they, This Man saith, I am able to destroy the Temple of God. Wherefore of them too did Christ speak in the prophets, False witnesses did rise up: they laid to My charge things that I knew not: and again, For false witnesses are risen up against Me, and such as breathe out cruelty. But He does not urge them to bloodshed saying, Destroy this Temple, but since He knew that they would straightway do it, He indicates expressively what is about to happen.
20 Forty and six years was this Temple in building, and wilt Thou rear it up in three days?
They mock at the sign, not understanding the depth of the Mystery, but seize on the disease of their own ignorance, as a reasonable excuse for not obeying Him, and considering the difficulty of the thing, they gave heed rather as to one speaking at random, than to one who was promising ought possible to be fulfilled, that that may be shewn to be true that was written of them, Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not, and ever bow Thou down their backs: in order that in a manner ever stooping downwards and inclining to the things alone of the earth, they may receive no sight of the lofty doctrines of piety towards Christ, not as though God Who is loving to man grudged them those things, but rather with even justice was punishing them that committed intolerable transgressions. |163
For see how foolishly they insult Him, not sparing their own souls. For our Lord Jesus Christ calls God His Father, saying, Make not My Father's House an House of merchandise. Therefore when they ought now to deem of Him as Son and God, as shining forth from God the Father, they believe Him to be yet bare man and one of us. Therefore they object the time that has been spent in the building of the Temple, saying, Forty and six years was this Temple in building, and wilt Thou rear it up in three days? O drunken with all folly, rightly, I deem, one might say to you, if a wise soul had been implanted in you, if ye believe that your Temple is the House of God, how ought ye not to have held Him to be God by Nature, Who dares fearlessly tell you, Make not My Father's House an House of merchandise? How then, tell me, should He have need of a long time for the building of one house? or how should He be powerless for anything whatever, who in days only seven in number, fashioned this whole universe with ineffable Power, and has His Power in only willing? For these things the people skilled in the sacred writings ought to have considered.
21, 22 But He spake of the Temple of His Body. When therefore He was risen from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this unto them: and they believed the Scripture, and the word which Jesus had said.
Acceptable to the wise man is the word of wisdom, and the knowledge of discipline abideth more easily with men of understanding, and as in wax not too hard, the impression of seals is well made, so in the more tender hearts of men the Divine Word is readily infixed: wherefore the hard of heart is also called wicked. The disciples then, being of a good disposition, become wise, and ruminate the words of divine Scripture, nourishing themselves to more accurate knowledge, and thence coming firmly to belief. Since the Body of Christ is called a temple also, how is not the Only-Begotten Word Which indwelleth therein, God by Nature, since he that is not God cannot be said to dwell in a |164 Temple? Or let one come forward and say, what saint's body was ever called a temple; but I do not suppose any one can shew this. I say then, what we shall find to be true, if we accurately search the Divine Scripture, that to none of the Saints was such honour attached. And indeed the blessed Baptist, albeit he attained unto the height of all virtue, and suffered none to exceed him in piety, was through the madness of Herod beheaded, and yet is no such thing attributed to him. On the contrary, the Evangelist devised a grosser word for his remains, saying this too, as appears to me by an oeconomy, in order that the dignity may be reserved to Christ Alone. For he writes thus; And the blood-shedder to wit, Herod, sent and beheaded John in the prison, and his disciples came and took up his carcase 6. If the body of John be called a carcase, whose temple will it be? In another sense indeed, we are called temples of God, by reason of the Holy Ghost indwelling in us. For we are called the temples of God, and not of ourselves.
But haply some one will say: How then, tell me, doth the Saviour Himself call His own Body a carcase, For wheresoever He saith the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together. To this we say, that Christ saith this not of His Own Body, but in manner and guise of a parable He signifieth that concourse of the Saints to Him, that shall be at that time when He appeareth again to us, with the holy angels, in the glory of His Father. For like as, saith He, flocks of carnivorous birds rush down with a sharp whizzing to fallen carcases, so shall ye too be gathered together to Me. Which indeed Paul too doth make known to us, saying, For the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible; And again in another place, and we shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. That therefore which is taken by way of similitude for an image will no wise damage the force of the truth. |165
23 Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover in the feast day, many believed in His Name, when they saw the miracles which He did.
Christ ceaseth not from saving and helping. For some He leads to Himself by wise words, the rest startling by God-befitting Power too, He taketh in His net to the faith, by the things which they see Him work persuaded to confess, that the Artificer of these so great wonders is of a truth God.
24 But Jesus did not commit Himself unto them.
Not firmly established is the judgment of new believers, nor is the mind firmly built upon fresh miracles. And how should they whose course of instruction was yet so to say green, be already rooted in piety? Therefore Christ doth not yet commit Himself to the novices, shewing that a great thing and most worthy of love is affinity with God, and that it doth not just lie before those who desire to have it, but is achieved by zeal for good, and diligence and time.
Let the stewards of the Mysteries of the Saviour hence learn, not suddenly to admit a man within the sacred veils, nor to permit to approach the Divine Tables, neophites untimely baptized and not in right time believing on Christ the Lord of all. For that He may be an Ensample to us in this also, and may teach us whom fittingly to initiate, He receives indeed the believers, but is seen not yet to have confidence in them, in that He does not commit Himself to them: that hence it may be manifest, that it befits novices to spend no small time under instruction; for scarce even so will they become faithful men.
25 Because He knew all, and needed not that any should testify of man; for He knew what was in man.
Divine is this excellence too along with the rest which are in Christ, and in no one of created beings is it. For to Him Alone Who is truly God doth the Psalmist ascribe it, saying, He fashioneth their hearts alike, He considereth all |166 their works. But if while God Alone understandeth what is in us, Christ understandeth them: how shall He not be God by Nature, Who knoweth the secrets, and knoweth the deep and secret things, as it is written? For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Though no man knoweth, God will not be ignorant, for neither is He reckoned in the number of all, of whom "No man" may rightly be predicated, but as being external to all, and all things under His Feet, He will know. And Paul too will testify, saying, For the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart: neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight, but all things are naked and opened unto the Eyes of Him. For as having planted the ear, He hears all things, and as having formed the eye, He observeth. And indeed He is introduced saying in Job, Who is this that hideth counsel from Me, holding words in his heart, and thinketh to conceal them from Me? In order then that we might acknowledge that the Son is by Nature God, needs does the Evangelist say that He needed not that any should testify of man, for He knew what was in man.
Chap. iii, 2 There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: the same came to Jesus by night and said unto Him,
More ready is Nicodemus to believe, but overcome by no good fear, and not despising the opinion of men, he refuses boldness, and is divided in opinion into two, and halts in purpose, feeble upon both his knee joints, as it is written, forced by the convictions of his conscience to the duty of believing by reason of the exceedingness of the miracles, but esteeming the loss of rulership over his own nation a thing not to be borne, for he was a ruler of the Jews. Deeming that he can both preserve his repute with them, and be a disciple secretly, he cometh to Jesus, making the darkness of the night an aider of his scheme, and by his secret coming convicted of double mindedness. |167
3, Rabbi, we know that Thou art a Teacher come from God; for no man can do these miracles that Thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him
In these words he supposes that he can attain complete piety, and imagines that it will be sufficient for his salvation, to marvel merely at those things which call for wonder: nought else but this does he seek. Calling him a Teacher from God, and a co-worker with Him, he does not yet know that He is by Nature God, nor understand the plan of the dispensation with Flesh, but still approaches as to a mere man, and hath but slight conception of Him.
4 Verily verily I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto Him,
Faith consisteth not, O Nicodemus, in what thou thinkest. Speech sufficeth not unto thee for righteousness, neither wilt thou achieve piety by mere words. For not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of Heaven, but he that doeth the will of My Father Which is in Heaven. But the will of the Father is, that man be made partaker of the Holy Ghost, that the citizen of earth reborn unto an unaccustomed and new life, be called a citizen of Heaven. When He calls the new birth of the Spirit from above, He sheweth clearly that the Spirit is of the Essence of God the Father, as indeed Himself too saith of Himself, I am from above. And the most wise Evangelist again saith of Him, He that cometh from above is above all.
But that the Spirit is of the Essence of God the Father we shall speak more largely in its proper place.
5 How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter a second time into his mother's womb, and be born? Jesus answered,
Nicodemus is convicted hereby of being still carnal, and therefore no way receiving the things of the Spirit of God. For he thinketh that this so dread and illustrious Mystery is foolishness. And hearing of the birth spiritual and from above, he imagineth the carnal womb returning to birth-pang of things already born, and, not attaining beyond the law of |168 our nature, measureth things Divine; and finding the height of its doctrines unattainable by his own conceptions, he falleth down, and is carried off. For as things that are dashed by mighty blows upon the hard stones again rebound, so too I deem the unskilled mind falling upon conceptions of greater calibre than it, being relaxed returns, and ever glad to remain in the measure that suits it, despises an understanding better and loftier than itself. In which case the ruler of the Jews now being, receives not the spiritual birth.
Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.
Since the man did not understand as he ought, what the need of being born from above meant, He instructs him with plainer teaching, and sets before him the more open knowledge of the Mystery. For our Lord Jesus Christ was calling the new birth through the Spirit from above, shewing that the Spirit is of the Essence That is above all essences, through Whom we become partakers of the Divine Nature, as enjoying Him Who proceeds from It Essentially, and through Him and in Him re-formed to the Archetype-Beauty, and thus re-born unto newness of life, and re-moulded to the Divine Sonship. But Nicodemus not so understanding the word from above, imagined it was meant that the future birth should take place after the manner of bodies: therefore also falling into imaginations which shut him up in impossibility, he was caught alike senseless and hard of learning. Of necessity therefore does the Saviour answer yet more mildly, as to one more infirm of habit, and removing the veil that seemed to be thrown over His Words, He now says openly, Except a man be born again of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. For since man is compound, and not simple in his nature, being combined of two, to wit, the sensible body and intellectual soul, he will require two-fold healing for his new birth akin to both the fore-named. For by the Spirit is the spirit of man sanctified, by the sanctified water again, his body. For as the water poured into the |169 kettle, being associated with the vigour of fire, receives in itself the impress of its efficacy, so through the inworking of the Spirit the sensible water is trans-elemented to a Divine and ineffable efficacy, and sanctifieth those on whom it comes.
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
By another argument again He persuades him to mount up to a higher understanding, and on hearing of spiritual birth, not to think of the properties of bodies. For as it is altogether necessary, saith He, that the offspring of flesh should be flesh, so also is it that those of the Spirit should be spirit. For in things the mode of whose being is different, in these must surely the mode of generation also be not the same. But it is to be known that we call the spirit of a man the offspring of the Spirit, not as being of It by Nature (for that were impossible), but in the first place, and that in order of time, because that through Him that which was not was called into being, and in the second place and oeconomically, because of its being re-formed unto God through Him, He stamping His Own Impress upon us, and trans-fashioning our understanding to His own Quality, so to speak. For so I deem, you will understand aright that too which is said to some by Paul, My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you, and again, For in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel.
7, 8 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
It is the excellence of a teacher, to be able manifoldly to manage the mind of the hearers, and to go through many considerations, heaping up proofs where the argument appears hard. He takes then the figure of the mystery from examples, and says, This spirit belonging to the world and |170 of the air, blows throughout the whole earth, and running where it listeth, is shewn to be present by sound only, and escapeth the eye of all, yet, communicating itself to bodies by the subtlest breaths, it infuseth some perception of its natural efficacy. So do thou, saith He, conceive of the new birth also through the Spirit, led on by little examples to what is greater, and by the reasoning brought forward as it were in an image, conceiving of what is above the senses.
9, 10 Nicodemus answered and said unto Him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto him,
Long discourse nothing profits him who understandeth not a whit. Wise then is the saying in the book of Proverbs, Well is he that speaketh in the ears of them that will hear. And this the Saviour shewed by trial to be true, giving Himself an ensample to us in this too. For the teacher will be wholly free from the charge of not being able to persuade, saying what himself thinks good, though he profit nothing by reason of the dulness of the hearers. Besides we learn by this, that hardness in part is happened to Israel. For hearing they hear and understand not.
Art thou a master of Israel and knowest not these things?
By one Christ convicts all, that adorned with the name of teachers, and clothed with the mere repute of being learned in the law, they bear a mind full of ignorance, and unable to understand one of those things, which they ought not only to know, but also to be able to teach others. But if he that instructeth be in this condition, in what is he that is instructed, seeing that the disciple exceedeth not the measure of his master, according to the word of the Saviour? For the disciple, saith He, is not above his master. But since they were thus uninstructed, true is Christ in likening them to whited sepulchres. Most excellently doth Paul too say to the ruler of the Jews, God shall smite thee, thou whited wall. |171
11 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know and testify that we have seen.
He finds the man careless of learning and exceedingly uninstructed and, by reason of his great grossness of mind, utterly unable to be led unto the comprehension of Divine doctrines, albeit many words had been expended with manifold examples. Whence letting alone, as was fitting, accurate explanation, He at length advises him to accept in simple faith, what he cannot understand. He testifies that Himself knows clearly what He saith, by the illustriousness of His Person shewing that yet to gainsay is most dangerous. For it was not likely that Nicodemus would forget, who had affirmed that he knew it of our Saviour Christ, that He was a Teacher come from God. But to resist one who is from God and God, how would it not be fraught with peril? for the thing is clearly a fighting with God. But hence we ought to know, who have authority to teach, that for those just come to the faith, faith in simple arguments is better than any deep reasoning, and more elaborate explanation. And Paul also used to feed with milk some, not yet able to bear stronger meats. And the most wise Solomon again somewhere says to us, Thou shalt wisely know the souls of thy flock, meaning that we should not set before those who come to us the word of doctrine indiscriminately, but fitly adapted to the measure of each.
And ye receive not our witness.
As having in Himself the Father and the Spirit Naturally, the Saviour set forth the person of the Witnesses in the plural number, that, as in the law of Moses, by the mouth of two or three witnesses, what is said may be established. For He shews that the Jews in no wise will to be saved, but with unbridled and heedless impetus are they being borne unto the deep pit of perdition. For if they can neither from their great unlearning understand what is proclaimed to them, nor yet receive it in faith, what other means of salvation may be devised for them? Well then and very justly did the Saviour say that Jerusalem would be without excuse, as |172 snatching upon herself self-called destruction. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, saith He, that killest the prophets and stonest them, which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold your house is left unto you.
12, 13 If I have told you earthly things and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, the Son of man Which is in heaven.
A doctrine, saith He, not exceeding the understanding befitting man, ye from your extreme folly received not, and how shall I explain to you things more Divine? For they who in their own matters are most foolish, how shall they be wise in matters above them? And they who are powerless as to the less, how shall they not find the greater intolerable? And if, says He, ye believe not Me being Alone in speaking, but seek many witnesses for every thing, whom shall I bring to you as a witness of the heavenly Mysteries? For no man hath ascended up to heaven but He That came down from heaven the Son of man. For since the Word of God came down from heaven, He says that the son of man came down, refusing after the Incarnation to be divided into two persons, and not suffering certain to say that the Temple taken by reason of need of the Virgin is one Son, the Word again which appeared from God the Father another: save only as regards the distinction which belongs to each by nature. For as He is the Word of God, so Man too of a woman, but One Christ of both, Undivided in regard of Sonship and God-befitting Glory. For how does He clothe as its own the Temple of the Virgin, with what befitteth the bare Word Alone: and again appropriateth to Himself what befitteth the Flesh only? For now He saith that the Son of man hath come down from heaven: but at the time of His Passion, He feareth, and is sore afraid, and very heavy, and is recorded as Himself suffering the Sufferings which befitted His Human Nature only. |173
14, 15 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in
Him should not perish but have eternal life. Having explained sufficiently, and set before him the reason, why His Word of teaching does not run forth into the boundless and supernatural, but descends again to those things that were typically done by Moses of old, knowing that he could by leadings by means of figures scarce arrive at knowledge of the truth, rather than by the exactitude of spiritual inspirations, He saith He must surely be lifted up, as the serpent was by Moses, shewing that search of history is most necessary, and all but saying to this man of no understanding, Search the Scriptures, for they are they which testify of Me. For serpents were springing upon them of Israel in the wilderness, and they, falling like ears of corn, and not a little distressed at this danger unexpectedly visiting them, with most piteous cry called for salvation from above and from God. But He, since He was Good and full of compassion, as God, commands Moses to set up a brazen serpent; and commands them therein to have a forethought of the salvation by faith. For the remedy to one bitten, was to look at the serpent put before him, and faith along with the sight wrought deliverance at the last extremity to the beholders. So much for the history. But it represents in act as it were in a type, the whole Mystery of the Incarnation. For the serpent signifies bitter and manslaying sin, which was devouring the whole race upon the earth, manifoldly biting the soul of man, and infusing the varied poison of wickedness. And no otherwise could we escape it thus conquering us, save by the succour alone which is from heaven. The Word of God then was made in the likeness oj sinful flesh, that He might condemn sin in the flesh, as it is written, and to those who gaze on Him with more steadfast faith, or by search into the Divine doctrines, might become the Giver of unending salvation. But the serpent being fixed upon a lofty base, signifies that Christ was altogether clear and manifest, so as to be unknown to none, or His being lifted up from the earth, as Himself says, by His Passion on the Cross. |174
16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His Only Begotten Son, that whosoever helieveth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
He desireth to shew openly herein, that He is God by Nature, since one must needs deem that He Who came forth from God the Father, is surely God also, not having the honour from without, as we have, but being in truth what He is believed to be. With exceeding skill does He say this, having joined therewith the love of God the Father to us, well and opportunely coming to discourse thereon. For He shames the unbelieving Nicodemus, yea rather, He shews that he is ungodly also. For the not coming readily to believe, when God teaches anything, what else is it, than laying upon the Truth a charge of falsehood? Besides this, in saying that He was given for the life of the world, He persuades him to consider seriously, of how great punishment they will be in danger, who from their mad folly, have made of no account so wondrous grace of God the Father. For God, says He, so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son.
Let the Christ-opposing heretic again hear, and let him come forward and say, what is the greatness of the Love of God the Father, or how we should reasonably marvel at it. But he will say that the marvel of the love is seen, in His giving His Son for us, and that the Only Begotten. In order then that the great love of God the Father may remain and be preserved, let Him be held to be Son not a creature, I mean Son of the Essence of the Father, that is to say, Consubstantial with Him Who begat Him, and God verily and in truth. But if, according to thy speech, o thou, He possesseth not the being of the Essence of God the Father, He will also lose the being by Nature Son and God, and the wide-spread marvel of the Love of God will at length come to nought: for He gave a creature for creatures, and not truly His Son. Vainly too will the blessed Paul trouble us, saying, He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses: of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God? For confessedly |175 he that despised trampleth under foot, but not the Very Son, but a fellow servant of Moses, if indeed creature be always akin to creature, in respect at least of having been made, even if it surpass the glory of another, in the excellences of being greater or better. But the word of Paul is true; and a severer penalty shall he pay who hath trodden under foot the Son, not as though he were transgressing against a creature, or one of the fellow servants of Moses. Great then and above nature is the Love of the Father, Who for the life of the world gave His Own Son and Who is of Himself.
17 For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
Having plainly called Himself the Son of God the Father, He thought not good to leave the word without witness, but brings forward proof from the quality, so to say, of the things themselves, making the hearers more steadfast unto faith. For I was not sent, saith He, like the law-expounder Moses, condemning the world by the law, nor introducing the commandment unto conviction of sin, nor do I perform a servile ministry, but I introduce loving-kindness befitting the Master: I free the embondaged, as Son and Heir of the Father, I transform the law that condemneth into grace that justifieth, I release from sin him that is holden with the cords of his transgressions, I am come to save the world, not to condemn it. For it was right, it was right, saith He, that Moses, as a servant, should be a minister of the law that condemns, but that I as Son and God should free the whole world from the curse of the law and, by exceedingness of lovingkindness, should heal the infirmity of the world. If then the grace that justifieth is better than the commandment that condemneth, how is it not meet to conceive that He surpasseth the measure of the servant Who introduceth so God-befitting authority, and releaseth man from the bonds of sin?
This then is one aim of the passage under consideration, and no mean one. A second besides this, revolving through the same circuit, and introducing a consideration akin to |176 those above, will be given from love of learning. The Saviour saw that Nicodemus was cleaving to the law of Moses, and was fast held to the more ancient commandment, and was somehow startled at the new Birth through the Spirit, shrinking from the new and Gospel polity, supposing it seems that this would be more burdensome than the things already enjoined. Being therefore not ignorant, as God, of the fear which from his ignorance had sprung upon him, by using one short argument, He frees him from all trouble on this score, and shews that the commandment of Moses, by reason of its condemning the world, is harder to be borne, and introduces Himself as a mild Judge, saying, For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
18 He that believeth on the Son is not condemned; but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the Name of the Only Begotten Son of God.
Having proved by facts, that He is both Son of God the Father, and introduceth into the world grace which is more excellent than the ministration of Moses (for how is not the being justified by grace better than the being condemned by the law?), He devised, as God, another way to bring unto the faith, from all quarters driving together to salvation them that were lost. He puts forth then to the believer as his reward the not being called to judgement, to the unbeliever punishment, bringing into one and the same way by both, calling to come readily unto the faith, some by desire for the grace, others by fear of suffering. He shews that heinous and great is the crime of unbelief, since He is Son and Only Begotten. For by how much is that worthy of belief which is insulted, so much the more will that which despises be condemned for his dire transgression. He says that he that believeth not is condemned already, in that he hath already determined against himself the due sentence of punishment, by knowingly rejecting Him Who gives not to be condemned. |177
19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light.
He lets not the condemnation of the unbelievers remain without consideration, but recounts its causes, and shews clearly that, according to the words of the Proverbs, Not unjustly is the net spread for the birds. For they, saith He, who when it was in their power to be illuminated preferred to remain in darkness, how will not they fairly be determiners of punishment against themselves, and self-invited to suffering which it was in their power to escape, if they had been right provers of things, choosing rather to be enlightened than not, and studying to make the baser things second to the better? But He preserved the mind of man free from the bonds of necessity, and tending by its own impulses to both sides, that it might justly receive praise for good things, and punishment for the contrary. As indeed He sheweth in another place, saying, If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall, eat the good of the land; but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword.
20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
Profitably doth He go over what has been said, and convicts indolence unto things helpful of proceeding from love of evil, and of having its root in unwillingness to learn those things whereby one may become wise and good. For the doer of evil, says He, flees from and refuses the being in the Divine Light: not hiding from shame on account of evil (for so he would have been saved) but desiring to remain in ignorance of what is becoming, lest transgressing he should be smitten, falling upon the now keener convictions of his own conscience, and by means of at length clearly knowing what is good, should pay a more woeful account to the Judge, if he should not do what was pleasing to God. But he that doeth truth (that is, the lover and doer of the works of the Truth) cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God. For he doth not reject the illumination in the Spirit, by It specially led to be able to |178 understand in all calm collectedness, whether he hath transgressed the Divine commandment, and whether he hath wrought all things according to the Law of God.
It is then a plain proof of an unbridled tendency to evil, and unrestrained pleasure in what is worse, not to wish to learn that whereby one may avail to attain unto what is better: again of desire for the best, to thirst for illumination, and to make His Law a rule so to say and index unto a conversation pleasing to God. And the Divine Psalmist knowing that this was so, sings, The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.
22, 23, 24 After these things came Jesus and His disciples into the land of Judaea. And John also was baptizing in Aenon near to Salim, because there was much water there; and they came, and were baptized. For John was not yet cast into prison.
After the conversation with Nicodemus had now reached its conclusion, the Divine Evangelist again prepares something else most profitable. For enlightened by the Divine Spirit to the exposition of things most needful, he knew that it would exceedingly profit his readers to know clearly, how great the excellence, and by how great measures, the baptism of Christ surpasses that of John. For it was indeed not far from his expectation, that certain would arise who of their folly should dare to say, either that there was no difference whatever between them, but that they ought to be crowned with equal honours; or, having stumbled into folly even wilder than this, say, that the vote of superiority ought to be taken away from Christ's baptism, and the superiority shamelessly lavished on the baptism by water. For what daring is not attainable by the ill-instructed, or through what blasphemy do they not rush, who rising up against the holy doctrines of the Church, pervert all equity, as it is written? The most wise Evangelist then, that he might destroy beforehand the plea for their vain-babbling, |179 introduces the holy Baptist laying before his disciples the solution of the question. Christ therefore baptizes through His own disciples: likewise John too, and not altogether by the hands of others, nor yet did he baptize in those same fountains, where Christ was manifested doing this, but near to Salim, as it is written, and in one of the neighbouring fountains. And through the very distinction (in a way) of the fountains of waters does he shew the difference of the baptism, and signify as in a figure that his baptism is not the same as that of our Saviour Christ: yet was it near and round about, bringing in a kind of preparation and introduction to the more perfect one. As then the law of Moses too is said to have a shadow of the good things to come, not the very image of the things (for the Mosaic letter is a kind of preparatory exercise and pre-instruction for the worship in the Spirit, travailing with the truth hidden within), so shalt thou conceive too of the baptism unto repentance.
25, 26 Then there arose a question between some of John's disciples and a Jew 7 about purifying. And they came unto John, and said unto him,
The Jews being powerless to commend the purifications of the law, and not able to advocate the cleansing through the ashes of an heifer, plan something against John's disciples, whereby they thought to cause them no slight vexation, albeit easily worsted in their own matters. For since they who attended the blessed Baptist, appeared to be more excellent and of more understanding than the Pharisees, admiring the baptism of their own teacher, and opposing the purifications after the law; they are vexed at these things, who are diligent in reviling only and most ready unto all wickedness: and even overturning their own case, they praise Christ's Baptism, not rightly disposed, nor pouring forth true praise on it, but exasperated to the mere distressing of them; and lending out a statement against their opinion, until their purpose should attain its accomplishment. They cannot |180 then adduce any reasonable proof, nor do they even support Christ out of the holy Scriptures (for, whence were such understanding to the uninstructed?): but they merely allege in confirmation of their own arguments, that very few in number are those who come to John, but that they flock together to Christ. For haply they in their exceeding folly thought that they should carry off the vote of victory, and might speak out in behalf of the legal purifications, as having already conquered, by giving the palm over John's to the Baptism bestowed by Christ on those who come to Him. And they vex those with whom their dispute was: but they get off with difficulty and leave the disciples of John, much more beaten by their ill-considered dispute. For they crown with compulsory praises, and against their will, the Lord.
27 Rabbi, He that was with thee beyond Jordan, to Whom thou barest witness, behold, the Same baptizeth, and all men come to Him. John answered and said,
The disciples bitten by the words of the Pharisees, and looking to the very nature of the thing, were not able to convict them as liars, but were reasonably at a loss, and being ignorant of the great dignity of our Saviour, are exceedingly startled at John's shortcoming, and mingling words of love with reverence and admiration, they desire to learn, why He That was borne witness to by his voice, prevents him in honour, outstrips him in grace, and in baptizing takes in His net, not a portion of the whole Jewish multitude, but even all of them. And they made the inquiry as it seems not without the Will of God: for hence the Baptist invites them to an accurate and long explanation respecting the Saviour, and introduces the clearest distinction between the baptisms.
A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven.
He says that there is nothing good in man, but must needs be wholly the gift of God, For it befits the creation to hear, What hast thou that thou didst not receive? I think then that we ought to be content with the measures allotted |181 to us, and to rejoice in the honours apportioned to us from heaven, but by no means to stretch out beyond, nor in desire ever of what is greater unthankfully to despise the decree from above, and fight against the judgment of the Lord, in shame that one should appear to receive what is less than the more perfect: but with whatsoever God shall please to honour us, to value that highly. Let not my disciple therefore, saith he, be ashamed, if I do not overleap the measure given me, if I do not contemplate the greater, and am contracted to the glory befitting a man.
28 Ye yourselves bear me witness that I said, I am not the Christ, but that I am sent before Him.
He brings his disciples to the recollection of the words which they have already often heard, partly reproving them rightly, as steeped in forgetfulness of things profitable, and slumbering in respect to this so most dread doctrine, partly persuading them to remember the Divine Scripture, as having been nourished in zeal for the knowledge of these things; Whom it preaches as the Christ to come, whom again as the Baptist the forerunner. For thus would they, having received knowledge of each, be in no wise angry, seeing them in the state befitting each. I shall need then, saith he, no other witnesses to this, I have my own disciples as ear-witnesses, I confessed my state of servitude, when I fore-announced, I was sent, I am not the Christ. Let Him overcome, prevail, shine forth yet more as Lord and God.
29 He That hath the bride is the Bridegroom: but the friend of the Bridegroom, which standeth and heareth Him, rejoiceth greatly because of the Bridegroom's voice; this my joy therefore is fulfilled.
The discourse again took its rise from likeness to our affairs, but leads us to the knowledge of subtle thoughts. For types of things spiritual are those which endure the touch of the hand, and the grossness of corporeal examples introduceth oftentimes a most accurate proof of things |182 spiritual. Christ then, says he, is the Bridegroom and ruler of the assembly, I the bidder to the supper and conducter of the bride, having as my chiefest joy and illustrious dignity, to be only enrolled among His friends, and to hear the Voice of Him That feasteth. I have therefore even now that that I long for, and my dearest wish is fulfilled. For not only did I preach that Christ would come, but Him already present have I seen, and His very Voice do I lay up in my ears. But ye, most wise disciples, seeing the human nature that is betrothed to Christ, going to Him, and beholding the nature which was cut off and a run-away from its love to Him attaining to spiritual union through holy Baptism, grieve not, saith he, that it befits not me, but rather runs very gladly to the spiritual Bridegroom (for this were in truth just and more fitting). For He That hath the bride is the Bridegroom; that is, seek not in me the crown of the Bridegroom, not for me does the Psalmist rejoice, saying, Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people and thy father's house, for the King hath desired thy beauty: nor seeking my chamber doth the bride say, Tell me, O Thou Whom my soul loveth, where Thou feedest, where Thou makest Thy flock to rest at noon: she has the Bridegroom from Heaven. But I will rejoice, having surpassed the honour becoming a bondman, in the title and reality of friendship.
I deem then that the meaning of the passage, has been full well interpreted: and having already sufficiently explained the spiritual marriage, I think it tedious to write any more about it.
30 He must increase, but I must decrease.
He convicts his disciples of being yet troubled about trifles, and of taking unseasonable offence at what they by no means ought, and of not yet knowing accurately, Who and whence Emmanuel is. For not thus far, saith he, shall His Deeds be marvelled at, nor because more are baptized by Him, shall He for this alone surpass my honour, but He |183 shall attain to so great a measure of honour, as befitteth God. For He must needs come to increase of glory, and, through daily additions of miracles, ever mount up to the greater, and shine forth with greater splendour to the world: but I must decrease, abiding in that measure wherein I appear, not sinking from what was once given me, but in such a degree inferior to Him That advanceth ever to an increase of glory, as He hasteth and passeth on.
And this the blessed Baptist interpreteth to us. But our discourse will advance profitably through examples, making the force of what has been said clearer. Let then a stake two cubits long be fixed in the ground: let there lie near a plant too, just peeping above the ground, putting forth green shoots into the air, and ever thrust up to a greater height by the resistless vigour from the roots; if then one could put voice into the stake, and it should then say of itself and its neighbour the plant, This must increase, but I decrease; one would not reasonably suppose that it indicated any harm to itself, nor that its existing measure would be clipped, but it would be affirming its decrease in that sort only, in which it is found less than that which is ever advancing towards increase. Again you may take an example akin to this one, and suppose the brightest of the stars to cry out saying of the sun, It must increase, but I decrease. For while in the gloom of night the depth of the atmosphere is darkened, one may well admire the morning star flashing forth its golden light, and conspicuous in its full glory: but when the sun now gives notice of its rising, and bedews the world with a moderate light, the star is surpassed by the greater, and gives place to him advancing little by little. And it too might well speak the words of John, being in that same state, which he says he is enduring. |184
CHAPTER II. That the Son is not in the number of things originate, but above all, as God of God.
31 He That cometh from above is above all.
No great thing is it, saith he, nor exceeding wonderful, if Christ surpass the glory of human nature: for not thus far doth He set the bounds of His own glory, but is over all creation, as God, is above all things made, not as numbered among all, but as excepted from all, and Divinely set over all. He adds the reason, shaming the gainsayer, and silencing the opposer. He That cometh from above, saith he, that is, He That is born of the root from above, preserving in Himself by Nature the Father's Natural goodness, will confessedly possess the being above all. For it would be impossible that the Son should not altogether appear to be such as He That begat is conceived of, and rightly. For the Son Who excelleth in sameness of Nature, the Brightness and express Image of the Father, how will He be inferior to Him in glory? Or will not the Property of the Father be dishonoured in the Son, and we insult the Image of the Begotten, if we count Him inferior? But this I suppose will be manifest to all. Therefore is it written also, That all men, should honour the Son even as they honour the Father: he that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father. He That glorieth in equal honour with God the Father, by reason of being of Him by Nature, how will He not be conceived of as surpassing the essence of things originate? for this is the meaning of is above all. |185
But I perceive that the mind of the fighters against Christ will never rest, but they will come, as is probable, vainly babbling and say, "When the blessed Baptist says that the Lord sprang from above, what reason will compel us to suppose that He came of the Essence of the Father, by reason of the word from above, and not rather from heaven, or even from His inherent superiority above all, so that for this reason He should be conceived of and said to be also above all?" When therefore they aim at us with such words, they shall hear in return, Not your most corrupt reasonings o most excellent, will we follow, but rather the Divine Scriptures and the Sacred Writings only. We must then search in them, how they define to us the force of from above. Let them hear then a certain one of the Spirit-clad crying, Every good gift and every perfect gift is from, above, and cometh down from the Father of lights. Lo, plainly he says that from above is from the Father: for knowing that nought else surpasseth things originate save the Ineffable Nature of God, he rightly attached to it the term from above. For all things else fall under the yoke of bondage; God alone riseth above being ruled, and reigneth: whence He is truly above all. But the Son, being by Nature God and of God, will not be excluded from the glory in respect of this. But if ye deem that from above ought to be taken as Of heaven, let the word be used of every angel and rational power. For they come to us from heaven who inhabit the city that is above, and ascend and descend, as the Saviour somewhere says, upon the Son of man. What then persuaded the blessed Baptist to attribute that which was in the power of many to the Son Alone specially, and as to One coming down from above to call Him, He That cometh from above? For surely he ought to make the dignity common to the rest, and say, They that come from above are above all. But he knew that the expression was due to the One Son, as sprung of the Supreme Root.
Therefore from above does not mean from heaven: but will be piously and truly understood, in the sense we spoke of before. For how is He at all above all, if from above |186 signify not From the Father, but rather From Heaven? For if this be so, every one of the angels too will be above all, as coming from thence. But if each one escapes being reckoned among all, of whom at last will all be composed? or how will the word all remain intact, preserving accurately its meaning, while such a multitude of angels overpass and break down the boundary of all? For all it is no longer, if they remain outside, who were in all. But the Word That shone forth ineffably from God the Father, having His Proper Birth from above, and being of the Essence of the Father as of a fountain, will not by His coming wrong the word all, seeing He escapes being reckoned among all as if a part: but rather will be above all, as Other than they, both by Nature and God-befitting Power and all other Properties of Him Who begat Him.
But perchance they will say abashed at the absurd result of the investigation, "From above means not from heaven, but from His inherent superiority above all." Come then, testing more accurately the force of what is said, let us see at what an end their attempt will terminate. First then, it is wholly foolish and without understanding, to say that the Son Himself hath come from His Own Dignity, and that as from a certain place or out of one, He One and the Same advances from His Own Excellency to be above all. In addition to this, I would also most gladly enquire of them, in respect of the excellence above all, whether they will grant it to the Son Essentially and irrevocably, or added from without in the nature of accident. If then they say that He hath the Excellence by acquisition, and is honoured with dignities from without, one must needs acknowledge that the Only-Begotten could exist deprived of glory, and be stripped of the acquired (as they call it) grace, and be deprived of being above all, and appear bare of the excellence which they now admire, since an accident may be lost, seeing that it belongeth not to the essence of its subject. There will therefore be change and varying in the Son: and the Psalmist will lie hymning Him with vain words, The heavens |187 shall perish, but Thou shalt endure: yea all of them shall wax old like a garment, as a vesture shalt Thou change them and they shall be changed: but Thou art the Same, and Thy years shall have no end. For how is He the Same, if with us He changeth, and that with changes for the worse? Vainly too (it seems) doth He glory of Himself, saying, Behold, behold, I am, I change not, and there is no God beside Me. And how will not the passions of the offspring reach up to the Father Himself too, since He is His Impress and Exact Likeness? God the Father then will be changeable, and has the Supremacy over all accruing to Him: I omit the rest. For what belongs to the Image will of necessity appertain unto the Archetype. But they will not say that He hath the supremacy from without (shuddering at such difficulties alike and absurdities of their arguments), but Essential rather and irrevocable. Then again (o most excellent) how will ye not agree with us even against your will, that the Son being by Nature God, is above all, and therefore cometh of the Alone Essence of God the Father? For if there be nought of things originate which is not parted off by the force of the All, but the Son is above all, to wit, as Other than all, and having the Essential Supremacy over all, and not the same in nature with all, how will He not be at length conceived of as Very God? For He Who is Essentially separate from the multitude of created beings, and by Nature escapes the being classed among things originate, what else can He be, save God? For we see no mean, as far as regards existing essence. For the creation is ruled over, and God is conceived of as over it. If then the Son be by Nature God, and have been ineffably begotten of God the Father, from above signifies the Nature of the Father. Therefore the Only Begotten is above all, inasmuch as He too is seen to be of that Nature.
He that is of the earth is earthly and speaketh of the earth. The earthborn (says he) will not effect equally in power of persuasion with Him Who is God over all. For he that |188 is of the earth will speak as man, and will rank merely as an adviser, committing to his disciples the whole reins of desire to believe: but He That cometh from above, as God, having used discourse with a certain Divine and ineffable grace, sends it into the ears of those who come to Him. But in proportion as He is by Nature Superior, so much the more effectually will He surely in-work. And with much profit does the blessed Baptist say such things to his disciples. For since they were beholding him surpassed by the glory of the Saviour, and were now not a little offended thereat, wherefore they came to him and said, Rabbi, He That was with thee beyond Jordan, to Whom thou barest witness, behold the Same baptizeth, and all men come to Him; needs did the Spirit-clad, cutting off the sickness of offence, and implanting in his disciples a healthful perception on most necessary points, explain the Saviour's supremacy over all, and teach no less the cause why all men were already going to Him, and leaving the baptism by water alone, went to the more Divine and perfect one, to wit, that by the Holy Ghost.
He that cometh from heaven is above all. This testifieth (saith he) that very great and incomparable the distinction between those of the earth and the Word of God That cometh down from above and from Heaven. If I am not fit to teach, and my word alone suffice you not, the Son Himself will confirm it, testifying that in an incomprehensible degree differs the earth-born from the Beginning Which is above all. For disputing somewhere with the unholy Jews, the Saviour said, Ye are from beneath; I am from above. For He says that the nature of things originate is from beneath, as subject and of necessity in bondservice to God Who calleth them into being: from above again He calleth the Divine and Ineffable and Lordly Nature, as having all things originate under Its feet, and subjecting them to the yoke of His Authority. For not idly did the blessed Baptist add these things to, |189 those above. For that; he may not be supposed by his disciples to be inventing empty arguments, and from fear of seeming with reason inferior to Christ, to call Him greater and from above, himself from beneath and of the earth; needs does he from what the Saviour Himself said, seal the force of the things said, and shew the explanation to be not as they thought, an empty excuse, but rather a demonstration of the truth.
But since the other part of the verse runs thus, And what He hath seen and heard, that He testifieth, come we will discuss a few things on this too. We are so constituted and habituated, as to receive the full proof of everything, by means of two especial senses particularly, I mean sight and hearing. For having been both ear-witnesses and eye-witnesses of anything, we come to speak positively thereof. Persuading them therefore to hasten to belief in Christ (for He speaks, says he, that He knows accurately), he takes again, as it were, from the likeness to us, that we may understand it more Divinely, and says, What He hath seen and heard, that He testifieth.
And no man receiveth His testimony.
Not as though no one receiveth the testimony, that Christ is God by Nature and, sprung from above and the Father, is above all, does the blessed Baptist say this (for many received, and have believed it, and before all Peter, saying, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God): but as having himself conceived of the great dignity of the Speaker more rightly than they all, does he all but shaking his head, and smiting with right hand on his thigh, marvel at the folly of them that disbelieve Him. |190
CHAPTER III. That Christ is God and of God by Nature.
33 He that hath received His testimony hath set to his seal that God is true.
In no other way was it possible to shew the impiety of them that believe not, except the glorious achievement of the believers were made known. For by the contrast of good things is the evil easily discerned, and the knowledge of what is better convicts the worse. If any then (saith he) have assented to the words of Him That cometh from above, he hath sealed and confirmed by his understanding, that truth is ever akin and most dear to the Divine Nature. Whence the converse is manifest to them that see. For he who thrusts away the faith will surely witness against himself, that God is not true. But we must again take notice, that he removes the Son from consubstantiality with the creation, and shews by what has been said that He is by Nature God. For if he that believeth the things spoken by Him, and receiveth the testimony which He gave of Himself, sealed and well confirmed that God is true; how shall not Christ be conceived of as by Nature God, Who is testified of as true by the credit of the things just said? or let our opponent again say how the Divine Nature is honoured, as being true, by our Saviour's testimony being received. For if He be not wholly by Nature God, he that believeth will not be reverencing the Divine Nature, as true, but rather one (according to them) the fairest of creatures. But since, when Christ is believed, the declaration of being true extendeth to God, it is I suppose altogether clear, that He being God, not falsely so called, Himself taketh honour to Himself from those who believe. |191
But the enemy of the truth will not (it seems) agree to these words of ours, but will start up strong, not admitting the Son to be by Nature God: and will say again, Thou cavillest, sir, and contrivest turns of many-varied reasonings, ever rejecting somehow the simple and right sense. For since the Word of God hath come down from Heaven, calling out openly, I speak not of Myself, but the Father Which sent Me, He gave Me a commandment, what I should say and what I should speak: and again, All things that I have heard of My Father, I will make known unto you: or also, as the holy Baptist averred in the following words, For He Whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: therefore of Him is he saying, He that receiveth His testimony hath set to his seal, that God is True. For verily is God the Father true, but thou attemptest to bring round to the Son what is due to Another.
What then shall we say to these things? shall we class the Only-Begotten among the prophets, fulfilling the ministry befitting Prophets, and doing nought besides? For by whom is it not unhesitatingly received, that Prophets used to bring us voices from God? Then what excellence is there in the Son, if He accomplish this alone? how is He above all, if He is still ranked along with Prophets, and is clad in slave-befitting measure? How, as though surpassing them in glory doth He say in the Gospels, If He called them gods unto whom the Word of God came, and the Scripture cannot be broken, say ye of Him Whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest: because I said, I am the Son of God? For in these words He clearly severeth Himself off from the company of Prophets, and saith that they were called gods, because the Word of God came to them, but Himself He con-fesseth Son. For to the holy Prophets was imparted grace by measure through the Spirit; but in our Saviour Christ it hath pleased all the full ness of the God-head to dwell bodily, as Paul saith; wherefore also of His fullness have all we received, as John affirmed. How then will the Giver be On a par with the recipients, or how will the Fullness of the God-head be reckoned in the portion of the minister? |192
Let them then hence consider narrowly, into how great blasphemy their argument will hazard them. And how one ought to understand the words, I speak not of Myself, but the Father Which sent Me, He gave Me a commandment what I should say and what I should speak, will be explained more at large in its proper time and place. But I think that at present the objections of our opponents ought to be made a foundation of piety, and from what they put forth, we ought to contend for the doctrines of the Church. They then affirm that the Son has received commandments from the Father, and says nothing of Himself: but whatsoever He heard, as Himself says, these things He is zealous to say to us too. Well, let him hold to this; for we will agree, since this nothing wrongeth the Son, as far at least as concerns the question of whence He is; yea rather it bringeth in a most beautiful ceconomy in respect of the present subject. Therefore when they hear Him say, I and the Father are One; He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; I am in the Father, and the Father in Me: let them receive His testimony, let them set to their seal, that God the Father is true, persuading the Son to speak what He knoweth accurately; let them not disbelieve the words of the Saviour, interpreting to us the things of His Father.
34 For He Whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God.
The Father then knoweth that His own Son is in Him the Same by Nature (for this I suppose the words, are One, signify, and nothing else), and acknowledgeth Him as Son not creature; Son I mean of His own Essence, and not honoured with the bare name of Sonship. For He knows that He is the Exact Image of His own Proper Self, so that He is perfectly seen in Him, and depicts in Himself Him That by Nature Ineffably beamed forth from Him, and hath in Himself the Son, is again in the Son, by reason of Sameness of Essence.
These things, o heretic, by considering, thou shalt release thyself from bitter disease, and us from trouble in argument |193 and controversy. For He Whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God. If these words be considered simply, what will there be of marvel in the Son? For was not every one of the holy Prophets also both sent from God, and did he not declare His words? And indeed it is somewhere said to the hierophant Moses, And now come, I will send thee into Egypt, and thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord: to the most holy Jeremiah, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. What more then is there in the Son by Nature Who speaketh the words of God, because He is sent by Him? He will be declared to us again (it seems) as a Prophet, and nothing else, in respect of ministry. Therefore you will here understand hath sent, either in respect of the Incarnation and the Coming into this world with Flesh: or again you will take it in a more God-befitting and higher sense. For the Father hid not the Son in Himself, but He beamed forth of His Nature, as brightness from light, after the unspeakable and inexplicable mode of Divine Generation: which too the Only-Begotten was making known to us, in saying, I came forth from the Father, and am come. For the Son hath come forth from the Father into His Proper Being, even though He be in Him by Nature. And what I came forth there means, this again the being sent here signifies. The Word then (he says) That hath appeared and flashed forth from the Father, in that He is God of God, will use words befitting God: but the words befitting God are true words, and such as reject all stain of falsehood. He then that receiveth the testimony of the Saviour hath sealed that God is true; for He is indeed by Nature God.
For He giveth not the Spirit by measure. Promise now specially keen attention, my good friend, that with me you may wonder at the sober wisdom of the Saints. He said therefore that the Son was both sent of God, and speaketh the words of God. But he is observed as far as belongs to the simple force of the words to clothe |194 Him with the prophetic measure, as we have just said. He: removes Him then in these words from equality with them, and through this one token gives us to understand, how great, yea, rather now how incomparable the difference. For it is impossible, saith he, that they who have received the Spirit by measure, could give It to another. For never hath saint to saint been the bestower of the Holy Ghost: but the Son giveth to all, as of His own fulness. He then giveth not by measure, nor hath He, as they, some little portion of the Spirit, and this by participation: but since He was shewn to be the Giver too of It, it is manifest I suppose that He hath It wholly Essentially in Himself. He then that hath so great superiority over them, will not speak the. things of God as one of them, but being God of God, will pour forth words befitting God.
But it will no how interfere with what has been said that certain deem that by Apostolic hands the Spirit was given to some: for we will believe them to be invokers of the Spirit, rather than truly givers of It: since the blessed Moses too was not enjoined himself to take of the Spirit that was on him but God kept this too in His Power alone, saying that he must put forth the seventy, and promising to take of the Spirit that was on him, and put it upon them. For He knew that it befits God Alone to perform things God-befitting. |195
CHAPTER IV. That not by participation are the Properties of God the Father in the Son, but Essentially and by Nature.
35 The Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into His Hand.
For since he had said, that it behoved not the Son Who had beamed forth God of God, to be able to use words other than He That begat Him, to wit, true words; for He Whom God hath sent, saith he, speaketh the words of God, needs does he subjoin what is before us, and saith, The Father loveth the Son. We shall not grieve (saith he) God the Father by clothing in equal honour Him That is begotten of Him, we shall not offend Him by crowning with God-befitting Glory Him Who is Essentially the Heir of the Father's goods. For He loveth the Son. He will therefore be pleased at His being glorified by us, and be grieved by the contrary. And let no one suppose, saith he, that He hath His Own Son Heir of this one Divine Excellence only. For He hath given all things into His Hand; i. e., everything, which is essentially good in the Father, this is altogether in the power of the Son. For he calleth power Hand in these words, as when God saith by one of the Prophets, My right Hand hath spanned the heavens, instead of, My Power. But the Son hath in Himself the whole Property of the Father, not by participation, though the Father be said to have given it (for so He would have an acquired, not a Natural Godhead) but the Father gives all that is His to His Son, just as a man too may be conceived to give to the child born of him all the properties of manhood, or as the fire too may be said to give to the heat proceeding from it in the way of energy, the property |196 of its own nature. In such things, both is the giving no loss to the givers (for not by division or severance is the going forth of what is conceived to be given) and the appearance of receiving is blameless on the part of the recipients. For only because of the 'whence,' are such things said, and the offspring are conceived of as being a certain natural quality, so to say, of their begetters, shewing clearly what the generator is by nature, and flashing forth the natural energy of their own source. And these things again are adduced by way of examples, but God is above them all. We will not for this accuse human language which is weak, for the glory of God hideth speech, as it is written. And if we see through a glass and darkly, and conceive in part, how shall we not be yet more powerless in the words through the tongue? You will then piously conceive, either that in this way all things are given by the Father to the Son: or you will take it again of the oeconomy with Flesh, no longer introducing the giving and receiving in respect of Natural Properties, but as putting the Son in authority over all things originate, that you may conceive of it in some such way as this,
The Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into His Hand.
Let not the slow to hearken (he says) be bold in speech, at seeing the Lord of all a Man, nor let him suppose that the Truth is false, rejecting the due belief in God by reason of the Flesh. Let him receive His testimony, let him readily set to his seal that God is true, lest he grieve the Father Which is in Heaven. For He loveth His Son: and the proof of His Love for Him, is that authority over all is given to Him. Which also the Saviour Himself says, All things are delivered unto Me of My Father, and again, All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Nor do I suppose that because of the Son's seeming to receive it, will He reasonably be predicated by any as lesser: and why? for He receives when He became Man, when He humbled Himself for our sakes, |197 when the Lord was called a slave, when the Son, Who is free, became among servants. For how did He humble Himself? or how is He said to have descended from His Equality with God the Father? Dost thou not in these things see Him Who Divinely giveth, Him Who Humanly and as a servant is said to receive what as God He had? For not strictly a gift from the Father is that which appointed the Son to the beginning of Lordship over all things; but rather a return and regain with the Flesh also of the authority that He had before the Flesh. For not when He became Man, did He then begin to rule the creation.
Since to what lowliness would one say that He had descended, if, when He became Man, He then began to have lordship? how will He appear in the Form of a servant, if then at length and scarcely declared Lord of all? Away with the absurdity of the reasonings herein. But when He became Man, then even so begins He to rule, not losing by reason of His Flesh the Divine Dignity, but mounting again with the Flesh also, to what He was from the beginning. But that the things spoken of as Christ's, were but the regain of what He had before, Himself will prove, saying, Father, glorify Thou Me with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was. Seest thou that He asketh not for a beginning of glory, but a renewal of the pristine glory, saying this too as Man? But that because of the Human Nature is it said that all things are given to the Son, he that is fond of learning will from all quarters heap up proofs with wisdom, and will be able to understand, but specially from that most dread vision of Daniel, wherein he savs that he saw the Ancient of Days set on His Throne, and declares that thousand thousands ministered unto Him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him. And hereto he added, And behold one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him, and there was given Him dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages should serve Him. Thou seest how here is the whole Mystery of the Incarnation accurately delineated |198 to us; thou seest how the Son is said to receive the kingdom of the Father; shewn to the Prophet as no bare Word 8, but as the Son of Man (for He humbled Himself, as it is written, being found for our sakes in fashion as a Man), that He first brought back to His Kingdom, might be shewn forth a Beginning and Way to us of Glory into the Kingdom. And as He being by Nature Life did for our sakes descend unto death after the Flesh for all, that He might free us both from death and corruption, by His likeness to us having immingled us as it were with Himself and rendered us partakers of eternal life: so doth He confashion Himself to our low repute, being Lord of Glory as God, that He might restore the nature of man to the royal honour also. For in all things He hath the preeminence, as Paul saith, being both the Way and the Door and the Firstfruits of the good things of human nature, from death to life, from corruption to incorruption, from weakness to might, from bondage to sonship, from dishonour and ignominy to honour and kingly glory. Therefore when the Son appears to receive as Man what He had as God, let us no wise be offended but let us consider rather the mode of the oeconomy on our account and for us. For so we shall preserve our mind unwounded and unhurt.
36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.
Not simply, nor without examination doth the most wise Baptist testify that to them that believe in Christ is life set forth, as their Reward, but he brings forth to us the proof of it from the very quality so to speak of things. For the Only Begotten is by Nature Life: for in Him we live and move and are. But He is introduced into us of a surety through faith, and dwelleth in us through the Holy Ghost: and the blessed John the Evangelist will testify saying in his epistles Hereby know we that He dwelleth in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit. Christ will therefore quicken them that believe in Him, as being Himself Life by Nature and |199 dwelling in them. But that the Son indwelleth in us by faith, Paul will furnish proof, saying, For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father, of Whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. Since then through faith Life by Nature entereth into us, how is he not true that saith, He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting Life? that is to say, the Son Himself, nought else than Him being conceived of as Life.
and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life.
Doth then (will haply some one say) the Baptist preach to us another opinion, and corrupt the doctrine of the resurrection, saying that he that believeth shall be quickened, wholly asserting that he that doth not shall not see life? We shall not all, it seems, rise; his word introducing to us this distinction. Whither then will that pass away, that is said absolutely and as it were to all, The dead shall be raised? What is Paul too about, saying, For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad? I suppose then that he that is eager after learning ought to be praised, nevertheless most accurate scrutiny must be made in Holy Scripture. For see clearly, I pray you, the distinction between the things said. For of the believer he says that he shall have everlasting life, of the unbeliever, the word hath a different significance. For he does not say that he shall not have life: for he shall be raised by the common law of the resurrection; but he says that he shall not see life, that is, he shall not so much as arrive at the bare sight of the life of the saints, he shall not touch their blessedness, he shall remain untasting of their life passed in bliss. For that is indeed life. But to exist in punishment is bitterer than all death, holding the soul in the body only for the sensation of sufferings. Some such difference in life Paul also brings forward. Hear what he says to those who are dead to evil for Christ's sake, For |200 ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God; when Christ, your 9 life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory. Seest thou how he calls appearing in glory with Christ the life of the saints? But what when the Psalmist too sings to us, saying, What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good? Keep thy tongue from evil. Shall we not say that herein is signified the life of the saints? but it is, I think, evident to all. For he does not, forsooth, bid some to refrain from evil, that they may obtain the resurrection of the flesh hereafter (for they will rise again even if they do not cease from evil), but he rouses them rather to that life, wherein they may wholly see good days, passing an endless life in bliss and glory.
but the wrath of God abideth on him.
More openly by means of this which follows did the blessed Baptist shew us the aim of what has been said. Let him who loves to search consider carefully the force of the thought. He that believeth not (he saith) on the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. But if it were possible to understand that the unbeliever should be indeed bereft of the life in the body, he would surely have immediately added, "but death abideth on him." But since he calls it the wrath of God, it is plain that he is contrasting the punishment of the ungodly with the enjoyments of the saints, and that he calls that life, which is the true life in glory with Christ, and the torments of the ungodly, the wrath of God. That punishment is ofttimes called wrath by the Divine Scriptures, I will adduce two witnesses, Paul and John: for the one said to the converted among the Gentiles, And were by nature the children of wrath, even as others; and the other to the Scribes and Pharisees, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? |201
Chap. iv.2, 3 When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John (though Jesus Himself baptized not but His disciples), He left Judaea and departed again into Galilee.
Whence our history proceeds to this point, or from what commencement the order of the narrative progressing, introduces the Lord as knowing that the Pharisees had learnt what they enquired, it will not be amiss (it appears) to say. For in that the holy Evangelist saith When therefore the Lord knew, it clearly brings forth a certain declaration of a subject previously under consideration. For He knew all things, without any one telling Him, of Himself, as God, and not at their first coming into existence, but even before they be, as the prophet testified. But He awaiteth the right season for each, and yields rather to the order of things, than to His foreknowledge: for this too was worthy of God-befitting ceconomy.
There being then a question between some of John's disciples and a Jew about purifying, there was much disputing on both sides. For the one taking the part of their own master, were contending that his Baptism was far superior to the legal sprinklings and typical purifications of the others. And indeed probably they were adducing as a proof of this, that many came to him, and very gladly left the more ancient and older customs. These again on the other hand, when the argument was being borne down headlong by the opposite party, and the force of truth rushing down like waters, was overwhelming the feeble mind of its opponents, go against their own opinion, and against their own will say that the baptism bestowed through Christ is far more excellent. And now they begin to have the upper hand, using like arguments for their proof, and rising up against their conquerors with the same arguments. For they were affirming that many more are seen going to Christ, and that all men hasten to Him rather than to John. Whence I suppose the disciples of John kindled with grief go to their master and say, Rabbi, He |202 That was with thee beyond Jordan, to Whom thou barest witness, behold, the Same baptizeth, and all men come to Him. The propositions or arguments of the Jews put forth out of strife, they put forward interrogatively. Hence therefore the Evangelist says that the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made more disciples than John, then that He shunning their lawless jealousy, and keeping His Passion for its own time, retreats from the land of the Jews, and withdraws again into Galilee.
4, 5 And He must needs go through Samaria. Then cometh He to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
O great readiness of mind and deep prudence! He prevents by his answers the things that would have been asked of him. For some one would straightway have said, either speaking to another, or secretly reasoning, Why did our Lord Jesus Christ, in not fit season, give illumination to the Samaritans? For once there came to Him the Syrophenician woman, with tears entreating mercy for her wretched daughter; and what said the Compassionate to her? It is not meet, saith He, to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs. For He did not think it right, I suppose, to pour forth upon the Gentiles before the time the grace assigned to them of Israel. And this Himself made clearer by saying, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. How then (will one say) did He Who was sent to Israel alone begin to instruct the race of the Samaritans, albeit Israel had not yet wholly spurned the grace? To such things does he introduce the reply persuasive with power, to wit, that He must needs go through Samaria. For not for this reason alone did He arrange His sojourn with the Samaritans, that He might preach the word among them, and wholly transfer the whole blessing from Israel: but since He must needs pass through, therefore doth He teach, fulfilling the work of wisdom.
For as fire will never cease from its inherent natural operation of burning; so I deem it wholly impossible, that |203 the Wisdom of all should not work what befits wisdom. And as, while saying that it is not meet to take the children's bread and to cast it unto dogs, yet to the woman who wept and entreated for pity with many words, He cast the grace, not admonished by another of the season for giving it, but Himself with the Father being Appointer of it, as Son and God and Lord: so did He pity the Samaritans too, and unveiling the Ineffable Might of His God-befitting Authority, He made the illumination of a whole country the bye-work of a journey.
It were besides strange, that Israel, who was already mad in folly, and imagining slaughter against the Lord, should be perfectly loved. But since they do not yet thoroughly persecute Him, but as yet only in measure, therefore our Lord Jesus the Christ also doth not yet wholly strip them of His grace, but doth nevertheless draw off the blessing by little and little to others. But His departing wholly from the country of the Jews, and hasting to go into that of aliens, by reason of the cruelty of His persecutors, was a threat, depicted on the nature of the thing as in a type, that they should endure the total loss of grace, and should dismiss unto others their own good, that is, the Christ, unless they abstained from their violence against Him.
6 Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus, therefore, being wearied with His journey, sat thus on the well.
Having crossed the borders of Judaea, and being now among aliens, the Saviour rests upon Jacob's well: shewing us again as in a type and darkly, that even though the preaching of the Gospel should depart from Jerusalem, and the Divine Word at length hasten forth to the Gentiles, there shall not be lost therewith to Israel the love to their fathers, but Christ shall cleave to them again, and shall again be refreshed and rest, as in His Saints, preserving to them the pristine unfading grace. For He loveth to dwell in the memories of His saints, that He may make Himself an en-sample to us in this also, and may become the Beginning |204 and Door of the honour given to the fathers. But being wearied with His journey, as it is written, He resteth, that in this too He may accuse the impiety of those that drove Him away. For whereas they ought to have gained His friendship by kindly honours, cherishing Him with reverence and fear, as a Benefactor, they maltreat the Lord with toil and labours, that He may be true, saying of them in the book of Psalms, And they rewarded Me evil for good.
Herein then is seen the daring of the Jews. But what will the Arians again, neighbours of these in folly, answer us to this, yea rather to whom it would rightly be said, Sodom was justified by thee? For the one crucify Christ in the Flesh, but the others rage against the Ineffable Nature Itself of the Word. Lo, He was wearied with His journey: Who was He Who suffered this? will ye bring before us the Lord of Hosts lacking in might, and will ye lay upon the Only Begotten of the Father the toil of the journey, that He may be conceived of as even Passible, Who cannot suffer? Or will ye, acting rightly, refuse so to think, and attribute the charge of these to the nature of the Body only, yea rather will ye say that the toil befits the Human Nature, rather than Him Who is, and is conceived of, as bare Word by Himself? As then He Who possesseth in His Own Nature Power over all things, and is Himself the Strength of all, is said to be wearied (for do not I pray do not divide the One Christ into a Duality of Sons, even though He make His own the sufferings of His Human Nature) albeit He abideth Impassible, since He became Man, Who had it not in Him to be weary; so if He at all speak also of things which we think rather befit man, and not God, let us not hunt after words, nor, when we most need skill unto piety, be then caught in exceeding folly, putting the plan of the oeconomy of the Flesh far away from us, ascending hotly to the Very Godhead of the Word, and laying hold with much folly of the things above us. For if He were not altogether called Man, if He were not made in the form of a servant, it were right to be troubled, when one said anything servile of Him, and to demand rather all things according to what befits |205 God. But if in firm faith and unswervingly we are confident, that according to the voice of John, The Word was made Flesh, and tabernacled among us, when thou seest Him speaking as Flesh, that is, as Man, receive discourse befitting man, for confirmation of the preaching. For in no other way could we know certainly, that He being God and Word, became Man, had not the Impassible been recorded to have suffered something, and the High One to have uttered something lowly.
it was about the sixth hour.
He shews that opportunely did Jesus rest upon the well. For the sun pouring down its strongest rays from the mid-vault on those upon the earth, and consuming bodies with its unmitigated strokes, it would not have been without hurt to have gone further, but was more convenient to rest a little, especially when He would easily have thrust away the charge of luxuriousness, if the fitness of the season had agreed thereto.
He does not say that it was the sixth hour precisely, but about the sixth hour, that we too may learn not to be indifferent even about the least things, but rather to try and practise truth in common things.
7, 8, 9 There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give Me to drink. (For His disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat). Then saith the woman of Samaria unto Him,
The Saviour was not ignorant of the woman's coming. For right well did He know being Very God, that she would forthwith be there to draw the cold stream from the fountain. But when she was now come, He began to get His prey within the toils, and straightway holding forth the word of teaching, made His discourse from what was before Him.
The Law appointed for the Jews that they must not be defiled in any way, and therefore ordered them to withdraw from every unclean thing, and not to mix themselves up with strangers, or uncircumcised. But they, carrying forward the force of the commandment to something more, and |206 following most empty observances, ratter than the exactness of the Law, nor venturing so much as to touch the flesh of any alien, used to think that they would incur all uncleanness, if they were found having to do with the Samaritans in anything. To so great an extent did their disagreement at length advance, that they recoiled from tasting water or food brought to them by the hand of aliens. In order then that the woman may exclaim, and that His unwonted conduct may invite her to ask Who He is, and whence, and how He despises the Jewish customs; and so at length the conversation may come to His aim, He makes as though thirsty, saying, Give Me to drink. But she said,
10 How is it that Thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered and said unto her,
Enquiry is the beginning of learning, and to those who are ignorant upon any subject, doubt concerning it is the root of understanding. This commencement the discourse aims at: wherefore the Saviour wisely hints, that He accounts of no value the customs of the Jews.
11 If thou knewest the gift of God, and Who It is That saith to thee, Give Me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water. The woman saith unto Him,
Not knowing the Essence of the Only Begotten, surpassing earth and heaven, yea rather being wholly ignorant of the Incarnate Word, the woman was calling Him a Jew. And profitably is He silent to this, that the foundation of His discourse with her may be kept. Yet does He uplift her to a higher conception of Himself, saying that she knows not Who It is Who asked drink, or how great grace Divine gifts have, insomuch that if she had had knowledge of it, she would not have endured to be behindhand, for she would have prevented the Lord in asking. He rouses her then by these things to a very earnest wish to learn. Observe how now too fashioning His discourse skillfully and free from boast, He says that He is God, even though the woman be slow to understand. For inducing her to marvel |207 at the gift of God, He introduces Himself as the Giver of it. For if (says He,) thou knewest the gift of God and Who It is That saith to thee, thou wouldest have asked of Him. But whom would it befit to give the things of God? would it not Him Who is by Nature God?
But He calls the quickening gift of the Spirit living water, whereby alone human nature, albeit well nigh parched to its very roots, rendered now dry and barren of all virtue by the villainies of the devil, runneth back to its pristine beauty of nature, and drinking in the life-giving grace, is adorned with varied forms of good things, and shooting forth into a virtuous habit puts forth most thriving shoots of love towards God. Some such thing as this God says to us by the Prophet Isaiah also, The beast of the field shall honour Me, the dragons and the owls, because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to My people, My chosen, whom I have formed for Myself to declare Mine excellencies. And another of the Saints says that the soul of the righteous shall be as a fruitful tree, and shall spring up as grass among the waters, and shall appear as the willow by running water.
We might heap up, besides those already quoted, many other testimonies also from the Divine Scripture, whence it would be very easy to shew, that under the name of water, the Divine Spirit is often named. But it is no time to linger here. Wherefore we will swim to other places, pressing on upon the great and wide sea of Divine meditations.
Sir, Thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast Thou that living water?
The woman imagines nothing more than what she is accustomed to; and by no means understands the force of what is said, but supposes that like some of those who are accustomed to work wonders by means of charms and devilish deceit, without a line or other contrivance He will draw up the water to her from the depths of the well. But she calls that living water, according to her own meaning, which has fresh flowed from the breasts of the fountain. |208
12, 13 Art Thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto her,
The woman arrests herself, and that as quickly as possible, being conscious that she had taken up ideas of Him neither holily nor surely true. For it was not possible that she should not be altogether profited to understanding, who is wholly enjoying the Divine words. Since then it was possible that He Who speaks should not be a magician, but rather a Prophet, and one of those surpassing in holiness, and had therefore promised to give her the living water, without the usual means of buckets, or having found water far better to use from another source, she straightway changes her discourse for the soberer, and as it were compares saint with saint, saying, Art Thou greater than our father Jacob who gave us this well? Receive the intelligence of her thought, from her no longer wondering at His promising water with out a rope, but speaking only of its quality to the taste.
The Samaritans then were aliens (for they were colonists of the Babylonians), but they call Jacob their father for two reasons. For as inhabiting a country bordering on, and the neighbour of the Jews' land, they were taking a little impression themselves of their worship, and were accustomed to boast of the Jews' ancestors. Besides, it was really true that the greater number of the inhabitants of Samaria were sprung from the root of Jacob. For Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, having gathered together ten tribes of Israel, and the half-tribe of Ephraim, departed from Jerusalem in the time of the kingdom of Rehoboam the son of Solomon, and took Samaria, and built houses therein and cities.
14, 15 Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. The woman saith unto Him,
The woman of Samaria proposing, as a hard question |209 and difficult to cope with. Art Thou greater than our father Jacob; the Saviour most skilfully avoids all boasting, not saying clearly that He is greater, yet from the nature of the actions does He persuade her to approve Him who excels. Therefore He shews that incomparable is the difference between the spiritual waters, and the sensible and grosser ones, saying, Whosoever shall drink of this water shall thirst again, but he that is filled (saith He) with My water, shall not only be shewn to be superior to thirst henceforth, but he shall have in him a well of water able to nourish him to eternal life. Therefore He that giveth the greater, is greater (saith He) than he that hath the less, and the worsted will not carry off the same glory as the conqueror.
We must know again, that the Saviour here calls the grace of the Holy Ghost water, whereof if any be partaker, he shall have the gift of the Divine teaching evermore flowing up within him, so as no more to be in need of admonition from others, yea rather, readily to suffice to exhort those who thirst after the Divine and heavenly Word, such as were some yet living in this present life and upon earth, the holy Prophets and Apostles, and the heirs of their ministrations, of whom it was written, And ye shall draw water with joy out of the wells of salvation.
16 Give me this water, that I thirst not neither come hither to draw. Jesus saith unto her,
Again does she both speak and imagine only ordinary things, and of the things that were said understands no whit; but she supposes that in being released from petty toils, will consist all the aim of our Saviour, and to thirsting no more does she bound the measure of the grace of God, not so much as in bare idea receiving things above the world.
Go call thy husband, and come hither.
Well and not untruly might one say, that the minds of woman are womanish, and that an effeminate soul is in them, never having the power of understanding readily. But the nature of man somehow is apter for learning, and far more ready for reasoning, having a mind awake to |210 wisdom, and (so to say) warm, and of matured manhood. For this reason (I suppose) did He bid the woman call her husband, secretly convicting her as having a heart most slow to learn, not practised in the words of wisdom; yet He is at the same time contriving something else most beautiful.
17, 18, 19 The woman saith to Him I have no husband. Jesus saith unto her, Thou hast well said I have no husband: for thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly. The woman saith unto Him,
To whom is it not now evident that the Saviour was not ignorant that she was bereft of any rightful husband and that He made the enquiry about her husband who was not, a plea for making known hidden things? For He was, He was thus with difficulty able to help her no longer marvelling at Him as one of us, but as now above man, by reason of His wondrous knowledge of her circumstances. And profitably does He approve her saying she has no husband, although she had had so many; for not the coming together out of pleasure, but the approval of the law and bond of pure love make marriage blameless.
Sir, I perceive that THOU art a Prophet.
With difficulty does she brighten up to apprehension, and that again not yet perfect. For she still calls the Lord of Prophets a Prophet. But she has by degrees shewn herself better than before, in no way ashamed at reproof, seizing to her own profit the force of the sign and so going forth from her effeminate understanding, attaining to some extent to a vigorous mind, and stretching forth the eye of her heart to an unwonted view of things. Wherein we must chiefly admire alike the forbearance and power of our Saviour, who easily remodels our untutored understanding to an admirable condition.
20, 21 Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and YE say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Jesus saith unto her,
Conceiving that the Lord is in truth a Prophet and a |211 Jew, she boasts exceedingly of the customs of her country, and asserts that the Samaritans are far superior in wisdom to the Jews. For the Jews admitting too gross notions of the Divine and Incorporeal Nature, contended that in Jerusalem alone, or its neighbour Sion, ought the God over all to be worshipped, as though the whole Ineffable and Incomprehensible Nature had once for all there taken abode, and was enclosed in temples made with hands. Wherefore they were convicted of being utterly without understanding, by the voice of the Prophets, God saying, Heaven is My Throne and earth is My Footstool, what house will ye build Me, saith the Lord, or what is the place of My rest? The Samaritans again little remote from the folly of the Jews, bordering both in country alike and uninstructedness, supposing that in the mount called Gerizim they ought both to pray and worship, rightly escape not being laughed at. But the plea to them also of their senselessness was, that the blessing was given in Mount Gerizim, as we find written in Deuteronomy. This question the woman proposes to the Saviour, as some great and difficult problem, saying, Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, &c.
Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming, when neither in Jerusalem nor in this mountain, shall ye worship the Father.
He condemns alike the folly of all, saying that the mode of worship of both shall be transformed to the more truthful. For no longer (saith He) shall a place be sought, wherein they shall deem that God properly dwells, but as filling and able to contain all things, shall they worship the Lord every one from his place, as one of the holy Prophets says. He says that His own sojourn in the world with a Body is the time and season for a change of such customs.
Observe how with most gentle leading of discourse, does He guide the mind of the woman to right conceptions respecting the Son, by calling God the Father. For how shall the Father at all be conceived of, if the Son be not? |212
CHAPTER V. That the Son is not in the number of worshippers, in that He is Word and God, but rather is worshipped with the Father.
22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.
He speaks again as a Jew and a man, since the economy of the matter in hand demands now too this mode of speaking (for Christ would not have missed meet opportunity): yet does He attribute something more in respect of understanding to the worship of the Jews. For the Samaritans worship God simply and without search, but the Jews having received through the Law and Prophets the knowledge of Him Who is, as far as they were able. Therefore He says that the Samaritans know not, but that the Jews have good knowledge, of whom He affirms, that salvation shall be revealed, that is Himself. For Christ was of the seed of David according to the flesh, David of the tribe of Judah. Amongst the worshippers again as Man does He class Himself, Who together with God the Father is worshipped both by us and the holy angels. For since He had put on the garb of a servant, He fulfilleth the ministry befitting a servant, having not lost the being God and Lord and to be worshipped. For He abideth the Same, even though He hath become Man, retaining throughout the plan of the dispensation after the Flesh.
And even though thou see an abasement great and supernatural, approach wondering, not accusing, not faultfinding, but rather imitating. For such Paul desireth to see us, saying, Let this mind be in each of you, which was also in Christ Jesus, Who, being in the Form of God, thought |213 it not robbery to be equal with God; but emptied Himself: taking upon Him the form of a servant, made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a Man, He humbled Himself. Seest thou how the Son became to us a Pattern of lowliness, being in Equality and Form of the Father as it is written: yet descended for our sakes to a voluntary obedience and lowliness? How then could the garb of obedience, how could that of lowliness appear, otherwise than through deeds and words beneath His God-befitting Dignity, and having a great inferiority to those wherein He was while yet bare Word with the Father, and not involved in the form of a servant? How shall we say that He has at all descended, if we allow Him nothing unworthy of Him? How was He made in the likeness of men, according to the voice of Paul, if He imitated not what befits man? But a thing most befitting men is worship, regarded in the light of a debt, and offered by us to God. Therefore He worshippeth as Man, when He became Man; He is worshipped ever with the Father, since He was and is and will be, God by Nature and Very.
But our opponent will not endure this, but will withstand us, saying: "Think it not strange when we say that the Son worships: for we do not suppose that the Son ought to worship the Father, in the same way as we or the angels, for example: but the worship of the Son is something special and far better than ours."
What then shall we reply to these things? Thou thinkest, fellow, to mislead us, by putting a most noble bondage about the Only-Begotten, and gilding over the dignity of a servant by certain words of deceit. Cease from glorifying the Son with dishonour, that thou mayest continue to honour the Father. For he that honoureth not the Son, neither doth he honour the Father, as it is written. For what (tell me) will it profit the Only-Begotten in respect of freedom, that His worship of the Father should be made more excellent than ours? For so long as He is found among worshippers, He will be altogether a bondman, and |214 even though He be conceived of as a superior worshipper, yet will He by no means differ from creatures in respect of being originate, but only in the remaining excellencies, as to men is superior Michael or any other of the holy and reasonable powers, to whom superiority to those upon earth seems essentially to belong, either in respect of holiness or any superabundance of glory, it having been so decreed by the Chief Artificer of all things, God: but the being classed with things originate, as having been created, is common to them with the rest. The Word then Who is in the Father and of the Father by Nature will never escape being originate, even though He be said to worship in a more excellent way. Then how will that which is made be yet Son, or how will the bondman and worshipper be by Nature Lord? For I suppose that the royal and lordly dignity is pre-eminent in being worshipped: but the office of servant and slave is defined in his paying worship. We confess then by being subject that we hold ourselves bound to worship the Nature which is superior and above all. Wherefore it was proclaimed to the whole creation by the all-wise Moses, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou serve. So that to whatsoever servitude belongs by nature, and whatever boweth under the yoke of the Godhead, this full surely must needs worship, and submit to the garb of adoration. For in saying Lord, he defines the bond, in saying God, the creature. For together are they conceived of, and contrasted, the bond with Him who is by Nature Lord, and that which is brought into being, with the Inoriginate Godhead.
But seeing the Son is eternally in the Father and is Lord as God, I am at a loss to shew whence He can appear to owe worship. But let them proceed with their babbling: "The Only Begotten (says he) will worship the Father, neither as bond nor created, but as a Son the Father." We must therefore take adoration into the definition of Sonship, and say that it altogether behoves the Son to worship the Father, for that in this consists |215 His being, even as does ours in being reasonable mortal creatures, recipient of mind and knowledge, rather than in committing ourselves to motions external and impulsive, and to the mere swayings of will. For if there have been implanted by Nature into the Only Begotten, the duty wholly and of necessity to worship, and they so hold and say, how will they not be caught in naked blasphemy against the Father Himself? For it is altogether necessary to conceive of Him too as such, since the Son is His Image and Impress, and whatever things are in exact likeness, these full surely will differ in nothing. But if they say that the Son pays worship to the Father in will alone, they are guessers, rather than knowers of the truth. For what would hinder others too from saying, fabricating a hazardous piety, that it was the will of the Father to worship the Son, though not a worshipper by Nature?
"But (says he) fitness itself will remove the Person of the Father, will subject the Son to this, His worship of the Father not unwilled."
What sayest thou, o sir? Dost thou again bring forth to us oracles as from shrines, or Greek tripods, or comest thou like that Shemaiah the Nehelamite, belching forth out of thine own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord? and dost thou not blush, opposing to us fitness, as though invincible in these matters? For dost thou not think it befits Him Who is by. Nature God, to have the Word begotten of Him God, and that He Whom the whole creation worships, should be called and be by Nature the Father of a Son Who is worshipped, rather than a worshipper? But I think I say nothing displeasing to the truly wise. But how shall we define that it also befits that the Father be worshipped by His Own offspring, when such a conception as to Both endures so great damage? For in the first place that which worships not will be neither in equality of dignity, nor in exact Image of nature with that which worships. For it worships as inferior, and that not |216 measurable by quantity, in respect of any natural quality (for He That is God or Lord will not be lesser), but as differing in the definition of mode of being. Then how will He be shewn to be true in saying, He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father? how doth He say that He ought to be honoured in no less degree than the Father, if He be not His Equal in glory by reason of His worshipping? Then besides, the Father will Himself too appear to be in no slight unseemliness. For it is His glory to beget such as Himself is by Nature: on the other hand it is no slight disgrace, to have a son of another kind and alien, and to be in such case as even the very nature of things originate shrinks from. For they that have received power to bear, bear not worse than themselves, by the ordinance and will of the Artificer of all things. For, saith He, let the earth bring forth grass, the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind and after his likeness. The Godhead then will be in worse case than things originate, since they are thus, It not so, but that which was adjudged alike to befit and to have been well arranged for the successions of things which are, this It Alone will be found without.
Who then, most excellent sirs, will endure you saying, that it befits the Son to worship His Father? But when it has been added to those words of yours, that neither is this unwilled by the Only-Begotten, and this gratuitous argument of yours ye fortify merely by fitness; come, let us consider this too from the Divine Scriptures, whence I think one ought zealously to look for proof on every disputed point. The law therefore enjoined the half of a didrachm to be paid by every one of the Jews to Him Who is God over all, not as devising a way of getting wealth, nor contributions of money to no purpose, but imparting us instruction by clearest types: first, that no one is lord of his own head, but that we all have one Lord, enrolled unto servitude by the deposit of tribute; next, depicting the mental and spiritual fruits, as in a grosser representation and act. For (says he) Honour the Lord with thy |217 righteous labours, and render Him the first fruits of thy fruits of righteousness, which came to pass through the Gospel teaching, the worship after the law being at last closed. For no longer do we think we ought to worship with external offerings the Lord of all, pressing to pay the didrachm of corruptible matter: but being true worshippers, we worship God the Father in Spirit and in. truth. This meaning we must suppose to lie hid in the letter of the law.
When then the Lord was in Jerusalem, the gatherers of the didrachm were asking of Peter, saying, Doth not your Master pay the didrachm? But when he was come into the house, as it is written, Jesus prevented him, saying, of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own. children or of strangers? When he said, Of strangers, Jesus said, Then are the children free; yet lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a stater: that take and give unto them for Me and thee. Seest thou that the Son endured not to be under tribute, and as one of those under' the yoke of bondage, to undergo a servile thing? For knowing the free dignity of His Own Nature He affirms that He owes nothing servile to God the Father: for He says, The children are free. How then hath He the worship befitting a slave, and that of His own will? He who shrank at even the bare type of the thing, how could He accept the verity? For shall we not reckon worship as a tribute and spiritual fruit-bearing, and say that it is a kind of service? For why did the law join service to worship, saying, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou serve? For worship is so to say the gate and way to service in deed, being the beginning of servitude to God. Wherefore the Psalmist says to some, O come, let us worship and fall down, and weep before the Lord our Maker. Seest thou how the duty of falling down follows upon, and is joined to, worshipping? than which what will be more befitting a |218 servant, at least in the estimation of those who rightly weigh the qualities of things, I cannot say.
But if our opponents persist, bearing themselves haughtily in yet unbroken impudence, and cease not from their uninstructed reasonings on these subjects, let them going through the whole Holy Scripture, shew us the Son worshipping God the Father, while He was yet bare Word, before the times of the Incarnation and the garb of servitude. For now as Man, He worships unblamed: but then, not yet so. But they will not be able to shew this from the Divine and sacred Scriptures, but heaping up conjectures and surmisings of corrupt imaginations, will with reason hear. Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the glory of the Only Begotten. For that He does not worship in that He is Word and God, but having become as we, He undertook to endure this too as befits man, by reason of the dispensation of the Flesh----; the proof shall not be sought by us from without, but we shall know it from His own Words. For what is it that He is saying to the woman of Samaria? YE worship ye know not what, WE know what we worship. Is it not hence too clear to every body that in using the plural number and numbering Himself with those who worship of necessity and as bond, that it is as made in human nature which is bond that He is saying this? For what (tell me) would hinder His drawing the worship apart into His own Person, if He wished to be conceived of by us as a worshipper? for He should rather have said, I know what I worship, in order that, unclassed with the rest, He might appropriate the force of the utterance to Himself alone. But, now most excellently and with all security He says WE, as already ranked among the bond by reason of His Manhood, as numbered among the worshippers, as a Jew by country.
23, 24, 25 But the hour is coming and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a Spirit and they that worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. The woman saith to Him,
He is intimating the time now present of His Own |219 Presence and says that the type shall be transferred to truth and the shadow of the Law to spiritual worship: He tells that through the Gospel teaching the true worshipper, that is, the spiritual man, shall be conducted to a polity well-pleasing unto the Father, hasting unto ownness with God. For God is conceived of as a Spirit, in reference to the embodied nature. Rightly therefore does He accept the spiritual worshipper, who does not in form and type carry in Jewish wise the form of godliness, but in Gospel manner resplendent in the achievements of virtue and in rightness of the Divine doctrines fulfilleth the really true worship.
We know that Messias is coming, Which is called Christ: when He is come, He will tell us all things.
Upon Christ teaching that the hour and season will come, rather is already present, wherein the true worshippers shall offer to God the Father the worship in spirit; forthwith the woman is winged to thoughts above her wont unto the hope spoken of by the Jews. She confesses that she knows that the Messiah will come in His own time, and to whom He will come, she does not exactly say, receiving (as is like) the common reports of Him without any investigation, as being a laughter-loving and carnal-minded woman; yet is she not wholly ignorant that He will be manifested to Israel as a bringer in of better teaching, finding most certainly this information too in the reports about Him.
26 Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am He.
Not to untutored or wholly ignorant souls doth Christ reveal Himself, bat shines upon and appears the rather to those who are more ready to desire to learn, and travailing with the beginning of the faith in simple words, press forward to the knowledge of what is more perfect. Such an one as this was the woman of Samaria also shewn to us, giving her mind more grossly than she ought to the truly Divine ideas, but not entirely removed from the desire of understanding somewhat. For first, on Christ asking for drink, she does not readily give it: but beholding Him breaking (as far as one can speak |220 humanly) the national customs of the Jews, she begins to seek first the reason of this, all but, by her mentioning it, inviting the Lord to an explanation: How is it (says she) that THOU being a Jew askest drink of me which am a woman of Samaria? But when during the progress of questioning, she at length begun to confess that He was a Prophet, having received His reproof a medicine unto salvation, she added another inquiry saying with zeal for learning: Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and YE say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. But He was teaching this again, that the time shall come, yea, is already present, when the true worshippers, rejecting worship on the mountains of earth, shall offer the higher and spiritual worship to God the Father. She attributing the best of all as the due of the Christ alone, and keeping the more perfect knowledge for those times, says, We know that Messias cometh Which is called Christ; when He is come, He will tell us all things. Seest thou how ready to believe the woman was already getting, and as though ascending a staircase, springs up from little questions to a higher condition? It was right then to lay open to her with now clearer voice what she longed for, telling her that that which was preserved in good hope is at length set before her in sight, I that speak unto thee am He.
Let them therefore who have the care of teaching in the Churches commit to the new-born disciples, the word of teaching to be digested, and so at length let them shew them Jesus, bringing them up from slight instruction to the more perfect knowledge of the faith. But let them who, taking hold of the alien and so proselyte, and bringing him within the inner veil, suffer him to offer the Lamb with hands yet unwashen, and crown with the dignity of the Priesthood him who is not yet instructed, prepare for a mighty account in the day of judgment. It is sufficient for me only to say this.
27 And upon this came His disciples
The presence of the disciples is the conclusion of His |221 conversation with the woman. For the Saviour is at length silent, and having placed in the Samaritans the glowing spark of the faith, commits it to their inward parts to be kindled to a mighty flame. Thus you may understand what was said by Him, I am come to send fire on the earth, and what will I, if it be already kindled?
and marvelled that He talked with the woman:
The disciples again are astonished at the gentleness of the Saviour, and wonder at His meek way. For not after the manner of some who are fierce with unslacked religion, did He think right to shun conversation with the woman, but unfolds His Loving-kindness to all, and hereby shews, that He being wholly One Artificer, doth not to men alone impart the life through faith, but snareth the female race also thereto.
Let him that teacheth in the Church gain this too as a pattern, and not refuse to help women. For one must in every thing follow not one's own will, but the service of preaching.
yet no man said, What seekest Thou? or, Why talkest Thou with her?
It was the work of wise disciples, and knowing how to preserve their Master's honour, not to seem by their superfluous questions to be going off into strange surmises, because He was talking with a woman, but rather in reverence and fear to restrain their tongue within their teeth, and to await their Lord speaking of His own accord, and giving them a voluntary explanation. We must therefore herein marvel at Christ for His gentleness, at the disciples for their wisdom and understanding and knowledge of what is becoming.
28 The woman therefore left her waterpot and went her way into the city,
The woman now shews herself superior to and above the cares of the body, who two or three days ago was the wife of many, and she who ofttimes was easily taken captive by vain pleasures, now overreaches the flesh of its necessary |222 want, disregarding alike thirst and drink, and is re-wrought unto another habit through faith. Forthwith doth she, exercising love the fairest of all virtues, and neighbourly-affection, diligently proclaiming to others also the good which appeared to her, hasten quickly into the city. For probably the Saviour was telling her, and secretly whispering in her mind, Freely ye received, freely give. Learn we hereby, not to imitate that sloth-loving servant, and who therefore hid his talent in the earth, but rather let us be diligent to trade with it. Which thing too that much-talked-of woman well doing, communicates to the rest the good which fell to her, no longer taking the water which she came to draw, from its fountain-depths, nor carrying home her waterpot of the earth, but rather with Divine and heavenly grace and the all-wise teaching of the Saviour filling the garners of her understanding.
We must hence learn, as in a type and outline, that by thoroughly despising little and corporal things, we shall receive of God things manifold more and better. For what is earthly water, compared with Heavenly wisdom?
29 and saith to the men Come see a Man which told me all things that ever I did; is not This the Christ?
O wondrous change! O truly great and God-befitting Might, translucent with unspeakable marvel! Skilful workwoman unto doctrine, and initiater is she, who understood none of the things that were said at first, and therefore rightly heard, Go, call thy husband and come hither. For see how skilfully she conversed with the Samaritans. She does not say at once that she has found the Christ, nor does she introduce Jesus at first into her account. For rightly would she have been rejected, as far surpassing the measure of words befitting her, finding her hearers not ignorant of her habits. She first then prepares the way for this wonder, and having first astonished them with the miracle, makes the way smoother, so to say, to the faith. Come and see, she wisely says; all but crying aloud with more earnest voice, Sight alone |223 will suffice to belief, and will assure those present with its more note-worthy marvels. For He Who knoweth the hidden things, and hath this great and God-befitting dignity, how shall He not speed with prosperous course to the fulfilment of those things which He willeth?
30 They went out of the city, and came unto Him. The obedience of the Samaritans is a conviction of the hardness of heart of the Jews, and their inhumanity is clearly shewn in the gentleness of these. And let the seeker of learning see again the difference of habit in both, that he may justly wonder at Jesus, departing from the Synagogue of the Jews, and giving Himself rather to the aliens. For that Christ should come to the Jews, and for what causes He should be revealed, the law of Moses declared to us, the all-august choir of the Prophets did proclaim, and did point Him out at length all but present at the doors, saying, Behold your God, Behold the Lord; and last of all John, the great among them that are born of women, did manifest Him already appeared, and dwelling among us, saying, Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world; and (yet more wonderfully than all) the Saviour was revealing Himself through many deeds of power and God-befitting authority. What then do these men unbridled unto strange counsels at last meditate yet? They devise murder unjustly, they plot impiously, they envy stubbornly, they drive forth of their land and city, the Life, the Light, the Salvation of all, the Way to the kingdom, the Remission of sins, the Bestower of sonship. Wherefore rightly said the Saviour, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the Prophets and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold your house is left unto you. But the Samaritans shew themselves superior to the folly of the Jews, and by obedience victorious over their innate unlearning, having given ear to one miracle only, they flock quickly to Jesus, not persuaded thereto by the voices of the holy Prophets, or by the proclamations |224 of Moses, nor yet the actual pointings of John, but one only woman and she a sinner telling them of Him. With reason then, let us too admiring the sentence of the Saviour against them, say, Righteous art Thou, o Lord, and upright Thy Judgment.
31, 32 In the mean time His disciples prayed Him, saying Master, eat. But He saith unto them
Most excellently doth the Divine Evangelist manage the compilation of this book, and omits nothing which he believes will at all be of use to the readers. Hear therefore how he introduces Jesus again as the Ensample of a most note-worthy act. For I do not think that any thing has been put in vain in the writings of the saints, but what any man deems small, he sometimes finds pregnant with no contemptible profit. The conversion of the Samaritans being then begun, and they on the point of looking for Him (for He knew as God that they would come): wholly and entirely is He intent upon the salvation of them which are called, and makes no account of bodily food, although wearied with His journey, as it is written: that hereby again He might profit the teachers in the Churches, and persuade them to disregard all fatigue, and use more diligent zeal for those who are being saved, than for the care of their bodies. For Cursed, saith the Prophet, be he that doeth the work of the Lord negligently. In order then that we may learn that the Lord was accustomed to go without food at such times, he introduces the disciples, begging and all but on their knees, that He would take a little of their provisions, as inevitable and necessary food. For they had gone away into the city to buy meat which they had now got and come with.
I have meat to eat that YE know not of.
Skilfully does the Saviour fashion His answer from what was before Him. He all but says darkly, that if they knew that the conversion of the Samaritans was at the doors, they would have persuaded Him rather to cling to that as a delicacy than to nourish the flesh. From this |225 again we may learn how great love for man the Divine Nature hath: for It considereth the return of the lost unto salvation as both meat and treat.
33, 34 Therefore said the disciples one to another, Hath any man brought Him ought to eat? Jesus saith unto them,
The disciples not yet understanding the discourse which was obscure, were reasoning about what had often happened among themselves, and descend to common place ideas, fancying that food had been brought Him by some one, and that it was perhaps more costly or sweeter than what had been got together by them.
My meat is to do the Will of Him That sent Me and to complete His Work.
Having wholly torn away the veil from His speech, He shewed them in full translucence the truth, and forthwith introduces Himself as a type unto future teachers of the world, of steadfast and most exceeding excellent zeal, to wit in respect of the duty of teaching, and on this account fitly keeping thought for the needful care of the body secondary. For in saying that it was to Himself most pleasant meat, to do the Will of Him that sent Him and to finish His Work, He limns the office of the Apostolic ministry and clearly shews, what manner of men they ought to be in habit. For it was necessary (as it seems) that they should be strung to taking thought for teaching only, and it behoved them to be so far removed from the pleasure of the body, as at times not even to desire the service necessary for the mere accomplishing its preservation from death.
And let this be said for the present, as tending to the type and pattern of Apostolic polity. But if we must in addition to what has been said, apply ourselves to speak more doctrinally, He says that He was sent, clearly by God the Father, either in respect of the Incarnation, wherein He beamed on the world with Flesh, by the good Pleasure and Approbation of the Father; or as the Word proceeding 10 |226 in some way from the begetting Mind, and sent and fulfilling His decree, not as though taken as a minister of others' wills, but Himself being alike both the Living Word and the most evident Will of the Father, readily saving those that were lost. Therefore in saying that it is the work of Him That hath sent Him, Himself is shewn as its Fulfiller: for all things are by the Father through the Son in the Spirit. For that the Son is the Word and Counsel and Will and Power of the Father is, I suppose, evident to all: but it is no trouble to prove it from the Divine Scripture also. Therefore let any one see that Ho is the Word in this, In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God: let him see Counsel, in that the Psalmist says, as to God the Father, In Thy Counsel Thou guidedst me and with glory didst Thou receive me: let him see Will again in his saying, Lord in Thy Will give strength to my beauty. For He strengthened the beauty of His saints, that is, their vigour unto every virtue, He, the Living and Hypostatic Will of the Father, that is the SON. That He is Power also, thou shalt again understand hence, Command, O God (he says) Thy strength: strengthen, O God, that which Thou wroughtest for us. Thou seest clearly herein, that by the good Pleasure of God the Father, His Power, that is, the Son, was Incarnate, that He might strengthen this body, which He perfected for us. For if He had not tabernacled among us, neither would the nature of the flesh at all have put off the infirmity of corruption. The Son then being Himself the good Will of the Father, perfects His Work, being shewn forth salvation to them that believe on Him.
But some one will say to this: "If the Son is Himself the Will of the Father, what will was He sent to fulfil? for the fulfilled must needs be other than the fulfiller." What therefore do we say to this? The giving of names |227 indeed demands difference in the things signified, but often there is no difference in respect of God, and word regarding the supreme Nature rejects accuracy herein. For Its Properties are spoken of, not altogether as they are in truth, but as tongue can express, and ear of man hear. For he that seeth darkly, darkly also he speaketh. For what wilt thou do when He Who is by Nature Simple introduceth Himself to us as compound, in that He saith of them of Israel, And their children they made pass through the fire, which I commanded not, neither came it into My heart? for must not the heart needs be other than he in whom it is? and how then shall God be yet conceived of as Simple? The things therefore about God, are spoken of after the manner of men: they are so conceived of, as befits God, and the measure of our tongue will not wrong the Nature That is above all. And therefore even though the Son be found speaking of the Will of the Father, as of something other than He, you will make no difference, attributing fitly to the weakness of our words their not being able to say any thing greater, nor to signify their meaning in any other way.
And let these things bo said in proof of the Son being conceived of as also the Will of the Father; but in the passage before us, no reason will compel us to conceive that the Will of the Father means the Son, but rather we may well receive it as His good Will to the lost.
35 Say not YE, There are yet four months and the harvest cometh?
He again taketh occasions of His Discourse from the time and event, and from the grosser things of sense He fashioneth His declaration of spiritual ideas. For it was yet winter at that time, and the tender sprouting and fresh stalk of the seed was scarce bristling forth from the soil: but after the expiration of four months, it was awaiting its fall into the hand of the reaper. Do not therefore YE men say (saith He) that there are yet four months, and the harvest cometh? |228
Behold I say unto you, Lift up your eyes and look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest.
That is, raising up the eye of your understanding a little from the affairs of the earth, consider ye the spiritual sowing, that it hath progressed already and whitened unto the floor, and at length calls for the reaper's sickle unto itself. But from the similarity to things in actual life, you will see what is meant. For you will conceive that the spiritual sowing and multitude of spiritual ears, are they who, tilled beforehand by the voice of the Prophets, are brought to the faith that should be shewn through Christ. But it is white, as being already ripe and ready to the faith, and confirmed unto piety. But the sickle of the reaper is the glittering and most sharp word of the Apostle, cutting away the hearers from the worship according to the law, transferring them to the floor, that is, to the Church of God: there they bruised and pressed by good toils shall be set forth pure wheat worthy of the garner of Him Who gathereth it.
36, 37 And he that reapeth receiveth wages, and gathereth fruit unto life eternal, that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together. For herein is the saying true, One soweth and another reapeth.
It is the time (saith He) of the Word calling to the Faith, and shewing to the hearers the arrival at its consummation of the legal and Prophetic preachings. For the law by typical services, as in shadows did foreshew Him That should come, that is, Christ: the Prophets after it, interpreting the words of the Spirit, Yet a little while, were fore-signifying that He was even now at hand and coming. But since He hath stepped within the doors, the word of the Apostles will not remove to far distant hope that which was expected, but will reveal it already present: and will reap from legal worship those who are yet in bondage to the law and who rest in the letter only, and will transfer them as sheaves into the Evangelic habit and polity; and will likewise cut off from polytheistic straying |229 the worshipper of idols, and will transfer him to the knowledge of Him That is in truth God, and, to speak all in brief and succinctly; will transform them who mind things on the earth unto the life of the Angels through faith to Christ-ward.
This (saith He) the word of the reapers will effect, yet shall it not be without an hire: for it shall surely gather for them fruit which nourisheth unto life eternal: nor shall they who receive rejoice in themselves alone but as having entered into the labours of the Prophets, and having reaped the seed fore-tilled by them, shall fill up one company with them. But I suppose that the most wise Paul, having throughly learnt the types of things to come, hence says of the holy fathers and Prophets that, These all, perfected through faith, received not the promise, God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. For the Saviour thought good, that the reaper should rejoice together with him who before had sown.
38 I sent you to reap that whereon YE have not laboured: other men have laboured, and YE are entered into their labours.
He at length unveils to them the whole mystery, and having removed the dark cloak of words, renders most clear the understanding of His meaning. For the Saviour being a Lover of the Prophets, and a Lover of the Apostles, makes neither the labour of those to be apart from the hand of the Apostles, nor does He allot entirely to the holy Apostles the glorying in respect of those who should be saved through faith in Him: but having mingled as it were the toil of each with their mutual co-work, He says (and with great reason) that one shall be the honour to both. He affirms that the Apostles had entered into the labours of the holy Prophets, not suffering them to spring upon the good fame of those who proceded them, but persuading them rather to honour them, |230 as having gone before them in labour and time. That this will be to us too a most beautiful lesson, who will refuse to admit?
39 And from that city many of the Samaritans believed on Him for the saying of the woman which testified, He told me all that ever I did.
Israel is again hereby too condemned, and by the obedience 11 of the Samaritans, is convicted of being alike reckless of knowing and harsh. For the Evangelist marvels much at the many who believed on Christ, saying, For the saying of the woman; although they who were instructed through the law to the knowledge hereof, neither received the words of Moses, nor acknowledged that they ought to believe the heraldings of the Prophets. He in these words prepares the way before, or rather wisely makes a defence before, for that Israel should with reason be thrust away from the grace and hope that is to Christ-ward and that instead should come in the more obedient fulness of the Gentiles, or aliens.
40, 41 So when the Samaritans were come unto Him, they besought Him that He would tarry with them: and He abode there two days. And many more believed because of His Own Word,
He explains in simplicity of words what took place: but prepares again another proof, that Israel ought justly to be cast off from their hope, and the aliens to be transplanted into it. For the Jews with their bitter and intolerable surmises, spitefully entreat Jesus manifoldly working miracles and radiant in God-befitting glory, and blush not to rage to so great an extent as to make Him an exile, and zealously to drive out of their city Him Who is the giver to them of all joy: while the Samaritans persuaded by the words of one woman, consider that they ought to come to Him with all speed. And when they were come, |231 they began zealously to entreat Him to come into their city, and to pour forth to them of the word of salvation; and readily does Christ assent to both, knowing that the grace will not be unfruitful. For many believed because of His own Word.
Let him that is God-loving and pious hence know, that from them that grieve Him Christ departeth, but He dwelleth in them that gladden Him through obedience and good faith.
42 And said unto the woman, No longer do we believe, because of thy saying: for ourselves have heard Him and know that This is indeed the Saviour of the world.
From the greater things does the faith of the Samaritans spring, and not any longer from what they learn from others, but from those whereof they are the wondering ear-witnesses. For they say that they know that He is indeed the Saviour of the world, making the confession of their hope in Him the pledge of their faith.
43, 44 Now after the two days He departed thence unto Galilee. For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet hath no honour in his own country.
He departs from Samaria, having now sown the Word of salvation, and like a husbandman hidden the faith in them that dwell there, not that it might be bound captive in the silence of them that received it, quiet and deep buried, but rather that it might grow in the souls of all, creeping on and advancing ever to the greater, and running to more evident might. But since He passes by Nazareth lying in the midst, wherein it is said that He was also brought up, so that He seemed to be from thence and its citizen, and goes down rather to Galilee; of necessity he offers an explanation of His passing it by, and says that Jesus Himself had testified that a prophet hath no honour in his own country. For it is our nature to think nothing of what we are accustomed to, even though it be great and of price. And the Saviour thought not good to seek honour from them, |232 like a vain-glorious man and a braggart, but knew well that to those who have no thought that one ought to honour one's teacher, neither would the word of the faith be any longer sweet and acceptable. With reason then does He pass by, not thinking it right to expend useless labours upon them who are nothing profited, and thus to lay down grace before them that despise it. For it was not reasonable that they who sinned so deeply should do so unpunished; since it is altogether confessed and undoubted, that they will undergo the severest punishments, who knowingly despise Him and spurn a gift so worthy of marvel.
45 When therefore He was come into Galilee, the Galileans received Him, having seen all the things that He did at Jerusalem at the feast; for they also went unto the feast.
Not without consideration do the Galileans receive Jesus, but in just astonishment at the wondrous works which they themselves had already seen Him do, both by their piety towards Him condemning the folly of the Jews, and found far superior in good feeling to those who were instructed in the law.
46 He came therefore again into Cana of Galilee where He made the water wine.
Christ loveth to dwell among those that are well disposed, and to those who more readily advance unto the perception and knowledge of benefits done them, He poureth forth supplies of greater goods. He cometh then to work miracles in Cana, thinking it fit to confer an additional benefit on those therein, in that He had through His signs already wrought there, the idea previously implanted in their minds, that He could do all things.
47, 48 And there was a certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judaea into Galilee, he besought Him that He would come down and heal his son: for he was at the point of death. Jesus therefore said unto him,
The nobleman cometh as to One able to heal, but he |233 understandeth not yet that He is by Nature God: he calleth Him Lord, but giveth not at all the true dignity of Lordship. For he would have straightway fallen down and besought Him, not that he should by all means come to his house, and go down with him to the sick lad; but should rather with authority and God-befitting command drive away the sickness that fell on him. For what need for Him to be present to the sick, whom He could easily heal, even absent? how was it not utterly without understanding to suppose that He is superior to death, and in no wise to hold Him God Who is filled with God-befitting Power?
49 Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe. The nobleman saith unto Him,
A mind yet hard dwelleth in them who arc deceived, but mightier will be the more wonder-working power of Him That calleth them unto faith. Wherefore the Saviour says that they need wonders, that they may easily be re-instructed unto what is profitable, and acknowledge Him Who is by Nature God.
Lord, come down ere my child die.
Feeble indeed unto understanding is the nobleman, for ho is a child in his petition for grace, and almost dotes without perceiving it. For by believing that Christ had power not only when present, but that He would surely avail even absent, he would have had a most worthy conception of Him. But now both thinking and acting most foolishly, he asks power befitting God, and does not think He accomplishes all things as God, nor yet that He will be superior to death, although beseeching Him to gain the advantage over him that had all but overcome; for the child was at the point of death.
50 Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way; thy son liveth.
Thus believing he ought to have come, but Christ doth |234 not reject our lack of apprehension; but benefiteth even the stumbling, as God. That then which the man should have been admired for doing, this does he teach him even when he doth it not, revealed alike as the Teacher of things most lovely, and the Giver of good things in prayer. For in Go thy way is Faith: in thy son liveth is the fulfilment of his longings, granted with plenteous and God-befitting Authority.
51 The man believed the word that Jesus said to him, and went his way. And as he was now going down, his servants met him and told him, saying, Thy son liveth.
The one command of the Saviour healeth two souls. For in the nobleman it worketh unwonted faith, the child it rescueth from bodily death. Which is healed first it is hard to say. Both, I suppose, simultaneously, the disease taking its departure at the command of the Saviour. And his servants meeting him tell him of the healing of the child, shewing at the same time the swiftness of the Divine commands (Christ ordering this very wisely), and by the fulfilment of his hope, speedily confirming their master weak in faith.
52, 53, 54 He therefore enquired of them the hour when he began to amend; and they said unto him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him. So the father knew that it was at the same hour in the which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth: and himself believed and his whole house. This is again the second miracle that Jesus did, when He was come out of Judaea into Galilee.
He enquires of them the hour of the turn for the better of the sick child, to prove whether it coincides with the time of the grace. When he had learnt that thus it was, and no otherwise, he is saved with his whole house, attributing the power of the miracle to the Saviour Christ, and bringing to Him a firmer faith as a fruit of thank-offering for these things. |235
Chap. v.2, 3, 4 After this was the feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is at Jerusalem the pool which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel of the Lord used to go down at a certain season into the pool, and trouble the water: whosoever therefore first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.
Not for nothing does the blessed Evangelist straightway connect with what has been said the Saviour's return thence to Jerusalem: but his aim probably was to shew how superior in obedience were the aliens to the Jews, how great a difference of habit and manners is seen between them. For thus and in no other way could we learn, that by the just judgment of God Who ruleth all and knoweth not to accept the person of man, Israel with reason falleth from the hope, and the fulness of the Gentiles is brought in in his place. It is not hard by looking at the contrast of the chapters 12 to test what has been said. He shewed therefore that He had by one miracle saved the city of the Samaritans, by one likewise the nobleman, and by it had profited full surely (I ween) and exceeding much those who were therein. Having by these things testified the extreme readiness of the aliens to obedience, he brings the Miracle-worker back to Jerusalem, and shews Him accomplishing a God-befitting act. For He wondrously frees the paralytic from a most inveterate disease even as He had the nobleman's son just dying. But the one believed with his whole house, and confessed that Jesus is God, while the others. who ought to have been astonished, straightway desire to kill, and persecute, as though blasphemously transgressing, their Benefactor, themselves against themselves pronouncing more shameful condemnation in that they are found to fall short of the understanding of the |236 aliens, and their piety towards Christ. And this it was which was spoken of them in the Psalms, as to our Lord Jesus, Thou shalt make them the back. For they having been set in the first rank because of the election of the fathers, will come last and after the calling of the Gentiles. For when the fulness of the Gentiles is come in, then shall all Israel be saved.
This line of thought the well-arranged order of the compilation of chapters brings forth to us. But we will make accurate inquiry part by part of the meaning of single verses.
5, 6 And a certain man was there which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time,
The Jews having celebrated their feast of unleavened bread, in which it is their custom to kill the sheep, to wit, at the time of the Passover, Christ departeth from Jerusalem, and mingleth with the Samaritans and aliens, and teacheth among them, being grieved at the stubbornness of the Jews. And having barely returned at the holy Pentecost (for this was the next solemnity in Jerusalem and at no great interval), He heals at the waters of the pool the paralytic, who had passed long time in sickness (for it was even his thirty-eighth year): but who had not yet attained unto the perfect number of the Law, I speak of four times ten or forty.
Here then will end the course of the history; but we must transform again the typical letter unto its spiritual interpretation. That Jesus grieved departs from Jerusalem after the killing of the sheep, goes to the Samaritans and Galileans, and preaches among them the word of salvation, what else will this mean, save His actual withdrawal from the Jews, after His sacrifice and Death at Jerusalem upon the Precious Cross, when He at length began to freely give Himself to them of the Gentiles and aliens, bidding it to be shewn to His Disciples after His Resurrection, that He goeth before them all into Galilee? But His return again at the fulfilment of the weeks of |237 holy Pentecost to Jerusalem, signifies as it were in types and darkly, that there will be of His Loving Kindness a return of our Saviour to the Jews in the last ages of the present world, wherein they who have been saved through faith in Him, shall celebrate the all-holy feasts of the saving Passion. But that the paralytic is healed before the full time of the law, signifies again by a corresponding type, that Israel having blasphemously raged against Christ, will be infirm and paralytic and will spend a long time in doing nothing; yet will not depart to complete punishment, but will have some visitation from the Saviour, and will himself too be healed at the pool by obedience and faith. But that the number forty is perfect according to the Divine Law, will be by no means hard to learn by them who have once read the Divine Scriptures. 7 Jesus saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole? The impotent man answered Him,
An evident proof of the extreme goodness of Christ, that He doth not wait for entreaties from the sick, but forecometh their request by His Loving Kindness. For He runneth, as you see, to him as he lieth, and compassionateth him that was sick without comfort. But the enquiry whether he would like to be relieved from his infirmity was not that of one asking out of ignorance a thing manifest and evident to all, but of one stirring up to more earnest desire, and inciting to most diligent entreaty. The question whether he willed to obtain what he longed for is big with a kind of force and expression, that He has the power to give, and is even now ready thereto, and only waits for the request of him who receiveth the grace.
8 Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me. Jesus saith unto him, Rise.
About the day of the holy Pentecost, Angels coming down from heaven used to trouble the water of the pool, then they would make the plash therefrom the herald of their presence. And the water would be sanctified by |238 the holy spirits, and whoever was beforehand of the multitude of sick people in getting down, he would come up again disburdened of the suffering that troubled him,, yet to one alone, him who first seized it, was the might of healing meted out. But this too was a sign of the benefit of the law by the hands of Angels, which extended to the one race of the Jews alone, and healed none other save they. For from Dan so called even unto Beer-sheba, the commandments given by Moses were spoken, ministered by Angels in Mount Sinai in the days afterwards marked out as the holy Pentecost. For this reason, the water too of the pool used not to be troubled at any other time, signifying therethrough the descent of the holy Angels thereon. The paralytic then not having any one to thrust him into the water, with the disease that holds him, was bewailing the want of healers, saying, I have no man, to wit to let him down into the water. For he fully expected that Jesus would tell and advise him this.
9 Take up thy bed and walk. And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed and walked: and on the same day was the sabbath.
God-befitting the injunction, and possessing clearest evidence of power and authority above man. For He prays not for the loosing of his sickness for the patient, lest He too should seem to be as one of the holy Prophets, but as the Lord of Powers He commandeth with authority that it be so, telling him to go home rejoicing, to take his bed on his shoulders, to be a memento to the beholders of the might of Him That had healed him. Forthwith the sick man does as is bidden him, and by obedience and faith he gaineth to himself the thrice longed for grace. But since in the foregoing we introduced him as the image and type of the multitude of the Jews, who should be healed in the last times: come let us think of something again harmonizing with the thoughts hereto pertaining, analagous to those before examined. |239
On the Sabbath day doth Christ heal the man, when healed He immediately enjoins him to break through the custom of the law, inducing him to walk on the Sabbath and this laden with his bed, although God clearly cries aloud by one of the holy Prophets, Neither carry forth a burthen out of your house on the Sabbath day. And no one I suppose who is sober-minded would say that the man was rendered a despiser or unruly to the Divine commands, but that as in a type Christ was making known to the Jews, that they should be healed by obedience and faith in the last times of the world (for this I think the Sabbath signifies, being the last day of the week): but that having once received the healing through faith, and having been re-modelled unto newness of life, it was necessary that the oldness of the letter of the law should become of no effect, and that the typical worship as it were in shadows and the vain observance of Jewish custom should be rejected. Hence (I think) the blessed Paul too taking occasion of speech writes to them who after the faith were returning again to the Law, I say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing; and again, Ye are severed from Christ, whosoever of you are justified by the law, ye are fallen from grace.
10 The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, It is the sabbath day, it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed.
Most seasonably (I think) doth He cry over them, Hear now this O foolish people and heartless, which have eyes and see not. For what can be more uninstructed than such people, or what greater in senselessness? For they do not even admit into their mind that they ought to wonder at the Power of the Healer: but being bitter reprovers, and skilled in this alone, they lay the charge of breaking the law about him who had just and with difficulty recovered from a long disease, and foolishly bid him lie down again, as though the honour due to the Sabbath were paid by having to be ill. |240
11, 12 He answered them, He That made me whole, He said unto me, Take up thy bed and walk. They asked him therefore
The sentence is replete with, wisest meaning and repulsive of the stubbornness of the Jews. For in that they say that it is not lawful on the sabbath day to take up his bed and go home, devising an accusation of breaking the law against him that was healed, needs does he bring against them a more resolved defence, saying that he had been ordered to walk by Him, Who was manifested to him as the Giver of health, all but saying something of this sort, Most worthy of honour (sirs) do I say that Ho is, even though He bid me violate the honour of the sabbath, Who hath so great power and grace, as to drive away my disease. For if excellence in these things belongeth not to every chance man, but will befit rather God-befitting Power and Might, how (saith he) shall the worker of these things do wrong? or how shall not He Who is possessed of God-befitting Power surely counsel what is well-pleasing to God? The speech then has within itself some pungent meaning.
13, 14 What Man is He Which said unto thee, Take up thy bed and walk? But he that was healed wist not Who it was: for Jesus had conveyed Himself away, a multitude being in the place. Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple and said unto him,
Insatiable unto bloodshed is the mind of the Jews. For they search out who it was who had commanded this, with design to involve Him together with the miraculously healed (for he alone, it seems, was like to be vexing them in respect of the Sabbath, who had but now escaped impassable toils and snares, and had been drawn away from the very gates of death) but he could not tell his Physician, although they make diligent enquiries, Christ having well and economically concealed Himself, that He might escape the present heat of their anger. And not as though He could suffer anything of necessity, unless He willed to suffer, doth He practise flight: but making Himself an Example to us in this also. |241
Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come to thee.
Being hid at first economically, He appears again economically, observing the time fit for each. For it was not possible that ought should be done by Him Who knew no sin, which should not really have its fit reason. The reason then of His speaking to him He made a message for his soul's health, saying that it behoved him to transgress no more, lest he be tormented by worse evils than those past. Herein He teaches that not only does God treasure wp man's transgressions unto the judgment to come, but manifoldly scourgeth those yet living in their bodies, even before the great and notable day of Him. That shall judge all. But that we are oftentimes smitten when we stumble and grieve God, the most wise Paul will testify, crying, For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep: for if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged: but when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, thai we be not condemned with the world.
15 The man departed, and told the Jews that it was Jesus Which had made him whole.
He makes Jesus known to the Jews, not that they by daring to do anything against Him should be found to be blasphemers, but in order that, if they too should be willing to be healed by Him, they might know the wondrous Physician. For observe how this was his aim. For he does not come like one of the faultfinders, and say that it was Jesus Who had bidden him walk on the Sabbath day, but Which had made him whole. But this was the part of one doing nought save only making known his Physician.
16, 17 And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus and sought to slay Him, because He was doing these things on the sabbath day. But Jesus answered them,
The narrative does not herein contain the simple relation of the madness of the Jews: for the Evangelist does not shew only that they persecute Him, but why they blush |242 not to do this, saying most emphatically, Because He was doing these things on the sabbath day. For they persecute Him foolishly and blasphemously, as though the law forbad to do good on the sabbath day, as though it were not lawful to pity and compassionate the sick, as though it behoved to put off the law of love, the praise of brotherly kindness, the grace of gentleness: and what of good things may one not shew that the Jews did in manifold ways spurn, not knowing the aim of the Lawgiver respecting the Sabbath, and making the observance of it most empty? For as Christ Himself somewhere said, each one of them taketh his ox, or his sheep, and leadeth them away to watering, and that a man on the sabbath day receiveth circumcision, that the law of Moses be not broken: and then they are angry, because He made a man every whit whole on the sabbath day, by reason of the exceeding stubbornness alike and undisciplinedness of their habits, not even to brutes preferring him that is made in the Divine Image, but thinking that one ought to pity a sheep on the sabbath day, and unblamed to free it from famine and thirst, yet that they are open to the charge of transgressing the law to the last degree, who are gentle and good to their neighbour on the sabbath?
But that we may see that they were beyond measure senseless, and therefore with justice deserve to hear, Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures; come let us taking somewhat from the Divine Scriptures too shew clearly, that Jesus was long ago foredepicted as in a type taking no account of the sabbath. The all-wise Moses then, having at a great age (as it is written) departed from things of men and been removed to the mansions above, by the judgment and decree of God That ruleth all, Joshua the son of Nun obtained and inherited the command over Israel. When he therefore, having set in array heavy armed soldiers ten thousand strong round about Jericho, was devising to take at length and overthrow it, he arranged with the Levites to take the ark round about for six whole days, but on the seventh day, that is, the Sabbath, |243 he commanded the innumerable multitude of the host to shout along with the trumpets, and thus the wall was thrown down, and they rushing in, took the city, not observing the unseasonable rest of the Sabbath, nor refusing their victory thereon, by reason of the law restraining them, nor yet did they then withstand the generalship of Joshua, but wholly free from reproach did they keep the command of the man. And herein is the type: but when the Truth came, that is Christ, Who destroyed and overcame the corruption set up against man's nature by the devil, and is seen doing this on the Sabbath, as in preface and commencement of action, in the case of the paralytic, they foolishly take it ill, and condemn the obedience of their fathers, not suffering nature to conquer on the sabbath day the despite done it by sickness, to such extent as to be zealous in persecuting Jesus Who was working good on the sabbath day.
My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.
Christ is speaking, as it were, on the sabbath day (for this the word Hitherto must necessarily signify, that the force of the idea may receive its own fitting meaning) but the Jews, who were untutored, and knew not Who the Only-Begotten is by Nature, but attributed to God the Father alone the appointing of the Law through Moses, and asserted that we ought to obey Him Alone; these He attempts to clearly convince, that He works all things together with the Father, and that, having the Nature of Him Who begat Him in Himself, by reason of His not being Other than He, as far as pertains to Sameness of Essence, He will never think ought else than as seemeth good to Him Who begat Him. But as being of the Same Essence He will also will the same things, yea rather being Himself the Living Will and Power of the Father, He worketh all things in all with the Father.
In order then that He might repel the vain murmuring of the Jews and might shame them who were persecuting Him on those grounds whereon they thought good |244 to be angry, as though the honour due to the sabbath were despised. He says, My Father worketh hitherto and I work. For He all but wisheth to signify some such thing as this, If thou believest, O man, that God, having created and compacted all things by His Command and Will ordereth the creation on the sabbath day also, so that the sun riseth, rain-giving fountains are let loose, and fruits spring from the earth, not refusing their increase by reason of the sabbath, the fire works its own work, ministering to the necessities of man unforbidden: confess and know of a surety that the Father worketh God-befitting operations on the sabbath also. Why then (saith He) dost thou uninstructedly accuse Him through Whom He works all things? for God the Father will work in no other way, save through His Power and Wisdom, the Son. Therefore says He, And I work. He shames then with arguments ad absurdum the unbridled mind of His persecutors, shewing that they do not so much oppose Himself, as speak against the Father, to Whom Alone they were zealous to ascribe the honour of the Law, not yet knowing the Son Who is of Him and through Him by Nature. For this reason does He call God specially His own Father, leading them most skilfully to this most excellent and precious lesson.
18 For this therefore did the Jews seek the more to kill Him, because He was not only breaking the sabbath, but saying also that God was His Father, making Himself Equal with God.
The mind of the Jews is wound up unto cruelty, and whereby they ought to have been healed, they are the more sick, that they may justly hear, How say ye, WE are wise? For when they ought to have been softened in disposition, transformed by suitable reasoning unto piety, they even devise slaughter against Him Who proves by His Deeds, that He hath in no whit transgressed the Divine Law by healing a man on the sabbath. They weave in with their wrath on account of the sabbath, the truth as a charge of blasphemy, snaring themselves in the meshes of |245 their own transgressions unto wrath indissoluble. For they seemed to be pious in their distress that He being a Man, should say that God was His Father. For they knew not yet that He Who was for our sakes made in the form of a servant, is God the Word, the Life gushing forth from God the Father, that is, the Only-Begotten, to Whom Alone God is rightly and truly inscribed and is Father, but to us by no means so: for we are adopted, mounting up to excellency above nature through the will of Him That honoured us, and gaining the title of gods and sons because of Christ That dwelleth in us through the Holy Ghost. Looking therefore to the Flesh alone, and not acknowledging God Who dwelleth in the Flesh, they endure not His springing up to measure beyond the nature of Man, through His saying that God was His Father (for in saying, My Father, He would with reason introduce this idea) but they deem that He Whose Father God properly is, must be by Nature Equal with Him, in this alone conceiving rightly: for so it is, and no otherwise. Since then the word introduces with it this meaning, they perverting the upright word of truth are more angry. |246
CHAPTER VI. That the Son is not inferior to the Father either in power or in operation for any work but is Equal in Might and Consubstantial with Him, as of Him and that by Nature.
19 Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Verily verily I say unto you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do: for what things soever He doeth, these doeth also the Son likewise.
What we have spoken of above, this again He interprets in another way, from all quarters snaring the hearers unto finding of the truth. For the word which was not received at first, by reason of the weakness of them that could not understand, He re-forms in another way, and going through the same thoughts introduceth it manifoldly. For this too is the work of the virtue that befits a teacher, namely not to make his word rapid and speeding beyond the knowledge of the pupils, but carefully wrought and diversely fashioned and that by frequent change of expression strips off the difficulties in the things under consideration. Mingling then human with Divine, and forming one discourse of both, He as it were gently sinks the honour befitting the Only-Begotten, and raises the nature of man; as being at once Lord and reckoned among servants, He says, The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do: for what things soever He doeth, these doeth also the Son likewise. For in that He is able to do without distinction the works of God the Father and to work alike with Him That begat Him, He testifieth the identity of His Essence. For things which have the same nature with one another, will work alike: but those whose mode of being is diverse, their mode of working too will |247 be in all respects not the same. Therefore as Very God of Very God the Father, He says that He can do these things equally with Him; but that He may appear not only Equal in Power to the Father, but likeminded in all things, and having in all things the Will One with Him, He saith that He can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do.
Just as though He should say distinctly to those who aro trying to persecute Him for healing a man on the Sabbath day, Ye deem the honour of the Sabbath broken, but I would not have done this, had I not seen My Father do the like; for He worketh for the good order of the world on the Sabbath too, even though through Me. It is then impossible (saith He) that I, the Son of Him by Nature, should not wholly in all things work and will the works of the Father, not as though I received from without by being taught the exemplar of action, or were called by a deliberate motion to will the same with the Father, but by the laws of Uncreated Nature I mount up to Equal Counsel and Action with God the Father. For the being able to do nothing of Himself, is excellently well defined herein. And thus I deem that piously minded we ought to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ, as it is written.
But perchance the opposer of the truth will disbelieve, and will make what is said the food so to say of his own ill counsel saying: "If the Son were Equal to the Father, attributing to Him no Preeminence as of necessity, by reason of the inferiority of His Own Nature, what induced Him so unconcealedly to say, that He could do nothing of Himself but what He seeth the Father do? For clearly (saith he) does He herein confess that He can do nothing at all of Himself, as knowing Him that is the Better and superior to Himself. But do thou again refute our argument."
What then is to be said to these things by us? Bold unto blasphemy is the enemy of Christ and drunken with folly he perceives it not. For one must, most excellent sir, |248 test accurately the force of what has been said, and not dash offhand to reasonings springing from unlearning. For to what kind of equality with the Father dost thou deem it right to bring down the Son, by reason of His saying that He can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do? Is it as not having Equality in Power that He says these things, although from the very passage under consideration one may see that the Son is Equal in Power with the Father, rather than inferior in God-befitting Might? For plainly He does not say, The Son can do nothing of Himself, except He receive Power of the Father (for this would be the part of one really weak) but, but what He seeth the Father do. But that by the sense of seeing, we are not usually called to be powerfnl, but to look at something, I suppose no one will dispute. The Son then in saying that He looketh on the works of His Father doth not shew Himself impotent, but rather a zealous Imitator, or Beholder: and how, shall be more accurately spoken of in what follows. But that through His exact and likest working, I mean in all things, He is shewn to have Equality in Power, Himself will clearly teach below, adding as of His Father, for what things soever He doeth, these (saith He) doeth also the Son likewise. How then is He inferior, Who is Eminent in equal workings with God the Father? for will the offspring of fire work ought different from fire, any change being seen in its work? how could it be so? How then will the Son work in like manner with the Father, if by reason of having inferiority He come short of equal Might with Him?
And these things were taken from the words at present under comment. But let us consider, going through other considerations also, whether the Nature of the Son admits any law of inferiority to that of the Father. Let the consideration of Power also be before us. Do they confess that the Son is God of God by Nature and verily and of the actual Essence of the Father; or do they say indeed that He is God, but blasphemously add, that He is |249 outside of the Essence of the Father? If then they say that He is not of the Essence of the Father, He will neither be God by Nature, nor Very Son. For that which is not of God by nature, neither ought it at all to be conceived of as by nature God, nor yet Son if it be not begotten of the Essence of the Father, but they are bringing in privily to us some bastard and new god. If they do not say this, blushing at the absurdity that is in their own doctrines, but will grant that the Only-Begotten is truly of the Father, and is God by Nature and Verily: how will He be inferior to the Father, or how powerless to ought, and this not accuse the Essence of Him Who begat Him? For if it be possible that He Who is by Nature God should at all be impotent, what is to hinder the Father from being in the same case, if the Divine and Ineffable Nature once has the power of being so, and is already so manifested in the Son, according to their account? Hence then neither will the Divinity be Impassible, nor will It remain in sameness and Bliss wholly Unchangeable. But who (tell me) will endure them that hold such opinions? Who when the Scripture crieth aloud that the Son is the Lord of Hosts, will not shudder to say, that He must needs be strengthened, and is imperfect in that which of right is His alone with the Father and Holy Ghost?
But our opponent will say again, "We say, that the Father surpasses the Son in this. For the One is the First Beginner of works, as having Perfection both in Power and in the knowledge of all things: but the Son becomes first a spectator then a worker by receiving into Himself the imitation of the Father's working, in order that through the similarity of works, He too might be thought to be God. For this He teacheth us, saying that He can do nothing of Himself but what He seeth the Father do."
What art thou saying, thou all-daring? doth the Son receive into Himself the types of the Father's Working, that thereby He may be thought to be God? By learning then will He be God, not by Nature. As in us is (it may |250 be) knowledge and art, so is in Him the Dignity, and He is rather an Artificer of the works of Deity than Very God: yet is He (I suppose) altogether other than the art that is in Him, though it be God-befitting. Him then that has passed forth of the boundaries of the Godhead, and has his glory in the art alone, how do angels in Heaven worship Him, we too worship without blame, albeit the Holy Scripture admonisheth us that we ought not to serve any apart from Him Who is truly God? for it says, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou serve. Yet the holy multitude of Angels in particular erred not from what is befitting, but they worship the Son and serve Him with us, acknowledging Him to be God by Nature, and not by learning, as those babbling say: for they perceive not (it seems) into how great absurdities they will thence fall. For in the first place the Son will admit change and variation as from the less to the greater, albeit Himself saith through the Prophet, Behold, behold I am, and change not. The Psalmist too will surely lie in the spirit, crying out to the Son, But Thou art the Same. For He awaiteth, as those say, the Father's working at something, as a Guide and Teacher, that He may see and imitate. Then how will not such an one appear to mount up from ignorance of certain things unto knowledge thereof, and to turn from worse to better, if we reckon that knowledge of any thing-good is better than not knowing it?
Next, what additional absurdity is herein beheld? Let them tell us who introduce God as an Instructer rather than a Father, Doth the Son await the sight of His Father's works in ignorance of them, or having most perfect knowledge of them? If then they say that He awaits though He knows them, they clearly shew that He is doing something very superfluous, and the Father practising a most idle thing: for the One, as though ignorant looks at what He knows perfectly, the Other attempts to teach One Who knows: and to whom is it not evident, that such things incur the charge of the extremest absurdity? But perchance they will not say this; but will go over to the |251 opposite alternative. For they will affirm that He awaiteth of necessity the Father working in order to learn by seeing. How then doth He know all things before they were? or how will He be true saying of Himself, Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off? Shall ought be hidden from Me? But how is it not absurd and unlearned to believe that the Spirit searcheth and knoweth the deep things of God, and to suppose that the Giver of the Spirit is in ignorance of the works of the Father and of His own Spirit, so as to come short in knowledge? For will not the Son at length lose His being Wisdom, if He be wholly ignorant and receive by learning? for He will be a recipient of wisdom, rather than Wisdom Itself by Nature. For wisdom is that which maketh wise, not that which is formed to become wise, just as light too is that which enlighteneth, not that which is formed to receive light. Therefore is He again other than the wisdom which is in Him, and in the first place He is not Simple, but compounded of two: next besides this, He will also lose the being God, I mean God by Nature and Essentially. For the Divine Nature endureth not the being taught by any at all, nor the duplication of composition, seeing It hath as Its Proper Good the being both Simple and All-Perfection. And if the Son be not God by Nature, how doth He both work and do things befitting God Alone? will they say that it suffices for Him unto God-befitting Power, only to see the Father working, and by the mere sight does He attain to being by Nature God, and to being able to do such things as He That sheweth Him doth? There is therefore nothing to hinder, but that many others too should be manifested to us as gods, if the Father be willing to shew them too the mode of His works, and the excellence of the Father's Essence will consist in learning something over and above. For He that was taught (as those say) is found to have mounted up to the dignity of the God-head by Nature, saying, I and My Father are One, He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.
Let them weigh then how great a crowd of blasphemies |252 is heaped up by them, from their choosing so to think, and let them think truly of the Son as it is written. For neither by contemplation of what is performed by the Father, nor yet by having Him as antecedent to Himself in actions, is the Son a Doer or Wonder-worker, and by reason hereof God: but because a certain law of Nature carries Him to the Exact Likeness of Him who begat Him, even though it shine forth and is manifested through the unceasing likeness of Their Works. But setting before us again, if you please, the verse, and testing it with more diligent scrutiny, let us consider accurately, what is the force of the words and let us now see how we must think with piety. Therefore,
Verily verily I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of Himself but what He seeth the Father do: for what things soever He doeth, these doeth also the Son likewise.
Thou seest how through the exact likeness too in the works, He sheweth Himself like in all things to the Father, that thereby He may be shewn to be Heir of His Essence also. For in that He must of necessity and incontrovertibly be conceived of as being God by Nature, Who hath Equal working with God the Father, the Saviour says thus. But let no one be offended, when He says economical, that He can do nothing of Himself but what He seeth the Father do. For in that He was now arrayed in the form of the servant and made Man by being united to flesh, He did not make His discourse free, nor altogether let loose unto God-befitting boldness, but used rather at times by an economy such discourse as befits alike God and Man. For He was really both in the same.
And this is one true word, but I think one ought again to explain what is before us in another way too, and to apply more keenly to the accurate meaning of the passage. The Son (it says) can do nothing of Himself but what He seeth the Father do. The word cannot, or impossibility, is predicated of certain things, or is applied to certain of things that are. For this being predicated we |253 say is not indicative at all of necessity, nor of weakness; but often denotes the stability of natures and the immoveable condition of essences, in respect of what each thing mentioned either is or has been, and of what it can effect by nature and without change. But let our argument, if you please go through demonstration also. When for instance a man says that he cannot carry a piece of wood, immeasurable c perhaps and heavy, he predicates his innate weakness: but when another says, I being by nature a reasonable man, and born of a father by nature reasonable, cannot do anything my own and of myself, which I do not see belonging to the nature of my parent; the words "I cannot" express the stability of essence, and its inability to change into any thing but what it is. For (says he) I cannot of myself be not a reasonable creature, strengthened by increases accruing to me by nature: for I do not see the power of doing this in the nature of my father. In this way then you may hear Christ saying, The Son can do nothing of Himself but what He seeth the Father do. For do not (saith He) blame the works of the Son: for He beholding, as in His Proper Thoughts or Natural Motions, the Essence of Him That begat Him; what things He seeth That Nature befittingly work, these He doeth and none other, not being able to suffer ought contrary to His Nature, by reason of His being of It. Thus, the Nature of the Father hath the Will to compassionate: the Son seeing this inherent therein, is Compassionate as being of Him by Nature, not being able to be Other than what It is. For He hath of the Father, as Essence, so the good things too of the Essence, simply that is and uncompound as God, therefore He wisely subjoins to the former words, For what things soever He doeth, these doeth also the Son likewise: in these words collecting, so to say, the whole meaning of His being able to do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do. But by considering the cause why the Son says these things, you will apply your mind more accurately to the things spoken by us. |254
When then He on the sabbath day was compassionating the paralytic, the Jews began trying to persecute Him: but Christ shames them, shewing that Grod the Father hath mercy on the sabbath day. For He did not think He ought to hinder what things were tending to our salvation. And indeed He said at the beginning, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. But when they of their great ill-counsel shewed that they were vexed at these things, He subjoins again The Son can do nothing of Himself but what He seeth the Father do: for what things soever He doeth, these doeth also the Son likewise. For since (saith He) the Father refuseth not to have mercy on the sabbath day, I, seeing that He is altogether full of compassion, am therefore Myself too wholly compassionate, not able to cut out anew in Myself the Essence of My Father, through not appearing and being such as He is by Nature. For I wholly work what is His, as being of Him.
But the saying that the Father is antecedent in the work9, is not free from the deepest unlearning. For how should He ever of Himself and alone begin, Who has the Son as the operative Power for all things, Eternally with Him, the Exponent of His Will as to ought and of His motion to operation in respect of ought. But if they uninstructedly assert that He awaits the Separate Operation of the Father for each several work, in order to imitate equally, let them shew us that the Father wrought anything separately and of Himself, or what paralytic He having first healed, hath given the deed as a pattern to His Son.
20 For the Father loveth the Son
Those who were heedlessly blaspheming against Him by reason of the sabbath, Christ convicts of being foolishly exasperated to empty anger, making most clear proof of the matter by saying that He is loved by His Father. For if the Father wholly loveth the Son, it is plain that He loves Him not as grieving Him, but rather as gladdening Him in what He does and works. Vainly then do they |255 persecute Him Who refuseth not to shew mercy on the sabbath, and hereby again are they found opposing the decrees of God the Father. For they think they ought to hate Him Whom He loves, but it is altogether (I suppose) manifest, that He would never have loved Him if He had gone contrary to the Will of His Father, and been accustomed to do of Himself and Alone whatsoever Himself willed. But since He justly loves, He approves, it is plain, and agrees to the breaking of the sabbath, and shews that it has nothing in respect of which God the Lord of the Law might reasonably be angry.
and sheweth Him all things that Himself doeth;
Needs does He subjoin this too to the preceding; and wherefore, I will say. Fathers who are among us, sometimes overcome by natural affection, bear with their sons grieving them, and seeing them attempt things against their judgment, they often suffer it. For vehement is the yearning love implanted in them in respect of their children persuading them to overcome all littleness of soul towards them. But not thus (saith He) does God the Father love the Son, for He cannot do anything which He too does not work by Nature, but as having One Essence with Him, He is called by certain Physical laws, so to say, to identical Will and Power. The Son then (saith He) worketh nothing contrary to what is pleasing or fitting to the Father, nor does He vaunt Himself in the love of the Father, as though a lover of novelty in His works and unbridled, but whatsoever things He sees Him doing, as in conception, all these He performeth restrained by Identity of Essence from falling aside in ought that is befitting God. For He hath no part with change in ought, or variableness: for He remaineth the Same unceasingly, as the Psalmist says. The Father again sheweth the Son what He Himself doeth, not as though setting before Him things depicted on a tablet, or teaching Him as though ignorant (for He knoweth all things as God): but depicting Himself wholly in the Nature of His Offspring, |256 and shewing in Him His Own Natural Properties in order that from what Properties Himself is and is manifested, He may know of what kind and Who He is by nature That begat Him. Therefore Christ says, that no man knoweth Who the Son is but the Father, and Who the Father is, but the Son. For the accurate knowledge of each is in Both, not by learning, but by Nature. And God the Father seeth the Son in Himself, the Son again seeth the Father in Himself. Therefore He saith, I am in the Father and, the Father in Me. But "to see" and "to be seen" must here be conceived of after a Divine sort.
And greater works than these will He shew Him, that YE may marvel.
Above the blessed Evangelist says, The Jews were seeking to kill Jesus, because He was not only breaking the sabbath, but saying also that God was His Father, making Himself Equal with God. He therefore put down the accusation respecting the sabbath, by shewing that the Father Himself worked on the sabbath day, and expending many words thereupon: and endeavours to teach them that He is in Equality with the Father, even when made Man for our sakes (for this was what the argument yet lacked), and therefore does He say And greater works than these will He shew Him that YE may marvel. And what again does He will to shew us hereby?
The paralytic (it says) has been healed, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. And marvellous indeed the Power of Him That healed him, God-befitting exceedingly the Authority. This so great Wonderworker, no one (I suppose) in his senses would blame for saying that He is God, and since He is Son, Equal in all things to Him That begat Him. But since ye (He says) imagining things most wicked and foolish, are offended because of this mortal Body, ye must needs learn that My Authority and Power stop not here: for ye shall be, even though ye will it not, spectators of greater wonders, to wit of the resurrection of the dead, and yet more shall ye be |257 astonished, seeing Power and Glory befitting God, in Me Whom now ye charge with blasphemy and are not ashamed to persecute, for merely saying, I am the Son of God.
But how God the Father shews His Works to the Son, we have already said at much length.
21 For as the Father raiseth the dead and quickeneth them, so the Son too quickeneth whom He will.
See again in these words clear proof of His Equality. For He That worketh equally in respect of the reviving of the dead, how can He have inferiority in ought? or how shall He be of another nature and alien to the Father Who is radiant with the Same Properties? For the Power of quickening, which is in the Father alike and the Son, is a Property of the Divine Essence. But the Father doth not again separately and of Himself quicken some, the Son some separately and apart: for the Son having in Himself by Nature the Father, the Father doth all things and worketh all things through the Son. But since the Father hath the Power of quickening in His Own Nature, as also Himself too, He attributes the Power of quickening the dead as though accruing to each separately. |258
CHAPTER VII. That nought of God-befitting Dignities or Excellences is in the Son, by participation, or from without.
22 For neither doth the Father judge any man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son.
He introduceth another God-befitting and marvellous thing, in many ways persuading them that He is God by Nature and Verily. For to what other would it befit to judge the world, save Him Alone Who is God over all. Whom too the Divine Scriptures call to this, saying in one place, Arise, O God, judge the earth, in another again, For God is the Judge, He putteth down one and setteth up another. But He says that judgment has been given Him by the Father, not as being without authority hereto, but economically as Man, teaching that all things are more suitably referred to the Divine Nature, whereto Himself too being not external, in that He is Word and God, hath inherently authority over all; but in that He is made Man, to whom it is said, What hast thou that thou didst not receive, He fittingly acknowledges that He received it.
To these things again one of our opponents will say, "Lo, the Son evidently declares that He hath received judgement of the Father; but He receives (it is plain) aa not having. How then will not He That gives with Authority be greater and of Superior Nature to Him Who must needs receive?"
What then do we say to these things? Our prearranged argument has been, I think, not unskilfully managed, introducing a consideration specially befitting the time, to wit of the Incarnation, and most accordant with the economy of the Flesh, when He was called a servant, when |259 He humbled Himself, made in our likeness. But since it seemeth good to thee haughtily to despise the simpler doctrines, and to make more critical examination of them, come then, opposing thy objections, let us first say, Not altogether, nor of necessity, sir, doth he that is said to give anything, impart it to the recipient as though he had it not, nor yet is the giver always greater than the receiver. For what wilt thou do, when thou seest the holy Psalmist saying in the Spirit, Give glory to God? Shall we consider that God is in need of glory, or that we who are commanded to offer Him this, are on this account greater than the Creator? But not even thou wilt dare to say this, who shunnest not the fear of blasphemies. For full of glory is the Godhead, even though It receive it not from us. For He who receives as honour, what He hath of Own, will never bo thought inferior to those who offer Him glory as a gift. One may often see that he who has received anything is not inferior to the giver, and that the Father is not therefore of Superior Nature to His offspring, because He hath committed to Him all judgment.
Next we must consider this too. To judge or to give judgment, are rather operations and acts conceived as properties of essences than themselves truly essences. For we in giving judgment do something, being in ourselves what we are. But if we grant that judging or giving judgment is of the nature of an essence, how must we not needs grant, even against our wills, that some cannot exist at all, except as judges, and that their being wholly ceases together with the termination of the judgment? But so to think, is most absurd. Judgment then is an operation, and nothing else. What then hath the Father committed to the Son? No accession from His Own Nature, in committing all judgment to Him, but rather an operation in respect of them that are judged. How then will He herein be greater, or of Superior Nature, by having added anything which was not in the Son Who saith, All things that the Father hath are Mine?
How then He must be conceived of as giving, hear now. |260
As God the Father, having the Power to create, createth all things through the Son, as through His own Power and Might: so having the Power too to judge, He will work this too through the Son, as His Own Righteousness. As though it were said that fire too yielded up burning to the operation that is of itself by nature, the fact taking this direction: so piously interpreting, Hath committed, shall we escape the snare of the devil. But if they persist in shamelessly asserting that glory is added to Him of the Father, through His being manifested Judge of the earth, let them teach us, how He is any longer to be considered Lord of glory, Who in the last times was crowned with the honours hereunto pertaining. |261
CHAPTER VIII. That the Son being God and of God by Nature, and the Exact Image of Him Who begat Him, hath equal honour and glory with Him.
23 That all should honour the Son even as they honour the Father: he that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father Which sent Him.
A cause and reason of the things already enumerated, is now evident, viz., that the Son ought to be honoured in Equality and likeness with the Father. For recapitulating a little, and carried back to a recollection of the preceding, you will view accurately the force of the passage. He said then that God was His Father, making Himself Equal with God; then again He began shewing that He was of Equal strength and skill, saying, For what things soever He doeth, these doeth also the Son likewise. That He is both Life and Life-giving by Nature, as is He too Who begat Him, He shewed plainly, adding, For as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them, so the Son too quick-eneth whom He will. But that He will be also Judge of all, the Father in all things co-approving and consenting, He declared, saying, For neither doth the Father judge any man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son. What then is the cause of these things? what induced the Only-Begotten to say all this? That all men (He saith) should honour the Son even as they honour the Father. For if He hath all things whatever the Father hath, as far as appertains to God-befitting Dignity, how is it not fitting that He to Whom nothing is lacking to Identity of essence should be crowned with equal honours with Him? What then do they say to this too who pervert all equity, as saith the Prophet Isaiah? |262
"If (he says) by reason of its being said, That all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father, ye suppose that one ought to magnify the Son with equal honours with the Father, ye know not that ye are stepping far away from the truth. For the word As does not altogether introduce equality of acts, in respect of those things it is affixed to, but often marks out a kind of likeness, just as (he says) the Saviour counsels, saying, Be ye therefore merciful as your Father also which is in Heaven is merciful. Shall we then be as merciful as the Father, on account of the as? And again Christ says to His Father of His disciples: Thou hast loved them, AS Thou hast loved Me. But we will not grant that the disciples are loved just as the Son, on account of the as. Why then dost thou multiply words, and distort what is said into blasphemy, though it introduces no obligation on the hearers to honour the Son in equal measure with the Father?"
What then is our answer to these things? With bitter words do the fighters against God bay at us, but without are dogs, as Paul saith, without are evil workers, without the right faith are the concision. For we are sons of the truth and children of the light. Therefore we will glorify the Only-Begotten together with God the Father, not with any difference, but in equality of honour and glory, as God of God, and Light of Light, and Life of Life. And overmuch enquiry into what is to be received as faith, is not without hazard: nevertheless we must test the force of the As, lest our opponents be overwise in their own conceits. When therefore As is applied to things unlike in their nature, it does not wholly introduce absolute equality, but rather likeness and resemblance, as ye yourselves acknowledged above; but when it is applied to things in all respects like to one another, it shews equality in all things and similitude and whatever else is found to have the same force with these. Just as if I say, Bright is the sun in Heaven, bright too is silver which is of the earth, yet is the nature of the things mentioned diverse. Let |263 any of the rich, of the earth, be supposed to say to his household servants, Let the silver shine as the sun. In this case we very justly say that earthly matter attains not to equal brightness with the sun, but to a certain likeness and resemblance, although the word As be used of it. But let Peter and John (suppose) of the holy disciples be brought forward, who both in respect of nature and of piety towards God, fail not of an accurate likeness one to another, let the As be applied, some one saying of them, as here, Let John be honoured by all, even as Peter, will the As here be powerless, so that equal honour ought not to be paid to both? But I do not suppose that any one will say such a thing: for he will see that there is nothing to prevent it.
According to this analogy of idea, when the As is applied to the Father and the Son, why should we shrink from crowning Both with equal honours? For He having considered before, as God, things to come, and having carefully viewed the envious opposition of thine unlearning hath brought in the As, not bare and bereft of the aid befitting it, but having strengthened it beforehand with convenient proofs, and shewn afore that He is God by Nature (for He made God His Father): having again fore-shewn that He is both God the Creator and of a truth Life, and having before introduced Himself, altogether glorying (so to say) in the Attributes of God the Father,----He afterwards seasonably subjoins That all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father too. Then what objection still appears, what is there to hinder, that He, in Whom are Essentially the Properties and excellencies of the Father, should attain to an equal degree of honour? for we shall be found honouring the very Nature of God the Father, full well beaming forth in the Son. Wherefore He proceeds, He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which sent Him. For the charge of dishonouring the Son, and the force of blasphemy against Him, will mount up unto none other more truly than the Father Himself, Who put forth the Son as it were from the |264 Fount of His Own Nature, even though He be seen throughout the whole Holy Scriptures as everlastingly with Him.
"Yea (saith the opponent) let the charge from dishonouring the Son go to whatsoever you please, or rather let it reach even unto God the Father Himself. For He will be angry, and that with reason, yet not wholly so, as though His Very Nature were insulted in the Son, according to our just now carefully finished argument, but since He is His Image and Impress, formed most excellently after His Divine and Ineffable Essence, He is with reason angry, and will wholly transfer the wrong to Himself. For it were indeed most absurd, that he who insulted the Divine Impresses, should not surely pay the penalty of his sin against the Archetype. Just as he who has in-suited the images of earthly kings, is punished as having indeed transgressed against the ruler himself. And in like manner shall we find it decreed by God in respect of ourselves also: for Whoso (saith He) sheddeth man's blood, for his blood shall he be poured forth: because in the Image of God He made man. Seest thou then hereby very clearly (saith he) that if the Image be wronged, and not altogether the Divine Nature, God the Father deems it right to be angry? In this way then let that which is said by Christ be conceived of and adapted, He that honoureth not the Son, neither doth he honour the Father."
Shall then the Only Begotten be classed with us as external to the Essence of the Father? how then will He yet be God by Nature, if He altogether slip out of the bounds of the Godhead, situate in some nature of his own and of other sort than that wherein the Father is? and we do wrong, it seems, in bringing into one count of Godhead, the order of the Holy Trinity. We ought, we ought at length to worship the Father as God, to impart some glory of Their Own to the Son and the Spirit, severing them as it were into different natures, and defining severally to Each the mode of His Existence. Yet do the Divine Scriptures |265 declare unto us One God, classing with the Father the Son and the Spirit, so that through Their Essential and exact sameness the Holy Trinity is brought unto one count of Godhead. The Only-Begotten is not then alien from the Nature of Him who begat Him, but neither will He be a whit conceived of as Son in truth, if He beamed not forth from the Essence of the Father (for this and no other is the definition and mode of true son ship in all) but if there be no Son, God's being Father will be wholly taken away too. How then will Paul be true in saying of Him, Of Whom every family in Heaven and earth is named? For if He have not begotten of Himself in God-befitting manner the Son, how shall the beginning of Fatherhood be in Him, going through in imitation to those who are in Heaven and earth? But God is in truth Father: the Only-Begotten therefore is by Nature Son, and is of a surety within the bounds of the Divinity. For God will be begotten of God even as man (for example) of man, and the Nature of God the Father, Which transcends all things, will not err by bearing fruit not befitting It.
But since some blasphemously and foolishly say, that it is not the Nature of God the Father That is insulted in the Son, when He does not receive due honour from any, but that He is angry reasonably and rightly, at His Own Image being dishonoured in Him; we must ask them in what sense they would have the Son be and be called the Image of the Father. Yea rather let us forestalling their account, determine beforehand the Nature of the Image, according to legitimate reasoning: for so will the result of our enquiries be clear and more distinct. Therefore one and the first mode of image is that of sameness of nature in properties exactly alike, as Abel of Adam, or Isaac of Abraham: the second again is that consisting in likeness of impress, and accurate impression of form, as the King's delineation in wood, or made in any other way, most excellently and skilfully, as respects him. Another image again is taken in respect of habits and manners, and conversation and inclination to either good or bad, as for instance |266 it may be said that the well-doer is like Paul, him that is not so like Cain (for the being equally good or bad, works likeness with either, and with reason confers it) Another form of image is, that of dignity and honour and glory and excellence, as when one for instance succeeds another in a command, and does all things with the authority which belongs to and becomes him. An image in another sense, is in respect of any either quality or quantity of a thing, and its outline and proportion: for we must speak briefly.
Let then the most critical investigators of the Divine Image teach us, whether they think one ought to attribute to the Only-Begotten the Essential and Natural Likeness, and thus say that the Only-Begotten Word proceeding from the Father is an Image of Him in the same sense as Abel is of Adam, who retained in himself the whole nature of his parent, and bore the count of human nature all-complete? or will they be vexed at this, compelled to confess the Son truly God of God by Nature, and turning aside according to their custom to fight against the truth, advance to the second kind of image, which is conceived to exist in mere form, impress and outline? But I suppose they will shrink from saying this. For no one, even if he be a very prater, will suppose that the Godhead can be estimated in respect of size, or circumscribed by outline, or meted by impress, or that the Unembodied will wholly undergo what belongs to bodies. Do they say then that He is conformed to Him in respect of manners and habits and will, and are they not ashamed to dress Him in this image? for how is He yet to be conceived of as God by Nature, Who has Likeness to Him in will only, but has another Being separately of Himself? For they will surely acknowledge that He subsists. Then what is there in Him more than in the creature? For shall we not believe that the angels themselves hasten to perform the |267 Divine Will, who are by nature other than God? But what, when this is conceived of as belonging to us too? for does not the Only-Begotten teach us foolishly to jump at things above our nature, and to aim at impossibilities, saying, Be ye merciful, as your Father also which is in Heaven is merciful? For this were undoubtedly to say that we ought to gain the likeness of the Father by identity of will. And Paul too was an imitator of Christ, of the (as they babbling say) Image of the Father in will only. But they will shift their ground (I suppose) from these miserable conceptions, and as though thinking something greater and better, will surely say this, "The Only-Begotten is the Image of God the Father, in respect of identity of will, in respect of God-befitting Dignity and Glory and Power, in respect of Operation in creation and working miracles, in respect of reigning and ruling over all, in respect of judging and being worshipped by angels and men and in short by all creation. By all these He shewing us the Father in Himself, says that He is not of His Person, but is the Impress of His Person." Therefore as we said just now, the Son is none of these by nature, but is altogether separate from all of them according at least to your most foolish reasoning, and is neither Very God, nor Son, nor King, nor Lord, nor Creator, nor Mighty, nor in respect of His own "Will is He by Nature Good: but in boasts solely and only of what is God-befitting is He seen. And as is the application of tints to paintings on tablets, beautifying them by the variety to the eye, but having nothing true: so as to the Son too, the beauty of the Excellencies of God the Father decks Him around with bare names only, but is as it were applied from without like certain tints: yea rather the Divine Nature is outlined in Him, and appears in bare type.
Next, how will ye not be shewn to be fighting outright with all the holy Scriptures, that ye may with justice hear, Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, YE are always resisting the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do YE too, for when do they not call the Son Very God, or |268 when do they bear Him forth from the Essence of His Father? which of them has dared to say that He is by Nature neither Creator nor King nor Almighty nor to be worshipped? For the Divine Psalmist says as to the Only-Begotten Himself, Thy Throne, O God, is for ever and ever: Thomas again the most wise disciple in like wise calls Him God alike and Lord. He is called Almighty and Creator by every voice of saint, and as having not according to you the Dignity from without, but as being by Nature what He is said to be, and therefore is He worshipped both by the holy Angels and by us, albeit the Divine Scripture says that we ought to worship none other, save the Lord God Alone.
If then they hold that the God-befitting Dignity in Him is acquired and given, and think that they ought to worship such an one, let them know that they are worshipping the creature rather than the Creator, and making out to themselves a new and fresh God, rather than acknowledging Him Who is really so by Nature. But if while they say that the Son is external to the Essence of God the Father, they yet acknowledge Him to be Son and Very God and King and Lord and Creator, and to have Essentially in Himself the Properties and Excellencies of the Father, let them see whither there is risk that the end of those who thus think will be. For nothing at all will be found of sure faith in the Divine Nature, since the nature of things originate also is now capable of being whatever It is conceived to be. For it has been proved according to the most feeble reasoning of our opponents, that the Only-Begotten not being of the Divine Nature, hath yet truly in Himself Its Excellencies. Who will not shudder at the mere hearing the blasphemy of the doctrines? For all things are now overturned, when the Nature That is above all things descendeth so as to be classed with things originate, and the creation itself contrary to reason springs up to the measure above it, and not designed for it.
Therefore let us swimming away from the absurdity of such doctrines, as from a ship sinking in the sea, hasten to |269 the Truth, as to a secure and unruffled haven, and let us ackowledge the Son to be the Image of God the Father, not plaistered over so to say with perishable honours, nor adorned merely with God-befitting titles, but Essentially Exact according to the likeness of His Father, and unalterably being by Nature That which He That begat Him is conceived to be, to wit Very God of God in truth, Almighty, Creator, Glorified, Good, to be worshipped, and whatever may be added to the things enumerated as befitting God. For then shewing Him to be Like in all things to God the Father, we shall also shew Him true, in saying that if any will not honour the Son, neither doth he honour the Father Which hath sent Him: for as to this our enquiry and the test of the things just now investigated had its origin.
24 Verily verily I say unto you, he that heareth My Word and believeth on Him That sent Me, hath everlasting Life, and cometh not into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life.
Having now proved sufficiently by the foregoing, that the miserable Jews sin not against the Son only, by daring to find fault with the things which He says or does among them in His teaching, but do also ignorantly transgress against the Father Himself, and having as far as pertains to the force of what has been said, wrapped about their over-confidence with fear, and persuaded them to live more religiously in hope of things to come, He at length snares them to obedience. And not unskilfully again did He frame His speech to this end. For since He knew that the Jews were still diseased, and yet offended concerning Him, He again brings back their faith to the Person of God the Father, not as excluding Himself, but as honoured in the Father too by reason of Identity of Essence. For He affirms that they who believe shall not only be partakers of eternal life, but also shall escape the peril of the condemnation, being justified, that is: holding forth fear mixed with hope. For thus could He make His discourse more efficacious and more demonstrative to the hearers. |270
25 Verily verily I say unto you, the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live.
Having said that believers shall pass from death to life, He introduces Himself as Performer of the promise, and Accomplisher of the whole thing, partly hinting to the Jews, that marvellous in truth is the Power shewn in the case of the paralytic, but that the Son will be revealed as a Worker of things yet more glorious, driving away from the bodies of men not only sickness and the infirmities of diseases, but also overthrowing death and the heavily-pressing corruption (for this was what was said a little before, The Father loveth the Son and sheweth Him all things that Himself doeth and greater works than these will He shew Him, that YE may marvel; for the greater wonder is shewn in the raising of the dead), partly also preparing the way for that which would probably in no slight degree affright the hearers. For He plainly declares that He will raise the dead, and will bring the creature to judgment, that through the expectation of one day being brought before Him and giving account of everything, they might be found more backward in their daring to persecute Him, and might receive more zealously the word of teaching and guidance.
To these things then the aim of the chapter looks and tends: but we must now explain the words. The common account then is (as it seems) that the time will come, when the dead shall hear the Voice of Him That raiseth them: and they suppose that it is now too no less present, either as when Lazarus for instance is to hear the Voice of the Saviour, or as saying that the dead are those not yet called through faith unto eternal life, who will surely attain unto it, by having received the doctrine of the Saviour. And this method of considering it does indeed preserve a plausible appearance, but accuracy not at all. Wherefore ruminating again the force of the words, we will affix a more suitable sense, and thus open the reading: |271
Verily verily I say unto you, the hour is coming and now is, when the dead shall hear the Voice of the Son of God; the hour again that is, when they that hear shall live. By the words then in the beginning, He means the time of the resurrection, wherein He teaches through the word of the Judge that they that sleep shall rise again to answer for their life in the world, that as I said before, devising the fear thence arising as a bridle, He might persuade them to live full excellently and wisely: by the closing words He shews that the due time of believing is now come, but also says that everlasting life will be the reward of obedience: all but declaring, Ye shall all come to judgement, sirs, that is at the time of the Resurrection, but if it seem bitter to you to be punished, and to undergo endless penalties at the hand of the offended Judge, suffer not the time of obedience to pass by, but laying hold of it while yet present, haste ye to attain to everlasting life.
26, 27 For as the Father hath life in Himself, so gave He to the Son too to have life in Himself, and gave Him authority to execute judgment also because He is the Son of Man.
Observe again the economy in these words, that thou mayest marvel at the form of expression and not, by falling into offence thereat from ignorance, bring upon thyself perdition. For the Only-Begotten, being Man in respect of the nature of His Body, and seen as one of us while yet upon the earth with flesh, manifoldly instructing the Jews in matters pertaining to salvation, clothed Himself with the glory of two God-befitting things. For He clearly affirmed, that He would both raise the dead, and set them at His Judgement-seat to be judged. But it was extremely likely that the hearers would be vexed at this, accusing Him with reason, because He said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God. Having mingled therefore with God-befitting Authority and Splendour language befitting the human nature, He beguiles the weight of their wrath, saying more modestly and lowlily |272 than was necessary, For as the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son too to have life in Himself. Marvel not (saith He) if I, Who am now as you, and am seen as a Man, promise to raise the dead, and threaten to bring them to judgement: the Father hath given Me Power to quicken, He hath given Me to judge with authority. But when He had hereby healed the readily-slipping ear of the Jews, He bestows zealous care for the profit too of what follows, and immediately explaining why He says that He hath received it, He alleges that human nature hath nothing of itself, saying, Because He is the Son of Man.
For that the Only Begotten is also Life by Nature, and not a partaker of life from another, and so quickeneth as doth the Father, I think it superfluous to say now, since no small discourse was expended hereupon in the beginning of the book, upon the words, In Him was Life.
28, 29 Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His Voice and shall come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of doom.
He signifies by these words the time of the resurrection of all, when, as the Divine Paul wrote to us, The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a summons, with the voice of the Archangel, with the trump of God, to judge the world in righteousness, and render to every man according to his works. He leads therefore by repetition of the same things the most unlearned understanding of the Jews, to be able clearly to understand, that He will be a Worker of greater deeds than those in which the paralytic was concerned, and that He will be revealed as a Judge of the world: and by profitably contrasting the healing of one sick person with the resurrection of the dead, He shews that greater and more noteworthy is the operation that undoes death and destroys the corruption of all, and reasonably and of necessity says, in respect of the lesser |273 miracle, Marvel not at this. And let us not at all suppose that by these words He means to find fault with the glory of His own works, or to enjoin the hearers that they ought not to hold worthy of wonder, those things whereat one may reasonably wonder, but He wishes those who were astonished at that to know and believe that the subject of wonder as yet was small. For He raiseth by a word and God-befitting Operation not only the sick from little diseases, but those also who have been already submerged by death and overcome by invincible corruption. And hence introducing the greater, He says, The hour is coming in which all that are in their graves shall hear His Voice. For He who by a Word brought into being things that were not, how should He not be able to win back into being that which was already created? For thus each will be the effect of the same Operation, and the glorious production of one Authority. And profitably does He subjoin that they shall come forth of their graves, they that were holden of base deeds and that lived in wickedness to undergo endless punishment, the illustrious in virtue to receive the reward of their religiousness, eternal life: at once (as we said above) introducing Himself as the Dispenser of what belongs to each, in these words of His; and persuading them, either from fear of suffering dreadful punishments, to forego evil and to hasten to elect to live more soberly, or pricked with desire after some sort for eternal life, make more zealous and eager haste after good. |274
CHAPTER IX. That the Son is in nothing inferior to God the Father, but is of Equal Might in Operation unto all things as God of God.
30 I can of Mine Own Self do nothing: as I hear, I judge, and My Judgment is just, because 1 seek not Mine Own Will, but the Will of the Father Which sent Me.
Give more exact heed again to the things said, and receive the force of its thought with intelligence. For the Jews not knowing the deep Mystery of the economy of flesh, nor yet acknowledging the Word of God indwelling in the Temple of the Virgin, were often excited by zeal, mistaken and not according to knowledge, as Paul saith, to savageness of manners and fierce anger: and indeed were attempting to stone Him, for that He, being a Man, was making Himself God, and again because He said that God was His Father, making Himself Equal with God. But since they were thus hard of understanding and utterly unable to endure God-befitting words, but both thought and spake meanly of Him, the Saviour by an economy acts the child with them, and made His explanation a mixed one, neither wholly foregoing words befitting God, nor altogether rejecting human language: but having said something worthy of His Divine Authority, He forthwith represses the untutored mind of the hearers, by bringing in something human also; and again having said something human by reason of the economy, He suffers not what belongs to Him to be seen in mean estate only, shewing often by His Superhuman Might and Words that He is by Nature God. Some such contrivance will you find now too in the passage at present before us. For what did He say before? For as the Father raiseth up the dead |275 and quickeneth them, so the Son too quickeneth whom He will, next again, For the hour is coming in the which all that are in their graves shall hear His Voice; and besides, that they shall also come forth to be judged and to receive their reward according to their works. But He That saith He can quicken whom He will, and in like manner as the Father: how shall He not be conceived of as clothed with Might befitting God? He Who openly says that He will be Judge of all, how shall He not with justice terrify those who deem that He is yet bare Man? For it was like that they being Hebrews and instructed in the Sacred Writings, should not be entirely ignorant that God should be Judge of the world, since they too sang often, Arise, O God, judge the earth, and again, For God is the Judge.
Since then He knew that the ignorant people of the Jews were vexed at these things, He rids them of their accustomed anger by saying in more human language, I can of Mine Own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge. As far then as one can say, taking the words superficially, He derides the understanding of the Jews. For the form of expression gives the idea of a sort of weakness, and of authority not altogether free; but it is not so in truth, since the Son being Equal in all things to the Father, hath by Nature the same Operation and Authority in respect to all things. But He saith that He can do nothing of Himself, but as He heareth, so He judgeth: in another way again shewing Himself Equal in Mind and Power to God the Father.
For neither will the Father be conceived of as doing anything without the Son, Alone and by Himself, seeing He hath Him as His Might and Power (therefore all things were made by Him, and without Him was not made any one thing) nor will the Son again do ought of Himself, the Father not co-with Him. Therefore He saith also, Of Myself I do nothing; but the Father That dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works. And we shall not suppose that the Son is strengthened by the Father, as though weak, and again that authority over all things is given Him: for then |276 would He be no longer God by Nature, as having the glory of the Godhead bestowed; but neither would the Father Himself still exist in unimpaired excellency of good things, if He had the Word, the Impress of His Nature, such as to require Power and Authority from another. For a giver of the things spoken of will be sought for analogously for the Image and Archetype, and thus in short our argument will go forth into boundless controversy, and will run out into the deep sea of blasphemy. But since the Son being of the Essence of the Father takes to Himself by Nature all the Properties of Him who begat Him, and Essentially attains to one Godhead with Him, by reason of Identity of Nature, He is in the Father, and hath again the Father in Himself: wherefore He frequently, Unblamed and Truly, attributes to the Father the Power of His Own Works, not excluding Himself from the power of doing them but attributing all things to the Operation of the One Godhead: for One is the Godhead in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
And that the Son is not inferior to the Father either in Power or Operation unto ought, but is Like in all things and of Equal Might, has been demonstrated by us elsewhere, on the words, The Son can do nothing of Himself but what He seeth the Father do: for what things soever He doeth, these doeth the Son too likewise. But since I think it just and becoming, to display the most devoted zeal in Divine doctrines; come let us after the custom of sailors on the sea wind back anew (as a cable) the whole argument of the chapter. For in this way one may see, that the Son does not accuse His Own Nature by saying that He can do nothing of Himself, but rather exposes the folly of the Jews, and plainly shews that they trample on the law of Moses. For in that to the words, I can do nothing of Myself, is immediately subjoined, As I hear, I judge, it frees the Son from all reproach of not being able to act of His Own Power: rather it shews clearly that He is in all things Filial and Consentient with Him Who begat Him. For if as though impotent He were borrowing His |277 Power of the Father, as not having sufficient of Himself: how ought He not rather to say, I can of Mine Own Self do nothing, I receive the power of my Father? But now as He does not say this, but rather adds to the being able to do nothing of Himself, that He so judges as He hears, it is evident that not in respect of weakness of operation as to ought, does He put that He cannot, but by reason of impossibility of transgressing in anything the Will of the Father. For since One Godhead is conceived of in the Father and the Son, the Will too (I suppose) will be surely the Same; and neither in the Father, nor yet in the Son or the Holy Ghost will the Divine Nature be conceived of as at variance with Itself; but whatsoever seemeth good to the Father (for example), this is the Will of the Whole Godhead.
Needs therefore does the Son introduce Himself as co-approving and consenting to the Father in whatever seemeth good to Him, explaining that He cannot do anything which is not altogether according to the Mind of the Father, for this is the meaning of Of Myself. Just as if He should say that He cannot commit sin, He would not rightly seem to any to incur the charge of weakness, but rather to set forth a wondrous and God-befitting Property of His Own Nature (for He gives to understand that He is Immoveable and Unchangeable): so when He acknowledges that He can do nothing of Himself, we shall rather be awestruck as seeing Unchangeableness the fruit of the Unchangeable Nature, than unseasonably account the not being able to be a mark of weakness.
Let these things be said by us conformably to our own ability, and let the lover of learning search out for better: but we will not shrink from interpreting the saying in another way too, lowering our manner of speech a little from the bounds of the Godhead and the Excellence of the Only-Begotten: and since the Son truly was and was called Man, translating the force of the passage to the economy with Flesh, and shewing that what follows is akin and connected with what preceded. Therefore He clearly testified |278 that all that are in the graves shall hear His Voice, and that they shall come forth to be judged. When He has once begun on the subject of His judging the world, He not only promises to be a righteous Judge at that time, in which He says the Resurrection of the dead will take place, but also declares that even now He judges rightly and justly of matters in this life. What was the question and of what the discourse, hear. For our sakes was He born of a woman: for as Paul saith, He taketh not hold of angels, but of the seed of Abraham, wherefore it behoved Him in all things to be made like unto His brethren. But since He was made Man and in servant's form, He the Law-giver as God and Lord is made under the Law also. He speaks then sometimes as under the Law, sometimes again as above the Law, and hath undisputed authority for both. But He is discoursing now with the Jews as Law-keeper and Man, as not able to transgress the commands ordered from above, nor venturing to do ought of His Own Mind, which does not agree with the Divine Law. Wherefore He says, I can of Mine own self do nothing; as I hear, I judge. By testifying to Himself that He can do nothing of Himself, which is not wholly in accordance with the Law, and that He judges and gives sentence in matters, according as He hears, to wit by declaration of the Law, He exposes the unbelief of the Jews, and lays bare their headstrong habit. For this too the words I can of Mine own self do nothing, well hint at, as contrasting with, YE recklessly transgress the commandments given you, ye were bold to do all things of yourselves, fearlessly, and in every matter are ye zealous to give judgments not consonant to the Divine decrees. For ye teach for doctrines the commandments of men, and make your own will a law.
What then is the aim of this way of speaking, or how He introduces Himself as judging justly, and they not, shall be told next. He had healed the paralytic on the Sabbath day, He compassionated a man who had spent long time in sickness, shewing forth right and good judgment upon him. For it was right to pity the sick man |279 even on the sabbath day, and by no means to shut up His compassion from reverence for the sabbath day, practising a most vain piety. As the Father too works even on the sabbath day in regard of His economy towards His creatures, and that surely through the Son, so doth Himself also. For neither did He think that a man who needed compassion on the sabbath day ought to be deprived of it, by reason of the Sabbath, since He knew that the Son of Man was Lord of the sabbath. For not man was made for the sabbath, but the sabbath for man. Therefore righteous herein and good is the judgment of the Saviour, not restraining by reason of the sabbath His Loving-Kindness to the prostrate, but that which as God He knows how to perform (for the Divine Nature is the Fountain of Goodness), this He did even on the sabbath day: but the judgment of the Jews upon Him in that they were vexed on account of the sabbath, and therefore desired to kill Him Who had done them no wrong, how is not this exceedingly dissonant to the Divine Laws (for it is written, The innocent and righteous slay thou not) and the invention rather of their cruelty, and not of the holy Scriptures?
Understand then that Jesus says with a kind of emphasis to those who were angry at His deeds of good and found fault with His holy judgments, following only their own imaginations, and so to speak defining as law that which seemed to them to be right even though it be contrary to the Law:---- I can of Mine Own Self do nothing, i. e., I do all things according to the Law set forth by Moses, I endure not to do anything of Myself, as I hear, I judge. For what willeth the Law? Ye shall not respect persons in judgment, for the judgment is God's. why then (saith He) are ye angry at Me because I have made a man every whit whole on the sabbath day, and condemn not Moses who decreed that children should be circumcised even on the sabbath. Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment. If a man on the sabbath day receive circumcision, that the Law of Moses should |280 not be broken, thus without due cause are ye vexed at seeing a man every whit healed on the sabbath day? I therefore judged justly, but ye by no means so, for ye do all things of yourselves. But I can of Mine Own Self do nothing; as I hear, I judge, and My Judgment is just, because I seek not Mine Own Will, as ye do, but the Will of the Father Which sent Me.
What manner of sending this is, and the mode of the being sent, we having before spoken of at length, will refrain from speaking any more thereof. But we must observe for profit's sake that He says that the Law is the Will of God the Father.
31, 32 If I bear witness of Myself, My witness is not true: there is another that beareth witness of Me, and I know that the witness which He witnesseth of Me is true.
The most wise Solomon, gathering together the things in which a man may very reasonably glory, and shew his manner of life to be enviable, and placing them before those who are apt to learn, says, The righteous man is his own accuser in the opening of the trial, and again, Let thy neighbour praise thee and not thine own mouth, a stranger and not thine own lips. For a thing truly burdensome and most intolerable to the hearers, is it that some like not to be praised by the voice of others, but attest unrestrainedly their own most noble and excellent deeds. But with reason is such language distrusted; for we are wont to be invited by certain (so to speak) natural and necessary drawings of self-love, readily to ascribe to ourselves nought that is ill, but ever to put about us and not altogether truthfully, the things whereby any may be thought well-behaved and good.
When then our Lord Jesus Christ adjudged to Himself that He judgeth righteous judgments, saying openly that He could do nothing of Himself, but that He makes the Will of the Father His Rule in all His Actions, and in saying this, introduced Himself as witness to Himself, |281 although it was true, yet of necessity considering the sophistry of the Pharisees, and what they would say in their folly (for they knew not that He is God by Nature): He anticipates them in putting it forward, and says, Ye following the practice of the common people, and not advancing beyond surmise befitting Jews, will surely say, THOU bearest record of Thyself, Thy record is not true; but ye shall hear this in reply (saith He), I endure yet with your blasphemies, I am by no means exceeding angry with you belching forth your words from the ignorance most dear to you, I grant you for argument's sake, that even this hath been well said by you: Be it so, ye reject My Voice, there is Another That beareth witness of Me. He here indicates God the Father Which is in heaven Who hath now in divers manners attested the Verity of the Essence of His Own Son; and He says that He knows that His witness is True shewing that His Own Judgement too is in fact most trustworthy and true. For lest by admitting as it were that He said things untrue of Himself, He should give room for malice, and a loophole against Himself to them who are accustomed to think otherwise, He having ceded of necessity to what is becoming and customary, that one ought not altogether to credit as true him who praises and approves himself, returns again as God to His due position and says that He knows that the witness of the Father is true, all bat teaching this; I being Very God know Myself (says Ho), and the Father will say nothing of favour concerning Me. For I am Such by Nature, as He, being True, will declare Me. In the former 13 part then there was an assent 14 so to say of condescension, and the words hypothetic 15 rather than true; in His saying that He knows that |282 the witness of the Father is true, is the demonstration of God-befitting credibility.
But it must be observed that in respect of His Own Person the Father is Other than the Son, and is not, as some uninstructed heretics have imagined, introduced as the Son-Father.
33 YE have sent unto John, and he hath borne witness unto the Truth.
As we have just affirmed that it is disgraceful, and not without share of the uttermost folly, that any one should be seen as an admirer of his own excellencies, even though he should by reason of exceeding virtue escape untruth: so it is an absurdity cognate (so to say) and akin to this, that any not called upon to bear witness to any thing, should of their own accord appear before the judges or those who wish to enquire. For such an one would seem (and that justly) not altogether to be anxious to tell the truth, but rather to be over-eager to give his testimony, to make known not what the nature of the fact is, but rather his own account of it. Most skilfully then, yea rather as God, doth our Lord Jesus Christ, overturning beforehand the charge of the Pharisees in regard to this, say, YE have sent unto John: not of his own accord (says He) does the Baptist come to give his testimony to Me, he is clear from any charge of this: he gave free testimony; YE sent to ask John, and he hath borne witness unto the truth. For when he was asked by them who were sent to him, whether he were the Christ, he confessed and denied not, but confessed I am not the Christ, but am sent before Him. He hath then borne witness to the Truth, for Christ is the Truth.
34 But I receive not testimony from man, but these things I say, that YE might be saved.
He doth not reject the word of John as useless, nor declare the witness of the truth to be of none effect (for He would with justice have seemed to have wrought |283 absurdity against Himself, by unreasonably dismissing from credence him whom He sent to cry. Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of our God) but as striving with the unbounded disobedience of the Jews He proceeds to what is better and of more weight, saying that not of necessity is testimony to Himself from voice of man admitted, but rather giving them more glorious proof from the Authority befitting Him Who is by Nature God, and from the Excellence of the Divine Miracles. For a person will sometimes reject the voice of man, as not true, even though he be haply enrolled among the saints. Which some not scrupling to do, used to oppose the words of the Prophets, crying out. Speak unto us other things and declare unto us another deceit: and yet besides these, certain of them of Jerusalem, or of the land of Judah, who had escaped into Egypt: to wit, Azariah the son of Hoshaiah, and Johanan the son of Kareah and all the proud men, as it is written, openly disbelieving the prophecies of Jeremiah, said, Thou speakest falsely, the Lord sent thee not to say to us, Go not into Egypt. But demonstration through miracles, what gainsaying will it admit of; and the being borne witness to by the Excellencies of God the Father, what mode of stubbornness will it yet grant to the faultfinders? And verily Nicodemus (he was one of their rulers, and ranked among those in authority) gave incontrovertible testimony from His miracles, saying, Rabbi, we know that Thou art a Teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that THOU doest, except God be with Him.
Since then to disbelieve even the holy Baptist himself who brought testimony as far as words go, was not too much for the malice of the Jews, He says again, in a sort of irony, The blessed Baptist hath borne witness to the truth, even though questioned by you, but since nothing has been left untried by you, and ye have foolhardily accustomed yourselves to launch forth into all |284 manner of reviling, ye have, it is likely, rejected his voice. And since this too seems to you to be right, be it so: I am haply persuaded, I agree with you, I will put aside for your sakes the voice of John too, and with you except against his testimony: I have the Father from above bearing testimony. But teaching again that the expression implies assent for argument's sake, He profitably subjoined, But these things I say that YE might be saved, that is, I used this manner of speech to you, not that the truth is so, but for argument's sake, that by every means YE may be saved.
And here our second book shall end.
The second Book of Cyril Patriarch of Alexandria on S. John is finished.
[Page running titles]
132 We in Christ, because human nature is one.
How S. John Baptist knew not Christ. 133
The Son Perfect because the Father Perfect. 135
136 The Son by Nature God and Perfect,
lest the Father cease to be Father or Perfect. 137
138 God the Son always Holy; else exalted,
not lowered by the Incarnation. 139
140 Words against the Son "words of wickedness."
Man's loss through sin. 141
142 God the Son gives again to man the Spirit.
The Son Incarnate shamed not to abase Himself. 143
144 S. John the Baptist sanctified, the Son Essentially holy.
The Intimate Union between the Son and the Holy Ghost. 145
146 God the Holy Ghost, Unseen, as God.
The Intimate Union between the Father and the Son. 147
148 Christ taketh away the sin of the world.
The Lord looks on them who turn to Him. 149
150 The tenth hour the latter end of the world.
Christ's Divine fore-knowledge. 151
152 Christ born in Bethlehem, brought up at Nazareth.
Christ proves that He is God by His fore-knowledge. 153
154 Angels serve Christ as their God.
Christ present at the marriage blesses marriage. 155
156 Christ begins miracles at His mother's instance.
Restoration of lost nature by the Spiritual Bridegroom. 157
158 Christ's Bounty.
The scourge a punishment befitting slaves. 159
160 Christ honours them who honour Him.
commands even those who will not to obey. 161
162 The Temple of God.
He Who says, My Father's House, is God. 163
164 Christ God, Whose Body is a Temple.
Long growth & diligence needed for maturity of life. 165
166 Christ God Who knoweth the heart.
God the Holy Ghost by Nature God. 167
168 The new Birth in Baptism two-fold, for body and soul.
We are born of the Spirit, how. 169
170 The air, itself unseen, its working seen, a type.
Teachers must teach step by step. 171
172 God and man One Christ.
The brazen serpent fixed aloft a type of Christ. 173
174 God's Love, that He gave for us creatures,
God the Son. 175
176 Christ tries every way not to condemn,
condemns those who will be condemned. 177
178 Knowledge an aid to a holy life.
S. John Baptist knows the excellence of Christ's Baptism. 179
180 Trouble of S. John Baptist's disciples.
We must deeply prize what God allots us. 181
182 Christ is All.
Examples of increase and decrease. 183
True meaning of From above. 185
186 God the Son God, All the creature.
God the Son God apart from All. 187
188 Man teaches, God draws.
Christ uses the evidence we best accredit. 189
God the Son God Who giveth. 191
192 Christ True who says, I and the Father are One.
Sent, God the Son's Eternal Generation. 193
194 None but God can give the Spirit.
196 Human language weak to express things Divine.
God the Son He Who emptied Himself. 197
198 God the Son receives, the Firstfruits of our clay.
Christ our Life. 199
200 All rise, not all to life.
The Son ever knows, does all in season. 201
202 Christ illumines the Samaritans, when He, the
Very Light, passes through them. 203
204 Christ, the Strength of all, wearied with the journey.
The Word made Flesh endures what is below God. 205
206 Exclusiveness of the Jews.
God the Son God Who can give the gift of God. 207
208 The Samaritan woman awakes unto faith in Christ.
Christ above man. Apostles wells. Mind of men stronger. 209
210 Christ above man: the woman's gradual progress.
Jews and Samaritans. The Father suggests the Son. 211
WORD emptied Himself, shewn in acts. 213
214 As God He is worshipped, as Man He worshippeth;
else would the FATHER too be lowered. 215
216 Either the SON GOD, or the Father below His creation.
The Son told S. Peter that He was Free. 217
218 The Son worships as Man.
God is Spirit. Messias' coming known. Woman zealous. 219
220 Christ teaches how to teach; kindles
Samaria. The reverence of the Disciples. 221
222 The Samaritan woman's zeal and skill and example.
The Samaritans shame the Jews. 223
224 The Saviour neglects food to hunt souls.
Deep moment of teaching. WORD how sent. 225
226 SON, Word Counsel Will Power of FATHER.
Human language powerless to express things of GOD. 227
228 Wheat, Prophets' sowing, Apostles' reaping.
The Saviour loves both, gives one honour to both. 229
230 Jews through their conduct lose Christ,
Samaritans gain Him: the seed left to fructify. 231
232 Grace to the good, woe to despisers.
He That repels death is God. 233
234 Christ healeth the nobleman and his son.
Aliens teachable, Jews perverse. 235
236 He leaveth them, but returneth; and will return
to Jews at end of world. Why The Good questions. 237
238 Why one cured by pool. Christ cures with authority.
Why bed carried on Sabbath: to blame Benefactor, bitter. 239
240 Mighty the Healer. Christ an example of flight.
Christ observes fit time. The healed good. 241
242 False sabbath-keeping. Non-observance of
sabbath under Joshua. Christ co-worker with the Father. 243
244 God works on sabbath. The Son
God, because God His Father. 245
The Son cannot do counter to His Nature. 247
248 The Son Equal Who does equal works:
if inferior, the Godhead admits weakness. 249
250 God Whom angels worship. Demonstration
ad absurdum. The SPIRIT His: He GOD or compound. 251
252 GOD by Nature, yet Man too. Different
meanings of cannot. All which the FATHER, the SON too. 253
254 Of Both the works the same, Father not antecedent.
The Father's Love in Perfect sameness of the Son. 255
256 Their knowledge One of Other: Each works on sabbath.
The SON GOD Who does the works of GODHEAD. 257
Receiver and giver may be equal. Judging an operation not of essence. 259
260 Creation and judging thro' the Son. Fire's operation.
262 As indicates various degrees of
likeness. Christ foresaw and met the cavillings of heretics. 263
264 The SON GOD lest The TRINITY be unequal;
GOD beget worse than the creature. Senses of Image. 265
266 The SON Very God, or His likeness to
the FATHER that of the creatures, and in mere embellishment. 267
268 The SON Very GOD; or things made
put in God's place. His treatment of the Jews. 269
270 The Son the Judge. The hour that cometh
the Resurrection-day. Our Lord's mixed speech. 271
272 As man He receives to judge, as God quickeneth.
His works, less and great: He will Reward and Doom. 273
The SON GOD Who is Judge, Who doth nought of Himself. 275
276 The SON hath all the Power of the FATHER.
One Will in all the Holy TRINITY. Of Myself what. 277
278 The Incarnate SON Law-giver and Law-keeper. I cannot
implies YE do. God tends His creatures on Sabbath. 279
280 He Just, they unjust. Self-praise worthless.
The SON GOD by the witness of the FATHER. 281
282 Father Other than Son. Baptist asked witnessed.
If man's witness rejected, GOD's abideth. 283
284 For their salvation every means used.
[Most of the footnotes, moved to the end and renumbered. The margin contains mainly biblical references and fragments of Greek. These have been omitted]
1. a S. Cyril reads Τοϋτο φρονεῖτε (or φρονείτω) ἕκαστος ἐν ὑμῖν αὐτοῖς, a little below and Book 2. c. 5; 3. c. 4; 9.: ad Herm. 404 E, 718 B; de recta fide 141 B.
2. b " The Spirit of Jesus." So reads S. Cyril with oldest MSS. and the early Syriac version, containing the first translation of most of the N. T.
3. c So reads S. Cyril here, cf. De recta fide p. 95; infra Book iii. c. 4. " by water and the Spirit;" the latter is also the reading of the codex Alexandrinus.
4. 9 πέτρα, a rock. S. Matt. xvi. 8.
5. d As if S. Cyril read, not as a question but affirmatively " Out of Nazareth can something good come."
6. c πτῶμα, S. Mark vi. 29, and so reads S. Cyril in S. Matthew too, as do the uncial MSS. BCDL and the Codex Sinaiticus.
7. a So S. Cyril reads with the Vatican and Alexandrine Codices and other old MSS. and the Syriac version (dating from the second century).
8. a γυμνὸς Λόγος, used constantly by S. Cyril to express God the Word as He was before the Incarnation, before He deigned to clothe Himself with our flesh.
9. b S. Cyril seems to have read "your" with the uncial MSS. CDP.
10. b προκύπτων. This word is used by S. Cyril (above p. 123 and elsewhere) of the Son's Eternal Generation: cf. προελθόντα, p. 147. The word that expresses the Procession of the Holy Ghost is ἐκπορεύεται.
11. f εὐπειθείας. This word seems to include also, readiness to believe, as the germ and parent of obedience: to which ἀφιλομαθὴς, " reckless of knowing," the germ and parent of wilful blindness, is contrasted.
12. h τῇ τῶν κεφαλαίων ἀντιπαραθέσει i. e., the histories of the Samaritans and of the nobleman (contained in what is the th chapter according to the division of the Gospel now in use among us) and the history of the Jews contained in this present chapter.
13. a ver. 31 If I bear witness of Myself, My witness is not true.
14. b συναίνεσις. S. Cyril means that our Lord agreed to the general principle that a man's witness to himself is not trustworthy, and says it of Himself, in a sense, not refusing to those who thought He was mere Man, what belongs to a man, and yet in the next verse, re-asserts with the Testimony of the Father His own Testimony also (I know &c), hence that (because God) He was a sufficient witness to Himself.
15. c i. e., on the hypothesis of His being mere Man.
This text was transcribed by Roger Pearse, 2005. All material on this page is in the public domain - copy freely.
Greek text is rendered using unicode. Note that the chapter numbers and titles are part of the original work, as is the table of them at the start of the book. The numerals on verses of John are added by the translator.
Early Church Fathers - Additional Texts
SOURCE SECTION: cyril_on_john_03_book .htm
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, LFC 43, 48 (1874/1885). Book 3. pp. 285-381.
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, LFC 43, 48 (1874/1885). Book 3. pp. 285-381.
[Translated by P. E. Pusey]
|285
CHAPTERS TREATED MORE AT LARGE IN THE THIRD BOOK.
Chapter 1. A critical enquiry, why the blessed Baptist is called by Christ not only a lamp, but burning and shining; on the words, He was the burning lamp.
Chapter 2. That the Son is the Image of God the Father, wherein also is an exposure of the Jews as not understanding the words darkly uttered by Moses; on the words, Ye have neither heard His Voice at any time, &c.
Chapter 3. That Moses was indicating the coming of the Saviour, when he said A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you like unto me.
Chapter 4. That oftentimes the departures of Christ from Jerusalem signify the transferring of His grace to the Gentiles, wherein is also the discourse of the five barley loaves and the two little fishes; on the words, And after these things Jesus departed across the sea of Tiberias.
Chapter 5. That the Only-Begotten is the Impress of the Person of the Father, and no other impress save He, either is or is conceived of; on the words, Which the Son of Man shall give you, &c.
Chapter 6. On the manna, that it was a type of Christ's Presence and of the spiritual graces by Him; on the words, Jesus therefore said unto them, Verily verily I say unto you, not Moses hath given you the Bread from Heaven. |286
OUR FATHER AMONG THE SAINTS
CYRIL
Archbishop of Alexandria
ON THE
GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN.
BOOK III.
CHAPTER I. A critical enquiry why the blessed Baptist is called by Christ not only the lamp, but burning and shining.
Having but now with toil stayed our pen on the second book, and swum through the deep and wide sea of Divine contemplations, thinking so to reach the end, as a harbour, and all but mooring our skiff on the mainland, we see the commencement of another ocean, to wit; our course on the sequel. Which that we should accomplish with all diligence, both the nature of the thing shames us into, and that said by some one persuades us no less unto, For glorious is the fruit of good labours. Come then, let us, mounting up unto a courageous purpose of mind, commit our affairs to the guidance of the good and loving God: let us, spreading forth like a sail, the expanse of our understanding and embracing the grace of the Spirit as the sound of a fair wind from the stern, run out into deep in-search. For it is Christ Which maketh a way in the sea and a path in the water. Our second book then ended with, But I receive not testimony from man; but these things I say, that YE might be saved. Let us begin the third, joining in order what follows concerning the holy Baptist, of whom Christ says; |287
35 He was the lamp burning and shining; and YE were willing for a season to rejoice in his light.
He likens the holy Baptist to a lamp, in that as far as appertains to the measure of man, he shone forth before His Coming, yet not with his own light: for not its own is the light in the lamp, but from without and bestowed and added: thus will you see in the saints also the illumination that is from Christ in the Spirit. Wherefore they both thinking and acting most wisely do themselves confess out of their own mouth, Of His fulness have all WE received. For the Only-Begotten is by Nature Light, in that from Light too He beamed forth, I mean, from the Essence of the Father: but the creation partakes of it, and whatever is endowed with power of reasoning and thinking, is as a vessel most excellently fashioned by God the Most Excellent Artificer of all things, with capacity for being filled with Divine Light.
The blessed Baptist then is a lamp according to the above-given explanation. The Saviour saying this economically calls the foolish Pharisees to remembrance of the Voice of God the Father, saying of Him, I prepared a lamp for My Christ. Very profitably and of necessity does Christ now subjoin these things to those already aforesaid. For. since, cutting off all occasion of unbelief from the Jews, and from all sides compelling them to the duty of believing on Him, He thought good to agree with them in not receiving his testimony, saying, I receive not testimony from man, that they might not suppose that the Lord was really and truly so minded respecting His forerunner, as the form of the words gives,----profitably to His present purpose, does He introduce him, not as Himself saying anything of him, but as proclaimed by the Voice of the Father. For He thought that from reverence certainly to God the Father, the gainsayer must either be ashamed, or shew himself now more nakedly fighting against God, as unrestrainedly going against the very words of God the Father. |288
He then (saith He) was the lamp, and YE were willing for a season to rejoice in his light. For it behoved Him not only to shew that the Pharisees easily went astray from what is right, and had by the great impiety of their ways thrust from them the will to believe, but also to convict them of being fickle, and by no means accustomed to cleave to the desire of good things, but after having barely tasted, and approved in words only those whom they thought to be holy, they were not ashamed quickly to go over to the contrary habit. For this I think is the meaning of their being willing for a season to rejoice in his light. For at the commencement they admired the holy Baptist, as an ascetic, as a lover of God, as an example of all piety, but they who honour the miracle again insult it, not enduring to hear, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of our God. For this they are clearly found doing through unbelief.
And now (as I think) having kept the well-trodden and commonly-used method of interpretation of the passage, we have put forth the meaning of it, according to our power: but since the Word of the Saviour extendeth to deep meanings, and evidently all but necessitateth the taking hold of more subtil conceptions, not merely signifying that John was a lamp, but also burning and shining, we deem it needful to apply ourselves more keenly to the force of the words and so track out the beauty of the truth. The sentence itself shall again be brought forward. He was the Lamp, He says. It would have been sufficient by this alone to have pointed out the holy Baptist, so that the hearers should go back to the thought of the prophecy concerning Him, which runs thus, I prepared a lamp for My Christ. But since He adds to the word lamp, the burning and shining, it is thence manifest that He carries the hearer back not merely to the prophet's voice, but also to some pre-figuring of the Law, fore-representing, as in figure and shadow, the torch-bearing of John, which he well performed by his testimony to Christ the Lord. He again convicts the Pharisees wise in their own conceits, |289 who were conversant in the Law of Moses and that constantly, of being ignorant, and rather seeming to be wise than really having understanding of the Law. This then is the whole aim of the discourse: but I think we ought, bringing forward the Divine oracle itself, incontrovertibly to shew that the blessed Baptist is not simply a lamp, but one burning and shining.
When then God was ordaining the arrangements of the holy tabernacle, after the completion of the ten curtains, He saith to the hierophant Moses, And do thou command the children of Israel and let them bring thee olive oil refined pure beaten to burn for a light, that the lamp burn always in the tabernacle of the congregation without the vail, which is upon the testament, Aaron and his sons shall burn it from evening to morning before the LORD: a statute for ever unto your generations on the behalf of the children of Israel: and take thou unto thee Aaron thy brother and his sons with him from among the children of Israel to minister unto Me. Thus far the oracle of God, we must now proceed to the interpretation of it as far as may be. The oil without lees and pure, seems to signify the most pure and undefiled Nature of the Holy Ghost, Which penetrating us incomprehensibly like oil, nourishes and preserves and increases the illumination in the soul, as in a lamp. And thus we believe that the Divine Baptist also shed forth the light of his testimony concerning our Saviour, having received the power of being able to illuminate from no other source than through the spiritual oil, which mightily and effectually availeth to kindle within us the Divine Light, to which also the Saviour Himself darkly alluded, saying, I am come to cast fire on the earth and what will I, if it be already kindled? The blessed Baptist then was again as in type the lamp, that was ever burning and shining in the tabernacle of testimony: and its shining in the tabernacle of testimony shews full well that his illumination was received in the churches, and will not be outside the holy and Divine Tabernacle of the Saviour. But the lamp being seen without the vail, seems |290 to shew that he will bring in a simpler introductory illumination, saying, Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven hath drawn nigh; but of the things hidden within the vail, to wit, the mysteries of our Saviour, he revealeth nothing at all. For he baptized not unto participation of the Holy Ghost, nor did his illumination introduce within the vail: for it was in the outer tabernacle, while yet standing, according to the mouth of Paul. But when it says, that Aaron and his sons shall burn it from evening to morning before the Lord: a statute for ever unto your generations, I think we ought to understand it after this sort. Aaron and his sons signify those who execute the priest's office in the Churches in their time, that is to say, the teachers therein and ministers of the Divine Altars. These are commanded to keep the spiritual lamp, that is, John, ever bright, for this is the meaning of, They shall burn it from evening to morning. For the whole period during which the light of the lamp was to appear, is the space of night, whereby is signified the term of the present life. For by light we understand the life to come. But the lamp burns or is kept bright, by always making its illumination perceptible to those who believe in Christ, and by testifying through the mouth of the Priests then being that it is true in saying such things of Christ.
That God may teach thee, that by this He was pourtraying the fore-messenger of the Saviour, He straightway subjoins the election of the Priests. You will attain again to the whole scope of the passage by ruminating on some such idea as this, and not amiss, as seems to me. On the completion of the tabernacle the ordering of the lamp is introduced, and immediately after, the appointment and function of the priests. For at the completion of the law and the Prophets, shone forth the voice of the forerunner crying in the wilderness (as it is written) Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of our God; immediately after whom is the ordination and manifestation of the holy Apostles by Christ. For the Lord chose out twelve, whom also He named Apostles. |291
Our consideration of the lamp being herein completed, let us look again at the Voice of the Saviour. He was (saith He) the burning and shining lamp, and YE were willing for a season to rejoice in his light. He blames in the Pharisees their habit of mind unlearned and hard to be brought to obedience and convicts them again of being sick with incomparable ill-instructedness and not able to understand even what they professed to know, and very far indeed from an accurate knowledge of the law, wholly ignorant of what the Lawgiver was pourtraying afore in outline through Moses. For by saying that he was the burning and shining lamp, He shames (it is like) those who did not yet understand that which was long ago too limned out in figures of the Law: by saying, and YE were willing for a season to rejoice in his light, He introduceth them again as ever preferring their own will to the Divine Decree, and accustomed to follow only whom they would. For whereas the lawgiver (says He) commanded the lamp always to shine and be burning, YE were willing for it to shine not always, but for a season only, that is for the very briefest period. For ye at first marvelling quenched (as far as you are concerned) the light of the lamp, most unreasonably accusing him that was sent from God, and not only yourselves refusing to be baptized, but also forbidding him from baptizing others. For ye sent to him, saying, Why baptizest thou then, that is, why dost thou enlighten to repentance and the knowledge of Christ? The Saviour then brought a charge alike of folly and transgression of the Law upon the senseless Scribes and Pharisees, contending with them in behalf of the words of John. This I think that the blessed Luke also understanding, most excellently declares and cries aloud against their folly, saying, And all the people that heard, that is, the words of the Saviour, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John: but the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him. |292
36,37 But I have greater witness than that of John; for the works which the Father hath given Me to finish, the very works that I do, bear witness of Me that the Father hath sent Me: and the Father Which sent Me HE hath borne witness of Me.
Even though he was the lamp (saith He) both depicted by the books of the law, and proclaimed afore by the voice of the holy Prophets, that he should one day appear, beaming before the true Light, and declaring among you, that ye ought to put in good order the way of your Lord and God: yet since he haply seemeth to you not trustworthy, albeit so great in virtue, by reason of your innate unruly and most absurd folly, I proceed now to what is greater, against which probably ye will say nothing, ashamed before the very beauty of truth even against your own will. For I am no longer receiving glory by the words and judgements of men, nor shall I deem it needful to collect testimonies to Myself from bare words, but I will commit My affairs to witness more credible and far greater than these, and from the very magnificence of My deeds I make manifest that I am God by Nature, and of God the Father, and I nothing wrong Mine Own laws, trans-ordering them to whatsoever I will, and trans-elementing things which were darkly spoken to those of old, from the grossness of the letter to spiritual contemplation.
But let him that loves learning consider again that the Saviour by saying that He is well witnessed to by His works as to His being by Nature God, teaches clearly, that it was not possible that God-befitting Operation and Power should be in all exactitude in any one, unless he too were by Nature God. For He is testified of by His works, in no other way (I suppose) save this. For if He is seen a Finisher 1 of the works of His Father, and whatever things are more suited to Him Alone, these He too accomplisheth by His Own Power: how shall it not be clear to every one, that He hath obtained the Same Nature with Him, and Radiant |293 with the Properties of the Father, as being of Him, hath Equal Power and Operation with Him?
Yet He says He hath received the Works from Him, either by reason of the garb of human nature and servant's form speaking more lowlily that was needful, and this economically, or extolling by the title of gift the good Pleasure and Approval of the Father, in regard to all His wondrous Miracles. For thus does He affirm that He was also sent, in that He emptied Himself, as it is written, of His unalloyed God-befitting Dignity by reason of His Love for us. For He humbled Himself, and we shall find the lowliness of this His humbling Himself in no other ways than in those whereby He sometimes speaks as Man. To this agreeth that which is said by the Psalmist of Him in human wise for our sakes, I was set a King by Him upon Sion His Holy Mountain declaring the Law of the Lord. For He That is King for ever with the Father, Co-enthroned and Co-seated, as God with God who begat Him, says that He has been ordained King and Lord, saying that what as God He had, He received when He was made Man to whom reigning is not inherent by nature, but both the title and reality of lordship are wholly from without. |294
CHAPTER II. That the Son is the Image of God the Father, wherein also is an exposure of the Jews as not understanding the words darkly uttered by Moses.
38 Ye have neither heard His Voice at any time nor seen His Form and ye have not His Word abiding in you, for Whom HE hath sent, Him YE believe not.
One may see that not simple is the arrangement of ideas poured forth upon the passage before under consideration, but that it is a swarm of hidden contemplations, which very easily escapes the mind of uncritical hearers, and haply admits of being seen by those only who investigate more keenly. For what was it (will one perchance say) that induced Jesus, when He was saying that He was borne witness to by His God-befitting Operation, to come to something most exceeding remote as though it belonged to the subject? I mean that the Pharisees had neither at any time heard the Voice of God the Father nor seen His Form nor yet had His Word abiding in them. And I will agree, and so I suppose will every one else, that not without some cause is this their difficulty. What sense then we shall adapt to the passage before us, and what again we, on all sides holding by the truth, searching shall provide ourselves with, by the Operation and grace of the Spirit I will endeavour to tell forth.
It is the custom of the Saviour Christ, when often making useful discourses with the unskilled Pharisees, to gaze into the depths of their heart, and to consider in God-befitting manner the reasonings still dumbly revolved and stirred up in their mind, and to these in particular to direct both His answers and words and exposures, and He does not altogether keep the thread of His own words unpassed, |295 but to what they are counselling and imagining in themselves, to this He keenly replies, and by it shews that He is by Nature God, as knowing what lies in the depth and searching the hearts and reins. If any one will, let him receive the most clear demonstration hereof, from the other Evangelists, I mean Luke and his companions. It is written then in the Gospels, that there were once gathered together from all the region round about Judea, Pharisees and doctors of the law. And, behold (he says) men bearing on a bed a man which was taken with a palsy, and they were seeking to bring him in and to lay him before him; and when they found not by what way they might bring him in because of the multitude, they went upon the housetop, and let him down through the tiling with his couch into the midst before Jesus. And when He saw their faith, He said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee. And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason saying, Who is This which speak-eth blasphemies? who can forgive sins but One, God? But when Jesus perceived (it says) their thoughts, He answering said unto them, What are ye reasoning in your hearts? whether is easier to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, Rise and walk? Seest thou how He not waiting their answer or murmuring in utterance of words, answers as God their inward thoughts? You will find again another example too, fashioned after this same manner. For thus says the blessed Luke, And it came to pass also on another sabbath that He entered into the Synagogue and taught, and there was a man there whose right hand was withered. And the Scribes and Pharisees watched Him whether He would heal on the sabbath day, that they might find an accusation against Him: but He knew (it says) their thoughts and said to the man which had the withered hand, Rise up and stand forth in the midst. And he arose and stood forth. And Jesus said unto them, I will ask you, Is it lawful on the sabbath day to do good or to do evil? Seest thou again evidently herein, that He framed His words as looking into the very heart of those who were foolishly trying to accuse Him? Something of this sort again in the passage too before us |296 we will suppose to have been seen by the Saviour in the hearts of the Pharisees. But you will see that the discourse does not spurn the right line, or order of the subject, if you do not shrink from going over again each of those things which have been already said.
This great long discourse with them took its beginning about the man that was healed on the Sabbath Day, and by manifold devices and arguments was Christ endeavouring to persuade those who were waywardly vexed at the healing on the sabbath, that it is lawful even to have compassion on the sabbath, and to do good to all, and besides, that the Law made the rest of the sabbath a shadow of a most note-worthy reality; moreover having in their judgement broken the honour of the sabbath, and hereby specially transgressed the law, He was affirming and that very strongly, that He had been sent by God the Father, and further was clearly telling them that He was borne witness unto by Him, and was well-pleasing to Him in all that He did. To these things (as far at least as the evidence of the arguments goes) the Pharisees again are reasoning with themselves (as waiting on the writings of the law, and ever holding out as a pretext the commands through Moses, and saying they had read) What does this Man say? how will God the Father be well-pleased with one who breaks the Law? when has He testified, or what judgement did He give concerning Him? For we know from the Mosaic writings that God descended upon Mount Sinai, and His Face was seen by the fathers, and His Voice (say they) was heard: He spake to the whole Synagogue, and commanded them to keep the Sabbath Day, clearly commanding thus. Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy, six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work, but on the seventh day is a holy sabbath to the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work. And none other (say they) heard we saying these things: the multitude of the fathers was ear-witness to the Voice from God, and after them the Word of God was in us: But who is This? |297
When He perceived that they were thus imagining, He exposes them as keenly ignorant, saying, Ye have neither heard His Voice at any time nor seen His Form, and ye have not His Word abiding in you, for whom HE sent, Him YE believe not. For the things done in a type at that time, and why the descent of God upon Mount Sinai was figured out to them, these things they knowing nothing of, received them not as images of spiritual realities, but were imagining that the Divine Nature could actually be seen with the eyes of the body, and believed that He used a bodily voice. But that the Word of the Saviour to them was true, and that they neither at any time heard the Voice of God the Father, nor had any one with bodily vision seen His Form, that is, the Word in all things like unto Him, I think that we ought again to shew clearly, bringing to spiritual investigation and test the things written in Exodus. It says thus, And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount. And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire, and the smoke thereof was going up as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole people quaked greatly. And the voices of the trumpet sounded, going forth exceeding mighty, Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice. Thus far then the oracle of the all-wise Moses: but I think we ought now too to convict the Jews of stumbling into a most absurd idea of God, imagining that they had both seen His Form, and heard the Voice actually inherent in the Divine Nature.
Come then taking courage in the bounty and grace of the Saviour, let us refine the grossness of the letter of the law into spiritual contemplation: for so will that be shewn to be true which was said to the Pharisees of God; Ye have neither heard His Voice at any time nor seen His Form. The people then being brought forth by Moses to meet God, as it is written, will be a manifest sign and token as in enigma, that none can unled and uninstructed come to God, but by the law are they led to the |298 knowledge of the things which they seek to learn. For Moses will be understood to be put for the Law, according as is said by a certain one, They have Moses and the Prophets. But the standing by under the mount, when God had now descended and was on it, signifies the readiness of disposition and resolve of those who are called to serve Him, not refusing in any way to apply themselves even to things above their power and superior to their nature, while God is with them. Such in all respects are they who are partakers of the Saviour. Wherefore they practising manliness above men say, Who shall separate us from the Love of Christ? shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? for all dreadful things are tolerable to the godly for love of Christ, and though tribulation should rise up as a mountain, they will rise superior against all danger, and will not withdraw their mind from love to God. But God is said to come down, not upon any low ground, but somewhere on high and on a mountain is He seen, that you may think some such thing as this with yourself, that although the Divine Nature condescending to our understandings, brings Itself to our conception, yet is It exceeding far above us, both in words and thoughts. For the height and intensity of the doctrines respecting It, are signified by the mountain, which he tells us was wholly darkened with smoke. For keen indeed and not very clear to us are words respecting the Godhead, wounding like smoke the eyes of the understanding. Therefore the most wise Paul testified that we see through a glass and darkly: the Psalmist again says that He, that is, God, made darkness His secret place, under the name of darkness hinting the Incomprehensibleness around Him, whereof the smoke about the fire on the mount may well be taken as a type. But the Godhead Itself descended in the form of fire, at that particular time, fittingly and of necessity for the nature of the thing. For it behoved, it behoved that He Who called Israel unto bondage and understanding through the law that should be put forth, should appear as an Enlightener and an Avenger. |299 And both these ends are accomplished by fire. Yea, and the voices of the trumpet (saith he) sounded, going forward exceeding mighty, that some such effect of ideas again may be wrought for us: for the Law too was proclaimed by God, yet not continuously at first, by reason of the infirmity of the pupils, but stammeringly, so to say, and not with the whole force of the trumpeter. Wherefore Moses too called himself slow of speech. But as time advances, and carries forward the believers in Christ from the shadow in the letter to the spiritual worship, the voices of the Divine trumpet waxed exceeding mighty, the saving and Gospel preaching resounding in a way through the whole earth. For not as the Law, feeble-voiced and petty-heralding, was this heard in the country of the Jews only, or proclaimed from Dan to Beersheba, but rather, Their voice went forth into all the earth, as it is written. And what besides? Moses spake (saith he) and God answered him by a voice.
Keen be again the mind of the more studious, accurately let it observe the stability inherent in the Divine Oracles. For Moses speaks, and God answers him by a voice, not surely by His Own Voice, for this it does not say, but simply and absolutely by a voice, wrought wondrously in more human wise by sound of words. For in respect of what work will God be powerless? What that God wills shall He not perform, and that full readily? Therefore Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice. Herein is the type, let us see the truth. You have therefore in the holy Gospels the Lord speaking, Father, glorify Thy Son 2, and the Father answering by a voice, I both glorified, and will glorify again. The Saviour shewed that this is not truly the voice of God the Father, by saying to those who were then present, This voice was made not because of Me, but for your sakes. Thou seest how He clearly affirmed that the Voice was made, since it is not meet to suppose that the Divine Nature useth a voice |300 with a sound, though It conform Itself to our needs and speak like us, economically.
These considerations were of necessity brought into our present discourse: we deemed it altogether needful that Jesus should be shewn to the readers speaking truth, when He is found saying of His Father, Ye have neither heard His Voice at any time nor seen His shape, and ye have not His Word abiding in you, for Whom HE hath sent, Him yE believe not. That the Pharisees puffed up unto strange boasting, were wont to pretend that the Divine Word was with them and in them, and therefore foolishly affirmed that they had advanced to marvellous wisdom, the Spirit Itself will testify, since Christ says by the Prophet Jeremiah unto them, How do ye say, WE are wise, and the word of the Lord is with us? For nought to the scribes became their lying pen; the wise men were ashamed, were dismayed and taken; what wisdom is in them? because they rejected the word of the Lord. For how are they not taken rejecting the Living and Hypostatic Word of God, receiving not the faith to Him-ward, but dishonouring the Impress of God the Father, and refusing to behold His most true Form (so to say) through His God-befitting Authority and Power? For the Divine and Ineffable Nature is in no other wise apprehended (so far as may be) by us, than through what It effects and works, therefore Paul directs us to go from the greatness and beauty of the creatures proportionably unto the contemplation of the Creator, the Saviour again leads us to the apprehending of Himself, saying, If I do not the works of My Father, believe Me not; but if I do, though ye believe not Me, believe My works. And with great reason did He blame His own disciple (this was Philip) who imagined thoughtlessly that he could in any other way attain to the contemplation of God the Father, albeit it was in his power to consider His Uncreated Image, which shews accurately in Himself Him Who begat Him. Wherefore He said, So long time am I with you, and hast thou not known Me Philip? he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father. |301
39,40 Ye search the Scriptures, for in them YE think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of Me, and ye will not come to Me that ye might have life.
The smooth, and passable to the many, and beaten explanation of the passage persuades us to suppose that it was spoken in the imperative mood by our Saviour to the Pharisees, that they ought to search the Divine Scriptures and gather testimonies concerning Him unto life. But since by interposing the conjunction (I mean, And) He joins on the clause, Ye will not come to Me, He evidently signifies something else, akin to what has been said, but a little different. For if it were to be taken imperatively, how should we not say it was necessary to say the whole sentence in some such fashion as this, Search the Scriptures for in them YE think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of Me; but when ye have searched, come to Me? But He is blaming them for not choosing to come, although led to it by the search, saying, And ye will not come to Me.
We will then, looking to what is more profitable and agreeable to what preceded, read it not imperatively, but rather as in connection and with a comma. Of this kind again will be the meaning of the passage before us. For when He saw that they were ever running to the books of Moses, and ignorantly collecting thence materials for gainsaying, but seeking for nothing else, nor receiving what would avail them for due belief: needs therefore does He shew them that their labour in searching for these things is useless and unprofitable, and clearly convicts them of exercising themselves in a great and most profitable occupation in a way not becoming its use. For what tell me (saith He) is the use of your searching the Divine Scriptures, and supposing that by them ye will attain unto everlasting life, but when ye find that they testify of Me and call Me everlasting life, ye will not come to Me that ye might have life? Whence then ye ought to be saved (He saith) ye perceive not that thence |302 ye get the greatest damage to your own souls, ye who are sharpened from the Mosaic books only unto gainsaying, but the things whereby ye could gain eternal life, ye do not so much as receive into your minds.
For that in the Law and the holy Prophets there is much said concerning Him Who is by Nature Life, that is the Only-Begotten, will I think be plain to all who are lovers of learning.
41, 42 I receive not honour from man, but I know you, that ye have not the Love of God in you.
He perceives again, yea rather He sees in a God-befitting way, that the stubborn and contumacious band of the Pharisees were cut to the heart, and that not altogether at being accused of not searching the Divine Scriptures as they ought, but rather at His saying, Ye will not come to Me. For what diseases themselves easily fall into, these they think can take hold of the Saviour also. For they imagined (it seems) of their great folly that the Lord was ambitious, and wished to obtain for Himself honour from all, through His calling them to be His disciples. Having got some such surmise as this into their minds, they expected to be deprived forthwith of their authority over the nation: they were cut to the heart in no slight degree at seeing the Heir desirous of demanding the fruit of the vineyard. Wherefore, as far as pertains to their wrath and envy at what is said, they all but say what is in the Gospel parables, Come, let us hill Him and let us have His inheritance. Taking away then their surmise the offspring of emptiness, and plucking up beforehand by the roots the shoots of envy and evil eye, He says downright, I receive not honour from man. For I do not (says He) call My hearers to discipleship under Me, as though hunting for honour from you, or from others, as YE do, nor do I receive this as the reward of My teaching, having most full glory from Myself, and not short of that from you, but I said that ye would not come to Me, because I know well, that ye have not the love of God in you. And being |303 destitute of Love to God (says He) how should ye come to Me, Who am the Only Begotten, God of God?
43 I am come in My Father's Name, and ye receive Me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.
In order that the Pharisees might not think that the Lord was idly railing at them, from His saying, Ye have not the love of God in you, He immediately adds this also to the above, shewing that the saying is true. That I do not lie (says He) in saying that ye are bereft of love towards God, I will set before you by one thing. For I came in My Father's Name (for I am persuading you zealously to perform all things to the glory of God the Father) but ye shook off from you by your unbelief Him That cometh from above and proceedeth from God: but ye will surely receive (for as God, I know things to come) the falsely-called, who does not offer the glory to God the Father, and demands credence from you, yet works in his own name. Whence I suppose the blessed Paul too, having understanding, says something true concerning the Jews and the son of transgression, Because they received not the love of the truth, that they might he saved, for this cause God sendeth 3 them an operation of error, that they should believe a lie, that they all might be doomed who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. This then which is said is a proof that the Pharisees were not slandered by our Saviour Christ with empty words, for it introduces a prophecy of an event which should come to pass in its time.
44 How can ye believe, which receive glory of men, and seek not the glory that is of the only God?
He accuses the Pharisees of love of rule and of prizing honours from men, covertly hinting that they do exceeding ill, in unadvisedly putting the diseases of their own soul upon God Who can by no means know disease. Next |304 He says that they, fast held by vain glory, thereby lose the fairest prize, meaning faith in Him: whereof Paul too speaketh clearly to us: for if (says he) I were yet pleasing men, I should not be Christ's servant. It usually then as of necessity befalls those who hunt for honours from men, to fail of the glory that cometh from above and from the only God, as saith the Saviour. He says only, opposing God to the gods of the Gentiles, and not excluding Himself from the honour of the Only. For as we have often said already, the Fullness of the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity mounteth up to One Nature and glory of Godhead.
45 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father; there is that accuseth you, Moses, in whom YE have hoped.
Having said that the Pharisees cared more to live vain-gloriously than piously, and having taught that hence they turned aside to unmeasured unbelief, He says that they were accused by Moses himself, of whom it was their custom to boast very vehemently. And indeed when the man who was blind from his birth once said to them of Christ, Will YE also be His disciples? immediately they cry out and say openly, THOU art His disciple, but WE are Moses disciples. Even Moses himself therefore (says He) shall accuse you, in whom ye put all your hope, and he despised with the rest will denounce before God your innate folly. And we do not deem that they who believe not in Him will be without blame from Christ, by reason of His saying to the Jews, Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. For what shall we say when we hear Him saying, Whosoever therefore shall confess Me before men, him will I too confess before My Father which is in Heaven: but whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father which is in Heaven? shall we not reasonably suppose, that they shall be accused to God the Father for their denial, who meet with this from Christ? But I suppose this is clear to every one. The Jews then are not surely free from accusal who have through long unbelief denied Christ, but this applies to them most naturally. For since they shook off His admonitions, and made no |305 account of His Divine and Heavenly teaching, but are ever about duly keeping the Mosaic law, so as to be seen at length even more nakedly crying out, WE know that God hath spoken unto Moses, this man we know not from whence He is:----most necessarily does He convict them of transgressing against that Moses, in whom they boast, and says that they need no other accuser, but that the law given through him will alone suffice for their with reason being accused for their unbelief in Him, even though the Voice of the Judge, that is, Christ, should be dumb.
46 For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed Me: for of Me he wrote.
Having said that the Jews would be accused by the all-wise Moses, and would undergo indictment at his hands for their unbelief in Him; He profitably subjoins these things also, teaching that He was not finding fault with them for nothing, or otherwise repudiating the suspicion of being given to railing, for it is evident that He is making no untrue speech. Be it then (saith He) that ye reject My words, I will bear with not being believed: receive your own Moses, give credence to him whom ye admire, and ye shall know of a surety Him whom not knowing ye dishonour. Break off your types which travail with the truth. For I am shadowed out in his books. Therefore will Moses himself also accuse you (saith He) when he seeth you disbelieving his writings about Me.
We ought then perhaps having interpreted what is before us, to proceed in order, committing it to sincere lovers of learning to investigate the images of Christ through Moses. For his books are full of passages, and there is much said by him, yet full of difficulty to understand and replete with exceeding subtle and hidden meanings. But lest we seem to let indolence have the mastery over us, and unreasonably to shirk so glorious a toil, by simply clothing with difficulty the books of Moses, we will apply ourselves to this too, knowing what is written, The Lord will give utterance to them who evangelize with much power. |306
But since there are, as we have said, many words on these things, and since the all-wise Moses hath through many forms foretypified the Mystery of Christ, we shall not deem it necessary to heap up a great multitude before our readers, but having chosen one out of the whole number, we will essay to make clear proof that the Word of our Saviour was true, which He spake to the Jews, saying, If ye had believed Moses, ye would have believed Me, for of Me he wrote. |307
CHAPTER III. That Moses was indicating the Coming of the Saviour. From Deuteronomy, concerning Christ.
The Lord thy God (it says) will raise up unto thee a Prophet from thy brethren, like unto me, Him shall ye hear; according to all that thou desiredst of the Lord thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let us not hear again the voice of the LORD our God, neither let us see this great fire any more, nor let us die: and the LORD said unto me, Well is all which they spake: I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren like unto thee, and will put My word in His Mouth, and He shall speak unto them as I shall command Him. And the man who shall not hearken unto what the Prophet shall speak in My Name, I will require it of him. Deuteronomy is a kind of repetition and summary of the Mosaic books: it is not therefore possible to take from it a type and image of the legal priesthood. Yet since we are not accustomed to be without understanding, who in all think rightly by Christ's aid, we will tell our readers and throw open the meaning of the passage in hand: Lo again is the mystery of Christ plainly told us, skilfully moulded by most subtle contemplation from likeness to Moses. For (says he) a Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me: himself explaining, and that unflinchingly, what is the idea which from the likeness to himself his declaration introduces to us, clearly subjoins, According to all that thou desiredst of the LORD thy God in the mount Sinai in the day of the assembly, saying, Let us not hear any more the voice of the LORD our God, neither let us see this great fire any more, and let us not die. For he affirms that himself |308 was at that time spoken of as a mediator, the Synagogue of the Jews being yet powerless to have to do with things above nature, and therefore prudently declining things above their power. For such was the sight of God, surprising the vision with unwonted sights, and the echoes of the trumpets supernatural and intolerable to the hearers.
Therefore the mediation of Moses was instituted as medicine of infirmity for those at that time, ministering to the synagogue the things decreed of God. You will transfer again the type to the truth, and will hereby conceive of Christ, the Mediator of God and men, ministering to the more teachable by means of human voice (when for our sakes He was born of a woman) the Ineffable Will of God the Father, made known to Him Alone, in that He is conceived of as both Son, of Him, and Wisdom, knowing all things, yea the deep things of God. For since it was not possible for the eyes of the body to fasten themselves upon the untempered and bare Divine and Ineffable glory of the Essence which surpasseth all things (for there shall no man (saith He) see My Face, and live:) needs was the Only-Begotten Word of God co-fashioned after our infirmities, clothed in this human body according to the Ineffable mode of the economy, and manifesting to us the counsel from above, that is of God the Father, saying, All things that I heard of My Father, these will I declare unto you, and again, For I spake not of Myself, but the Father which sent Me, He gave Me a commandment what I should say and what I should speak. Therefore as an image of the mediation, Moses of old may be considered a type of Christ, ministering most excellently to the children of Israel the things appointed from God: but the mediation of Moses was ministrative, that of Christ is free and more mystical, in that He takes hold by Nature of the things mediated and reaches unto both, I mean the manhood that is mediated and God the Father.
For He was by Nature God, as the Only-Begotten of God, as not separated from the Essence of Him Who begat Him, and in-being in It, as He is conceived to be |309 also of it. But He was Man too, in that He became Flesh likening Himself to us, that through Him that which is by nature far separated might be conjoined to God. When then Moses says, A Prophet shall the Lord raise up unto you like unto me, you will understand it no other wise than we have just said. Since God Himself also sets His seal on the word saying, Well is all which they spake; I will raise them up a Prophet like unto thee, and will put My Words upon Him, and He shall speak unto them according to all that I shall command Him. For the Son upholdeth all things by the word of His Power, as Paul saith, and telleth us the words of the Father, inasmuch as He is ordained a Mediator by Him, as is sung in the Psalms, as of Christ Himself, And I was set King by Him upon Sion His holy Mountain, declaring the decree of the Lord.
But if it seem good to any, by other considerations also to attain unto the mode of likeness, he will understand Like unto me as lawgiver, and will bring forward as proof the words, It was said by them of old, Thou shalt not commit adultery, but I say unto you, Thou shalt not lust. He will understand again like unto me, saying that He is a kind of leader and master unto the being able to understand the will of the Father, and to the things whereby there is the high road into the Kingdom of Heaven: just as to them of old too the blessed Moses appeared a teacher of the instruction through the Law, adding everywhere to his own words, That thou mayest live long, and that the Lord thy God may bring thee into the land which He sware to thy fathers. But since he subjoined to what has been said, And the man that will not hear what the Prophet shall speak in My Name, I will require it of him; let the ignorant Jews, who harden their minds to most utter stubbornness, consider that they are pouring self-invited destruction upon their own heads. For they shall be under Divine wrath, receiving the total loss of good things as the wages of their rage against Christ. For if they had believed Moses, they would have believed Christ, for of Him he wrote. |310
47 But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe My Words?
The verse might appear to a person, and with good reason, to have great obscurity. For he might even without being out of the mark, take to untrue surmises, supposing that the books of Moses excel the words of the Saviour. For the verse hath some such appearance, and as far as one can say, taking it without accurate consideration, it furnishes to the Mosaic writings a more worthy repute than to the words of the Saviour. For by saying, If ye believe not Ms writings, how shall ye believe My Words, He somehow gives us to understand that the writings of Moses are in a superior position to His Own words. But the very nature of the thing will shew that this so incredible idea is replete with the extremest folly: for how shall the writings of Moses be conceived to excel the words of the Saviour, when his were types and shadows, Christ's the truth? And it would not perhaps be hard to expend much reasoning hereupon: but things which are obvious and receive their proof, not from without, but from themselves, I think it superfluous to say that they are not in ill case or the reverse. For why should one waste time making fine distinctions about such things, and mince up what is by no means hard into unseasonable babblings?
Some such meaning as this then hath that which is said by the Saviour. If (says He) ye who have the Law written by Moses, and thoroughly study his writings, make no account of transgression of them, burying in strange oblivion that which is full often read, how will ye be better disposed to My Words, or how will ye shew yourselves more ready and more obedient to My sayings, since ye have not often nor always attended them, but hear them by the way, and scarce once admit them into the bodily ears? You shall either clothe the verse in this dress, or you may consider it in another way: for to love of learning belongs the labour and research herein. The writings of Moses then introduce a kind of preparation for, and typical outline |311 of the Mysteries of Christ, and the elements, so to say, of knowledge of Him are the things limned in Moses, as we shewed more at large by the things already examined. But the end of the instruction of the Law is Christ, according as it is written, Christ is the fulfilment of the law and the Prophets. They then (saith He) who received not the elements of the beginning of the words 4 of God, and in their folly thrust away the Law which by its clearer letter leadeth them, how shall they attain to yet more perfect knowledge? or how will the greater be acceptable, if that which is little and inferior be by no means admitted? |312
CHAPTER IV. That oftentimes the departures of Christ from Jerusalem signify the transferring of His grace to the Gentiles: wherein is also the discourse of the five barley loaves and the two little fishes.
Chap. vi. And after these things Jesus departed across the sea of Tiberias.
First I think it needful to tell my hearers, that the Lord evidently did not make His departures from Jerusalem without some most necessary reason. There is an economy on almost every occasion, and on the nature of things, as on a tablet, He inscribes mysteries. Of what nature then is the intent of the departure, and what is signified thereby, we will make manifest in its proper time, the chapters before us having reached their termination. For having divided every thing into sections, and interpreted what is profitable out of the Scriptures, and so set them before our readers for their understanding, we will offer the final consideration of the whole, epitomising in a summary what has been said in many portions. But I think we ought to speak first on what is now before us.
After these things (saith he) Jesus departed across the sea of Tiberias. After what things, must be sought not negligently. Christ then was manifested in Jerusalem as a wondrous Physician. He had healed the man who had been thirty and eight years in his infirmity, not by giving him any medicine, not by devising any disease-repelling remedy, but rather by a word, as God, by Almighty Authority and God-befitting beck: for Arise (saith He) take up thy bed, and go unto thy house. But since it was |313 the sabbath, the Jews are ignorantly angry, who were sick with the grossness of the letter, who more than he, were bound by the folly that was their foster brother, who were sick of the listless want of all good things alike, who were paralytic in mind and enfeebled in habit, to whom might with reason be said, Strengthen ye, ye weak hands and ye palsied knees. But they are angry, saying that the honour due to the sabbath ought to be paid even by the Law-giver Himself; they condemn Christ as a transgressor, not admitting into their mind what is written, Impious is he who says to a king, Thou transgressest? For these things they received sharp reproofs from the Saviour, and much and long discourse was prepared to shew that the rest of the sabbath had been typically ordained for them of old and that the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath. But they prepared to no good thing, but full ready for all waywardness, rise up against Him Who teacheth what they ought to learn, and desire to kill Him who would make them wise, rewarding Him, as it is written, evil for good.
After these deeds therefore and words, the Lord, as of necessity, departs from Jerusalem, and since the Jews' Passover 5 was nigh (as we shall find a little further on) He sailed across the sea of Tiberias, or the lake in the country of the Jews so called. But since what principally drove Him away, and induced Him to withdraw and to go to other places and those so far removed from Jerusalem, was (we have just said) that the Jews' Passover was nigh, I think |314 it fitting to shew that exceeding well did Jesus eschew being found in Jerusalem at that time.
The Law of Moses then commanded that the Jews should hasten from the whole country round about to Jerusalem, there to celebrate in a type the feast of tabernacles. And the spiritual person will thence perceive the gathering together of all the Saints into Christ, when they shall be brought together from the whole world after the resurrection of the dead to the city which is above, the heavenly Jerusalem, there to offer the thank-offerings of the true pitching of tabernacles, that is of the framing and abidance of bodies, corruption having been destroyed and death fallen into death. As far as one can speak as to the fact of history, the multitude of them who went up to Jerusalem knew not number, and it was probable that at that time the Pharisees had great influence, making believe to take the part of the law, and mid so great a multitude crying out against the transgressor, or Him Who seemed to them to transgress. For it is not at all hard to fire up the countless swarm of common people, when one says that they are wronged and endeavours to stir them up even against those that have nothing wronged them. For like water or fire, they are flung about everywhere by unconsidered and random impulses, and advance to everything that can hurt. These things then the Lord not ignorant of, withdraws privily from Jerusalem with His disciples, and goes across the sea of Tiberias. But that He does exceeding well in shunning the Jews who desire to kill Him, we shall see by these things also. For the blessed Evangelist himself says, And after these things Jesus walked in Galilee, for He would not walk in Jewry because the Jews were seeking to kill Him.
That He avoids walking in Jewry, in order not to undergo death before His time, I will grant (will some one haply say) but whether He also avoids the feast, I do not yet know. They then that were reputed His brethren come to Christ in Galilee, saying, Depart hence and go into |315 Judaea, that Thy disciples also may see the works that Thou doest. But the Lord answered them, Go YE up unto the feast, I go not up unto this feast, for My time hath not yet been fulfilled.
It is then very plain and clear, that the Saviour had withdrawn from Jerusalem, not only sent into voluntary banishment, so to say, from thence, but also loathing the abomination of the unbelieving, both by His skill eluding the fierceness of His persecutors, and by His prudence thrusting back the dart of envy. He withdraws again, albeit able to suffer nothing, even though He were present, that He may limn us a fair example, not of cowardice, but of piety and charity towards our neighbour. For we shall know, led as by a pattern to the knowledge of what is profitable, that if our enemies persecute us, even though no harm at all be seen in our remaining, yet by retiring, and thereby evading the broadside of the onslaughts, and retreating from present heat, we may find the anger of those who wrong us beyond its zenith, and may cut away the boldness of their arrogance, profiting those who were not good towards us, and that unjustly, rather than ourselves profited, which is plainly, not seeking our own but also others' good. The work of love then, is the not wholly withstanding those who wish us evil, nor by being satisfied with not being able to suffer anything even if present, to work in them anger more bitter, from its not being able to attain the mastery over that which is hated. Love then, as Paul says, seeketh not her own, and this was purely in Christ.
But if you fix again the keen eye of the understanding upon what is written, you will be surprised to find a most excellent economy in the departures of our Saviour, I mean from Jerusalem. For He is driven out oftentimes by the mad folly of the Jews, and lodging with the aliens, seems both to be kept safe by them, and to enjoy due honour. Where by He gives judgment of superiority to the Church of the Gentiles, and through the piety of others, convicts them of Israel of their hatred of God, and shews the |316 cruelty that is in them by means of the gentleness that is in these, that in every respect they may be proved to have been well and rightly thrust out of the promise to the fathers. But the Lord having hastened away from Jerusalem, lodges not at one of the cities round about, nor takes up His abode in the neighbouring villages, but goes across the sea of Tiberias, by a most evident act all but threatening those who blasphemously take up the idea that they ought to persecute Him, that He would so far depart from them and estrange Himself from their whole nation, as even to make the way of their conversion to Him in some sort impassable: for the sea can by no means be trodden by foot of man. Some such thing as this will He be found saying to them in what follows too, Ye shall seek Me and shall not find Me, and whither I go, YE cannot come. For most smooth and easy and free from ruggedness to those who by faith go to Him is the way of righteousness; rugged and up-hill, yea rather, wholly impassable to them that provoke Him, as is said by one of the holy Prophets, For right are the ways of the Lord, and the just shall walk in them, but the transgressors shall fail therein. Therefore the intervening tract of sea signifies the toilsomeness yea rather the impassableness by the Jews, of the way to Him, since God declares that He hedges up the ways of the ungodly soul, saying in the Prophets, Therefore, behold, I will hedge up her way with thorns, and she shall not find her path. What then the thorns there signified, this here too the sea in that it separates the Insulted from those who chose recklessly to insult Him, and severs the Holy from the unholy.
But the type seems as though it were pregnant to us with yet another hidden mystery. For when Israel was sent forth from the country of the Egyptians, Pharaoh was following in exceeding exasperation and, maddened at the unexpected well-doing of the nation, was hastening by law of battle to dare his envious and grievous designs; he was following, thinking he should be able to constrain to return to bondage those who had late and hardly slipped |317 away from under his serfdom: but God was leading His people through the midst of the sea; and he hotly pursuing, and by no means enduring to abate his anger, and foolishly persuaded of his ungoverned wrath to fight against God, was swallowed up in the midst thereof with his whole army, and Israel alone was saved. But let now too Moses come forward in the midst of us, who lamented beforehand the mad folly of the Jews, and let him in his indignation at their impiety towards Christ say to them, An evil and adulterous generation, do ye thus requite the Lord? Him that bare thee through the midst of the sea and through mighty waves thou drivest over the sea, and dost thou not blush at persecuting Him? Thine then is the suffering, O Jew: thee will the sea at last swallow up. For to the persecutors, not to the persecuted did death belong both then in their case, and now in regard of Christ and of the unholy Jews. The divine David too singeth to us, Let not the waterflood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, hinting at the all-dread shipwreck of the Synagogue of the Jews, and entreating not to be swallowed up with them in their depth of ignorance. But in respect of the Egyptians and him that ruled over them, the peril was then of their earthly bodies, but the Jews' conduct being in respect of what is more precious, more severely are they punished; for they undergo punishment of the soul, receiving recompence proportionate to their wickednesses. For with reason was Pharaoh punished, endeavouring to get what was free into bondage: contrariwise again justly is Israel punished, for not entering into bond-service under the Lord of all: but what the one was to him in the might of his greed, this was he too found to be towards God from his great vain-glory.
We must note, that he calls the Lake of Tiberias a sea, in accordance with the words of Divine Scripture, for the gathering together of the waters called the Creator Seas. Among profane writers too the word is often indifferently used, insomuch that some do not hesitate sometimes to call the sea a lake. |318
2, 3, 4 And a great multitude was following Him because they saw His miracles which He did on them that were diseased: and Jesus went up into the mountain and there He sat with His disciples, and the Passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh.
For when Christ had gone forth from Jerusalem, according to that which is said in the Prophets; I have forsaken Mine House, I have left Mine heritage; when having spurned the disobedient and unruly people of the Jews, He gave Himself to the aliens, then a great multitude followeth Him. But He goeth up into a mountain, according to that surely which He had afore said, And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me. For He was lifted up from the earth, on ascending the Cross for our sakes; He was lifted up again in another way having ascended as unto a mountain, unto God-befitting honour and glory. For we do not, like Israel, dishonour Him as Man, but WE worship Him as God and Saviour and Lord. For among them He was conceived of as some lowly one and as nothing at all; and verily they would shrink not from calling Him a Samaritan, and with graver dishonour would call Him the carpenter's Son: but among them who believe on Him, He is admired as the Mighty Worker and God, a Doer of miracles. For you may hear how pious is the purpose of them who followed Him. For because they saw His miracles upon the infirm, therefore they thought they ought to follow Him more zealously, as being led from the things performed proportionably unto the knowledge of the Performer, and from His God-befitting Authority considering that He who was clothed therewith is by Nature Son. For by this way the Saviour commanded us to advance unto faith in Him. For the works that I do (saith He) the very works bear witness of Me, and again, If I do not the works of My Father, believe Me not, but if I do, though ye believe not Me, believe My works. As then from the greatness of the beauty of the creatures, their Maker God is seen, so from miracle, by a like process of thought, the Perfecter of |319 signs is seen, and the faith of His followers is rightly marvelled at.
But I deem that some more special and not obvious interpretation is concealed in the things said. For we see that the Evangelist says that they who followed Christ were not only glad beholders of miracles, but also of what miracles they were most just admirers. For he adds, Which He did on them that were diseased, that hence he might shew that the frame of mind of those that followed Him was contrary to that of the Jews. For these because He had healed the sick of the palsy, are impiously angry, but the former not only admire Him for these things when present, but also flock together to Him at His departure, as Wonder-worker and God. Let us then, who have subscribed 6 unto ourselves Christ as our Lord, flee the ignorance befitting the Jews, let us cleave to Him by patience, as the most wise disciples did enduringly, by no means enduring to depart from Him and be deserters, but by our very deeds crying aloud, that which was valiantly spoken by Paul, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Let us then follow Him, both persecuted and in fleeing from the stubbornness of those who strive against Him, that we may both go up into a mountain and there sit with Him, that is, may spring up into glorious and most excellent grace, by reigning together with Him, according as Himself said, YE which have followed Me in My temptations, in the regeneration when the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of His glory, YE also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. For I think that the disciples being said to abide with the Saviour, and to go up into a mountain and sit with Him, introduces these ideas.
5, 6, 7 When Jesus therefore lifted up His Eyes and saw that a great company cometh unto Him, He saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread that these may eat? and this He said to prove him, for He Himself knew what He would do. Philip answered Him,
A lesson most excellent did Christ again devise for His |320 disciples, and fittest for the most holy men, both persuading them in utter straits to overcome cowardice in respect of hospitality, and to cast far away hesitation hereto, rather with more zealous motions to attain unto the virtue thereof. For what is there greater than this among those who know and will the things whereby it befitteth to purchase unto themselves the friendship from above? For when no small crowd cometh to Him, and an innumerable multitude is pouring forth like waters upon the parts, wherein He was stopping, He immediately ordered them to make preparations for feeding them. And in truth it was not unlikely that the zeal even of a very rich man would numb, by the multitude of those he saw startled into fear of not being able to be hospitable. But Christ shews that it is nothing at all great, when our brotherly love comes to a few, but wills that we should overcome with manful courage also things that surpass our expectation, firmly grounded by confidence in Him to boldness unto all good things.
In regard then of the narrative, the force of what is said, aims not away from the mark; but changing again these things unto their spiritual significance, and cutting away the gross typical dress, we say more openly, that those who by good zeal and faith seek Him, God fore-beholdeth, as from a mountain, that is from His high and God-befitting foreknowledge, according to that which is said by Paul, For whom He did foreknow and predestinate to be conformed to the Image of His Son, these He also called. Christ then lifts up His Eyes as shewing that they who love Him are worthy of the Divine Gaze, even as in blessing it was said to Israel, The Lord lift up His Countenance upon thee and give thee peace. But not by the mere looking on them is His grace toward them that honour Him bounded, but the blessed Evangelist adding something more, shews that the Lord was not unmindful of the multitudes, but well prepared for their food and entertainment: that hereby again thou mayest understand that which is delivered us in Proverbs, The Lord will not suffer |321 the righteous soul to famish. For He sets before them Himself, as Bread from Heaven, and will nourish the souls of them that fear Him: and prepareth all things sufficient to them for sustenance; as he saith in the Psalms, Thou preparest their food, for thus is Thy provision. And Christ Himself somewhere saith, Verily, verily I say unto you, he that cometh to Me shall never hunger. For He will give, as we said before, food from heaven, and will richly bestow the manifold grace of the Spirit. He prepareth moreover to give food to them that come to Him, not even awaiting their asking. For we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but He forecometh us in reaching forth those things which preserve us unto eternal life.
He saith then unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread? We must needs see, why to Philip, although the rest of the disciples were standing by and cleaving to Him: Philip then was a questioner and apt to learn, but not over quick in ready power of understanding the more Divine. This you will learn, if you consider with yourself that he, after having followed the Saviour for a long time and gathered manifold lessons concerning His Godhead and gotten to himself apprehension through both deeds and words, as though he had learnt nothing yet, in the last times of the economy says to Jesus, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us; but as saying it in his simplicity he was fitly re-instructed, So long time am I with you, and hast thou not known Me, Philip? saith Christ. Therefore as to one duller of understanding, and advancing more slowly than he ought to the apprehension of things more Divine, He puts forth the question, exercising the disciple in faith. For this is one meaning of, To prove him, in this passage, although as the blessed Evangelist affirmed, He Himself knew what He would do.
But His saying Whence shall we buy proves the uncare for money of them that were with Him, and their voluntary poverty for God's sake, in that they had not even wherewithal to buy necessary food. Together with this He works something, and orders it skillfully. For He |322 says Whence, not emptily, as to those who had taken no trouble to provide anything at all, but as to those who were accustomed to entire uncare for money. Excluding then, and cutting short most skilfully expectation arising from money, He well nigh persuades them to go on to entreat the Lord, that He would, if He willeth them when they have nothing to feed those that come to Him, by His unspeakable Power and God-befitting Might create food. For this was what yet remained, and He was calling them at length to see that their only remaining hopes were thence, according to the Greek poets,
---------- the iron wound of necessity.
Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little.
Feebly again does Philip advance, not to the power of Jesus to do all things, and that easily, but on hearing Whence shall we buy said to prove him, forthwith he catches at it, and looks at the means by money alone, not conceiving that the nature of the thing may be accomplished otherwise than by the common law, and that practised by all, to wit, prodigality of expenditure. Therefore as far as regards the disciples' uncare for money and their possessing nothing, and Philip's own apprehension, which did not as yet with perfect clearness view the exceeding dignity of our Saviour, liberality towards the multitudes is turned into an impossibility. But it was not so, the will of the Saviour conducts it to its completion. The impossible with men is possible with God, and the Divine Power proves on all sides superior to the natural order of things with us, strong to accomplish all things wondrously, even what overleap our understanding.
8, 9, 10 One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, saith unto Him, There is a lad here which hath five barley loaves and two small fishes, but what are they among so many? Jesus saith,
He both thinks and reasons akin to Philip, and is |323 convicted of having a kindred apprehension of the Saviour Christ. For neither considering the power, nor yet led by the greatness of His preceding works unto Jesus' being able for all things, and that most easily; he points out what the lad has, but is evidently weak in faith: for what are these (he says) among so many? Albeit (for we must say it) in no unready way but resolutely rather ought he to go forth to the memory of those things which had been already miraculously wrought, and to consider that it was a work by no means strange or foreign from Him Who had transformed into wine the nature of water, had healed the palsied and driven away so great an infirmity by one word, that He, I say, should create food of that which had no being, and multiply Divinely the exceeding little that was found ready to hand. For the Authority that wrought in the one, how should it not be able to work in the other? Wherefore the pair of disciples answered more feebly than was meet. But herein we must consider this again. For those things which appear to have been little falls in the Saints, are oftentimes not without their share of profit, but have something wrapt up with them, helpful to the nature of that in regard to which is the charge of their apparent infirmity. For the above mentioned holy disciples, having considered, and openly said, one, that Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them that every one may take a little, the other, of the five loaves and two little fishes, that what are these among so many? raise the marvel to its height, and make the Might of the Saviour most marked, indicating by their own words the multitude that but now was to be filled, and the strength of their unbelief is converted into good testimony unto Christ. For in that they confessed that so large money would not suffice the multitude for even a slight enjoyment, by this very thing do they crown the Ineffable Might of the Host, when He, while there was nothing (for, as Andrew says, what were the lad's supplies among so many?) very richly outdid His work of love towards the multitude.
The like littleness of faith we shall find in the wilderness |324 in the all-wise Moses too. For they of Israel were weeping and, excited to a foul lusting after the tables of Egypt, were picturing to themselves unclean dishes of flesh, and turning aside after most strange pleasure, of onions and garlic, and the like unseemly things, and disregarding the Divine good things, were attacking Moses their mediator and leader. But God was not ignorant, for what the multitude were eagerly groaning, and promised to give them flesh. But since the promise of liberality was made in the wilderness, and the thing appeared hard of accomplishment, as regards man's understanding, Moses came to Him crying out, The people among whom I am, are six hundred thousand footmen, and THOU saidst, I will give them flesh, and they shall eat a whole month: shall the flocks and the herds he slain for them, and shall it suffice them? And what said God to these things? Will the Lord's Hand suffice not? For unto what can God be powerless?
Therefore one may well say to the words of Philip and Andrew also, Will the Lord's Hand suffice not? And let us too taking the nature of the thing by way of example, hold that littleness of faith is the worst of sicknesses and surpasses all evil, and if God work or promise to do, be it full surely received in simple faith, and let not the Deity be accused, from our inability to conceive how what is above us shall happen, by reason of our own powerlessness unto ought. For it becomes the good and sober-minded and him that hath his reason sound, to consider this too in his mind, how the bodily eye too sees not surely as far as one would like, but as far as it can, and as the limit of our nature permits. For the things that are situated at too great a height, it cannot distinguish, even if it imagine them, with difficulty snatching even the slightest view of them. So do thou conceive of the mind of man also, so far as the bounds given it by its Maker it attaineth and stretcheth forth, even if it be wholly purified; for it will see none of those things that are beyond, but will give way, even against its will, to what is above nature, wholly unable to grasp them. The things then that are above |325 us are received by faith, and not by investigation, and as he that so believes is admired, so he that falls into the contrary is by no means free from blame. And this will the Saviour Himself testify, saying, He that believeth on the Son is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already.
Now having once taken up the discourse upon the duty of not mistrusting God, come, let us again shewing forth somewhat out of the sacred writings, put it forward, and blazon forth the punishment of the unbelief for the profit of our readers. Therefore (for I will go again to the hierophant Moses) he was once bidden, in the wilderness, when the people were oppressed with intolerable thirst, to take Aaron, and smite the rock with his rod, that it might gush forth fountains of water. But he, not wholly believing the words of Him Who bade Him, but fainthearted by reason of human nature, saith, Hear now, ye rebels, must we fetch you water out of this rock? And Moses lifted up his hand and with his rod he smote the rock once and again, and much water came out: and the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed Me not, to sanctify Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them. Is it not hence clear to every one, how bitter the wages of unbelief? And if Moses so great as he was, was reproved, whom shall God spare, upon whom will not He who thus respecteth not persons, inflict His wrath for their unbelief, since He would not spare even that Moses, to whom He had said, I know thee above all, and thou didst find grace in My Sight.
Make the men sit down: and there was much grass in the place: the men therefore sat down, in number about five thousand.
The Saviour practised His accustomed gentleness, and takes away the sharpness of His reproaches. For He doth not rebuke bitterly His disciples, albeit they were deeply slumbering in respect of their faintheartedness and littleness of faith in Him: but rather He leads them by His |326 Deeds to the apprehension of the things which as yet they believe not. For the words Make the men sit down have no slight force, and wellnigh shew Jesus speaking after this sort, O slow to understand My Power, and to perceive Who it is that speaketh, Make the men sit down, that ye may see them filled with the nothing that lies before you and marvel. Make the men sit down. For it is what is lacking to them. For not two hundred pence would have sufficed to get means of life for the multitudes, but the lack of money such as men use, in respect of its being able to preserve life, My Power shall attain, which calleth all things into being, and createth out of things which are not. Nor did Elias the Prophet render the widow's cruse of oil unfailing, and make the barrel the source of unwasting food: but He, Who gave him the power, shall He not be able to multiply nothing, and to render any mere chance supply a fount of His ineffable Bounty and the principle and root of unlooked for grace?
It is not incredible that such were Christ's thoughts in what He said. Profitably doth the blessed Evangelist mention, that there was much grass in the place, shewing that the country was fit for the men to sit down in. But observe how, whereas the multitude of them that were fed was promiscuous, and that women were there with their children, he numbered the men only, following I suppose the custom of the Law. For God commanded the hierophant Moses, saying, Take ye the sum of all the congregation of the children of Israel, after their families, by the house of their fathers, with the number of their names, by their polls, every male from twenty years old and upwards. The Prophet did as he was commanded, and collected a great list of names, and is seen to have completely passed over females and childhood, and enrols the multitude that are of full age. For honourable in the book of God too is all that is manly and vigorous, and not what is infantile in purpose after good things. Therefore did he honour the custom of the Law also herein, and form again some spiritual conception. For shall we not with reason say, if |327 we look to the whole mind of the passage, that the violent and vainglorious people of the Jews Christ rightly turns away from and leaves: but receives very graciously them that come to Him, and fattens them with heavenly Food, reaching them the Spiritual Bread, which strengthened man's heart? For He feedeth them not sadly, but joyously and freely and with much enjoyment in piety. For this the reclining of the multitudes on the grass signifieth, so that now too it is fit that each one to whom such grace has been vouchsafed should say that in the Psalms, The Lord is my Shepherd, and nought shall fail me: in a grassy spot there He settled me. For in much enjoyment and delight through the gifts of the Spirit is the mind of the Saints fed, as it is said in the Song of Songs, Eat and drink and he inebriated, ye neighbours. But while there were many, and they sitting down promiscuously, as we said before, he mentioned the men alone, passing over in silence the women and children profitably for the idea [conveyed thereby]. For he teaches us, as in a riddle, that to those who quit them as men, that is, in good, will the food be supplied by the Saviour more fittingly and specially, and not to those who are effeminate unto no good habit of life, nor yet to those who are infantile in understanding, so as to be thereby able to understand none of the things that are necessary to be known.
11 Jesus therefore took the loaves, and when He had given thanks, He distributed 7 to them that were set down; likewise of the fishes also as much as they would.
He gives thanks, as an ensample to us and a pattern of the piety which ought to be in us: and attributes again as Man the Power of the miracle to the Divine Nature. For this was His custom, both helping by an example of piety, as we have said, those to whom He was manifested as a Teacher of what is most excellent, and by an economy concealing yet His God-befitting Dignity, till the time of His Passion should be at hand: for it was |328 His earnest care that it should be hid from the prince of this world. For this reason, doth He elsewhere too use words befitting men, as a Man, and heals again the understanding of His hearers, sometimes making most wise alluring as in the words, Father, I thank Thee that Thou heardest Me. Seest thou in how human guise His speech, and well calculated to trouble the understanding of the more simple? But when He says this, as Man, then again He straightway unfolds the mode of the economy, and the object of His will to lie hid, by most excellent arrangement fortifying the mind of the more simple which had received a shock. For I knew (He saith) that Thou hearest Me always. Why then dost Thou speak these things? Because of the multitude which stood by I said it, that they may believe (saith He) that Thou sentest Me. Is it not then hereby plain, that with a view manifoldly to assist us, and to fulfill, as befitted Him, the secret economy with Flesh, He sometimes speaks more lowlily, than He really is? As therefore in that passage, I thank Thee, is taken economically, so here too. [8 He blessed is understood of the bread.]
But we must observe that instead of gave thanks, Matthew has said, blessed, but the edition of the saints will in no wise differ. For Paul will shew that they are both one, saying that every meat 9 of God is good, and nothing to be refused: for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. But that which is sanctified through the prayer in supplication, which we are wont ever to make over the table, is surely blessed..
But since it is fit that nothing profitable be left uninvestigated by us; come let us say a little of the five loaves which the lad had and of the two little fishes: for both the |329 species itself, and besides the numbers are replete with mystery. For why (will some more studious person say) were not the loaves rather five, and the fishes three? why not five, and the fishes four? what occasion was there at all for recounting the number found, and why did not he rather say more simply and absolutely that the innumerable multitude of them that followed Him were fed off exceeding few chance things? But the fact that the blessed Evangelist recounted very diligently these things too, gives us something surely to think of, which we must needs search into.
He says then that the loaves are five, and they of barley, and the fishes two, and with these Christ feedeth them that love Him. And I think (and let the lover of wisdom look out for something better) that by the five barley loaves are signified the five-fold book of the all-wise Moses, that is, the whole Law, bringing in as it were coarser food, that by the letter and history. For this the barley hints at. But by the little fishes is signified the food got through the fishermen, that is, the more delicate books of the disciples of the Saviour; and these two (he says), the apostolic and Evangelic preaching, shine forth among us. And both these are draughts and spiritual writings of the fishermen. The Saviour therefore mingling the new with the old, by the Law and the teachings of the New Testament nourishes the souls of them that believe on Him, unto life, plainly eternal life. That the disciples were of fishermen, is (I suppose) plain and clear: and though all were not so, yet since there are some such among them, our argument will not recede from truth in what has been said.
12, 13 When they were filled, He saith unto His disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost. Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves which remained over and above unto them that had eaten.
To some one Christ may seem out of sparing of the |330 fragments to have bidden His disciples to gather them together. Yet (I think) every one will fitly imagine, that Christ would not endure to descend to such littleness: and why say I Christ? not even one of us would do so: for what would be supposed to be the remnant of five barley loaves? But the verse has a great economy, and makes the miracle evident to the hearers. For so great is the efficacy of God-befitting Authority in this matter, that not only was so great a multitude sated from five barley loaves and two little fishes, but twelve baskets full of fragments were gathered besides. Moreover the miracle repelled another (as is like) suspicion, and by the finding of the fragments confirmed the belief of there having been really and truly an abundance of food, and not rather the appearance of a vision deceiving both the eye of the feasters and of those who minister to them. But greater yet and more noteworthy, and of exceeding profit to us, is this: consider how by this miracle He makes us most zealous in our desire to exercise hospitality most gladly, wellnigh calling aloud to us by the things that were done, that the things of God shall not fail him that is ready to communicate, and rejoiceth in habit of neighbourly love, and readily fulfilleth what is written, Break thy bread to the hungry. For we find that the disciples at the beginning were hampered by reluctance about this, but seeing they were thus minded, the Saviour gave them, a rich gathering from the fragments: and teacheth us too thereby, that we, on expending a little for the glory of God, shall receive richer grace according to the saying of Christ, Good measure, pressed down and shaken together and running over, shall they give into your bosom. We must not be slothful therefore unto the communion of love to the brethren, but rather advance unto good resoluteness, and put as far as possible from us the cowardice and fear that dispose us to inhospitality and, confirmed in hope through faith in the power of God to multiply little things too, let us open our bowels to the needy, according to the appointment of the Law, for He says, Thou shalt open |331 thy bowels 10 wide unto thy needy brother within thee. For when wilt thou be found merciful, if thou remainest hard in this life? when wilt thou fulfil the commandment, if thou sufferest the time of being able to do it to slip by in idleness? Remember the Psalmist saying. For in death there is none that remembereth Thee: in the grave who shall confess to Thee? For what fruit is there yet of the dead, or how shall one of them that have gone down into the pit remember God by fulfilling His Commandments? For God closed upon him, as it is written. Therefore did the most wise Paul too instruct us, writing to certain, While we have opportunity let us do good.
And these things shall be said for profit from the narrative. But since we taking what has been said in a spiritual sense (for so we ought, and not otherwise) said that by the five barley loaves the book of Moses was hinted at, and by the two little fishes, the wise writings of the holy Apostles: in the gathering together of the fragments too, I suppose we ought to perceive some mystical and spiritual conception, agreeing with the order of the account. The Saviour then commanded the multitudes to sit down, and having blessed, He distributed the bread and the fishes, i. e., through the ministry of the disciples: but when they that had eaten were miraculously filled, He commands them to gather together the fragments, and twelve baskets are filled, one (it seems) for each of the disciples: for so many were they too. What then shall we understand from thence, save surely this, and truly, that Christ is the President of them that believe on Him, and nourishes them that come to Him with Divine and heavenly food? doctrines plainly of the Law and Prophets, Evangelic and Apostolic. But He does not altogether Himself appear as the Worker of these things, |332 but the disciples minister to us the grace from above (for it is not they that speak, as it is written, but the Spirit of the Father which speaketh in them) yet not without reward to the holy Apostles shall be their labour therein. For they having dispensed to us the spiritual food, and ministered the good things of our Saviour, will receive richest recompense and obtain the fullest grace of bounty from God. For this and nothing else, I think, is the meaning of the gathering together of a basketful by each at the commandment of Christ, after their toils and the service expended upon the feasters. But there is no doubt, that after them the things typically signified will pass also to the rulers of the holy Churches.
14 The men therefore, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth the Prophet that should come into the world.
They marvel at the sign who know how to approve things God-befitting, and regulate themselves by human reason rather than are diseased with unreason befitting the beasts, as were the blasphemous Jews, who, when they ought to have profited by the publicity of the things wrought, lost even the power of right judgment. For they deemed that Jesus ought now to be stoned also, because He so often appeared as a Worker of miracles. Superior then, and that in no small degree, to the folly of those men, are they who marvel, soberly persuaded by this one great miracle, that He it surely was Whose coming into the world as a Prophet was foretold. But observe, how great a difference hence appears, I mean, between the race of Israel, and those situate out of Judaea; for the one, although they were spectators of many things, and those not unworthy of admiration, are not only hard of heart and inhuman, but also desire unjustly to slay Him Who was zealous to save them, driving Him with their wild folly from their city and country: while they who dwelt away from Jerusalem, and hence signify the race of aliens, from one miracle alone glorify Him, and nobly determine that their conceptions of Him should be received with faith unhesitatingly. From |333 all these things, was Israel shewn to be self-condemned and self-invited to her final just rejection, and that it was due to the Gentiles to obtain at length their share of mercy from above and love through Christ.
15 When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take Him by force to make Him a King, He departed again into the mountain Himself Alone.
Most praiseworthy judgment would one give, and full rightly, to those who had been easily brought by the great miracle to believe, that it was indeed befitting that their very choicest should be Christ's, and their chiefest offered to Him as an honour. For what else but this does their desire to choose Him for their King signify to us? But among other things one may admire this too; for Christ is made an example to us of contempt of glory, in that He flees from those who desire to give Him due honour, and refuses a kingdom that highest earthly prize, although to Him it was in truth no object of envy, in that He with the Father reigneth over all things, yet giveth He to them too who look for the hope to come, to understand that little to them is worldly greatness, and that it is not good to accept honours in this life, that is, in the world, though they offer themselves, that they may mount up to honour from God. For unseemly is it in truth that they should wish to shine in these things, who are pressing on to the Divine grace, and thirsting for everlasting glory.
We must then eschew the love of glory, sister and neighbour of arrogance, and not far distant from its borders. And illustrious honour in this present life let us eschew us hurtful, let us rather seek for a holy lowliness, giving way to one another as the blessed Paul too ad-monisheth, saying, Be each among you so minded according to what was also in Christ Jesus; Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be Equal with God, but emptied Himself, taking servant's form, made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a Man, He humbled Himself, made obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross: wherefore God also highly exalted Him and gave |334 Him the 11 Name which is above every Name. Seest thou how His voluntary abasement hath a glorious consummation, and His lowly-mindedness shews itself a root of many good things to us? For the Only-Begotten being in the Form of God the Father hath humbled Himself, being made Man for our sakes, but even though He appeared in this life with Flesh, yet He remained not lowly: for He hastes back to His ancient Dignity and to His God-befitting glory, even though He became Man: this same way may one suppose will it be as to us too. For when we bring ourselves down from the empty heights of the present life and seek low things, then shall we surely receive in return the glory from above, and mount up unto being gods by grace, receiving after likeness so to say to Him Who is truly and by Nature Son, the being called children of God. And that I may say something akin to the subject before us, let us refuse, if it offer itself, excellency upon earth, the mother of all honour, if we mind heavenly things, and live for things above rather than those on the earth.
But our discourse is not devoid of spiritual thought, therefore we will repeat, summing up as it were the whole force of what has been done, and again going through from the beginning the account before us. For so will it become clear to us what is about to be said, specially as the blessed Evangelist hath added, as though hinting at something necessary and not to be rejected, that He withdrew into the mountain Himself Alone. Therefore rejecting the cruelty of the Jews, Christ began to depart from Jerusalem, which plainly is, I have forsaken Mine House, I have left Mine heritage. When He had crossed the sea of Tiberias, and was very far removed from their folly, He goes up into a mountain together with His disciples. This we said signified the impassable so to say and impracticable nature of the way to Him unto the Jews, |335 and Christ's withdrawal from them in anger at His Passion, for a season, that is, the fit time, and that Christ will be manifest, together with His disciples, when He departs from Judaea, and goes unto the Gentiles, transferring His grace to them. From the mountain did He look on them that followed Him, and moreover take thought for their food. And this again we said signified as it were typically, the supervision from above which is due to the Saints according to, The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and that Christ is not without thought for them that fear Him. Next much people were miraculously fed with the five loaves and two little fishes; of which we defined that they ought to be conceived to be the writings of the Saints old and new set by the Apostles before them that love Christ. Moreover, that the choir of the disciples will receive from God the rich fruit of their ministry to usward, and after them, the overseers of the holy churches of God: for the type was in the beginning to all in them. Next the spectators marvel at the miracles, and devise to take Jesus by force for a king. This He understanding, departs alone into the mountain, as it is written; for when Christ was marvelled at by the Gentiles, as Wonder-worker and God, when all enrolled 12 Him their King and Lord, then was He received up Alone into Heaven, no one at all following Him thither. For He, the Firstfruits of the dead, hath gone up Alone into the great and truer mountain, according as is said by the Psalmist, Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in His holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart. For such an one shall follow Christ, and shall go up into the spiritual mountain also, at the time of the Kingdom of Heaven. But He hath withdrawn into the mountain, that is, hath gone up into Heaven, not refusing to reign over them that believed on Him, but delaying the time of His more manifest kingdom, until His return to us from above, when He shall descend in the glory of the Father, no longer by miracles, as before, known to be truly and by |336 Nature Lord, but by God-befitting glory confessed that He is undoubtedly King.
Therefore (for I will say it again briefly, compressing the multitude of words), when by His miracles He was believed on and acknowledged to be God, having gone away from the Jewish people, then do all press forward to receive Him for their King, but He ascends into Heaven Alone, laying up for its fitting time the more open manifestation of His Kingdom.
16, 17 And when even was come, His disciples went down unto the sea, and entered into a ship and went over the sea unto Capernaum.
The first sign having been miraculously accomplished, His flight and withdrawal are economically found to be the root again and occasion of another, and the Wonderworker proceeds, as it is written, from might to might. For since He was being sought as King by them who were astonished at that great miracle, and was Himself refusing worldly honours according to the preceding account; it was altogether necessary that He should depart from the place, yea, rather from their whole country. In order then that He might seem to have sailed away, and might relax somewhat the intensity of the seekers, He orders the disciples to depart before Him, but Himself stays, advancing opportunely unto the next miracle. For it was His most earnest endeavour, by every occasion and act, to confirm the mind of the Apostles in their faith to Himward. For since they were to be teachers of the earth, and to shine forth as lights in the world, as Paul saith, He necessarily led them to all things that would profit them. For this was to shew kindness not on them alone, but to those also who should be led by them unto the unerring apprehension of Him.
But why (will some one perchance say) after that miracle, is the Power of Jesus to walk on the very sea immediately introduced? Such an one shall hear a very credible cause. |337 For when He desired to feed the multitudes, Philip and Andrew supposed that He would be powerless thereto, the one saying that no small sum of money would barely suffice them for just a little enjoyment, the other telling that five loaves and two small fishes were found with one of the lads, nay that what was found was nothing to so great a multitude; and from all (so to speak) their words, they thought that He could do nothing out of the due course of our affairs:----needs, in order that He might free Himself from so petty a conception, and might bring the still feeble mind of the Apostles to learn, that He doth all things wondrously which He willeth, unrestrained by the nature of things, the necessary order of things not hampering Him in the least, does He place under His Feet the humid nature of the waters, albeit unpractised to lie under the bodies of men, for all things were possible, as to God. Evening then being now come, and the time abating the vigilance of those who were seeking for Him, the choir of the holy disciples goes down to the sea, and began to sail away immediately, obeying in all things their God and Teacher, and that without delay.
18 And it was now dark, and Jesus was not come to them, and the sea arose by reason of a great wind that blew.
Many things at once are being profitably contrived, and the circumstances drive the disciples to a more zealous search after the Saviour. For the deep darkness of the night troubles them, hovering like smoke upon the raving waves, and takes from them all knowledge of whither at length to steer. Moreover the fierceness of winds troubles them not a little, riding on the waves with a rushing noise, and raising the billows to unwonted height. Yea, and though these things had taken place, Jesus (it says) was not yet come to them: for herein was their special danger, and the absence of Christ from the voyagers was working increase of their fear.
They therefore must needs be tempest-tost, who are not with Jesus, but are cut off, or seem to be absent from |338 Him through their departure from His holy laws, and severed because of sin from Him Who is able to save. If then it be heavy to be in spiritual darkness, if grievous to be swallowed up in the bitter sea of pleasures, let us receive Jesus: for this will deliver us from dangers, and from death in sin. The figure of what has been said will be seen in what happened, He will therefore surely come to His disciples.
19, 20 So when they had rowed about five and twenty or thirty furlongs, they see Jesus walking on the sea and drawing nigh unto the ship; and they were afraid. But He saith unto them, It is I, be not afraid.
When they are separated by great interval from the land, and it was like that they in their trouble would no way be saved (for they were now in the midst of the sea) then Christ thrice longed for appears to them. For thus could He give most welcome salvation to those in danger, when fear had already cut off all hope of life. But He appears to them miraculously (for so was it ordered to their greater profit) and they are astonished beholding Jesus going through the midst of the sea and upon the very waters, and make the miracle an addition to their fear. But Christ immediately relieves them from their misfortunes, saying, I am, be not afraid. For need, need must all disquiet be away, and they be openly superior to all danger, to whom Christ is now present. We shall see then by this again, that we ought to have a spirit courageous and manly in temptations, and endurance intense from hope in Christ, confirmed unto good confidence in our being surely saved, even though many be the fears of temptation that pour around us.
For observe that Christ does not appear to those in the boat immediately on their setting sail, nor at the commencement of their dangers, but when they are many furlongs off from the land. For not when the condition which harasses us first begins, does the grace of Him who saves visit us, but when the fear is at its height, and the danger now shews itself mighty, and we are found, so to |339 say, in the midst of the waves of afflictions: then unlooked for does Christ appear, and puts away our fear, and will free us from all danger, by His Ineffable Power changing the dread things into joy, as it were a calm.
21 They therefore would receive Him into the ship, and immediately the ship was at the land whither they were going.
The Lord not only releases the voyagers from dangers, wondrously shining on them, but also frees them both from toil and sweat, by His God-befitting Power thrusting forward the ship on to the opposite shore. For they were expecting that by rowing on still, they should with difficulty be able to reach the end, but He releases them from these their toils, revealing Himself to them in a very little time the Worker of many miracles to their full assurance. When then Christ appears and beams upon us, we shall without any labour succeed even against our hope, and we who are in danger through not having Him, shall have no more need of toil to be able to accomplish what is profitable for us, when He is present. Christ then is our deliverance from all danger, and the accomplishment of achievements beyond hope to them that receive Him.
But since we have discoursed on every portion of the subject singly, come and let us, joining the meaning hereof with the connexion of the preceding portions, work out the spiritual interpretation. We said then that Jesus ascended into Heaven as into a mountain, that is to say, being received up, after His resurrection from the dead. But when this has taken place, then His disciples alone and by themselves, a type of Ecclesiastical teachers in succession throughout all time, swim through the billows of this present life as a kind of sea, meeting with varied and great temptations, and enduring no contemptible dangers of teaching at the hands of those who oppose the faith and war against the Gospel preaching: but they shall be freed both from their fear and every danger, and shall rest from their toils and misery, when Christ shall appear to them hereafter |340 too in God-befitting Power, and having the whole world under His Feet. For this I deem His walking on the sea signifies, since the sea is often taken as a type of the world by Divine Scripture, as it is said in the Psalms, This great and wide sea, there are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts. When Christ then cometh in the glory of His Father, as it is written, then shall the ship of the holy Apostles, that is, the Church, and they that sail therein, i. e., they who through faith and love toward God are above the things of the world, without delay and without all toil, gain the land, whither they were going. For it was their aim to attain unto the Kingdom of Heaven, as to a fair haven. And the Saviour confirms this understanding of all that has been said, in that he says to His Disciples at one time, A little while and ye shall no more see Me, and again a little while and ye shall see Me, at another again, Tribulation shall ye have in the world, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. But in the night the Lord cometh down from the mountain and visiteth His disciples who are watching, and they look on Him coming, not without fear (for they tremble) that something needful for our understanding may in this too be made known unto us. For He shall descend from Heaven, as in the night, the world yet sleeping and slumbering in much sin. Therefore to us too doth He say, Watch therefore, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. The parable too of the Virgins will no less teach us this. For He says that five were wise, five foolish: but while the Bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept: and at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the Bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet Him. Seest thou how at midnight the Bridegroom is announced to us? And what the cry is, and the mode of the meeting, the Divine Paul will make known, saying at one time, For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a summons, with voice of archangel, with the trump of God, at another of the saints who are raised up, WE which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. But the |341 disciples being smitten with fear, albeit they saw Him coming, and were found in toil and watching, signifies that the Judge will come terrible to all, and that the righteous man will surely quake within himself, proven as by fire, albeit ever foreseeing Him Who was to come, and not shrinking from toils in virtue, nourished in vigilance alike and good watching. But the Lord doth not enter into the ship with His disciples, as though He were going to sail with them, but rather moveth the ship on to the land. For Christ will not appear co-working any more with those who honour Him, unto their achievement of virtue, but to give to them that have already achieved their looked-for end.
22, 23 The morrow, when the people which stood on the other side of the sea saw that there was none other boat there save that one whereinto His disciples were entered, and that Jesus went not with His disciples into the boat, yet that His disciples had gone away, howbeit there came other boats from Tiberias nigh unto the place where they did eat bread, after that the Lord had given thanks.
The miracle does not escape notice, I mean Jesus walking on. the very sea, although it took place by night and in the dark, and was ordered in secret. But the crowd of those who were wont to follow Him perceives, assured (as is probable) by much watching, that He had neither sailed with His disciples, nor had crossed in any other ship. For there was there the Apostles' ship alone, which they took and went away before Him. Nought then is hidden of what is good even though it be performed in secret by any, and here we see that that is true, Nothing is secret that shall not be made manifest, neither hid that shall not be known and come abroad. I say then that he who desireth to track the footsteps of Christ, and, as far as man can, to be moulded after His Pattern, ought not to be eager to live in much boasting, nor when he practises virtue to be led away in pursuit of praise, nor if he enter upon an extraordinary and exceeding disciplined life, should he desire to glory immoderately thereat, but should desire to be seen alone by the Eyes of the Deity, Who revealeth hidden things, and |342 that which is performed in secret bringeth He into clearest apprehension.
24 When the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there neither His disciples, they also took shipping and came to Capernaum seeking for Jesus.
These men follow Him, marvelling perchance at His miracles, yet not receiving any profit from them unto the duty of faith, but as though they were making some return to the Wonder-worker by merely bestowing on Him a not undesired praise. For this is a dreary disease of a mind and soul which is never accustomed to be led to the choice of what is profitable for her. The reason why this was so with them was, that they delighted solely in the pleasures of the flesh, and jumped eagerly at the meanest temporal food, rather than hasten after spiritual goods, and endeavour to gain what would support them to life eternal. This you will learn clearly by what follows too.
25 And when they had found Him on the other side of the sea, they said unto Him, Rabbi when camest Thou hither?
Their speech takes the form of being that of those who love Him and feigns sweetness, but is convicted of being exceeding senseless and childish. For they ought not on meeting with so great a teacher, to have talked to no purpose, and taken no pains to learn anything. For what was the need of being eager to ask Him, when He came there? what good would they be likely to get from knowing? We must then seek wisdom from the wise, and let a prudent silence be preferred to undisciplined words. For the disciple of Christ bids that our speech be seasoned with salt: and another of the wise exhorts us to this, saying, My son, if thou hast a word of understanding, answer, if not, lay thy hand upon thy mouth. And how evil it is to be condemned for an undisciplined tongue, we shall know from another: for he says, If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. |343
26 Jesus answered them and said, Verily, I say unto you, ye seek Me, not because ye saw the miracle, but because ye ate of the loaves and were filled.
We will say something common, yet worn by little use. Great teachers are often wont to be not slightly angry, when they are questioned about vain and useless matters. And we shall find them so, not out of haughtiness, but rather from annoyance at the folly of the questioners. Of us therefore and those like us I think that this is not unrightly said: but the Saviour inflicts a warm rebuke upon those who made those enquiries, for speaking uninstructedly, and unwisely enquiring not because it was their duty to seek out the things whereby they might become honest and good, but because they followed Him for carnal reward and that a most mean one. For what is less than daily food, and that not sumptuous? We must then practise piety towards Christ and Love of Him, not that we may obtain ought of carnal goods but that we may gain the salvation that is through Him; and let us not say good words to Him, as these say Rabbi, nor devise fair-speaking as a foundation of gain and boundless ingathering of riches. Truly he that attempts such things, will not be ignorant that he shall encounter Christ Who keenly convicteth him, and revealeth his hidden wickedness.
It is meet again to admire also the economy herein. For when He saw that they were enveloped with the afore-mentioned disease, as a Physician skilful and master of his art, He devised a twofold medicine for them, entwining the helpful reproof with most glorious miracle. The miracle then we shall find in His knowing their thoughts; and in the Wonder-worker not telling them what they sought not out of piety to know, you will behold the reproof. And the advantage is twofold. For in that He knows perfectly their devices and has accurate perception thereof, He shews that they are without understanding, in that they think to escape the Divine Eye, while they heap up wickedness in their heart, and practise sweet words with their tongue. But this is the part of One Who |344 persuades them to leave off this their disease, and to cease from no slight sin. For outrageous is he and lawless, who hath this conception of God. In usefully convicting them of sinning, He restrains in some sort the future course of evil. For that which has no hindrance, creeps on and extends itself; but when caught in the fact, it is well-nigh ashamed, and like a rope contracts into itself. Therefore the Lord profiteth them by reproving also, and by those things whereby one thinks that He smites, by these very things He is seen to be their Benefactor. We must then hold that even though some flatter or with mild words wheedle the rulers of the Churches, yet are not sound concerning the faith, it is not meet that they should be carried away by their fawnings nor by way of payment for their applause lend in turn to them who need correcting, silence in regard to their faults: but we ought rather boldly to rebuke them, and to persuade them to change for the better, or at least hereby if so be to profit others, according to that spoken by Paul, Them that sin rebuke before all, that the rest also may fear.
This then for the subjects separately: but that they are in connexion, and of necessity follow those before considered, I think I ought to shew. We said then that our Saviour's coming down from the mountain typified His second and future Coming to us from Heaven, and we added as in summary, that He appeared to His disciples while they were watching, and yet toiling, and released them from their fear, and brought the ship at once to land. And what is hence pourtrayed to us, as in a type, we have there declared. But now observe, that after Jesus had come down from the mountain, certain miss following Him, and come to Him at last. For they come on the day following, the Evangelist having not without care added this also. Then on meeting with Him, they endeavour to wheedle Him with good words: but Christ chides them, bringing upon them hot and keen reproof, that we might consider this again, that after the Coming of our Lord to us from Heaven, most vain and profitless unto men is the search after good things, nor |345 will the desire to follow Him find any fitting season. Yea even though certain approach Him, thinking to appease Him with smoothest words, they shall meet the Judge no longer mild and gentle, but reproving and avenging. For thou wilt see the flattery of them that are reproved, and the reproof itself in the words of the Saviour, when He saith, Many will say to Me in that Day, to wit, the Day of Judgment, Lord, Lord, did we not in Thy Name cast out devils? But says He, Then will I profess unto them, Verily I say unto you, I never knew you. For ye sought Me not purely (saith He) nor loved to excel in holiness, for thereby would I have known you, but since ye practised piety in semblance only and in mere imaginaries for the purpose of gain, justly do I confess that I have not known you. What then in that passage is Lord, Lord, here is Rabbi. To whomsoever therefore punishment is a bitter thing, let him not fall into inertness 13 nor be manifoldly infirm in transgression, looking to the goodness of God, but let him prepare his works for his going forth, as it is written, and make it fit for himself in the field, i. e., while he is in the world. For the Saviour interpreted that the field is the world. Let him prepare to shew holiness and righteousness before the Divine Judgment Seat. For he will behold no unseasonably clement Judge, nor yet yielding to entreaties for mercy, in Him Whom he ought without delay to have obeyed when He was calling him to salvation, while the time of mercy was granting to him both to beg for forgiveness for his already past transgressions, and to seek for loving-kindness from God Who saves.
27 Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for the meat which endureth unto everlasting life.
Something of this sort doth Paul teach us expanding the discourse universally and more generally, saying, He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soiveth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life |346 everlasting. For he says that they sow to the flesh who giving as it were full rein to the pleasures of the flesh, advance at full speed to whatever they will, by no means distinguishing what is profitable for them from what is hurtful and injurious, nor in any way accustomed to approve what seems good unto the Law-giver, but heedlessly hurried off to that alone which is pleasant and agreeable, and preferring nothing to things seen. Again he affirms that they sow to the Spirit, who expend the whole aim of their mind on those things wherein the Holy Ghost willeth us to excel, employing a mind so intense toward the cultivation of good things, that, did not voice of nature not to be disregarded constrain them to minister needful food to the flesh, they would not endure to descend even to this. I think then that we ought to take no forethought whatever for the flesh for the lusts thereof, but rather to apply ourselves to what is most needful, and to be zealous in practising those things, which bring us to the everlasting and Divine Life. For admiration for the delights of the body, and the esteeming nothing better than the superfluities of the belly, is truly brutish and akin to the extremest folly. But to apply ourselves to good things, and earnestly to strive to excel in virtues, and to be subject to the laws of the Spirit, and with all readiness to seek after the things of God, which are able to support us unto salvation:----I will grant that this truly beseemeth him who knoweth his own nature, and is not ignorant that he hath been made a reasonable creature after the Image of Him that created him. Therefore as the Saviour somewhere saith, Take we no thought, what shall we eat? or, what shall we drink? or, wherewithal shall we be clothed? but considering that the soul is more than meat, and the body than raiment, let us take thought how the more precious part of us may do well.
For though the body do well, and be fat with succession of delights, it will not profit the miserable soul; but on the contrary, will work it much harm. For it will depart into the everlasting fire, since they who have wrought no good, must needs undergo punishment for it: but if the body |347 have been bridled with due reason, and brought under the law of the Spirit, both must surely be saved together. It is then most absurd, that for the flesh we should so take thought, which is but for a time and even now shall perish, as to think that it ought not to lack any one thing which it loves: and to take care for the soul, by way of appendix, or as though it were nothing worth; albeit I think we ought to apply ourselves so much the rather to cares for the soul, as it is of more value than the body. For so of a truth preferring what surpasses in the comparison to what is inferior, and giving a just vote in this matter, we shall become holy and wise jurors, and not bestow upon any other the palm of right reasoning, but rather shall put it upon our own heads. Let us then, as the Saviour saith, labour not for the meat which perisheth, which when it hath passed into the belly, and for a very little while deluded the mind with pettiest pleasure, goeth out into the draught, and is conveyed forth again from the belly. But the spiritual food which strengthened the heart, keepeth the man unto life everlasting, which also Christ promiseth to give us, saying, Which the Son of Man shall give unto you; at once knitting the human with that which is Divine, and connecting the whole mystery of the economy with Flesh in its order. But He hints, I suppose, at the Mystic and more Spiritual Food, whereby we live in Him, sanctified in body and soul. But we shall see Him speaking more openly of this hereafter. The discourse then must be kept for its fit time and place. |348
CHAPTER V. That the Only-Begotten Son is the Impress of the Person of God the Father, and no other Impress either is, or is conceived of, save He.
which the Son of Man shall give unto you: for Him the Father sealed, God.
He was not ignorant, as God, of the charges that would result from Jewish folly, nor of the reasons why they were often foolishly enraged. He knew that they would reason in themselves, looking to the flesh alone, and not conceiving of God the Word therein, Who is This That seizeth upon God-befitting words? for who can give unto men food that keepeth them unto everlasting life? for wholly foreign to man's nature is such a thing, and it beseemeth Him Alone Who is God over all. The Saviour therefore defends Himself beforehand, and by seasonable arguments, shames their looked-for shameless talk. For He says that the Son of Man will give them the food which nourisheth them unto everlasting life, and immediately affirmed that He is sealed by the Father. Sealed again is either put for anointed (for he who is anointed is sealed), or as shewing that He has been by Nature formed unto the Father. Just as if He had said, I am not unable to give you food which endureth and bringeth up unto everlasting life and delight. For though I seem as one of you, that is Man with flesh, yet was I anointed and sealed by God the Father unto an exact Likeness with Him. For ye shall see (He saith) that He is in Me, and I again in Him Naturally, even though for your sakes I was born Man of a woman, according to the Ineffable order of the economy. For I can do all things in God-befitting Authority and do not in any way come short of the Might inherent in My Father. And |349 though God the Father giveth you the Spiritual Food, which preserveth unto everlasting life, it is clear that the Son too will give it, even though made in Flesh, since He is His Exact Image; the Likeness in every thing being conceived, not after the lineaments of flesh, nor yet ought conceived of in bodily form, but in God-befitting glory and Equal Power and royal Authority. But we must observe again, that when He says that the Son of Man will give the things God-befitting and that He hath been sealed unto the Image of God the Father, He endureth not the division of him that separateth the Temple of the Virgin from the true Sonship, but defines Himself and willeth to be conceived of again as One. For One in truth over us is Christ, bearing as it were the royal purple His Own Robe, I mean His Human Body, or His Temple, to wit of Soul and Body; since One too of Both is Christ.
But, most excellent sir, will the Christ-opposer again say, give the truth the power of overcoming: deal not subtilly with the saying, dishonourably turning it about, whithersoever thou wilt. Lo clearly hereby is the Son proved to be not of the Essence of the Father, but rather a copy of His Essence. Suppose some such thing (say they) as we say: A seal or signet impressed on wax, for example, or any other matter fit to receive it, and engraving a likeness only of itself, is taken away again by him who pressed it on, having lost no part of itself: so the Father, having imposed and imprinted Himself Wholly upon the Son in some way by a most accurate Likeness, from Himself hath He surely no part of His Essence, nor is conceived of as therefrom but a mere image and accurate likeness.
Let him that is zealous for knowledge see that now too is our opponent darting on us, like a serpent, and rears aloft his head surcharged with venom: but He Who shattereth the heads of the Dragon, will shatter it too, and will give us power to escape his manifold stubbornness. Let him then tell us, who has just been dinning us with dreadful words, Does not the seal or signet, which is made (it may be) of wood or of iron or of gold, full surely seal with |350 some impress those things whereon it comes, and will it not be and be conceived of as a seal apart from the impress? But I suppose that any one of our opponents too, even against his will constrained by fitness unto the very truth would confess that it will by all means seal with an impress; and without an impress, according to fair reasoning, not at all. Since then, as the Divine Scripture testifieth to us, the Son is the Impress of the Person of God the Father, in that He is in It and of It by Nature, whereupon is Himself impressed, or through whom else will the Father seal His Own Impress? For no one will say that the Father is not altogether in God-befitting Form, which is the Son, the Form of Him That begat Him; Whom if any behold spiritually, it is manifest that he will see the Father. Wherefore He says that He too is in Him Naturally, even though He be conceived to be of Him by reason of His Own Existence: as the brightness for instance, is in the brightening and of the brightening, and something different, according to the mode of conception, and again not different, as viewed in relation to it, because it is said to be of it, and again in it. And not I suppose in the way of division and complete essential partition are these things considered of: for they are inherent in respect of identity of essence in those things whence they are, and of which they are believed to be, tending forth according to expression in idea to something else, of their own, yet not separate. The Word of the Essence of the Father, not bare Word, nor without Flesh, is sealed then by the Father, yea rather through Him are sealed those things which are brought to likeness with God, as far as can be, as we understand in that which certain say, The light of Thy Countenance was marked upon us, O Lord. For he says that the Countenance of God the Father, is the Son, Which is again the Impress, but the light thereof is the grace which through the Spirit passeth through unto the creation, whereby we are remoulded unto God through faith, receiving through Him as with a seal, the conformation unto His Son, Who is |351 the Image of the Father, that our being made after the Image and Likeness of the Creator, might be well preserved in us. But since the Son is confessedly the Countenance of God the Father, He will surely be the Impress too with which God seals.
Yea (says our opponent) we believe that God through the Spirit seals the Saints, but the things that you are bringing forward have no place in the present question. Wherefore we will recapitulate and say, The seal supposed to be of iron, or may be gold, impresses its own likeness on the matter whereon it comes, losing nothing of its own, but by the operation only of its being pressed on does it mark the things that receive it: thus do we hold that the Son has been sealed by the Father, not having ought of His Essence but possessing merely an accurate likeness thereof, and being Other than He, as the image to the archetype.
O boundless folly, and perilous conceit! how easily hast thou forgotten those things just now gone through. For we said that the Son was the Impress of the Father, and that with Him was sealed other than He, and not Himself, lest He be thought to be His Own Impress. But thou, having not rightly spurned our argument hereon, dost not blush to put about Him a likeness of operation only. In image only then will the Son be God according to you, and by Nature not at all, but merely in that He was fashioned and well formed after the Likeness of Him That begat; haply no longer of Him That begat: for it is time that ye should on these accounts take away the begetting also, yea rather there is every need even if ye will it not. On the duty of believing that the Son is begotten of the Father, we have already expended much argument, or shall do so in its place. But it were more fitting that we should proceed to the matter in hand, putting forward to those who are accustomed unrestrainedly to shameless talk the question, Will they not surely say that that which is given may also be taken away, and confess that that which is added can altogether be also lost? for does it not at |352 some time happen that every thing is rejected, which is not firmly rooted in any by nature? It is evident, even should any of them not assent thereto. Some time then or other, according to the argument of possibility, the Son will be bereft of His Likeness. For He was sealed (as ye say) by the mere Operation of His Father upon Him, not having the stability that'is of natural Endowments, but conceived of and existing wholly other than His Father, and completely severed from His Essence. Doing then very excellently and fore-seeing matters by most cunning reasoning did ye secure the Father, by saying that He gives nought of Himself to the Son, save that He vouchsafes Him Likeness only, lest ought of passion should be conceived of as about Him. For this is your foolish mystery. For belike ye were ignorant that God the Father Who doeth all things without passion, will also beget without passion, and is superior to fire (for the argument brings us down to this necessity) which without passion or corporeal division, begets the burning which is of it. Let those then hear who are zealous in fancies only, and account unrestrained blasphemy to be not an unholy thing, but rather a virtue, that if they say that the Son is classed with the Father, in the propriety of likeness alone, He will abide in no secure possession of good things, but will wholly risk His being by Nature God, and will in possibility at least, admit of change for the worse. For there was said to that governor of Tyre too, words which reason necessitates us to attribute to the person of the devil, Thou art the seal of the likeness: but he to whom that speech is addressed, is found to have fallen from the likeness. Thou seest then, and clearly too, by such instances, that the mere being in the likeness of God is no security for an unmoved stability in things spiritual, nor yet does it suffice to perfect endurance in the good things in which they are, to have been duly sealed unto the Nature of the Maker. For they too fall, and are borne headlong, oft-times changing into a worse mind, than they had at the beginning. It is then possible, according to this argument, |353 that the Son, attaining to Likeness with the Father by sameness of work only, and not firm fixed by the prop by Nature, but having His stability in the mere motions of His Own Will, should undergo change, or, though He do not suffer it, should find the not so suffering the result of admirable purpose, and not rather the steadfastness of Native stability, as God.
What then, most noble sirs, is the Son no longer God in truth? And if according to you, He is so found, why do we worship Him? why is He co-glorified with God the Father? why is He borne, as God, upon the highest Powers? Are then with us the Holy Seraphim themselves too ignorant that they do greatly err from what is fit, in glorifying Him Who is not by Nature God? They err, it seems, in calling Him Who is honoured with equal honour Lord of Sabaoth. Or shall we not say, that the highest Powers, Principalities Thrones and Dominions and Lordships, essay, after their power, to appear conformed to God? For if the so small animal of the earth, in respect of that creation, I mean man, be honoured with such beauty, what reason has one not for fully thinking, that to them who are far better than we, far better things are allotted? How then do they both call Him Lord of Sabaoth, and stand around as a guard, as ministering to the King of the universe? why sitteth He with the Father, and that on His Right Hand, the bond with the Lord, the creature with the Creator? For is it not fitter to bring that which by means of heed and wariness is free from passion and perfect, to the level of things originate rather than of God by Essence Who hath Naturally the inability to suffer? But it is manifest, though they confess it not. Who then will endure these babblers, or how will they not with reason hear, Woe to them that are drunken without wine?
But perchance they will Be ashamed of the absurdities of such arguments, and will betake themselves to this, and say, that the Son was sealed by the Father unto a most accurate Likeness, and is Unchangeable in Nature, even though He be not from the Father. |354
How then, tell me, will that which is not of God by Nature, bear His Attribute, and that be found not without share-essentially of the Excellences of the Divine Essence, which proceeded not therefrom, after the true mode of generation? For it is, I suppose, clear and confessed by all, that the Properties of the Godhead are wholly unattainable by the created nature, and that the qualities belonging to It by Nature will not exist in ought else that is, in equal and exact manner: as for example, Immutability is in God Naturally; in us by no means so, but a kind of stability likens us thereto, through heed and vigilance not suffering us readily to go after those things which we ought not. But if it were possible, that according to them, ought of Divine Attributes should be in any who is not of the Divine Nature Essentially, and that they should be so in him as they are in It; what (tell me) is to prevent all things God-befitting from at length coming down even upon those who are not by nature gods? For if one of them unhindered finds place (I mean Immutability) there will be room for the rest also, and what follows? utter confusion. For will not the superior pass below, and the inferior mount up into the highest place? And what is there yet to hinder even the Most High God from being brought down to our level, and us again from being gods even as the Father, when there no longer is or is seen any difference intervening, if the qualities which belong to God Only pass to us, and are in us naturally? And since God the Father contains in Himself Alone, as it seems, those Properties whereby we should be as He, we have remained men, and the angels likewise with us what they are, not mounting up to That which is above all. For if God should reveal Himself not Jealous, by putting His Own Attribute into the power of all, many surely would be those who were by nature gods, able to create earth and heaven and all the rest of the creation. For the Excellencies of Him Who is by Nature the Creator having once passed on, how will not they be as He is? or what prevents that which is radiant with equal goods from appearing in equal glory? But the |355 God-opposer surely sees completely, how great the multitude of strange devices which is hence heaped up upon us and exclaims against the mislearning that is in him. The Godhead then will remain in Its Own Nature, and the creature will partake of It through spiritual relationship, but will never mount up unto the Dignity that unchangeably belongs to It. But our argument being thus arranged, we shall find that Immutability exists Essentially in the Son: He is then God by Nature, and of necessity of the Father, lest ought that is not of Him by Nature should reach to an equal dignity of Godhead.
But since they hold out to us as an incontestable argument their saying that the Son is other than the Father, as Image to archetype, and through this subtlety4 think to sever Him from the Essence of Him That begat Him, they shall be caught in no slight folly, and to have studied their assertion to no purpose, of any force in truth to accomplish fairly what they have at heart. For what further are they vainly contending for, or whence do they from only the distinctness of His own Being, sever the Son from the Father? For the fact that He exists Personally does not (I suppose) prove that He is diverse from the Essence of Him who begat Him. For He is confessedly of the Father, as being of His Essence; He is again in the Father, by reason of His being in Him by Nature; and you will hear Him say, at one time, I proceeded forth from the Father, and am come, again at another time, I am in the Father and the Father in Me. For He will not withdraw into a Personality wholly and completely separated, seeing that the Holy Trinity is conceived of as being in One Godhead; but being in the Father, in mode or position undivided as to consubstantiality, He will be conceived of as likewise of Him, according to the Procession which ineffably manifesteth Him in respect of beaming forth. For He is Light of Light. Therefore in the Father and of the Father, alike Undivided and separate, in Him as Impress, but as Image to Archetype will He be conceived of in His Own Person. But we will not simply discourse |356 concerning this, but will confirm it by example from the Law, on all sides fortifying the force of truth against those who think otherwise.
The Law then appointed to the children of Israel to give to every man a ransom for his poll, half a didrachm. But one stater contains a didrachm. Yea and herein again was shadowed out to us Christ Himself, Who offered Himself for all, as by all, a Ransom to God the Father, and is understood in the one drachma, but not separately from the other, because that in the one coin, as we said before, two drachmae are contained. Thus may both the Son be conceived of in respect of the Father, and again the Father in respect of the Son, Both in One Nature, but Each Separate in part, as existing in His own Person, yet not wholly severed, nor One apart from the Other. And as in the one coin were two drachmae, having equal bulk with one another, and in no ways one less than the other; so shalt thou conceive of the in nought differing Essence of the Son in respect of God the Father, and again of the Father in respect of the Son, and thou shalt at length receive wholesome doctrine upon all points spoken of concerning Him.
28, 29 They said therefore unto Him, What shall we do, that we might work the work of God? Jesus answered and said unto them,
Not of good purpose is the enquiry, nor yet as one might suppose does the question proceed from desire of knowledge on their part, but is rather the result of exceeding arrogance. For as if they would deign to learn nought beyond what they knew already, they well nigh say something of this sort, Sufficient, good Sir, to us are the writings of Moses: we know as much as we need of the things at which he who is skilful in the works of God ought to aim. What new thing then wilt Thou supply, in addition to those which were appointed at that time? what strange thing wilt Thou teach, which was not shewn us before by the Divine words? The enquiry then is rather of folly, than really of a studious will. You have |357 something of this kind in blessed Matthew too. For a certain young man, overflowing with not the most easily-gotten abundance of wealth, was intimating that he would enter upon the due service of God. When he came to Jesus, he eagerly enquired what he should do, that he might be found an heir of everlasting life. To whom the Lord saith, Thou knowest surely the commandments, Do not kill, Do not commit adultery, Do not bear false witness, and the like. But he, as lacking none of these things, or even not accepting an exposition of teaching which fell far short of his existing practice, says. All these things have I kept from my youth up, what lack I yet? what then he did joining haughtiness to ignorance in his question, what lack I yet, the same do these too through their over much arrogance alike and self-conceit, saying, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?
A good thing then is a low conceit, and it is the work of a noble soul, to commit to her teachers the thorough knowledge of what is profitable, and so to yield to their lessons, which they think it right to instil, seeing they are superior in knowledge. For how shall they be accepted at all as teachers, if they have not superiority of understanding above what the mind of their pupils hath, since their advance will scarcely end at the measure of their masters' knowledge, according to the word of the Saviour, The disciple is not above his Master, and, It is enough for the disciple that he be as his Master?
This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom HE sent.
Most severely doth the Lord, even though secretly as yet and obscurely, attack the folly of the questioners. For one would suppose, looking merely at the simple meaning of the words, that Jesus was commanding them nothing else, save to believe on Him: but on examining the intent of the words, he will see that they refer to something else. For full well does He arrange His discourse suitably to the folly of the questioners. For they, as though they learnt sufficiently through the Law how |358 to work what was well-pleasing to God, blasphemously neglect the teaching of our Saviour, saying, what shall we do, that we might work the work of God? But it was necessary that He should shew them, that they were still very far removed from the worship most pleasing unto God, and that they knew no whit of the true good things, who cleaving to the letter of the law, have their mind full of mere types and forms. Therefore with some great emphasis does He say, opposing the fruit of faith to the worship of the Law, This is the work of God that ye believe on Him whom HE sent. That is, it is not what YE supposed (He says) looking to the types alone; but know ye, even though ye will not learn it, that the Lawgiver took no pleasure in your sacrifices of oxen, nor needest thou to sacrifice sheep, as though God willed and required this. For what is frankincense, though it curl in the air in fragrant steam, what will the he-goat profit (saith He) and the costly offerings of cinnamon? God eateth not the flesh of bulls, nor yet drinketh He the blood of goats: He knoweth all the fowls of the Heaven, and the wild beasts of the field are with Him. But He hath hated and despised your feasts, and will not smell in your solemn assemblies, as Himself saith: nor spake He unto your fathers concerning whole burnt offerings or sacrifices. Therefore not this is the tvork of God, but rather that, that ye should believe on Him whom He sent. For of a truth better than the legal and typical worship is the salvation through faith and the grace that justifieth than the commandment that condemneth.
The work then of the pious soul is faith to Christ-ward, and more excellent far the zeal for to become wise in the knowledge of Him, than the cleaving to the typical shadows. You will marvel also at this besides: for whereas Christ was wont to take no notice of those who questioned Him, tempting Him, He answers this for the present economically (even though He knew that they would be nothing profited) to their own condemnation, as He says elsewhere too, If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin; but now they have no cloke for their sin. |359
30, 31 They said therefore unto Him, What sign doest THOU then, that we may see and believe Thee? what dost Thou work? our fathers ate the manna in the desert, as it is written, Bread from Heaven gave He them to eat.
The disposition of the Jews unveils itself by little and little, although, hidden and as yet buried in less overt reasonings. For they were saying in their folly, What shall we do that we might work the works of God? as if, as we said before, they held the commandment through Moses sufficient to conduct them to all wisdom, whereby they might know how to perform what was well-pleasing unto God. But their aim being such was concealed, but is now being unveiled, and by little and little comes forth more plainly. For nothing is secret, as the Saviour says, that shall not be made manifest. What then (are they saying) What sign shewest THOU? The blessed Moses was honoured (he says) and with great reason, he was set forth as a mediator between God and man. Yea and he gave too a sufficient sign, for all they that were with him ate the manna in the wilderness. But do THOU at length, since Thou comest to us in a position greater than his, and dost not shrink from adding to the things decreed of old, with what signs wilt Thou give us a warrant, or what of wondrous works dost Thou shewing us, introduce Thyself as the Author of more novel doctrines unto us? Hereby too is our Saviour's word shewn to be true: for they are convicted by their own words of thinking that they ought to seek Him, not to admire Him for those things which He had in God-befitting manner wrought, but because they did eat of the loaves and were filled. For they demand of Him a sign, not any chance one, but such as (they thought) Moses wrought, when not for one day, but for forty whole years, he fed the people that came out of Egypt in the wilderness, by the supply of manna. For, knowing nothing at all (it seems) of the Mysteries in the Divine Scriptures, they did not consider that it was fit to attribute the marvellous working hereunto to the Divine power which wrought it, but very foolishly crown the head of Moses for this. They therefore ask of |360 Christ a sign equal to that, giving no wonder at all to the sign which had been shewn them for a day, even though it were great, but saying that the gift of food ought to be extended to them for a long time. For that even so hardly would He shame them into confessing and agreeing that most glorious was the Power of the Saviour, and His Doctrine therefore to be received. Manifest then is it even though they do not say it in plain terms, that they wholly disregard signs, and under pretext of marvelling at them, are zealous to serve the impure pleasure of the belly. |361
CHAPTER VI. Of the manna, that it was a type of Christ's Presence and of the spiritual graces through Him.
32 Jesus therefore said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, not Moses hath given you the Bread from Heaven,
Now too does the Saviour most severely convict them of being without understanding, and exceedingly ignorant of what is in the Mosaic writings. For they ought to have known quite clearly that Moses was ministering the things of God to the people, and again those of the children of Israel to God, and was himself the worker in none of the miracles, but a minister rather and under-worker of those things which the Giver to them of all good things willed to do for the benefit of those who had been called out of bondage. What they then were impiously imagining, this Christ very resolutely cuts away (for to attribute things which befit and are due to the Divine Nature Alone, to the honour of men and not rather to It, how is not this replete with folly alike and impiety?) and in that He deprived the hierophant Moses of the miracle, and withdrew it out of his hand, it is (I suppose) manifest that He rather attributes the glory of it to Himself together with the Father, even though He abstained from speaking more openly, by reason of the uninstructedness of His hearers. For it was a thing truly not contrary to expectation, that they should rage, as though Moses were insulted by such words, and should be kindled unto intemperate anger, never enquiring what the truth was, nor recognizing the dignity of the Speaker, but heedlessly going about to only honour Moses, and not reasonably as it happened, when he was compared with what excelled him.
Let us learn then, with more judgment and reason, to |362 practise respect towards our holy fathers and to render, as it is written, fear to whom fear, honour to whom honour (for we shall in no wise injure, if we render what fittingly belongs to each, since the spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets) but when any discourse about our Saviour Christ is entered into, then we must needs say, Who in the clouds can be equalled unto the Lord? or who among the sons of the mighty shall be likened unto the Lord?
33 but My Father giveth you the True Bread from heaven: for the Bread of God is He which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world.
It was needful not only to remove Moses from God-befitting Authority, according to their conception, and to shew that he was a minister of that miraculous working, rather than the bestower of it, but also to lessen the wonder though miraculously wrought, and to shew that it was nothing at all in comparison with the greater. For imagine Christ calling out something like this, The great things, sirs, do ye reckon among the little and meanest, and the beneficence of the Lord of all ye have meted out with most petty limits. For with no slight folly do ye suppose that the manna is the Bread from heaven, although it fed the race alone of the Jews in the wilderness, while there are other nations besides without number throughout the world. And ye supposed that God willed to shew forth lovingkindness so contracted, as to give food to one people only (for these were types of universalities, and in the partial was a setting forth of His general Munificence, as it were in pledge, to those who first received it): but when the time of the Truth was at our doors, My Father giveth you the Bread from heaven, which was shadowed forth to them of old in the gift of the manna. For let no one think (saith He) that that was in truth the Bread from heaven, but rather let him give his judgment in favour of That, which is clearly able to feed the whole earth, and to give in full life unto the world.
He accuses therefore the Jew of cleaving to the typical |363 observances, and refusing to examine into the beauty of the Truth. For not that was, properly speaking, the manna, but the Only-Begotten Word of God Himself, who proceedeth from the Essence of the Father, since He is by Nature Life, and quickeneth all things. For since He sprang of the Living Father, He also is by Nature Life, and since the work of that which is by Nature Life is to quicken, Christ quickeneth all things. For as our earthly bread which is gotten of the earth suffereth not the frail nature of flesh to waste away: so He too, through the operation of the Spirit quickeneth our spirit, and not only so, but also holdeth together our very body unto incorruption.
But since our meditations have once got upon the subject of manna, it will not be amiss (I think) for us to consider and say some little on it also, bringing forward out of the Mosaic books themselves severally the things written thereon. For thus having made the statement of the matter most clear, we shall rightly discern each of the things signified therein. But we will shew through them all, that the Very Manna is Christ Himself, understood as given under the type of manna to them of old by God the Father. The beginning of the oracles thereon, speaks on this wise, On the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt, the whole congregation of the children of Israel were murmuring against Moses and Aaron, and the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died, stricken by the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots and were eating bread to the full, for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger. The matter then of the history is clear and very plain, and I do not think it needs any words to test the obvious meaning: but we will speak of it, looking only to the spiritual meaning. The children of Israel then, while still in the country of the Egyptians, by Divine command were keeping typically their feast to Christ, and having taken their supper of the lamb, did thus hardly escape the tyranny of Pharaoh's |364 rule and shake off the intolerable yoke of bondage. Then having miraculously crossed the Red sea, they got into the wilderness: and there famishing craved flesh to eat, and were dragged down to the accustomed desire for food: and so they began murmuring against Moses and fall into repenting of their free gift from God when they ought to have given no small thanks for it. Egypt then will be darkness, and will signify the condition of the present life, and the worldly state, wherein we enrolled as in some state, serve a bitter serfdom therein, working nothing at all to Godward but fulfilling only the works most delightsome to the Devil, and hasting down unto the pleasures of impure flesh, like clay or stinking mud, enduring a miserable toil, unpaid, profitless, and pursuing a wretched (so to say) love of pleasure.
But when the Law of God speaks to our soul, and we behold at length the bitter bondage of these things, then oh then do we, thirsting after riddance from all evil, come to Christ Himself, as to the beginning and door of freedom, and provisioned with the security and grace that come through His Precious Blood, we leave the carnal condition of this life, as it were a troublous and stormy sea, and, out of all the tumult of the world, we at length reach a more spiritual and purer state, as it were sojourning in the wilderness. But since he is not unexercised unto virtue, who is through the Law instructed thereunto, when we find that we are at length in this case, then we falling into the temptations which try us, are sometimes devoured by the memory of carnal lusts, and then, when the lust inflames us mightily, we cry oftentimes out of recklessness, albeit the Divine Law hath called us to liberty, being as it were in hunger for our old accustomed pleasures, and making slight account of our toils after temperance, we look upon the bondage of the world as no longer evil. And in truth, the will of the flesh is sufficient to draw the mind to all faintheartedness after goodness.
And the Lord said unto Moses, Behold I rain you bread |365 from heaven. In these words you may very clearly see that which is sung in the Psalms, He gave them bread of heaven; man did eat angels' bread. But it is, I suppose, evident to all, that of the reasonable Powers in heaven, none other is the Bread and Food, save the Only Begotten of God the Father. He then is the True Manna, the Bread from heaven, given to the whole rational creation by God the Father. But entering into the order of our subject we say this: Observe how the Divine grace from above draws unto itself the nature of man even though at times sick after its wonted things, and saves it in manifold wise. For the lust of the flesh like a stone falling on the mind thrusts it down, and despotically forces it unto its own will; but Christ brings us round again, as with a bridle, unto longing for better things, and recovers them that are diseased unto God-loving habit of mind. For lo, lo to them that are sinking down into carnal pleasures, He promises to give Food from Heaven, the consolation, that is, through the Spirit, the Spiritual Manna. Through this are we strengthened unto all endurance and manliness and obtain that we fall not through infirmity into those things we ought not. The Spiritual Manna therefore, that is, Christ, was strengthening us before too unto piety.
But since we have once, by reason of need, digressed, I think it well not to leave the subject uninvestigated, since it is very conducive to our profit. Some one then may reasonably ask, Why is God who is so Loving to man and so loveth virtue when it behoved Him to forecome their request, tardy in respect of His Promise: and He nowise punishes those so perverse men, albeit He punished them afterwards, when they were sick with the same lusting, and pictured to themselves bread to the full, and fleshpots, and admitted longing for the rankest onions. For we shall find in Numbers, that both certain were punished, and the place, wherein they were then encamping, was called the graves of lust, for there they buried the people that lusted. With respect then to the first question, we |366 say that it assuredly behoved Him to wait for the desire, and so at length to reveal Himself in due season the Giver. For most welcome is the gift to those in good case, when certain pleasures appear before it and precede it, inciting to thirst after what is not yet come: but the soul of man will be devoid of a more grateful sensation, if it do not first stretch after and labour for the pleasures of being well off. But perhaps you will say that there had been no way any entreaty from them, but murmuring rather, repentance, and outcry: for this would indeed be speaking more truly. To this we say, that entreaty through prayer will befit those who are of a perfect habit: and perchance the murmuring of the more feeble from depression or whatever cause, will partake of this: and the Saviour of all, being loving to man is not altogether angry at it. For as in those who are yet babes, crying will sometimes avail to the asking of their needs, and the mother is often called by it to find out what will please the child: so to those who were yet babes, and had not yet advanced to understanding, the cry of weariness so to say, has the force of petition before God. And He punisheth not in the beginning, even though He see them worsted by earthly lusts, but after a time, for this reason, as seems to me. They who were but newly come forth of Egypt, not having yet received the manna, nor having the Bread from heaven, which strengtheneth man's heart, fall as might be expected, into carnal lusts, and therefore are pardoned. But they who had already delighted in the Lord, as it is written, on preferring carnal delights to the spiritual good things, have to give most righteous satisfaction, and over and above their suffering have assigned them a notable memorial of their fate. For the graves of lust is the name of the place of their punishment.
And the people shall go out and gather the day's portion each day. We will consider the sensible manna a type of the spiritual manna; and the spiritual manna signifies Christ Himself, but the sensible manna adumbrates the grosser teaching of the Law. With reason is the gathering daily, |367 and the lawgiver forbids keeping it till the morrow, darkly hinting to them of old, that when the time of salvation at length shines forth, wherein the Only Begotten appeared in the world with Flesh, the legal types should be wholly abolished, and the gathering food thence in vain, while the Truth Itself lieth before us for our pleasure and enjoyment.
And it shall come to pass, on the sixth day, and they shall prepare that which they bring in, and it shall be double what they gather. Observe again, that thou mayest understand, that He does not suffer them to gather on the seventh day the sensible manna, but commands that which is already provided and gathered to be prepared for their food beforehand. For the seventh day signifies the time of the Advent of our Saviour, wherein we rest in holiness, ceasing from works of sin, and receiving for food, both the fulfilment of our faith, and the knowledge already arranged in us through the Law, no longer gathering it as of necessity, since more excellent food is now before us, and we have the Bread from heaven. The manna is collected in double measure before the holy sabbath: and you will understand thence, that the Law being concluded in respect of its temporal close, and the holy sabbath, that is, Christ's coming, already beginning, the getting of the heavenly goods will be after some sort in double measure, and the grace two-fold, bringing in addition to the advantages from the Law, the Gospel instruction also. Which the Lord Himself too may be conceived to teach when He says, as in the form of a parable. Therefore every scribe instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is like unto a wealthy 14 man which putteth forth out of his treasure things new and old: the old the things of the Law, the new those through Christ.
And Moses and Aaron said unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, At even ye shall know that the Lord brought you forth from the land of Egypt, in the morning |368 ye shall see the glory of the Lord, in that the Lord giveth you in the evening flesh to eat and in the morning bread to the full. Moses promises to them of Israel, that quails shall be given them by God in the evening, and declares that hereby they shall know surely that the Lord brought them up out of Egypt. And in the morning ye shall see plainly, (he says) the glory of the Lord, when He shall give you bread to the full. And consider, I pray you, the difference between each of these. For the quail signifies the Law (for the bird ever flies low and about the earth): thus wilt thou see those too who are instructed through the Law unto a more earthly piety through types, I mean such as relate to sacrifice and purifications and Jewish washing. For these are heaved a little above the earth, and seem to rise above it, but are nevertheless in it and about it: for not in the Law is that which is perfectly good and lofty unto understanding. Moreover it is given in the evening: the account again by evening signifying the obscurity of the letter, or the darksome condition of the world, when it had not yet the Very Light, i. e.,. Christ, who when He was Incarnate said, I am come a Light into the world. But He says the children of Israel shall know that the Lord brought them out of Egypt. For knowledge only of the salvation generally through Christ is seen in the Mosaic book, while grace was not yet present in very person. This very thing He hinted at, when He added, In the morning ye shall see the glory of the Lord, in that He giveth you bread to the full. For when the mist of the Law, as it were night, hath been dispersed, and the spiritual Sun hath risen upon us all, we behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord now present, receiving the Bread from heaven to the full, I mean Christ Himself.
And it was evening and the quails came up and covered the camp, and in the morning as the dew ceased round about the host, and behold, upon the face of the wilderness a small thing, as coriander seed, white. Look at the arrangement of the things to be considered. He says of the quails, that they covered the camp; of the manna again, that |369 in the morning when the dew was gone up, it lay on the face of the wilderness round about the camp. For the instruction through the Law, I mean that in types and figures, which we have compared to the appearance of quails, covers the synagogue of the Jews: for, as Paul saith, the veil lieth upon their heart, and hardness in part. But when it was morning, that is, when Christ had now risen, and flashed forth upon all the world, and when the dew was gone up, that is, the gross and mist-like introduction of legal ordinances (for Christ is the end of the Law and the Prophets); then of a surety the true and heavenly manna will come down to us, I mean the Gospel teaching, not upon the congregation of the Israelites, but round about the camp, i. e., to all the nations, and upon the face of the wilderness, that is the Church of the Gentiles, whereof it is said that more are the children of the desolate than of the married wife. For over the whole world is dispersed the grace of the spiritual manna, which is also compared to the coriander seed, and is called small. For the power of the Divine Word being of a truth subtle, and cooling the heat of the passions, lulleth the fire of carnal motions within us, and entereth into the deep of the heart. For they say that the effect of this herb, I mean the coriander, is most cooling.
And when the children of Israel saw it they said one to another, What is this? for they wist not what it was; being unused to what had been miraculously wrought and not being able to say from experience what it was, they say one to another What is this? But this very thing which is said interrogatively, they make the name of the thing, and call it in the Syrian tongue, Manna, i.e., What is this? and you will hence see, how Christ would be unknown among the Jews. For that which prevailed in the type, trial shewed that it had also force in the truth.
And Moses said to them, Let no man leave of it till the morning; and they hearkened not unto Moses, but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms and stank, and Moses was wroth with them. The morning in this place |370 signifies the bright and most glorious time of the coming of our Saviour, when the shadow of the Law and the mist of
the devil among the nations, being in some sort undone, the Only-Begotten rose upon us like light, and spiritual dawn appeared. The blessed Moses then commanded not to leave of the typical manna until the morning; for when the aforementioned time hath risen upon us, superfluous and utterly out of place are the shadows of the Law by reason of the now present truth. For that a thing truly useless is the righteousness of the Law when Christ hath now gleamed forth, Paul shewed, saying of Him, for whom I suffered the loss of all things, to wit, glorying in the Law, and do count them dung, that I may win Christ and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness which is of the Law, but that which is through the faith of Jesus Christ. Seest thou then, how as a wise man he took care not to leave of it till the morning? They who kept of it unto the morning are a type of the Jewish multitude which should believe not, whose eager desire to keep the law in the letter, should be a producing of corruption and of worms. For nearest thou how the Lawgiver is exasperated greatly against them? And Moses said unto Aaron, Take one golden pot, and put therein manna, an omer full, and thou shalt lay it up before God to be kept. Well in truth may we marvel hereat, and say, O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! For incomprehensible in truth is the wisdom hidden in the God-inspired Scriptures, and deep their depth, as it is written, who can find it out? Thou seest then how our last comment fitted these things: For since Christ Himself was shewn to be our Very Manna, declared in type by way of image to them of old, needs does he teach in this place, of Whom and of what virtue and glory will he be full, who treasureth up in himself the spiritual Manna, and bringeth Jesus into the inmost recesses of his heart, through right faith in Him and perfect love. For thou hearest how the omer full of manna was put in a golden pot, and by the hand of Aaron laid up before the Lord to be kept. For the holy and truly pious soul, which travaileth of the Word of God |371 perfectly in herself, and receiveth entire the heavenly treasure will be a precious vessel, like as of gold, and will be offered by the High Priest of all to God the Father, and will be brought into the Presence of Him Who holdeth all things together and preserveth them to be kept, not suffering to perish that which is of its own nature perishable. The righteous man then is described, as having in a golden vessel the spiritual Manna, that is Christ, attaining unto incorruption, as in the Sight of God, and remaining to be kept, that is unto long-enduring and endless life. Christ with reason therefore convicts the Jews of no slight madness, in supposing that the manna was given by the all-wise Moses to them of old, and in staying at this point their discourse thereon and considering not one at all of the things presignified thereby, by His saying, Verily I say unto you, Not Moses hath given you the manna. For they ought rather to have considered this and perceived that Moses had brought in the service of mediation merely: but that the gift was no invention of human hand, but the work of Divine Grace, outlining the spiritual in the grosser, and signifying to us the Bread from Heaven, Which giveth Life to the whole world, and doth not feed the one race of Israel as it were by preference.
34, 35 They said therefore unto Him, Lord evermore give us this Bread. Jesus said unto them,
Hereby is clearly divulged, though much desiring to be hid, the aim of the Jews, and that one might see that it is not lawful for the Truth to lie, which said that not because they saw the miracles, were they therefore eager to follow Him, but because they did eat of the loaves and were filled. With reason then were they condemned for their much dulness, and I suppose one should truly say to them, Lo a foolish people and without heart, they have eyes and see not, they have ears and hear not. For while our Saviour Christ by many words, as one may see, is drawing them away from carnal imaginations, and by His all-wise teaching winging them unto spiritual contemplation, they attain |372 not above the profit of the flesh, and hearing of the Bread which giveth life unto the world, they still picture to themselves that of the earth, having their belly for god, as it is written, and overcome by the evils of the belly, that they may justly hear, whose glory is in their shame. And you will find such language very consonant to that of the woman of Samaria. For when our Saviour Christ was expending upon her too a long discourse, and telling her of the spiritual waters, and saying clearly, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again, hut whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing wp into everlasting life: she caught at it through the dulness that was in her, and letting go the spiritual fountain, and thinking nothing at all about it, but sinking down to the gift of sensible wells, says, Lord give me this water, that I thirst not neither come hither to draw. Akin therefore to her language is that of the Jews. For as she was weakly by nature, in the same way (I think) have these too nought male or manly in their understanding, but are effeminated unto the unmanly lusts of the belly, and shew that that is true of them which is written, For the foolish man will utter folly, and his heart will imagine vain things.
I am the Bread of life
It is the custom of our Saviour Christ when explaining the more Divine and already foretold Mysteries, to make His Discourse upon them darksome and not too transparent. For He commits not His so dread word to lie unveiled before the unholy and profane indiscriminately at their pleasure, to be trodden down by them, but having veiled it in the armour of obscurity, He renders it not invisible to the prudent, but when He seeth among His hearers any foolish ones, and who understand no whit of the things spoken, He opens clearly what He wills to make known, and removing as it were all mist from His Discourse, He sets the knowledge of the Mystery before them bare and in full view, hereby rendering their |373 unbelief without defence. That it was His wont (as we have said) to use an obscure and reserved method of speaking, He will Himself teach us, saying in the Book of Psalms, I will open My Mouth in parables. And the blessed prophet Isaiah too no less will confirm our explanation hereof, and shew it in no wise mistaken, proclaiming, Behold a righteous King shall reign, and princes shall rule with judgment, and a man shall veil his words: for he says that He has reigned a righteous King over us who saith. Yet was I appointed King by Him, upon Sion His holy mountain, declaring the commandment of the Lord: and princes living together in judgment, that is, in uprightness in every thing, he calls the holy disciples who came to the Saviour Christ oftentimes veiling His words, saying, Declare unto us the parable. And He once on hearing the question, Why speakest Thou unto the multitudes in parables? is found to have declared most manifestly the cause, Because they seeing (He says) see not, and hearing they hear not, nor understand. For they were no ways worthy (it seems) seeing that God who judgeth justly, decreed this sentence upon them. The Saviour then, having devised many turns in His Discourse, when He saw that His hearers understood nothing, at length says more openly, I am the Bread, of life, and well-nigh makes an attack upon their unmeasured want of reason, saying, O ye who have the mastery over all in your incomparable uninstructedness alone, when God declares that He will give you Bread from Heaven, and has made you so great a promise in feeding you with manna, do ye limit the Divine Liberality, and are ye not ashamed of staying the grace from above at this, not knowing that it is but a little thing both for you to receive such things of God, and for God Himself to give them you? Do not then believe (saith He) that that bread is the Bread from Heaven. For I am the Bread of Life, Who of old was fore-announced to you as in promise, and shewn as in type, but now am present fulfilling My due promise. I am the Bread of Life, not bodily bread, which cutteth off the suffering from hunger only, and freeth the flesh from the destruction |374 therefrom, but remoulding wholly the whole living being to eternal life, and rendering man who was formed to be for ever, superior to death. By these words He points to the life and grace through His Holy Flesh, through which this property of the Only Begotten, i. e., life, is introduced into us.
But we must know (for I think we ought with zealous love of learning to pursue what brings us profit) that for forty whole years was the typical manna supplied to them of Israel by God, while Moses was yet with them, but when he had attained the common termination of life, and Jesus was now appointed the commander and general of the Jewish ranks: he brought them over Jordan, as it is written, and having circumcised them with knives of stone and brought them into the land of promise, he at length arranged that they should be fed with bread, the all-wise God having now stayed His gift of manna. Thus (for the type shall now be transferred to the truer) when Moses was shrouded, that is, when the types of the worship after the Law were brought to nought, and Christ appeared to us, the true Jesus (for He saved His people from their sins), then we crossed the Jordan, then received the spiritual circumcision through the teaching of the twelve stones, that is of the holy disciples, of whom if is written in the Prophets that the holy stones are rolled upon His land. For the holy stones going about and running over the whole earth, are of a surety these, through whom also we were circumcised with the circumcision made without hands in Spirit, i. e., through faith. When then we were called to the kingdom of Heaven by Christ (for this and nought else, I deem, it pointeth to, that some entered into the land of promise), then the typical manna no longer belongeth to us (for not by the letter of Moses are we any longer nourished) but the Bread from Heaven, i. e., Christ, nourishing us unto eternal life, both through the supply of the Holy Ghost, and the participation of His Own Flesh, which infuseth into us the participation of God, and effaceth the deadness that cometh from the ancient curse. |375
He that cometh to Me shall not hunger, and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst.
There is herein again something concealed which we must say. For it is the wont of the Saviour Christ, not to contend with the praises of the saints, but on the contrary to crown them with glorious honours. But when certain of the more ignorant folk, not perceiving how great His excellence over them, offer them a superior glory, then does He to their great profit bring them to a meeter idea, while they consider Who the Only-Begotten is, and that He will full surely surpass by incomparable Excellencies. But not over clear does He make His Discourse to this effect, but somewhat obscure and free from any boast, and yet by consideration of or comparison of the works it forcibly takes hold on the vote of superiority. For instance, He was discoursing one time with the woman of Samaria, to whom He promised to give living water; and the woman understanding nought of the things spoken said, Art THOU greater than our father Jacob who gave us the well? But when the Saviour wished to persuade her that He was both greater than he, and in no slight degree more worthy of belief, He proceeds to the difference between the water, and says, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again, but whosoever drinlceth of the water that I shall give him, it shall be in him a well of water syringing up into everlasting life. And what thence does He give to understand but surely this, that the Giver of more excellent gifts must needs be surely Himself more excellent than he with whom was the comparison? Some such method then of leading and instruction He uses now too. For since the Jews were behaving haughtily towards Him, and durst think big, putting forward on all occasions their Lawgiver Moses, and often asserting that they ought to follow his ordinances rather than Christ's, thinking that the supply of manna and the gushing forth of water from the rock, were most reasonable proof of his superiority over all, and over our Saviour Jesus Christ Himself, needs He did return to His wonted plan, and does not say downright, |376 that He is superior to Moses, by reason of the unbridled daring of His hearers, and their being most exceeding prone to wrath; but He comes to this very thing that is marvelled at, and by comparison of it with the greater, proves that it is small. For he that cometh to Me (He says) shall never hunger and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst. Yea (saith He) I too will agree with you that the manna was given through Moses, but they that did eat thereof hungered. I will grant that out of the womb of the rocks was given forth unto you water, but they who drank thirsted, and the aforesaid gift wrought them some little temporary enjoyment; but he that cometh to Me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst.
What then doth Christ promise? Nothing corruptible, but rather that Blessing in the participation of His Holy Flesh and Blood, which restoreth man wholly to incorruption, so that he should need none of the things which drive off the death of the flesh, food (I mean) and drink. It seems that He here calls water, the Sanctification through the Spirit, or the Divine and Holy Ghost Himself, often so named by the Divine Scriptures. The Holy Body of Christ then giveth life to those in whom It is, and holdeth them together unto incorruption, being commingled with our bodies. For it is conceived of as the Body of none other, but of Him which is by Nature life, having in itself the whole virtue of the united Word, and inqualitied, yea or rather, fulfilled with His effectuating Might, through which all things are quickened and retained in being. But since these things are so, let them who have now been baptized and have tasted the Divine Grace, know, that if they go sluggishly or hardly at all into the Churches, and for a long time keep away from the Eucharistic gift through Christ, and feign a pernicious reverence, in that they will not partake of Him sacramentally, they exclude themselves from eternal life, in that they decline to be quickened; and this their refusal, albeit seeming haply to be the fruit of reverence, is turned into a snare and an offence. |377
For rather ought they urgently to gather up their implanted power and purpose, that so they may be resolute in clearing away sin, and essay to live a life most comely, and so hasten with all boldness to the participation of Life. But since Satan is manifold in his wiles, he never suffers them to think that they ought to be soberminded, but after having denied them with evils, persuades them to shrink from the very grace, whereby it were likely, that they recovering from the pleasure that leads to vice, as from wine and drunkenness, should see and consider what is for their good. Breaking off therefore his bond, and shaking off the yoke cast upon us from his tyranny, let us serve the Lord with fear, as it is written, and through temperance shew ourselves superior to the pleasures of the flesh and approach to that Divine and Heavenly Grace, and mount up unto the holy Participation of Christ; for thus, thus shall we overcome the deceit of the devil, and, having become partakers of the Divine Nature, shall mount up to life and incorruption.
36 But I said unto you that ye have both seen Me and believe not.
By many words doth He struggle with them, and in every way urge them to salvation by faith. But He was not ignorant, as God, that they would run off to unbelief, as their sister or intimate foster sister, and would regard as nought, Him who calleth them to life. In order then that they might know that Jesus was not ignorant what manner of men they would be found, or rather, to speak more fittingly, that they might learn that they were under the Divine wrath, He charges them again, But I said unto you that ye have both seen Me and believe not. I foreknew (says He) and clearly foretold, that ye would surely remain hard, and keeping fast hold of your cherished disobedience, ye would be left without share in My gifts. And when did Christ say any thing of this kind? remember Him saying to the blessed prophet Isaiah, Go and tell this people, Hear ye in hearing and understand not, and looking |378 look and see not, for the heart of this people is waxen fat. Will not the word be shewn to be true by these things also which are before us? for they saw, they saw that the Lord was by Nature God, when He fed a multitude exceeding number which came unto Him with five barley loaves, and two small fishes, which He brake up. But they have seen and believe not, by reason of the blindness which like a mist hath come upon their understandings from the Divine wrath. For they were (I suppose) without doubt worthy to undergo this, for that they, caught in innumerable stumblings, and fast holden in the indissoluble bands of their transgressions, received not when He came Him who had power to loose them. For this cause was the heart of this people made fat.
But that the multitude of the Jews saw by the greatness of the sign that Jesus was by Nature God, you will understand full well by this too. For marvelling at what was done, as the Evangelist says above, they sought to seize Him to make Him a King. No excuse then for their folly is left unto the Jews. For astonished (and with much reason) at the Divine signs, and coming from the works proportionably to the Might of Him Who worketh, they wellnigh, shudder at their readiness to believe, and spring back from good habits, readily making a summerset as it were into the very depths of perdition.
37 All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me,
It did not behove the Lord simply to say, Ye have both seen Me and believe not, but it was necessary that He should bring in besides the reason of their blindness, that they might learn that they had fallen under the Divine displeasure. Therefore as a skilful physician He both shews them their weakness, and reveals the cause of it, not in order that they on learning it may remain quiet in it, but that they may by every means appease the Lord of all, Who is grieved at them, i. e., for just causes. For He would never be grieved unjustly, nor would He Who knows how to give righteous judgment have given any |379 such judgment upon them, were not reason calling Him thereto, from all sides hasting unto the duty of accusal. The Saviour hereby affirmed that everything should come to Him, which God the Father gave Him; not as though He were unable to bring believers to Himself, for this He would have accomplished very easily if He had so willed, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things to Himself, as Paul saith: but since it seemed somehow necessary and more fit, to say that they who were in ignorance were illumined by the Divine Nature, He again as Man attributes to the Father the operation, as to things more God-befitting. For so was His wont to do, as we have often said. But it is probable that when He says that all that He giveth Him shall be brought to Him by God the Father, He points to the people of the Gentiles now about full soon to believe on Him. It is the word of one skilfully threatening, that both they shall fall away from grace, and that in their stead shall come in all who of the Gentiles are brought by the goodness of God the Father, to the Son, as to Him Who is by Nature Saviour and Lifegiving, that they, partaking of the Blessing from Him, may be made partakers of the Divine Nature, and be thus brought back to incorruption and life, and be reformed unto the pristine fashion of our nature. As though one should bring a sick man to a physician, that he might drive away the sickness that has fallen upon him, so we say that God the Father brings to the Son those who are worthy salvation from Him. Bitter then and full of destruction is hardness of heart to them that have it. Therefore doth the word of prophecy chide the Jews, crying aloud, Be ye circumcised to God, and circumcise the hardness of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Yet not for them, but for us rather hath God the Father kept the circumcision in the heart, namely that which is through the Holy Ghost, wrought according to the rites of him who is a Jew inwardly. It is then right to flee from their disobedience, and with all zeal to renounce hardness of heart, and to reform unto a more toward |380 disposition, if we would avert the wrath that was upon them unto destruction.
and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.
He says that conversion through faith will not be profitless unto them that come to Him. For He had to shew that the being brought by God the Father was a most desirable thing, and productive of ten thousand goods. Things most excellent then (saith He) shall be theirs, who through the grace from above are called to Me and come. For I will not cast out him that cometh, that is I will not discard him as an unprofitable vessel, as is said through one of the Prophets, Jechonias was despised, as a vessel whereof there is no use, he was cast away, and cast forth into a land which he knew not. Earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord, write ye this man a man proscribed. He shall not then be proscribed (saith He) nor cast forth, as one despised, nor shall he abide without share of Mine regard, but shall be gathered up into My garner, and shall dwell in the heavenly mansions, and shall see himself possessed of every hope beyond understanding of man. For eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God prepared for them that love Him. It is probable that the word?, I will not cast out him that cometh to Me signify moreover, that the believer, and he that cometh to the Divine Grace, shall not be delivered over to the judgment. For you will find that the word out, has some such meaning, as in that parable in the blessed Matthew. For (saith He) the Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a net that was cast into the sea and gathered of every kind, which having brought up and dragged to the shore, they gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. For that the good are gathered into the Divine and heavenly Courts, we shall understand by His saying that the good were gathered into vessels: and by the unprofitable being cast away, we shall see that the ungodly shall fall away from all good, and go away into judgment. When then Christ says, Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast |381 out, let us understand that the people which cometh unto Him through faith shall never fall into torment. Most wisely does He seem to me in these words to veil a threat against those most abandoned men, that if any will not turn with all speed to obedience, they shall be deprived of all good, and be excluded even against their will from His Friendship. For wherein He promises not to cast out him that cometh, He in the same signifieth that He will surely cast out him that cometh not.
Cyril Archbishop of Alexandria on the Gospel according to John, Book the third.
[Page running titles]
The Son Light as God, the creature enlightened. 287
288 Pharisees unstable. Burning and shining,
a reference to Lamp before Tabernacle. 289
290 The lamp a type of S. John Baptist. Apostles succeed.
Christ takes the part of His Forerunner. 291
292 The Son God who does the works of God;
as GOD has, as Man, receives. 293
The Son GOD, Who answers unuttered thoughts. 295
296 Recapitulation of our Lord's speech.
God unseen unheard at the giving of the Law. 297
298 Manliness of Christ's own. Mountain, smoke,
voices of trumpet. Voice created by God, not His. 299
300 The FATHER seen in the SON; Jews thought to see Him apart.
Scriptures vainly searched if Christ neglected. 301
302 The SON hath glory though man withhold it.
Jews rejecting Christ will receive Anti-christ. 303
304 Empty glory. God One. Christ too will accuse.
Moses would lead, else will accuse. 305
306 Moses typified CHRIST'S Mystery manifoldly.
308 CHRIST exact Mediator GOD and
Man. Like Moses otherwise too. To unbelief, wrath. 309
310 Moses' writings not superior, but if
their clear teaching rejected, what hope yet? 311
The paralytic healed, the Jews unhealed. Why Christ departs. 313
314 Feast of Tabernacles what. People easily swayed.
Christ's lesson through His flight. Aliens the Church. 315
316 The sea severs from Christ them who provoke Him.
Pharaoh of old drowned, now Jews make themselves Pharaoh. 317
318 Christ's ascent into the mountain. Loyalty of
His followers. The brave and loyal shall ascend too. 319
320 Hospitality to be striven after. Christ looks on and
provides for His own. Philip why questioned. Whence. 321
322 Whence. S. Philip's slow advance.
S. Andrew's tardy apprehension exalts Christ's Might. 323
324 Moses understood not. Duty of faith since
nature so weak. God spared not Moses doubting. 325
326 CHRIST wrought through Elias. Men alone counted, why;
their reward. Grass, rest. CHRIST gives thanks our Pattern. 327
328 He wills to be hid, speaks as GOD and Man. Blessed.
Loaves why barley, fish why two. 329
330 Why Christ gave such abundance of fragments.
Now time to shew mercy. CHRIST works through others. 331
332 Basket of fragments reward of teachers. Rejection of Jews.
CHRIST eschewed glory,they too who thirst for the eternal glory. 333
334 After lowliness exaltation. CHRIST'S departure over
sea, forsaking Jews. Recapitulation of whole. 335
336 Why Alone. He teaches disciples, the world's teachers.
He teaches them through miracle. Alone in storm. 337
338 Without JESUS no safety. Brave endurance. In
deep peril He comes and rest and joy. Apostles' successors. 339
340 At Second Coming Church gains her haven.
The good will fear. Nought hid. Seek not glory. 341
342 Unreal love of the Lord in those who followed
Him. Their reproof just. He GOD knowing thoughts. 343
344 Rulers must rebuke. The Day of Doom.
Severity then, not Mercy. Some CHRIST will not know. 345
346 Sowing to flesh, to Spirit. Care of body only,
but brings it to Fire. The soul's Food unto Life. 347
God and Man One Christ. 349
350 The SON in the FATHER and of Him.
The SON GOD or the FATHER begat not. 351
352 Likeness to GOD may be lost.
The SON GOD, worshipped and at the Right Hand. 353
354 The SON GOD, lest the creature share some Divine
attribute. Each Person exists, Godhead not parted, 355
356 FATHER and SON exist Each yet are not separate.
Boasting reply of rich youth. Trust due to teachers. 357
358 Belief in the Truth surpasses types.
The Jews give the palm to Moses. 359
360 Christ they own not.
362 Saints to be honoured. Manna not the Bread
from Heaven, but CHRIST, our very Life. Olden type of Him. 363
364 Israel lusting in desert depicts our tempests.
Christ enmightens. Jews not punished at first, why. 365
366 The cry of babes heard, the stronger must fight.
Sabbath our rest at Christ's coming. Double gathering, what. 367
368 Quails and evening intimate incompleteness.
What signified by Manna, morning, coriander seed. 369
370 The Law's shadow transient. Pot of Manna soul
which contains CHRIST. Moses, a mediator. Jews' unwisdom. 371
372 Misconception of Jews as of woman of Samaria.
CHRIST veils His words yet also utters them forth. 373
374 Joshua a type of CHRIST.
Never hunger a gift superior to Moses'. 375
376 CHRIST'S Body our Life. Firm resolve, not
keeping away from Eucharist, our duty. Disfavour to unbelief. 377
378 Jews without excuse. CHRIST grieved.
All intimates calling of Gentile Church. 379
380 Out means Doom.
Some will be cast out. 381
[Most of the footnotes, moved to the end and renumbered. The margin contains mainly biblical references and fragments of Greek. These have been omitted]
1. a τελειωτὴς, referring to the words, The works which the Father hath given Me to finish them.
2. a S. Cyril seems to have had both Name and Son in his Mss. cf. below among his fragments on cap. xii. 28. The uncial Ms. L reads also Son in place of Name.
3. b πέμπει, sendeth. This, in place of the future shall send, is the reading of the uncial Mss. A. B. and the codex Sinaiticus.
4. a λόγων, as reads the uncial Ms. D. in place of λογίων.
5. a The words, the Jews' Passover, here and just below have been retained in the text as there is no manuscript authority for omitting them. But the whole context indicates that the true reading is, ἡ ἑορτὴ τῶν ἰουδαίων, the Jews' feast (though no known MS. of the Gospels is cited as so reading); for the whole scope of the passage that follows is upon the Feast of Tabernacles, not the Passover. S. Cyril appears to take this chapter as contemporaneous in time with chapter 7, in the commentary on which no notice is taken of verse 2, Now the Jews' feast of tabernacles was at hand, except as forming the heading of the chapter (Book iv chapter v). It was pointed out to me some years ago by the Rev. F. J. A. Hort, that an old Latin translation of this work by George of Trebizond omits the mention of the passover here. But George of Trebizond lived in the fifteenth Century and does not appear to have had access to any Ms. better or at all differing from that from which Cod. Vat. and Cod. S. Marci, Venice are co-transcripts, and moreover his translation is very free and often of the nature of an abstract rather than a translation. It becomes impossible therefore to lay any stress on Ms omission of the words.
6. b ἐπιγραφόμενοι. The word was used of the μέτοικοι at Athens who were obliged by Law to have a Patron and to inscribe his name as their Patron on the public Register. Liddell and Scott sub voce.
7. c The words to the disciples and the disciples S. Cyril appears to omit with the Alexandrine Vatican and Sinaitic Codices and the earliest Syriac translation.
8. d I have bracketed the words, He blessed is understood of the bread, which as the text at present stands form part of the sentence. But the words seem as if they were a marginal explanation of the next clause, such as occur at times in Mss.
The explanation given by S. Cyril in this next clause would seem to be, that what is sanctified (as S. Paul says) by prayer is blessed, and that in prayer thanksgiving is included, so that when our Lord gave thanks, the thanksgiving was itself a blessing of the bread.
9. e βρῶμα. So reads S. Cyril (though no known Ms. of S. Paul has it) in the place of the usual κτίσμα, creature.
10. f S. Cyril seems to read ρὰ σπλάγχνα σου thy bowels for τὴν χεῖρα σου thine hand, which the LXX, following the Hebrew, has. Dr. Holmes in his most diligently laborious edition of the LXX, which he did not live to complete, has cited two other instances from S. Cyril's writings, viz., De Adoratione lib. 8. p. 271 where S. Cyril cites this among passages of the Pentateuch bidding brotherly love: and in an exhortation to almsgiving in his 18th [19th in ed.] Paschal homily p. 253.
11. g the name which is. This passage is often found in S. Cyril's writings with the article as here: the article is likewise found in the Alexandrine, Vatican and Sinaitic codices.
12. h ἐπεγράψαντο see above on verse 2, 3, p. 319. note b.
13. k ἀνανδρίαν, the absence of a courageous manly resolve to strive.
14. a So reads S. Cyril constantly, in place of the word householder. No Ms. of the Holy Gospel now extant seems to give this reading.
This text was transcribed by Roger Pearse, 2005. All material on this page is in the public domain - copy freely.
Greek text is rendered using unicode. Note that the chapter numbers and titles are part of the original work, as is the table of them at the start of the book. The numerals on verses of John are added by the translator.
Early Church Fathers - Additional Texts
SOURCE SECTION: cyril_on_john_04_book .htm
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, LFC 43, 48 (1874/1885). Book 4. pp. 382-510.
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, LFC 43, 48 (1874/1885). Book 4. pp. 382-510.
|382
CHAPTERS IN THE FOURTH BOOK.
1. That in nothing is the Son inferior to God the Father, because He is of Him by Nature, although He be said by some to be subject, on the words, I came down from Heaven not to do Mine own Will, but the Will of the Father That sent Me. Herein is also a most useful discourse upon the Precious Cross of Christ.
2. That the Holy Body of Christ is Life-giving, on the words I am the Bread of Life, &c. wherein He speaks of His own Body as of Bread.
3. That the Son is not a partaker of life from any other, but rather Life by Nature, as being begotten of God the Father who is Life by Nature, on the words, As the Living Father sent Me and I live by the Father, so he that eateth Me, he too shall live by Me.
4. That a type of Christ was the holy Tabernacle which led the people in the wilderness and that the ark that was in it and the lamp and the altar, well as that of incense, as that of sacrifice signified Christ Himself, on the words, To whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.
5. On the feast of tabernacles, that it signifies the restitution of the hope due to the Saints, and the resurrection from the dead, on the words, Now the Jews' feast of tabernacles was at hand.
6. A dissertation upon the rest of the Sabbath, manifoldly shewing of what it is significant, on the words, If a man on the Sabbath day receive circumcision, are ye angry at Me, because I made a man every whit whole on the Sabbath day?
7. A dissertation upon the circumcision on the eighth day, manifoldly shewing of what it is significant, on the words, If a man on the Sabbath day receive circumcision, &c.
|383
OUR FATHER AMONG THE SAINTS
CYRIL
Archbishop of Alexandria
ON THE
GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN.
BOOK IV.
CHAPTER I. That in nothing is the Son inferior to God the Father, because He is of Him by Nature, although He be said by some to be subject.
38, 39 Because I have come down from heaven, not to do Mine Own Will but the Will of the Father That sent Me. And this is the Will of Him which sent Me, that of all which He hath given Me I should lose none of it, but should raise it up at the last day.
This passage will seem hard to a person who considers it superficially, and not far removed from offence regarding the faith, so that they even expect us hence to fall into difficulties hard to be overcome, which come from our opponents. But there is nothing at all hard herein, for all things are plain to them that understand, as it is written, and right to them that find knowledge, that is to those who piously study to interpret and understand the mysteries contained in the Divine Scriptures. In these words then Christ gives us a kind of proof and manifest assurance that he that cometh to Him shall not be cast out. For for this cause (saith He) I came down from Heaven, that is, I became Man according to the good pleasure of God the Father, and refused not to be employed in all but undesired works, until I should attain for them that |384 believe on Me eternal life and the resurrection from the dead, having destroyed the power of death. What then was this that Christ both, willed and willed not 1? Dishonour from the Jews, revilings, insults, contumelies, scourgings, spitings, and yet more, false witnesses, and last of all, the death of the Body. These things for our sakes Christ willingly underwent, but if He could without suffering them have accomplished His Desire for us, He would not have willed to suffer. But since the Jews were surely and inevitably going to adventure the things done against Him, He accepts the Suffering, He makes what He willed not His Will, for the value sake of His Passion, God the Father agreeing with Him, and co-approving that He should readily undergo all things for the salvation of all. Herein specially do we see the boundless goodness of the Divine Nature, in that It refuseth not to make that which is spurned, Its choice for our sakes. But that the suffering on the Cross was unwilled by our Saviour Christ, yet willed for our sakes and the Good Pleasure of God the Father, you will hence understand. For when He was about to ascend thereunto, He made His addresses to God, saying, that is, in the form of prayer, Father, if it be possible, let this Cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as THOU. For that in that He is God the Word, Immortal and Incorruptible, and Life Itself by Nature, He could not shudder at death, I think is most clear to all: yet made in Flesh He suffers the Flesh to undergo things proper to it, and permits it to shudder at death when now at its doors, that He may be shewn to be in truth Man; therefore He says, If it be possible, let this Cup pass from Me. If it may be (He says) Father, that I, without suffering death, may gain life for them that have fallen thereinto if death may die without My dying, in the Flesh that is, let this cup (He says) pass from Me; but since it will not take place (He says) otherwise, not as I will, but as THOU. Thou seest how powerless human nature is found, even in Christ Himself, as far as it is concerned: but it is brought |385 back through the Word united with it unto God-befitting undauntedness and is re-trained to noble purpose, so as not to commit itself to what seems good to its own will, but rather to follow the Divine Aim, and readily to run to whatever the Law of its Creator calls us. That we say these things truly, you may learn from that too which is subjoined, For the spirit indeed (He saith) is willing, but the flesh is weak. For Christ was not ignorant that it is very far beneath God-befitting Dignity, to seem to be overcome by death, and to feel the dread of it: therefore He subjoined to what He had said the strongest defence, saying that the flesh was weak, by reason of what befits it and belongs to it by nature; but that the spirit was willing, knowing that it suffered nought that could harm. Seest thou how death was unwilled by Christ, by reason of the Flesh, and the inglory of suffering: yet willed, until He should have brought unto its destined consummation for the whole world the Good Pleasure of the Father, that is, the salvation and life of all? For doth He not truly and indeed signify something of this kind, when He says that this is the Will of the Father, that of those who were brought to Him He should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day? For as we taught before, God the Father in His Love to man brings to Christ as to Life and the Saviour, him that lacketh life and salvation.
But I perceive that I am saying what pleases not the enemy of the truth. For he will by no means agree to the things which we have just said: but will cry out loudly, and will come with his shrill cry, Whither are you leading astray (you sir) our line of thought 2 and are devising intricate inroads of ideas and drawing away the passage from the truth? You blush I suppose (says he) to confess the involuntary subjection of the Son. For is it not hereby also evident to us, that He will never command and bear rule in the management of affairs, but is subject rather to |386 the Will of the Father? For He is conscious of so coming short of Equality with Him, that He is constrained in some sort to make what He wills not His Will, and to do not altogether as seems good to Him, but rather what pleases the Father. And do not tell me (says he) dragging the expression into the Incarnation, It is as Man that He is subject. For lo, as thou seest, He being yet God and bare Word and unentangled with Flesh, came down from Heaven, and before He was at all clothed with the form of a servant, was subject to the Father, i. e., as His Superior and Ruler.
With dread words, good sir, as you surely deem, and swift-coursing exceedingly do you overrun us, yet are they words that go not straight forward but are scared out of the Kings beaten highway; and having left (as the Greek proverb hath it) the carriage-way, you are pressing forward upon precipices and rocks. For vainly do ye maintain against us that the Son obeys the Father, ever speaking as though any of them who deem aright thought that one ought to hold the contrary, and were not rather determined to agree with you herein. For we do not conceive of the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity as ever divided against Itself, or cleft into diverse opinions, or that the Father (may be) or the Son or the Holy Ghost are severed unto what seems good to each individually, but They agree in all things, since of One Godhead, it is clear, One and the Same Will ever existeth, in the Whole Holy Trinity. Away then with a long argument with us hereon, still be the spirit that would wrangle where it least of all should, for since none is indignant thereat, it is superfluous still to press it.
But since ye, accustomed to think and to hold most perverse things, term the Son's agreement with the Will of the Father, subjection of necessity, on this matter we will discuss with you what is right. For if this statement were put forth by you in simplicity, we too would with reason hold our peace, and not too strictly test the agreement of language. But since we see that it is put |387 forth in deep malice, we shall of necessity oppose you, trusting in the Power of the Holy Ghost, and not to our own words. For not absolutely, nor simply as His rule of conduct, nor yet for every action did. the Son affirm that He did not wholly and entirely hold by His Own Will, but He says that He kept His Father's Will in one definite act, on account of thy wresting of words (as I conceive) providing as God for our security. But He endured what He would not, and for our sakes made it His Will; I mean His Suffering upon the Cross, since so it was well-pleasing unto His Father, as we have said before. And one may see the proof straightway laid down, and the principle evidently set before us, on which (as Himself says) He left His Own Will, and fulfils the Father's. For this (He saith) is the Will of the Father that of all which He hath given Me I should lose nothing but should raise it up at the last day. And that the Suffering on the Cross was really unwilled alike and willed by the Only Begotten, hath been clearly stated before. But we shall state it again hereafter with more accurate proofs, simplifying the truth to our readers. But I will proceed first to the examination of the subjection alleged by you, it being previously laid down and unhesitatingly confessed by you, that the Wills of the Holy Trinity ever coincide into one Will and Purpose. Let those subtle disputers tell us then, whether in the name and fact of subjection the Being of the Son consists, and this is His Nature, in the same way for instance as humanity belongs to a man, or whether He, existing before in His Own Proper Mode, is subject to the Father, as one might conceive of an angel for instance, or any other reasonable power. For these things, being and existing, are recipient of the mode of subjection.
If then ye say that the Being of the Son consists in His being subject to the Father, He will be a subjection rather and not a Son. How then (tell me) will ye not be manifest triflers? for how can this subjection be conceived to exist of itself without having its being in any of the things that are? For such things are usually the accidents of the |388 necessarily pre-existing subjects wherein they are wont to be, and not otherwise: and are viewed as belonging to substances, or befalling them, rather than having any existence in themselves. And as lust for instance, which calls and impels us to any thing, has no existence in itself, but is conceived rather in him who is recipient thereof: so subjection pointing at some sway of the will to the duty of subjection to any, will not be conceived of in its own nature, but will rather be as passion, or will, or desire, in some one of the things that are. Besides the name and fact of subjection spoken absolutely will not be conceived of as properly predicated of any one, nor will one know whether it be good or bad, unless it be added to whom the subjection is: for a man is subject to God, but also to the devil. And as the name wise is a mean term (for some are wise to do evil, and again the wise shall inherit glory, having clearly their wisdom in good things), so too subjection is a kind of mean term, and not a truth definitely expressed, for it is quite uncertain to whom the subjection is. Hence also, the Nature of the Son is left in uncertainty, if It be conceived of as (according to you) a subjection. For a subjection to what, if no one were brought forward, one could not say without falsehood. But that the subjection will not exist of itself, in its own mode of being, we bringing forward some grosser and more obvious reasoning in regard to things already made, shall see: and do thou accept a demonstration besides. For if we grant that the being of a man (for example) consists in his being subject, we shall consider that his not existing consists in his not being subject. How then was it said by the Psalmist to some one, as being indeed and existing, but not yet subjected, Submit thee to the Lord, and entreat Him? Seest thou then how utterly foolish it is to suppose that subjection has any existence in itself? One must then of necessity confess that the Son was and existed previously in His Own Nature, and so say that He was subject to the Father. What then (tell me) is there to constrain that He Who is of the Essence of His Father, |389 the Exact Impress of His Nature, should fall from His Equality with Him, on account of His being obedient? For WE who think and speak rightly, know that He is con-substantial with the Father, and give Him Equal Honour in all respects, and consider that in nought does He come short of God-befitting Divinity: but do THOU see in what manner thou canst thrust away from Equal honour with the Father on account of the alleged subjection Him who enjoys equal goods by reason of Identity of Essence.
But this very thing (says he) will make for our side of the argument, namely that the Son is obedient to the Father, and doth not overmuch consider His Own Will, but yields rather to that of the Father, as above Him and greater than He.
But this very thing according to your own word sir, which you think will aid your argument, you will find to be nothing but the fruit of your own unlearning. For if we were disputing, which was superior in dignity, and had the greater glory, your ever-repeated argument would even then scarce seem to have any seasonable ground. But since the mode of consubstantiality is being examined into, how shall ye not be caught in no slight folly attributing to God the Father superiority therein over His own offspring? For the terms 'greater' or 'less' or the like, we do not allow to be strictly essences (as we said of subjection) but they are something external, and qualities of essences. For that which already pre-existed and is, will be recipient (it may be) of 'greater' or ' less ' by comparison with another thing: but if there is nought before it or pre-existent, in respect to which such things would happen, how will they exist by themselves, albeit conceived of and defined under the class of accidents? Hence in telling us of greater or less ye do not touch the Essence of the Only-Begotten, nor yet That of the Father, but only with external excellences or short-comings, embellish (as ye suppose) the Father and revile the Son, although ye hear Him openly crying aloud, He that honoureth not the Son neither doth he honour the Father, and that all men ought to honour |390 the Son even as they honour the Father. For that things which can no way be severed into foreign alieniety, but have one and the same essence must be endowed with equal glory, Christ most excellently teaches in that He accepteth not to receive testimony to Himself from men, as Himself said, but came forward as Himself unto Himself a witness credible and more worthy than all that are. And He being by Nature Truth will surely say true, as one may prove from the very quality of things. For you will probably grant that the 'greater' or 'less' belong not to the very essence of ought but to the things in respect of their essence. For instance, a man will not be greater or less than another man, in respect of his being conceived of and called a man: for neither is man less than man qua man, neither is he greater than man, qua man: for the count of nature is seen to be equal in all. And the same method of reasoning will hold, of angels too, or any thing else that is made and enrolled among creation. Therefore such things are found to be utterly without place in regard to the essences themselves, but are the accidents of the essences, or of what belongs to the essences, as we have delivered above. How then will the Father be greater than the Son, God by Nature than God by Nature? For the Son having been begotten of Him, will surely compel you, even against your own will, to grant Him Con-substantiality with Him.
It having been premised then, and unhesitatingly admitted that the Son is by Nature God, let us consider if you please, whether by paying Him equal Honour with Him of Whom He is, we shall confer honour upon the Begetter, or shall do the reverse, by insulting with less and inferior honour the Begotten, as is really and more truly the case. For it is the glory of the Father to have begotten one, such as Himself is by Nature. But the exact contrary will befall (for it is not meet to utter it), if the Son retain not the natural condition befitting Him, having inferiority either in glory or in ought else that should belong to Him, in order to be through all things manifested |391 the All-Perfect and Very God. If then He, being thus by Nature, honour the Father, mock not thereat, O man, nor be found guilty of ignorantly finding fault, where there is least occasion for it. For it were meet (I suppose) to admire Him for this too that He honours and loves His Father: for every species of virtue has, as its source and root, the Essence that is above all; in It first good things have their rise, and flow down to us, who are made after Its Image. Wherefore us too the Lawgiver bade to honour, as was due, father and mother, yea and annexed the most noble rewards thereto (for he knew, I suppose, that it was a thing most great, and so far removed from all reproach, as to be even the giver of long-enduring life). As then WE by being subject to and obeying our parents, are not rendered other in nature than they, but being as they are men of men, and having and keeping the definition of manhood perfect, we practise obedience as an excellent virtue; so conceive in respect of the Father and the Son. For He being what He is, God of God, Perfect of Perfect, Exact Impress of the Essence of His Father, thinketh nought else than He too thinketh, Whose both counsel and Word He is; and will wholly will the same as the Father, compelled by the same laws (so to say) of consubstantiality, to co-will all good things together with the Father.
Be no wise offended then, O man, when thou hearest Him say, I have come down from Heaven, not to do Mine own Will, but the Will of Him that sent Me. For what we said at the beginning, this we will say again. Christ said this of a definite and plain matter. For He saith these words, teaching that He willed to die for all because the Divine Nature had so counselled, but willed it not by reason of the Sufferings on the Cross, and as far as pertained to the flesh which deprecates death. And we have already expended many words: but it is convenient that we should see from the very nature of things that the suffering on the Cross was unwilled by Christ, in that He was Man. We say then that it was a work of Jewish folly, that Christ should be crucified at all, and this was immediately to |392 happen from them, who were not unpractised in boldness hereunto by means of what they had already done both to the holy Prophets, and the saints who were at that time. But since no otherwise was it possible to raise again unto life that which had fallen into death, unless the Only Begotten Word of God became Man, and it was wholly needful that made Man, He should suffer; He made what He willed not, His Will, the Divine Nature having permitted this from Love to us.
For the Artificer of all things, Wisdom, i. e., the Son, made that which was a machination of devilish perversity, I mean His Death in the Flesh;----this He made a way of salvation to us and a door of life, and the devil's hopes were overturned, and he learned at last by experience, that hard is it for him to fight against God. The Divine Psalmist too seems to agree with what I have said of these things, and to hint at something of this sort, when he says, as of Christ and the devil, in his net shall he humble him. For the devil laid death as a net for Christ, but in his own net itself has he been humbled. For in the Death of Christ was death undone, and the tyrant who thought not to fall was brought to nought. And it were not hard to add much more to these things: but what is before us, that will we say. If the Death of Christ were not really and truly the work of Jewish wills, and the fruit of their unholy daring, but the Divine Judgment were (as some deem) the sole leading spring thereto: how needed it not that that which was determined upon should of necessity be accomplished and surely by the hands of men, and not otherwise? How then (tell me) would they who subserved the irrevocable decrees of God be yet justly punished? and how would that miserable man, through whom Christ was betrayed, have been in better case, if he had not been born? For if the Passion be conceived of as willed by the Saviour, and not unwilled in any other sense, what penalty would he reasonably pay, who was set forth minister of his Lord's Will, and of things which should surely come to pass? will it not be |393 evident to all, that the things which seem good unto the Divine and Ineffable Nature, must surely come to pass, and be done by some? From these things and many more one may see that since the Son of Man hath come down from Heaven to undergo death for all men, willing alike was He and unwilling, in order that He might raise up all at the last day, since so it pleased the Father Himself for the good of all: but He will not on these accounts that He be conceived of, as by any means of a different nature or in ought inferior to Him who begat Him.
I suppose then that our opponent will at length blush, and not gainsay our words on this point: but if he again oppose and have settled that it is fit to wrangle yet more, I say thus, If the Son hath come down from heaven not to fulfil His Own Will, as Himself says, but the Will of the Father; and our words on the just concluded consideration thereof, haply please thee not: must not one say that Their Wills are in opposition, and that Their Counsel is divided contrarily? But this is clear to all. For if there were no hindrance, the Will in Both would be perforce wholly One: but if He put forward His Will as it were diverse from the Will of the Father, and fulfil that, how is it not foolish to say that they are One, and not other in respect of other?
Let us see then wherein is the Will of the Father; for so shall we discern the other also, whereto it tends. The Will of the Father then, as the Saviour Himself hath said, is that of all which He hath given Him He should lose nothing but should raise it up at the last Day. And that it is good and loving none will gainsay: but transferring our considerations to the opposing will of the Son, we shall find it neither loving nor good at all, but savouring of what is wholly contrary to the Father, and willing neither to save us, nor yet to raise us up from death. How then is He yet the Good Shepherd, how gave He us a token of the Loving-kindness that is in Him, in giving His Life for us? For if He hath come down from heaven to accomplish this of voluntary Purpose, how doth He fulfil not His |394 Own Will in not destroying that which, is brought to Him, but in raising it up at the last Day? But if this was not His Will, but He subserves rather the Will of the Father, both in raising up and saving, i. e., those who were lost and overmastered of death, how shall we not be true in asserting that the Son is neither Good nor in any way Loving to man? Let the Christ-opposer then have done: his doubt being convicted on all sides of blasphemy, and let him not bay at us concerning these things with his bitter words.
40 For this is the Will of My Father, that every one which seeth the Son and believeth on Him have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last Day.
Having now defined the good Will of the Father, He makes it clear, and sets it forth more at large for the consideration of the hearers, through repeating it yet again. For what the mode of bringing is, and what any gain from being brought, He clearly explains. The Father then giveth to the Son Who hath Power to quicken them, things lacking life, He giveth thus, through knowledge inserting in each one, the true apprehension of the Son, and power to understand purely that He is God of Very God the Father, that he thus minded, and adorned with contemplations hereto belonging, may be brought to the reward of faith, that is a lasting and endless life in bliss. The Father then bringeth to the Son by knowledge and God-befitting Contemplation, those to whom He decreed the Divine grace. The Son receiveth and quickeneth them, and engrafting His Own Good into them who are of their own nature apt to decay, and shedding upon them as a spark of fire the life-giving Power of the Spirit, re-formeth them whole wholly unto immortality. But when thou hearest, that the Father brings them, and that the Son gives the power of living anew to them that run to Him, do not go off into absurd fancies, as though Each were supposed to do Individually and severally what belongs by fitness of Nature unto Each, but rather understand that the Father is Co-worker |395 with the Son, and likewise the Son with the Father, and that our salvation and recovery from death to life is the Work (so to say) of the Whole Holy Trinity. And know that the Father is sufficient unto all might and need, and likewise the Son, and the Holy Ghost: but through the Whole Holy Trinity come the good things to usward, and God the Father is found all things in all Entirely through the Son in the Spirit.
We must nevertheless observe this also, that great is found to be the value of belief in the Son. For it hath life as its reward. But if God the Father is known in Him Who is Son by Nature, who will endure any longer them who exclude Him from the Essence of the Father, and have a mouth unbarred to blasphemy against Him? For wherein He says He can raise again to life that which has fallen into death, in these same words, without any distinction intervening, He mounts up to Identity of Nature with the Father. For quickening is a work proper to life, and since the Father is by Nature Life, Life surely will He too be conceived Who is of Him by Nature, i. e., the Only-Begotten.
41 The Jews then began murmuring at Him, because He said, I am the Bread which came down from heaven,
Again are they angry who of those things which are spoken by Christ understand no whit: and herein may be especially seen the uninstructed mind. For not being able to grasp the ideas, whereby they might (it is like) be trans-made unto the better, they end in unseasonable littleness of soul. For shall not we find what has been said true in respect of the Jews themselves? for why are they angry? what reason called them thereto? why do they murmur? Albeit they ought rather to have applied a more diligent mind to what was said, and from the very deeds wrought to have considered the truth, and by the miraculousness of what had been accomplished, to have come to most tried knowledge, whether Christ would lie, in calling Himself Bread, and Bread Which had come down |396 from heaven, or whether He was true, and it was really so. For in this way might they by judging aright be led easily unto the discovery of what was profitable for them: but without any enquiry they are angry, although, in what had already passed, Christ had shewn Himself the true and Very Bread of Life, contrasting Himself with the manna, which was given typically and in shadow, to their fathers in the wilderness. For he that cometh to Me (He says) shall never hunger: whereas they who eat of that manna, obtained some little and easily-lost fleshly enjoyment; but they who come to Him by faith will not attain unto an enjoyment like theirs, but will rather have a harvest of the lasting grace of the blessing.
The mind of the Jews therefore stumbles, looking only to earthly things: and this it was that was sung of them, Let their eyes be darkened that they may not see, and bow down their back alway, that they never turning them to the knowledge of the Divine Mysteries, may evil evilly perish on account of their own folly, and their most unbridled unbelief. And we calling to mind what is in the writings of Moses, shall find, that murmuring against the most excellent and good was inherent in the Jews as a sort of patrimony: but bitter its end, did experience shew both of old in the case of those and now no less with these. For those did murmur in the wilderness, and make unthankful outcry against God, but were destroyed of serpents, as the wise Paul too testified: and these murmur against Christ, and insult their Lawgiver and Redeemer by their so prolonged unbelief, but command shall be given to the serpent, and he shall bite them, as it is written: and they shall be set as a banquet before the all-devouring beast: for ever doth unbelief of necessity terminate in an all-grievous end.
42 and said, Is not this Jesus the Son of Joseph, Whose father and mother WE know? how is it then that He saith, I have come down from heaven?
O deep unlearning, and understanding darkened with unmixed strong drink: the heart of this people is waxen fat, |397 as it is written. For indeed they perceive not a whit of those things which they ought clearly to understand, and both think and speak things worthy of laughter. For they ought rather, exercising themselves in the writing of the all-wise Moses, and delighting themselves in the preachings of the holy Prophets to have considered, that not without flesh or bodily array was Christ expected to come to us, but in human form was it foretold that He would appear and that He should be found in this common garb of all. Therefore does the Prophet's voice tell us that the holy Virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son: and the Lord is found to have sworn in truth unto blessed David, which He promised He would no wise turn from, that of the fruit of his body would He set upon His throne, as it is written: it was foretold too that there should come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse. But they rushing into so great unreason, perceive it not, supposing that since they knew the mother after the flesh of Him Who was foreannounced to come with Flesh, they ought therefore utterly to disbelieve that He had come down from heaven. For even though we do not find that this took place in regard of the Body, yet the Divine Word dwelt in His Body from the Virgin, as in His Own Temple, having come from above from the Father unto us, and for the salvation of all laid hold on the seed of Abraham that in all things He might he made like unto His brethren, and might call the nature of man unto sonship with God, being declared alike God and Man. But the Jews not understanding the economy with Flesh of our Saviour Christ, from knowing His mother and father, though he was not His father, are not ashamed of being annoyed, because Christ said He came down from heaven.
In this too ariseth to us an example of no small profit: for hence we learn in respect to ourselves, that it will do us much harm, if we do not rather with the spiritual eyes of the heart consider the virtue that dwells in the saints, and look on the glory that is hidden in them, but on account of the frequent meanness of bodily appearance hold |398 of no value what is great before God and precious. Thus God says of the Saints in the prophets, speaking of all in the person of one, Blessed is the man that trusteth in the. Lord, and the Lord shall be his hope and he shall be as a tree vigorous by the water-side, and shall throw forth his root in moist ground, in the year of drought he shall not be afraid and shall not cease from yielding fruit. Deep is the heart above all things, and there is a man and who shall know him? I the Lord Who search the heart, who try the reins. When then WE in our arrogance depreciate him that is known of God, and admirable for the above-mentioned virtues, looking only to the outward-shewing and perishable flesh, and making meanness of body an excuse for littleness of soul towards him, how shall we not be found to be contrary-minded to the King of all, and so incur no slight doom, sometimes calling what is high low, and putting light for darkness, and sweet for bitter?
We must therefore keep to the saints the honour befitting them, and must look at them rather through their inward hidden glory, than what they are in the flesh. Yet most of us cannot bear to think that which is low in the world worthy at all of honour or of any glory, even though he be renowned in virtue, but looking only to the aggrandisement of riches, and beholding the perishable and even now dying glory with no righteous eyes, make no account of right judgment. Such with great reason does the disciple of the Saviour laugh to scorn, saying, Ye hypocrites, if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment, then ye tell (he saith) the rich man to sit in an honourable place, and the poor, Stand thou there or sit under my footstool, are ye not partial in yourselves? Albeit it is meet hence to observe, to how reasonable a charge they become obnoxious who admire a man for external surroundings, and not for internal goods. For riches and the glory of riches, bring in (I suppose) some foreign and factitious glory to their possessors; but the glory in the heart, and the renown of good works, |399 will be a genuine and native riches to the holders, not abiding with the flesh and. decaying with it, but dwelling with the soul while yet abiding in this life, and removing with it on its departure, whithersoever the Ruler of all shall appoint. For many the mansions with the Father, as we heard.
We must not then honour altogether or of necessity him that is renowned for wealth, and gilt over with the petty glories of earth as in a picture, but rather them to whom the splendour of their deeds begets unfading renown from God, and their inward beauty flashes on them glorified with every form of good things.
43, 44 Jesus answered and said unto them Murmur not among yourselves; no man can come to Me, except the Father Which sent Me draw him, and I will raise him up at the last Day.
The Jews look down upon Jesus, ignorant that His Father is in heaven, and in nowise acknowledging that He is by Nature Son of the Lord of all, but looking only to His earthly mother and Joseph. Wherefore He replies more warmly to them, and immediately to their profit hastens back to His very God-befitting Dignity, and whereby He knows as God both their secret murmuring and that which has gone up into their mind, through these very things He gives them to understand that they have fallen from the truth, and formed an exceeding mean conception of Him. For how was it not rather their duty to crown with now God-befitting Honour, Him Who throughly knows the hearts, and tries the motions that are in the mind, and is ignorant of no device that is in their souls, and to exalt Him as far above the littleness of man, as God is higher than the earth? He unveiling therefore the thought buried in yet unuttered blame, and making manifest the secretly whispered murmuring in them, for the reason already specified, says, Murmur not among yourselves: then shewing that the Mystery concerning Himself was a God-taught good in men, and the knowledge of Him a work of the grace from above, He says that they cannot attain unto |400 Him, save drawn by the teaching of the Father. But this is the plan of one whose only aim is to persuade them to consider, that they ought, weeping and sorrowing for those things wherein they had already grieved Him, to seek to be made free, and to be drawn unto salvation through faith in Him, through the Counsel of the Father, and the aid from above which lighteneth to them the way and maketh it smooth, which when they sinned, had become exceedingly rugged. Profitably did He confirm the promise that He would raise from the dead him that believeth, and hereby again proves to the senseless ones that He is God by Nature and Very. For that which has the power of quickening, and of compelling to return to life him that is overmastered by death, will rightly appertain to the Nature of God only, and be ascribed to no one of things originate. For quickening is a property of the Living, and not of him who receives that grace from another.
45 It is written in the Prophets, And they shall be all taught of God.
Perceiving as God the folly existing in His hearers, He leaves not this His Word without witness, but shews already that He was of old fore-announced and fore-proclaimed by the holy Prophets, both taking away aforehand occasion from those who imagined that they ought to gainsay Him, and at the same time laying bare no less the unlearning that was in them, in that they were unable to see this, albeit instructed by the law unto the understanding of things to come. He persuades them therefore to consent even against their wills: for it was not likely that they would withstand the voices of the holy Prophets, that God the Father would instil the Mystery of Himself in those who were worthy, and would reveal His Own Son, ineffably speaking to each, and in God-befitting way implanting understanding thereof.
But having said above, No man can come to Me, except the Father Which sent Me draw him, He shews that it is not a compulsory nor forcible drawing, adding, |401
Every man that hath heard of My Father and hath learned, cometh unto Me.
For where there is hearing and learning and the benefit of instruction, there is faith, to wit by persuasion and not of necessity: and the knowledge of Christ is given by the Father to them that are worthy, helpful as of love, rather than constraining. For the word of doctrine requires that free-will and free choice be preserved to the soul of man, in order that it may ask the just rewards of its good deeds, and if it have fallen from right, and from heedlessness have transgressed the Will of the Lawgiver, it may receive the doom of its transgression and that most reasonable.
But we must know that even though the Father be said to instruct any in the Mystery of Christ, yet He will not work alone to this end, but will rather effect it through His Wisdom, i. e., the Son. For it is convenient to consider, that not without Wisdom will the revelation to their understanding be given to any from the Father. But the Son is the Wisdom of the Father. By means of Wisdom therefore will the Father effect the revelation of His Own Offspring in them that are worthy. And in fact to speak the whole truth, and nothing else, one would not do wrong in saying that all the operations of God the Father toward any, or His Will toward them, are those of the Whole Holy Trinity, similarly also are those of the Son Himself, and those of the Holy Ghost. For this reason, as I suppose, when God the Father is said to reveal His Own Son, and to call to Him those who are more apt to believe, the Son Himself is found doing this, and no less the Holy Ghost. For the Saviour says to the blessed Peter, who had most courageously made confession of faith in Him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona, for flesh and blood revealed it not unto thee, but My Father Which is in heaven. But in other instances He Himself is seen, doing this. And full well doth Paul boast as to himself, crying out concerning the Mystery of Christ, For I neither received it of men, neither was I taught but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. And you will see that the Holy Ghost no less reveals Christ to us. And |402 verily the most wise John writes, And YE, the anointing which ye received of Him abideth in you, and. ye need not that any man teach you, but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things: and the Saviour Himself saith of the Paraclete, that is, the Spirit, I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now: but, when He, the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you in all truth; for He shall not speak of Himself, but whatsoever He shall hear, He shall speak: and He will declare you things to come. He shall glorify Me, for He shall receive of Mine and shall tell it unto you; for being the Spirit of Truth, He will enlighten them in whom He is, and will lead them unto the apprehension of the truth. And this we say, not as severing into diversity and making wholly separate, either the Father from the Son, or the Son from the Father, nor yet the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son, but since One Godhead truly IS, and is thus preached as viewed in the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity, the Acts belonging to Each, and which seem to be attributed to Them severally, are defined to be the Will and Operation of the Whole Godhead. For the Divine and Unsevered Nature will work through Itself, in no divided way, so far as pertains to the one count of Godhead, although Each hath Personal Existence: for the Father is What He is, and the Son likewise, and the Holy Ghost. We must besides note this also: that things which point to ought by names, are recognised in either, and one may see the one pointed out in the other. Therefore needs is there that the Son be revealed through the Father, through the Son again the Father. For Each is surely introduced with the Other, and if any know that God is by Nature Father, he will full surely conceive of the Son That is begotten of Him; and just so the reverse. For he who confesses the Son will not deny the Father.
Therefore in that God is Father, and is so conceived of and proclaimed, He implants the knowledge of His Own Son in His hearers: in that the Son is said to be, and is in truth, of Him by Nature, He proclaims the Father: therefore He says, as to Him, I manifested Thy Name to the men. |403 For since the Son was known by them that believed, He says that the Father's Name has been made manifest. But God the Father will be conceived of as having implanted in us the knowledge of His Own Offspring not by a voice breaking forth from above, and resounding round the earth like thunder, but by the Divine Illumination shining forth as it were in us, to the understanding of the Divinely-inspired Scripture: but unto this again you will find the Son a co-Worker in us; for it is written of the holy Disciples, Then opened He their eyes, to the understanding, that is, the holy Scriptures.
46 Not that any man hath seen the Father, save He which is of God, He hath seen the Father.
Having foreseen as God, that they would no wise receive the revelation through the Spirit, nor would take in the Wisdom from above in its illuminations, but would reject out of much ill-advisedness the very duty of seeing the Father and (so to say) of being instructed by very Vision of God, which as they supposed was once the case with their fathers, when the glory of God came down upon the mount Sinai: He first draws them back, and turns them as with a bridle to the duty of not having a gross conception of God, and of not supposing that the Invisible Nature will ever be visible: for no one (saith He) hath seen the Father at any time. But probably He was hinting at the hierophant Moses: for the Jews, in this also thinking very foolishly, supposed on account of his entering the thick darkness, that he saw the Ineffable Nature of God, and beheld with the bodily eyes, that which is by Nature the Untaint Beauty. But lest by saying anything more openly respecting the all-wise Moses, He should seem to be urging them to their wonted state of mind, He says indefinitely of all alike, and as of him, Not that any man hath seen the Father. Do not (says He) demand what is above nature, nor be ye borne in senseless course to that which is unattainable by all things that are made. For the Divine and Incomprehensible Nature hath retired and is withdrawn not from our |404 eyes only, but also from those of the whole creation: for in the word No one, He comprehendeth all things, and in declaring that He Alone is of God, and hath seen the Father, He putteth Himself outside of all, whereof the 'no one' may be understood declarative. But since He is apart from all, and while none hath seen the Father, He Alone misseth not the seeing Him, how shall He not henceforth be conceived of, not among all, as one of them, but external to all, as above all? And if, whereas all things are said to be of God, and none seeth the Father (for all things are of God, as Paul saith), He Alone seeth the Father because He is of God: deeming aright we shall understand the words Of God, to be of the Essence of the Father, in respect of Him Alone. For if it be not so, why, as we said before, since all things are said to be of God, doth He Alone attain unto the Sight of Him That begat Him because He is of God? Wherefore it will be less accurately said of created things (for all things are of God by creation in that they are brought into being by Him): but of the Son, in another and truer sense will His being of God, be demonstrated, as being of Him by Nature. Wherefore He, not numbered among the all, but being external to all, and above all with the Father, will not share the infirmity of all, in that He is excepted from affinity with them, but mounting up unto the Nature of Him that begat Him, will surely see Him from Whom He is.
But how or in what manner, either He beholds the Father, or is seen of the Father, it pertains not to our tongue to say: we must nevertheless conceive of it in a God-befitting manner,
47 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me hath everlasting life.
Faith therefore is the door and way unto life, and return from corruption unto incorruption. But herein no less is the economy a marvel to the learners: for when He perceived that they understood nothing at all, and saw that they did not suppose they ought to give any credence even to the words of the Prophets, He cuts off, as far as possible, |405 their weakness unto faith by human arguments, by an oath to its truth. For setting before them which believe much to be envied prizes, with their longing desire for these as with traces. He all but constrains them against their will, and persuades them to come to what is proclaimed to them. For what would be more precious than eternal life, to them to whom death and the sufferings from decay are bitter? And this too will beseem a wise teacher, to re-instruct unto the better, by every way (I say) that invites unto life, them who have chosen to think foolishly. But He, being Eternal Life, promises to give Himself to them that believe: that is, that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith. |406
CHAPTER II. That the Holy Body of Christ is Lifegiving, wherein He speaks of His Own Body as of Bread.
48, 49, 50 I am the Bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and died: This is the Bread Which came down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die.
Full clearly may one herein behold that which was spoken afore by the Prophet Isaiah, I was made manifest to them that seek Me not, I was found of them that asked not for Me, I said, Behold Me, unto a nation that was not called by My Name: all the day spread I out My Hands unto a rebellious and gainsaying people. For, removing the whole case from His speech, and having taken away (so to say) all that cloaked it. He at length reveals Himself unveiled to them of Israel, saying, I am the Bread of life, that they may now learn that if they would be superior to corruption, and would put off the death which from the transgression fell upon us, they must needs approach to the participation of Him who is mighty to quicken, and destroyeth corruption, and bringeth to nought death: for this verily is a work proper and most fit for that which is by Nature Life. But since they, affirming that the manna was given to their fathers in the wilderness, received not the Bread which of a truth came down from heaven, that is, the Son, He maketh a necessary comparison between the type and the truth, that so they might know that not that is the Bread which is from heaven, but He Whom the trial shews to be so by Nature. For your fathers (saith He) and ancestors by eating the manna, gave to the bodily nature its need, gaining thereby life for a season, and imparting to the flesh its daily sustenance therefrom, with difficulty effected that it should not die at once. But it will be (He says) the clearest |407 proof of its not being the Bread which is from heaven in a truer sense, that they who partook were no way benefited thereby unto incorruption: a token again in like way that the Son is properly and truly the Bread of Life, that they who have once partaken, and been in some way immingled with Him through the communion with Him have been shewn superior to the very bonds of death. For that the manna again is taken rather as an image or shadow of Christ, and was typifying the Bread of Life, but was not itself the Bread of Life, has been often said by us: and the Psalmist supporteth us, crying out in the Spirit, He gave them bread of Heaven, man did eat angels' bread. For it seems to have been said to them of Israel by the Spirit-clad, but in truth it is not so, but to us rather is the aim of the words directed. For is it not foolish and utterly senseless to suppose that the holy angels which are in heaven, albeit they have an incorporeal nature, should partake grosser food, and need such aid in order to prevail unto life, as this body of earth desires? But I think it nothing hard to conceive, that, since they are spirits, they should need like food, spiritual (I mean) and of wisdom. How then is angels' bread said to have been given to the ancestors of the Jews, if the Prophet speaks truly in so crying? But it is manifest, that since the typical manna was an image of Christ, Which containeth and upholdeth all things in being, nourishing the angels and quickening the things on earth, the Prophet was calling that which is signified by shadows by the name of the truth,----from the fact that the holy angels could not partake of the more earthly food, drawing off his hearers even against their will from any gross conception as to the manna, and bringing them up to the spiritual meaning, that of Christ, Who is the Food of the holy Angels themselves also.
They then who ate the manna (He says) are dead, not having received any participation of life therefrom (for it was not truly lifegiving, but rather taken as an aid against carnal hunger and in type of the true); but they who receive in themselves the Bread of Life, will have |408 immortality as their prize, wholly setting at nought corruption and its consequent evils, and will mount up unto boundless and unending length of Life in Christ. Nor will it at all damage our words on this subject that they who have been made partakers of Christ, need to taste bodily death on account of what is due to nature; for even though they falling into this end undergo the lot of humanity, yet, as Paul saith, they that shall live, live to God. 51 I am the Living Bread Which came down from heaven; if any man eat of this Bread he shall live for ever.
To say the same things unto you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe, writes the Divine Paul to certain, in this too (I suppose) instructed by these very words of the Saviour. For as those who are diseased with wounds, need not the application of a single plaister, but manifold tending, and that not once applied, but by its continuance of application expelling the pain: so (I ween) for the soul most rugged, and withered mind, should many aids of teaching be contrived and come one after the other: for one will avail to soften it not by one and the first leading, but through its successive coming to it, even if it come in the same words. Oftentimes then does the Saviour bringing round the same manner of speech to the Jews set it before them manifoldly, sometimes darkly, and clad in much obscurity, at other times freed delivered and let loose from all double meaning, that they still disbelieving, might lack nothing yet unto their condemnation, but being evil evilly might be destroyed, themselves against their own soul thrusting the sword of perdition.
Christ therefore no longer concealing anything says, I am the Living Bread Which came down from heaven. That was (He says) a type and a shadow and an image. Hear Him now openly and no more veiled, I am the Living Bread, if any man eat of this Bread, he shall live for ever. They who ate of that died, for it was not lifegiving: he that eateth of This Bread, that is Me, or My Flesh, shall live for ever. We must then beware of and reject alike hardening ourselves to the words of piety, since Christ not once only, |409 but oftentimes persuadeth us. For there is no doubt, that they will full surely be open to the severest charges, who turn aside to the uttermost folly, and through boundless unbelief, refuse not to rage against the Author of the most excellent things. Therefore says He of the Jews, If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin, but now they have no cloke for their sin. For they who have never by hearing received the word of salvation into their heart, will haply find the Judge milder, while they plead that they heard not at all, even though they shall specially give account for not having sought to learn: but they who often instructed by the same admonitions and words to the seeking after what is profitable, senselessly imagine that they ought to deprive themselves of the most excellent good things, shall undergo most bitter punishment, and shall meet with an offended judge, not able to find an excuse for their folly which may shame Him.
And the Bread which I will give is My Flesh for the life of the world.
I die (He says) for all, that I may quicken all by Myself, and I made My Flesh a Ransom for the flesh of all. For death shall die in My Death, and with Me shall rise again (He says) the fallen nature of man. For for this became I like to you, Man (that is) and of the seed of Abraham, that I might be made like in all things unto My brethren. The blessed Paul himself also, well understanding what Christ just now said to us says, Forasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same, that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil. For no otherwise was it possible that he that hath the power of death should be destroyed, and death itself also, had not Christ given Himself for us, a Ransom, One for all, for He was in behalf of all. Wherefore He says in the Psalms too, offering Himself as a spotless Sacrifice to God the Father, Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not, but a Body preparedst Thou Me. In whole burnt-offerings and offerings for sin Thou tookedst no pleasure: then said I, Lo I come (in |410 the chapter of the book it is written of Me) to do Thy will, O God, was My choice. For since the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of an heifer sufficed not unto the purging away of sin, nor yet would the slaughter of brute beasts ever have destroyed the power of death, Christ Himself came in in some way to undergo punishment for all. For with His stripes WE were healed, as saith the Prophet, and His Own Self bare our sins in His Own Body on the tree; and He was crucified for all and on account of all, that if One died for all, all we might live in Him. For it was not possible that He should be holden by death, neither could corruption over-master that Which is by Nature Life. But that Christ gave His Own Flesh for the Life of the world, we shall know by His words also, for He saith, Holy Father keep them; and again, For their sakes I sanctify Myself. He here says that He sanctifies Himself, not aiding Himself unto sanctification for the purification of the soul or spirit (as it is understood of us), nor yet for the participation of the Holy Ghost, for the Spirit was in Him by Nature, and He was and is Holy always, and will be so ever. He here says, I sanctify Myself, for, I offer Myself and present Myself as a spotless Sacrifice for an odour of a sweet smell. For that which is brought to the Divine Altar was sanctified, or called holy according to the law.
Christ therefore gave His Own Body for the life of all, and again through It He maketh Life to dwell in us; and how, I will say as I am able. For since the life-giving Word of God indwelt in the Flesh, He transformed it into His Own proper good, that is life, and by the unspeakable character of this union, coming wholly together with It, rendered It life-giving, as Himself is by Nature. Wherefore the Body of Christ giveth life to all who partake of It. For it expels death, when It cometh to be in dying men, and removeth corruption, full in Itself perfectly of the Word which abolisheth corruption.
But a man will haply say, fixing the eye of his understanding upon the resurrection of them that have slept: They who received not the faith in Christ, and were not |411 partakers of Him, will not live again at the time of the resurrection. What? shall not every created thing that has fallen into death return again to life?
To these things we say, Yes, all flesh shall live again: for Prophecy foretells that the dead shall be raised. For we consider that the Mystery through the resurrection of Christ extendeth over the whole nature of man, and in Him first we believe that our whole nature has been released from corruption. For all shall rise, after the likeness of Him That was raised for our sakes, and hath all in Himself, in that He is Man. And as in the first-formed we fell down into death, so in the First-born again, who was so for our sakes, all shall rise again from the dead: but they that did good, unto the resurrection of life (as it is written), and they that wrought evil, unto the resurrection of doom. And I will grant, that in no passing degree bitterer than death is the resurrection unto punishment, and the receiving life again unto disgrace alone. In the stricter sense then wo must understand the Life that is really so, the life in Christ, in holiness and bliss and unfailing delight. For that this is truly life the wise John too knows, saying, He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God shall abide on him. For lo, lo, he says that he which is in unbelief shall not see life: although every creature looks to return again to life, and to rise again. It is then manifest, that the Saviour with reason called that the life which is prepared for the Saints, I mean that in glory and in holiness, which that we ought to pursue after by coming to the participation of the Life-giving Flesh, no right-minded person will doubt.
But since the Saviour called Himself Bread in many of the passages that have already been before us, let us see whether He would not hereby too bring to our mind any one of the things fore-announced and is reminding us of the things in Holy Writ, wherein He was long ago signified under the form of bread. It is written then in Numbers, And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto |412 the children of Israel, and thou shalt say unto them., When ye come into the land whither I bring you, then it shall be, that when YE eat of the bread of the land, ye shall offer up an heave-offering a separation unto the Lord: a cake the first-fruit of your dough shall ye offer for an heave-offering: as an heave offering of the threshingfloor, so shall ye heave it, a first fruit of your dough, and ye shall give unto the Lord, an heave offering unto your generations. Obscurely then, and bearing a gross covering as of the letter, did the law typify these things: yet did it proclaim afore the true Very Bread That cometh down from heaven, i. e., Christ, and giveth life unto the world. For observe how He made Man like us by reason of His Likeness to us, a certain First-fruits of our dough and heave offering, as it is written, was offered up to God the Father, set forth the First-Begotten of the dead, and the First-fruits of the resurrection of all ascending into heaven itself. For He was taken of us, He took hold of the seed of Abraham, as Paul saith, He was offered up, as of all, and in behalf of all, that He might quicken all, and might be offered to God the Father, as it were the first handful of the floor. But as He being in truth Light, put that grace upon His disciples; for He says, YE are the light of the world: so too He being the Living Bread, and That quickeneth all things and keepeth them in being, by a likeness and through the shadow of the Law, was typifying in the twelve loaves the holy choir of the Apostles. For thus He says in Leviticus, And the Lord spalce unto Moses, saying, Command the children of Israel, that they bring unto thee oil olive pure beaten for the light, to cause the lamp to burn continually without the vail in the tabernacle of the testimony. And then He proceeds, And ye shall take fine flour, and make twelve cakes thereof: two tenth deals shall be in one cake. And ye shall set them in two rows, six in a row, upon the pure table before the Lord, and shall put pure frankincense upon each row, and salt, and it shall be on the loaves for a memorial unto the Lord.
The lamp then in the holy tabernacle, and giving light without the vail, we said in the foregoing was the blessed |413 John, nourished with the purest oil, that is, the illumination through the Spirit: outside the vail, because his doctrine was catechetic: for he says, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight the paths of our God. But the things within the vail, that is, the hidden Mystery of Christ, he sheweth not much. For I (he saith) baptize you with water unto repentance, but He That cometh after me is mightier than I, Whose shoes I am not worthy to bear, He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. Seest thou then how he shines, as in simpler speech calling unto repentance; but the things within the vail he commits to Him That baptizeth with fire and the Spirit, to lay open? And these things we have set forth more at large, on the words, at the beginning of the book, He was the burning and the shining light: yet we touched on them now cursorily, since it was necessary, on John's passing away, to shew that the preaching of the holy Apostles was near and straightway present.
For for this reason, I suppose, the Scripture, having first signified him by the lamp puts before us the consideration of the twelve loaves. Ye shall make (it says) twelve cakes: two tenth deals shall be in one cake. It is the custom of the Divine Scripture, to receive ever the number ten as perfect, and to acknowledge it as the fullest, since the series and order of the consecutive numbers, receiving a kind of revolution and mutiplication of the same into the same, advances and is extended to whatsoever one will. He commands then that each cake be of two tenth deals, that you may see perfection in the disciples, in the even pair, I mean both active virtue, and that of contemplation. He bids two rows to be made (and profitably so) well nigh indicating the very position, which it was (as is like) their custom to take, ever receiving the Lord in the midst of them, and accustomed ever to surround Him as their Master. And that we may know that, as Paul saith, they are unto God the Father a sweet savour of Christ, He bids frankincense to be put on the cakes, and that they be sprinkled also with salt. For it is said to them, YE are the salt of the earth. |414 Yea and with reason does He bid it be offered upon the Sabbath day, for they were made manifest in the last times of the world: and the last day of the week is the Sabbath. And not only so, but because at the time of our Saviour's coming we held a Sabbath spiritually: for we rested from sin. And then were the holy Apostles also made manifest unto us, by whose Divine writings also we nourished attain unto the life in holiness. Therefore on the Sabbath day specially doth He bid the cakes to be set out upon the holy table, that is, in the Church. For the whole is often signified by a part. But what is holier than the holy Table of Christ? Therefore the Saviour was pre-typified as bread by the Law: the Apostles again as cakes by their likeness to Him. For all things were in verity in Christ, but by likeness to Him, they belong to us too through His grace.
52, 53 The Jews therefore were striving among themselves saying, How can This Man give us His Flesh to eat? Jesus therefore said unto them,
All things are plain to him that understandeth, and right to them that find knowledge, as it is written, but darksome to the foolish is even that which is exceeding easy. For the truly wise hearer shuts up the more obvious teaching in the treasury of his understanding, not admitting any delay in respect of this: but as to the things the meaning whereof is hard, he goes about with his enquiries, and does not cease asking about them; and he seems to me profitably to press on to do much the same as they say that the fleetest dogs of the chase do, who having from nature great quickness of scent, keep running round the haunts of their game. And does not the wise and prophetic oracle call to some similar habit, Seeking seek and dwell with Me? For the seeker must seek, that is, must bring a most unflinching zeal thereto, and not go astray after empty speculations, but in proportion as anything is more rugged in its difficulty, with so much the more vigorous mind must he apply himself and carry by storm with more resolute onset of his thoughts that which is concealed. But the unpractised |415 and unteachable mind, whatever starts up before it, rages at it with its unbelief, rejects the word 'conquering' as spurious, from undisciplined daring mounting up to the last degree of arrogance. For that which will give way to none, nor think that ought is greater than it, how will it not at last be, what we have just said?
And we shall find by looking into the nature of the thing that the Jews too fell into this disorder. For when they ought to have accepted unhesitatingly the words of the Saviour, having already through many things marvelled at His God-befitting Power and His incontestable Authority over all, and to have enquired what was hard of attainment, and to have besought instruction wherein they were perplexed: they senseless repeat How to God, as though they knew not that it is a word replete with all blasphemy. For the Power of accomplishing all things without toil belongs to God, but they, being natural men, as the blessed Paul saith, received not the things of the Spirit of God, but the so dread Mystery seems folly to them.
We then ought, to derive benefit herefrom, and reestablishing our own life by others' falls, to hold without question our faith in the teaching of the Divine Mysteries and not to apply How to ought that is told us (for it is a Jewish word, and therefore deserving of extremest punishment). And when the ruler of the synagogue of the Jews, Nicodemus by name, on hearing the Divine words, said, How can these things be? with justice was he ridiculed hearing, Art THOU a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? Let us then, found more skilful in the search after what is profitable, even by others' folly, beware of saying How, to what God works, but rather study to attribute to Him the knowledge of the mode of His Own Works. For as no one will know what God is by Nature, but he is justified who believeth that He is and that He is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek Him: so again will one be ignorant of the mode of His several acts, but by committing the issue to faith, and by confessing the Almighty Power of God Who is over all, will he receive |416 the not contemptible reward of so good a decision. For the Lord of all Himself willing us so to be affected saith by the Prophet Isaiah, For My Counsels are not as your counsels, neither as your ways are My Ways, saith the Lord, but as the heaven is far from the earth, so are My Ways far from your ways, and your thoughts from My Mind. But He That so greatly surpasseth us in wisdom and might, how shall He not also work wonderfully, and overpass our understanding?
I would fain introduce yet an argument besides, no mean one, as I think. For they who in this life take up the knowledge of mechanics (as it is called) often engage to perform some great thing, and the way of doing it is hidden from the mind of hearers, till they have seen it done; but they looking at the skill that is in them, even before the trial itself, accept it on faith, not venturing to gainsay. How then (may one say) will not they with reason be open to heavy charges, for daring to dishonour with their unbelief God the Chiefest Worker of all things, who refuse not to say how to those things which He worketh, albeit they acknowledge Him to be the Giver of all wisdom, and are taught by the whole Divine Scripture that He can do all things? But if thou persistest, O Jew, saying How! I too will imitate for thy sake thine ignorance, and say to thee, how earnest thou out of Egypt? how (tell me) was the rod of Moses changed into a serpent? how became the hand leprous, and was again restored, as it is written? how passed the water into the nature of blood? how passedst thou through the Red Sea, as through dry land? how by means of a tree was the bitter water of Mara changed into sweet? how too was water supplied to thee from the breasts of the rocks? how was the manna brought down to thee? how again stood the Jordan in his place? or how through a shout alone was the impregnable wall of Jericho shattered? And will that how never fail thee? For thou wilt be detected, already amazed at many mighty works, to which if thou appliest the how, thou wilt wholly disbelieve all Divine Scripture, |417 and wilt overthrow all the words of the holy Prophets, and, above all, the holy writings of thine own Moses himself. It were therefore meeter far, that, believing in Christ and assenting unhesitatingly to His words, ye should be zealous to learn the mode of the blessing, and not be inconsiderately intoxicate saying, How can this Man give us His Flesh to eat? for the word this Man too they say in disdain. For some such meaning again does their arrogant speech hint at.
53 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, ye have not life in you.
Long-suffering truly and of great mercy is Christ, as one may see from the words now before us. For in no wise reproaching the littleness of soul of the unbelievers, He again richly gives them the life-giving knowledge of the Mystery, and having overcome, as God, the arrogance of them that grieve Him, He tells them those things whereby they shall (He says) mount up to endless life. And how He will give them His Flesh to eat, He tells them not as yet, for He knew that they were in darkness, and could never avail to understand the ineffable: but how great good will result from the eating He shews to their profit, that haply inciting them to a desire of living in greater preparation for unfading pleasures, He may teach them faith. For to them that have now believed there follows suitably the power too of learning. For so saith the prophet Isaiah, If ye will not believe neither yet shall ye understand. It was therefore right, that faith having been first rooted in them, there should next be brought in understanding of those things whereof they are ignorant, and that the investigation should not precede faith.
For this cause (I suppose) did the Lord with reason refrain from telling them how He would give them His Flesh to eat, and calls them to the duty of believing before seeking. For to them that had at length believed He brake bread, and gave to them, saying, Take, eat, This is My Body. Likewise handing round the Cup to them all, He saith, |418 Drink of it all of you, for this is My Blood of the New Testament, which is being shed for many for the remission of sins. Seest thou how to those who were yet senseless and thrust from them faith without investigation. He explaineth not the mode of the Mystery, but to those who had now believed, He is found to declare it most clearly? Let them then, who of their folly have not yet admitted the faith in Christ, hear, Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, ye have no life in you. For wholly destitute of all share and taste of that life which is in sanctification and bliss, do they abide who do not through the mystical Blessing receive Jesus. For He is Life by Nature, inasmuch as He was begotten of a Living Father: no less quickening is His Holy Body also, being in a manner gathered and ineffably united with the all-quickening Word. Wherefore It is accounted His, and is conceived of as One with Him. For, since the Incarnation, it is inseparable; except as regards the knowledge that the Word Which came from God the Father, and the temple from the Virgin, are not indeed the same in nature (for the Body is not consubstantial with the Word from God), yet are they One by that coming-together and ineffable concurrence. And since the Flesh of the Saviour hath become life-giving (as being united to That which is by Nature Life, the Word from God), when we taste It, then have we life in ourselves, we too united to It, as It to the indwelling Word. For this cause also, when He raised the dead, the Saviour is found to have operated, not by word only, or God-befitting commands, but He laid a stress on employing His Holy Flesh as a sort of co-operator unto this, that He might shew that It had the power to give life, and was already made one with Him. For it was in truth His Own Body, and not another's. And verily when He was raising the little daughter of the chief of the Synagogue saying, Maid, arise, He laid hold of her hand, as it is written, giving life, as God, by His All-Powerful command, and again, giving life through the touch of His Holy Flesh, He shews that there was one kindred operation |419 through both. Yea and when He went into the city called Nain, and one was being carried out dead, the only son of his mother, again He touched the bier, saying, Young man, to thee I say, Arise. And not only to His Word gives He power to give life to the dead, but that He might shew that His Own Body was life-giving (as I have said already), He touches the dead, thereby also infusing life into those already decayed. And if by the touch alone of His Holy Flesh, He giveth life to that which is decayed, how shall we not profit yet more richly by the life-giving Blessing when we also taste It? For It will surely transform into Its own good, i. e., immortality, those who partake of It.
And wonder not hereat, nor ask thyself in Jewish manner, How? but rather consider that water is cold by nature, but when it is poured into a kettle and brought to the fire, then it all but forgets its own nature, and goes away unto the operation of that which has mastered it. We too then in the same way, even though we be corruptible through the nature of our flesh, yet forsaking our own infirmity by the immingling of life, are trans-elemented to Its property, that is, life. For it needed, it needed that not only should the soul be re-created through the Holy Ghost into newness of life, but also that this gross and earthly body should by the grosser and kindred participation be sanctified and called to incorruption. But let not the Jew sluggish of understanding ever suppose that a mode of some new mysteries has been discovered by us. For he will see it in the older books, I mean those of Moses, already fore-shadowed out and bearing the force of the truth, for that it was accomplished in outward forms too. For what (tell me) shamed the destroyer? what provided that their forefathers also should not perish along with the Egyptians, when death, the conqueror of all, was arming himself against the firstborn? is it not manifest to all, that when they, in obedience to the Divine Law sacrificed the lamb, and having tasted of its flesh anointed the doorposts with the blood, death was compelled to pass them by, |420 as sanctified? For the destroyer, that is, the death of the body, was arrayed against the whole nature of man, by reason of the transgression of the first-formed man. For then first did we hear, Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. But since Christ was about to overthrow the so dire tyrant, by existing in us as Life through His Holy Flesh, the Mystery was fore-typified to them of old, and they tasted of the flesh of the lamb, and were sanctified and preserved by its blood, he that was appointed to destroy passing by, by the appointment of God, those who were partakers of the lamb. Why then art thou angry, O Jew, at being now called from the types to the truth, when Christ says, Except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, ye have not life in you? albeit thou oughtest to come with more confidence to the comprehending of the Mystery, pre-instructed by the books of Moses, and by most ancient figures led most undoubtingly to the duty of faith.
54 Whoso eateth My Flesh and drinketh My Blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
Herein too ought we specially to admire the holy Evangelist openly crying, And the Word was made Flesh. For he shrank not from saying, not that He was made in Flesh, but that He was made Flesh, that he might shew the Union. And we do not say either that God the Word, of the Father, was transformed into the nature of the Flesh, or that the flesh passed into the Word (for Each remaineth that which it is by nature, and One Christ of Both); but in a manner unspeakable and passing human understanding, the Word united to His Own Flesh, and having, as it were, transformed It all into Himself (according to the operation which lieth in His power of quickening things lacking life) drave forth of our nature the corruption, and dislodged too death which of old prevailed by means of sin. He therefore that eateth the Holy Flesh of Christ, hath eternal life: for the Flesh hath in Itself the Word Which is |421 by Nature Life. Wherefore He saith, I will raise him up at the last day. Instead of saying, My Body shall raise him up, i. e., him that eateth It, He hath put I: not as though He were other than His Own Flesh (and not wholly so by nature), for after the Union He cannot at all be severed into a pair of sons. I therefore (He saith) Who am become in him, through Mine Own Flesh, that is, will raise up him who eateth thereof, in the last day. For it were indeed even impossible that He Which is by Nature Life, should not surely overcome decay, and master death. Wherefore even though death which by the transgression sprang on us compel the human body to the debt of decay, yet since Christ is in us through His Own Flesh, we shall surely rise. For it were incredible, yea rather impossible, that Life should not make alive those in whom It is. For as if one took a spark and buried it amid much stubble, in order that the seed of fire preserved might lay hold on it, so in us too our Lord Jesus Christ hideth life through His Own Flesh, and inserts it as a seed of immortality, abolishing the whole corruption that is in us.
55 For My Flesh is True Meat and My Blood True Drink.
Again does He contrast the Mystic Blessing with the supply of manna, and the savour of the cup with the founts from rocky beds. And what He said afore in other words, this He again says here, manifoldly fashioning the same discourse. For He does not advise them to marvel overmuch at the manna, but rather to receive Him, as Bread from Heaven, and the Giver of eternal life. For Your fathers (He says) ate the manna in the wilderness and died: this is the Bread Which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die. For the food of manna (says He) having for a very little time sported with the need of the body, and driven away the hurt of want, was again powerless, and did not engraft eternal life in them that had eaten thereof. That then was not the true Food, and Bread from heaven, that is; but the Holy Body of Christ, Which nourishes to immortality and life everlasting, |422 is verily the true Food. 'Yea and they drank water also from the rock.' 'And what then' (He says) 'or what the profit to them who drank? for they have died.' That too then was not true drink; but true Drink in truth is found to be the Precious Blood of Christ, Which uproots from the foundation all corruption, and dislodges death which dwelt in the flesh of man. For it is not the Blood of any chance man, but of the Very Life that is by Nature. Wherefore we are entitled both the Body and the members of Christ, as receiving through the Blessing the Son Himself in ourselves.
56 He that eateth My Flesh and drinketh My Blood dwelleth in Me and I in him.
Manifoldly does Christ initiate us by these words, and since His Discourse is hard of attainment by the more unlearned, asking for itself rather the understanding of faith than investigation, He revolving again and again over the same ground makes it easy in divers ways, and from all parts illumines what is useful therein, fixing as a kind of foundation and groundwork the most excellent desire for it. For he that eateth My Flesh (saith He) and drinketh My Blood abideth in Me and I in him. For as if one should join wax with other wax, he will surely see (I suppose) the one in the other; in like manner (I deem) he who receiveth the Flesh of our Saviour Christ and drinketh His Precious Blood, as He saith, is found one with Him, commingled as it were and immingled with Him through the participation, so that he is found in Christ, Christ again in him. Thus was Christ teaching us in the Gospel too according to Matthew, saying, The Kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. Who then the woman is, what the three measures of meal, or what the measure at all, shall be spoken of in its proper place: for the present we will speak only of the leaven. As then Paul saith that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump, so the least portion |423 of the Blessing blendeth our whole body with itself, and filleth it with its own mighty working, and so Christ cometh to be in us, and we again in Him. For one may truly say that the leaven is in the whole lump, and the lump by like reasoning is in the whole leaven: you have in brief the sense of the words. And if we long for eternal life, if we pray to have the Giver of immortality in ourselves, let us not like some of the more heedless refuse to be blessed nor let the Devil deep in wickedness, lay for us a trap and snare a perilous reverence.
Yea (says he) for it is written, He that eateth of the Bread, and drinketh of the Cup unworthily, eateth and drinketh doom unto himself: and I, having examined myself, see that I am not worthy.
When then wilt thou be worthy (will he who thus speaks hear from us) when wilt thou present thyself to Christ? for if thou art always going to be scared away by thy stumblings, thou wilt never cease from stumbling (for who can understand his errors? as saith the holy Psalmist) and wilt be found wholly without participation of that wholly-preserving sanctification. Decide then to lead a holier life, in harmony with the law, and so receive the Blessing, believing that it hath power to expel, not death only, but the diseases in us. For Christ thus coming to be in us lulleth the law which rageth in the members of the flesh, and kindleth piety to God-ward, and deadeneth our passions, not imputing to us the transgressions in which we are, but rather, healing us, as sick. For He bindeth up that which was crushed, He raiseth what had fallen, as a Good Shepherd and One that hath laid down His Life for His sheep. |424
CHAPTER III. That the Son is not a Partaker of Life from any other, but rather Life by Nature, as being begotten of God the Father Who is Life by Nature.
57 As the Living Father sent Me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth Me, he too shall live by Me.
Obscure is the meaning of this passage, and enveloped in no passing difficulty: but it will not entirely attain to impenetrability: for it will be apprehended and got at by those who choose to think aright. When then the Son saith that He was sent, He signifieth His Incarnation, and nothing else. And when we speak of His Incarnation, we mean that He was made Man complete. As then the Father (He saith) hath made Me Man, and since I God the Word, was begotten Life of That which is by Nature Life, and, made Man, have filled My Temple, that is, My Body, with Mine Own Nature; in like manner shall he also who eateth My Flesh live because of Me. For I took mortal Flesh: but, having dwelt in it, being by Nature Life, because I am of the Living Father, I re-elemented it wholly into Mine Own Life, I have not been overcome of the corruption of the flesh but have rather overcome it, as God. As then (for again I will say it shrinking not for profits sake) although I was made (He says) Flesh (for this the being sent meaneth), I live again because of the Living Father, that is, retaining in Myself the natural excellence of Him That begat Me, so he too who, by the participation of My Flesh, receiveth Me in himself shall live, wholly trans-elemented entire into Me, Who am able to give life, because I am (as it were) of life-giving Root, that is God the Father. But He says that He was Incarnate by the Father, although Solomon says, Wisdom builded her an house: and |425 the blessed Gabriel attributeth the creation of the Divine Body to the Operation of the Spirit, when he was speaking with the holy Virgin (for The Holy Ghost, he says, shall come upon thee, and the Power of the Highest shall overshadow thee) that thou mayest again understand, that the Godhead being by Nature One, conceived of both in the Father and the Son and in the Holy Ghost,----not severally will Each in-work as to ought of things that are, but whatever is said to be done by One, this is wholly the work of the whole Divine Nature. For since the Holy Trinity is One in respect of consubstantiality, one full surely will be also Its Power in respect to every thing. For all things are of the Father through the Son in the Spirit. But what we have often said, this we will again say. For to say the same things, though it be burdensome, yet it is safe. It was the habit of our Saviour Christ for our profit to attribute those things which surpass the power suitable to man, to the Operation of the Father. For He hath humbled Himself being made Man: and since He accepted the Form of a servant, He spurneth not the measure of servants, yet will He not be excluded from doing all things with the Father. And He That begat Him worketh all things through Him, according to the Word of the Saviour Himself, The Father (He says) That dwelleth in Me, Himself doeth the works. Having then given to the dispensation of the Flesh what befits it, He attributeth to God the Father what is above man's power. For the building a Temple in the Virgin surpasseth man's power.
But our opponent will again reply: 'And in what other mode did the Son reveal what He is by Nature, or how did He shew clearly that the Father is greater, save by saying, I live because of the Father? For if the Father is the Giver of Life to the Son, who will rush on to so great stupidity as not full surely to conceive that that which partakes of life, will not be the same by nature as life or that which is mighty to quicken?'
To such things we too will array in turn the word of the truth, and opportunely say, The fool will speak folly, and |426 his heart will conceive vain things, to practise transgression, and to utter error against the Lord. For what can be more wicked than such a conception of the heretics? How is not the deepest error uttered by them against Christ who quickeneth all things, since those most foolish ones blush not to say, that He lives by partaking of life from another, just like His creatures? Will then the Son at last be a creature too, inasmuch as it is a partaker of life, but is not very life by nature? for the creature must needs be wholly other than that which is the life in it. But if they suppose that they may be the same, let them call every creature life. But I do not suppose that any one in his senses would do that. Therefore neither is the Only-Begotten a creature, but will be conceived of as by Nature Life: for how would He be true in saying, I am the Resurrection and the Life? for life is that which gives life, not that which needs to receive it from another, just as wisdom too is understood to be that which can make wise, not that which receives wisdom. Therefore according to you the Truth will be false, and Christ will not be true, Who says, I am the Life. Yea and the brilliant choir of saints again will speak falsely, uttering words through the Spirit, and calling the Only-Begotten Life. For the Divine Psalmist is found saying to the Father, With Thee is the Fountain of Life. And the wondrous Evangelist John in his epistles thus says, That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we beheld, and our hands handled, of the Word of Life: and the Word was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and declare unto you the Eternal Life, Which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us. Seest thou that the Psalmist speaks true, even by the testimony of John, when he says to God the Father of all, With Thee is the Fountain of Life? For the Son was and is with Him the Fountain of Life. For that the Spirit-clad says these things of Him, he will again prove by his words: for he thus writes, And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know Him That is True, and we are |427 in 3 His True Son Jesus Christ. This is the True God and Eternal Life. Then who (tell me) will any longer endure the trifling of the heretics? or who will not justly cry out against their impiety, in daring to say that the Son is partaker of life from another, albeit the holy and God-inspired Scripture says no such thing of Him; but rather openly cries aloud, that He is both God by Nature, and Very, and the Fountain of Life, and again Life Eternal. For how will He be conceived of as Very God, who needs life from another, and is not rather Himself Life by Nature? or how will He any more be called Fountain of Life, if He is holpen by another's gifts to be able to live?
But yea (says the opponent) we grant that the Son is so far Life, that He too can quicken, as having in Himself the Living Father.
Yet this will not suffice, most noble sirs, to exempt you from blasphemy against the Only-Begotten: but in this too shall your argument be proved untutored and every way falling to pieces. For to have to say that the Son is called Life, because He can quicken things recipient of life, by reason He has in Himself the Father, how is it not replete with unmeasured folly? For ye know not (it seems) what by nature means, or what 'being of any thing by nature means as compared with so being by circumstances 4. As fire is hot by nature, and other things too are hot, by partaking of its operation, as iron or wood: but not because they are heated, are they said to be fire: for they have an external and not a physical operation in them. But our argument will proceed by means of illustrations in regard to ourselves too. Grammar for instance, or Geometry, are held to be species of reasoning science, but when any one becomes skilled in grammar or the other, he is not himself conceived of as Grammar or Geometry, but from the Grammar that is in him, he is called a Grammarian, |428 and similarly with regard to the other: so too that which is by nature life, is something altogether different from the things wherein it is, transfashioning to itself what is not so by nature. When therefore ye say that the Father is in the Son, as He might be in matter (for instance), in order that, since He is Life by Nature, He too may be able to quicken, ye foolishly grant still that He is Life, and not rather participant of it from another, yet by relation, and not by Essence called to the dignity of a dispenser thereof. And as one would not reasonably call the heated iron fire, albeit it has the operation of the fire, in that it is heated from it: or again a man skilful in grammar is not called grammar, because he can lead others also unto the science, so I do not imagine that any man of sense would call the Son Life because He can quicken others also, though He have not by Nature, according to them, the being Life, but as from the engrafted Operation of the Father, or by reason of the indwelling Father. For what (tell me) is to hinder us at last from conceiving of the Son as one of us, that is, of corruptible nature, if He live because of the Father, that is, having received the gift of life from the Father, as they understand it? For He would perish, according to the analogy of their notions, if He had not the living Father in Himself. And if we confess that He speaks truly, I am in the Father and the Father in Me; He indeed has in Himself the Father Who is Life by Nature, and is Himself in the Father though not Life by Nature. I pass over the blasphemy, though one must utter it to convict the fighters against God of their impiety: for the Father will be found to have in Himself that which is destitute of Life, that is, decay, or a decaying nature. For since the nature of the matter in hand compels us so to conceive of the Son, we must investigate further, and go through various considerations, since our aim is by due precision to refine the question. You say that God the Father is by Nature Life. Well, so He is, but He is in the Son also. For this your argument too allows. I would now with reason ask you, desiring to learn it, 'What will |429 He work in respect of His Son, being in Him? Will He impart of His Own Life to His Offspring, as though He needed it and had not Life of Himself? how then must we not suppose the Son to be void of Life? That which is void of Life, what is it, but subject to decay? But He will not impart of His Own Life to His Offspring: for He is Life, even though He receive it not from Him.
How then do certain unguardedly babbling still accuse Him, and say that the Son therefore lives, because He hath in Himself the Father who is by Nature Life? For if He live also apart from the Father, as being Essentially Life's Very self, He will never live because of the Father, that is, because of participation of the Father. But if He have the Father the giver of His Own Life, manifestly He has no Life of His Own. For He borrows it of another, and is (as we said at first) a creature rather than Life, and of a nature subject to decay. How then does He call Himself Life? For either we too may safely say, I am the Life, or if this be no safe word (for it is not lawful for the creature to mount up to God-befitting dignities), the Son knows that He is by Nature Life: since how will He be the Impress of the Person of Him That begat Him, how the Image and accurate Likeness? or how was not Philip right in saying, Shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us? For in truth one ought to consider, that he that had seen the Son, had not yet seen the Father, since the One is by Nature Life, the Other participant of life from Him. For one will never see that which quickeneth in that which is quickened, Him That lacketh not in him that lacketh. Hence in another way too will He be untrue in saying, He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.
But he who loveth the pious doctrines of the Church sees what great absurdities will follow their pratings. Let him then turn from them, and pass away, as it is written, and let him make straight paths, and direct his ways, and look to the simple beauty of the truth, believing that God the Father is by Nature Life, the Son Begotten of Him Life too. For as He is said to be Light of Light, so too |430 Life of Life: and as God the Father lighteneth things lacking Light by His Own Light, His Son, and gives wisdom to things recipient thereof, through His Own Wisdom, and strengthened things needing strength, through again His Own Strength, so too He quickeneth things whatever lack the Life from Him, by His Own Life which floweth forth from Him, His Son. When then He says, I live because of the Father, do not suppose that He confesses that He lives because He receives Life from the Father, but asserted that because He was begotten of a Living Father, that therefore He also lives. For it were impossible that He who is of a Living Father, should not live. As though any of us were to say, I am a reasonable man on account of my father, for I was born the child of a reasonable man: so do thou conceive in respect of the Only-Begotten also. I live (He says) because of the Father. For since the Father who begat Me is Life by Nature, and I am His Natural and Proper Offspring, I gain by Nature what is His, i. e., being Life: for this the Father too is. For since He is conceived to be and is One of One (for the Son is from the Father, even though He were with Him eternally); He with reason glories in the Natural Attributes of Him That begat Him, as His Own.
58 This is the Bread Which came down from heaven, not as your fathers ate the manna and died; he that eateth of This My Bread shall live for ever.
Great (saith He) ought to be the effects of great things, and the gifts of the Grace from above, should appear God-befitting and worthy of the Divine Munificence. For if thou have wholly received in faith that the Bread came, down from heaven, let it produce continous life in them that long after it, and have the unceasing Operation of immortality. For this will be a clear proof of its being the Bread from heaven, that is from God: since we say that it befits the Eternal to give what is eternal, and not the enjoyment of temporary food, which is barely able to last for just the least moment. For one will no longer wisely |431 suppose that that was the bread from God and from above, which our forefathers eating, were overcome by death, and repelled not the evil of corruption, and no wonder; for that was not the Bread which availeth to render immortal. Hence neither will it be rightly conceived and said by any to be from heaven. For it was a work befitting that which came down thence, to render the partakers of It superior to death and decay. By undoubted proof again will it be confirmed, that this was the Bread from Heaven, that to wit through Christ, i. e., His Body. For It makes him that tastes thereof to live for ever. Herein too is seen a great pledge of the Divine Nature, Which vouchsafes not to give a little thing, but everything wonderful, even surpassing our understanding, so as for the greatness of the Grace, to be even disbelieved by the more simple. For with so wealthy a Hand how should not the Will to give largely be present? Wherefore Paul too says in amazement, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God prepared for them that love Him. By little examples was the Law typifying great ones, having the shadow of the good things to come, not the very image of the things, as it is written: as in the food of manna is seen the Blessing that is through Christ. For the shadow of the good things to come was prefigured to them of old.
59 These things said He in the Synagogue as He taught in Capernaum.
The most wise Evangelist introducing to us the exposition of marvellous mysteries, with reason attributes to our Saviour Christ, the commencement of the doctrine thereof, by the clear view of His Person shaming the gainsayer, and scaring off beforehand those who should come with a view to gainsay: for sometimes the renown of the teachers makes the hearer more ready to believe, and demands a more earnest assent on the part of the learners. Full well too does he add, In the Synagogue. For the expression wellnigh shews that not one chance person, or two, heard |432 Christ say these things: but He is seen teaching openly in the synagogue to all, as Himself saith by the Prophet Isaiah too, Not in secret have I spoken nor in a dark place of the earth. For He was discoursing openly of these things, rendering their judgment without excuse to the Jews, and rendering the charges of not believing on Him heavier to the disobedient. For they, if not yet instructed in so dread Mystery, might reasonably have deprecated punishment, and pleading utter ignorance, have undergone a lighter sentence from the Judge: but since they knowing, and often initiated, still outraged Him with their unbelief, how will they not reasonably be punished, all mercy at last taken away, and pay most bitter penalty to Him that was dishonoured of them? some such thing hath the Saviour Himself too said of them, If I had not come (He says) and spoken unto them, they had not had sin, but now they have no cloke for their sin.
We must then guard against, yea rather renounce, disobedience, as the bringer in of death, and look upon faith in what Christ teaches, as the giver of life. For thus shall we escape being punished with them. But he adds that Christ had spoken these things in Capernaum, that he may be proved to have remembered accurately. For he that knoweth both place and village, how shall he fail in the relation of the things taught?
60, 61 Many therefore of His disciples, when they had heard this, saith, Hard is this saying, who can hear it? When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples are murmuring at it, He said unto them,
This is the custom of the simple: they ever find fault with the more subtle doctrines and foolishly tear in pieces any thought that is above them, because themselves understand it not: although they ought rather to have been eager to learn, and to have loved to search diligently the things spoken, not on the contrary to rise up against so wise words, and call that hard, which they ought to have marvelled at. For they are somewhat in the same plight, |433 as one may see those in who have lost their teeth. For the one hurrying to the more delicate food, often reject the more wholesome, and sometimes blame the more excellent, not acknowledging the disease, whereby they are compelled to decline it: and these, the foster-brethren of unlearning and bereft of sound mind, shrink from knowledge, which they ought to have pursued with exceeding much toil, and to have attained by intent zeal. The spiritual man then will delight himself in the words of our Saviour, and will justly cry out, How sweet are Thy words unto my throat, yea, above honey and the comb to my mouth; while the carnal Jew ignorantly esteeming the spiritual Mystery to be foolishness, when admonished by the Words of the Saviour to mount up to the understanding befitting man, ever sinketh down to the folly which is his foster-brother, calling evil good, and good evil, according to the Prophet's voice. He follows again his fathers, and herein too is he detected imitating the unlearning of his forefathers. For the one on receiving the manna from God, and being made partakers of the blessing from above, were dragged down to their wonted coarseness, and sought for the unsavourinesses of Egypt, desiring to behold onions, leeks, and kettles of fish: and these on being exhorted to receive the life-giving Grace of the Spirit, and taught to feed on the Very Bread, which cometh from God the Father, turn aside after their own error, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God; and as their forefathers used to find fault with the very food of manna, daring to say, And our soul is dried away with this manna: so do these too again reject the Very Bread, and blush not to say, Hard is this saying.
The hearers therefore of the Divine Mysteries must be wise, they must be approved exchangers, so as to know the approved and counterfeit coin, and neither unseasonably to bring inextricable questioning on those things which are to be received in faith, nor to lavish a faith sometimes harmful upon those things that require investigation, but to render to every thing that is said its due, and to advance as it |434 were by a straight path, refusing to turn aside on either hand. For by a royal road beseems it him to travel who runneth to uprightness of faith which is in Christ.
62 Doth this offend you? what and if ye shall see the Son of Man ascend up where He was before?
From utter ignorance, certain of those who were being taught by Christ the Saviour, were offended at His words. For when they heard Him saying, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of man and drink His Blood, ye have no life in you, they supposed that they were invited to some brutish savageness, as though they were enjoined to eat flesh and to sup up blood, and were constrained to do things- which are dreadful even to hear. For they knew not the beauty of the Mystery, and that fairest economy devised for it. Besides this, they full surely reasoned thus with themselves, How can the human body implant in us everlasting life, what can a thing of like nature with ourselves avail to immortality? Christ therefore understanding their thoughts (for all things are naked and, bared to His eyes), heals them again, leading them by the hand manifoldly to the understanding of those things of which they were yet ignorant. Very foolishly, sirs, (saith He) are ye offended at My Words. For if ye cannot yet believe, albeit oftentimes instructed, that My Body will infuse life into you, how will ye feel (He saith) when ye shall see It ascend even into heaven? For not only do I promise that I will ascend even into heaven itself, that ye may not again say, How? but the sight shall be in your eyes, shaming every gainsayer. If then ye shall see (saith He) the Son of Man ascending into heaven, what will ye say then? For ye will be convicted of no slight folly. For if ye suppose that My Flesh cannot put life into you, how can It ascend into heaven like a bird? For if It cannot quicken, because its nature is not to quicken, how will It soar in air, how mount up into the heavens? for this too is equally impossible for flesh. But if it ascends contrary to nature, what is to hinder it from quickening also, even though its nature be not to quicken, of its own |435 nature? For He Who made That heavenly which is from earth, will render it Lifegiving also, oven though its nature be to decay, as regards its own self?
Wo must observe how He doth not endure to be divided into two christs, according to the uncounsel of some. For He keepeth Himself every way undivided after the Incarnation. For He says that the Son of man ascendeth up where He was before, although the earthly Body was not above before this, but only the Word by Itself before His Concurrence with flesh. Well then hath Paul put in his epistles, One Lord Jesus Christ. For He is One Son, both before the Incarnation and after the Incarnation, and we do not reckon His own Body as alien from the Word. Wherefore He says that the Word which came down from above from heaven is also Son of Man. For He was made Flesh, as the blessed Evangelist saith, and did not pass into flesh by change (for He is without turning and Unchangeable by Nature as God) but as it were dwelling in His own Temple, I mean that from the Virgin, and made Man in very deed. But by saying that He will ascend up where He was before also, He gives His hearers to understand that He hath come down from heaven. For thus it was like that they understanding the force of the argument, should give heed to Him not as to a man only, but should at length know that He is God the Word in the Flesh, and believe that His Body too is Life-giving. 63 It is the Spirit That quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing.
It is not unreasonably (He says) that ye have clothed the flesh in no power of giving life. For when the nature of the flesh is considered alone and by itself, plainly it is not life-giving. For never will ought of things that are, give life, but rather it hath itself need of Him who is mighty to quicken. But when the Mystery of the Incarnation is carefully considered, and ye then learn who it is who dwelleth in this Flesh, ye will then surely feel (He says) unless you would accuse the Divine Spirit Itself also, that It can impart life, although of itself the flesh profiteth not a whit. For since it was united to the Life-giving Word, |436 it hath become wholly Life-giving, hastening up to the power of the higher Nature, not itself forcing unto its own nature Him who cannot in any wise be subjected. Although then the nature of the flesh be in itself powerless to give life, yet will it inwork this, when it has the Life-working Word, and is replete with His whole operation. For it is the Body of that which is by Nature Life, not of any earthly being, as to whom that might rightly hold, The flesh profiteth nothing. For not the flesh of Paul (for instance) nor yet of Peter, or any other, would work this in us; but only and specially that of our Saviour Christ in whom dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. For verily it would be a thing most absurd that honey should infuse its own quality into things which naturally have no sweetness, and should have power to transfer into itself that wherewith it is mingled, and that the Life-giving Nature of God the Word should not be able to elevate to Its own good that Body which It indwelt. Wherefore as to all other things the saying will be true, that the flesh profiteth nothing; but as to Christ alone it holdeth not, by reason that Life, that is the Only-Begotten, dwelt therein. And He calls Himself Spirit, for God is a Spirit and as the blessed Paul saith, For the Lord is the Spirit. And we do not say these things, as taking away from the Holy Ghost His Proper Existence; but as He calls Himself Son of man, since He was made Man, so again He calls Himself Spirit from His Own Spirit. For not Other than He is His Spirit.
The words that I have spoken unto you, they are Spirit and are life.
He filleth whole His Own Body with the Life-giving operation of the Spirit. For He now calls the Flesh Spirit, not turning It aside from being Flesh: but because by reason of Its being perfectly united to Him, and now endued with His whole Life-giving Power, It ought to be called Spirit too. And no wonder, for be not offended at this. For if he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit, how shall not His Own Body rather be called One with |437 Him? Something of this kind then He means in the passage before us: I perceive from your reasonings within you (saith He) that ye foolishly imagine that I am telling you, that the body of earth is of its own nature life-giving: but this is not the drift of My words. For My whole exposition to you was of the Divine Spirit and of Eternal Life,. For it is not the nature of the flesh which renders the Spirit life-giving, but the might of the Spirit maketh the Body life-giving. The words then which I have discoursed with you, are spirit, that is spiritual and of the Spirit, and are life, i. e., life-giving and of that which is by Nature Life. And not as repudiating His Own Flesh does He say these things, but as teaching us what is the truth. For what we have just said, this will we repeat for profit sake. The nature of the flesh cannot of itself quicken (for what more is there in Him That is God by Nature?) yet will it not be conceived of in Christ as Alone and by Itself: for it has united to it the Word, Which is by Nature Life. When therefore Christ calls it life-giving, He does not testify the Power of quickening to It so much, as to Himself, or to His Spirit. For because of Him is His Own Body too Life-giving, since He re-elemented It to His Own Power. But the 'how,' is neither to be apprehended by the mind, nor spoken by the tongue, but honoured in silence and faith above understanding.
But that the Son too is often called by the name of Spirit by the God-inspired Scriptures, we shall know by what is subjoined. The blessed John then writes of Him, This is He That came by water and Spirit, Jesus Christ, not by water only, but by water and the Spirit 5: and it is the Spirit That beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. Lo, he calleth the Spirit Truth, albeit Christ openly crieth out, I am the Truth. Paul again writes to us saying, They that are in the flesh cannot please God: but YE are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in |438 you, but if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. But if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. Lo again herein having proved that the Spirit of God dwelleth in us, he hath said that Christ Himself is in us. For inseparable from the Son is His Spirit, according to the count of Identity of Nature, even though He be conceived of as having a Personal Existence. Therefore He often names indifferently, sometimes the Spirit, sometimes Himself.
64, 65 Yet there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they are that believe not, and who should betray Him: and said, Therefore have I said unto you, that no man can come unto Me, except it have been given unto him of My Father.
Herein again one may clearly see fulfilled that which was fore-heralded by one of the holy Prophets, With your hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand, and looking shall look and shall not see. For the heart of this people is waxen fat, and they have weighed down their ears and closed their eyes, lest they should at all see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and should convert, and I should heal them. For they being themselves ear-witnesses of the doctrines of the Saviour, and from none other of the saints learning them, but rather instructed in the mysteries by the Voice of the Lord of all, yea even seeing Him with their bodily eyes, waxed gross in their folly, and having closed the eyes of their understanding, turned them away from the Sun of Righteousness, not admitting the illumination of the gospel instruction. For evil were they, and guilty of many past offences. Wherefore also the wise Paul testified to us that hardness in part is happened unto Israel. But since it was the work of no common wisdom to acknowledge that He Who was veiled in human form is God, He saith that he cannot come to Him who has not yet received, i. e., understanding from God the Father, and with reason. For if every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights, how much more will not the |439 acknowledgement of Christ, be a gift of the Father's Eight Hand, and the apprehension of the truth how will it not be conceived to be beyond all grace? For in proportion as it is shewn to be the Giver of the highest goods, so much the more befits it that it depend upon the Divine Munificence. But not to the unclean does the Father grant the knowledge of Christ, nor to those accustomed to stray unto extravagant unbelief doth He infuse the most helpful grace of the Spirit: for not on mud is it right that the precious ointment be poured forth. And verily the blessed prophet Jeremiah commands that they be first purged by desire unto every good work, who desire to draw near unto Christ through faith, crying out, Seek ye God and when ye find Him call on Him; when He shall be nigh to you, let the ungodly man forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his counsel, and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him, for He will abundantly pardon your sins. Thou seest how he says that he must first depart from his old way, and remove from unlawful devices, that he may obtain remission of sins, i. e., through faith in Christ. For we are justified not by the works of the law, but by the grace that is from Him, and the forgiveness granted us from above.
But some one may say, Therefore what hindered Him from pardoning the Jews also, and from pouring out remission on Israel together with us? for this too would befit Him That was perfectly good. And how too (says he) will He speak truly when He saith to us, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance?
What shall we say then to these things? For them of Israel alone at the first was the grace of the Saviour devised. For He was sent, as Himself affirmed, only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And in truth they who will believe may yet attain unto life everlasting. But some, living in a nobler course of life, and searchers of the truth, received the grace of God the Father co-working with them unto salvation through faith and were saved: but the haughty Pharisee, and the hard-hearted high-priests |440 with them, and the elders of the people, would not believe, though fore-instructed by Moses and the Prophets. But since through their own ill-counsel, they at length shewed themselves unworthy of everlasting life, they received not the illumination which is from God the Father. And you have the type of this too in the elder writings. For as to them who disbelieved God in the wilderness, entry into the land of promise was not given; so to these who by their unbelief dishonour Christ, entrance was not granted into the kingdom of heaven, whereof the land of promise was the type. And God is not unrighteous Who bringeth His wrath upon each. For He being Just by Nature, will discriminate altogether rightly, and will direct His Own Judgment agreeably to His Own Nature, even though we understand not the mode of the economy which is above us.
Profitably does the blessed Evangelist tell us that Jesus knew all things, and was not ignorant who should disbelieve, and who was the minister of impiety against Him, that He might again be conceived of as God, as knowing all things before they are.
66 From that time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him.
Hard indeed is ever wisdom to the unwise, and what one thinks will yield them no slight profit, is often seen to be even hurtful. For as to them who are diseased in their bodily sight, the light of the sun is an enemy, and it is pleasant to them to sit in dark places; so to the sick in mind, the more difficult doctrines are hateful, and those that are obscured by hard meanings are an abomination, even though the benefit be great: and petty things are pleasant, and more acceptable, even though sometimes no advantage accrue. Shall we not find this true in the present case? when Christ was laying before them the great and Divine Mystery, and through varied thought was laying open the understanding of it, and all but gathering up now the veil of the temple, and unveiling the inner tabernacle, they loath the so wise and heavenly word, they |441 turn aside again to their brutish unlearning, and went bade, as the Evangelist saith, and refuse to walk any more with Him. For this is in truth, falling back. Wherefore by the Prophet Jeremiah He says again to the senseless and obstinate Jerusalem, the nurse of unbelievers, THOU forsookest Me, saith the LORD, and shalt go backward. For of a truth backward falling follows the rejection of good things: and God is All Good. Therefore the miserable men went back, and have fallen backwards, not walking with the Saviour any more, but turning as it were to other paths, and dragged down to their wonted passions.
But let us see again, whether we do not find the type of this too in the books of Moses. When then they had travelled through long ways and traversed that wild desert and were now at the very land of promise, Joshua the son of Nun and certain others with him were sent by Divine command to espy it. But when they had spied out the whole land and were returned again to Moses, some of them began speaking bitter things to the synagogue. For the land (said they) which we spied hath fierce inhabitants, and we saw the sons of the giants there, and concluded by adding such things as would strike terror into the hearers. But Joshua after them tried to adorn the land with many praises, and besought them saying, The land which we searched is an exceeding good land: if the Lord delight in us, He will bring us thereinto. But the forefathers of the Jews maintained that they ought to stone Joshua: and having condemned of powerlessness God Who is mighty to all things, they sat down and wept, as it is written, and hereby with reason provoke the Lord of all. But since they were thus faithless and outrageous, they fell from the promise: for He says, As I sware in My wrath, that they should not enter into My rest. And what besides? God commands them to return and go back again. For He saith to Moses, To morrow do YE strike your tents and return by the way of the Red sea. For since they would not enter into the land whereinto they were called, they are sent to turn round, and are compelled to retrace the same way |442 again. For they would not follow after the words of Joshua, nor on hearing of the good land, did they honour the adviser with their assent. What therefore those then suffered, this do these too now. For taught the way of everlasting life, and exhorted to hasten unto the kingdom of heaven, they outrage Him with their unbelief: wherefore justly did they go bach, losing by their own perversity the proceeding onward with their Guide unto salvation.
67 Jesus therefore said unto the twelve, Would YE also go away?
Our Lord Jesus Christ doth not exhort the holy Apostles to leave Him, nor doth He offer them free and unfettered liberty of doing so, nor yet doth He permit them readily to turn aside as though they would get no harm from doing so: yea, rather He threatens them well, that if they be not found superior to the undisciplined conduct of the Jews, they too shall be sent away, and go no more with Him, but depart unto perdition. For it is not at all the number of worshippers that is precious in the sight of God, but the excellent in the right faith, though they be few. Therefore the Divine Scripture says that many are they that have been called, but that only the chosen will be received, and those that are approved, being very few. And this the Divine Word Himself testified to us. It is therefore as though the Saviour said to His disciples, If ye unhesitatingly believe My words, if letting go wavering in ought, ye with simple faith receive the Mystery, if it seem bitter to you and fall of intolerable infamy that My Words are accused of being hard, if ye refuse to say in Jewish fashion, How can This Man give us His Flesh to eat, I will gladly see you with Me, and will rejoice in living with you, and will love you as Mine Own, but if ye choose to think with them who have fallen back, I both enjoin you to run away with them, and do justly drive you away. For worshippers will not fail Me, seeing the Gospel message shall be spoken not in Judaea alone, but now goeth about into the whole world, and calleth men together from all parts as it were into one company, and |443 gathereth them together with ease unto the acknowledgment of the truth. Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God, as Paul saith; severity towards the unbelievers, goodness again towards them who shall acknowledge Him, if they continue in His goodness, as Paul again affirmeth, else they too shall be cut off. For He That spared not the natural branches, neither shall He spare them that were graffed in. Let him then that of folly halteth concerning the faith know and be taught by these things, that if he will not cease from such a disease, he will go back, and having no longer any Guide unto eternal life, will go down wretched into hell, and there bewail his own miscounsel. For there (He saith) shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
It is probable however that some other profitable lesson is conveyed to us, by Jesus saying to His disciples, Would YE also go away? for lest they too should be thought to have been carried off by Jewish folly, and to have stumbled together with the unbelievers, or in any other way to cry out against Him with them, as though He taught hard things and tried to instruct His hearers in the knowledge of impossibilities, profitably did He enquire of them if they desired to depart with them, that hereby He might invite them to confession of the right and untaint faith, which indeed also came to pass. |444
CHAPTER IV. That a type of Christ was the holy Tabernacle which led the people in the wilderness, and that the ark that was in it and the lamp and the altar, as well that of incense as that of sacrifice, signified Christ Himself.
68 Simon Peter answered Him, Lord, to whom shall we go away? Thou hast the words of eternal life.
By the mouth of one the chief do all speak, preserving the knowledge that is in truth most well befitting saints, that in this too they might be found an ensample to those who should come after them, to wit of sober and admirable reasoning. For it was meet that they should speak in the ears of their Master, not all confusedly hurrying to get before the rest, and unmeetly seize on speech, but wisely to be ready to give way to those who had the first place, both in wisdom and rank. Wherefore Paul too saith, Let the prophets speak two or three, and by course. For not because they were honoured with the grace of prophecy, was it therefore decreed that they should speak in a disorderly manner; but because they were wise, therefore were they commanded to speak the more wisely to their hearers. It was then an act of wisdom befitting saints, to leave it to him alone to answer for all, who had the preeminence in place. To whom therefore shall we go away (he says) instead of, who shall instruct us in like wise? or, to whom shall we go, and find what is better? Thou hast the words of eternal life: not hard words, as those say, but words which bring us up to the chiefest of all, to unceasing, endless life, and removed from all decay. It is (I suppose) perfectly clear to us from these words that we must sit by One only Teacher, Christ, and cleave unceasingly and indissolubly to Him, and make Him our |445 Master, who knoweth well to guide our feet into the unending life. For thus, thus shall we mount up to the Divine and heavenly courts, and hastening into the church of the first-born, shall feast on the good things that pass man's understanding. For that it is a good thing and salutary to desire to follow Christ Alone and ever to be with Him, the very nature of the thing will indubitatively prove: yet no less shall we see it from the elder Scriptures.
When therefore they of Israel having put off the tyranny of the Egyptians were pressing forward to the land of promise, God suffered them not to make disorderly marches, nor did the Law-giver let each go where he would. For there is not a doubt that having no leader they would have gone utterly astray. Wherefore it is written again for our ensample, in the book called Numbers, And on the day that the tabernacle was reared up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, namely the tent of the testimony; and at even there was upon the tabernacle as it were the appearance of fire, until the morning. So it was alway: the cloud covered it by day, and the appearance of fire by night. And when the cloud went up from the tabernacle, then after that the children of Israel journeyed: and in the place where the cloud abode, there the children of Israel pitched their tents: at the commandment of the Lord shall they set forth, and the children of Israel shall keep the charge of God and shall not rise up. By the voice of the Lord shall they pitch and by the command of the Lord shall they journey. Thou seest how they are bidden to follow, and to journey with the journeying of the cloud, and to halt again with it and with it to rest. For the being with their guide was salvation both then of them of Israel, and to us now the not departing Christ is so. For He was with them of old under the form of tabernacle and cloud and fire. But the order of the narrative shall be transferred (as far as we are able) to the spiritual interpretation, for when Wisdom, as it is written, builded her an house, and pitched the truer tabernacle, that is, the Temple of the Virgin, God the Word, |446 Who is in the Bosom of God the Father, came down thereinto in a manner incomprehensible and God-befitting, and was made Man, that to those who are already enlightened, and walk as in the day, as Paul saith, He might be a cloud overshadowing them, and put an end to the heat of our passions from infirmity: but to those who are still ignorant, and straying, and living as it were in night and darkness, a fire to give light and transform to fervency of spirit. For we believe that those who are good are warm through the Spirit. For I think that for no other cause did the cloud appear over the tabernacle by day and the fire by night, than for that given above by us. But He enjoined those who were appointed to follow, not to set out of their own accord on their journey, but to set out with the tabernacle and with it to halt, that in type again you may understand what is said by Christ, He that ministereth to Me, let him follow Me: and where I am, there shall My minister also be. For steadfastness in following, and constancy in cleaving, is signified by his accompanying Him, uninterruptedly. And the accompanying the Saviour Christ and following Him, is not to be understood at all of the body, but is attained rather by virtue in action, in regard whereof the most wise disciples having fast fixed their mind, and having refused as leading to destruction, to go back with them that believed not, with reason cry out, Where can we go? as though they said, With Thee will we abide and will ever cleave to Thy commands, and will receive Thy words, not finding fault with ought, nor with the uninstructed ones, think that hard which Thou sayest in Thine instruction, but think rather, How sweet are Thy Words unto my throat, above honey and the honeycomb unto my mouth.
Such then is the meaning of this passage. But that the tabernacle was to them of old a type of Christ we shall know, by applying a subtle mind to the things said respecting it unto the holy Moses. Our discourse on these matters may haply seem discursive to some, but it will produce no slight advantage. For we ought (I deem) |447 zealously to refine on these points, repudiating the censoriousness of those who unreasonably blame us. The Divine oracle then is on this wise: for we will set it forth in order, refining the shadow of the letter, as far as we can. And the LORD spake (it says) unto Moses, saying, On one day of the first month at new moon, shalt thou rear the tabernacle. What induced the Lord of all (one more diligent in learning may reasonably ask) to order the tabernacle to be set up in one day, and not in two, or three, and in the new moon, and that not simply of any month, but of the first. Such things may reasonably cause us a long investigation, since nought of the things said in the Scriptures is for nothing. Therefore (for we will follow up our own discourse on these things) the tabernacle that was reared signifies the Holy Body of Christ and (so to say) the pitching of His Precious Tabernacle, wherein it was well pleasing that all the fulness of the Godhead should dwell bodily. Moreover He commands it to be pitched in one day, and this most wisely and economically, in order that by the one day you might understand the existing life, in which alone He became Man. It is fit that we understand by the new moon, nothing else save the sojourn of our Saviour which reneweth us, by which old things are passed away, all things are become new. For a new season was manifested to us in Christ, thrusting away the oldness of the legal worship, and re-ordering us unto a new and fresh life through the Gospel teachings, yea and renewing unto the beginning of righteousness them which had waxen old from sin, and were ready to vanish away, and undoing the oldness of the corruption that had been brought in, and beautifying with the newness of incorruption those that through faith had hastened unto eternal life. For if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, as it is written.
But He commands the Divine tabernacle to be reared in the first month, when the beauty of spring-time shines forth, washing away (as it were) the dejection of winter, and the earth is softly cherished by now brighter and purer suns, and the vines bloom, and the husbandman revels |448 in the sweet odours of the flowers, and the plains bear grass, and whole fields bristle with the ears of corn, as certain of the Greek poets say, when the winter is past, as it is written, the rain is over and gone, when the time of pruning is come on. All these you will understand spiritually, that the winter at its end and the rain passing away, are the temptations that fall on us of devilish tyranny, and his ambitious usurpations over all; for the might of the devils was brought to an end in the days of Christ, and the bright Sun rose upon us, to wit, that whereof God the Father says, And the Sun of Righteousness shall arise upon you, warming with fervency of the Spirit, those who were swooned in sin, unto righteousness. The spiritual vines again and flowers and ears of corn, you will understand to be the Saints which excel in manifold piety towards God, and shoot forth the many-hued fruit of virtue. And (we must speak briefly) the spring brings forth flowers and prepares the whole earth to bear grass, and crowns the meadows with new bloom, and brings into fresh youth the trunks long dry with the intolerable violence of the winter, and brings them to a goodlier appearance, and makes them bud around with their wonted leafage, and prepares the husbandman who owns them to glory in their natural fruits. Some such thing shall we find happen as regards ourselves too. For we who have long been withered by reason of the sin that reigneth over us, and destitute of fruit unto virtue, have revived unto righteousness through Christ, and do now yield the fresh and new fruit through faith to the Dresser of our spirits. And thus do we fitly understand that which is spoken by one of the holy Prophets as in the Person of Christ, I who speak, am at hand as the spring upon the mountains. But what the spring, i. e., the season of spring, worketh upon the mountains, we have already spoken of.
Profitably then does He command that the tabernacle be set up in one day, holding out a type of Christ, that you may understand thereby His Death once for all in this one present time. For He will not be born again hereafter, nor |449 yet will die, having once for all been born and died and risen from the dead. For the Resurrection, which is as it were, a pitching of the holy tabernacle, must of necessity follow His Death. But it is in the new moon, because in Christ we have a new age: for what is in Him, are a new creature. And the first month is taken, signifying the renewal of human nature from death and decay to life and incorruption, and its passing at length from barrenness to fruitfulness, and its escape from the tyranny of the devil, like the winter now passed away and come to its close. Again in another way does he shew us Immanuel in type and figure saying, And thou shalt place the ark of the testimony, and cover the ark with the vail. For in the preceding the Word was limned in the complete tabernacle (for it was the House of God indwelling therein, to wit, the Holy Body of Christ) but no less is the same signified to us by the ark individually 6. For it was constructed of undecaying wood, that you might understand His Body incorruptible: it was overlaid with pure gold within and without, as it is written 7; for all belonging to Him is Precious and royal, both the Divinity and the Humanity, and in all things He hath the preeminence as Paul saith. And the gold is taken as a type of honour and excellence above all things. The ark then was fashioned of undecaying wood, and overlaid with gold, and had the Divine law deposited therein, for a type of God the Word indwelling in, and united to, His Holy Flesh (for the Law too was the Word of God, although not the Hypostatic Word, as the Son is). And it is covered by the veil. For God the Word Incarnate was unseen of the many, having His Own Body as a covering, and lying hid within His Own Flesh as with a veil, so that thence certain not knowing His God-befitting Dignity, at one time endeavoured to stone Him, imputing it to Him, as a crime, that He being Man, said He was God, at another time, they blushed not to say, Is not this Jesus the Son of Joseph, whose |450 father and mother WE know? how doth He now say, I have come down from heaven? The veil then cast upon the ark, signifieth that Jesus will not be known by the many. The ark too was therefore a type of Him, wherefore also did it precede them of Israel in the wilderness, filling the place of God: for He was the leader of the people. And the Psalmist is a witness of this, saying, O God, when Thou wentest forth before Thy people, when Thou didst march through the wilderness, the earth shooh, the heavens also distilled. For in that the ark ever marched before and preceded, God is openly declared to have gone before. You may have a clearer proof of this, considering this. God once commanded to them of Israel by Moses to go up boldly unto mount Seir, and to besiege the Amorite, but they who were so commanded having fallen into feeble cowardice, and attributing success to their own strength, and not rather trusting to the succour from above, sat and began weeping by the mountain, as it is written, whereat the Law-giver was justly provoked, and threatened that He would not bring them into the land of promise. They cut at last by the threat, and urged to an unseasonable repentance, attempted to go up, by a second disobedience, and snatched up arms against the Amorites. But God foretold them the result by Moses: for He said unto them Ye shall not go up (it says) and ye shall not fall before your enemies for I am not among you. But they every way diseased with disobedience, forced themselves and went up unto the mountain, as it is written. Nevertheless (it says) the ark of the covenant of the Lord went not up with them, for it remained in the camp. Seest thou that upon God's saying, I am not among you, the ark goeth not up with the disobedient, shewing clearly to them of more understanding that it held the place of their leader God? Yea and it was borne around Jericho by the priests, and the lofty wall thereof fell down, not by applying engines and rams, but rather by trumpets and shouting: and this again we shall find to be true in Christ. For He it is Who is borne by saints and holy men and overturns the whole might of the devil, not by arms, but by a shout and a |451 trumpet, that is by Apostolic and Evangelic preaching, and the assent of all the people, confessing their own Lord in uprightness of faith. This too we see accomplished in the Mystic doxologies, the priestly trumpet, that is, the voice of the minister, preceding the people, and thus falls and is shattered the power of the adversaries, for our weapons are not carnal, as Paul saith, but mighty to God. That Christ is after a sort borne and rests on His saints, both the prophet Habakkuk will declare saying, Thou wilt ride upon thine horses and Thy chariots are salvation, and the Saviour Himself no less will teach us, saying to Ananias concerning Paul, Go thy way, for this man is a chosen vessel unto Me, to bear My Name before all the Gentiles.
Yea and thou shalt bring in the table (it says moreover) and set in order what layeth thereon and thou shalt bring in the candlestick, and set thereon his lamps. You will understand Christ by both, for He is co-figured under the form of a table having bread set upon it, because in Him are all nourished unto life Eternal, according as He says, I am the Bread; Which came down from heaven and giveth life unto the world: if any man eat of This Bread, he shall live for ever; and the Bread that I will give is My Flesh for the life of the world. That then, which is set forth upon the table, i. e., the loaves, signifies the Holy Body of Christ, which nourisheth all men unto Eternal Life. But since the blessed David, and they that were with him, being an hungred, as it is written, did eat the shewbread, let us see whether something mystical be not hereby too recorded. It was not lawful to taste of the shewbread, save by the Priests alone, by appointment of the Law: but David and they that were with him, being not of the priestly tribe, took of the most holy food, that hereby again might be signified the faith of the Gentiles, and in part of them of Israel. For Christ was due to them of Israel, as to them who were more holy by reason of the fathers, and the Law: but the multitude of the Gentiles although they were, by reason of their straying, profane, somehow entered in too, and did eat the Bread of life, David accompanying them and as it were |452 filling up a type of the preserved of Israel, which the blessed Isaiah too calls a remnant. For many of them have believed on Christ.
Thus therefore will Christ be conceived of through the holy Table: but He is again the candlestick, as giving light to the whole house, that is, the world (for I am the Light of the world, He says) but it holdeth seven lamps and not one: for manifoldly doth He illumine and by diverse graces enlighten the souls of the faithful: again it is of pure gold, in that it is above all and Precious: moreover it has a solid stem (for so is written) for there is nothing empty nor yet light in Christ. It has lilies too by reason of its good savour of holiness, according to, I am a flower of the plain, a lily of the vallies. Its feeders again signify the ministrations of Divine graces. Moreover the prophet Zechariah testified that two olive branches are round about it, that you may understand that the people compassionated are two, whom he called sons also of fatness and says that they stand by the Lord of the whole earth, although in that the olive branches are seen by the lamp, he hereby gives the clearest demonstration that Christ is the candlestick, Who through obedience and faith set by Himself both the people of the Gentiles and that of the Jews.
He proceeds, manifoldly pointing Him out to us, And thou shalt set the altar of gold for the incense before the ark and put the hanging of the veil at the door of the tabernacle of witness, and the altar of burnt offerings thou shalt set at the door of the tabernacle of witness and shalt cover the tabernacle, and all things that are therein shalt thou hallow all round. For we must observe how Christ is represented to us in both altars. For after He had ordered the golden altar to be laid by 8, whereon was the incense before the ark, and had said that hangings should be put across before the doors of the tabernacle, that the interior might not be seen, He commands the altar of burnt-offerings to stand at the door of the tabernacle of testimony, not |453 invisible, nor hidden: for it was without the veil. Behold Him then, by the altar of incense ascending up as an odour of a sweet smell to God the Father (for this the incense signifies), by the altar of burnt offering, offered up as an Offering and a Sacrifice in our behalf. But the golden altar was hidden by the veil (for hidden was the glory of Christ), the other, that of burnt offerings, whereon are the sacrifices, was visible, for manifest was the Death of Christ and known to all. Their position is not without a distinction, for the one was over against the ark, the other by the doors of the tabernacle. And the position of the golden altar in front of the ark, as it were in the Presence of God the Father, darkly hints that marvellous is the glory of the Son, as it is said, No man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father. But the position of the altar of burnt offering at the very doors of the tabernacle, holding out a type of His Death and of His Sacrifice for all, again signifies, that no otherwise can we come to God the Father, save by the Sacrifice of Christ, as He says, I am the Door, and No man cometh unto the Father but by Me. Further, He commanded the tabernacle to be pitched round about, comprehending all things that were therein, that it might be seen to be one, and not many. For One is Christ among us, even though He be manifoldly conceived of, a tabernacle by reason of the veil of Flesh, an Ark holding the Divine law as the Word of God the Father, a table again as Life and Food, a candlestick as spiritual Light, both altar of incense, as an odour of a sweet smell in sanctification, and altar of burnt offering, as a Sacrifice for the Life of the world. And all things that are therein are sanctified; for Christ is holy All of Him and howsoever He be conceived of.
Since the holy tabernacle then was their leader, they of Israel are commanded with it to set out and with it to rest: God again instructing us and teaching us to our profit, to take as our Leader and. Guide in the way unto salvation, God the Word Who for our sakes was Incarnate, and by obeying unhesitatingly His Commands, to mount |454 up unto eternal life. And this they who had been instructed in the mysteries in many words not chusing to do, went bach and walked no more with Him. But most wisely does the blessed Peter say to the Saviour, Where can we depart? for in no way to go astray from God, but rather to strive to be with Him spiritually, is in truth most comely for saints.
69 And WE have believed and know that THOU art the Christ, the Holy One of God 9.
Marvellous is the faith of the holy Apostles, fervent their manner of confession, most loveable and pre-eminent their understanding. For not like certain of the more ignorant, or like them who used to call the Word of the Saviour hard, did they rightly go back and fall, nor of lightness readily caught were they called to belief, but being fully assured beforehand and persuaded of a truth that their Instructor was full of life-giving Words, the Teacher of heavenly doctrines. Exceeding stable is such faith, but that which is not so, is (as is like) easily spurned, and having no root as its assurance, is very readily worn away out of the mind of man. And verily the Saviour Himself in Parables, when He was discoursing of the sower, that which fell upon tho rock (He says) and hath no root withered away, darkly saying that the mind which is dried up and can in no wise receive the Word once cast into it, is a rock. For the wretched Jews being now in this case from their utter ignorance, were being taught by the Prophet's voice, Bend your hearts and not your garments. For as before the casting in of the seed, the custom of husbandry advises that the ground should first be cleft with the plough: so I deem ought they who approach to receive the Divine |455 Words in some sort to open out aforehand their hearts by desires thereunto: and thus receiving it, do they render the soul travailing like fruitful soil. Therefore in full assurance of faith do the most wise disciples say that they know and are confident that He is Christ the Son of the Living God. And with great wisdom will you find their speech constructed as to this again. For they say they believe and know, joining both together. For one must both believe and understand: nor, because the more Divine things are to be received in faith, ought we therefore completely to depart from all investigation respecting them, but rather we should try to attain even so unto a moderate knowledge, as in a glass and a riddle, as Paul saith. Well again do they not say first that they know, then believe, but putting faith first, they bring in knowledge, and not before faith, as it is written, If ye will not believe, neither shall ye understand. For simple faith having been fore-laid in us, as a kind of foundation, knowledge is afterwards built up upon it by degrees, and brings us up to the measure of the mature age that is in Christ, to a perfect and spiritual man. Wherefore God also somewhere says, Behold I will lay for the foundations of Sion a stone, choice, a corner stone, precious. For Christ is to us a Beginning and foundation unto sanctification and righteousness, through faith, that is, and not otherwise: for thus He dwelleth in us.
But observe how they say throughout in the singular number, and with the article prefixed, THOU art the Christ, the Son of the Living God, removing from the many who are called in grace unto sonship, as One and Special, Him who is truly Son, in Whoso likeness WE too are sons. Again they call Him the Christ as One: but we must know that He is not called Christ on His own account, or as being so Essentially just as He is Son, yet is He One in truth and specially (for none among anointed ones is as He is) yet in respect of His likeness to us is He called Christ. For His Own Proper and specially distinct Name and Reality in truth, is SON; but that which is common with us is Christ. For since He was anointed in that He was |456 made Man, therefore is He Christ. If then we attribute the being anointed to the need of human nature, He will be conceived of as Christ in respect of His likeness to us, and not in the same way as He is Son, nevertheless One Only by Nature and Specially, both before Flesh and with Flesh, and not two, as some suppose, who (it seems) understand not the depth of the Mystery. For not into a man hath the Word of God the Father come down, as the grace of the Spirit upon one (for example) of the holy Prophets, but Himself was made Flesh, as it is written, to wit Man. Indivisible therefore is He after the Union, and is not severed into two Persons, even though we conceive of the Word of God as something other than the Flesh wherein He hath dwelt. And since the whole choir of the holy Apostles confirms to us the faith herein, in that they say they know (and that peculiarly) that He is the Christ the Son of God, we shall not, if we deem aright, admit those who shrink not of their folly from making innovations on these things.
70, 71 Jesus answered them, Did not I choose you twelve, and one of you is a devil? He spake of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon, for he it was that should betray Him, being one of the twelve.
He continues His reproach, and clenches them with severer words, cutting off that which is slack and fallen into negligence in their desire to be wise. For He almost seems to say somewhat of this sort, "O My disciples, this is the time for heed and wit and a mind braced unto the desire of salvation. For most slippery is the way of perdition, which drags downwards not only the feeble mind, but also that which already thinketh it standeth fast. Very perilous and of many forms is sin, which bewitches the mind of man by its manifold pleasures and most smooth lusts, dragging it to what it ought not. Your own case (He saith) shall be an example of what I say. For I will tell you; none of those who from lightness have now fallen back, did I choose as I have done you who were good (for as God, I knew what was in you) yet did Satan get hold |457 of one of you through greed of gain, and My Judgment was surely not deceived. For in man is free-will and choice to go to both, either to the right hand, or to the left, i. e., to virtue or vice." Therefore at once by His severer chiding, does He both rouse unto becoming watchfulness, and render each one more steadfast regarding himself, for He does not yet say clearly who shall betray Him, but laying the burden of iniquity upon one alone and indefinitely, He was bringing them all to the contest, and inviting them to more careful circumspection, each one dreading the loss of his own soul, and at the same time was He working another thing for the benefit of His disciples' faith. For when they confessed that they knew, and firmly believed, that He is the Son of God, He shews that He fore-knows things to come, by this too shewing as it were that their confession regarding Him was sure. For the knowledge of things to come befitteth none save One Alone, Him That is by Nature God, of Whom it is also written, Who knoweth all things before they be. But He called the worker of the Devil's will a devil, and not untruly. For as he that is joined unto the Lord is one Spirit, so is the reverse also true. |458
CHAPTER V. On the feast of Tabernacles, that it signifies the restitution of the hope due to the Saints, and the resurrection from the dead; on the words, Now the feast of the Jews, that of Tabernacles was at hand.
Chap. vii. And after these things Jesus used to walk in Galilee, for He would not walk in Jewry, because the Jews were seeking to kill Him.
After these both words and deeds (he says) Christ again more gladly made His sojournings in Galilee: for this, I suppose, is the meaning of used to walk, yet he shews that His being with them was not of His Own choice, but rather happened of necessity, adding the reason. For the Jews (he says) wished to kill Him. Wherefore He gave Himself over for a long time to the aliens, refusing to walk in Jewry. But I suppose again that in these words no less is Israel found fault with for its extreme perverseness, if indeed the being found among the Gentiles was shewn to be far better than living with it. And this it was that was uttered by the prophet Jeremiah, I have forsaken Mine House, I have left Mine heritage; I gave My loved Soul into the hand of her enemies. For Christ's being made an outcast because of the impiety of them that persecute Him, and going away among the Galileans, how is it not plainly the giving up of His Own Soul into the hands of her enemies? For the Gentiles are Christ's enemies, in that they do service to another and worship the creature instead of the Creator, because they had not yet received the faith in Him. And this Himself will teach us clearly, saying, He that is not with Me is against Me. But I suppose every one will say that the |459 Gentiles were not with Christ, previous to their true knowledge of God and faith; they were therefore against Him, and hence in the rank of His enemies. This being so and clearly acknowledged, so great abomination was practised among them of Israel, that He was in better case, living among His enemies, and making His abode with them with whom He least ought was pleasanter, than what was meeter far and more congenial, to be among them who are His kinsmen after the flesh and, on this ground, bound to love Him. With greatest reason then did Christ depart unto the Gentiles, and by the very act of doing so did He in a manner say, that if they did not desist from persecuting Him, and from destroying with their mad folly their Benefactor, Christ would wholly give Himself to those without, and remove unto the Gentiles. As then we said that He hinted this by this act, so again we shall find that by a figure of old did He threaten His departure from Jerusalem.
When then He was ordering the laws about sacrifices, as is written also in Leviticus, having fore-appointed, as for an image of Christ, that a bullock should be brought as a gift and a whole burnt-offering to the Lord, he again outlines Him in another way, saying, If his gift to the Lord be of the sheep, of the lambs and of the kids, for a whole burnt sacrifice, he shall bring a male without blemish, and shall lay his hand upon the head thereof and they shall kill it on the side of the altar northward before the Lord. How then the Mystery of Christ is shaped unto us by these things, we must needs enquire. And first I think we ought to speak of the situation both of the Temple itself at Jerusalem and of the Divine altar, that so we may understand, what is the meaning of that the sheep is not to look straight before it, but rather to be turned toward the north. The territory of the Jews therefore lies in the more southern quarters of the earth, and the temple faces eastward and opens its doors toward the first rays of the sun; yea and the Divine altar itself, reared over against the holy, as it were in the sight of God, shewed its front to those who |460 enter from the East, its two sides looking one south, the other north. That it actually is as we have said, you may have full proof from the passage of the Prophet Ezekiel. For when he was being taught about the death of Phaltias 10, i. e., in spiritual vision, he says thus, And I saw, and lo about five and twenty men, their backs towards the temple of the Lord and their faces right away, and they were worshipping the sun toward the east. But if a man worshiping the rising sun have the temple behind him, how must one not suppose that the front of the temple was turned eastward? But in the same position was the Divine altar itself, as we have said. Therefore the front giving entry both of the temple itself and of the Divine altar was to the east: the two sides, one to the south, the other to the north; and the side yet remaining, which is conceived of as the back, looking westward. The things therefore we have said being thus, we shall find that north of it lies the neighbour of Judaea, Galilee, that is, the country of the Gentiles, as it is written, Galilee of the Gentiles, Since then our Lord Jesus Christ was about, after His saving Passion, to depart out of the country of the Jews, and go into Galilee, that is, to the church of the Gentiles, the sheep that was taken in type as a sacrifice, was slain at the side of the Altar so as to look northward, according as it is spoken by the Psalmist of Christ, His eyes look unto the nations.
But since the blessed Evangelist says that He refused His Presence to the Jews, because they were plotting to kill Him, we will add this to what we have said, that we do not consider the withdrawal of Christ as an imputation of cowardice, nor yet will we therefore accuse of weakness Him That is mighty unto all things, but we will accept the mode of the economy. For it beseemed Him not before His time, but in His own time to endure the Cross for all. |461
3, 4, 5 His brethren therefore said unto Him, Depart hence and go into Judaea, that Thy disciples also may see the works that Thou doest (for no man doeth anything in secret, and himself seeketh to be known openly); if Thou do these things, manifest Thyself to the world. For neither did His brethren believe on Him.
The reputed brethren of the Saviour not yet recognizing God the Word indwelling in His Holy Flesh, nor knowing at the time when they are saying these things, that He was made Man, have still petty conceptions of Him and think far too little of the grace and excellence that is in Him, seeing nothing more than the rest, deluded by the common opinions of Him, thinking that He too was in truth begotten of their father Joseph, and not seeing the hidden provision of the Mystery. For when many (as is like) miracles were being wrought secretly by Christ in Galilee, they persuade Him to seek after vain glory, and advise Him to receive the wonder of the spectators, as though it were some great thing, as though for the sake of this alone, He were willing to perform the several miracles He had wrought, in order that He might just seem an object of wonder to the beholders, and might revel in the praise of men, after the fashion of some whose habit is to seek for glory. For see how they counsel Him to go up to Judaea. and to work miracles there rather, not in order that His disciples might believe on Him, but that they might see the works which He doeth. For (say they) if Thou wilt be known (for this is the meaning of "openly") be not a worker of marvels in secret, nor, since Thou art preeminent in Thy Power of doing all things, shun publicity: for so shalt Thou be renowned to the world, and more illustrious among beholders. This then is their address here. And profitably does the most wise Evangelist note that not yet had His brethren believed on Him. For it would indeed have been one of the strangest things, that they who through faith had already taken hold of God-befitting acknowledgment of Him, should be guilty of such cold expressions. But at that time having not as yet |462 believed they speak wisely, but when they understanding the great mystery concerning Him had believed, they hasten on to such a height of piety and virtue, as both to be called Apostles, and to attain illustrious piety. This too you have, fore-sung by the voice of Prophets. And verily the blessed Jeremiah says, as to our Lord Jesus Christ, For both thy brethren and the house of thy father, they too despised Thee, and they cried out; of thy followers were they gathered together: believe them not, for they will speak fair words unto Thee. For His brethren who before the faith thought little of Him, and in the words just spoken, all but attempt to cry out against Him, were gathered together through faith, and have spoken fair words unto Him, both aiding others, and striving with words in behalf of the faith. Very watchfully did the Prophet, having named His brethren, profitably add, The house of Thy father, lest they too should be supposed to have been of the blessed Virgin, rather than of His father Joseph alone.
6 Jesus saith therefore unto them, My time is not yet come, but your time is always ready.
The Saviour's discourse is always overshadowed, for so is it written of Him, And He shall be a Man That hideth His Words. And that this too was contrived to their profit, who that is wise will not say? Not yet therefore is the time (He says) for unrestrained publicity, nor yet of manifestation unveiled unto all, since the mind of the Jews is not yet ripe unto understanding, so as to be able to receive My words without wrath and anger: nor yet doth fit opportunity summon Me now to be altogether made known unto the world, since the Jew's have not yet wholly fallen from grace, nor yet so raged against Me, that I must needs at length depart unto others. For this reason then does He say that not yet is His time come, but says that theirs is come, and is always ready. For we say that men of the world may do as they list, no necessity hampering them, or calling them to an opportune economy which avises them whether they |463 ought to do any thing or not, as was the case with Christ. On the contrary, the manner of living of those who have chosen life in the world, is remiss and free from more laborious care, bringing in opportunity ever ready and unfolded unto what likes them best and readily permitting those who practise it, to go whithersoever they list.
When therefore things are necessarily subjected to economies, not every time is fit for doing what has to be done, but that which fits each several duty, according as the nature of the thing demands: but on one who has chosen to live unbound is no such thing imposed: but rather, the path to wherever they would go, is ever most ready and wholly unlet.
7 The world cannot hate you, but Me it hateth, because I testify of it that its works are evil.
Very kindly now also doth the Saviour reprove His brethren, who are still too worldly-minded and disposed, and brings forward a second defence, mingled with skill, whereby He shews that not only are they ignorant Who He is by Nature, but are still so far removed from love to Him, as to choose to live in a way not unconformed to them who admire living in the world, and not rather in virtue. For it would have been verily most absurd to say to everybody else what would be of use, having laid aside all disguise about it, yet not to bestow on His reputed brethren, in far greater measure, things wherewith they, having now the Giver of wisdom, might learn with no slight profit. And this is the custom of our Saviour Christ. For He sometimes seizing favourable opportunity fashioneth great instruction unto His hearers. Ever dear therefore (saith He) to each is that which is akin to it, and identity of habit wondrously bringeth together unto agreement. The world doth not hate you (for ye savour yet that which is of it) but Me it hateth, taking not kindly its being accused by Me for its unseemly deeds. Therefore with safety will YE go up to the feast, I not. For I shall surely dispute and being present tell them what is for their good; but |464 bitter to lovers of pleasure is reproof, and meet for kindling unto wrath him that receives it not in due sobriety of mind.
But in these words again doth the Lord profit us too. For it is profitable not to make one's reproofs inconsiderately, nor to give to all instruction through reproof, but to know what is written, Rebuke not the bad lest they hate thee (for hatred is not unharmful to us) but rather to be zealous to speak in the ears of them that hear, as it is written. For the world loveth sin, the Lord is a corrector of them that act not rightly: and correction must often be attained by reproof. For the mere enumeration of sin, is a rebuke to those who love it, and the reproof of iniquity, is blame to those who have it. When therefore necessity calls the teacher to administer reproof, and the mode of cure requires this to be gone through, and he that is being against his will instructed by rebuke is exceeding angry, then must the ills of hatred surely arise. Therefore does the Saviour say He is hated by the world, in that it cannot yet bear exhortation with rebuke, when it ought to do so for profit sake. For the mind that is in bondage to evil pleasures, is quite angry with the advice that would persuade it to due sobriety. And these things the Saviour says, not altogether saying that He will not go to Jerusalem, nor refusing to give the reproofs which may be profitable to the sinners, but minded to do this too and every thing else at the fit time. And we must observe that He says something of the same kind to His own disciples also. For when He was encouraging them, and teaching them not to be too indignant at the things that should come to pass, when they should preach Him to the world, and fall into a thousand trials in consequence, He says, If ye were of the world, the world would love his own, but because ye are not of the world, therefore the world hateth you; calling the world here not the visible creation, but rather they who savour the things of the world, by whom one who loves not the same as they and that exceedingly is deemed an hard man and an adverse and an enemy: but akin and dear is he who consents with them, |465 and by sameness of life is entangled together with them in congeniality in baseness.
8 Go YE up unto this feast, I go not up unto this feast, for My time is not yet fulfilled.
The Lord now says clearly that He will not feast with the Jews, or go with them, to partake with them in their rejoicing in shadows. For that which is once said to a few, albeit reputed His brethren, will be extended in its force to the whole race of Israel. For no one will say that Jesus refused to be with His brethren on their own account in particular, seeing He was plainly with them in Galilee, and we must suppose that not without a purpose by reason of His generally supposed relationship after the flesh, did He also dwell with them. It is manifest then, that the whole multitude of the Jews being introduced in a type by His brethren, Christ declines feasting with them, according to that which is said by one of the holy Prophets, I have hated, I have thrust away your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies: for even though ye offer Me whole burnt offerings and sacrifices, I will not accept them, and will not look at your assembly of thanksgiving: take thou away from Me the noise of thy songs and the psalm of thine instruments I will not hear. For God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth, as the Saviour Himself saith. But being a Spirit, He would (one may think) take pleasure in spiritual honours and offerings, for a type too whereof by command of the law, were the sacrifices of oxen and sheep, oblations moreover of frankincense, of fine flour and wine and oil, duly appointed, signifying by more visible forms the many hues of the virtue of them that worship in spirit. Do YE then (He says) who still love the shadow, and are more grossly and Jewishly affected concerning these things, go up to the assembly that is in shadows and types; Me it pleaseth not so to feast; to this feast I go not up, that, namely, in type and outline: for I have no pleasure in it, but rather I await the time of the true assembly, which is not yet full come. For then, then (He says) shall I be together with |466 My company rejoicing in the brightness of the saints, in the glory of the Father, flashing forth extreme brilliance. But He says His and calls the time His own. For His is the feast, He the Master of it. For to Him did the blessed Jeremiah ascribe it, saying to those who have neglected piety to God-ward, and held for nought the desire to excel in goodness, What will ye do in the day of the Assembly, and in the days of the feast of the Lord? For ye (He says) who totally reject all toil for virtue, and have not the bright robe of the love of God, what will ye do in the day of the assembly, how shall ye come in to the Divine and Heavenly Feast, or how shall not the master of the Feast with reason thrust you forth from the most glorious choir of them that were bidden, saying, Friend, how earnest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? Akin to this, and bringing us the same meaning, is that in the Prophet Zechariah, And it shall come to pass (he says) that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of Hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles. He says that they which are left shall go up to worship the great King, and to accomplish the feast of tabernacles. For whereas many have been called by grace, not many are they who go up to the city above; for few are the chosen, as the Saviour saith, taken to wit out of every nation. But in saying that they shall go up to worship, he shews that they no longer perform the worship of the law, but rather that in spirit, and keep the feast of tabernacles in truth, well-nigh with clear voice singing that verse of the Psalms, Blessed be the Lord, because He hath heard the voice of my supplication: on Him trusted my heart, and I was holpen, and my flesh revived. For the flesh revived, and will live again, and that not apart from Christ: for He hath been made to us the First-fruits of the resurrection, and the door of the truer feast of tabernacles. And this it was that was said by one of the holy Prophets, I will raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen. For the tabernacle that fell, of Christ Who is of the seed of David according to the flesh, was first raised |467 to incorruption by the Power of God the Father, according to what is said to the Jews by one of the Apostles concerning Him, This Man delivered up by the determinate counsel and fore-knowledge of God, ye took by hand of ungodly men and crucified and slew: Whom God raised up, having loosed the pangs of death, because it was not possible that He should be holden of it, and again, This Jesus God raised up, whereof all WE are witnesses. For that it is the custom of the Divine Scripture, to call Christ, Who was of David after the flesh, David, is not at all hard to see.
9, 10 When He had said these words unto them, He abode in Galilee: but when His brethren were gone up, then went He also up unto the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret.
Christ dwells gladly in Galilee, and banished from the country of Judaea, takes up His Abode more peaceably and securely, that again the multitude of the Gentiles albeit exceedingly uninstructed, by reason of the error that yet holdeth them, might be shewn to be nobler than those who seemed to be skilled in the law. By this He shewed both His just love for thorn, and most reasonable hatred of them of Judaea. For how would not He Who knoweth all things before they be, be so affected, as to deem the church of the Gentiles already worthy of the Divine Love, since it was so easily called to believe on Him; and at length to cast off and justly loathe Jerusalem as senseless, He who even before the times of His coming is said to have desired her beauty, according to the voice of the Psalmist, but called the stiff-necked Jerusalem an harlot and an adulteress, and of the like of this what did He not call her? Most clearly in truth doth He by the Prophet Ezekiel say to her, Wherefore, O harlot, hear the word of the Lord, and by the voice of Jeremiah accuseth her as an adulteress, calling out, As a wife rejecteth her husband, so the house of Israel rejected Me, saith the Lord. As having then according to the fore-knowledge of God-befitting Counsel, surveyed the beauty of the Church of the Gentiles, and the baseness of the synagogue of the Jews in its wicked ways, He already before-loveth the one and goeth in unto her, |468 as to a bride in the chamber, but fore-hateth the other, reserving for the fit time what was due in full measure to each. For He neither brings wholly upon them of Israel punishment before the time, nor gives Himself wholly to Galilee before the saving cross: for then He could with justice and on reasonable causes, withdraw from His Love to them. Having then said that He would not go up to this feast, and having permitted His brethren to do so, if they would; by Himself (for He affirmed that His time was not yet come) does He go up after them, not saying one thing and doing the contrary to what He says (for that would be lying, albeit guile, that is, falsehood is said not to have been found at all in His Mouth) but minded to what He promised. For He goeth not up to feast with them, but rather to admonish them, and (since He came to save) to say and teach the things which lead to life everlasting. For that this was His aim, His not wishing to go with them that were going up, and going up hardly and secretly, not openly and with the joy of those who go to a festival, will clearly shew.
And verily, when at length He was going up to his saving Passion, He went up not in secret, but borne upon an ass's colt, as a type of the new people, with an almost innumerable company of children preceding Him, fulfilling the part of the people that should be born, of whom it is written, And a people which is created shall praise the Lord. And the children going before were shouting, Blessed is He That cometh in the Name of the Lord, Hosanna in the Highest. Therefore by coming up in secret, He shews that Christ came to Jerusalem by no means to feast with them, but rather to dispute against them: for as we have before said, He doth not wholly depart from Israel, till on being delivered up to death, it is clear that He deservedly did so.
But as to His saying that He would not go up, and afterwards not refusing to go up, you will find the type of it fulfilled long ago in the book called Exodus. For the Divine and most holy Moses was making long stay in the Mount |469 with God, awaiting the law that was to be given by Him. And Israel disregardful of piety towards God, was making a calf in the wilderness. But the Law-giver is justly angered at these things, and having cried out against the lightness of those who so readily turned aside to what they ought not, and having threatened to utterly destroy them at once, at last He says to the holy Moses, Depart and go up hence, THOU and thy people which thou broughtest forth out of Egypt unto the land which I sware to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, Unto your seed will I give it: and I will send an angel before thee. Then Moses says to Him, If Thyself go not with me, bring me not up hence, and how shall it be truly known that I have found grace in Thy Sight, I and Thy people, is it not in that Thou goest with us? And the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken, for thou foundest grace in My Sight. Seest thou how He, grieved at the apostacy of Israel, affirmed that He would not go up with them into the land of promise, but said that He would send an Angel, yet out of respect to Moses and the remembrance of their fathers, He granted them pardon and promised again to go with them.
Having then said that He would not feast with the Jews as being haughty and violent, as dishonouring God by their denial of Him, as these did by making the calf, yet being very slow to anger towards the offences of those who grieve Him, and rather fulfilling His Promise to the holy fathers, He goes up to teach and to set before them the doctrines of salvation, not committing such a ministry to an Angel, just as He did not then, but rather being Himself the worker even for the salvation of the unthankful.
11 The Jews therefore were seeking Him at the feast, and said, Where is that Man?
The Jews seek Jesus, not that they may believe on Him when they have found Him (for surely would He preventing their search, have offered Himself, according as it is said of Him, I was found of them that sought Me not, I was made manifest unto them that asked not after Me) but |470 of their exceeding transgression falling into the vain toil of the Greeks, and emulous of their habits rather than of those things whereby it was like that they should be enlightened by the grace from above. For those of the Greeks who seem to be wise, filled with worldly and devilish wisdom, expend long and subtle discourses, and revolve cycles of vain propositions, and weaving the spider's web, as it is written, make feint to investigate what is the nature of truth or goodness or justice, and, moulding to themselves a shadow only of the true knowledge, abide wholly untasting of the virtue that is in deeds, and remaining destitute of the true wisdom which is from above, make their exercises about words alone to no profit. The Jews again, brothers and neighbours of their unlearning, seek for Jesus, not that they may believe on Him when they have found Him, as the nature of things proved, but that they hitting Him with their many revilings, might bring the fire unquenchable upon their own heads. And in another respect we shall suppose they made most idle search. For they only pretend to seek Him, because He is not present. For (says one) 'the Wonder-worker ought to be present with the feasters,' seeking rather pleasure in the enjoyment of it, and not at all the profit from the marvel; but wrapped round in conceit of knowledge of the law, and thinking that they were to no slight degree instructed in the sacred writings, they are unmindful of the Prophet's voice thus speaking, Seek ye God, and in finding Him call upon Him; when He shall draw nigh you, let the wicked man forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his counsel, and let him return unto the LORD, and He will have mercy. Seest thou how it will not suffice unto salvation to seek only, but when we have found, to turn to also, i. e., by obedience and faith? So might the foolish and refractory people of the Jews have been saved: but since in this too they are found exceedingly unwise, they will at length with reason hear, How do ye say, WE are wise, and the Law of the Lord is with us? in vain to the scribes was their lying pen. The wise men were ashamed, dismayed, taken: what wisdom is in them? because they |471 rejected the Word of the Lord? For how did they not reject It, who received It not? how did they not despise It, who in boorish wise refused not to say of It, Where is That Man? For the expression That Man, belongs to the abandoned, and them who no longer deem fit to wonder at Him, although from His so marvellous working, they ought to have had the most exalted conception of Him.
12 And there was much murmuring of the people concerning Him. Some said, He is good, others said, Nay, but He deceiveth the people.
Ever hard of attainment and difficult of acquirement is goodness, and the power of tracking the beauty of truth is hard of accomplishment to the many, specially the more unlearned and those who have no acuteness of understanding, who from most foolish swayings of thoughts without understanding turn aside to what seems to them easier, and not enduring to prove the nature of whatever offers itself, will never attain to the true quality of things, albeit Paul says, Be ye approved bankers, and persuades us to prove all things, so as by accurate investigation to arrive at the attainment of what is profitable. Let them hear then, who of their exceeding folly marvel not at Jesus but think that it is fit to condemn Him without enquiry, Taste and see that the LORD is good. For as they who prove choice honey by the taste, and from the merest taste perceive what they are in search of, so they who make even a little trial of the words of the Saviour, will acknowledge that He is good, and will marvel in learning it. The wiser then among the Jews plead Christ's cause, and give right judgment concerning Him, consenting to Him as Good, considering (as is like) this above all, that it would not be possible for one to accomplish the things which God evidently works, unless He were by Nature God, or partaker of God, and therefore Good, to Whom would befit the approval of all, and to be instrengthened with grace from above, even though this were not so in Christ, for Christ is Himself the Lord of powers. But they wade in most |472 absurd imaginations, and go astray far from the truth, who shrink not from calling Him a deceiver, who directs unto the unerring path of righteousness. Let the foolish Jew then hear, Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil, that put darkness for light and light for darkness. For along with approving wickedness, ranks the finding fault with good, and keeping back from evil its most deserved reproof, and casting upon them that are ranged on the side of good the blame which is no wise due unto them. But the charges against them for these their revilings were foretold also, for Woe (He says) unto them, for they swerved from Me, wretched are they because they transgressed against Me: I redeemed them, THEY spake lies against Me.
13 Howbeit no man was speaking openly of Him for fear of the Jews.
There was murmuring among the Jews, and for fear of the Jews, he says that no man could speak openly. The Divine Evangelist then is calling the rulers of the Jews emphatically Jews, not deigning (as seems to me) to call them elders or priests, or the like, kindled with pious jealousy unto grief to themward, whom with reason does God accuse of destroying His spiritual vineyard, saying in the prophets, Many pastors destroyed My vineyard, they defiled My portion, they gave My longed-for portion for an impassable wilderness, it hath become a vanishing of perdition. For how shall we not suppose that the Lord's vineyard hath in truth been destroyed by their abominations, when they shewed that even to agree with the good, and only to marvel at that which is worthy of marvel is hazardous? But that this too works a sorer punishment for the rulers of the Jews and the rest of them, what wise man will doubt? Lo, for lo, the whole people fear and tremble before them, yet are not instructed in the law, nor yet taught to live in a fitting manner, although very zealously subjected to their injunctions. For fear is a proof of the very highest subjection. They were compelled then to transgress rather than wisely to look into the purpose of the Law-giver, and (in that they dare not so much |473 as praise what is good) to give by no means a voluntary, but a constrained, judgment of evil against whosoever the others choose, and to condemn as base, Him That is worthy of praise and admiration. Just as a man therefore who has good skill in sea-faring matters, and sits at the ship's helm, and having her at his command dashes her against the rocks, would be himself held guilty of the wreck: or as if one accustomed to drive, were borne along by swiftest ponies, and being able by the checks of the reins to hold their easily-directed flight whithersoever he would, were to dash the wheels against a stone, not to the ponies would he reasonably attach the blame of the misfortune, but rather to himself:----in like manner, I deem, the rulers of the Jews, having the people of the Jews not only honouring them, but even serving them by fear as well, if they manage them contrary to Divine Commands, shall justly themselves incur responsibility for the loss of all. But that themselves were the cause of the perdition of the people, the prophet Jeremiah will testify, saying, For the pastors became brutish,, and sought not out the LORD: therefore the whole flock understood not and were scattered.
14 When it was now mid-feast Jesus went up into the temple and began teaching.
Temple-befitting is the teaching of our Saviour: for where else should we rather hear the Divine Voice, save in the places where the Divinity is believed to dwell? For God tendeth all things, and will not be conceived of as circumscribed by space, in respect of His Own Nature, but is wholly uncontained by things that are, yet is it more meet that we should suppose that He dwells in the holy places, and we most reasonably deem that the will of the Divine Nature will specially be heard by us in sacred places. But what again was pictured to them of old in type and shadow this now Christ transforms into truth: for God says to the hierophant Moses, And thou shalt set the mercy seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimonies that I shall give thee; and there will I be known to thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, |474 from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, in respect of all things which I shall command thee unto the children of Israel. But our Lord Jesus Christ, when it was now the middle of the feast, as it is written, having entered as God into the holy places dedicate unto God, there speaks to the multitudes, although He went up in secret. As therefore upon the mercy seat in the tabernacle, God's descent was secret, and then scarcely perceived, when the time for His speaking was come, and to one then also, to the blessed Moses, did God talk, speaking to none other:----so did Christ too instruct the one race of the Jews; and converse with one people, having not yet unfolded His grace as common to the Gentiles. And exceeding well does the blessed Evangelist say, not simply, Entered, but Went up into, the temple. For a high thing, and very far surpassing our grovelling baseness, was His entry into the Divine school, and sojourn in the holy places. But the type of the act is true as to us. For it was Christ who sanctifieth the temple, and of this Moses of old was a type anointing the tabernacle with the hallowed oil, and sanctifying it, as it is written: albeit it needed rather that man should be sanctified by the holy places, than sanctify them: but there is no account taken of things done in a type for the truth's sake, for the sake of which the things in shadows were moulded, as one may see in the holy Prophets also. For one was commanded against his will to go in unto an harlot, another to walk naked, yea, also to lie upon his right side for many days. These things were performed for the sake of their meanings, and not surely for their own sakes. Thus then, the blessed Moses too was bidden to sanctify the tabernacle, albeit he needed rather to receive sanctification from it, that Christ again may be understood in him, sanctifying His Own Temple, although He lived with flesh among the Jews, and in it spake to the multitude, as did God of old from the mercy seat.
15 The Jews therefore were marvelling, saying, How knoweth This Man letters, having not learned?
Not unreasonable is the wonder of the Jews, but there |475 is something subtle in their argument. For it was likely that they would be astonished at seeing Him strangely excel both in word and knowledge, Who could not have been rich from instruction. For the mind of man is recipient of wisdom, and even though one do not as yet seem wise, yet is his nature exceedingly well adapted to the attainment of wisdom and knowledge on some subjects. But in the case of those who are not well exercised in learning, the natural advantage gets somehow stopped up and dulled; in that of those who are accustomed to go through such toils, and to revel in literary exercises, it is very clear, and apt for good practice, and is found to have no mean store of letters and wise contrivances. The Jews then are astonished, giving heed to the Saviour Christ, not yet as being by nature God, but still as a mere Man, and they marvel that He abounds in wisdom, not having the provider hereof, i. e., practise in reading, for that He knows letters untaught. This too then with the rest is a charge of Jewish folly: for it should have seemed nothing wonderful to them, that Wisdom, the Artificer of all things, that is, the Only-Begotten Word of God, Which was among them lying hid in the form of a Man, should not need letters.
This again must be observed for our profit. For above when they were seeking for Jesus they say, Where is That Man? (as though they knew Him by His miracles alone: not yet knowing accurately, Who, or of Whom, or whence He was) but here not as though ignorant of ought respecting Him, but as knowing all things clearly, they say that He also knoweth letters not having learned. The more obscure enquiry therefore respecting Him of the common people and of those who had no accurate knowledge of Him, uttered Where is That man contemptuously, that of those who knew Him the other. More severe punishment then shall they undergo who were not ignorant than they who were: for to the one their ignorance is an excuse, to the other their knowledge condemnation. Therefore is it said that to some it is better not to have known the way of truth. |476 For in knowledge there is greater punishment, because men are lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Jesus then, according to the difficulty of the Jews, knew letters, having not learned, Moses was learned (as it is written) in all the wisdom of the Egyptians: yet as knowing nothing at all, albeit exceeding wise among those, was he instructed unto better knowledge by the oracles from God, the wisdom of the world being convicted as feeble, through the Diviner and more excellent, in which or through which we are instructed in the things of Christ, receiving the understanding which is truly from above and from God. Christ then is the in all things perfectly Good, the one of all things both Wisdom and Understanding, in respect whereof He has the excellency not by teaching, but innate. And verily the Prophet Isaiah saith of Him, that before the Child shall know good or evil, He shall refuse evil to choose good. And let us not foolishly suppose, that the Divine and Heavenly Offspring, in discernment of reasonings or by the choice of the better turneth away from evil, and applies Itself rather to good: but as if one should say of fire, that it refuses cold; its not admitting the being cold does not indicate choice of wills in it, but rather most steady adherence of nature to what is its own, so is it in respect of Christ. For all good things are in God of Nature, and are not introduced from without; and so wisdom too was in Him, yea rather, Himself is properly and specially the Fount of wisdom, through which He gives wisdom in part to those in participation thereof, both Heavenly and earthly reasonable beings.
16 Jesus answered them and said, My doctrine is not Mine, but His That sent Me.
We shall find that indeed true that is written by one of the wise men, The Spirit of the Lord hath filled the world, and the ear of hearing 11 heareth all things. But to those who of utter folly, yea rather of blasphemy, suppose that |477 ought they utter will escape the Divine Mind, the Godlike Psalmist says, Understand, ye brutish among the people, and ye fools, when will ye be wise? He that planted the ear, heareth He not? for how could it possibly happen that He should not surely hear all things, who implanteth the sense of hearing into them that were made by Him?
See therefore in this too again that the Lord is by Nature God. For the secret whispers of the Jews in the crowd He is not ignorant of; He receives them into His Ears in God-befitting way, albeit from fear of the rulers they say nothing openly concerning Him. And when on one occasion certain of those who had rushed together into the temple, marvelled and were reasoning (as is like) or gently saying one to another, How knoweth This Man letters not having learned? needs does He again shew Himself Equal to God the Father Who learneth nothing at all, but hath the knowledge of all things by Nature and without learning, because He surpasseth all understanding and soareth above all wisdom that is in things that are. It was then possible for Him from other things too, to shew and to assure His hearers, that whatsoever things are in the Father, these also are in Him, by reason of Identity of Nature: which thing also He used to do in other things also, from being able to do the same things and having like Operation unto all things, mounting up unto Equal Dignity: for what things soever the Father doeth, these (He saith) doth the Son too likewise, and again, For as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them, so the Son too quickeneth whom He will.
But here it was (I suppose) seasonable and most suitable, to make a demonstration of the most necessary points. For His discourse about wisdom and learning without letters was made with those who had been considering these things. It behoved Him then to shew that this existed in Him, just as in the Father. What then is the mode of proof? From His having Equality of wisdom with Him, even though according to true and wise reasoning, He most surely is Himself Wisdom and of God |478 the Father, to Whom in all things like, He says He teaches the same things with Him, without any distinction. For either on account of the exact likeness of His doctrine to that of the Father, does He say that it is the Father's, or because He is Himself the Wisdom of the Father, through Which He speaketh and ordereth all things, does He say that the doctrine too is His: yet something else besides doth He dispense, contributing not slightly to the salvation of His pupils. For since they seeing a Man, on account of the flesh which was of earth received not the word as being of God, and therefore seemed to be sick of a plausible unbelief, profitably doth He attribute the teaching to God the Father, yet saying what was true, and from fear of their being fighters against God, if they held out any longer against the decrees from above, persuading them to receive His words.
But we must know that by His saying again that He was sent, He does not shew that He is second in Dignity to the Father. For we must not imagine a mission befitting a servant, even though because clad in servant's form He might rightly say even this of Himself. But He was sent as Word from Mind, as the Sun's radiance from itself. For these I suppose are processions from those things in which they are, from their appearing to issue forth, yet exist they naturally and immovably in those things whence they are. For we ought not, because word issues forth from mind, and radiance from the sun, therefore at all to suppose that the things which produced are left of those which have gone forth of them, but rather we shall see both those in these, and these again existing in the former. For mind will never be word-less, nor yet word again without the mind fashioned therein. Analogously to this, shall we conceive of the other also.
17 If any man do His Will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether I am speaking of Myself.
We ought uncritically and without all doubt to receive |479 the words of the Truth, and to believe that a thing once said, cannot be otherwise than as it was declared to be. But He permits not His saying to be without proof, on account of the unbelievers, but introduces a most evident and exceeding clear solution, tempering with much skill the fashion of His words. And what the skill is, what the order of the economy, we will again say. They were seeking to kill Him on account of the paralytic, him (I mean) that was healed on the sabbath day. Gently then does He alike scare them from their dreadful purpose against Him, and clearly does He convict those who are travailing with their blood-thirsty purpose against Him, that they were choosing to fulfil their own lust rather than the will of the Law-giver. For then (saith He) shall ye know perfectly of My doctrine, that it is of God the Father, when ye shall choose to follow His Will rather than your own. But the Will of the Law-giver and of God, is to abstain wholly from murder. Then, then (He saith) shall ye, not holden beforehand by unjust hatred, nor thrust forth in brutish guise to no seasonable anger, know clearly, whether the word of My teaching is of God, or whether I am speaking of Myself. Having therefore interwoven reproof with profit, He with justice accuses them, for that they unreasonably mock at what He teaches, though God the Father consenteth and co-willeth, or what also is true, co-teacheth and co-interpreteth. But He puts Of Myself, for, Privately and wholly severed from being after the Co-Will and Purpose of the Father. And I do not suppose any person of sound mind will think that He accuses His own words of being spurious, but says that they will never be otherwise than in accordance with the Will of God the Father. For He speaks by His own Word and Wisdom, His Own Offspring; but That speaks not at all diversely from Himself, for how could It?
18 He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory.
He giveth this evident proof that He doth not labour for His Own glory by His teaching, that He does not use any strange words and foreign to the law (for this were to |480 speak of Himself), but that He is exhorting them rather to be obedient to the former oracles, while He removes only the unprofitable and gross shadow of the letter, and transforms it persuasively unto the spiritual sense, which already lay hid in types. What then He says in the Gospel according unto Matthew, I came not to destroy the Law, but to fulfil; this again He indirectly intimates here. For the Gospel polity hath but the transformation of the letter into the truth, and having transfashioned the Mosaic type unto what is more fitting, hath the knowledge of the worship in spirit. Christ therefore speaketh and not of Himself, that is, nothing diverse from the things already foretold. For He doth not put away Moses, nor doth He teach us to reject the instruction of the law, but over what had been shadowed out in type, as it were some brighter tint to overlay the Truth. Very skilfully acquiring the good will of the Jews, does He offer the honour and glory to God the Father. For since the Jews knowing not the Word that had appeared from God the Father, were supposing that the Law had been given by the Father only, with reason did He affirm that He was glorified by the keeping of the Law, and endured the contrary if it were not kept as it ought. But even though the Son is partaker of the glory of the Father, and through Him had God the Father spoken to Moses, He yet assents to their opinions economically. But in that He speaks nothing of Himself that does not agree with the law, He confesses that not surely His own glory is it that He is zealous to build up, but that due to the Law.
Besides this, this too must be observed. For indirectly and darkly, He finds fault with the Jews who are falling into those very things which they ignorantly blame, and are accustomed to snatch at glory for themselves rather than God the Lord of all: and how, I will tell. For they falling away from the commandments of the law, were borne each to what liketh him, teaching, as it is written, for doctrines the commandments of men. For this again well does Christ convict them as transgressors, and as sinning against the |481 very Law-giver, in that they persuaded their hearers not to live after His ordinances, but rather to give heed to their doctrines. Therefore, albeit Christ says still indefinitely and absolutely, He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory, He is reproving the disease of the madness of the Pharisees, in that through their chusing to speak rather their own words, they are stealing the glory of the Lawgiver, and transferring to themselves the things due to God, they thence shun not at length to seek to kill Him. On which account specially convicts He them of transgressing, excusing themselves duly under the pretence that: they were zealous to keep the law, and thereby honour God the Father.
But he that seeketh (saith He) His Glory That sent Him, This one is true, and no unrighteousness is in Him. As he who doth not seek rather the honour of God but his own, is not true, but most exceedingly unjust: for he is not true, seeing he slandereth the Law, and bringeth in his own will in its place; most unjust too, in that he thrusteth aside the righteous judgment of the Lawgiver, and putteth his own above his Lord's. Righteous then and true is Christ, obnoxious to none of the aforesaid charges.
19 Hath not Moses given you the law, and no one of you keepeth the law? why are ye seeking to kill Me?
By many devices cometh about the discourse of the Saviour to one aim. For having in the preceding, indirectly blamed (as was meet) the Pharisees who supposed that they ought not to obey the commands from above, but to introduce their own opinions, and were zealous rather to gain honour from those under them, and did not offer it to the Lord of all, but diverted it to their own persons, that thence they were daring to transgress more freely:----He again, in other and severest wise, prepares for them open at length and unveiled reproof. For He being condemned for breach of the sabbath, and enduring the most unjust accusation of lawlessness for this, convicted them not of individually transgressing the law, but that the whole nation of the Jews had made the law of Moses of no account. For |482 tell Me (He saith) ye who condemn the man who is zealous to shew mercy on the sabbath day, who have passed foullest censure upon those who do well, and freely condemn the compassionate, hath not the commandment not to murder been delivered you by Moses, whom ye admire? did ye not hear him say, The innocent and righteous slay thou not? why then do ye grieve even your own Moses, by so readily transgressing the Law that was appointed through him? An argument and clear proof of this, is that ye persecute Me who have done no wrong, and are unjustly eager to slay Him who can never be accused of that whereby He should suffer this.
Very pointed then is the Saviour's discourse and most severely herein does He attack the mad folly of the Jews, and shew that they who fall as it were with unbridled course unto condemning Him for His transgression of the sabbath, shew themselves transgressors, and chusers of murder, and for this cause alone fall into the worst of all sins. He all but cries aloud, The paralytic who had fallen into a bitter and incurable complaint, and who was spent with weakness at length intolerable, I have healed on the sabbath day: but for My well-doing, I am condemned as though I had been taken in the worst of crimes, and for this ye determined murder against Me. What manner of punishment then (He says) shall be devised for you commensurate with such monstrous deeds? for lo, yourselves too are transgressing the law; but the mode of your transgressions, is not of like nature with the charges against Me. For not as well-doers, like Me, are ye persuaded to do this, but with a view to murder, which is worse than all transgression. How then is Moses with you in these things, on whose account I, though a Preserver, am condemned? did not he appoint you the law concerning this? do not ye again, while trampling on My Word, ignore its transgression, by devising murder unjustly? Such things then might Christ well say to the ungodly Pharisees. But He abstracts the Law for the present from His Own Person, although He is Himself the Lawgiver, and attributes it as it were to |483 the Father Alone, by Him specially shaming into silence the shameless Jews, among whom He was considered greater than He. For, as we have often said, they did not yet acknowledge that He is God by Nature, nor did they yet know the deep mystery of the economy with Flesh, but admired rather the glory of Moses.
20, 21 The people answered, Thou hast a devil; who is seeking to kill thee? Jesus answered and said unto them
They feel the charges, and hit by the bitter words thence proceeding, they betake themselves to denial, not actually repudiating their murderous design, but only with all diligence putting from them the appearance of breaking the Law, the boast of the Pharisees in appearance only. Therefore was Christ wont to call them whited sepulchres also, outwardly clad in the beauty of the ingenuity of art, but within full of the uncleanness of the dead. But I suppose that they say these things to take away fear as to His expecting to suffer anything, not truly giving Him an assurance that He will not suffer, but drawing Him forth unto a hazardous confidence, and thinking to persuade Him not to be zealous to be hid from them. For then it would be no hard matter to plot against Him, at least as they supposed. For they ignorantly deemed, not knowing Him That was persecuted, that He would be obnoxious to their perverseness, even though He willed not to suffer, and would be caught, like one of those who knew not the thought that lay hid in their minds. The fruit then of their stubbornness is their denial, and another kind of blasphemy against Christ. For by what things they endeavour to repel His words, as untrue, they condemn Him as a Liar, adding iniquity to their iniquity, as it is written.
One work I did, and do ye all marvel?
We will read the verse, as a question, with a comma, and a full stop. But we will not be ignorant of the subtle meaning of the word, replete with a most wise economy. For observe how on relating to the Jews His Loving-kindness to the impotent man, He does not say unguardedly, |484 I have healed the man on the sabbath day, and do ye therefore marvel? but more cautiously and far more heedfully, He says, One work I did, soothing the unseasonable anger of the multitude; for it was not unlikely, that they, cut by the transgression against the sabbath, would even now attempt to stone Jesus. For indiscreet of counsel, according to the Greek poets, and prone to anger is ever the multitude, both applying gentlest accord to whatsoever it is minded to, and easily excited like a bull unto intolerable daring, it is caught more apt than it ought in daring undertakings to dreadful ends. Having therefore put away all boast for their profit's sake, He makes use of the gentlest words and with exceeding moderation He says, One work I did, and do ye all marvel? On account of this one work (He says) although it was wrought for the salvation and life of the prostrate, do ye condemn the mighty Worker thereof, as though for offences truly heinous, and looking only to the honour of the Sabbath, accord not wonder to the miracle? (for this indeed would have been more fitting) but because the commandment of the law has been broken according to your foolish imagination, for no slight or worthless reasons, but for the salvation and life of a man, ye are unreasonably angry, when ye ought rather to praise Him Who is clad with so great and God-befitting power. Untutored then by these things also are the people of the Jews proved to be, expending undue astonishment upon the man that was healed, and not rather offering it to Christ Who miraculously preserveth.
But we must know, that He, in addressing them of Israel and saying, One work I did, and do ye all marvel? again indirectly reproves and makes known something of this kind. For on account of this one (according to you) offence of Mine (He says) ye marvel at My purpose, as though I were bold to thrust aside the Lawgiver: then how deem ye that God feels towards you, who not once merely offend against the Law, but make nothing of transgressing it, in matters for which ye judge others? |485
22 Therefore hath Moses given you circumcision (not because it is of Moses, but of the fathers) and ye on the sabbath-day circumcise a man.
Of deep meaning is the word, and hard to be reached the purpose of the text, but it will be manifest through the grace of Him That illuminateth. Defeating then by many words the uninstructedness of the Jews, and manifoldly teaching them that they ought not to go off to unseasonable wrath on account of the breach of the sabbath, by reason the Son of man is Lord of the Sabbath day: but having at length attained no good effect by reason of the ill-counsel of the hearers, He passes on to another mode of economy, and endeavours to shew clearly that the hierophant Moses himself, the minister of the Law, brake the Law of the sabbath on account of the circumcision, which had extended from the custom of the fathers even unto his own times, that he too might with reason be shewn to be an observer of the custom of the fathers, and since God works on the sabbath, therefore He revealing Himself too as a worker holds that it is in no wise a transgression of the sabbath, by reason of His being ever like minded with the Father. Wherefore He also said, My Father worketh hitherto and I work. In order then (He saith) that ye, beholding Me working on the sabbath day, may not marvel as at some strange and most monstrous thing, Moses hath given you circumcision on the sabbath, and he was beforehand in breaking the Law respecting it. And why? He did not think he should be doing right, in dishonouring the Law given to the Fathers, and their custom, on account of the sabbath day. Therefore a man is circumcised on the sabbath day too. But if Moses considered that he ought to honour the custom of the fathers, and made that superior to the honour of the sabbath, why are ye vainly troubled at Me, and marvel at Me, as though I were one of those wont heedlessly to transgress the Law, out of contempt for the Law? albeit (He says) I work equally with the Father, and ever agree with Him in every purpose: and since He works on the Sabbath day, well do |486 I refuse to be idle thereon. He says that Moses gave them, circumcision, although it was not of him according to what has been just said, but of the fathers, because the ordinance of circumcision was given to the fathers, but its rites were more definitely and clearly ordered by Moses. For our forefather Abraham was circumcised, but not on the eighth day, nor was a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons offered for him, in accordance with the rites of Moses. |487
CHAPTER VI. A dissertation upon the rest of the Sabbath, manifoldly shewing of what it is significant.
23 If a man on the sabbath day receive circumcision that the law of Moses should not be broken, are ye angry at Me, because I made a whole man well on the sabbath day?
The verse is unintelligible to the many and not very clear as to its subdivisions; we will therefore speak of that first. We will therefore read it bit by bit, changing the structure of the verse; for thus you will clearly understand the meaning. If then (He says) a man on the sabbath day receive circumcision, are ye angry at Me, that the law of Moses should not be broken, because I made a whole man well on the sabbath day? For a man does not receive circumcision on the sabbath day, that the Law of Moses be not broken: for it is broken when the sabbath is made void by circumcision. For as we taught before, yea rather as the Saviour Himself said, circumcision is not of Moses but of the fathers. So that by reason of the circumcision from the fathers, the Law of Moses is broken, I mean that respecting the sabbath. Therefore we must connect the words, that the Law of Moses should not be broken, to our Saviour's words: for He says, are ye angry at Me, that the Law of Moses should not be broken, because I made a whole man well on the sabbath day? The case of the sub-division then has been now herein settled, we must go to the interpretation of the things signified too, even though they are exceedingly hard to understand. Circumcision, then (He says) is a way of taking care for a man, and it surpasses the ordinance itself of the sabbath. For it was of necessity that the suffering should be made whole. What then is |488 the hindrance, or how will the ordinance of the sabbath reasonably stand in the way of healing the whole body, since it permits already without blame its breach by a partial and slight healing? for a man is circumcised and healed of the wound without blame on the Sabbath day. Vainly then (He says) are ye indignant, to the Worker of the better things objecting the transgression of the Law, when the law is not grieved at being put aside by Moses for a petty circumcision. By these things is enwoven an argument, persuading them to agree that they ought not vainly to be annoyed, since Moses had already been a type thereof, whom they foolishly thought they ought to take the part of, and making no account of his law, were being hurried off to the duty of committing murder.
24 Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.
The Law (He says) which ye are so zealous to take the part of, and for the sake of which ye were kindled even unto fierce wrath, openly cries aloud, Ye shall not respect persons in judgment, for the judgment is God's. Ye then who condemn Me as a transgressor on account of the sabbath, and decide that it is most fitting to be angry at this, do ye care for the honour of the Law, take shame at the message, Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment. For if ye put Moses forth from transgression, and rightly consider that he has no portion of condemnation for this, albeit he breaketh the ordinance of the sabbath on account of circumcision [which is] of the fathers, do ye free from blame the Son too Who ever agreeth with the mind of the Father, and approveth His will, and whatsoever things He doeth, these likewise is He too wont to do. But if ye condemn the Son only, and do not condemn Moses, although he is involved (He saith) in equal blame to that wherein ye suppose that I too am involved on account of the sabbath, how will ye not be found to be trampling on the Divine Law, and be taken insulting the decrees from above, out of respect to some |489 corrupting the command to judge righteousness, and rendering superior to the Divine commands him to whom ye transgressing pay reverence from respect of persons?
Let the wise hearer observe again the wondrous skill of our Saviour Christ. When accused of the breach of one Law, He convicts them as transgressors by very many arguments, all but uttering the Gospel words. And why lookest thou at the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? An evil thing then is it to condemn others. For wherein a man judgeth another, he condemneth himself, as it is written. Wherefore by the Saviour too Himself was it said, Judge not and ye shall not be judged, condemn not and ye shall not be condemned. And this we say in respect of ourselves: for Christ will never become a transgressor by changing His own Laws to whatsoever He will, and overlaying with the fair beauty of truth the shadows of the Law: that at length, the things enjoined in a more carnal sense to them of old, may be changed into a spiritual interpretation.
But since our discourse, which was upon the mention of the sabbath, hath flowed into that of the circumcision, I think that not less profit than is due will accrue to the true searcher after wisdom, through his clearly beholding, what the seventh day rest means, what again is signified by the circumcision on the eighth day, and by his learning in addition, why circumcision is received on the sabbath itself, not enduring to keep the legal-rest: rightly examining each point, as well as I can, I will endeavour to make it clear. The first consideration will be that of the seventh day, or sabbath, and its rest. For so will the enquiry into what follows be most convenient. Therefore let us enquire into the first appointed law on this subject, how and in what manner it arose.
For when God brought Israel out of the bondage in Egypt unto their original and ancient freedom, by the hand of the all-wise Moses, and having miraculously brought them through the midst of the sea, with foot somehow dry and unwetted, commanded them to hasten on unto the land |490 of promise, at length, accustoming them of necessity to purify themselves beforehand and cleanse themselves, He called them to an assembly in mount Sinai: and having descended upon it in the likeness of fire, He gave them decrees unto salvation, saying, I am the LORD thy God, Which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods but Me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any image nor any likeness that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth, thou shalt not worship them nor serve them, for I am the LORD thy God, a jealous God. For it was fitting, it was fitting thence to commence the ordinance of what was profitable, and first to fore-initiate with the doctrines of Divine knowledge, them who had once given themselves to the service and obedience of God. For knowledge of God is the root of all virtue, and the foundation of piety is faith. Having therefore revealed Himself, and as it were made Himself manifest by saying, I am the LORD thy God, and having first wrought in them faith by knowledge, and having wholly interdicted the making of an image and the worship of falsely-called gods, He shews that their transgression will not be unpunished, and sets before them the punishment of turning aside, crying, Thou shalt not take the Name of the LORD thy God in vain, that is, thou shalt not put about a vain idol the Divine and most dread Name: for the LORD (He says) will not hold him guiltless that taketh His Name in vain. Having then said that he shall be guilty of no slight transgression, who shall please to worship another, and to enrol himself under a false god, and having threatened them accordingly, as people newly brought to the faith and having a feebler understanding, He adds in order, and as it were establishes a second law, saying, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy: six days shalt thou labour and do all thy work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy God, in it thou shalt not do any work. Then profitably shewing Whom they will imitate in so doing, He says, For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth and the sea and all that in them is, and |491 rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the seventh day and hallowed it.
What then (will a man say) did the ordinance of the Sabbath purport? Or why, after the threatening against transgressions was a second and similar Law straightway introduced? To this we say, that it was right not only to threaten trangressors that they should undergo dreadful sufferings, nor by fear alone to stablish Israel unto piety (for the service of fear is of a more slavish sort) but to shew of what they will be partakers and to what end they will come, who are firmly fixed in love to Him. He defines therefore, and gives them as in type the promise of the future good things. For the law hath a shadow of the good things to come, as it is written, and its form is shewn to be an exercise preparatory to the truth. For He commands them to rest on the last day of the week, that is, the sabbath, and to cease from all work, and give it over, and to practise rest thereon, signifying thereby the rest and enjoyment that should be to the saints at the completion of ages, when they having ended their life in the world, and having cleansed away the sweat of their good works, they who are in Christ shall live the life without toil and free from all weariness, according to that which is spoken concerning them by the mouth of the prophet: for they shall forget their former tribulation, and it shall not come into their heart, but everlasting joy shall be upon their head, for upon their head praise, and joy shall take hold on them, sorrow and grief and sighing are fled away. They too imitating the Creator who ceased and all but rested from the toils of creation, will cease from their labours in this life, attaining unto the delight to be given by Christ at the end of ages. And to this end I think that the appointed rest on the sabbath tends.
But note how the Law-giver says negatively, Thou shalt not worship any other gods, but on giving the kindred commandment about the sabbath which follows it, He says, Remember, and why? Because the time for not worshipping other gods was now gone by (for therefore He |492 immediately commanded them to be diligent about this) but by means of memory it was possible to behold things to come, and to see aforehand in thought what was already limned in types. We must moreover notice this too. For when He had well enforced our position with regard to our faith, He straightway adds the memorial of the promise at the end of ages 12, and then ordains the remaining laws, Honour thy father and thy mother, thou shalt not kill, and so on: that we may not think we are justified by works, nor look for the ungrudged bounteousness of God as the fruit of our own toils, but that we shall have it of faith. Therefore before the laws of godly conversation, grace hath straightway entered in as the next neighbour to our faith of the good things in hope.
The sabbath rest then signifies the life of the saints in rest and holiness, when they, having at length put off all that is troublous, and ceased from every toil, shall delight in the good things from God. And verily the blessed Paul, when he discoursed to us of these things, and most excellently essayed to enquire into the mode of the rest of the people, saith thus, And to whom sware He that they should not enter into His rest, but to them that believed not? And we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. For since certain were supposing that that was the land of rest, whereinto they came that came forth out of Egypt, albeit that is taken as a type of the one which shall be given to the saints by Christ, which David called the land of the living, the most wise Paul endeavours to shew, that that which was then given for an inheritance to the children of Israel by the command of Joshua was a type of that which is looked for. For that these things are taken as a type of the truth, he diligently proves, bringing an argument demonstrative of what has been said. For he saith thus, Seeing therefore it remaineth that some enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief, He again limiteth a certain day, saying in David, |493 To-day, after so long a time: as it is foresaid To-day if ye will hear His Voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation; for if Jesus had given them rest, then would He not afterward have spoken of another day. Seest thou how diligently he overthrew the apparent objection? For one striving with Jewish arguments might straightway have said, "What then art thou saying most excellent Sir? hath not Joshua brought the people into the land of promise? did they not rest and keep sabbath in it?" "yea." (he saith) "but in type and imitation of the true." For if in these things only the grace of God and the measure of His Promise is marked out, and in them have been fulfilled to Israel their hopes, and the letter of the law signifies nothing else besides, how, as though Joshua had not given them rest, is again another period of rest marked out by blessed David although he was so long after? Wisely then and very skilfully does he, after having shewn that the historical incidents are a type and image of spiritual things, reveal the still concealed and hidden interpretation of the sabbath, adding. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God; for he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His. How then will it not be hence at length clearly confessed, that the mind of the saints knows that the resting from toils, i. e., those of our labours, is the sabbath-keeping, when the bright band of the saints shall delight in their good deeds before wrought in this life, after the likeness of the Creator of all things, Who rested and rejoiced on the seventh day, as Wisdom saith in the book of Proverbs, I was she in Whom He delighted: daily rejoiced I before Him at every-time, when He was rejoicing on having completed the earth, and was rejoicing in the sons of men? Therefore (for I will return again to the original subject, and will recapitulate the bent of the whole discourse), the rest of the sabbath denotes the toilless life of the saints. For without toil shall all good things be given at that time to the saints by God, nor shall we then work sin the foundation of ills, because it shall perish root and branch from us, together with him |494 who was wont to sow it in us, according as it is said, No lion shall be there, nor shall ought of evil beasts go up thereon, but a pure way shall be there, and it shall be called, An holy way. Yea, and the mind of the saints will retain all good things without toil. Therefore he too who gathered sticks on the sabbath day died by stoning, as having wronged the truth in the type. For after having ceased, and arrived at that rest, we shall never go forth of that habit both admirable and illustrious in virtues, as they did from their tent, nor shall we any more collect sin, which is the food and mother of fire, as did that man the wood, through his exceeding senselessness, not understanding the types which point to the truth. Therefore also with senseless stones, as himself taken in much senselessness, was he stoned by the avengers, having the character of his manners inscribed in his punishment. That we shall not then commit any abominable sin, is therefore manifest, nor yet shall we by sweat attain what is profitable; and this again we shall see shewn as it were darkly in the books of Moses. For God showered down the Manna like dew upon the sons of Israel in the wilderness, and gave them angels' bread, as it is written, and then He appointed a law too respecting it by the all wise Moses. For thus did- he make proclamation, Eat to-day: for to-day is a sabbath unto the Lord, ye shall not find it in the field. Six days ye shall gather, but on the seventh day, which is the sabbath, in it there shall be none. For he hints that before the completion of the ages it is convenient that we collect with toil that which profiteth and nourisheth us unto everlasting life, as they traversing the wide wilderness, gathered together from all quarters manna for their food; but on the seventh, that is, in the final end, the time for collecting what is profitable is gone by, and we shall delight ourselves in the things already provided, according as it is said by the Psalmist, Thou shalt eat the fruit of thy toils. |495
God the Lawgiver then, not taking pleasure in the shadows, but looking beforehand to the very image of the things, issued proclamation that we ought not to labour on the sabbath. But certain men having despised the Law given them about this, and not shrinking from fool-hardily offending the Lord of all, determined that they ought to go out to gather manna even on the sabbath, and not in counsels only was their daring endeavour, but in very deed they accomplished what seemed them good. The Law-giver therefore for this again finds fault with them, and says, How long chuse ye not to keep My commandments and My law? See, for that the LORD gave you this day for a Sabbath, therefore He hath given you on the sixth day the bread of two days, abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day. Seest thou how He forming beforehand for us life free from all sweat and toil, in the typical rest, enjoins them to do nothing at all on the sabbath? For He does not permit them to. gather, and enjoins them besides, not to leave their house and go anywhither, nor to go forth from their own place. And what again He wills us to learn by this, we will set forth, bringing forward a kindred and similar command. The blessed Prophet Jeremiah spake then to the Jews on this wise, Thus saith the LORD, Keep your souls, and bear no burden on the sabbath day, and go not forth of the gates of Jerusalem, neither carry forth burdens out of your houses on the sabbath day, neither do ye any work: hallow the sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers. And what thence? Urging as aforesaid to a watchful habit, he bids us keep our own soul, for thus will oar duty of hastening unto the hoped-for Sabbath-keeping be easily accomplished. But how many good things shall be revealed to those who possess this, He beautifully makes known by the introduction of the other things. For He does not suffer any to be laden with a burden, since no one at that time will take up the heavy burden of sin. For it is the time of holiness, when our old sin having departed to utter destruction, the soul of each is renewed to a habit of virtue unwavering. Yea |496 and He does not suffer them to go forth of the gates of Jerusalem. For according to the true and orthodox doctrine the glorious choir of the saints shall dwell securely in the heavenly Jerusalem, and shall not go forth of the holy city, but rather shall be therein for ever, held fast by the Divine power so as never to be able to run away from the good things once for all given them. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance, according to S. Paul. But in saying again, Ye shall not go forth every man from his place, He seems to imply this most clearly. For many in truth are the mansions with God the Father according to the Saviour's word (and of this was the holy tabernacle in all glory fulfilling the type, which had ten chambers 13) and to each shall be given according to his deserts and proportionately to his good deeds, his abode. But they that are wholly in possession of their tabernacles there, they shall dwell there for ever, and will never come to fall from the things allotted to them by the Divine free gift. And a true witness hereof shall be introduced by us. For the Prophet Isaiah having clearly stated these things, speaketh thus, Thine eyes shall see Jerusalem, a wealthy city, tabernacles that shall not be shaken nor shall be removed for ever: for in saying that the tabernacles in the wealthy city shall not be shaken, he shews the immutability of the abode and habitation therein. Yea, he says moreover, and Neither do ye any work thereon, but hallow ye the sabbath day. As we have already often said, the time of rest and refreshment belongs to both, and it is wholly kept holy as a feast to Christ.
Again that we ought to do no work on the sabbath day, but to rest as it were and cease from every thing that inviteth to sweat and toil, we shall know from other sources also. For He says in Exodus, Six years thou shalt sow thy land, and shalt gather in the fruits thereof, but the seventh year thou shalt let it rest and lie still. And in Leviticus, When ye come into the land which I give you, the land which |497 I give you shall keep a sabbath unto the LORD. Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof, but in the seventh year shall be a rest unto the land, a sabbath to the LORD. For it is not the land which is insensible to toil that He releases, nor yet to it doth He in reality give this law, but He brought it about to those who possessed it, that they should not toil, through His giving a release to the land. For in many ways did He point out our feast in Christ, in which they who have lived in the Divine fear shall hasten unto the perfect and complete liberty which is in holiness, and to the most wealthy grace of the Spirit. And this again we shall know from the Mosaic commands themselves. For it runs thus, When thy brother, an Hebrew man or an Hebrew woman, is sold unto thee, six years shall he serve thee, in the seventh year a release. For we who were of old slaves to sin, and by taking pleasure in evil had in some sort sold ourselves to the devil, being justified in Christ through faith, shall mount up to the true and holy sabbath-keeping, clothed with the liberty which is through grace, and glorified with the good things from God. |498
CHAPTER VII. A dissertation upon the circumcision on the eighth day, manifoldly shewing of what it is significant.
Having now sufficiently (as I think) and according to the power of my understanding, unfolded the purpose of the sabbath, we will transfer the labour of investigation to circumcision which is akin thereto, resolving from all quarters to hunt out as befits, what is of use. For it were most absurd and not free from the extremest ridicule, that one should not gladly give all toil in exchange for the knowledge of these things. What then was by it also typically expressed to them of old, we considering the subject spiritually will set forth according to the measure of the gift of the God of all Who maketh dark things manifest, and openeth to us hidden and invisible treasures. For they who have already attained unto habit undefective, and have their understanding maturer, may both conceive and utter things far superior to these, but WE will set before our hearers what comes into our mind, though it seem to come far short of what is fitting, not sinning against brotherly love by fear of seeming inferior to any, but rather knowing the scripture, Give occasion to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser; teach a just man, and he will receive yet more. The first law then respecting circumcision was ordained, when God said to Abraham, THOU shalt keep My covenant and thy seed after thee in their, generations; and this is My covenant, which I will covenant, between you and Me and thy seed after thee in their generations: every man child among you shall be circumcised, and ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin: and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt Me and you. And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child. But when He had appointed |499 the law as to this, and had decreed that they should surely circumcise the flesh of their foreskin, He shews that the transgression of the law will not be without harm, shewing that it is the type of a most essential mystery: for He subjoins as follows, And My covenant shall be in your flesh for an everlasting covenant: and the uncircumcised man child whose flesh of his foreskin is not circumcised on the eighth day 14 that soul shall be cut off from his seed; he hath scattered My covenant. The Divine Paul then affirmed that circumcision had been given to the patriarch as a sign and a seal of the faith which he had in uncircumcision. For it was his aim (it seems) and zealous endeavour to shew that the calling and righteousness which are through faith surpass and are elder than every command of the law. For thus hardly did he shame them of Israel, and persuade them not to esteem the righteousness of faith a transgression of the law, but rather a return to that which was from the beginning and before all law; yet is he, seasonably bringing round the force of his subject to what is immediately profitable and of use for the present time, found to know of another kind of circumcision. For wishing to unteach the Jews their delight in glorying in the flesh, he writes again, For not he is a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men but of God. Does he not hereby persuade them to change at length to other thoughts respecting this, and would not have them look on circumcision, as merely the gift of the seal to our forefather of the faith which he had being yet uncircumcised, but conceive of it as something greater and spiritual?
We must then investigate and examine not remissly what the circumcision in the spirit is, of what that which is accomplished in the flesh is a symbol, and why, not on any day indifferently, as it might happen, but only on the eighth, man is circumcised. It is then obvious to every man, that since our aim is intent to be united to |500 God through Christ the Mediator, therefore it surely befits those who mount up by faith to intimate nearness with the all-holy Lord, to first purify and sanctify themselves in every way. We will take as a most excellent image of this kind of thing, that which was spoken by God to the holy Moses, Go down protest unto the people, and sanctify them to day and to morrow, and let them wash their clothes and he ready against the third day; for the third day the LORD will come down upon the mount Sinai. In that they were to sanctify themselves beforehand, He would have them attend to fitness of habits; in that they were to wash their clothes, He points to purity of the body itself. For the body is as it were the garment and array of the soul.
Since then (for I will go up to the first and most necessary beginning of the subject) they who are hastening to an intimate nearness to the holy God must surely first purify themselves, according to what is said by Him, Holy shall ye be, for I am holy, He ordained a symbol of sanctification to them of old through the circumcision in the flesh, and how, we will say. On examining into the nature of things among us, we shall find pleasure taking the lead of all sin: and some hot lust ever preceding in its working, invites us to transgression, and first taking captive the prudence of the understanding, thus at length persuades us to come by a most smooth way unto the attainment of the things desired. And the disciple of Christ shews that what we have said on these matters is true, for thus proclaims he, Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man, but every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then lust when it hath conceived, bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Seest thou then how in lusts toward anything the birth of evil is first formed, and the seed of sin is first conceived in forbidden pleasure? God the Lawgiver then commands the circumcising steel to be applied to that part of the body, wherein and whence is the birth of pleasures, that thou mayest learn, as it were darkly, that it is impossible |501 for us ever to appear pure, unless, by receiving the most sharp working of the Divine Word in our heart, and admitting into our mind the sword of the Spirit, we drive away lusts after all the basest things, never doing after our own wills, even though they pretend to have the sweetest enjoyment, but persuaded only to love and do the Will of God. Seeing that the truer circumcision brings unto us such power, well may it be said to those who are accustomed to glory in the flesh only, Circumcise yourselves to God, and circumcise the hardness of your heart, men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. For he that is circumcised in the flesh, is circumcised to the flesh only, but he that hath received the circumcision in the Spirit, through faith to Christward, is circumcised to God only and truly.
But we receive the circumcision in the Spirit which bringeth us up to an intimate nearness to God, on the eighth day, that is the day of the resurrection of the Saviour, taking this as a sign that the circumcision of the Spirit is the giver of Life, and agreeing in some sort through the thing itself, that we shall live with Christ, according to what is said by Paul, For ye died, and your life hath been hidden with Christ in God: when Christ shall appear, your life, then shall YE also appear with Him in glory. For will not one say (and that with truth) that one dies to the world, by refusing the world's pleasures for God's sake? Such an one did the Divine Paul too manifest himself to us, saying, God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of Christ, by Whom the world hath been crucified unto me, and I unto the world: for made partakers of Him through the Spirit, which circumciseth without hands all. the impurity that is in us, we become dead to the world, and live a most excellent life to God. Therefore circumcision is on the eighth day by reason of the resurrection of Christ, and not before the eighth; for not before the Resurrection was the gift of the Spirit, but after it, or at the very time of the resurrection, when He breathed on His disciples also, saying, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. To the Jews then the circumcision by the knife was more fitting, for they were yet |502 slaves and under the avenging law (and the iron is the symbol of punishment), but to us as free and spiritual belongs the purification through the Spirit, banishing all pollution from our souls, and bringing in perfection in the brightness of godliness through faith.
For that through the truer and spiritual circumcision, is accomplished the boast of perfection in godliness, we shall perceive, by considering what is written respecting the Patriarch Abraham. It is written then of our forefather Abraham, that his years were ninety and nine in number, and then did God serviceably ordain him circumcision, making this too as it were an evident sign, that circumcision is as it were a vestibule and approach to perfection in virtue, or rather clearly signifying that no one will ever arrive at this, who has not the purification which is shadowed forth by circumcision. For the number 100 is the symbol of perfection. Circumcision then precedes perfection. For it when it precedes easily brings us to that. But not to these things are limited the benefits of circumcision, I mean of circumcision in the Spirit, but we shall find that it too belongs to those only who are free in Christ. But wholly free (I think) in Christ, is the man who hath shaken off the bondage of the devil and the yoke of sin, and hath broken asunder their bonds, as it is written, and hath bound upon him the glorious and untyrannical boast of righteousness, I mean the righteousness which is in faith of Christ.
But that we shall find circumcision on the eighth day befitting the free, but by no means those who are slaves, we on traversing the holy and Divine Scripture, shall in nowise doubt. Ishmael then, the son born to the patriarch of the handmaid Hagar, was circumcised, but not on the eighth day, but rather in his thirteenth year: for so is it written, that Abraham circumcised Ishmael his son at thirteen years old, in order that the Divine word may shew us that the son of Jerusalem which is in bondage, that is Israel, hath fallen both from the eighth and from the twelfth. For it falleth from the eighth, as not choosing to receive the saving preaching of the Resurrection, which |503 took place on the eighth day, that is the Gospel of Christ, whereby there is no doubt that we aided unto faith, are circumcised in spirit. But it falleth again from the twelfth too, as it were in figure thrusting away by their unbelief the holy choir of the Apostles, and desiring to abide entirely without taste and experience of their doctrine. Herein then is the servant, but Isaac the free son of the free is circumcised on the eighth day. For the free children of the free, I mean Jerusalem which is above, are enriched receiving the eighth, that is the Resurrection of Christ, and the circumcision in spirit which freeth them from all sin, and releaseth them from death, because from sin too, whence and on account whereof is death, and transbringeth them unto the Life of Christ.
But that in addition to what we have already said, both undoing of death and the overthrow of corruption, are found through the circumcision in the spirit, we shall easily see, by studying the book called Exodus. For the blessed Moses was sent by divine command to Pharaoh the tyrant of the Egyptians, to tell him that it behoved him to let Israel go from that great bondage. And indeed he was setting out, to meet with those things we spoke of, but it came to pass (it says) by the way in the inn, that the angel met him and sought to kill him: and Zipporah took a sharp stone and circumcised the foreskin of her son, and said, The blood of the circumcision of my son hath stayed, and he departed from him, because she said, The blood of the circumcision of my son hath stayed. Here listen to me carefully. The so-called angel seeks to lay hands upon and to slay Moses, but hardly withdraws from him and departs, shamed by the circumcision of the child, which Zipporah performing with a stone, says that she has accomplished what is necessary. For scaring away the destroyer of Moses, she cries out, The blood of the circumcision of my son hath stayed. But unless some mystical meaning were hidden in these words, what mind (tell me) would be assured, that the hierophant Moses was saved by the circumcision of his son, and that the destroyer making an onset like a wild beast desisted |504 from his onslaught at the appearance of blood, and drew back and turned away? Then (for I will come to this point first) the benefit or glory of his own circumcision did not suffice the blessed Moses unto salvation. For I think I ought rather to speak thus. The might of the circumcision which is after the law, will not overthrow death which cometh indifferently to every one, evil and good. But the circumcision in the Spirit of the new people, that is, of those who have believed in Christ, most excellently performed by Zipporah, that is the Church, both scares it against its will, and puts it to flight when raging.
How then, may some one with great reason say, is Israel too preserved in the spiritual circumcision of the new people, though he hath no share of it? To this we say, that as far as concerns Israel's not choosing to receive the Resurrection of our Saviour Christ, death would have reigned even for ever; but since they which believed received it, the grace of the Resurrection on their accounts passed into the whole nature, extended in some sort to the whole through the circumcision in the Spirit, even though a considerable difference of resurrection be seen in the one and the other. For they who thrust from them belief in Christ, and by their unbelief insult the Giver of life, will gain power from the Resurrection merely to live again (for they will live again unto doom, not having loved Christ who justifieth), but they who are admirers of the Resurrection of the Saviour, and true keepers of the commandments, shall go forth of that land wherein they are, unto the resurrection of life, as it is written. The people then which is circumcised in spirit will transmit his own good even unto the unbelieving. For his of right is the grace of the Resurrection, but he will transmit it unto the rest also, God desiring of His skill to preserve the whole nature. For as Paul saith, as WE in times past disbelieved the mercy of Israel, that through their obedience 15 we may gain the grace through Christ, so they too have now disbelieved our mercy that they too again may obtain mercy, our Saviour Christ transmitting to them |505 also through our faith, the benefit of the Resurrection. For the things which are due to them that believe, are more suitably given to the whole nature. Therefore the Divine Apostle Paul also revealing to us the mystery concerning the Resurrection that shall be says that Christ will rise the First fruits, for verily He also was first raised from the dead, but afterwards (he says) that they are Christ's at His coming. For he says that they who were intimately connected with Him by faith must be raised before all the rest, shewing that the resurrection is strictly and properly due to them above all, even though it have reached the whole nature, God being pleased of His Goodness (that is) and Loving-kindness wholly to abolish death.
But observe how not with iron does Zipporah circumcise the child (for the iron is an avenger, and beseems them that are under the law which punisheth) but with a stone, as it is written, understood as a type of Christ. For the indestructibility and stability in all respects of the Nature of the Only-Begotten is hereby signified. Wherefore God the Father in the holy Prophets called Christ an adamant too, saying, Behold, I am setting an adamant in the midst of My people Israel. The adamant signifies to us as in a figure, that the Divine and Ineffable Nature of the Word can never yield to those which oppose it. Thus the Divine Joshua too after Moses' leadership and death being called to the command, purified the children of Israel with a Divinely appointed stone, and since he was to withstand the hand of the enemy, right well was he commanded to arm them first in some sort by circumcision, knowing that no otherwise would they who were on the very verge of fighting be above falling and superior to death.
And thus it is written concerning him, And the Lord said unto Joshua, Make thee knives of rock, of the sharp rock, and sit down, circumcise the children of Israel. And Joshua made him knives of flints, and circumcised the children of Israel. For herein the name rock signifies to us as it were the fixed and indestructible Word of God, the expression sharp points out the power of subtilely penetrating into |506 things, and its keenest energy, since Paul too, who was nourished up in the holy and Divine writings, calls the Divine Word quick and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword, and says that it pierces even to the parting of soul and spirit. But the Word so subtle and piercing entering our hearts through His own Spirit frees them from all uncleanness, and circumcising in an expressible manner the things in respect whereof we are full of the deepest abominations, it renders us both holy and undefiled. For see herein most translucent the image of the truth. For Jesus is he who circumciseth, and they who undergo it of him, are every fresh young child, as it is written, who this day knoweth not good or evil. For they who came forth out of Egypt had the Divine wrath as the wages of their unbelief, and manifold punishment overtook them in the desert, it having been with reason determined by the all-holy God that He would not bring them into the land which He sware to their fathers. But they who came after them being free from the charges of unbelief, fulfilled the type of the new people, so as even to receive the circumcision in the spirit through Christ, the old and first people, that is, Israel, having gone to perdition, as we have just said. Nevertheless the noble and new people are circumcised, under the command of Joshua, the other side Jordan, as it is written. For the considerations that spring from the truth are thus; we shall never receive the circumcision through the Spirit in the heart, as long as we have not yet been brought over the mystic Jordan, but are still on yon side of the holy waters. But when all the people were circumcised by command of Joshua, straightway the Lawgiver makes known the utility of the thing, and says to the holy Joshua, This day have I rolled away the reproach of Egypt from off you. Wherein then shall we grant that Israel received benefit from circumcision or what reproach do we say was rolled away? Their bondage, their exposure from weakness to be tyrannized over, and yet more their hard labours, in clay and brick. Seest thou from how great evils the might of the circumcision in spirit delivers? For it |507 delivers the soul of man out of the hand of the devil, renders it free and let go from the sin which tyrannizes in us, and maketh it superior to all the arrogance of wicked devils. Yea it frees from both clay and brick, for no longer does it suffer one denied with the pleasures of the flesh, nor that he be intermingled with the toils of earth, but frees both from death and corruption: nor are these all the benefits which arise from circumcision, but it also renders us partakers of the Divine Nature through the participation of our Saviour Christ.
For the compiler of the book adds to what has been said, And the children of Israel kept the passover on the fourteenth day of the month and did eat of the corn of the land bread unleavened and new. For no otherwise may one partake of the Very Lamb That taketh away the sin of the world, nor yet find the unleavened and new food of the Gospel preachings, unless one have first passed the mystic Jordan, received the circumcision from the Living Word, and rubbed off after some sort, as it were a spot on the soul, the reproach of Egypt, in the manner we have just expounded.
For that God loatheth, as fall of reproach and all uncleanness, him that is not yet circumcised, not as holding in abomination the flesh which He disdained not to create, but [as hating] him that is yet (so to say) in full vigour and complete, as respects pleasures in evil, by reason of his having lost nothing, we shall know when we find Him saying to holy Moses and Aaron, This is the ordinance of the Passover: There shall no stranger eat thereof but every man's servant that is bought for money, thou shall circumcise him, and then shall he eat thereof. For He wholly excludes the stranger, thereby signifying him who is not yet joined to Christ through faith: but him that is in bondage to sin, and is in some sort sold to the devil, He very seasonably commands to be first circumcised, and purified, and then to taste the most holy Flesh. For we being pure purely shall we partake of Christ, according to that which is orderly proclaimed in our churches, Holy things to the holy. For |508 in truth it were just and meet, since our Saviour Christ died for us, and cleansed us not with the purifications of the Law but with His Own Blood, that we too should offer to Him our own life and as a just debt pay that we live no more to ourselves, but repay as it were the complete consecration unto holiness of our own souls. For that the Precious Blood and Death of Christ Who died for all, both saved us from all evil, and was the Giver of the spiritual circumcision, whereby we gain that we are joined to God Who is over all, in this too shall we see. For thus it is written in respect of him who was captain after Moses, I mean Joshua the son of Nun, And it came to pass after these things, that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being an hundred and ten years old. And they buried him in the border of his inheritance: there they buried with him, in the sepulchre wherein they buried him, the knives of flints wherewith he circumcised the children of Israel. For the blessed Joshua died and was buried, and profitably were the knives affixed to the sepulchre, which ministered to the type of circumcision, that we again might understand by this that the grace of circumcision in spirit the wooer for us of all heavenly goods, is bound up in the death of our Saviour Christ.
We will then understand that the circumcision on the eighth day, taking it in no Jewish sense, is the purification through the Spirit, in faith and the Resurrection of Christ, the casting away of all sin, the destruction of death and corruption, the bestower of holiness and ownness with Christ, the image of freedom, the way and door to close friendship with God.
Abundance then of spiritual considerations then having been now contributed by us from all parts to these things, and the two chapters divided as was meet, and we having concluded for each the discussion suiting it: it remains and is due to say, why the spiritual circumcision prevails over even the honour of the sabbath. For circumcision is to be received even on the sabbath day, unheeding the Law of not working thereon. Since then the rest on the seventh |509 day signifies freedom and rest from all wickedness, and cessation from sin, and circumcision in spirit means nothing different from these, as it were in another way (for I think that the being freed from superfluous lusts, and overmuch pleasure, clearly results in rest from evil), we shall find not only that circumcision in no way breaks the law respecting the sabbath, but even aids it and all but coincides in one and the same language with it, openly proclaiming that one ought to rest and to desist from evil: so that they both are the same, I mean both circumcision and the rest of the sabbath (as one will most rightly deem), according to the concurrence of both in one aim. For we will not adhere to the gross type of the history, but will rather spiritually go to the oracles of the Spirit. Unblameably therefore will the profit of circumcision on the sabbath too be brought in, since as the Saviour saith, The priests in the temple profane the sabbath by ministering thereon and not ceasing from their ordinary occupations, and are blameless, as the Judge Himself hath testified to them, with greatest reason. For what time is there wherein we ought to desist from works of holiness, and those wherein the Deity delighteth? at what time is it not hurtful to slacken zeal in piety? The rest then on the sabbath day hath a most praiseworthy ceasing and staying from wickedness only and from abominable sin, but by no means hinders us from taking pleasure in holy deeds, and whatsoever any one supposes will be of profit to his own soul, this too it enjoins him unblamed to take all pains rightly to perform. This same profitableness you may see introduced also in the force of circumcision. For in cutting away pleasure in the direction of evil, is perceived a birth of resting from sin, and a beginning of worship in spirit and most holy conversation; and the difference between them is slight, nevertheless a needful one. For in that He does not command both to be observed on the seventh day, nor yet on the eighth; the plan of each gives us to understand that there is a distinction. And this too has a meaning, and no inelegant one, as seems to me. For resting from |510 wickedness is not yet the utter casting off also of wickedness. For ofttimes our passions are quiet within us, yet are not wholly cast out of our mind, but are by sober reasoning, as it were with a bridle, forcibly brought to the rest which is uncongenial to them, yea and give way even against their will to the toils of discipline also. But shaking off one's passions, as far as a man can do, is I suppose a wholly different thing and far greater than resting from passion.
Having thus arranged our arguments on these matters, we must finally consider, that we shall not attain unto the casting away of our passions or stumblings arising from pleasure, which is the meaning of circumcision, unless we first cease from sin which goes forth into action, and hold as it were in rest the motions of our mind which run unto transgression. For by using some step of this kind, we shall easily attain what is yet greater and higher, I mean the total casting off of our passions. But the rest from passion, seems to lie in some degree in our own power (for we shall cease from evil, by giving the force of our wills to what is better), but to be released from our passions is surely not in our own power, but is verily the fitting work of Christ who suffered for us, that He might remodel all to newness of life. Therefore meetly did circumcision obtain the eighth day, introducing the renewing (so to say) time of the Resurrection, while the rest had the seventh day, its neighbour and a little behind. For rest for a season and at will, falls and comes a little short of the entire cutting off of the passions.
[Page running titles]
384 The PASSION willed and willed not.
The Passion willed and unwilled. 385
386 The HOLY TRINITY has One Will.
The Son willed to save us: kept Father's Will how. 387
388 Subjection exists not in itself but its subject.
Consubstantiality independent of mere accidents. 389
390 Essences independent of accidents.
The SON Archetype of honour to parents. 391
392 Christ's Death our life yet wrought by
Jews' wickedness. Will of FATHER and SON not two. 393
394 The FATHER brings to the SON how.
All through whole Holy TRINITY. SON GOD Who quickens. 395
396 Serpent still punishes unbelief.
Christ has a Mother and is God. 397
398 Saints to be honoured; their beauty
abiding. Jesus God, knowing the hearts. 399
400 JESUS GOD Who quickens: Prophets witness to Him,
What Each PERSON does, that the work of whole TRINITY. 401
402 The Three Persons exist Each, Their working one.
FATHER and SON suppose Each the other. GOD never seen. 403
404 The SON, of God, GOD.
Christ's skill in teaching, He promises Himself. 405
The SON the True Bread. 407
408 CHRIST instructs from all sides: greater doom of
disbelieving Him: our Ransom. 409
410 I sanctify Myself. Flesh gives life, full of the WORD.
Resurrection universal. Eternal Life through Eucharist. 411
412 Type of CHRIST as Bread. Apostles light and loaves.
The Baptist teaching-preparatory. Cakes the Apostles. 413
414 Apostles participate in their Master's. Wise search into
harder, proud disown them. How, said to God, wicked. 415
416 When GOD says, to say How is disloyal.
CHRIST'S skilful leading. Faith before knowledge. 417
418 CHRIST'S Body His, imparts His Life, without
it none. Type from water in kettle, from paschal lamb. 419
420 CHRIST, eaten, our Life, for ever One
with His own Flesh, overcomes death, the True Manna. 421
422 CHRIST'S Blood our life: we, CHRIST'S Body
and immingled with it, it mighty against temptation. 423
Holy Trinity work not apart, Christ too works. 425
426 The Son God who is the Life. Divine writers spake
thro' the Spirit. Working from without not by Nature. 427
428 Working from without is not By nature.
The Son God, Who is Life and in Him the Father seen. 429
430 The Son That the Father is: His Gifts
most magnificent, His Body gives us Life. 431
432 Heavy punishment of persistence in wrong.
Jews like their fathers. Faith, search, each has its own. 433
434 Christ's Body possesses above nature of Bodies.
The Body God the Son's, therefore quickeneth. 435
436 The Body Life's Body. God the Son
called Spirit from His own Spirit. 437
438 Son and Spirit inseparable. Jews blind themselves.
To the cleansed and believing grace given. Jews first preached to. 439
440 Jews rejection fore-shadowed of old. Weak eyes hate light.
GOD's rejection follows on man's rejection of Him. 441
442 Might worshippers sought, even though few.
If we let go the faith, death. 443
In cleaving to Christ, endless Life. Olden type of this. 445
446 Cloud and fire light and cooling to tempted.
The Tabernacle fore-typifies Christ's Body. 447
448 The fresh spring-tide that Christ brought us.
Ark type of Christ. Veil hid Him from the many. 449
450 The Ark God's Presence.
Might of doxology. Saints bear CHRIST. Bread His Body. 451
452 Golden candlestick Christ: olive boughs Jews & Gentiles.
Position of Altars. One Christ in all. 453
454 Rock unpreparedness of heart.
Holdfast in faith yet search. Force of article. 455
456 God Incarnate One Christ. Multiform
peril of sin. Freewill. Jesus God Who knows future. 457
Christ leaves the Jews. Temple faced east. 459
460 Northwards Galilee. Christ's flight not cowardice.
Vain-glory. Christ's brethren not yet believe. 461
462 Christ's brethren become Apostles. Where economy
there a time for action. Christ teaches His brethren. 463
464 Not all to be rebuked. World worldlings.
Christ's brethren type of Jews: Christian worship presignified. 465
466 Christ's feast foretold by Hosea, Zechariah, Psalms;
abiding in Galilee, calling and love of the Gentiles. 467
468 He goes up secretly now, to His Passion openly.
Of old too refused to go with them yet went. 469
470 Jews as Greeks miss. Seeking without turning to.
Type from honey. He not without GOD Who does God's works. 471
472 Evil praised like blaming good, Heavy responsibility
of Jews' rulers. God dwells specially in temples. 473
474 God's speaking of old also secret. Moses' type of Christ.
Mind taught, advances, untaught, dulled. Degree of punishment. 475
476 Christ Fount of wisdom to all above and below.
Christ God Who knoweth all things naturally. 477
478 Doctrine, the Father's. Sent as Begotten.
God's will to abstain from murder. Of Myself, what. 479
480 Christ gave of old the Law and now beautifies it.
To seek one's own glory untrue and unjust. 481
482 Jews' breach of Law greater than Christ's.
He unknown to them. Their craft. 483
484 Jews' grave breach of the Law.
God works on the Sabbath, Moses too brake that Law. 485
486 Circumcision before Moses yet ordered by him.
488 To blame Christ, acquit Moses, respect of persons.
Christ may beautify His own laws. End of sabbath. 489
490 First three commandments.
Sabbath a type of endless rest. 491
492 Our sabbath-rest to come: the saints
shall then have joy in their good deeds. 493
494 Significance of punishment of sabbath breaker, of ceasing
of all work, of bearing no burden nor leaving home. 495
496 Sabbath rest looks on to the rest to be.
Release to land type of our rest. 497
Circumcision twofold. 499
500 Washing clothes type of purity. Heart must be
circumcised by Spirit's sword. Dying to world, what. 501
502 Times of circumcision of Abraham, Ishmael,
Isaac. Circumcision of Moses' son. 503
504 Zipporah, Church. Resurrection universal,
yet given to good. Stone Christ rendering mighty. 505
506 Circumcision of new people type of ours: its
benefits, and necessity. Stranger may not taste the Flesh. 507
508 Christ's Death gave us spiritual Circumcision.
Sabbath and circumcision akin: cutting off pleasure birth to life. 509
510 Sabbath keeping in part ours, circumcision Christ's gift.
[Most of the footnotes, moved to the end and renumbered. The margin contains mainly biblical references and fragments of Greek. These have been omitted]
1. a See this treated of by S. Cyril in his fifth Book against Nestorius chap. 3. [p. 131 Greek.]
2. b τὰ θεωρήματα, used often by S. Cyril for the line of thought suggested by the Gospel words commented on.
3. a for ἐν τῷ ἀληθινῷ, ἐν τῷ Υίῷ αὐτοῦ S. Cyril appears to have read ἐν τῷ ἀληθινῷ Υἱῷ αὐτοῦ; see below, Book x cap. i. on xiv. 28, and compare cap. 2. on xv. 1. In his treatise however on the Right Faith to the Princesses Arcadia and Marina [p. 77 D] the whole passage is given as we have it.
4. b κατὰ θεσιν as opposed to κατὰ φύσιν: God the Son is Son κατὰ φύσιν as begotten so, we children κατὰ θέσιν, as made so.
5. c So both our remaining MSS. of S. Cyril here read, cf. supra p. 145 note c: in a fuller citation however in the end of the books against Nestorius, S. Cyril has the usual reading.
6. a κατὰ μέρος as contrasted with the ὁλόκληρος σκηνὴ the tabernacle complete with all its appurtenances.
7. b cf. the same line of thought in S. Irenaeus, fragm. 8 and (from the Syriac) fragm. a (p. 543 and 558 O. T.) and in S. Cyril in his Scholia on the Incarnation chapter xi, de Adoratione book ix. pp. 292, 293.
8. c ἀποτεθῆναι, to be put away, treasured up out of sight as covered with the veil.
9. a The words the Holy One of God have been retained here from the chief MS. The same is the reading of the Codex Sinaiticus and of the uncial MSS. B. C. L. to which S. Cyril's copy of the Gospels often approximate. In his actual comment however he keeps and insists upon the words, The Christ the Son of the Living God, as we have them now. I have thought it right to translate the verse at the head of the Comment, just as the MS. gives it. The Rev. J. W. Burgon B. D. who has given a good deal of pains to the study of the citations of the Holy Gospels preserved to us in the writings of the Fathers, has specially called my attention to the existence of cases where the text at the head of the comment while it remarkably differs from S. Cyril's own text, does yet (as here) represent a text which apparently was extant in Alexandria in his time.
10. a i. e., Pelatiah; whose death is recorded a little below in Ezek. xi. 13. This vision seems to last from Ezek. viii. 1, where the date is given, to xi. 24, in which case the death of Pelatiah would be a portion of it. Pelatiah is in the LXX Phaltias.
11. b Mr. Parsons in the great edition of the LXX, begun by Dr. Holmes, finished by him, cites this one passage of S. Cyril for the word hearing, in place of jealousy and cites one MS. of this book which omits the word, of jealousy; below on ix. 34, S. Cyril reads the same as here.
12. a S. Cyril seems to be alluding to the words that God rested the seventh day, as being a memorial of a promise that we too shall rest, as he says above that our rest on that day signifies this.
13. c There seems to be a little confusion between αὐλαὶ courts and αὐλαῖαι, curtains: see too in S. Irenaeus, 2. 24. 3. Dr. Holmes cites S. Augustine as saying that some of the Latin interpreters give atria, courts.
14. a The words on the eighth day are added by the Septuagint translators.
15. b εὐπειθείας. Apparently ἀπειθείας, disobedience or unbelief, ought to be read.
This text was transcribed by Roger Pearse, 2005. All material on this page is in the public domain - copy freely.
Greek text is rendered using unicode. Note that the chapter numbers and titles are part of the original work, as is the table of them at the start of the book. The numerals on verses of John are added by the translator.
Early Church Fathers - Additional Texts
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Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, LFC 43, 48 (1874/1885) Book 5. pp. -
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, LFC 43, 48 (1874/1885) Book 5. pp. 511-648.
[Translated by P.E. Pusey]
|511
CHAPTERS IN BOOK V.
1. That human affairs are not, according to the unlearned surmises of the Greeks, subject as of necessity to the Hours, but that of our own choice we advance both to good and to the contrary, and that we are directed by the will of God; on the words, They were seeking to take Him but no man laid hands on Him because His Hour was not yet come.
2. That after the Saviour's Cross at His rising again from the dead the Holy Ghost took up His Abode in us permanently; on the words, For the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
3. That no work of Jewish might was the Suffering on the Cross, nor did Christ die from the tyranny of any one, but Himself of His Own Will suffered this for us, that He might save all; on the words, These words spake Jesus in the treasury as He taught in the Temple, and no man laid hands on Him, for His Hour was not yet come.
4. That the Son is by Nature GOD, wholly remote from likeness to the creature, as regards essence; on the words, YE are of this world, I am not of this world.
5. That not inferior in might and wisdom to God the Father is the Son, yea rather His Very Wisdom and Might; on the words, Of Myself I do nothing, but as the Father taught Me, I speak these things. |512
OUR FATHER AMONG THE SAINTS
CYRIL
Archbishop of Alexandria
GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN.
BOOK V.
[Introduction]
25 Some therefore of them of Jerusalem said, Is not This He whom they seek to kill?
Since it was now the feast of the Law called the feast of tabernacles, and the Jews were thronging, so to say, from all the region round about unto Jerusalem (for so had the Lawgiver decreed), Christ was making His teaching to all. For not surely to the townspeople alone was He speaking. He then that is a thorough searcher after learning, and a diligent hearer, must investigate what induced the Divine Evangelist, to introduce all the other multitude of the Jews as saying nothing, but to attribute the speech hereupon to them of Jerusalem only; and what they were considering and reasoning among themselves when they said these things: for a deep plan lies about this word. What then shall we say to this? Since Christ the Saviour of us all had wrought signs scarce-counted in the city, and had often taken up His abode in Jerusalem: certain of the city are (I suppose) persuaded, they are advancing by degrees to a desire of at length believing on Him, but not openly nor freely are they bold to love Him, terrified by the daring of their rulers and constrained not of their own motion unto harmful fear. For this was the blessed |513 Evangelist clearly shewing, when he said in the foregoing that no man spake openly of Him for fear of the Jews. He here calls the rulers Jews, shrinking, it seems to me, from giving the appellation of rulers to such desperate men. When then our Saviour Jesus Christ speaks openly and mightily attacks the madness of the rulers, and convicts them (and that most clearly) of taking no account of the Law-giver, but that turning aside without stint every man to his own way, they were falling heedlessly into the desire to kill Him as though it were no crime, while He yet was enduring no hurt from those, at whose hands it was likely He would undergo dreadful things;----they of Jerusalem take this very circumstance as a proof and assurance of the God-befitting Authority inherent in Him, and receiving this too as an addition to His previous miracles, and heaping it up upon what had preceded, are being driven at length with more fervent motions to the duty of believing on Him. Wherefore they acquiring knowledge by right reasoning say, Is not This He Whom they seek to kill? For consider that they all but holding their right hand on high, and reaching it hither and thither, point out Him Who convicts them, and laugh seeing the untamed rage of these people allayed not by subtle reasoning (how should it?) but rather by God-befitting Power and Authority.
But we must note that they of Jerusalem alone speak contrary to all the rest of the Jewish multitudes, and how, I will tell. When our Saviour Christ was once giving instruction in things most excellent, the Pharisees stood by cut to the heart thereat, and already unveiled as to their bold daring and pressing on to commit murder; to this He said, convicting them as transgressors, who had made up their minds that they ought to slay Him, Hath not Moses given you the law, and none of you keepeth the Law? why are ye seeking to kill Me? And the whole aim of His discourse is shot forth against the hearts of the rulers: nevertheless the multitude of the people are scared and, intolerant at the words, answered more violently, saying, Thou hast a devil, who is seeking to kill Thee? But I suppose it is |514 manifest to every one, that Christ says these things, because He saw the Pharisees desiring to kill Him. How is it, then that while certain here deny it and cry out, Who is seeking to kill Thee, they of Jerusalem alone giving a contrary vote to all the rest say, Is not this He Whom they are seeking to kill? and well this too They are seeking, that to the rulers alone the daring deeds may be ascribed. Probability then induces us to believe that the rest of the Jewish people were ignorant of the design of their rulers, but that they of Jerusalem living for the most part with them and inhabiting one city with them, and constantly meeting them, knew the unholy design which close-filled them against the Saviour Christ. And it fell out that not merely through the Voice of our Saviour was the polluted band of the Jews accused, but also by the very flock that was under them, which by their senselessness was destroyed and borne down the precipices. For haply one may (I deem) by what has been said see the flock thirsting even now and enkindled as it were unto the faith in Christ, but lacking just a little leading by the hand, which had they obtained, they would easily have received Him Who came to us from Heaven. Responsible then are they to whom was allotted the presidency, for the loss of the sheep. And the prophet Jeremiah is our witness, who crieth, For the pastors became brutish, and sought not out the LORD; therefore the whole flock understood not and were scattered.
26 Lo, He speaketh boldly to them, and they say nothing unto Him.
They multiply expressions of assurance among themselves, and advance as it were to more manifest proof, beholding the unperilled boldness of Christ. For they are astonished and that with the greatest reason at finding those that were of old ungodly brought to an unpractised and unwonted patience and, beholding those who had been violent practising a gentleness that was new to them, they thence go forth into reasonable surmises: and in that they wonder at their forbearance in those matters in which they |515 ought never to have been angry, in these very things they are found to be blaming them, as though it were their habit without discrimination to press hard upon the teachers of the most excellent doctrines, and to proceed hotly against any one whatever, if he did but say things dissentient from them, though he should agree with the Divine Law. For dreadful was the conceit of the Pharisees, and the daring of their senselessness knew not bounds. Who then (say they) is He who tames them for the present, and Who is it who puts on sober reasoning as a bridle of their of old intolerable wrath? who He that has so charmed them and like serpents ever rearing themselves lulls them to gentle sleep? Lo, He speaketh boldly and they say nothing unto Him. Not merely does He speak, they say, but He speaketh boldly. And I do not suppose that any one would justly accuse the wrath of those men of being still, if He that was sought for had spoken against them in secret. For if it chanced not to have been known, neither would their wrath have been excited, but though He spake boldly and advanced through the keen reproof of them (for this the word boldly proves), they not only refuse to be angry, though very prone to this disease, but even shrink from words. For they say nothing to Him.
Do the rulers know indeed that He is the Christ? Seest thou how by reasonable inductions and probable arguments they collecting the duty of believing, are well nigh ashamed because their rulers do indeed now know Him, but while they shrink from openly fighting against God, and endure not to shamelessly entreat Him that came from above, they do yet bury in envious silence the open acknowledgement of Him? For if they knew not (say they) of a truth that He is the Christ, what induces them to tolerate His boldly reproving them and innovating even the things of old ordained, in that He was found healing even on the sabbath day, and distressing them in no slight degree by saying outright, Hath not Moses given you the Law, and none of you keepeth the Law? All this they bear, |516 although affected beyond endurance thereby, and accustomed hotly to attack even those who do them no wrong. Going therefore through every argument they collect by degrees faith in Christ, but attribute knowledge of a truth to their rulers, inasmuch as they were brought up even before themselves in the holy writings, and are better able than themselves to understand the mysteries of the Divine Scriptures. Observe throughout that the people of the Jews are prepared unhesitatingly to follow their rulers, and they would have been surely preserved if led aright by those over them. Wherefore these shall undergo bitter punishment, since the Saviour Himself also accuses them saying, Woe unto you, lawyers, for ye took away the hey of knowledge, ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye forbad. For a door as it were and gate to the knowledge of God, and a way that easily leadeth to all virtue is the word of them that teach aright, and the skill of the shepherd knoweth how to save the flock of sheep: even as the contrary destroyeth them easily, and will bear away the flock down precipices even against their will.
27 Howbeit we know This Man whence He is, but Christ, when He cometh, we know not whence He is.
Not from external considerations only, nor because their rulers had made the pain of their reproof a thing to be borne, does the mind of them of Jerusalem admit the faith; but it after having with great profit produced arguments from what was likely and being brought to true conceptions of Christ through the God-befitting Authority that is in Him, led at length not unskilfully to the apprehension of piety, falls again without knowing it into the unlearning which was foster-brother to the Jews. For they who had well considered those things seem as if they would hunt out the truth from all quarters, and advance to the due faith not merely because of the silence of their rulers and their unwonted gentleness, but would also search the Holy Scripture itself, invited thereto by a right motive, but making their test of the Mystery wholly without instruction or |517 understanding. For merely because they know whence He is who is speaking boldly, that is, from what village He sprang, of what parent He was born, they say that He is not He Who was foretold by the Law. Then they add, but Christ when He cometh no man knoweth whence He is. And it is clear (I suppose) to every one, that their mistake in this too arose from unlearning. But I suppose one ought to search out whence their thoughts got to this; and what induced those who were well examining all about Him, to for this reason suppose that He was not Christ, because they were not ignorant whence He was: and why they subjoin, Christ when He cometh, no man knoweth whence He is: for by this they lose the apprehension of the truth. There is therefore some saying of Isaiah concerning Christ quoted, His generation who shall declare? for His Life is taken away from the earth. And the blessed Prophet applying the expression to the Word of God, puts generation for Being. For who at all can tell the mode of the Being of the Only-Begotten? what tongue shall declare the unspeakable Birth of the Son from the Father? or what mind will not be powerless for this? For that He was begotten of God the Father we know and have believed: but the how, we say is unattainable by every mind, and the enquiry thereinto most perilous. For we ought not to search into what is too deep, nor to scrutinize what is too hard, but rather to holdfast what we are commanded, and have an unshaken belief concerning God, that He is in truth, and that He is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. But we must not search into, as it is written, the things which surpass understanding and thought, not merely our own, but also that of the whole creation, or even every reasonable creature. Who then shall declare the generation of the Only-Begotten? for His Life is taken away from the earth, that is, the tale of His Essence is higher than all that are in the earth. For here again he calls His Being Life.
This then led astray the uninstructed mind of the Jews, and made them wander from the true discernment of Christ. For they considered not (it seems) that the words of the |518 holy prophets respecting Him are two-fold. For sometimes they signify that He will come with Flesh into the world, and manifest to us His Birth of a Virgin according to the Flesh. For behold, a Virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son: yea and they clearly proclaim where He shall be born: And thou, Bethlehem house of Ephratah, little art thou to be among the thousands of Judah; out of thee shall He come forth unto Me that is to be Ruler in Israel, and His goings forth from the beginning from the days of eternity. But when they are expounding (as far as is possible) His Ineffable Generation from God the Father, they either say what we said above, His generation who shall declare? for His Life is taken from the earth, or what is joined to the passage cited, And His goings forth from the beginning from the days of eternity. For here he means the goings forth of the Only-Begotten as Brightness from Light, and a certain forthcome from the Essence of Him Who Begot Him into His Own Being before all age and day and moment. Since then the Holy Scripture sets both before us, and the sacred writings both tell us whence Christ shall be after the Flesh, and honour by silence His Unsearchable Being from the Father, how will one not, finding the Jews in no slight degree unlearned, with reason laugh aloud and say, Not merely from the Generation of Christ being unknown, must one make enquiries respecting Him, but also from its being known Who and whence He springs according to the Flesh?
28 Jesus therefore cried teaching in the temple and saying, Ye both know Me and know whence I am.
As the men of Jerusalem were gently whispering those things one to another (for they durst not speak openly for fear of the Jews, as it is written) Christ again in God-befitting way receives knowledge of the things spoken. But since He was considering that it were fit to profit those men, He immediately shews the God-befitting Energy that is in Him, and clearly reveals to them that He has knowledge of all things. For He lifts up His cry on high, albeit before time not used to do so, and convicts them again of |519 not having any certain understanding of the Divinely-inspired Scripture, and makes what is secret and has scarcely passed the mouth the basis of His Discourse. Next from those very things from which they foolishly supposed that they ought not to believe Him does He persuade them outright that they ought to believe: such is the pregnant meaning of what He says. Ye marvel (He says) and that most justly, that Power truly God-befitting is in Me, easily taming the purpose of the Jews, murderous though it be: for they seek to kill Me, as ye have truly and accurately remarked, and are putting forth all their diligence to that end. But (He says) when I should be fleeing, and getting Me as far off as possible from those who think it right to kill Me, I caring not a whit for their mad folly, on the contrary speak boldly and convict those who break the Law by not choosing to judge just judgment, and I suffer nothing at all. For they who of old were fierce forbear against their will, and this not the fruit of their own free choice, but the effect of My Authority. For I do not suffer them, although madly raging, and whetted unto inhuman wrath, to dare before the time their murderous purpose towards Me. At these things then (He saith) ye have been most reasonably astonished, and say that the rulers know of a truth that I am the Christ. And ye, following out suitable reasoning herein, turning away to the oracles of Divine Scripture, when ye ought rather to have been benefited therefrom, confirmed in your conception of Me, on the contrary ye were offended. For from your merely knowing whence I am, and of whom I am born, ye have decided (He saith) that I am not the Christ. Know therefore, that ye both know Me and know whence I am, that is the Divinely-inspired Scripture has given you both to know Me and whence I am. And not because ye know (may be) that I am of Nazareth or Bethlehem, and that I am born of a woman, ought ye therefore to admit the disease of unbelief; but from those things that are spoken of Me, and because of My Birth after the Flesh, ought ye the rather to advance to the apprehension of the Mysteries respecting Me, and |520 not to turn aside merely at a single voice of a Prophet, who is telling My Ineffable Generation from God the Father.
And of Myself I am not come, but He is true That sent Me.
Under the guise of defence He finds fault with the Jews who were insulting through long unbelief. With no slight skill then He composing His Discourse, by every means contrives not to seem to excite His hearers by any occasion to reasonable displeasure, but veiling His words in obscurity, He beguiles their excess of anger and draws off the edge of their passion. Why then (He says) do they, when I have often explained and openly cried out that I am sent by God the Father, still disbelieve, and because they know His Birth after the Flesh, say that He is not He Who was fore-heralded by the Law and fore-declared by the holy Prophets, and well nigh meet Him with the words: Thou utterest lies O Sir, coming to us, according to Thine Own Will, and dost Thou not blush feigning the Name of the Father? Repelling therefore this accusation of theirs as to this too, He mingles reproof with His defence, and most excellently says, Of Myself I am not come, but Se is True That sent Me. For it is your custom (He saith) O ye who dare all things with ease, and advance heedlessly to all, even the most heinous actions, sometimes to prophesy falsely, and though God hath not sent you, to say that ye are sent by God. But I am not like you, nor yet will I imitate your well-practised villany. I am not come of Myself, nor Mine Own messenger, like you, but I am come from Heaven: True is He That sent Me, not like your lie-loving sender, the devil, whose spirit ye receiving are bold too to prophesy falsely. True then is He That sent Me, but he that stirred you up to invent words from God, is not true. For he is a liar, and the father of liars. But that we shall find the Jews accustomed to prophesy lies, we shall see without any trouble from the words of the Prophets. For most plainly doth the Lord of all say of them, I sent not the prophets, yet they ran, I spake not to them, and they prophesied. And again in Jeremiah, The prophets prophesy lies |521 in My Name, I sent them not and spake not to them and commanded them not; for visions and divinations and prophecies of their own heart do they prophesy unto you. The arrogant Jew then is reproved for this that he fastened upon Christ his own boldness against God, i. e., false prophecy. For the utter disbelief in Him Who cries that He is sent from God, even the Father, what else is it save openly to cry out, Thou prophesiest falsely, imitating our practices against ourselves?
29 Whom YE know not, but I know Him, for I am from Him, and He sent Me.
Ye have just said (He saith) When Christ cometh, no man knoweth whence He is. But since ye insist that ye hold this your opinion rightly, as being the truth, I agree to your words herein. For True is He of Whom I am, the Father, but He is not known of you. Since then (He says) ye search into the Mystery respecting Me in a manner most unadvised, but as is pleasing to yourselves, and from knowing Who and whence I am after the Flesh, dismiss from yourselves the duty of believing, do ye for this sole cause receive the faith, when ye find that ye understand not whence I am: for I am of the Father, Whom YE know not, since ye know not Him That is of Him, in Whom Alone the Father is to be seen. For he that hath seen the Son hath seen the Father, and he that knoweth the Son is not ignorant of Him that begat. All their quibbling therefore being by this taken from them, they are again taken in their malice, finding no longer any excuse for their unbelief, who have thrust away the knowledge through their own stubbornness, that that may be found true which is written, Ye see often and ye kept not, your ears opened and ye heard not. But since He was occupied upon the words of the Jews, that when Christ cometh no man knoweth whence He is, withdrawing Himself of necessity, as God, from the company of things originate, and from all else to whom the title no man may reasonably be applied, shewing that He is Other by Nature, He says that He is not as |522 they are, ignorant of His Own Father, but affirmed that He knows in all exactness both Himself and Him. For He is God of God the Father, possessed of a certain wondrous and strange knowledge of these things, as befitteth Himself Alone. For not in like manner as we know, in the same doth the Son know the Father. For the nature of things originate attaineth to the sight of God by conception only, and not overpassing the bounds which befit it, doth even against its will yield to the Divine Nature, the being veiled in ineffable words. But the Only Begotten of God the Father, vieweth Whole in Himself Him That begat Him, and pourtraying the Essence of the Father in His Own Nature, knoweth Him, in a way impossible to tell: for unutterable are the things of God. |523
CHAPTER I. That human affairs are not, according to the unlearned surmises of the Greeks, subject as of necessity to the Hours, but that of our own choice we advance both to good and to the contrary: and that we are directed by the Will of God.
30 The Jews therefore were seeking to take Him: and no man laid a hand on Him, because His hour was not yet come.
The Pharisees cut with His reproaches, and perceiving that their silence in those matters was not without damage to their own stubbornness, and was of benefit to the multitudes (for they were being persuaded of the duty of at length acknowledging that He is Christ), are carried along unto their wonted presumption, and again thirst for His Blood. For thrusting aside reverence for the law, as most unserviceable to them, and taking no account of what is contained in the Sacred Writings, and deeming not worthy of remembrance the command, The innocent and righteous slay thou not, they are sick of a most unrighteous madness against Christ. But by the Divine Might the result of their devices is turned to the utter contrary. For the deceitful man shall not attain his prey, as it is written. For they seek to take Him, as the Evangelist saith, as though they had kept a voluntary and self-imposed silence at His rebukes, and would repel by their after wrath all appearance of having been kept back by Him. For this some of them of Jerusalem had accepted as a proof that Jesus is by Nature God, saying, Lo, He speaketh boldly, and they say nothing unto Him: do the rulers know indeed that He is the Christ? But He Who taketh the wise in their own craftiness, rendereth their daring most useless to them who thus schemed, and confirmeth to the multitudes what had been bruited in secret by way of consideration and conjecture. |524
For they are repressed by a God-befitting operation, which putteth a bridle upon their unholy deeds, and permitteth their designs to stretch forth but to attempts. For profitably did the most wise Evangelist put forward the reason of their being unable to carry through their proposed design to its fulfilment (for says he, His hour was not yet come). Here he evidently calls hour the time, i. e., of His Passion, and of the Precious Cross. To whom then will it not be evident by this also, that Christ would not have suffered at all, if He had put away the will to suffer? For not by the violence of the Jews, but of His own Will did He come to the Cross for our sakes and on account of us. Wherefore also He saith, averting the reproach of seeming powerlessness, No man taketh My life from Me, I lay it down of Myself: I have power to lay it down, and again I have power to take it. For as we have already before said, He bare no unwilling Cross for us. For He hath offered Himself as a Holy Sacrifice to God the Father, purchasing the salvation of all men by His Own Blood. Wherefore He also said in the Gospel preachings, For their sakes do I sanctify Myself. But sanctify He here says for "offer," and "consecrate;" for that which is offered in sacrifice to God is holy. But that He accepted being the Sacrifice for all free from all violence from any, we shall know when we hear Him saying in the Psalms to God the Father, Sacrifice and, offering Thou wouldest not, but a Body preparedst Thou Me: in whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin Thou tookest no pleasure: then I said, Lo I come, in the chapter of the book it is written of Me, to do Thy will, O God. Seest thou how of His own accord He comes unto His Passion for all? For He says, Lo I come, not, I am taken by compulsion by another. He escapes then from the present violence of the rulers, reserving His Passion for its appointed time, and using a most God-befitting boldness in all things.
I suppose then that this will suffice for the elucidation of the present passage, but since it is probable that some |525 of the initiated on hearing the words, His hour had not yet come, may be carried away out of too great levity unto the mad folly of the Greeks, so as unreasonably to suppose that the affairs of man are subject to hours and days and seasons, I deem it necessary to say a little on this subject, since our aim is by every thought zealously to provide what is profitable to our readers. To the children of the Church then who are brought up on the Holy Scriptures, I suppose that will suffice for the refutation of the wiles of the Greeks and for the satisfactory casting off of the uncounsel hence arising, which is said by way of accusation or wise rebuke by Paul himself to some who were thus minded, Ye are observing days and months and times and years; I am afraid of you, lest I have toiled for you in vain. And indeed, apart from all subtlety of argument, it is manifest that he which is involved in such folly, will both destroy his own soul, and be found to dishonour the Maker of us all, to whom Alone wise and well-tutored reason attributes the helm of our affairs. But they who are minded unrightly to observe those things, will overturn the order of Providence, and believe that the Lord of all things is no longer Dispenser of our affairs, but will commit to times and seasons the government over all things, setting the creation over its Maker and despoiling of fairest Attributes, Him to Whom is due all honour and glory and worship, bestowing on the creature what is above it, and imparting to things made that wherewith they ought to crown the Creator: nor will their evil deeds stop here, but will advance to something yet heavier, for they will openly reproach God, lover of good, and will say that He, the enemy of all sin, is Himself the worker of evil deeds. For if by Him have been made time and hour and day and year, and these bring certain, of necessity and violence, unto sometimes unpurposed wickedness, and cause them to fall into the misfortunes consequent thereupon, how does not what we say shew itself to be true? And what then becomes of what is said by the all-wise Moses, And God saw (he says) every thing that He had made, and behold it was very good? But time is one of |526 the every thing; and in time are both hour and day and year. But if we call that the introducing of evil, which the Eye of the Divine Nature saw to be good, shall we not be confessing outright that the Lord of all is found to be the Creator of things most base?
I think then that those who are involved in the offences just mentioned will at length blush. But since it is probable that some have chosen not only not to resist the un-counsels of the Greeks, but even to defend them, come let us consider the absurdity inherent in their doctrine in another light also and, heaping up profitable arguments as auxiliaries, let us lead out the truth against their abominations. For if according to you, sirs, at the, so to say, forcible invitation of time, and on the compulsion of the hour, we are drawn to ought good or the contrary, as it may be, then superfluous (as it seems) were reason, guiding us to each action, both counselling us to decline from ill deeds, and exhorting us rather to hasten after what is approved. For what benefit (tell me) remains, what advantageth sound reason, if I must surely suffer and advance even against my will, whithersoever the hour invites and the season chooses to compel? it is meet then, as they say that pilots of ships do, when they declare there is no hope of the ship being saved in the peril of the storm, to let go every rope, and undo the very tillers, no more enduring any skill therein, and to commit it to the force of the waves and to be tossed on the sea. For nought, nought (from what has been already said) is either the gain to those who desire virtue, nor yet will harm spring up to the workers of evil, unless we receive from God according to each one of the things we have wrought, and receive recompense according to the quality of our actions. For (tell me) will not the hour oftentimes mark out what is most excellent, and the season without distinction profit, even if I be taken in the basest deeds? Again on the other hand, the season will sometimes appoint not a single good thing to some, but rather will bring, so to say, the hardest of all things, upon those who have aimed at honouring above all things the performance of good deeds. |527
But (haply some one will say) it will be no such thing as this, but the hour and season will give to each what suits him.
Therefore the season will now reign over us, we will put about the hours the dignity of Providence, having no more thought of God, we will ask by prayer, of Him nought, but of the time or the season. And what follows? we shall worship the creature more than the Creator, and blasphemously give the glory of the Creator to things made by Him. The disgrace hence accruing and the magnitude of the blasphemy, we shall see with no great trouble to have abomination more open than that of women who are courtesans. But what comes into our minds, we will say for profit's sake. Superfluously, it appears, do the laws both of God and man mark out to lovers of wickedness the punishments suitable for them, and add honours to those whose special aim it is to desire to live more rightly. For if nothing at all lies within our own wills, but all is subject to the necessity from the hours, which lead us without escape or power of refusal to both [good and evil], how can we still rightly allow that praise is meet for the good, and allot the contrary to those who are not so, as their just meed? Why (tell me) do the laws compel us to depart from vice, and press forward after what is better, if others hold the reins of our resolves, and easily bring us to whatsoever they please? For they say and will have it so, that human affairs are under the authority of the hours, taking no thought of the absurdity thence resulting. For will they not declare, even against their will, that he,.whose is the supremacy over all things that are upon the earth, will be more wretched than the very brutes, and will live in pitiable state, and he who ought to excel by reason of his nature, will be brought down to the second, yea, even to the last place? For if the beasts by their self-ruling impulses, turn, no one hindering them, to what they please, and admit what they know to be wholesome, and shun what will hurt them, and WE are in bondage to time, that bitter master, and have the authority of the hours, a tyranny not |528 to be escaped, suspended over us like a staff, shall not our condition be far worse than theirs is?
But he will blush, as is probable, who would fain be for (yea rather utter lies against) the hours and times, which were never created for any such purposes, and rejecting the absurdity of such opinions, will come forward saying: "We do not, sir, declare that the hour nor yet the time or season has authority over the affairs of men, but we say that there are evil hours, and seasons too, which sometimes like raging winds, spring upon us miserable."
But we shall answer, O mad in mind, and steeped in sheer 1 insanity, how is it that YE do not perceive that ye arming your own mind against That Essence which is above all? for will not He be a worker of iniquity, if ought of the things made by Him be wicked? But this, as we have mentioned it before, we will pass over, and will rather endeavour to be persuaded by you, how the hour or season could hurt us, or on the contrary rejoice us, did not God order all things according to His will, and will that they should, as belongeth to each, give either pain or contrariwise pleasure? For we but now heard you say, that nought of our affairs are under the authority of the hours, but that some are by nature evil, and are borne violently down upon us like the wind. But I do not think it will be any hard matter to shew that this your argument is replete with extremest folly. For who does not clearly see that the twelve intervals of the hours are meted out, some to the day, others to the night, and that night and day do not come to one man, to another not, but pervade all things? but their evil, innate and unavoidably tending thereto, is not evil to one, to another not, nor yet to one perchance, or a second, but rather will bring harm in equal degree upon all, upon whom the interval of night or of day comes? How then does it happen that in a single day or hour, one may see one man prosperous and enjoying himself with many jovial companions, so as to go to sumptuous feasts and gather together with much diligence his guests, and others you may |529 clearly see in opposite plight, so that one is often borne forth to die miserably. What (tell me) is the reason, or how is it possible, that in one single hour or period, one person is found in the former state, another in the latter? what will you call that hour? evil, or the reverse? for I cannot say, looking at either side and finding one man revelling, another lying a breathless and miserable corpse. Will not then those opinions respecting the hours be proved an unlearned fable, and the inventions of devilish madness? I think all will agree to this without any hesitation, and will condemn those who hold such opinions. And we might well, I think, be content with what has been said, but lest by committing every thing to hazard and conjecture I should leave an excuse for quibbling to any, I will betake myself to history, and from facts will confirm past all doubt the already beaten track of our argument. When the Assyrians then encompassing the holy city (I mean the holy Jerusalem) were purposing to besiege it, their general, Rabshakeh, was first endeavouring at one time by words of guile to undermine the minds of the fighting men which were therein, at another thought to do this by threats: and the blessed Hezekiah who at that time held the kingly power trusted not in his forces, but attributed the achievement of victory to God Who is over all, and by most fervent prayer did he keep calling for the alone aid which is from Him, and immediately did God incline His Ear to the righteous man, and granted him grace answerable to his prayers. For the angel of the Lord went forth, as it is written, and slew out of the camp of the aliens an hundred fourscore and five thousand. What then will you say to this, o most excellent of men? In one night and in the same hour and season, the Assyrian fell overpowered by Angel's hand, the multitude of them of Jerusalem was saved, and the one were in the depths of misery, the other in joy and delight. Where is the power of the hour? how was it apportioned unequally for both? and for the one it wrought rejoicing, for the other an evil death? For you will not venture to call it two-natured and |530 multiform, even though you babble exceedingly. The same argument will hold as to Dathan and Abiram, who having once made a sedition against the authority of Moses, and fearing not unbidden to spring upon the office of the Divine priesthood, went down with all their household into the depths of the earth; and they were in Hades, while the rest of the congregation were preserved. But the vengeance surely should not forsooth, since it was not at all that of Divine wrath, but of the hour, have burst forth upon one part merely of the assembly, but should have taken hold on the whole equally.
Let us not then admit that hour or day or season is the giver either of sorrow or joy, in respect of its own nature or however one might rightly speak of it; but let us grant the profit from the hour or season and contrariwise the damage, when we setting to either skilfully or ignorantly, meet with results pleasant or otherwise. For example, To every thing a season, as it is written, and to know the fit times, is most useful, not to know them, replete with damage. For in winter one ought not to make voyages, to do so in summer is not ill-instructed. Being thus minded we shall commit the helm of our affairs to God the Lord of all. For if, according to the unlying word of the Saviour, this little sparrow of no worth shall never fall into a snare without the Will of God the Father, how shall he who is so honoured and has the authority over all, suffer ought contrary to his mind or wish, unless Providence brings upon him any of the things above mentioned in accordance with the life of each?
I will further add another thing which has been shaken out and come forth of my memory, exceeding kin to the present matter, yea rather calling for the same investigation, though the solution be not hard, but most easy to the man of full understanding and that hath the senses of his understanding exercised to discern both good and evil. What then is this, of which we so speak? They of Cana, inhabiting the country bordering on Judea, namely Galilee, were once celebrating a marriage, and they invited the Lord to |531 their banquet with His Mother and the holy disciples, and the cause of this their feast was the marriage-bed. But when sitting at meat with those who with Him were assembled for this purpose, the Lord was there to bless that marriage which He had ordained, wine began to fail the company. But the Mother of the Saviour as still having authority over her Son, by reason of His exceeding subjection, and having now learnt by much experience Him too that hath God-befitting Power, saith, They have no wine. For she knew that He would perform, and that most easily, whatever the nature of things required. And the Lord said to her, Woman what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. The devout mind, then, far removed from monstrous opinions, and fleeing utterly Greek superstition, will receive piously what is said. For not yet He says, is the time of My manifestation, i. e., by miracles, come. For being God by Nature, He was not ignorant of the time befitting each work (how could He?) But he who of his exceeding senselessness turns about hither and thither (for evil is a beaten track to the multitude, who suppose, as certain trifling say, that Christ Himself also was subject to the operations of the hours,) will be here proved by us to have no understanding and by those very things by which he looked to strengthen his own argument, by these will he be condemned for the inherent absurdity of his tenets. For if we grant that the nature of things is subjected to the operations of the hours, and that therefore Christ said to His Mother, Mine hour is not yet come, how (tell me) when according to your abominable and most unwise reasoning He had not yet the operation of the hour to cooperate with His Will, does He become the Creator of the things asked for? for forthwith He manifestly turns water into wine. But if ye think that affairs must be subject to the authority of the hours, how ought not the Lord at the first not a whit to have attempted to accomplish what the concourse of the hours did not grant? But evidently He took no thought of this, but gave them His Grace before that time. The power of the hour was then no hindrance, |532 but since the time was not yet come for His proclamation by miracles, does Christ say thus.
We are then set free from your surmises hereon, and when hour is mentioned, let it be considered to be the time which suits each work: and that we too are set free from the necessity of the hours, I think needs no more expenditure of words to prove: for we have already sufficiently gone through this.
But we will endeavour to shew now, that we shall find that hour in the Divine Scriptures signifies the time suitable to each action. And the admirable Paul cries out and indicates the meaning of the word hour, And that, knowing the time, that it is the hour for you to awake out of sleep: the night is far spent, the day hath drawn near. Thou seest how having first put time, he added hour, as indicating by the same, it, and not ought else. For it was time that they who lay in the deep sleep of sin should rouse themselves and open their eyes to what was their profit, and be raised to a God-loving watchfulness.
31 Of the multitude therefore many believed on Him, and said, The Christ when He cometh, will He do more miracles than those which This Man did?
How great the economy herein, and how fitly it hath followed after those things, is meet to see. For having before said that the Jews were seeking to take Him and to enclose Him by the meshes of their senselessness, into so cruel and unseasonably contrived danger, he shews the multitudes of them that believe, that the ill machinations of their rulers against Him may at length be acknowledged. So far are the people from desiring to rage against Him, that they at length even gather some ideas from His miracles, and openly confess that they ought to give heed to His doctrines. For a report (it seems) was noised abroad throughout the whole race of the Jews and spread throughout all their country, that the Presence of Christ would be for some mighty deeds, and that He would work exceeding miracles, and introduce teaching more notable far and superior to the |533 instruction of the Law. For the woman of Samaria, when she came to Jacob's well to draw water and was conversing with the Saviour, said, We know that Messias cometh Which is called Christ, when He is come, He will tell us all things. And the words, we know, here, we shall not reasonably apply to the woman alone, but joining the whole race of Samaritans and Jews, we shall confirm the argument we have just adduced. These then now perceiving that the glorious hopes commonly entertained of Him do not surpass what was already present, well-nigh speak thus one to another, For what hath the Law declared that Christ should be revealed to us? what manner of man hath the word of the holy Prophets foretold? a Worker of miracles plainly and instructer in what is most excellent. But we see that He Who is now come is wholly pre-eminent unto both. What exceedingness in miracles remains for them who conceive of somewhat greater yet? In what difficulty has He failed? what that is above utterance and miraculous has He not wrought? in whom shall we still seek for more? let us see whether Christ have not at length reached the bounds of all marvel! what is looked for in Christ which is not apparent in this Man? Shameless now at length is the withholding of our faith, senseless our indifference, and quite unpersuasive the argument of delay under colour of choosing the best. Let God be confessed: for this the nature of things requires, even of those who will it not.
Not unsuitably then nor unbecomingly, might one put this in the mouth of the Jews. We must note however that through the perverseness of the rulers the subjects perished: for the one were most admirable guessers, led by the renown of His Works to the duty of believing on Him, and only waiting for the judgment of their rulers concerning Christ; and these were so mighty in savage cruelty, as to attempt to ill-treat Him Who had been foretold for vast hopes, and was accredited by what He had already wrought. |534
32 The chief priests and Pharisees heard the people murmuring these things concerning Him.
The multitude are with great reason indignant against their rulers. For they were making a great outcry respecting our Saviour Christ, not because He was a wondrous Wonder-worker and beyond expectation, nor yet because He came telling of things better than the legal worship; but because He was not yet accepted by the chief priests and Pharisees, albeit having glory answerable to what was spoken of Christ, and no whit inferior to what the common reports tell of Him, or the word of the holy Prophets fore-heralded. So then they justly accuse them of being overcome with envy rather than really caring for the salvation of the people. But the constant utterance of blame as to this does not escape the knowledge of the rulers, and the multitude (it seems) gave them offence, now reasonably astonished at the Lord, and thirsting exceedingly to believe on Him, and already ill enduring the yoke of the rulers' arrogance, and essaying to do that which is said in the Psalms, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their yoke from us. For by not subjecting the mind of the people to the commands of the Law, but placing them in subjection to their own inventions, and teaching for doctrines the commands of men, they, leaving the right way and beaten track were conducting among precipices and foot-falls, those who were even now ready to be saved and of themselves were being led to rightness of conception.
And the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to take Him.
Albeit the Law declared, The innocent and righteous thou shalt not slay, and every where clearly crieth aloud, Thou shalt not be with the multitude to do evil, the guardians of the Law desire to kill, overbearing in respect of esteeming Moses' Law holy, and accustomed to blame every one who did not live in the same way. But caring nothing for the Law in these matters, and so to say, spurning its most precious things, they are zealous to take in their meshes |535 Him That had done no wrong at all, but rather is now by His very works accredited that He is indeed the Christ. And surely (some one will reasonably say) these ungodly rulers of the Jews ought, since they are learned in the Divine Oracles and skilled in the Divine Laws, rather to speak to the multitudes, to turn aside their clamour hereat by reasonable arguments, and to thrust aside all suspicions of envy, and turn them to think as they should do, if in ought they, travailing with right surmises about Christ, seemed to have fallen therefrom: they ought to have proved by testimonies from the Prophets and, going in short through the whole Divine Scripture, to have cleansed the multitude from their errors and, as knowing more, to have taught them clearer truth about Christ. But finding no defence from thence, in fear of the holy Scripture, as finding that it agreed with the multitude in accusing them, they fall into shameless daring, and strive to make away with Christ, not being able to convict Him of any offence. And most intolerable of all, this resolution is that not of chance people, but the daring deeds of the chief Priests coincident in mind with the Pharisees, albeit they ought to have led them inasmuch as they were superior through the office of the priesthood and, since they had the first place through this, they ought to have shewn themselves guides in thoughts of good also, and to have taken the lead in counsel not counter to God. But since they are outside of any good disposition, and have cast the Divine Law behind their own imaginations, they are carried to that alone which pleased their own undiscerning impulses. For the head has become the tail, as it is written. For he that is chief follows, and consenting to the impiety of the Pharisees, makes now his unbridled attacks against Christ too. But without a cause is ever found to be the war of the wicked against the pious, and the mode of their contest so to speak halteth, unaided by the auxiliaries of reasonable causes, and merely hampered by the disease of envy. For since they are not able to compete with their mighty deeds, nor through equal strength of soul to attain corresponding glory, or even by |536 better deeds to be seen in better case, they fall into savage-ness of mind, and foolishly arm themselves against the praises of those who surpass them, zealous for the destruction of what makes them to be disgraced. For evil is ever convicted by juxta-position with the better. For they ought rather to desire by equal actions to equal them, and to be zealous rather to do and think the same with those who are praised. But it was likely that the Pharisees should be bitterly disposed. For since they perceived that the multitudes were murmuring, and even now in common talk one to another saying, Is not This He Whom they seek to kill? lo, He speaketh boldly, and they say nothing unto Him: do the rulers know that He is the Christ? repelling again this supposition with the wickedness that was their foster sister, they give orders to bind Him, and send out officers to accomplish this very purpose.
33 Jesus therefore said unto them, Yet a little while am I with you, and then I go unto Him That sent Me.
The Lord is not ignorant, inasmuch as He is by Nature God, of the Pharisees' bloodthirsty deeds of daring, and of the unholy design of the chief priests against Himself. For with the Eyes of Deity He beholds now present and mingled with the multitudes, the servants who had been chosen by them to take Him. Therefore He makes His answer common indeed as to all the people standing round, yet having a special answer to them, and at the same time teaches much that is profitable. For He threatens them skilfully, yea He convicts them of pettiness of soul in regard to those things at which they ought to be pleased: and that in another way should their attempt be frustrate, even though it were to take place', and how, we will say, going through the whole account. For in saying, Yet a little while am I with you, He evidently all but teaches them, Tell Me (says He) why are ye indignant as though I were lingering too long in this world? I am burdensome to you, I confess it, and am no great pleasure to those who honour not virtue; dashing in pieces him who loves not |537 God, and smiting at times with My rebukes the ungodly, I am not ignorant that I have wrought hatred for Myself. But do not thus untimely spread forth the net of death for Me. Yet a little while shall I be with you, I shall depart with joy, when the fit time for My Passion comes, nor shall I endure any more to be with evil men (for not pleasant to Me, He says, is the abode with the bloodthirsting) I shall depart from the ungodly, as God, but shall be with Mine Own all the days of the world, even though I seem to be absent in the Flesh. But in saying, I go to Him That sent Me, He means something again of this kind: In. vain did ye sharpen against Me (He says) the sword of your own blasphemy. Why do ye tear yourselves to pieces with fruitless counsels? stay the weapon of envy, for it is shot forth for nothing: it will not subject Life to death, neither will corruption have the better of incorruption. I shall not be holden of the gates of Hades, I shall not be a dead body in your graves, I shall fly up to Him from Whom I am, I shall ascend again to Heaven, seen as an accusation of your blasphemy by both angels and men. For the one shall marvel at My going up, the other when they meet Me shall say, What are these Wounds in Thine Hands? And I shall say unto them, Those with which I was wounded in the house of My beloved. The speech then has been made in great meekness and exceeding gentleness, for our example in this too: whence Paul also says that the servant of God must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves. For it behoves the pious mind to be free from all tumult and the fierce motions of wrath, and to study to refuse as a wild onslaught of waves what comes of pettiness of soul, and to rejoice in thoughts of meekness like breezeless calms, and to love to live as much as possible in longsuffering, to shew himself forbearing to all, and hold fast a mind wholly good, and make his conversation with his enemies not unseemly.
34 Ye shall seek Me, and shall not find Me.
This too He says skilfully and with much gentleness. |538 For it means what taken generally is not difficult of comprehension, yet contains it some keen mystery hidden within it. For when He says that He shall ascend to Him That sent Him, that is, to God the Father, even though they yet attempt to plot against Him, and do not cease from persecuting Him, He is saying that He That hath ascended into the very Heavens can never be taken by them. But the truer meaning and that which is darkly signified, is this: I (He says) was sent to give you life, I came to take away from human nature death which from transgression fell upon it, and with long-suffering to bring back to. God those who through sin had stumbled: I came to engraft the Divine and Heavenly Light in those in darkness, and moreover to preach the Gospel to the poor, to give recovery of sight to the blind, to preach deliverance to the captives, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. And since it seems good to you in your senselessness to drive forth from you Him who sets before you so rich enjoyment of heavenly goods, after a little I Myself will take Me again to Him from Whom I am, and YE shall repent, and consumed by unavailing after-counsels weep bitterly for yourselves, and though ye should fain find yet the Giver of Life, ye shall not then be able to enjoy Him ye long for. For after having once turned aside and departed from My Love towards you, I shall wholly shut out from you what is profitable to seek after.
Something of this kind we shall also find in the preachings of the Prophets concerning them. For a certain one saith of them of Jerusalem, With sheep and bullocks shall they go to seek the Lord, and shall not find Him, for He hath withdrawn from them. For they who would not when it was in their power choose Life, and with foolish reasonings thrust away the good that was in their power, how shall they be fit any more to receive it? and they who made no account of missing the opportunity, how can they have the good things out of their season? For it is while the opportunity exists and is yet present, that we must seek for the good things that are in it and of it, but when it is now |539 passed away and gone by, superfluous at last and most vain is all seeking after the good things it contained. And verily the blessed Paul saith, Behold, now is the accepted time, behold now the day of salvation, and also, While we have opportunity, let us do good unto all men. For indeed, indeed it beseems those who are good in their habits, not when opportunity is now passing her prime, to have to seek for her good things, but rather when she is commencing and shewing so to say, her most blooming presence.
And one might yet say much more about occasion out of the Divine Scripture, but leaving it for the labour-loving to search them out, I will say a little thing common, and in use among us, but which yet has no mean profit. They say then that those who make pictures on tablets, when they represent occasion in human form, represent the remaining fashion of her body as pleases them, but the head alone like this. They represent her behind as bald and very smooth, touching it with brilliant tints: but from the middle of the scull, they hang much hair over the forehead, full in front and flowing: by this form itself signifying, that while any occasion still exists, and meets us, so to say, face to face, it may easily be laid hold of, but when it is now passed, how can it any longer be taken hold of? being as it were bushy and easy to hold, while yet present, but when passed, no longer. For this the smoothness behind indicates, which all but mocks the hand of him that would hold it. Since then when occasions are passed, we have not what they bring, let us not slumber when good things are present, but rather watch, and not when search is useless, unwisely use diligence to catch what is profitable.
And where I am, YE cannot come.
With greatest gentleness does He again put the race of the Jews forth from the kingdom of Heaven, adding words correspondent to those that He had already uttered, yet concealing therein a deep Mystery. For applying our mind more simply to the words, and admitting a more surface consideration thereof, we say that it signifies something of this sort, that He will in no wise be apprehensible by |540 them, nor yet will fall into their meshes, having gone back to the Father. For not accessible to them shall be the Heaven too, and He That sitteth by God the Father Himself, how shall He be to be taken of them that seek Him? This one word therefore is not deep, but more suited to the levity of the Jews, and superior to 2 their understandings (for they are found ever to mind what is more low): but the exact and secret mind of the things said is after this sort; I (He says) having escaped the snare of your unholiness, shall be received back to God the Father; for I shall surely prevent in My departure My worshippers, in order that having shewn the way that upward tends, passable to them too, I may have all with Myself. But YE cannot come where I am, that is, ye shall be found without lot in the Divine good things, ye shall be without share in My glory and alien from co-reigning with the saints, untasting shall ye abide of the gift that is in hope, unfeasting shall ye be of the Divine marriage-feast, Mine assembly shall ye not see, ye shall not ascend up to the mansions above, nor shall behold the beauty of the Church of the first-born, unseen of you shall be the city that is above, ye shall not behold Jerusalem in her prosperity 3: for there shall My flock glorify Me, YE cannot come. For the Heaven will not receive slayers of her Lord, nor the Cherubim open the gates of Paradise for a people to enter in who fight against God, never shall a man guilty of impiety against God appease the flaming sword, it only knows the pious man and honours the devout, and makes faith its covenant of peace.
Some such thought as this shall we bring to what has been said, from all sides tracking the sense which is true and befits those who have understanding. But we will add to them some few things, shewing for profit's sake that all who attain unto devout habits, shall both be with and feast with Christ: but they who go along with Jewish |541 unlearning, not so (whence could it be?), but shall undergo the bitter punishme'nt of their unbelief. Let then the Divine Paul come in crying aloud to those who have died to sin, For ye died and your life has been hidden with Christ in God: when Christ, your Life, shall appear, then shall YE also appear with Him in glory: and again putting forth his discourse on the resurrection, he says. And we which are alive, which remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. And things akin to this is the Saviour Himself too seen discoursing of to His disciples. For as He sat and did eat with them, He says, But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in the kingdom of Heaven: yea and to the robber who hung on high along with Him, at the very gates of death through faith in Him seizing on the grace of the saints, He saith, Verily, verily I say unto thee, to-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise. They then who by obedience have honoured Him, shall be with Him unhindered, and shall delight them in the good things that pass understanding: but they who refuse not to insult Him with their folly, albeit sons of the bridechamber 4, shall go away in sorrow to hell, to pay bitter penalties. For they shall be cast out, as it is written, into the outer darkness. True therefore will be the Lord saying darkly to the Jews, Where I am YE cannot come.
35 The Jews said then among themselves, Whither will this man go that WE shall not find Him? will He go unto the dispersed among the Gentiles and teach the Gentiles?
Seest thou herein again the wretchedness of Jewish reasonings? seest thou the most miserable surmise of grovelling mind? for they do not say that He will ascend up to Heaven, although they clearly heard, Yet a little while am I with you, and I go unto Him that sent Me, but they are imagining the country of the Gentiles, as though among them were He That sent Him, unto Whom He promised |542 to return. But the people of the Jews is hereby, as it seems, prophesying, albeit not knowing what it is saying. For moved by some Divine impulse they present Christ to the country of the Gentiles, in the way of a suspicion thinking of what a little after became true. For He was in truth about to go unto the Gentiles and teach them, spurning Jerusalem the ungrateful mother of the Jews.
But note that they do not speak of this simply: for they surmise that He will not only depart unto the dispersed of the Gentiles, but in their stubbornness add, and will He teach the Gentiles, that their suspicion may again beget for them a plea of accusal. For the having intercourse with the dispersed of the Gentiles by reason of going through their cities or countries, was a common thing among the Jews and unblamed, but to explain the Law to aliens and to unfold the Divine Mysteries to the uninitiated, was a matter of accusal and not unblamed by them. And verily God found fault with some who were indifferent about this, saying by the Prophet Jeremiah, And they read the Law without. Keenly then do they say that He will teach the Gentiles. casting a slur on Him as readily transgressing the Law, and from what He had afore wrought on the sabbath day, believing that to do all things without heed, even if they were counter to the Divine laws, was His habit and that He thought nothing of it.
37 In the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood and cried saying; If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink.
We must search well in this too, what it is the most wise Evangelist is hinting with some extreme great care, calling the last day of the feast great, or what it was that induced our Lord Jesus Christ, as of some needful reason and belonging to the time, to say on it to the Jews, If any man thirst let him come unto Me and drink. For He might have used other words, such as, I am the Light, I am the Truth. But turning His explanation to the matters of believing, He hath introduced the word, let him drink, as something |543 necessary and due to the matters of the feast. And the aim in what is before us I will endeavour briefly to say.
When therefore God was ordering what belongs to the feast of tabernacles, He says thus unto Moses, On the fifteenth day of the seventh month a feast of tabernacles unto the Lord, and ye shall offer whole burnt sacrifices and sacrifices seven days, and the first day shall be notable holy 5. Then after enjoining besides the mode of the sacrifices, He added again, And in the fifteenth day of this seventh month, ye shall offer whole burnt offerings unto the Lord seven days, and the first day a rest and the seventh 6 day a rest. And on the first day ye shall take you boughs of palm trees and thick branches of a tree and fruit of a goodly tree and willows and branches of agnus from the brook to rejoice withal. Having then already in the second book gone through every portion of the above cited passage and expended much discourse thereon, we will yet again make mention of it briefly 7. For we said that the feast of tabernacles signified the thrice longed for time of the resurrection: that the taking boughs and the fruit of a goodly tree, and the other things besides, meant a recovery of Paradise about to be given us again through Christ. But that since it is put at the end that one ought to take every thing out of the brook, and again to rejoice thereof, we said that our Lord Jesus Christ was compared to a brook, in Whom we shall find all delight and enjoyment in hope, and in Him shall delight us Divinely and spiritually. And that He is and is called spiritually a Brook, the most wise Psalmist too will testify to us, saying to God the Father about us, The children of men shall hope in the shadow of Thy wings: they shall be inebriated with the fatness of Thy House, and Thou shalt give them drink of the Brook of Thy delights. And the Lord Himself somewhere in the prophets |544 says, Behold I am inclining to them as a river of peace and as an overflowing brook.
Since then the Law used to call the first and the seventh day of the great feast notable, the holy Evangelist himself too called it great, not disregarding, it seems, the accustomed habit of the Jews. There being then in the ordinances about the feast a mention too of the brook, the Saviour shewing that He is Himself that brook which was fore-declared in the Law, says, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink. For see how He removes the mind of the Jews away from the types in the letter and transfers fitly the things in figure, if at all they aid for the truth. For I (He says) am the Brook which by the Lawgiver was fore-proclaimed in the account of the feast. And if one must needs take branches of willow and agnus and thick branches of trees from the brook, and Christ is not strictly a brook, neither yet is the fashion of the feast really in these, but they will rather be symbols of spiritual things which shall be given to the pious through Christ.
But seeing that we discussed these things more at large in the second Book, as we have already said, we will not repeat ourselves, but will rather follow on to the next.
38 He that believeth in Me, as the Scripture said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
He shews that vast and ageless is the reward of faith, and says that he who does not disbelieve shall revel in richest graces from God. For he shall be so replete with the gifts through the Spirit, as not only to fatten his own mind, but even to be able to overflow into others' hearts, like the river stream gushing forth the God-given good upon his neighbour too. This very thing used He to enjoin the holy Apostles, saying, Freely ye received, freely give. And the wise and holy Paul too himself longing to be effectual unto this writes, For I long to see you that I may impart some spiritual gift. And one may see this most exceeding well in both the holy Evangelists and in the Evangelic teachers of the church, who on those who go to Christ through |545 faith pouring forth most plenteous word of inspired teaching, spiritually delight them, no more suffering them to thirst after the knowledge of the truth, with their wise soundings all but crying aloud into the heart of those who are being instructed. Wherefore the Psalmist rejoicing in spirit called out concerning them, The rivers lifted up, o Lord, the rivers lifted up their voices. Great and mighty sounded forth the word of the Saints, and into all the earth went forth their voice, as it is written, and unto the ends of the world their words. Such rivers did God, the God and Lord of all, promise to set forth to us, saying by the Prophet Isaiah, The beasts of the field shall honour Me, the dragons and the daughters of the owl, because I have given water in the wilderness and rivers in the thirsty ground to give drink to My chosen generation, My people whom I formed for Myself to shew forth My praises. Very evident then it is that the Saviour says that out of the belly of him that believeth shall come forth the grace that through the spirit giveth instruction and eloquence, whereof Paul too maketh mention saying, To one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom.
It is good to know besides that the Saviour applied to His own words this saying, not exactly as it had been before put out by the Divine Scripture 8, but rather interpreting it according to its meaning. For we find of every one who honoureth and loveth God that he shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring whose water fails not. And what He says a little before to the woman of Samaria, this now too He clearly declares. For there He says, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be to him a well of water springing up into everlasting life: and here again carrying up the aim of His discourse to the same meaning, He says, Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. |546
CHAPTER II. That after the Saviour's Cross at His rising again from the dead the Holy Ghost took up His abode in us permanently.
39 But this He said of the Spirit Which they that believe on Him should receive, for the Holy Ghost was not yet, because that Jesus was not yet glorified.
The sense of what is before us demands for itself keen scrutiny and to understand sufficiently the depth of the mystery will be (and hardly) the achievement of much acumen. For one who revolves in his mind and looks at each of the holy Prophets, with reason goes first into deep thoughts, How was the Spirit not, albeit so great a choir of Prophets has been set forth who are found uttering in the Spirit the Divine mysteries concerning Christ in many words. For we do not go so far astray from fit thoughts, as to deem that the mind of the saints was bereft of the Spirit. For there shames us and as of necessity calls us unto the belief that they were in truth Spirit-clad, the very fact of prophecy and the things found in the holy writings.
For Samuel saith to Saul, The Spirit of the Lord shall spring upon thee and thou shalt be turned into another man, and of the blessed Elisha himself is it written, And it came to pass as the minstrel was playing that the hand of the Lord came upon him. And our Lord Jesus Christ Himself also testifieth of the blessed David that in the Spirit he speaketh mysteries. And many things may one readily heap up akin to what have been said, whereby one may exceeding easily see that the saints are Spirit-clad. But in things so obvious it were superfluous or even burdensome to weary with long discourse. How the Spirit was not, we must accurately search; for I think we must deem that the blessed Evangelist speaketh true. |547
Therefore the very truth, let God the All-wise, know; for we ought not too busily to apply ourselves to things above us. But as far as we can see by pious reasonings, something of this sort comes to us. This rational living thing on the earth, I mean man, was formed from the beginning in incorruption. And the cause of his incorrup-tion and of his abidance in all virtue was evidently that the Spirit from God indwelt him; for He breathed upon his face the breath of life, as it is written. But he having from that ancient deceit turned aside unto sin, then by degrees in succession received much advance thereto, along with the remaining good things he suffers the loss of the Spirit and so at length became not only subject to corruption but also prone to all sin. But when the Framer of all designed (doing exceeding excellently) to gather up all things in Christ, and willed to recover again the nature of man to its pristine state, He promises along with the rest to give anew to it the Holy Ghost also, for no otherwise was it possible to get back to unshaken stability in good things. He defines therefore the time of the Descent of the Spirit upon us, and promises saying, In those days (those of the Saviour that is) I will pour out (to wit of My Spirit) upon all flesh. But since the time of this munificence brought the Only Begotten upon earth with Flesh, that is, made Man of a woman according to the Holy Scripture, God the Father began to give again the Spirit, and Christ first received the Spirit as First-fruits of the renewed nature. For John bare record saying, I saw the Spirit descending from Heaven and It abode upon Him.
But He received It, how? for we must needs investigate what is said. Was it then as not having? we say not so, God forbid. For the Spirit is the Son's Own, and not supplied from without, as the things from God come to us from without, but inexists in Him naturally even as in the Father, and through Him proceedeth to the saints, apportioned by the Father as beseems each. But He is said to have received, in that He became Man, and it beseemed man to receive. And He, Son of God the Father and |548 begotten of His Essence even before the Incarnation, yea rather before all ages, nothing shames when God the Father says to Him when He became Man, My Son art THOU, this day have I begotten Thee. For Him Who God before ages was begotten of Him, He says that He has this day begotten, that in Him He may receive us into sonship, for the whole human nature was in Christ, in that He was Man: so is He said to the Son who hath His Own Spirit, to give It, that we in Him may gain the Spirit. For this reason therefore does He take hold of the seed of Abraham, as it is written, and in all things was made like unto His brethren. The Only-Begotten therefore receives the Holy Ghost not for Himself (for His and in Him and through Him is the Spirit, as we before said) but, since He, having been made Man, had our whole nature in Himself, that He might uplift it all transfashioning it unto its olden state.
Besides what has been said, we must consider this too. For we shall see by going through wise reasonings, and confirmed thereto by words out of the Divine Scripture, that not for Himself did Christ receive the Spirit, but rather for us in Himself, for all good things flow through Him into us too. For since our forefather Adam being turned aside by deceit into disobedience and sin, did not preserve the grace of the Spirit, and thus in him the whole nature lost at last the God-given good, needs did God the "Word Who knows not turning, become Man, in order that by receiving as Man He might preserve the Good permanently to our nature. Of such mysteries will the Divine Psalmist himself too be our exponent: for thus saith he to the Son, Thou lovedst righteousness and hatedst wrong, therefore God, Thy God, anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows. For since (says he) Thou ever lovedst righteousness (for Thou art Righteous, O God, never able to be turned aside therefrom) and hatedst wrong always (for hatred of evil is innate in Thee of Nature as the Righteous-loving God): therefore hath God the Father anointed Thee, for Thou Who possessest unchangeable Righteousness as an Excellence of Thine own Nature, couldest never |549 be moved unto sin which Thou knewest not: and thus, Thou preservedst undoubtedly in Thyself (in that Thou wert made Man) to the human Nature, the Holy Anointing from God the Father, i. e., the Spirit. The Only-Begotten was made therefore Man as we, that in Him first the good things returning and the grace of the Spirit rooted might be preserved securely to our whole nature, the Only Begotten and Word of God the Father lending us the Stability of His Own Nature, because the nature of man had been condemned in Adam as powerless for stability and falling (and that most easily) into perversion. As then in the turning of the first the loss of good things passes through unto the whole nature: in the same way I deem in Him too Who knoweth not turning will the gain of the abidance of the Divine Gifts be preserved to our whole race. And if we seem to any not to think and speak altogether what is proper, let him come forward and tell us why the Saviour has been called by the Divine Scriptures the Second Adam. For in that first one, the human race proceeds from not being unto being, and having come forth, decayed, because it had broken the Divine Law: in the Second, Christ, it riseth up again unto a second beginning, re-formed unto newness of life and unto a return of incorruption, for if ought be in Christ, a new creature, as Paul saith. There has therefore been given to us the renewing Spirit, that is, the Holy, the occasion of everlasting life after that Christ was glorified, i. e., after the Resurrection, when having burst the bonds of death and appeared superior to all corruption, He lived again having our whole nature in Himself, in that He was Man and One of us.
And if you investigate the reason why not before the resurrection but after it did the pouring forth of the Spirit take place, you will hear in reply, Christ became then the firstfruits of the renewed nature, when making none account of the bands of death He lived again as we have just now said. How then should those be quickened before the Firstfruit who come after It? For as the plant will |550 not shoot up from the earth, if it be not surely sprung from its own root (for thence is the beginning to it of growth): so it were impossible that we having for our root unto incorruption our Lord Jesus Christ, should be seen springing up before our root. But He shewing that the time of the Descent of the Spirit upon us was now come, after the revival from the dead, He breathed on His disciples, saying, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. For then was the time of the renewal indeed at the doors, yea rather within the doors. And let the searcher after learning again see whether what we say on these things too be not true. For in the beginning, as said the Spirit-clad, Moses, to us, the Creator of all, taking dust of the ground and having formed man, breathed upon his face the breath of life. And what is the breath of life, save surely the Spirit of Christ Who saith, I am the Resurrection and the Life? But since He fled away from the human nature, the Spirit which is able to gather us and to form us unto the Divine Impress, the Saviour gives us this anew bringing us again unto that ancient Dignity and reforming us unto His own Image. For therefore does Paul too say to certain, Little children of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.
Let us consider again (for I will take up again the aim of my discourse) that in the holy Prophets there was a certain rich shining upon and torch-illumination from the Spirit, mighty to lead them to the apprehension of things to come and the knowledge of things hidden: but in those who believe on Christ, we are confident that not torch-illumination simply from the Spirit, but the Spirit Itself dwells and has His habitation. Whence rightly are we called temples too of God, though no one of the holy Prophets was ever called a Divine Temple. Since how shall we understand this, and what shall we say when we hear our Saviour Christ say, Verily verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist, notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of Heaven is greater than he? And what is the |551 kingdom of Heaven? The gift of the Holy Ghost according to that which is said, The kingdom of Heaven is within you: for the Spirit hath His habitation in us through faith. Seest thou then how He preferreth before every one born of a woman him that is in the kingdom of Heaven even if he be below the perfect? And let no one think that we make little of the glory of the virtue of those Saints or say that those even of least account are superior. For we say not so; for incomparable is the beauty of their conversation. But for clear understanding let us briefly interpret what has been said by our Saviour. Great in truth was the blessed Baptist and through all virtue most renowned, attaining at last to the very bounds of that righteousness which belongs to us, so that there is nought above it. Yet did he who was in this case beseech of Christ saying, I have need to be baptized of Thee and dost THOU come to Me? Seest thou how being perfect, as far as pertained to men and the born of women, he beseeches to be in a manner new-created and re-born through the Holy Ghost? seest thou how he yields the greater to those new born, by his saying that himself has need of this? for if he were in better case not baptized, what persuaded him to beseech to be baptized? But if he knew that he would be in better case, when baptism came, how does he not yield the palm to those already baptized? Greater therefore than John himself does Christ say that he is who is lesser in the kingdom of Heaven, i. e. the new baptized, who has not as yet attained excellence in work;----in this only that the blessed Baptist was yet born of a woman, but the other is begotten of God as it is written, and has become partaker of the Divine Nature, having indwelling in him the Holy Ghost and already called a temple of God.
But I will recur again to what was before us. The Spirit came to be in the Prophets for the need's sake of prophesying, He indwelleth now through Christ in believers, having begun in Him first when He was made Man. For as God He has unceasingly the Spirit Who is |552 Essentially of His Nature and His own. He is anointed for our sakes and said to receive the Spirit as Man, not for Himself bringing in the participation of the Divine good things, but for the nature of man as we have already-taught. When then the Divine Evangelist says to us, For the Spirit was not yet because that Jesus was not yet glorified, let us understand him to mean the full and complete habitation in men of the Holy Ghost.
40, 41 Of the people therefore some when they heard this saying said, Of a truth this is the Prophet. Others said, This is of a truth 9 the Christ.
Astonishment-stricken are they at His confidence as being God-befitting, and seeing that His words no longer suit the measures of man, they betake themselves to memory of the Law, as having already fore-declared of Christ, and saying that a Prophet should be raised up like to the all-wise Moses who should interpret to Israel the words from God. For so says God concerning Him to the holy Moses, I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren like unto thee, and will put My words in His mouth and He shall speak unto them all that I shall command Him. From the quality therefore of His words, and the superiority of His sayings, do they say that He is already shewn to be Him who was fore-heralded through the Law. For to whom will it belong to say, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink, and, He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water, save only to God by Nature? and this is the Christ. And even though the Jews thinking meanly of Him, call Him merely a Prophet, not knowing the excellence above all of Emmanuel, but meting Him like one of the rest, in this too again will they be caught applying themselves very much without understanding to the thoughts contained in the Law: for they deem that the Christ is other than the Prophet of the Law. And no marvel if the people |553 lack accuracy herein, where the God-opposing multitude of the haughty. Pharisees is itself found sick with an equal ignorance with that of the people. For in astonishment at the blessed Baptist it once said, Why baptizest thou then, if THOU be not the Christ nor Elias neither the Prophet? For whereas two were looked for as to come, I mean the Prophet of the Law, i. e., Christ, and Elias, they were enquiring about three, imagining that the Prophet was other than Jesus. Seasonably therefore may one say of them what is spoken by the Prophet Ezekiel, As the mother, so her daughter; thy mother's daughter art THOU; for the people is sick with a sickness kin to that of their rulers. But we must observe that they were already full-prepared to believe, and are persuaded by the Saviour's words to marvel at Him, yet not having the leading of the rulers, they are borne along a many-branching path of ideas, some calling Him and now believing Him to be the Christ, others the Prophet, for the word of a truth annexed, has an emphasis of reasoning now fully confirmed and bringeth in the idea of faith accepted,
42 Others said, Doth Christ come out of Galilee? said not the Scripture that of the seed of David and out of Bethlehem the village where David was Christ cometh?
No careless search do the Jews make about Christ, for they were found going through every idea and through varied ideas gathering the perception of the truth. For having first marvelled through His Words, and already taken the eminent confidence of His instructions as a guide to their conjecturing something great about Him, they search besides the Divine Scripture, thinking to find thence a most unerring conception of Him: for so is its nature. That He shall be therefore of the seed of the thrice-blessed David and shall be revealed in Bethlehem of Judaea, they believe, persuaded by the prophecies concerning this. For the Lord sware in truth unto David, saith somewhere the wise Melodist, and will not reject Him, Of |554 the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne. And the Prophet saith, And thou Bethlehem house of Ephrata, little art thou to be among the thousands of Judah, for out of thee shall He come forth unto Me to be Ruler of Israel, and His Goings forth from the beginning, from the days of eternity. But the unassisted mind of the Jews was astray and failed of Christ merely on account of Nazareth situate in Galilee, wherein was the common report that our Lord was brought up. For so says one of the holy Evangelists, And He came to Nazareth where He had been brought up. But they not knowing that He had been born in Bethlehem of Judaea of the Holy Virgin which was of the seed of David (for she was of the tribe of Judah by descent), from merely our Lord having been brought up at Nazareth fall away from the truth and miss of sound reasoning.
43 There was therefore a division among the people because of Him.
To no purpose do they wrangle and are split into diverse opinions, some supposing that He is the Prophet, others the Christ. And the cause of their division, that they know not Christ, nor understand the accuracy of the Holy Scriptures: for else would they believing that none other is Jesus than the Prophet of the Law, have departed from their unseasonable dispute.
44 And some of them would have taken Him, yet no man laid hands on Him.
They who had been sent by the chief priests and Pharisees to take the Lord, made the dissension of the multitude with one another a seasonable pretext for their daring deed. For they imagined that they would with less dispute suffer them to bear Him away, as no longer careful what should befall Him, but that as having been an occasion of fighting and disturbance, they would be altogether glad at His being insulted. Yet no man laid hands on Him, not from reverence to Him, nor yet putting the bridle of piety upon their anger, but checked by His Might alone (for to its own season did He give to endure His Passion for us). |555
And hardly is the device of the Jews appeased, restrained by the hindrance from above. For they might not attempt bloodshed before the time, but must await, ungodly though they be, the time of ungodliness.
45 The officers came therefore to the chief priests and Pharisees; and they said unto them, Why did ye not bring Him?
They who had been sent to hunt our Lord, availing to accomplish nought of what had been commanded them took themselves again to the rulers. And they are troubled exceedingly at the arrival of the officers, not seeing them bring Him Who was sought. And believing that what they suspected had already happened, they are smitten with no small fear. For since Christ was marvelled at for His Signs above nature and His Words above measure, they were wasted with the envy that was their foster-sister, and were again in no slight fear lest the people of the Jews deciding that it ought to follow Him, should get clear out of their hand. Supposing that this had happened (for things suspected are evermore ready to be believed) they eagerly enquire saying, Why did ye not bring Him? What was it that hindered you (say they) from bringing to its completion what was pleasing to the rulers? We are more ready to press forward to learn all, and sometimes not discerning what is sorrowful, in our eager desire even seize hold on the perception of things we deprecate.
46 The officers answered, Never man spake thus 10.
Seasonable in truth is it to say of our Saviour Christ, Who taketh the wise in their own craftiness. For behold, behold as it is written, He removed the many-tangled counsel, and shewed the whole nature of affairs turned contrariwise, on all sides exposing the pollution of the rulers and their unholiness of life as being feeble and perilous, who refused not to fight against God. For the chief Priests and Pharisees, fearing lest the people of the Jews should be persuaded by the Saviour's words, send out officers to take Him, thinking that Christ's being out of the way |556 would remove their care as to Him. But what they suspected, this they that had been sent by them returned actually suffering, and what it was like that they would shudder at hearing, this they learn even against their will, and hear unexpectedly from those who speak contrary to their mind, Never spake man so.
But since they say these things in excuse for not having brought the Lord, come let us expand what they said, every way considering the sense of what was spoken. For if we delight ourselves (say they) in the teaching of the holy Scriptures, if we boast that we have been instructed in the Divine Laws, if we marvel at wisdom as some unearthly good, why do we impiously drive away One so wise, and wrong in no small measure Him Whom least we ought, seeing that we rather owe Him special Love: yea we subject our own heads to the perils of the Law, thirsting to slay without cause an Innocent and Righteous One. With such a thought may we suppose that the officers' words were with reason replete. But I think that looking at Never spake man so. one may say somewhat keener. For they well-nigh say thus, Not reasonably do ye blame us who could not now bring you Him That was sought: for how could one compel even against His Will a Man Who in regard to His Words possesseth Divine Nature? for He spake not as man, nor were His Words those befitting man, but they belong unmistakeably to Him Who is God by Nature. For let any say, if any (they say) of the holy Prophets can be found to call himself a brook, or who dared say, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink? when did the mighty Moses himself say to us, He that believeth on me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of water of life: these things we heard Him say. He therefore is by Nature God Who without peril exalts Himself in words above man. But to attempt to hunt as though by necessity and compulsion Him Who is above the creature, how will one not say that it is most perilous? or how could He be taken by us against His Will, Who is as far above us as God above Man? The officers put forth therefore as an evident proof of the Lord |557 being by Nature God, the words Never spake man so. On all sides is the God-opposer smitten, and through what he thought to attain his desire, through the very same is he unwitting slain.
47 There answered them the Pharisees, Have YE too been deceived?
It seems likely that the officers were more strongly Jewish, and ever cleaving to the Pharisees and sharing their common mind, and ever soused with the words of their rulers, were persuaded to think the same with them, as being ever with them. But when they came, no ways bringing the Lord, but astonishment-stricken beyond their expectation, and late and only now marvelling at Him Whom they ought not to have hated at the beginning, and thinking that all the rest ought to be persuaded by them: they say with a kind of deep anguish, Have YE also been deceived? And understand how this saying is replete with a sort of despair of any hope as regards the people. For as though the rest of the multitude had already been deceived, so many as were not over-stable, they put forth their fear as to the officers. For the remaining multitude (says it) of the common people who are not versed in the sacred Scriptures, nor yet fortified by cleaving to us, let it be granted (if so be) to them to be joined to Him with inconsiderate impulses, and easily-caught to agree to what He hath said and done: but whence hath this error been admitted by you too? how have yourselves also been deceived? what was it drew you off from your love to us, albeit withered in equal unbelief with us? something like this does the Pharisees' word seem to tell us.
48, 49 Hath any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on Him? but this people who knoweth not the law are cursed.
They fall away to their wonted boastfulness, casting imputation of unlearning on those who marvelled at Jesus as a wonder-worker and as bringing in things God-befitting, and crown their own heads alone with skill in the law and |558 knowledge of the holy Scriptures. And because themselves consent not to those who rightly marvel at these things, they believe that they are full of virtue. And as though the Law bade them find fault with things worthy of marvel, and cast a perverse judgment on things that surpass wonder, they plume themselves not a little, demented and of too great lightness easily cast into all uninstructedness. And whence they the rather ought to acknowledge Jesus now present, thence are they taken wronging themselves and weighting their collar, as it is written, for professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. Albeit it had been far better to confess that they knew not the Law, than thinking and saying that they knew it well, and then dishonouring Him That was proclaimed thereby, to fall into keener doom and be pierced with woes past escape. For he which knew, (He says) his Lord's will and did it not, shall be beaten with many stripes, but he that knew not and did not, shall be beaten with few stripes. Therefore in confessing that they know the Law, themselves full well accuse their own unbelief, and laugh at the multitude as unlearned and therefore caught by our Saviour's miracles, then unable to dissuade them through the declarations of the Law, they boastfully insult, calling them uninstructed who were ready to understand. For this is ever the wont of more ignorant teachers who having nought to say of what they are asked, repel by anger the minuteness of enquirers. And they say that they who believe are cursed, while themselves would more rightly be persuaded to say this of their own selves. For it better befits the unbeliever to be accursed, seeing that the Law declares clearly of the Prophet our Saviour Christ, And it shall be whosoever will not hearken unto the words which that Prophet shall speak in My Name, that soul shall be destroyed from among his people.
50, 51 Nicodemus saith unto them, he who came to him aforetime 11, being one of them, Doth our law judge a man before it heareth him and know what he doeth?
One of the rulers is Nicodemus, and he is numbered |559 among those who had authority, yet not wholly unbelieving nor altogether vying with their folly, but already pricked, not indeed having his love to Christ yet free, yet to some degree feeling shame at the convictions of his conscience. For that he came to Him by night, and affirmed that he knew well that He was a teacher come from God and that no one could do such signs, except he had God with him, I think that all have learnt, the blessed Evangelist having clearly said it at the beginning. He therefore marvelling at Jesus along with the multitudes, is somewhat smitten at being styled along with them cursed. For consciousness 12 is quick at persuading not to be quiet in things contrary to one. As therefore aggrieved hereat, he returns upon them equal insult, not yet openly, but putting forth against them his indignation in words which have their strength out of the Law, and not in unveiled openness. For whereas the Law (he says) tells judges on each question before them, And thou shalt enquire diligently with exactness and clearness, whether it be so; ye judged recklessly those who had not been yet called to trial, and before hearing ought of them, ye bring against them so hasty a sentence. It is YE therefore (he says) who are more truly cursed, despising the Law. For it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the Law to do them. For in that he is indignant at the Pharisees for condemning the people for only marvelling at Jesus, it is clear that he agrees with those who do believe. For being still sick of an harmful shame, and not yet mingling boldness with his zeal, he permits the faith that is in him to be not seen uncovered, but casting about it dissimulation like a darksome cloak, he as yet conceals that he is on Christ's side; yet is he sick with a grievous sickness.
For we ought to believe fearlessly, glorying rather than ashamed, practising a transparent openness, and refusing slave-befitting dissimulation, for therefore did the wise |560 Paul declare that he that rightly divideth the word of truth ought to be a workman unashamed, and himself too shewing the virtue that shone forth in himself somewhere says, For I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.
Keen therefore (for I will resume again what I was saying) is Nicodemus' speech: for why did himself alone speak and withstand the words of the Pharisees, albeit their bloody confederacy had many others in it? But it is clear to every one, that since he was numbered among those who marvelled at Christ) he is shewing that they are accursed in their turn who lay a curse upon those whom they least ought.
52 They answered and said unto him, Art THOU too of Galilee? search and see that out of Galilee hath not arisen a prophet.
Being a Jew (it says) and home-born, why dost thou feign to have no knowledge of the Galileans, and art strangely co-ignorant of our matters with those who are absolutely ignorant? and being most conversant with the most sacred Scriptures, and versed in tho appointments of the Law, whence knewest thou not (he says) that it is not possible to look for a Prophet out of the Galilaeans? This then is the aim of the Pharisees' words. But we must notice this again: they spurn the multitudes as knowing nought of the things they ought to have had accurate knowledge of, and finding fault with their extreme want of learning, and loathing them and haughtily styling them uninstructed, themselves are caught sick of yet worse, and no wise differing from their inexperience. For those on receiving the miracles done through Christ, and gathering little by little faith in Him, at one time said, Christ when He cometh, will He do more miracles than these which this man. hath done? at another time drawn off from so right an opinion, they missed only from Nazareth being situate in Galilee wherein the Divine Scripture proclaims that the Lord was brought up, and they therefore said, Doth Christ come out of Galilee? said not the Scripture that of the seed of David and out of Bethlehem the village where David was, Christ |561 cometh? But these loudly laughing at the ill-instructedness of the people and calling them cursed therefore, were in no superiority to their ignorance. For see they too say, Search and see that out of Galilee hath not arisen a prophet.
But one may with reason moved against them say, O ye who yield to none the palm in ill-instructedness, ye who have missed and are hard, where is the boast of your pride, a footprint of wisdom in you? where the understanding that belongs to those learned in the Law? for we ought not to doubt of our Saviour Christ, but to believe, nothing hesitating, God the Father saying of Him to holy Moses, A Prophet will I raise them up from among their brethren like unto thee. From among their brethren, how must it not surely mean of the Jews and of Israel? Verily ye shall not need accusers from without, yourselves of yourselves shall be convicted of being without understanding. For whereas our Saviour Christ teacheth and openly saith, I have come down from heaven not to do Mine own will but the will of Him That sent Me, ye were then thinking bitter things, and full besides of no slight wrath, ye said again, Is not this Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother WE know? how saith He now, I have come down from heaven? Since then thou confessedst in plain words that thou knewest exactly His father and mother, thou knewest surely that He is of the root of Israel: how then saidst thou that He was a Galilaean Who was born of Jews? how an alien Who was of Israel? for not surely the having been brought up in Galilee, and having spent some time there, removes him that is of Israel from his race, since nought would hinder him that is sprung of Galilaeans from being a Jew by race if he should come into the land of the Jews. Vain therefore is it for the Pharisees wise in their own conceits to say of Christ our Saviour, that out of Galilee hath not arisen a Prophet. For they should rather have enquired how it was that He Who was of Jewish parents came to be a Galilaean, and so at length to consider His bringing up at Nazareth, and not on this account stray away from believing.
But we must observe again that no wise able to find fault |562 with His miracles, albeit whetted to the uttermost hostility, they gainsay from merely His country, since He was (according to their surmise) from Galilee. Their suspicion thence being therefore loosed, not doubtful at length would have been their faith, if they had been wise 13.
viii. 12 Again therefore spake Jesus unto them, saying, I am the Light of the world.
As we said that Jesus had made His Discourse in accordance with what was written of the feast, when at its last day He was standing crying, If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink, because the oracle of Moses had made mention of the brook: so now too does He make His explanation most seasonable, and due to the nature of things. For since He saw that the teachers were partners in folly with the multitudes and that the laughers were sick of the like with them they laughed at, drenched (so to speak) all of them in one night of unlearning and seeking to get hold of His Mystery yet finding nought at all, He brings forward the reason of tho want of understanding that is in them, crying, I am the Light of the world. Ye (He says) going through the whole holy Scripture and thinking to test the things spoken of Me through the Prophets, are far astray of the way of Life. And no marvel: for He is not in you Who revealeth mysteries and illumineth the whole world, and like a sun shineth into the hearts of them that receive Him. And needs must he who has not within him the Divine and spiritual Light surely walk in darkness and stumble on many absurdities therefrom.
But that the Only-Begotten is by Nature Light, as beaming forth from God the Father Who is by Nature Light, we have shewn at great length in the first book, on the words, He was the Very Light.
But we must note again that He says that He is the Light not specially or solely of them of Israel, but of all |563 the world. And herein He tells a thing most true: for He says that He it is Who infused into all the nature the light of understanding, and like some deposit of seed sowed the understanding befitting man in every one who is called into being, according to what is said of Him, He was the Very Light Which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. But I think, that there is something keen deep buried in the words. For if what He had said were not replete with something of this kind, He would have merely said, I am the Light. But since He hath added, Of the world, I think that now too He wills something of this sort to be hinted. God was known in Judaea alone, in Israel alone was His Name great; and all the rest of the earth a deep darkness filled, not one of those that were in the world possessing the Divine and heavenly Light, save only Israel.
But as then while all the nations in this world were together banished from the knowledge of God, and lay as it were in some rank of their own, the Lord's portion was His people, Israel the cord of His inheritance: so again when the spiritual sun was transferred unto the whole world, and the light taken away from them of Israel and removed unto the Gentiles, Israel was found to be external to all: for while they waited for light darkness came to them, as it is written, awaiting brightness, they walked in gloom. Not in vain then saith the Saviour when communing with the Pharisees, I am the Light of the world, for He threatens well that He will remove from Israel and will transfer the grace unto the whole world, and will spread forth the ray of Divine knowledge at last upon others.
But we must observe that although by His hearers He was seen as Man and with flesh, He does not say, In Me is the Light, but, I am the Light, that none divide Christ after the Economy of the Incarnation into a pair of sons: for One Lord Jesus Christ, as Paul saith, both before Flesh and with Flesh, and One and Alone in Verity Son is the Word of God the Father, even when He was made Man, not counted apart from the Temple that was taken of a woman: for His Own is the Body, and to wholly sever after the Incarnation, |564 as regards Sonship, is not free from blasphemy. But we must know that though we say that the Word of God was made Flesh, we do not say that He was clad in flesh alone, but in the word flesh we signify the whole man.
He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
He is again persuading them on all sides to aim at hunting after what is profitable, and to desire rather to be led by His appointments, than to choose to follow their own unlearning and bereave themselves of everlasting life. He shews how great shall be the profit to those who are obedient to Him, seeing He is by Nature Good and willeth all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. But since He knew as God that they would gainsay, He fashions His speech after an elder image of things and from what had befallen their ancestors He declares plainly that the desire to follow Him will be to their great profit. It was written then of them of Israel, that in the daytime also He led them with a cloud and all the night with a light of fire. For when they were crossing the wide desert, hasting unto the Land of promise, a cloud was suspended over them like a roof in the day driving off the sun's flame, by Divine Counsel that is: by night a pillar of fire contending with the darkness and marking out to the travellers their un-erring road did lead them. For just as they who at that time followed the guiding and conducting fire, escaped straying, and were borne straight forward along their right and holy ground, recking nought of night or darkness: so he that followeth Me, i. e., who goeth in the track of My teachings, shall in no wise be in the dark, but shall gain the light of life, that is, the revelation of My mysteries able to lead him by the hand unto everlasting life. The Lord being a skillful workman in His speech, in no wise provokes the Pharisees, who rage and rave not a little, by telling them more openly that they shall both abide in the dark and shall die in their unbelief: but in other guise does He tell them this, transferring unto the better the force of His speech. |565 For whereby He here promises that he who has chosen to follow Him shall have the light of life, by this same does He shew covertly, that by refusing to follow they shall have dearth of that light which availeth to recover them unto life. For is it not clear to all and unhesitatingly to be received, that to those who flee what cheers, the reverse: must needs befall? True then was the word of our Saviour and undoubted that which was contrived through His skill.
13 The Pharisees therefore said, Thou bearest record of Thyself, Thy record is not true.
Dull and slow is the Pharisee, and most hardly led unto the power of seeing the Godhead of the Lord: he errs again by reason of the flesh, and imagines nought beyond what he sees. For while seeing that He uses utterances beyond man and hearing words most God-befitting, he yet conceives of bare man, not looking to the illustriousness of the Godhead nor opening the eye of his understanding to look at Emmanuel. For to whom will it belong to say, I am the light of the world, save to One and Alone God That is by Nature? who of the holy Prophets dared to say such a word? what angel ever burst forth such a word? let them traverse the whole God-inspired Scripture and search into the sacred and Divine Word, and shew us this. But they making no account of what necessarily follows, deem that they ought to contradict, and advance hotly to what alone they know accurately, accusal out of love of fault-finding, For they depreciate Him as not being the Light of the world, accusing the things spoken by Him, affirming that not true is His record. For they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge, and suppose that they can overturn and that by chicanery His record, attempting to invalidate it from just merely our own customary ways, not by the commands of the Law.
For where does the Law (let them tell us) say that a man's testimony of himself is invalid? For wearisome I suppose and unendurable at times is a person's witnessing excellences to himself: and verily the most wise compiler |566 of Proverbs saith, Let thy neighbour praise thee and not thine own mouth, a stranger and not thine own lips. Yet not altogether false is that which is said by any of himself. For let any of the Pharisees come forward, and let him tell us what we shall do when the blessed Samuel testifies most excellent things to his own self. For he is somewhere found to be making his defence to those of Israel and saying, The Lord is witness against you and His anointed is witness this day that ye have not found ought in my hands. But if the Law forbad any one to witness to himself, how (tell me) came Samuel to set it at nought, albeit the Divine Scripture saith of him, Holy 14 was Moses and Aaron among His priests, and Samuel among them that call upon His name, they called upon the Lord and He answered them, in the pillar of the cloud did He speak unto them, they kept His testimonies and the ordinances that He gave them. Seest thou how he was conjoined with Moses as having virtue commensurate with him, and is witnessed to by the Spirit as an accurate keeper of the Law? How then did he trangress the Law by witnessing to himself, will one say? But he did not trangress it; for he is witnessed to as keeping it, and he hath witnessed to himself. The Law then forbids to none to witness to himself. And moreover what shall we say, when we see the blessed David saying, O Lord my God, if I did this, if I recompensed those that recompensed me evil? yea moreover the blessed Jeremy saith, O Lord God of hosts, I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, but was circumspect because of Thy Hand: and the most wise Paul again, though taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, as himself too testified, openly cries out, For I am conscious of nought of myself.
Let the Pharisee therefore say again of each of these, Thou bearest record of thyself, thy record is not true, even though to those who refuse not to chide the very Lord of all, |567 the behaving most ill to the rest is a matter of course. But this we say, resuming again what we were saying, that the contradiction of the Pharisees is no necessary one taken out of the ordinances of the Law, but made only out of what prevails in common custom, and from the habit not seeming to be one befitting good people. And their contradiction out of the Law is rather railing, to steal away those who are already marvelling at Him and are persuaded that they ought to believe. For they revile Him as not true, and damaging the credit of what He just now said, the wretched ones draw forth the destruction of blasphemy upon their own heads.
14 Jesus answered and said unto them, Though I hear record of Myself, My record is true, because I know whence I came and whither I go.
On Christ saying that He is what He is by Nature and truly (for He openly declared, I am the Light of the world) the multitude of the Pharisees unrecking of danger deemed that He spake falsely. For in their exceeding folly they knew not that when some set forth their own nature and tell what is essentially inherent in them, we shall not, if we think aright, suppose that they do so out of boasting, nor shall we say that they are bent on hunting vain-glory, but rather that they declare what they really are. As for example we say that when an angel pointing out his own nature says, I am an angel; when a man shewing what he is says, I am a man: yea, if one should clothe with voice the sun, and it teaching the property of its nature should say, I hasting around the circuit of the heaven, let forth bright light to those on the earth:----one would not reasonably suppose, that it were witnessing to itself things not its, but what it really was by nature. In the same way (I deem) as to our Saviour Christ too, even though He says that He is the Light, He will say the truth, and will be found boasting not less than they in things external to Him.
The many therefore living in ill-instructedness, not understanding Emmanuel, suppose that He is vain-glorious |568 and attack Him as though one of us, and have not shuddered to say, Thy record is not true, to Him Who cannot lie, for guile was not found in His Mouth, as it is written. But it behoved Him to lead by the hand them who were astray, having fallen away exceedingly from the truth, and gone away from right reasoning, and in all forbearance to tell them that they had missed of what was becoming, unholily ascribing the love of even lying to Him Who is from above and begotten of God the Father. For true (He says) is My record, even though I hear record of Myself. For in men is sometimes seen the desire from self-love of witnessing things most excellent to themselves, even though they have them not (for prone to ill is their nature); but to Me (He says) belongs not the power of being sick of the same ills as those on the earth. For I know whence I am, Light of Light and Very God of Very God the Father, having the Nature that is beyond the reach of infirmity. For even though (He says) I became Man because of My Love for men, yet not on this account shall I be deemed bereft of God-befitting Dignity, but I remain what I am by Nature, God. A clear proof of this, is My knowing whither I go: for I shall ascend unto the heavens to the Father of Whom I am. This I suppose one would say pertained not to a man as we are, but to Him Who is by Nature God even though He became Man. Hence the words I know whence I am, indicates that the Son is by Nature of the Father, and the whither I go, a demonstration of God-befitting Authority (for He will ascend as God, above the heavens, as Paul saith); yet hath it some fit threat, even if not altogether clear, against the impiety of the Jews. For that He shall full soon depart altogether from their race, does He here evidently say; and leaving them in dearth of the Divine Light, will prepare them for being in ignorance and deep darkness, as He shews them elsewhere more clearly: for He says, While ye have the Light, walk in the light lest darkness come upon you. |569
15 YE judge after the flesh, I judge no man.
We shall again find the Lord of all using gentleness most worthy of love; for not with equal wrath does He repay those who blaspheme Him, albeit knowing that they ought to participate in bitter punishment: but imitating the more gentle of physicians, He will (I deem) in this too be rightly marvelled at. For they often make no account of the slights of the sick, but forbearing most patiently make their skill helpful to them, curing what gives them pain, and railed at at times, they explaining what is for the good of health persuade them to be diligent in what is for their good and make known the cause of their sickness. And the Lord Jesus Christ both bears with those who blaspheme Him and reviled He does them good, He binds up the wounds of them who insult Him: yea and most clearly counts up to them the causes of their unbelief in Him, whence their sickness befell them. For YE (He says) judge after the flesh, i. e., ye err, and with great reason, since ye look to this flesh alone, albeit ye ought far rather to give heed to the magnificence of the deeds: believing that I am such an one as you because I am clothed in your flesh, ye have been greatly deceived, and not contemplating the deep mystery of the Economy with Flesh, ye put forth a most ill-advised judgment against Me, saying that the Truth lies. But I shall put off judging you until another time, for God sent not His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved.
I think then that the question before us has been solved not amiss: but one may going through other thoughts also make the sense clear as far as we are able. YE (He says) judge after the flesh, I judge no man. Having nought at all (He says) to find fault with and not able to reasonably blame My Wonder-workings, ye depreciate them only on account of the flesh, and because I am seen a Man as you, ye impiously class Me as nothing. But I (He says) do not for this condemn you; for not because ye are men by nature, shall I therefore esteem you as nothing nor for this shall ye render account to the Judge. I find not fault with |570 the nature, I condemn not Mine Own creation, I say not that there is any transgression in man from his being man. Yet ye by reason of the flesh esteem Me as nought, and for this did ye condemn Me: but I have not so reckoned of you, but knowing that a great and honourable thing is man even though he be made of earth, albeit Very God and in the Form of the Father Who begat Me, I humbled Myself taking servant's form and made Man: in respect of which alone am I now condemned by you, albeit Myself condemning no man for this. And if I judge My judgment is just and true because I am not alone but I and the Father that sent Me.
"Doth then," will haply one say of those who think contrary to the doctrines of the Church, "the Son know how to judge aright, only for this reason, that the Father is with Him when He does so? This being so (and that in truth) what yet hinders from saying that the Son is in a way directed unto uprightness through the Will of the Father, not possessing this in perfectness, nor able of Himself to act irreproachably?"
What then shall WE too respond to their words? Impious, sirs, is your idea and most befitting Jewish folly alone, for not as though not possessing the power of judging rightly of Himself, does the Son so speak; for the Psalmist will testify to Him saying in the Spirit, God is a Righteous Judge. And that none other save He is Judge, Himself will be our witness, saying in the Gospels, For neither doth the Father judge any man, but hath given all judgment unto the Son. Hath then God the Father given the judgment to one who knoweth not to judge rightly? But any one (I suppose) would attribute to the uttermost folly so to deem of the Righteousness of the Father, i. e. the Son. For the Father knoweth His own Offspring and gave Him judgment, and by giving it, clearly testifies His Power to judge aright. It is therefore most manifest, that not as being impotent to judge justly does He say that the Father co-judges with Him, but the words are replete with some thoughts akin to those above and in sequence. |571
What then He wishes to make known, we will clearly say. YE (He says) O leaders and teachers of the Jews, made an evil and most unjust judgment against Me: for by reason of only the flesh, ye deem ye ought to esteem Me as nothing, although I am by Nature God. But I when I begin to judge of you, shall not put forth such a judgment against you, for not because ye are men by nature, shall I therefore deem it fit to condemn you: but having the Father in all things Co-willer and Co-judge, I condemn you justly. And why? Ye did not receive Him Who cometh from Heaven, ye have not ceased to insult Him That was sent to you from the Father, ye depreciated Me Who came for the salvation of all, for merely the flesh's sake, spurning far the Law which was ever dear to you. For where (tell me) doth Moses bid you condemn any because he was a man by nature? YE therefore judge and reckon unjustly: for ye have not the Law as your Co-willer herein, but by yourselves are bold to every daring deed, having not the inspiration of the Divine will: but I not so, for having in Myself the Father as My Assessor and Co-approver in all things that concern you, I judge most justly in giving up to desolation your whole country, and burying it in the misfortunes of war, yea in expelling from the very kingdom of Heaven those who have so raged against Him who willeth to save them, and who for this cause came in man's form.
17, 18 And in your Law it is written that the testimony of two men is true: I am one that bear witness of Myself and the Father too That sent Me beareth witness of Me.
Having said that God the Father will co-judge and co-condemn those who blaspheme against Him, He taketh the pair of Persons unto something else that is profitable. For I (He says) will not refuse to tell you what I am by Nature. For I am the Light of the world. And I would not seem to any to be fond of boasting: for not in external endowments but in those that accrue to Me Essentially do I glory. But if in saying this, I seem to you not competent |572 to receive from you approval for truth, because I am alone and have witnessed to Myself, I will take to Me God the Father co-working and co-witnessing to My Endowments. For He co-works with Me (He says) as ye see, and co-operates. For as far as regards human nature, I should not do any thing at all, if I possessed not the being God by Nature: as far as regards My being of the Father, and having in Myself the Father, I confess that I can accomplish all things, and am witnessed to by the Nature of Him who begat Me: for as having Him in Myself by means of Sameness of Nature, I come to the achieving of all things unhindered. For our Lord Jesus Christ hath of the Divine Nature all-creative Power as God even though He became Man, and He is witnessed to by the Father, having Him Co-worker in all things according as is said by Him, Of Myself I do nothing, but the Father that dwelleth in Me, Himself doeth the works. But we deem that the Father co-works with the Son, not as introducing some other power of His own for the achievement of the things done, to one who was wanting in power (for if we thus conceive, we shall concede that both the Power of the Father and that of the Son are surely imperfect, if ought of miracle be wrought by Them Both, as though One were not sufficient for the need) but conceiving of, and taking the words in more pious wise, we shall say that since there is in Father and Son One Godhead, and the un-differing Authority and Power of the Same Nature, the works of the Son will surely be those of God the Father, those again of God the Father, the works of the Son.
But He saith, I do nothing of Myself, not as though a servant or under-worker, or in position of a learner, and waiting to be commanded by the Father, or instructed in order to accomplish wonders: but rather signifying with all precision, that having sprung of the Essence of God the Father, and like Light produced Ineffably and without beginning from His Innermost Bosom and Eternally co-with Him, and conceived of and being the Image and Impress of His Person, He hath the same Mind so to speak with Him, |573 and the same energy in everything. For that He might clearly teach that He is Co-willer in all things with Him Who begat Him, He says, I do nothing of Myself. Just as though He said, I am not turned out to any private will of My own, which is not in God the Father. Whatever the Nature of the Father wills and judges, this same is surely in Me too, since I beamed forth of His Bosom, and am the Very Fruit of His Essence.
Hard then are these things to explain, and that which is unattainable by the very understanding may not without difficulty be unfolded through the tongue: nevertheless bringing such things as far as in us lays to a pious view, we shall gain to ourselves heavenly reward, and thus preserve our mind unwounded and unmoved by turnings aside unto ought else.
But we must note that the Saviour adding and crying to the Jews, And in your Law is it written, persuades the Pharisees as of necessity to admit the pair of Persons. For I (He says) bear witness of Myself, and the Father will be with Me herein: will therefore the pair of witnesses confirmed by the book of the Law, be accepted by you, or will ye again, looking only to your envy at Me, not keep even the Law that ye admire?
19 They said therefore unto Him, Where is Thy Father?
In this too most especially may one, I deem, and with good reason cry out against the stolidity of the Jews, uttering that word of the Prophet, Behold O foolish people and without heart. For after much discourse and often with them from our Saviour Christ, Who over and over makes mention of God the Father in Heaven, the wretched ones sink down into so great folly as to dare to say, Where is Thy Father? For they think nought at all of Him Who is His God and Father in the Heavens, but look round at and seek for Joseph, believing him to be Christ's father and no otherwise. Thou seest then how they have been with reason called a people verily foolish and heartless: for able not so much as to raise the eye of their understanding above |574 things of earth, they shew that true it is which was said of them, Let their eyes be darkened that they see not, and bow Thou down their back alway. For of irrational creatures is the back bowed, for they have this form from nature, and there is nothing of uprightness in them. And the mind of the Jews has become in some way like the beasts and has declined ever downwards, seeing nothing of heavenly things. For shall we not by the very fact itself, instructed aright in this matter, think and judge truly concerning them? for if they had at all thought of God the Father in Heaven, how would they have sought in place the Unembodied? how (tell me) would they, saying most unadvisedly of God Who filleth all things, Where is He, not fight with the whole Divine Scripture, albeit the Divine-speaking Psalmist, going through (as he was able) his words about God, and attributing to Him the power of filling all things, says, Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit, and from Thy Presence whither shall I flee? if I ascend up into heaven, THOU art there, if I go down to hell, behold Thou, if I take my wings at morning and depart unto the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall Thy Hand lead me and Thy Right Hand shall hold me. Yea and God Himself Who is over all, shewing clearly that He possesseth not nature circumscribed by space, saith to those so unholy Jews, Do not I fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord? what house will ye build Me, or what the place of My rest? Heaven is My Throne and earth My footstool. One may therefore see the Jews in all things without understanding, when they say to the Saviour Christ, Where is Thy Father? except they say this of His reputed father after the flesh, in this too doting.
But it is likely that the words of the Jews had some other deep meaning. For since they thought that the holy Virgin had committed adultery before marriage, therefore they rail most bitterly against Christ as not even knowing from whom He is, saying, Where is Thy father? doting. |575
Jesus answered, Neither Me do ye know nor My Father, if ye had known Me, ye should have known My Father also.
True is the word and in no respect can it be accused of lying. For they who indeed suppose Christ to be of Joseph, or of fornication, and who know not that the Word beamed forth of God the Father, how will they not with reason hear, Neither Me do ye know nor My Father? For if they had known the Word that beamed forth of God the Father, and was for our sakes made in the flesh, according to the Divine Scripture, they would have known Him too Who begat Him. For most accurate knowledge of the Father is through the Son implanted in the understanding of the more zealous after learning, as He too affirmed, saying unto God the Father, I manifested Thy Name to the men, and again, Thy knowledge was made marvellous by Me. For since we know the Son, we know by Him Him Who begat Him. For through Both is brought in the perception of the Other: and when the Father is mentioned, the memory of His Offspring surely comes in with it, and again with the signification of the Son, the Name of Him Who begat Him comes in too. For therefore is the Son a Door (so to speak) and way leading unto the knowledge of the Father. And so does He say, No man cometh unto the Father but by Me. For we must needs first learn (as is possible) what the Son is by Nature; and so, as from Image and most accurate Impress, understand well the Archetype. For in the Son is the Father seen, and in the Nature of His own Offspring as in a mirror, is He Perfectly seen. But if this be true, as it is true, let the God-opposing Arian blush. For needs must the Impress of His Essence be in every way and manner like to Him, lest ought else than what the Father is, be supposed to be perfectly beaming forth in the Son. And if He love to be known in the Son and to shine forth in Him, He knows (I suppose) of a surety that He is Consubstantial too, and in nothing whatever inferior to His Own inherent Glory: for He would not have chosen to be believed to be in lesser case than He is by Nature. And since He loves |576 and has willed this, how must we not needs now confess that the Son is every way like the Father, in order that through Him we may know Him also That begat Him, as we have already said, ascending aright from the Image to the Archetype, and be able to have an unblameable conception of the Holy Trinity?
Thus then he who knoweth the Son, knoweth the Father too. But consider how the Lord after having said the truth to the Jews, interweaves some other device also in His speech; for having said clearly, Neither Me do ye know nor My Father, He draws gently off the mind of the Jews, that they should not think only humanly of Him, nor suppose that He is in truth the son of Joseph who was taken economically but should rather seek and enquire Who is the Word in Flesh, Who His Father by Nature. |577
CHAPTER III. That no work of Jewish might was the Suffering on the Cross, nor did Christ die from the tyranny of any, but Himself of His own will suffered this for us that He might save all.
20 These words spake He in the Treasury as He taught in the Temple, and no man laid hands on Him, because His hour had not yet come.
The most wise Evangelist profitably makes plea in behalf of the saving Passion and shews that the Death on the Cross was not of human necessity, nor did Jesus suffer death against His will from the tyranny of another, but rather did offer Himself for us a spotless Sacrifice to God the Father by reason of His inherent love for us. For since He must needs suffer (since thus would the imported corruption and sin and death be overturned), He hath given Himself a Ransom for the life of all. What then will be found in the words before us making for the saving Passion, and what of profit the aim of the thoughts therein is replete with, do thou again hear. For Christ (he says) was speaking these words not outside of Jerusalem, nor in any city of those round about, nor yet in a more insignificant town or village of Judaea, for He was standing by the very treasury, i. e., in the midst of the very courts in the Temple itself was He making His Discourse on these matters. But the Pharisees, albeit deeply cut to the heart and grieved exceedingly at what was said by Him, laid not hands upon Him, when it was in their power most easily to do this; for He was, as I said, within the meshes. What then was it that persuaded to be quiet even against their will, those who are raging like fierce beasts? what was it that checked their anger? how was the bloodthirsty heart of the Pharisees charmed? Not yet, he says, had His hour come, that is, not yet was the time of His Death at hand, |578 by no other hand marked out for the Saviour Christ, nor yet cast upon Him by fate (as the lying fables of the Greeks say) or by the hour (after their babbling speech), but rather marked out by Him according to the good pleasure of God the Father. For being God by Nature and Very and unknowing to miss of what was fit, full well did He know how long time it was right to live in Flesh with those on the earth, and when again to depart to heaven, having destroyed death by the death of His own Flesh. For that not by the tyranny of any, was death brought upon Him That is by Nature Life, is I suppose clear to all who are wise: for how should the bonds of death prevail over the Life by Nature? and the Lord Himself somewhere testifieth saying, No man taketh My life from Me, I lay it down of Myself: I have power to lay it down, and again I have power to take it. For if the time in which He must surely suffer death, were laid down as of necessity by some other, how should we find it in His own power to lay down that Life? for it would have been taken even against His will, if His Passion were not in His own power. But if He lays it down of Himself, we shall see the Passion to be not in the Power of any other but in His own Will. For then did He permit to Jewish folly to go through to its own end, when He saw that the fit time for His Death had now come.
Let not then the haughty Pharisee brag of his own daring deeds, nor puffed up with exceeding ill-counsel say, If Christ were by Nature God, how came He not to be without my meshes? how escaped He not my hands? for he will hear in reply from those who love Him, Not thy meshes, O sir, prevailed, for it were nought hard for God supreme over all to crush thy snare, and pass forth of the net of thy impiety: but the Suffering was the salvation of the world, the Passion the undoing of death, the Mighty Cross the overthrow of sin and corruption. This He knowing as God, submitted Himself to thy unholy daring. For what, tell me, was the hindrance to thy enfolding Him then especially when thou wert gnashing thy teeth at Him, as He was teaching by the very treasury? and if it was the work of thy might to |579 overcome Christ, why didst thou not make Him a prisoner then? But thou stoodst in anger unmitigated to bloodshed all revealed, yet doing nought of the things thou wouldest. For not yet did He will to suffer, Who was persuaded by thy mad folly, as by bits which may not be snapped. These things may one with reason opposing to the vain talk of the Jews, shame them even against their will, into not bragging of what they least ought. And one may well admire the holy Evangelist reasonably shewing, and clearly saying that the Saviour was teaching these things in the temple by the Treasury and no man laid hands on Him: for he was witnessing so to speak to Christ's own words, which He said to the Jews when they were at hand to take Him, As against' a robber are ye come out with swords and staves for to take Me? daily did I sit teaching in the temple and ye laid no hold on Me. And one would not (I suppose) say, if one thought rationally, that He was blaming the Jews, that they had not brought on His Passion untimely, nor yet that letting slip the right time, they were advancing too slowly to shed blood: but rather He is convicting them, as unwisely supposing that they should have prevailed even against His will, and could have seized by force Him who may not suffer except He will. For I was sitting teaching in the temple and ye laid no hold on Me, for then I willed it not, nor would ye now avail to do this, except I willingly subjected Myself to your hands. Hence one may on all sides see, that no work was it of Jewish might to put our Lord to death; but to their unholy daring may one attribute the attempt, to our Saviour Christ the will to suffer for all, that He might free all and, having bought them with His own Blood, present them to God the Father. For God, as Paul saith, was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, and in all forgiveness restoring that which had fallen away from friendship with Him, unto what it was in the beginning.
21 He said therefore unto them again, I go My way, and ye shall seek Me and shall die in your sins.
That we must needs take hold of the present time for whatever one may receive profit from to oneself, does Christ |580 herein well declare unto us. For to be too late in what is good and to take after-counsel for what is profitable, clearly brings no gain but ministers wailing befitting the neglect. Our Lord therefore being good and gracious, as it is written, both bears with those who dishonour Him and aids those who insult Him and is found as God superior to all the littleness of man. Yet does He for their good threaten to depart from them, and says plainly I go My way, that He may implant in them a more resolved mind, and that they considering that they ought not to leave their Redeemer when present frustrate of His work, He may whet them to pass on to the faith and may make them now at length more ready unto obedience. And having cried out, I go My way, and threatened departure from the whole nation, He subjoined economically the damage therefrom ensuing unto them. For (He says) Ye shall die in your sins; and we shall see the nature of the thing bringing in the truth of what is said. For they who did not at all receive Him Who came to us from Heaven that He might justify all through faith, how shall they not beyond all contradiction die in their sins, and not receiving Him Who can cleanse them, how will they not have lasting defilement from their impiety? For to die unredeemed, yet laden with the weight of sin, to whom is it any doubt where this will conduct the soul of man? For deep Hades will, I deem, receive such an one, and he will continue in great darkness, yea he will inhabit fire and flames, with reason numbered among those of whom it has been said by Prophet's voice, Their worm shall not die neither shall their fire be quenched, and they shall be for a sight to all flesh. Whereof that they may escape the trial, Christ kept manifoldly calling them to a speedy turning away from their wonted unbelief, saying not only that He should leave them and go away, but also of necessity putting before them how great misfortune they will thence undergo. For ye shall die (He says) in your sins. But since He put in between, And ye shall seek Me, and hitherto we do not find the Jews seeking Him, we shall reasonably go to some other |581 meaning: for He must needs be True. For even though they now in the body and yet in full enjoyment of the pleasures of the flesh, for their exceeding senselessness seek not their Redeemer, yet when they wretched fall into hell and have their abode in the place of punishments, when they are in the ill itself, then, then will they seek even against their will. For there (He says) is weeping and gnashing of teeth, each (it is likely) of those there wailing his carelessness in what was good, and well-nigh saying what is in the Book of Proverbs, I have not obeyed the voice of him that instructed me and taught me. Therefore as Paul saith, Let us therefore fear lest, a promise being left us of entering into His Rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For we must run, that we may obtain, and not by our disbelief insult Him Who draws us out of bitter bondage, but submit ourselves and with upturned hands lay hold on the grace.
and whither I go, YE cannot come.
Not only does He say that they shall die in their sins, but declares clearly that, ascending not to the mansions above, they will remain outside of the good things of the kingdom: for they who received not Him Who came from above, how could they also follow Him ascending up? Double therefore is the punishment to them who believe not, and not in any single thing their loss. For just as they who have fallen into bodily loss of health must needs suffer and endure the trials of the suffering and besides be deprived of the pleasures of health; so and not otherwise do they who have departed into Hades, and there undergo punishment proportionate to the sins, both endure the state of punishment and lose the enjoyment of the hope of the saints. Most excellently then does our Lord Jesus Christ say not only that they shall die in their sins, but also that they shall not mount up to the mansions above: for binding them as by a twofold cord, does He haste to draw them away from their inherent ill-counsel. From all sides saving that which was lost and binding up the broken and raising up that which |582 was broken down (for these are the ways of a Good Shepherd and One Who readily gives His Life for the salvation of the sheep) does He tell His own disciples, I will go and prepare a place for you, and will come again and receive you with Myself, shewing that the very heaven will be accessible to the saints and teaching that the mansions above have been prepared for them that love Him, but to those who have chosen to disbelieve Him, rightly and needs does He say, Whither I go YE cannot come. For who at all will follow the All-holy Christ, if he love not the cleansing that is through faith? or how shall he that is yet defiled and that has not cleared off the filth from his passions be with our Lord Who loves us? What communion hath light with darkness, as Paul saith? For I deem that they ought to be holy who would say to the All-Pure God, My soul cleaveth after Thee.
I think that this meaning has now too not amiss been put on the words before us, but if one must go about and view it differently, and say yet something else besides, we will not shrink from doing this too. Whither I go, YE cannot come. Being Very God, I am absent from no one, I fill all things, and being with all, I dwell specially in Heaven, gladly having abode with holy spirits. But since I am the human-loving Framer of all things, I deemed intolerable the loss of My creation, I beheld man going away to utter destruction, I viewed him falling from sin unto death, I must needs reach forth an helping Hand to him as he lay, I must needs in every way aid him overcome and falling. How then was it meet to save that which was lost? it needed that the Physician should be with those in peril, it needed that Life should be there present with the dying, it needed that Light should have its abode with those in darkness. But it were not possible that ye being men by nature should take wing to Heaven and have your abode with the Saviour. Therefore have I Myself come to you, I heard the Saints oftentimes crying aloud, Bow Thy Heavens o Lord and come down; I bowed the Heavens therefore and have come down; for in no other way |583 could ye look to come hither. Yet do I endure to remain with you, do ye more resolutely lay hold of life, purify yourselves through faith while He is with you Who knows to, and can, compassionate with authority. For I shall go, yea shall return again whither YE cannot come; even though ye should seek the Giver of salvation by an untimely after-counsel, ye shall not find Him: what follows ye may see. For ye shall surely die in your sins, and weighed down by your own transgressions, shall go mourning to the prison-house of death, there to pay the penalty of your lengthened unbelief. The Saviour then being good and exceeding loving to man, compels the Jews by fears of future punishment even against their will to be saved.
23 And He said unto them, YE are from beneath, I am from above.
Some one haply of those who have a more studious mind and are wont to approve the more subtle of the Divine Thoughts, will enquire what it was that induced our Lord Jesus Christ, Who but now addressed the Jews and said, I go My way, and ye shall seek Me, to add as something necessary, YE are from beneath, I am from above. For these words seem somehow not to harmonise altogether with those above, but they are replete with a hidden economy. For since He is God, having no need as the Divine Evangelist John himself somewhere says, that any one should testify of man, for He knew what was in man, for He penetrateth even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and conceptions of the heart: He is not ignorant of the unlearned fantasies of the Jews, who, since a gross and feeble mind was their inmate, when they heard from the Saviour's Lips, I go My way, foolishly thought either that leaving Judaea He would flee somewhere or that He is saying somewhat of this kind, While I live and survive believe, lest death should befall me. For, I go My way, taken in its common meaning signifies this too. And it is no wonder if the Jews have fallen into such uncounsel as even to imagine something |584 of this kind as to Christ. For they knew not that He is God by Nature, but looking only to this body which is of the earth, they imagined that He was a man as one of us. Therefore does the Saviour blaming them say, YE judge after the flesh. Removing them therefore from so puerile and grovelling a notion, He again teaches them that not of any one subject to birth and decay are they reasoning such things, but of Him Who is in truth begotten from above and from God the Father. Not to Me therefore (He says) will belong death and flight, for I am from above, i. e., God from God (for God is above all) but you will this rather befit. For from, beneath are ye, that is of nature subject to death and falling under decay and dread. Of Me therefore (He says) do ye letting go your own weakness imagine nought of this sort, for not of equal honour with the Lord is the bond, with Him Who is from above and begotten of God the Father that which is from beneath and of the earth.
But that from above signifies the Eternal Generation of the Son from God the Father, wise reasoning will persuade us to hold. For from above understood of place signifies the being from Heaven, but nought would be in the Son special above the creature that is below and subject to God, if He come only from Heaven, since the more part of the angels too sent forth to minister walk below, ordering some of the affairs on the earth, descending from above and from Heaven. And the Saviour is a witness to us saying, Verily verily I say unto you, ye shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. Since then angels too descend from above, from heaven, why vainly does Christ boast as of something great and surpassing the whole creation, in having come I mean from above? But one may without the smallest toil and trouble see Who is by Nature the Only-Begotten, what the angels that are from Him. Needs therefore does from above signify to us not this From Heaven which is common [to Him and the Angels] but that the Son beamed forth from the Nature Which is most exalted and above all things. Therefore doth from above in regard to the Only-Begotten Alone, |585 signify the being from God and nought else. For while all things are said to be and to exist from God, the Son has this special above all, viz., to be of the Very Essence of the Father by Generation and not as creatures by creation. |586
CHAPTER IV. That the Son is by Nature God, wholly remote from likeness to the creature, as regards Essence.
YE are of this world, I am not of this world.
He shewed herein and very clearly what is the meaning of Above, what of Beneath. For since it was like that the Pharisees able to understand nothing would consider what had been said in a more corporal manner, and understand the Above and Beneath of place and would thence stray into many notions, profitably did our Lord Jesus Christ bare His word of the obscurity that seemed to have been cast upon it and from all want of clearness, putting more clearly in the sequel what He had said darkly. For YE (He says) are of this world, i. e., from beneath, I am not of this world, this then is From above. For God overpasses all that is created, not having superiority in local exaltation (for it were foolish and utterly uninstructed to conceive of the Incorporeal as local) but surpassing things originate by the ineffable Excellences of Nature. Of this Essence does the Word say that He is, not the creation, but the Fruit and Offspring. For observe how He says not, From above have I been created and made, but rather, I am, that He may shew both whence He is and that He was ever Eternally with His own Progenitor. For He is as the Father too is: but He That is and is Eternally with Him That is, how He was not, let the folly of them who think otherwise 15 say.
But haply the foe of the Truth will withstand us saying, "Not without qualification hath Christ said, I am not of the world, but by adding This, He hath shewn accurately |587 that there is another world, the spiritual, whence He might be."
Therefore among creatures is the Son (for this is what thy language, O sir, is working out for us), among those who have originate nature will the Creator be surely classed, putting about Him some angelic perchance and slave-befitting dignity you deem that yourself will escape the charge of blasphemy. For do you not know, that though you attribute to Him that highest position and status which the holy angels will be conceived of as having, though you confess that He is above every Princedom and Authority and Throne, and yet believe Him to be originate, you sin against Him no whit the less? For there is no worthy place whatever of superiority over the rest to the Only-Begotten, so long as He is at all conceived of as created. For not in having precedence of any hath He glory but in being not originate, yea rather God of God by Nature. But THOU again art classing Him Who beamed forth from God and therefore is God, with things originate, and thou reckonest Him to be a part of the world, and if not perchance of this one yet of another (for imagined distinction of worlds will make no difference at all, in respect of having been made): and dost thou not blush putting the Word Who sitteth with Him Who begat Him, in the category of His guards and those who stand before Him? for dost thou not hear Gabriel saying to Zacharias, I am Gabriel that stand in the Presence of God and I was sent to speak unto thee, and Isaiah, I saw the Lord of Sabaoth sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, and the Seraphim were standing round about Him. And (marvel!) the Prophet was beholding the Son and called Him Lord of Sabaoth, and introduces Him as King with the highest Powers as Body-guard. And that it really was the Glory of the Only-Begotten which he was beholding, the wise John will testify saying, These things said Esaias because 16 he saw His glory: and of Him spake he. Wherefore the Divine Paul too, both from His Co-sitting with God the Father and |588 from His being called Son by Nature, coming to most accurate perception of the Mystery and gathering the knowledge pertaining to the idea, says, For unto which of the Angels said (i. e., God the Father) at any time, My Son art THOU, this day have I begotten Thee? (for in the word I have begotten, He shews that the Son is by Nature God of God) and again, But to which of the Angels said He at any time, Sit on My Right Hand? And he does not in saying this accuse God the Father of either being wont to do aught unjust or as dishonouring the nature of the angels, when He honoured that by a position below the Son. For what hinders (may one say) since God the Father is just and good, His making the nature too of the angels assessor with Himself, if the Son be altogether among things originate, and con-natural with them in respect of having been created, even though by some other excellences He surpass the measure belonging to them, just as they may surpass us. But not unrighteous is God the Father, who bade the Angels to stand in the Presence, and gave this Dignity to their nature, having His own Son co-seated with Himself, since He knows that He is by Nature God, and that His own Offspring is not alien from His Essence. How then is He any longer originate, how of an originate world and not rather in the same [state] wherein is Very God, i. e., above all things that are conceived of and acknowledged to exist in every world?
But since ye put out as something great and resistless Christ saying with some fair distinction, I am not of this world; and by the word this, ye affirm that the other world is meant, saying that He is of it, let us see again if ye are not staying yourselves upon rotten arguments, prompted to reason and think thus by only your own want of thought. For the word This, or of this (as it may be), or whatever we say pronomically, is demonstrative, and not altogether or necessarily indicative of another. And verily the blessed Baruch, pointing out to us the One and only God, says, This is our God, there shall none other be accounted of in comparison with Him, but if the word This were altogether significant of another, how would not another be accounted of in |589 comparison of Him? yea and the righteous Symeon too, prophesying the mystery of Christ, says, Behold this child is set for the fall and rising again of many dead in Israel and for a sign which is spoken against, although unto whom is it not most manifest, that not as severing us from other persons does the righteous man say, This, but intimating that He Who is now present and has been set for this, is by Himself? Therefore when Christ says, I am not of this world, not surely as being of another world does He say it, but as defining and laying down in a more corporeal form, as if two places, the originate nature I mean and that of the Man Who is Ineffable and above every essence, He puts the Jews in the place of things originate, saying, YE are of this world, Himself He altogether severing from things created, and connecting with the other place, I mean Godhead, says, I am not of this world. Hence contrasting (for our knowledge) the Godhead with the world, He gives Of this to the latter, Himself He apportions to God Who hath begotten Him and to the Essence which is Supreme over all.
"But" (says he) "God the Father will in nothing wrong the nature of the angels, if He do not please to honour it in the same degree as the Son. For variety in the creation, or the apportioning glory in befitting degree to each, in no wise argues that God is unjust, since how then should WE be less than the angels, albeit we confess that God is Righteous? What then we are in respect of the angels, that are the angels too in respect of the Son; for they yield as to one better than they, the being in greater honour than themselves be."
But, most excellent sir, shall we reply, shaming the unlearned heretic, if even though we be remote from the glory of the angels, since we come short of the piety too that is inherent in them and though there be much variety in the creation and diversity, and superiority in honour or inferiority according to the will of Him Who made them, yet is the being created common to all, and in this there is nought at all that surpasseth or cometh short of other. For that an angel should excel a man in honour and glory is nought |590 wonderful, or an archangel too an angel; but the power of mounting up to the glory of Him Who made all things, we shall find to accrue to no one of creatures: for not any of the things that have been made will be God, nor will the bond be equal in honour with the Lord, co-sitting with Him and co-reigning. What measure then of honour will there be to the Son? being according to you originate and of the spiritual world, will He have God-befitting Dignity? how will that which is connatural with the creation mount up to the same glory as He Who is by Nature God, albeit God saith, My Glory will I not give to another? what (tell me) put the devil forth of the heavenly halls? was it the thirsting for honour which beseemed the originate nature, yet better and greater than the measure which accrued to him, and was it in this that the nature of his crimes lay? or was it that he dared to say, I will be like the Most High? For the creature pictured to itself that it could mount up to the Nature of its Maker and be co-throned with God Who has the power over all. Wherefore he hath also fallen as lightning, as it is written, from heaven. But THOU springing heedlessly upon things so insecure, accountst it nothing that the Son being according to you of some world, and consequently parcel of the creation, should be called by way of honour by God the Father to sit with Him, though Essence in no wise bestow upon Him this nor call Him to Dignity befitting and due to it. For He receives, if it be as YE in your babbling say, things above the creature in the way of favour. Away with such blasphemy, man, for we will not be thus minded, may God avert it! For we believe that angels and archangels and those in yet higher place than they, are diversely honoured by the Authority and Counsel of the All-wise God, Who allots to each of the things that are a just Decree: but as to the Son by Nature, we will not imagine that He is so, for no glory by way of favour and imported hath He, but since He is of the Essence of God the Father, Very God of God by Nature and Very, He is co-throned and co-seated with Him, having all things under His Feet as God, and of the Father with the |591 Father in God-befitting way aloft above the whole creation. Wherefore rightly heareth He, For all things are Thy servants. And since from all sides He is found to be Very God, it is (I suppose) wholly clear that He is not of this world, i. e., originate. For the world here signifies to us the nature of created things, carrying the comparison from a part unto the whole that is conceived of as created. As then God withdrawing Himself from all connaturalness with the creature said in the Prophets, For I am God and not man (and not because He said that He is not man as we, shall we surely therefore class Him with angels or any other of things originate, but from part going unto the whole, will confess that God is by Nature Other than all things originate), so I deem that we ought piously to understand the hard things that come in our way; for we see in a mirror by a figure, as Paul saith.
24 I said therefore unto you that ye shall die in your sins.
Having by few words overturned the most ill-counselled fantasy of those who thus conceived, and convicted them again of talking nonsense about Himself, He returns so to speak to the original aim of His Speech, and resuming it again He shews them in how great ill they will be and into what they will fall, if they most unreasonably repulse any believing on Him. A thing very befitting a wise and grave master is this too: for I think that a teacher ought not to quarrel with the ignorance of his hearers nor to be slack in, his care for them, even if perchance they do not very readily take in the knowledge of the lessons, but anew, yea many times, to return to the same things and go through the same words (since verily the enduring ploughman cleaving the field and having exhausted no slight toil thereon, when he has sown the seed in the furrows, if he see any spoilt, he turns again to the plough, and grudges not to sow upon the now ruined parts): for having missed his aim the first time he will not altogether do the same the second. A like habit the Divine Paul too practising somewhere says, To |592 say 17 the same things to you to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe. Seest thou that as the teacher is found superior to sloth, then to the hearers often follows the being in safe practice? Serviceably then does our Lord Jesus Christ repeating His Discourse with the Jews affirm that the penalty of not believing on Him will be in no passing things: for He says that they who believe not must surely die in their sins. And that death in transgressions is an heavy burden, because it will deliver the soul of man unto the all-devouring flame, none may doubt.
For if ye believe not that I am, ye shall die in your sins.
He explains more exactly what will happen, and having made the mode of salvation most evident, He shews again by what way they going shall mount up to the life of the saints, and shall attain to the city that is above, the heavenly Jerusalem. And not only does He say that one ought to believe but affirms that it must needs be on Him. For we are justified by believing on Him as on God from God, as on the Saviour and Redeemer and King of all and Lord in truth. Therefore He says, Ye shall perish if ye believe not that I am. But the I (He says) is He of Whom it is written in the Prophets, Shine shine o Jerusalem for thy Light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For I (saith He) am He Who of old bade go to the putting off of the diseases of the soul and Who promised the healing of love through saying, Return ye returning children and I will heal your backslidings. I am He Who declared that the God-befitting and olden goodness and incomparable forbearance should be poured on you, and therefore cried aloud, I, I am He That blotteth out thy sins and I will not remember. I am (He says) He Who by the Prophet Isaiah also said, Wash you, make you clean, put away your wickednesses from your hearts from before Mine Eyes, cease from your wickednesses, and come and let us reason together saith the Lord, even though your sins be as scarlet, I |593 will whiten them as snow, even though they be like crimson, I will whiten them as wool. I (says He) am He concerning whom again Isaiah the Prophet himself says, O Zion that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain, o Jerusalem that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength, lift ye up, be not afraid; behold your God, behold the Lord cometh with strength and His Arm with rule, behold His reward with Him and His work before Him: like a shepherd shall He feed His flock, He shall gather the lambs with His Arm and shall comfort those that are with young: and again, Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf shall hear; then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the stammerers be clear. I am (He saith) He of Whom again it is written that suddenly shall come to His Temple the Lord Whom YE are seeking, even the Messenger of the covenant Whom YE are desiring, behold He cometh, saith the Lord of hosts, and who shall abide the Day of His Coming? or who shall stand in His Sight? for He shall enter in as fire in a smelting house and as the sope of fullers. I am (He saith) He Who for the salvation of all men promised to offer Myself for a Sacrifice to God the Father through the voice of the Psalmist and cried, Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldst not, a Body preparedst Thou Me; whole burnt offerings and for sin Thou delightedst not in, then I said, Lo I come, in the chapter of the Book it is written of Me, to do Thy Will, O God. I am, He saith, and the very law through Moses did preach Me, saying thus, A Prophet of thy brethren like unto me will the Lord thy God raise up unto thee, unto Him shall ye hearken; according to all that thou desiredst of the Lord thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly.
Therefore with reason (says He) shall ye perish and shall pay to the Judge most righteous Doom, for your much unholiness of manners not giving heed to Him Who through many saints was fore-heralded to you, and attested by the things too which I work. For verily and in truth no argument will liberate from the obligation of undergoing punishment those who believe not on Him, seeing that the |594 Divinely-inspired Scripture is filled with testimonies and words regarding Him and Himself affords by His Works Splendour conformable to what was long ago prophesied of Him.
25 They said therefore to Him, Who art THOU?
Their word commingled with fiercest anger proceeds from boastfulness. For they eagerly ask, not to learn and believe, but out of much madness they spring (so to speak) on Christ. For He says in more simple word, I am, not adding, God of God, nor yet ought else to indicate His inherent Glory; but in lowly wise and apart from all boasting He says only this I am, leaving it to the better instructed to add what was wanting; and they go on to wildest and unbridled madness, and from unmeasured haughtiness they all but cut short the Saviour's word not yet advanced to its completion, and so to say rebuke and interrupt Him in the middle and say, Who art THOU? This is the part of one who openly says, Dost Thou dare to think of Thyself ought greater than WE know? we know that Thou art son of the carpenter, a man low and most poor, of no note with us and altogether nought. They therefore condemn the Lord as being nought, looking only to His family after the flesh, but the Magnificence that pertains to His works, and still more His Generation from above and from the Father, whence they might specially recognize that He is by Nature God, they do not so much as admit into their mind. For who will work the things that befit God Alone? will not He surely Who is by Nature God? but Christ wrought them; He therefore was and is God, even when made Flesh for the salvation and life of all. But they whose belief is confined to their own mis-counsels, and take no account at all of our Divine and Divinely-inspired Scripture; they in regard of the very things for which they ought to give thanks, do disparage Him, knowing neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm.
Punctuating therefore with emphasis at the word THOU, and throwing back what is called the acute accent, we take the word as a question with note of admiration; for they |595 say THOU, as though, Thou Who art nothing at all, and art known by us to be so, Thou Who art mean and of mean extraction, what canst Thou say illustrious of Thyself, what worth speaking of those about Thee? For nought of such daring is foreign to Jewish madness.
Jesus said unto them, That I speak to you at the beginning.
I am dishonoured (He says) albeit I invite unto everlasting life, unto forgiveness of sins, unto putting off of death and corruption, unto holiness, unto righteousness, unto glory, unto boasting in the sonship with God: yea I Who would crown you with all these, am counted for nought, and esteemed by you thus worthless, yea verily I am in deserved condition (He says) because I made a beginning of discourse with you, because I have spoken somewhat that could profit you, and devised to save those who were on the point of descending to such deep depravity as to aim at repaying bitter requital to Him Who hath elected to save them.
Something else besides does Christ appear to indicate to us hereby. It was right (He says) that I should not converse at all with you at the beginning but on them rather should confer this who shall most gladly rejoice in My words and without delay submit their neck to the Gospel ordinances. He means by these the multitude of the Gentiles. But while we conceive of Him as saying thus, we will guard against the words of the adversaries. For one of those who are wont to fight against Christ will haply say, "If the Son ought not to address the Jews at the beginning, but rather the Gentiles, He missed of what was fit, by doing this rather than that." But we will reply, Not as repenting of His own or of the Father's Will, does the Son say thus, nor yet as having transgressed what befitted the Economy (for God would not have devised ought which did not altogether beseem to be): but by saying that not to you was it right to speak at the beginning, nor among you to lay a foundation of saving teaching, He shews that both the Father and Himself are by Nature True and Loving to man. For lo He freely gave |596 to the unholy Jews though not worthy of it the saving word, having put in the second place the multitude of the Gentiles albeit more readily making it their aim both to believe and obey Him.
What was it then which persuaded Him to prefer and fore-honour before the rest the stiffnecked people of the Jews? To them He made through the holy Prophets the promise of His Coming, to them was the grace due for the fathers' sake. Wherefore He also said, I was not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and to the Syro-phenician woman, It is not meet to take, the children's bread and to cast it to the dogs. Therefore has Israel been honoured and ranked before the Gentiles, although he had the crookeder disposition. But since he knew not the Lord of all and the Perfecter of the promised good things, the grace of the teaching departed at last to the Gentiles, whom it behoved the Lord at the beginning and first to have addressed, not in regard of the promise made to the fathers, but in regard of their innate obedience.
26 I have many things to say and to judge of you.
Seeing that the Jews condemn Him more recklessly, and though they have nothing at all to accuse Him of, are haughty on account only of the poorness of His Birth after the Flesh, and therefore say that He is nought, He shamed them mildly, having said above more openly, YE judge after the flesh, I judge no man. But judging after the flesh will reasonably have some such meaning as this: They who delight only in earthly things, see nought of the heavenly good things, but looking only to illustriousness in this life, admire the wealthy or him who boasts in some other petty glories. But they who after the law of God examine thoroughly into the nature of things say that he is really the man worthy of love and admiration, who has within him the desire to live according to the counsel and will of Him Who hath made him. For low position after the flesh will nothing harm the soul of the man who is accustomed to do well, and on the other hand illustrious portion in this life and |597 the splendour of wealth will nothing profit those who refuse to live aright. They therefore judge after the flesh, as we said just now, who look not to holiness, who use not to prove their walk, their manners, but turn aside their mind to only earthly things and deem worthy of all admiration him that is brought up in wealth and luxury. YE then, O most unwise rulers of the Jews, albeit by the Law of Moses instructed unto accuracy of giving judgment, judging upon no grounds at all, condemn for only bodily low estate Him Who through many wondrous works is shewn to you to be God. But I will not imitate your ill-instructedness, nor will I pass such kind of judgment on you: for nothing at all is human nature. For what is this perishable and earthly body? rottenness and the worm and nought else. Yet I will not for this reason condemn you, nor because ye are men by nature, will I therefore decide that ye ought wholly to be spurned: I have many things to say and to judge of you, that is, every accusing word has a full office to you-ward, not of one thing alone shall I accuse you, but of many, and in none shall I speak falsely as do YE, I have to judge you as disbelieving, as braggarts, as insulters, as fighters against God, as without feeling, as unthankful, as wicked, as lovers of pleasure rather than habitually loving God, as receiving honour one of another and seeking not the honour that cometh from the Only 18, as setting on fire the spiritual vineyard, as not feeding aright the flock entrusted to you by God, as not leading them by the hand unto Him That is proclaimed by the Law and the Prophets, i. e., Me. Such things will the Saviour be declaring to the Jews, but by adding, I have yet many things to say and to judge of you, He threatens them that He will one Day appear as their Judge, Who seemed to them to be nought by reason of the Flesh.
But He That sent Me is True, and I the things which I heard from Him, these speak I unto the world.
Having taken leave of the Jews' ill-instructedness, and |598 reckoned as nought those who dared without restraint to revile Him, He returns again to what He was saying at the beginning, reserving the judging them and that in all freedom for not this present but for the fitting time, and retaining to the time of the Appearance its proper aim (for He came not to judge the world but to save the world, as Himself says). Wherefore keeping fast hold of the things befitting Him, and repeating the word that calls unto salvation, He carries on His exhortation. For herein was it meet that we should both marvel at the measure of His Forbearance and the exceedingness of His inherent Love for man: wherefore doth Peter too write of Him, Who when He was reviled, reviled not again, when He suffered, He threatened not but committed Himself to Him That judgeth righteously. Therefore will I expend (He says) discourse upon you now in particular, not for what ye are wont to do it, for faultfinding I mean and exercise unto nought that is profitable: but having reserved the judging you for its fit time, I will keep to what is for your good, and will not cease from care of you, even though ye of your innate madness foolishly insult Me. I said therefore to you just now, I am the Light of the world, he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the Light of Life; at this ye unreasonably vexed sprang sharply upon Me saying, THOU bearest record of Thyself, Thy record is not true; to this again I, Even though I bear record of Myself My record is true, for I know whence I came and whither I go. But if I seem to be burdensome to you saying these things to you, if I be not a reliable witness of the Dignities accruing to Me by Nature, yet He That sent Me is True and the things which I heard of Him, these speak I unto the world. I speak the same (He says) as the Father Who sent Me, I utter words conformable to His, in saying that I am by Nature Light. The things then which I heard God the Father say of Me, these things I speak to the world. If then I speak false according to you, and My record is not true, ye must certainly needs say that the Father spake falsely before Me. But He is True: therefore I do not speak |599 falsely, and if ye do not believe My Words, reverence (He says) the Voice of Him That sent Me. For what said He of Me? Behold a Man, The Day-spring His Name, and again to those who reverence Him, And unto you that fear My Name shall the Sun of righteousness arise and healing in His wings; and to Me Whom ye unknowing insult, He says, Behold I have given Thee for a Covenant of the people 19 for a light of the nations. But that I am also a Light was told you by Him, for He says, Shine shine O Jerusalem for thy Light is come and the glory of the Lord hath risen upon thee. These things did I hear the Father Who sent Me say of Me, and therefore do I say that I am the Light of the world, but YE disparaged Me, because of the Flesh only judging not rightly, and therefore are ye bold to say frequently, THOU bearest record of Thyself, Thy record is not true.
Therefore (for it is meet to sum up the whole mind of what is before us) He shews that the Jews are fighting right against God, and that not only with His words, but also with the Father's decree. For He knows that His Son is by Nature Light and calls Him therefore Dayspring and San of Righteousness, but they pulling down the destruction of unbelief upon their own heads reject the Truth calling good evil and therefore shall rightly the Woe follow them.
27 They knew not that He spake to them of the Father.
The Spirit-clad is astonishment-stricken at the senselessness of the Jews, and with great reason: for what more without understanding than such, who, when much discourse and often had been made to them concerning God the Father, conceive not of Him a whit when they hear our Saviour saying, But He That sent Me is True? What then is the plea, and why the blessed Evangelist says that the Jews knew not that Christ in these words signified God the Father to them, we must needs say. For since the Saviour said to |600 them, If ye had known Me, ye should have known My Father also, in order that in this too He may be found saying what was true, the Evangelist brings in those who know not the Son, as ignorant of the Father too. For the Son is (so to speak) a Door and Gate unto the knowledge of the Father, wherefore He also said, No man cometh unto the Father but by Me. For the mind darting up from Image to Archetype imageth the other from what is before it. It was necessary therefore to shew that the Jews had no conception of the Father, since they would not be led, upward mounting from knowledge of the Son to conception of the Father. Wherefore does the Evangelist clearly shew that when Christ says, He That sent Me is True, they knew not that He spake to them of the Father.
28 When ye have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall ye know that I am.
Imitating the most excellent physicians, He lays bare the cause of their soul's infirmity and clearly opens what it was that hinders their going with resolution to understanding and faith towards Him. For since looking at the Flesh and its family, they were induced to think slightingly of Him and, having this vail over the eyes of their understanding, they would not know that He is God even though He is seen as Man, needs did He address them saying, When ye have lifted up the Son of Man then shall ye know that I am, i. e., when ye cease from your slight and grovelling conception of Me, when ye have some lofty and super-mundane thought of Me, and believe that I am God of God, even though for your sakes I am become Man as you, then shall ye know clearly that I am the Light of the world (for this I just now told you): for what would any longer hinder (He says) Him Who is wholly admitted to be Very God, from being also Light of the world? For not to so great depth of madness and daring will any go as then too to venture to say, Thy record is not true, for he will in no wise accuse what God by Nature and Very shall say.
It is then most evident from the words too of the Saviour, |601 that if we have a mean opinion of Him and consider Him to be bare Man and bereft of the Godhead by Nature, we shall surely both disbelieve Him and not admit Him as Saviour and Redeemer. And what is the result? we have fallen from our hope. For if salvation is through faith and faith be gone, what will yet save us? But if we believe and lift up to God-befitting height the Only-Begotten even though He hath become Man, advancing as with a fair wind and speeding across the all-troublous sea of life, we shall safe moor in the city that is above, there to receive the rewards of believing.
The same in another way.
When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am.
Having with many and good words bathed the wrath of the Jews, He sees it not a whit the less swelling. For they cease not heedlessly blaspheming, yea at one time they set aside His Speech and impiously call Him a liar: for to say Thy record is not true, what else is it than this? at another time again, to Him out of love declaring the things that belong to salvation and on this account saying, If ye believe not that I am, ye shall die in your sins, they began hotly to oppose Him and arraying against those utterances of love their words of madness said, Who art THOU? For them therefore who thus unmitigatedly wallowed in unreasoning audacity there was need of a word that should sober them and persuade them to be more gently disposed and put a bridle on their tongue even against its will. Therefore was He threatening them telling them most clearly that they shall not escape punishment for their impiety, but even though they see Him for the present forbearing, yet when their impiety towards Him has gone forth to its dread consummation, I mean Death and the Cross, they shall undergo all-dread justice and shall receive in return intolerable lot, that of the war with the Romans, which after the Saviour's Cross befell them from the wrath above from God. And that they should suffer all-terrible things, the Saviour again signified more |602 clearly to them saying, at one time to the weeping women, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for Me but weep for yourselves and for your children, at another again, When ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then shall ye say to the mountains, Cover us and to the hills, Fall on us 20. For to such an extent do the sufferings of the war overcome the Jews, that every kind of death was to them pleasanter and rather to be chosen than the trial of them: their removal from their country, the enslavements of those who inhabit it and their most savage slaughter and the famines in every city and their child-devourings therein Josephus too relates in his history.
When then (He says) ye having betrayed to the cross the Son of man endure your retributive punishment, and pay penalties correspondent to your daring deeds against Me, then shall ye weeping know that I am the All-Powerful, that is God. For if one sparrow enter not the snare of the fowler without the will of God, how shall a whole country, (He saith) and the beloved 21 nation go on to destruction so complete, except God supreme over all had surely permitted that so it should be? Evil therefore and all-dread is the contempt of God which bringeth to the consummation of things to be deprecated. Wherefore Paul too rebuketh some, saying of God, Or despisest thou the riches of His goodness and forbearance and long suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God is leading thee to repentance, but after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath in the Day of wrath?
The same in another way
Christ spent long time dwelling with the Jews, and speaking in every synagogue, so to say, and addressing them every sabbath-day and, setting before them often and ungrudgingly profitable teaching, was continually inviting them to the illumination through the Spirit, and verily He |603 saith, in that He is God by Nature and Very, I am the light of the world; but they thinking most foolishly were ever gainsaying Him who said these things, for (says he) THOU bearest record of Thyself, Thy record is not true. And not at contradictions in words did the daring of the Jews stay, nor only in love of reviling was their untamed audacity consummated, but going without stint through all savageness, they at last betrayed Him both to Cross and Death. But since He was by Nature Life, having burst the bonds of death, He arose from the dead and (as was reasonable) departs from Jewish defilement and hasted away from Israel and that with justice, and betaking Himself to the Gentiles, He invited all to the Light, and to the blind He freely bestowed recovery of sight. It befell then that after the Death on the Cross of our Saviour Christ, the understandings of the Jews were darkened, in that the Light had departed forth from them, and that the hearts of the Gentiles were enlightened, in that the Very Light beamed upon them. When then, He says, ye have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall ye know that I am, instead of, I will await the consummation of your impiety, I will not bring upon you wrath before its time, I will accept the Passion and Death, I will endure along with the rest this too. But when ye shall betray to the Cross the Son of Man deemed by you to be bare man, then shall ye know, even against your will, that not falsely have I said that I am the Light of the world. For when ye see yourselves darkened, the innumerable multitude of the Gentiles enlightened by having Me with them, how will ye not even against your will agree that I am of a truth the light of the world? For that the Saviour was going to depart from the Synagogue of the Jews after His coming to Life again from the dead, is doubtful to none (for it has been accomplished and done): yet may one see it somehow (yea even clearly) from His words, While ye have the Light walk in the Light, lest darkness come upon you. For the repression and withdrawal of light generates darkness, and again the presence of light causes darkness to vanish. Therefore is Christ shewn as being of a truth Light, Who |604 darkened the Jews through His Departure from them, and enlightened the Gentiles through His Presence with them: and a bitter lesson to the Jews was their experience of dread things.
The same in another way
When ye have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall ye know that I am.
Since looking only (He says) to the flesh, ye believe that I am mere Man, and deem that I am one like yourselves, but the Dignity of the Godhead and the Glory from thence, do not so much as enter your mind:----a most evident token to you of My being God of Truly God and Light of Light, shall be your all-dread and most lawless deed of daring, the Cross that is and the Death of the Flesh thereupon. For when ye see the issue of your mad folly frustrate of its purpose and the snare of death crushed in pieces (for I shall surely rise from the dead): then shall ye even against your will and of necessity at length assent to what I said to you and shall confess that I am by Nature God. For I shall be superior to death and decay, I being by Nature Life shall raise again My Temple. But if to overmaster death and to triumph over the meshes of corruption belong to Him Who is by Nature God and to no other being, how shall I not (all contradiction and all doubt being removed) be shewn thereby to overcome all things mightily and without trouble? therefore does the Saviour say that His Cross shall be a sign to the Jews and a most evident demonstration of His being by Nature God.
And this you may see Him elsewhere too, clearly saying: for when many and unnumbered prodigies had been shewn forth by Him, the Pharisees once came to Him tempting Him and saying, Master, we would see a sign from Thee. But He since He saw the imaginations which were going on in them, and was not ignorant that they were bitterly minded, says, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, and a sign shall not be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas; for as Jonas was three days and three nights in the |605 whale's belly, so shall the Son of man too be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Hearest thou how to the Jews asking a sign as a proof that He is God by Nature, even though they said it tempting Him, He says that no other shall be shewn to them save the sign of the prophet Jonas, i. e. the three days death and the coming to life again from the dead? For what token of God-befitting authority so great and manifest, as to undo death and overthrow decay, albeit by Divine sentence having the mastery over human nature? For in Adam it heard, Dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return; but it was in the power of Christ the Saviour both to end His Anger, and by blessings to overthrow the death which from His curse prevailed. But that the Jews exceedingly feared the sign of the resurrection as mighty to convince that Christ is by Nature God, their final deed will clearly tell us, for when they heard of the Resurrection of the Saviour, and that He was not found in the tomb, terrified and exceeding fearful thereat, they planned to buy off the informations of the soldiers by large money. For they gave them money to say, His disciples came by night and stole Him while we slept. Mighty therefore is the sign of the Resurrection, having undoubted demonstration that Jesus is God, whereat the hard and unbending heart of the Jews was sore troubled. |606
CHAPTER V. That not inferior in Might and Wisdom to God the Father is the Son, yea rather His very Wisdom and Might.
And of Myself I do nothing, but as the Father taught Me, I speak these words.
He speaketh in more human wise, in that the Jews could not otherwise understand, nor endure to hear from Him unvailed things God-befitting. For on these matters are they found hurling stones at Him, and setting it down as blasphemy, that being Man, He made Himself God. Withdrawing therefore the surpassingness of God-befitting glory and having much bereft His language of its splendour, He condescends most excellently to the infirmities of the hearers, and since searching into their mind within He finds that they know Him not to be God, He fashions His Discourse in human wise, that their dispositions may not be again kindled unto anger and they foolishly dart away from cleaving to Him even a little. Ye shall know therefore (He says) when ye have lifted up the Son of Man, that I am, ye shall know again in like manner that of Myself I do nothing, but as My Father taught Me, so I speak.
And what need of these words (tell me) may some one haply say, and what does Christ teach us herein? Therefore we will say, piously and with fair distinction expanding each of the things said; Ye have never ceased (He saith) falling upon My Deeds, as though wrought madly and un-holily, ye condemned Me oft as not refusing to transgress, as wont to act contrary to the Lawgiver. For I loosed the paralytic from his so great infirmity, I compassionated a man on the sabbath. But seeing (He saith) you who ought to have wondered at it, finding fault thereat and missing much of what befit Me, yea even just now I explaining to |607 you what belongs to salvation was persuading you to advance to the desire of sharing in light. Then did I shew you the Very Light, for declaring to you Mine own Nature, I said, I am the light of the world, and YE acting and counselling most unadvisedly, rose up against My words and dared unrestrainedly to say, Thy record is not true. When then ye have lifted up the Son of man, that is, when ye compass Him about with death and behold Him superior to the bonds of death (for I shall rise from the dead, since I am God by Nature) then ye shall know (He says) that I do nothing of Myself but as My Father taught Me so I speak. For ye will learn when ye see that the Son too is God by Nature, that I am by no means self-opiniate, but ever of one Will with God the Father, and whatsoever He doth, these things I too do not shrink from doing and whatever I know that He speaks, I again speak. For I am of the Same Essence as He That begat Me. For I healed the palsied on the sabbath day, YE again were bitterly disposed thereat, yet shewed I you My Father working on the sabbath also: for I said, My Father worketh hitherto and I work: therefore of Myself I do nothing. Again I said, I am the Light of the world, but ye imagined that I was saying something discordant from the Father and in this too did I again shame you, shewing that He said of Me, Behold I have set Thee for a covenant of the people for a light of the nations. In vain therefore (He saith) do ye accuse Him Who ever hath One Will with the Father and doth nought dissonant to Him nor endureth to say ought which is not His. For this is the meaning I think that we should fit on to the words.
But the bitter wild beast will haply leap upon us, the fighter against Christ, I mean Arius, and will cry out upon us (as is likely) and will come and say, "When the discourse, sir, was proceeding all right, what made you pressing forward thrust it aside to your own mere pleasure and do you not blush at secretly stealing away the force of the truth? Lo clearly the Son affirms that He does nought of Himself, but that what He learns of God the Father, this He also speaks, and so is conscious that His Father is in superior position to Himself." |608
What then, most excellent sir (will such an one hear in return), is the Son supplied with might and understanding from the Father, that He may be able to do and to speak without blame? how then is He any longer God by Nature, who borrows from another power and wisdom, just as the nature of the creature too has it? for to those who from not being obtain being, every thing that accrues to them is also surely God-given. But not so is it in the Son; for Him the Divine Scripture knows and proclaims as Very God and I think that to Him Who is by Nature God do all good things in perfect degree belong, and that which possesses not perfection in every single thing that ought to be admired, how will it be by Nature God? For as incorruption and immortality must surely belong to it naturally and not from without or imported, so too the all-perfection and lacking nought in all good things. But if according, sir, to thy unhallowed and unlearned argument the Son be imperfect in regard of being able to do things God-befitting and to speak what is right, and yet He is the Power and Wisdom of the Father according to the Divine Scripture, to the Father rather and not to Him will so great an accusal belong. For thus defining these things you will say that in potential no longer is God the Father Perfect, nor yet is He wholly Wise. You see then whither the daring of thine unlearning sinks down. And I marvel how this too has escaped thy acumen.: how (tell me) will God the Father supply might to His own Might, or how will He render His own Wisdom wiser? For either one must needs say that it ever advances to something greater and goes forward by little and little to being capable of somewhat more than its existing strength (which is both foolish and utterly impossible), or must impiously suppose that He is strengthened by another. How then will the Son be any more called Lord of Hosts or how will He be any longer conceived of as Wisdom and Might, strengthened (according to you) and made wise by another? Away with the blasphemy and absurdity of reasoning. For either grant outright that the Son is a creature that ye may have the whole of Divinely-inspired |609 Scripture crying out against you, or if ye believe that He is by Nature God, grant, grant that the Properties of Godhead pertain to Him in Perfect degree. For it is the property of the Natural Being [of God 22] neither to be impotent about anything, nor to come short of supreme Wisdom, yea rather to be Wisdom and Power's very self; but in wisdom nought is through teaching, nor yet in the Chief and truly conceived-of Power do we see imported power.
But that by examining also the very nature of things, we may more accurately test what are said by Christ, we will add this too to what has been said. What so great deed hath the Only-Begotten made Man wrought, that will surpass His inherent Power? For it was like I suppose that some would say that it then resulted that He should fitly say, as having borrowed the Power from God the Father, Of Myself I do nothing, because He drove out the evil spirit, let go the palsied from his infirmity, freed the leper from his suffering, gave the blind to see, sated a no easily reckoned multitude of men with five loaves, appeased the raging sea with a word, raised Lazarus from the dead: shall we say that the manifestation herein is superior to His innate Power? Then how (tell me) did He stablish the so great Heaven and spread it out as a tent to dwell in, how founded He the earth, how became He Artificer of sun and moon and what pertains to the firmament? how created He angels and Archangels Thrones and Lordships and yet besides, the Seraphim? He Who was in so vast and supernatural position, lacking neither Might nor Wisdom from another, how could He be powerless in matters so small, or how should He Who by the holy Prophets is glorified as Wisdom need one who must teach Him what to say to the Jews? For I hear a certain one say, The Lord who made the earth by His power, who established the world by His Wisdom, and stretched out the heavens in His discretion, and besides, the Divine Daniel too says. Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever, for wisdom and understanding and might are His. But if His, according to the Prophet's voice, are both |610 might and wisdom, who will any more endure the wordiness of the heterodox, saying that the Wisdom and Power of the Father is supplied with both power and wisdom from another?
"But if we said (says he) that there were some other to supply to the Son what He lacked of power, or to teach Him, reasonably could ye attack us with words, knowing that ye were on the side of Him as insulted: but since we say that God the Father gives this, what plea for aggrievance any longer appears to you from thence?"
Therefore if ye think that ye will in nothing wrong the Son, in respect of His being by Nature unlike Him Who begat Him, even though He be said to be supplied by Him, remember, man, your late words, and be taught thereby not to be offended: grant Him to be in all things Equal to His Progenitor, and in no way or respect whatever inferior to Him. But if it draw thee aside from the reasonings of orthodoxy, and persuade thee to deem of Him what is not lawful, why dost thou vainly attempt to beguile us with so rotten words? for it will make no difference at all, whether God the Father Himself, or any other than He, be said to give ought to the Son. For having once fallen under the charge of receiving ought, what gain will He derive, though the Person of the Giver were exceeding illustrious? For what difference (tell me) will it make to a person who refuses a blow to be struck with a wooden rod or a gilt one? for it is not the suffering in this way that is good but the not suffering at all. The Son therefore being proved to be lacking in both power and wisdom, if He be shewn to receive ought from Him, and having herein complete accusal, how is it not utterly foolish that we should smite our hearers with stale words, and by inventions of deceit smear over the charge by deeming that no one else but the Father Alone is admitted as supplying Him? But I marvel how though they think they are wise, and in no slight degree practised in the art of making subtle distinctions with words foreign to the subject, that this escaped them, viz., that by disparaging the Impress of God the Father, i. e., |611 the Son, ye do not so much accuse Himself as Him Whose Impress He is, since He must of necessity so be as He is seen to be in the Son.
"But," says he, "the Son's own voice will compel thee even against thy will to consent to what He did not disdain to utter: for Himself hath confessed that He doth nothing of Himself but that whatever He was taught of God the Father these things He speaks."
Well then to thee, good sir, let the things even that are well said seem to be not well, seeing that thou deniedst the light of truth: but WE again will go our own way, and will deem of the Only-Begotten as is customary and wonted, with becoming piety comparing them with what is before us. For if the Only-Begotten had said, I do nothing of Myself but receiving power from God the Father, I both work wonders and am marvelled at, it would be even thus a speech shewing that He nowise ought to be accused therefore, yet would our opponent have seemed to oppose us with greater shew of reason. But since He says simply and absolutely without any addition, I do nothing of Myself, we will not surely say that He is blaming His own Nature as infirm for ought, but that He means something else that is true and incapable of being found fault with. In order that transforming the force of the expression to man, we may see accurately what He says, let there be two men having the same nature, equal in strength and likeminded one with another, and let one of them say, Of myself I do nothing, will he say this as powerless and able to do nothing at all of himself, or as having the other co-approver and co-minded and co-joined with him? thus conceive I pray of the Son too, yea rather much more than this. For since the Jews were foolishly springing upon Him as He was working marvels, even accusing the breach of the sabbath, and imputing to Him transgression of the law, He at length shewed God the Father in all things Co-minded and Co-approver, skillfully shaming the unbridled mind of them who believe Him not. For it was like that some would now shrink from any inclination to blame Him when He said |612 that He did all things according to the Will of the Father and pointed out His own Will in His. For that the Son does all things according to the Will of the Father will shew that He is not less and an under-worker, but of Him and in Him and Consubstantial. For since He is the Very Wisdom of the Father and His Living Counsel, He confesses that He does not do ought else than what the Father wills, Whose both Wisdom and Counsel He is, seeing that the understanding too that is in us does not ought of itself, but accomplishes all that seems good to us. And little is the example to the verity, but it hath an image not obscure of the truth. And as the understanding that is in us is accounted nought else than we ourselves, in the same way I deem the Wisdom of God the Father, i. e., the Son, is nought other than He in regard to sameness of Essence and exact Likeness of Nature: for the Father is Father and the Son Son in Their own Person.
But because to this He adds, As the Father taught Me, I speak these things, let no one think that the Son is in need of teaching for any thing whatsoever (for great is the absurdity of reasoning herein): but the force of what is said has this meaning. For the Jews who were not able to understand ought that was good, were not only offended at what were marvellously wrought, but also when ought God-befitting was uttered one may see them in the same case, and specially when He truly says, I am the Light of the world, they were both cut to the heart and counselled all-daring deeds. But the Lord Jesus Christ that He might convict them of vainly raging about this says that His own Words are God the Father's, saying Taught in more human wise. Yet we shall find the force of the speech not without a subtle inner-thought, and if the enemy of the truth will not admit what is human, he very greatly wrongs the plan of the economy with Flesh (for the Only-Begotten humbled Himself being made Man, and for this reason ofttimes He speaketh as Man): but let him know again that the saying, As the Father taught Me, so I speak, will no way injure the Son in respect of |613 God-befitting Dignity, for we will show that this saying of His too is on all sides sound and right. But let yon accuser of the doctrines of piety answer us who ask, Who (tell me) teaches the new-born babe to use human voice? why does he not roar as a lion or imitate some other of the irrational creation? But nature its teacher fashioning after the property of the sower that which is of him must needs surely and will proceed to that common sound used by all. It is then possible without being taught to learn of nature which infuseth so to say the whole property of the sower into tho offspring. Thus therefore does tho Only-Begotten Himself here too affirm that He learned of the Father. For what nature is to us, that full surely may God the Father be reasonably conceived of to Him; and as WE since we are men and of men, learning untaught from nature speak as befits men, so He too, since He is God of God by Nature, learnt as of His Own Nature to speak as God and to say things befitting God, as is I am the Light of the world. For what He knows that He is because of the Father from Whom He is (for He is Light of Light), this He said that He learnt of Him, having a sort of untaught learning of God-befitting works and words from the own Nature of Him Who begat Him, mounting up as by necessary laws to sameness in all things of will and of word with God the Father. For how must not sameness of Will and Equality and Likeness in Words needs be without contradiction inexistent in Those Who have the Same Nature? Of God altogether are we speaking, not of us; for us divergences of manners and differences of wills and tyrannies of passions drag aside from the limits of what befits: but the Divine and Inconceivable Nature being the Same always and fixed immoveably in Its own Goods, what divergences unto ought else can It have? or how will It not altogether advance the straight course of Its own Purpose and both speak and accomplish what belongs to It? The Only-Begotten then being of the Same Essence with Him Who begat Him and pre-eminent in the Dignities of the One Godhead, will (I suppose) surely and of necessity work whatever |614 the Father Himself too works (for this is the meaning of doing nothing of Himself); and will surely speak what belongs to Him Who begat Him, not as a minister or bidden or as a disciple, but possessing as the fruit of His Own Nature, to use the words also of God the Father. For herein shines forth clearly and apart from all railing this, viz. that nothing is said by Him [as from Himself].
29 And He That sent Me is with Me, and hath not left Me alone.
Herein He shews clearly that He interprets the Counsel of God the Father, Himself having none other than is in Him (how could He? for He is Himself the Living and Hypostatic Counsel and Will of Him Who begat Him, as is said in the Book of the Psalms by one of the Saints, In Thy Counsel Thou guidedst me, and again, Lord by Thy Will Thou gavest might to my beauty: for in Christ are all good things to them that love Him) but as bringing forth unto our knowledge the things that are in God the Father. For as this word of ours uttered externally and poured forth through the tongue makes known what is in the deep of our understanding, both receiving, as some learning, the will that is in our mind in respect of anything, and impelled by it to utter it in such manner: so again we will piously conceive that the Son (surpassing the force of the example in that He is Himself both Word and Wisdom of God the Father) uttered what exists in Him. And since He is not impersonal as is man's, but inbeing and Living as having His own Being in the Father and with the Father, He says here that He is not Alone, but that with Him is Him also That sent Him. But when He says, With Me, He indicates again something God-befitting and Mystic. For we do not think that He saith thus, viz. that as God may be (for instance) with a Prophet, guarding him, that is, with His own Might and aiding him by His favour or by the enlightenment through the Spirit stirring him up to prophecy:----that so is He That begat Him with Him. But here too He puts with Me in another sense: |615 for He That sent Me (He says) i. e., God the Father, is in the same Nature as I.
After this sort will you understand that too which is in Isaiah the Prophet about Christ, Know ye people and he ye worsted for with us is God. For our discourse hereon will befit those who have set on Him their hope of being saved. And these too say With us is God, not as though any should imagine that God will be our co-worker and co-assistant, but that He will be with us, that is, of us. For the Word of God hath become Man, and in Him we all have been saved and burst the bonds of death, and put off the corruption of sin, since God the Word being in the Form of God hath come down to us and become with us. As then we here understand With us is God, for, The Word of God the Father hath become of the same nature with us: so here too preserving the same analogy in our thoughts, when Christ says, He that sent Me is with Me and hath not left Me alone, we shall clearly understand Him to indicate mystically that (as we said before) God the Father is of the Same Nature as I and hath not left Me alone: for it were altogether impossible not to have wholly with Me God the Father of Whom I am begotten.
And perhaps some one will say and will ask more thoughtfully, Why does the Saviour say such things or what was it induced Him to come to this explanation?
To this WE will reply, shewing that profitably and of necessity did He add this too to what He had already said. For since He said that as the Father taught Me, I speak these things, needs does He shew that the Father is now co-with Him and consubstantial with Him, that He may be believed to speak what is His, as God the things of God, and urged on by the Natural Property of Him That begat Him to say what is God-befitting, just as the children of men having of their nature some untaught learning, as we said above, know truly the properties of human nature. We must not therefore be offended, when the Son says that He learnt ought from the Father; for not for this reason will He be found less than He nor yet alien according to |616 them. And let us consider the matter thus. Not in knowing any thing or in not knowing it, is the matter of essence tested, but in what each by nature is. As for example suppose Paul and Silvanus; and let Paul know and be instructed perfectly in the mystery as to Christ, Silvanus somewhat less than Paul. Are they then not alike in nature or will Paul surpass Silvanus in respect of essence, because he knows the depth of the mystery more than the other? But I suppose that no one will be foolish to such an extent as ever to suppose that their nature is severed by reason of superiority or inferiority in knowledge. When then the condition of essence is (as we have said) accurately proved not to lie in learning or teaching ought, it will no wise injure the Son in regard of His being by Nature God, if He say that He learns ought of His own Father. For not on this account will He go forth from Consubstantiality with Him, but abideth wholly what He is, God of God, Light of Light.
But you will perhaps say, How then? the Father is greater in knowledge, for therefore doth He teach the Son. But we again will say that we have entirely shewn through many words that the Wisdom of the Father is without any need of learning and instruction and having joined together many arguments thereto, we proved that their speech has its exit in boundless blasphemy. Next, it is necessary to tell thee besides that the Son's aim and special care is ever to abate His own Dignity and not to speak much in God-befitting manner, because of the Form of the servant and of the abasement thence for our sakes undertaken. For whither hath He descended, and whence unto what removed, if He say nothing inferior and not wholly worthy of God-befitting glory? For for these reasons He often takes the form of not knowing as Man what as God He knows. You will see this clearly in the history of Lazarus of Bethany, whom when now of four days and stinking, He with wonder-working might and most God-befitting voice caused to return to life. Look at the economy fashioned herein. For knowing that Lazarus was dead and having |617 fore-announced this, as God, to His disciples, in human wise Ho asked, saying, Where have ye laid him? O wondrous deed! He Who was living far away from Bethany and was not ignorant as God, that Lazarus is dead, how sought He to learn where the tomb was? But you will say (thinking most rightly) that He made feint of the question, arranging something profitable. Receive therefore in this case too that He economically says that what He knows as God, this He learnt of the Father; not permitting the mad folly of the Jews to be further excited, and punishing the wrath of the more unlearned, He does not introduce God-befitting language to them unsoftened, although it rather befitted Him so to do.
But since they were surmising that He is yet mere man, He mingling as it were the Dignity of Godhead with man-befitting words speaks economically more lowly than Ho is, For I do always the things that please Him. Receive (I pray) herein too the solution of what seem hard and observe clearly that He rightly interprets. Of Myself I do nothing. For for this reason (He says) testified I that I do nothing of Myself, when I but now addressed you, because it is My habit and practice to do nothing discordant to God the Father, nor to be able to do anything save what pleaseth My Progenitor. It is then very clear that in this alone will it be understood that the Son doth nothing of Himself, viz. in His ever doing what pleases God the Father, so that except He had thus wrought, He would have done somewhat of Himself, i.e., contrary to the Will of Him That begat Him. It is not then because He comes short of the Paternal Goodness, nor because of being able to achieve nought of His own Strength, that He here affirms that He does nothing of Himself, but because He is Co-minded and Co-willer ever with His Progenitor in every thing, and has no thought of ever accomplishing any thing as it were separately. And we do not, going off into extravagant notions, think that the Son is here displaying in Himself any virtue proceeding of choice and habit, but rather the Fruit of Nature That knows no turning, Which |618 needs not the Divine [help] in counselling to do anything. For as to the creatures, inasmuch as they are capable of turning to the worse, and of giving way to changes from better to worse, good will be fruit of the pious and virtuous disposition: but as to the Divine and All-Surpassing Nature it is not so. For since all change and turn is removed and has no place, good will be the fruit of the unalterable Nature, just as heat in fire or cold in snow. For fire has obviously its proper action, not of voluntary notion, but natural and essential, without the power of being otherwise except it be driven away from its action by the will of its Maker. Therefore not as WE, or ought other of the rational creation, mastered by our free will to press forward to do what pleases God the Father; not so does the Only-Begotten say thus, but as following the laws of His own Nature and able to think and do nought save according to the Will of Him Who begat Him. For how could the Consubstantial and One Godhead ever be at variance with Itself? or how could It do what liketh It not, as though any had power to turn it aside unto ought else? For though God the Father exist properly and by Himself, likewise both the Son and the Spirit, yet is the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity not riven asunder unto complete severance, but the whole Fulness thereof mounteth up unto One Nature of Godhead.
We must besides consider this too, that no argument can reasonably pull down the Son from His sameness of Nature with the Father, seeing that He affirmed that He always doth what pleaseth Him, but rather being Consubstantial with Him will He be thereby acknowledged to be God of God by Nature and Very. For who (tell me) will savour the things of God after a God-befitting and exact manner, except Himself too be by Nature God? or who will perform always what is pleasing to Him, if he have not a nature beyond the reach of the worse, and have for his share the choice Dignity of the Divine Nature, I mean being unable to sin? For of the creature it has been said, Who will boast that he has his heart clean, or who will be confident that |619 he is pure from sins, and elsewhere the Divine Scripture extending its utterance even to the very utmost bound says, The stars are not pure in His Sight. For angels, albeit far removed from our condition, and having a firmer status as to virtue, have not kept their own princedom. For by reason of some being altogether torn thence and falling into sin, the whole nature of the rational creation lies under the charge of being recipient of sin, and powerless to be imparticipate of change for the worse: and the reasonable and godlike living creature upon the earth hath fallen, not after any long period, but in the first man Adam. Wholly therefore refused to the creature is unchangeability and un-turning and being able to be of nature the same; to God Alone That is in truth will it belong. But this shines forth full well in the Son, for He did no sin, as Paul saith, neither was guile found in His Mouth. God therefore is the Son, and by Nature of God who cannot sin, nor over overstep what befits His Nature. When then He confesses that He does always those things that please the Father, let no one be offended, nor deem that in lesser rank than the Father is He who is of Him, but let him rather think piously that as God of God by Nature He ascendeth unto the sameness of counsel and (so to speak) sameness of work with Him Who begat Him.
30 As He spake these words, many believed on Him.
The wise Evangelist ofttimes marvels at Christ practising depreciation in His Words because of the infirmity of the hearers, and wont to achieve something great thereby. For whereas it was in His Power as God to speak all things, and to fashion His Discourse free and with royal Authority over all, keeping measure in His Speech economically, He encloses many unto obedience, many again He persuades to give heed more zealously unto Him. Therefore not empty is the Saviour's purpose, I mean His speaking to the multitudes in more human wise: for some of the more unlearned were used to rage against Him not a little and readily to desert Him, beholding a man and hearing God-befitting |620 words. But since He was God and Man in one, having unblamed the authority that pertains to each, and able to speak without fault in whatever way He please, He doing exceeding well fashioned it in view of the levity of His hearers, diversely declaring of Himself (and that often) the things that belong to a man, such (I mean) as Of Myself I do nothing and things akin to this: for they understanding nothing whatever, but attacking without any investigation what was said, went to this common and offhand mode of understanding it, and thought that He said, Receiving power of God I work miracles, and He is with Me, since I do always what is pleasing to Him.
Likeminded then with the unholy Jews are the accursed enemies of the Truth, who contradicting the dogmas of piety and loving to wrangle, think meanly of the Lord, and seizing on what is economically and rightly said, to overturn therewith His inbeing Glory and Authority, they steal away the Beauty of the Truth. For they have not (it seems) remembered Paul who saith that one ought to cast down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God and to bring into captivity every thought to Christ and to His obedience: they have not known what was uttered concerning the Divine Oracles by one of the Prophets, Who is wise and he shall understand these things? prudent and he shall know them? For unless some exceeding great obscurity hovered upon them, and a deep darksome veil floated over, what were the need for a wise and prudent man being sought after who might find out the knowledge of them?
And this is abundance for the present matter, we will speak rather on what is before us, choosing something profitable. Upon Christ when saying these things, there believed on Him, as saith the Evangelist, not all but many. Yet albeit He is Very God, and hath nought that is not wholly naked unto His Eyes and knows and that with all accuracy that He will not take hold of all unto belief, He yet perseveres, expending long discourse on them who come to Him, giving us an Example most fair in this too, and |621 offering Himself a Pattern to the Teachers of the Church. For even though all be haply not profited because of their own depravity, yet since it was likely that some would reap good thereby, we must not be sluggish to lead to what is profitable. For if we bury so to say in unfruitful silence the talent given us, that is, the grace through the Spirit, we shall be like that wicked servant who said without any restraint to his Master, I knew Thee that Thou art an hard man reaping where Thou didst not sow and gathering whence Thou didst not straw and I was afraid and hid Thy talent in the earth, lo, Thou hast Thine own. But to what end that so wretched man came, and what penalty He exacted of him, the studious man well knows having met with it not once only in the Gospel books. Therefore let us lay this to heart and consider aright that it is his duty to be free from all indolence in teaching, his I mean who is set forth for this work, and in no wise to turn aside to despise it, even though all be not persuaded by his words, but rather shalt thou rejoice at what thou gainest by thy toil. It is meet too to consider with all sobriety that which has been spoken by our Saviour, The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord: enough for the disciple that he be as his master and the servant as his lord. For if the Lord persuade not all on account of the crookedness and hardness of heart of the hearers, who will blame our feeble speech, though it demand understanding of free-choice not of necessity?
31 Jesus said therefore to the Jews which believed on Him, If YE abide in My word, ye are My disciples indeed.
He demandeth of those who believe a disposition established and fixed and prepared for the abode of that good which they had once chosen. And this is faith in Him. For wavering shews utter senselessness and unprofit, seeing that A double minded man is unstable in all his ways, as it is written: but to press forward firmly to have hold of what is profitable, is indeed wise and most useful. As far then as belongs to the more obvious meaning, He says |622 this, that if they shall desire to obey His Words, then shall they be surely called His disciples also. But as regards some hidden meaning, He signifies this: for in saying If YE abide in My Word, He is clearly withdrawing them by degrees and gently from the Mosaic teachings, and removing them from adherence to the letter and bidding them no longer cleave to what were uttered and done in type, but rather to His own Word which is clearly the Gospel and Divine preaching. For He it was Who ever of old was speaking to us through the holy Prophets, but they were the mediators, through whom (that is) He spake to us. But the Gospel preaching will be conceived of as properly His Word (for not through another do we find that it came to us but through Himself) wherefore when Incarnate He says, I That speak am present. And Paul too will testify saying in the Epistle to the Hebrews, God Who in many ways and modes of old spake unto the fathers by the prophets in these last times spake unto us by the Son. Himself therefore a worker unto teaching hath the Son come to us at the last periods of the world: therefore will the Gospel teaching be rightly called His Word. It were meet then more nakedly and openly to say, Ye who have accepted the faith in Me, and though late have yet acknowledged Him Who of old is preached unto you by the law and prophets, no longer be ye attached to the types through Moses, nor be persuaded to cleave to the shadows of the law, nor lay it down that the power of salvation consists wholly in them, but in the spiritual teachings, and in the Gospel preachings that are through Me. But it was not unlikely, yea rather it was undoubted, that receiving but now and hardly the faith, and having their understanding shaken and ready for unsettling, they would not endure such words, nor would at all hold out, in that they are ever prone to anger, but as though the all-wise Moses were hereby insulted, and put to nought because the things appointed to them of old through him were despised:----they would have turned readily to their proper daring and, ever set upon agreeing with him, thought nothing of any longer believing on Christ. Economically therefore |623 and veiledly as yet arranging the things of Moses in contrast with His own words, i. e., putting the Gospel preaching over against the law, and setting the new teachings in very superior place to the elder ones. He says, If YE continue in My Word, verily ye are My disciples, for they who are pre-eminent in perfect faith and unhesitatingly receive into their mind the Gospel teaching, not unduly regarding the shadow of the law, are in truth disciples of Christ, while they who act not thus, mock themselves, not able to be in truth disciples, and therefore falling away from salvation. And verily the blessed Paul to those who after the faith foolishly desire to be justified by the law, openly writes, Ye were set free 23 from Christ, whosoever of you are justified by the law, ye fell from grace. Wondrous then and precious is single faith and the desire closely to follow Christ, drawing the shadows of the law unto the knowledge of Him, and transfashioning the things darkly spoken unto spiritual instruction. For through the law and the prophets is preached the Mystery of Him.
32 And ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make you free.
Obscure as yet and not wholly clear is the word, none the less it is replete with force akin to those before it, and though after other fashion wrought will go through the same reflections. For it too persuades those who have once believed gladly to depart and remove from the worship according to the law, instructing that the shadow is our guide to the knowledge of Him, and that leaving the types and figures, we should go resolutely forward to the Truth Itself, i. e., Christ the Giver of true freedom and the Redeemer. Ye shall know therefore (He says) the Truth, if ye abide in My Words, and from knowing the Truth ye shall find the profit that is therefrom. Take then our Lord as saying some such thing as this to the Jews (for we ought I think to enlarge our meditation on what is now before us, for the |624 profit's sake of the readers): A bitter bondage in Egypt, (He says) ye endured, and lengthened toil consumed you who had come into bitter serfdom under Pharaoh, but ye cried then to God, and ye have moved Him to mercy towards you, bewailing the misfortunes which were upon you ye were seeking a Redeemer from Heaven: forthwith I visited you even then, and brought you forth from a strange land, liberating you from most savage oppression I was inviting you unto freedom. But that ye might learn who is your aider and Redeemer, I was limning for you the mystery of Myself in the sacrifice of the sheep, and bidding it then to pre-figure the salvation through blood: for ye were saved by anointing both yourselves and the doorposts with the blood of the lamb. Hence by advancing a little forth from the types, when ye learn the Truth, ye shall be wholly and truly free. And let none (He says) doubt about this. For if the type was then to you the bestower of so great goods, how does not the Truth rather give you richer grace?
Nothing forbids us to suppose that such were what Jesus says to the Jews, if His Discourse run out to a wide range of thought: but it is probable that some other meaning also beams forth from what is before us. The Law through Moses typified washings and sprinklings, and moreover whosoever it befell to be caught and to fall into the pit of sin, him it bade to sacrifice a bullock or sheep and thus to abate the blame for each one's transgressions. But nought avail these things for the washing away of sin; for they will never liberate the condemned from blame, nor shew free from obligation of punishment those by whom the Divine Law has been trampled. For what will sacrifice of oxen profit a transgressor, what gain will any one find in sacrificing of sheep? For what will be pleasing from these, as far as pertains to transgression of the Law, to God who has been insulted? for hear Him saying, Will I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? and yet besides openly to the Jews, Gather your whole burnt offerings unto your sacrifices and eat flesh, for I spake not unto your fathers concerning whole burnt offerings or |625 sacrifices, but this thing commanded I them saying, Judge righteous judgment. Wholly profitless therefore is the approach through blood nor can it wash away the spot stained into the man through sin. You will have another proof when you see Him say to Jerusalem the mother of the Jews through the voice of Jeremiah, Why wrought My beloved abominations in Mine House? shall prayers and holy flesh take away from thee thine evil or shall thou escape in these? For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should talte away sins, as Paul saith. But that they concerned about a fruitless worship, and zealous to perform the offerings through blood, or their gifts, to no useful end, were with reason sent away from the Divine court, He will teach again saying by the mouth of Isaiah, Tread My courts no more: if ye offer fine flour, it is vain, incense is an abomination unto Me. Not in these therefore (I mean the ordinances of the Law) is true salvation, nor yet will any one win hence the thrice-longed for freedom, I mean from sin. But bounding a little above the types, and surveying the beauty of the worship in Spirit and acknowledging the Truth, that is Christ, we are justified through faith in Him, and justified we pass over unto the true liberty, ranked no more among slaves as heretofore, but among the sons of God. And John will testify this, saying of Christ and of them that believe on Him, But as many as received Him, to them He gave power to become children of God. Profitably then doth our Lord and Christ not suffer them who believe on Him to marvel any more at the shadows of the law (for there is nought in them that profits or that bestows the true freedom) but bids them rather know the Truth; for through this does He say that they shall be entirely freed, according to the mind of the words.
33 We be Abraham's seed and have never been in bondage to any man, how sayest Thou, Ye shall be made free?
They laugh at the promise of our Saviour, rather they even take it ill, as though they were insulted. For that |626 which has no share at all of bondage, how will it need (he says) of One Who calls us unto freedom, and Who gives us a something over and above what is in us already. But they know not, though wont to have a conceit of being wise, that their forefather Abraham was of no notable father after the world, nor yet of highest repute among those who are admired in this life, but was ennobled by faith only in God: Abraham believed God, it says, and faith was imputed to him for righteousness and he was called the Friend of God. Thou seest then very clearly the cause of his illustriousness. For since he was called the friend of God who ruleth over all, he hath become on this account great and famed, and his faith was imputed to him for righteousness, and the righteousness which is of faith hath become to him the cause of freedom towards God 24, Therefore when he by believing was justified, that is, when he shook off the low birth that is from sin, then did he appear illustrious and of noble birth and free. Foolishly then do the Jews spurning the grace which freed the very founder of their race advance only to him who was freed thereby, but considering neither whence is or whither looks what is illustrious in him, they dishonour the Giver of what is most excellent in him, and forsaking the Fount of all nobility they think greatly of him who is participate thereof; but they will be caught vainly boasting of being never in bondage to any man and what they say about this will be no less proved to be false. For they were in bondage to the Egyptians for 430 years and through the grace that is from above were hardly delivered from the house of bondage and from the iron furnace, as it is written, to wit the tyranny of the Egyptians. And they were in bondage both to the Babylonians and Assyrians, when they removing the whole country of Judaea and Jerusalem itself transferred all Israel to their own land. In no respect then was the speech of the Jews sane: for besides being ignorant of their truer bondage, that in sin, they utterly |627 deny the other ignoble one and have an understanding accustomed to think highly about a mere nothing.
34 The Saviour answered them Verily verily I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.
He lifts out of their innate unlearning these who were carnal and looking only to things corporal, He transfers them to the more spiritual and removes them to a mode of teaching wholly unpractised and unwonted, shewing them their hidden and through long ages unknown bondage; and that they falsely say, To no man have we ever been: in bondage He wisely passes by, neither does He say that to no purpose do they boast of the nobility of their forefather, in order that He may not appear to be inciting to what was not right them who were already prone and much inclined to anger, but advances to this needful matter and one which they needed verily to learn, that he is sin's bondman who doth it, as though He said thus: A compound animal, sirs, is man upon the earth, of soul that is and body, and bondage as to the flesh pertains to the flesh, but that of the soul and which takes place upon the soul, has for its mother, the barbarian, sin. The freedom then of man from bondage after the flesh the authority of the rulers will effect, but that which sets free from sin, is meet to be spoken of God Alone and will belong to none other save He. Therefore He persuades them to think reasonably and to desire real and true freedom, and thus to seek at length not the illustriousness of ancestors which nothing profits them thereto, but rather God Alone authoritative over His own Laws, the transgression whereof creates sin the foster mother of bondage to the soul. But our Lord Jesus Christ seems to be privily as yet and full veiledly convicting them of vainly thinking great things of a man and imagining that the blessed Abraham was altogether free. For His shewing generally that he who doeth sin is the bondman of sin, makes Abraham himself to have been once the bondman of sin and within its toils. For he was justified not as being himself righteous, but when he believed God then called to the freedom of being justified. And |628 not at all as quarrelling with the fame of the righteous man do we say this, but since none among men is without trial of the darts of sin, he too who is reputed great was surely brought under the yoke of sin as it is written, There is none righteous, for all sinned and have come short of the glory of God. But the glory of God besides other things is the being utterly incapable of falling into sin, which has been reserved for Christ Alone, for He Alone has been free among the dead: for He did no sin albeit being among the dead, that is reckoned among men over whom the death of sin once had mastery.
Therefore (for I will sum up the aim of what has been said) the Lord was hinting that the blessed Abraham himself too having been once in bondage to sin, and through faith alone to Christ-ward set free, availed not to pass on to others the spiritual nobility, since neither is he master of the power of freeing others who put away the bondage of sin not by himself nor was himself on himself the bestower of freedom, but received it from Another, Christ Himself Who justifieth.
35 The servant abideth not in the house for ever, the Son abideth ever.
Having shewn that unfree and in bitter bondage is he who is subject to sin, He adds profitably both what will happen to him who hath loved bondage, and what again shall be their lot from God who have chosen to live after the Law and have therefore been ranked among the sons of God. For the bondman, He says, abideth not in the house for ever (for indeed and verily he shall go forth into the utter darkness there to pay the penalty of his enslaved life) but the Son abideth ever. For they who have once enjoyed the honour of adoption, shall abide in the presence of God, in no time thrust forth from the court of the firstborn, but rather passing a long and lasting season therein. And you will understand accurately what is said, if you bring forward and read the Gospel parable wherein Christ (it says) shall set the goats on the left, the sheep on the right, |629 and that He shall send away the goats saying, Depart ye cursed into the everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: and shall gather the sheep to Himself and receive them graciously, crying out, Come ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For by the goats is meant the unfruitful multitude of them who love sin, by the sheep, the choir of the pious, laden with the fruit of righteousness, as though wool. Therefore he who beareth the disgrace of bondage shall be thrust forth of the kingdom of heaven like some useless and basest vessel: every one who loveth to live aright shall be received and shall abide therein, and be ranked therefore among the sons of God. And it seems likely that the Lord in saying these things hints also to them, that if they admit not the freedom that comes through faith, they shall surely depart forth of the holy and Divine court, that is, the Church, as is said by one of the Prophets, I will drive them out of Mine House. For that that which was afore spoken has reached its fulfilment, the very nature of things attests: for the daughter of Zion was left as a tent in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as it is written: wholly fallen and destroyed is the temple, and themselves have gone forth not abiding therein for ever and in their place hath arisen and been raised up for Christ's sake the Church of the Gentiles, and they abide in it ever who have been called to Divine sonship through faith. For the boast of the Church will never cease nor ever fail, for the souls of the righteous depart from things of earth and are safely moored at the city that is above, the heavenly Jerusalem the church of the firstborn, which is our mother, according to the voice of Paul.
But since examining into what was said about bondage, and desiring every way to track out the truth, we have said that Abraham himself was numbered among bondmen, and not even him did we put outside the boundary of our contemplations, because of its being said more generally by Christ, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin: come now let us following out our own words make clear the force of |630 what has been said. The Jews were thinking great and excessive things, putting forward Abraham as a sort of head and fount of their nobility: but that it needed to seek to be freed through the grace that is from above, they admitted not even in bare thought, fools and blind according to the Saviour's voice.
Needs therefore does Christ design to shew that what is by nature bond, sufficeth not for the freedom of others nor yet one whit for its own, for how can that which lacks freedom as to its own nature, give freedom to itself, and that which borrows its own grace from another, how will it suffice for the supply of another? To Him Alone Who is by Nature God of God will befit and rightly be ascribed the power of freeing. Clear proof therefore gives He that all must needs be and be acknowledged bond that abides not for ever, i. e. to which belongs not being always the same. For every thing created will surely be also subject to corruption, and that which is so will be bondservant of God Who called it into being. For respecting the creatures it was said to Him, For all things are Thy servants. And this which is said is general, and one portion of the whole is the blessed Abraham, or again the whole human nature. But the abiding for ever gives a clear sign that the Only-Begotten God Who shines forth from God is King and Lord of all. For to whom will pertain the being always the same and being established in firm tenure of the everlasting good things, save to Him Who is by Nature God? in this way doth the Divine Psalmist too shew us that the creature is bond, God the Word which beamed of God the Father King and Lord. For extending the mental view from a portion to the whole of creation, he says of the heavens and of Him Who is by Nature Son, They shall perish but THOU abidest, and they all shall wax old like a garment and as a covering shalt Thou change them and they shall be changed, but THOU art the Same and Thy years shall not fail. Seest thou how by this too exceeding well and true confessedly it is that the bond abideth not for ever but the Son abideth and that the non-abiding is a proof that that is |631 bond of which it is predicated? And by analogy the other, i. e., the abiding for ever will be a clear token of His being Lord and God of whom such a word may be properly and truly said. Sufficient then were the Psalmist to testify to what we say, but since (as it is written), In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established, come let us besides him shew the blessed Jeremiah too thinking and saying consonantly. For he shewing that every thing that is made from its being corruptible is therefore bond, and shewing that the Son because He abides and is Unchangeable is by Nature God and manifestly therefore also Lord, says thus to Him, For THOU endurest for ever and we perish for ever. For at every time will the originate be corruptible by reason of its having been made, even though by the Power of God it decay not, and God will ever sit, what is here called sitting indicating the stability and unchanged fixedness of His Essence together with Its concentration and Its illustriousness in Royal Appearance and Reality, for sitting has an image of these.
Therefore (for I will go back to what I said at the beginning) from his not abiding for ever He shews that the blessed Abraham is corruptible and originate, for he has died and passed in a way out of the Lord's house, i. e. this world. By the same reasoning He would have us conceive of him as bond also and so not competent to bestow freedom upon others, and from the Son abiding ever, He says that He is clearly God of God by Nature, whereon will surely follow the being King and Lord. And what is the economy from the above mentioned distinction, shall be shewn in the next that in order follows.
36 If the Son shall make you free ye shall be free indeed.
To Him Alone (He says) Who is by Nature Son of a Truth free and remote from all bondage is found to pertain the power of freeing and to none other whatever save He. For as He because He is by Nature Wisdom and Light and Power, makes wise the things recipient of |632 wisdom, enlightens those that lack light and strengthens those that want strength; so because He is God of God, and the Genuine and Free Fruit of the Essence That reigns over all, He bestows freedom on whomsoever He will. For no one can become truly free at his hands who has it not of nature. But when the Son Himself wills to free any, infusing His own Good, they are called free indeed, receiving the Dignity from Him who hath the Authority and not from any of those who have been lent it from Another and been ennobled with so to say foreign graces.
Most needful therefore is the preceding explanation, and great the profit which arises from that distinction to those who are zealous to hear it more diligently. For it was right to understand why it should be needful to seek for nobility towards God and to learn that the Son can make us free. Let them then who rejoice in the dignities of the world use themselves not to be swollen with lofty conceits nor let them run down the glory and grace of the saints, even though they should be little and spring of little after the flesh: for not the seeming to be illustrious among men suffices to nobility before God, but splendour in life and virtuous ways render a man free indeed and noble. Joseph was sold for a bond-slave, as it is written, but even so was he free, all radiant in the nobility of soul: Esau was born of a free father and was really free, but by the baseness of his ways he shewed a slave-befitting mind. Noble therefore before God, as we have just said, are not they who have riches and are flooded with superfluity of substance, and rejoice in the bright honours that are in the world, but they who are radiant with holy life and an ordered conversation.
37 I know that ye are Abraham's seed; but ye are seeking to kill Me because My word hath no place in you.
Having manifoldly shewn them that the boast and conceit from their being of kin to Abraham is utterly empty and devoid of any good. He says this, that they may seek the nobility that is true and dear to God. For God looks |633 not on the flesh according to what is said by our Saviour Christ Himself, The flesh profiteth nothing, but rather accepts and accounts worthy of all praise nobility of soul and knows that they have true kinship, whom likeness of work or sameness of manners gathering unto one virtue, causes to be ennobled with equal forms of good and similarly the contrary. Since how are WE who are of earth and compacted of clay, as it is written, called kin of the Lord of all, as Paul saith, Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God? For confessedly have we been made kin to Him, because of the Flesh That pertains to the Mystery of Christ. But it is possible in another way also to see this truly existing. For by thinking His Thoughts and resolving in no cursory manner to live piously, we are called sons of God who is over all, and forming our own mind after His Will so far as we can, thus are we to likeness with Him and most exact similitude truly kin.
But that God does take likeness and accurate similitude of works or of ways to have the force of kinship, we shall clearly know, if we look closely into the holy words, and explore the Holy Scripture. In the times therefore of Jeremiah the prophet, there was a certain false prophet, Shemaiah the Nehelamite 25 by name, belching things forth of his own heart as it is written and not out of the Mouth of the Lord. And since there was some other great multitude of lying witnesses and false prophets going about among the people, and drawing them away to what was not meet, God the Lord of all was at last rightly indignant. Then after having expended many words upon Shemaiah, and declared more in detail what penalties he should pay for his deed of daring, at last He adds, and I will visit upon Shemaiah and his seed, who do like deeds with him 26. Hearest thou how He sees kindred in like attempts? for how could He who judgeth right punish along with Shemaiah |634 his seed after the flesh, not like-mannered with himself as regards baseness, albeit He says clearly by the Prophet Ezekiel, The soul that sinneth, it shall die. In order then that one may not imagine anything of this sort respecting him, having said, his seed, He immediately added, Who do like deeds with him, defining kindred to be in sameness of action. But that we may see that what is said is true of the very Jews, let us call to mind the words of John (I mean the holy Baptist), for shewing that rotten was their boast of kindred with Abraham, he says, And say not within yourselves, We have Abraham for a father, for I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up seed unto Abraham. For since it had been said unto him by God, Multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, the people of the Jews resting upon the Promiser being surely and of necessity unlying, were thinking big, and expecting that in no wise could they fall from the kinship to their ancestor, that the Divine Promise may be kept. But the blessed Baptist annihilating this their hope, very clearly says, God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham: And with these falls in the blessed Paul too thus saying, For not all they of Israel are these Israel, neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all children. It being shewn therefore on all sides to be true that God acknowledges kindred in manners and habits, clearly vain is it to boast of holy and good ancestors, and be left behind and depart far away from their virtue.
With reason therefore does the Lord say to the Jews, I know that ye are Abraham's seed yet do ye seek to kill Me because My Word hath no place in you. Yea (He says) when I look to the flesh alone and consider whence the people of the Jews sprang, then I see that ye are of the seed of Abraham, but when I look at the beauty of his conversation and disposition, I see that ye are aliens and no longer kin. For ye are seeking to kill Me, albeit your forefather, of whom ye now think great things, was no murderer, and worst and most lawless of all, on no just pretexts am I persecuted by you, but ye desire to kill Me in utter injustice: |635 for for this reason alone did ye devise to destroy Me, because My Word hath no place in you, albeit calling you to salvation and life. It hath no place in you, because of the sin that indwelleth in you, and which suffereth not advice and counsel for good to have any room in you. Murderers therefore alike and most unrighteous judges are the Jews, determining that they ought to award to death Him who nothing wronged them but rather was engaged in doing them good and zealous to save them. How then are they any longer kin to the righteous and good Abraham, who are so far behind the good that was in him, and have strayed so far from like conduct with him, as one would admit were distant and say were parted vice from virtue?
38 I speak that which I have seen with My Father, do YE then do that which ye heard 27 from the 28 Father.
Uncontained by the Jews did He say that His word was, and having said that this was the only reason why they were incited against Him, yea rather convicting them of desiring even to kill Him, needs does He add these things also, and why, I will set forth. He was not ignorant, it appears, that some of the Jews would rise up and dispute His words and belching forth from their innate madness, say again, Not for nothing (as Thou sayest) do some desire to slay Thee, for reasonable causes are they stimulated thereto, pious is their motion and their zeal free from all just accusal: for without place in them is Thy word seeing Thou madest it dissonant from God. Thou teachest us (he says) another error and drawest us off from the way of the Law, and removest us to that which pleases Thyself Alone. The Jews then whispering these things privately or imagining them in their hearts, the Lord again meets them, knowing the motions of their imaginations within (for He is Very God) and therefore says, I speak that which I have seen with My Father, I beheld close the Nature of Father, I saw ofttimes of Myself and in Myself Him Who |636 begat Me, and am a Beholder of the Will That is in Him. I saw, by innate knowledge that is, of what works He is the Lover, and these I speak to you, I shall not be found to say ought dissonant to Him, nor have I appointed any thing other than pleases Him. To that was I earnest in calling My hearers, not departing from what is Mine (for in Me are His, and Mine again in Him) but if I Who am thus by Nature and am in all things Co-willer with God the Father, appear to you to be not true and I am adjudged to be leading you astray from the Divine Teachings, let the charge be dismissed, cast away suspicion; do that which ye heard from the Father, He hath spoken to you by Moses, accomplish the command, ye heard Him say, The innocent and righteous slay thou not, how then are ye seeking to kill Me and breaking the Father's commandment?
But in another way again will we take the words, Do YE then do that which ye heard from the Father. He has spoken to you (He says) through the Prophets, ye heard Him say, Rejoice greatly o daughter of Zion, shout o daughter of Jerusalem, behold thy King cometh unto thee, He is just and having salvation and mounted upon a colt the foal of an ass, and again through the voice of Isaiah, O Zion that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain, o Jerusalem that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength, lift ye up, be not afraid, behold your God, behold the Lord cometh with strength and His Arm with rule, behold His Reward with Him and His work before Him: like a shepherd shall He feed His flock, He shall gather the lambs with His Arm and shall comfort those that are with young. Obeying therefore the commands of the Father, receive Him Who is fore-announced to you; honour with faith Him Who has been fore-preached. Give at least to the words of the Father to prevail in you.
But we must know that He saya that the Law is God the Father's, albeit spoken by Him through Angels 29, not |637 putting Himself outside of the law-giving, but He yielding to the surmises of the Jews who believed that it was so, and economically, does not oppose Himself to their surmise, for ofttimes doth He shame them, since they receive Him not, for He brings before them the Father's Name.
39 They answered and said unto Him, Our father is Abraham.
O great unlearning and mind withered unto unbelief and looking to only wrangling! For while our Saviour Christ consenteth and saith openly, I know that ye are Abraham's seed, they persist in the same, and as though one were holding out and contradicting and saying that they were not of Abraham's seed after the flesh, they again say, Our father is Abraham, and blush not going oft through the same words, who think that they ought not to yield even to Battus i, but are but most excellent emulators of that man's babbling. But perchance they had some most unreasoning plea for this, and what, we will tell. For when the Lord says, I speak that which I have seen with My Father, they did not imagine that He hereby intended God the Father, but thought that He spoke of either the righteous Joseph, or some other of those on the earth, ridiculing and deeming and thinking exceeding little things of Him. For the holy Virgin conceived in her womb the Divine Babe, not of marriage but of the Holy Ghost, as it is written. And the blessed Joseph knowing not at first the mode of the economy was minded to put her away privily, as Matthew saith. But it was not by any means unknown by the Jews that the holy Virgin conceived in her womb before marriage and coming together, yet they understood not that it was of the Holy Ghost, but thought that she had been corrupted by one of the nation, whence they had no right conceptions of Christ. For they deemed that He was a child begotten of some other father who had corrupted (according to their |638 madness) the holy Virgin, and that He was attributed only to Joseph, being a bastard and not son in truth. When then He says, I speak that which I have seen of My Father, they took in no thought at all of God, but that He meant some one of earthly fathers and fancied that He was trying to move them from their honour to their ancestor, and suspecting that He was apportioning to His own kin the honour due to another, and that most ancient glory of the Patriarchate, they meet Him in a more contentious and vehement manner saying, Our father is Abraham. For just as though they were saying, Albeit, sir, you drench us with clever words, and din around us with portentous marvels, and strike us hard with mighty deeds beyond speech, you will not remove us from our pristine boast, we will not register Thy father as the head of our race, we will not attribute such a glory to another, nor will we take new ancestors in exchange for the elder ones. It is no marvel, nor hard to believe, that the Jews should fall into such folly, when they imagined that He is even a bare man and in manifold wise holding Him cheap would call Him the carpenter's son and rank as though nought the King and Lord of all.
But that they had no right opinion as to the holy Virgin also, as though she had been denied, we shall know full well by what follows.
40 Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham; but now ye seek to kill Me, a Man That have told you the truth which I heard of God, this did not Abraham.
Soothing, so to say, by every way and word the boldness of the Jews, Christ speaks to them veiledly, not applying open conviction but mingled with gentle speech, and in lowly wise and manifoldly charming their wrath. For since He sees that they are most exceeding silly and understand nought of what is said, He makes His Discourse free at length from any veil and bared of all covering. For it needed (He says) it needed, if ye believed that being classed |639 among Abraham's children was the highest honour, that ye should be zealous to imitate his manners: it needed that ye should track the lovely virtue of your ancestor, it needed that ye should be zealous of and love his obedience. For he heard God say, Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and come into the land that I will shew thee. And nought delaying in the fulfilment of what was bidden him, he hastens forthwith from his country, and relying on the mercy of Him who bade him, arrives in a foreign land. And being at the very goal so to speak of life and passing his hundredth year, he heard, Thou shalt have a seed, and nothing doubting, he gave fervent faith to Him That spake, heeding not the weakness of his flesh, but looking at the Strength of Him That spoke to him. He heard that he was to offer to God his beloved for a sacrifice and forthwith he strove against the longings of nature, and made his love for the youth second to the Divine Command. In you I find all contrary to these, for ye are seeking, He says, to kill Me because I have told you things from God, this did not Abraham. For he insulted not by his unbelief Him who spake to him, he sought not to do any thing that grieved Him. How then are ye any more Abraham's children being as far distant from his piety as the difference of your actions shews?
But observe how He arranges His speech: for He said not that they heard the truth from the Father but from God, since, as we just now said, from their innate unbounded folly they were dragged down to untrue conceptions of Him, thinking that He was speaking of some one of earthly fathers. And exceeding well does He making His Discourse about dying call Himself Man, in every way retaining to Himself incorruptibility as God by Nature yet not severing from Himself His own Temple, but as being One Son, even when He became Man, yet says that He spake the Truth. For not in types any more and figures does the Saviour's word teach us to practise piety, but persuades us to love the spiritual and true worship.
But when He says, Which I heard from the Father, we must by no means be offended. For since He says that |640 He is Man, He speaks this too as befits man: for as He is said as Man to die, let Him be said as Man to hear also. But it seems likely that in the word, heard, He puts the inherent knowledge which He has of the will of His own Progenitor, for so is the wont of the Divinely inspired Scripture oftentimes to say of God. For when it says And the Lord heard, we do not by any means attribute to Him a separate and distinct sense of hearing, like as there is in us, for the Divine Nature is simple and remote from all compound, but we take rather hearing as knowledge and knowledge as hearing; for in the simple there is nought compound as we have said.
And to these meanings we will add a third, not departing from fit aim. God the Father said somewhere of Christ to the most holy Moses, A Prophet will I raise them up (i. e. to them of Israel) from among their brethren like unto thee and I will put My words in His Mouth and He shall speak unto them all that I shall command Him. For this reason therefore did our Lord Jesus Christ say that He heard from the Father the Truth and spake it to the Jews, at once convicting them of fighting against God the Father and shewing clearly that Himself is He whom the Lawgiver promised before to raise up to them.
41 YE do the deeds of your father.
Having shewn that the Jews are utterly of other manner than their ancestor, and far removed from his piety, He with good reason strips them of their empty fleshly boast. And saying openly that they ought not any longer to be enrolled among his children, He allots them to another father like unto them, and affixed similitude of deeds as a sort of bond of kindred, teaching that the good ought to be joined to the good, and deciding that it is meet that they who live ill should have as fathers those who have been condemned for the like. For like as they who have chosen to live excellently, and are therefore even now called saints, may without hazard call God their Father, so to the wicked is the wicked one rightly ascribed as father, seeing that they form the image of his wickedness and perversity |641 in their characters. For not altogether is he who begot of himself conceived of as father by the Divine Scripture, but he too who has any conformed to his own character, of whom he is said to be therefore father. Thus does the Divine Paul too write to certain, for in Christ Jesus through the Gospel did I beget you. As then (as we said) some are conformed both to God and to the holy fathers through likeness in manners and holiness; so to the devil too and to those like in conduct to him are some rendered like-minded, suffering this through their own depravity. Therefore to the saints the saints are fathers, but to the wicked the wicked who betake themselves to them, most befittingly. And the one, who in holiness take the impression (so to say) of the Divine Form on their own souls, and have the confidence that befits own sons, will with reason say Our Father which art in heaven: the bad again will be ascribed to their own father, begotten as it were through likeness unto him unto equal depravity with him. To the Jews therefore Christ allots and names another father than the holy Abraham, and who, He does not as yet clearly say.
They said therefore to Him, We have not been born of fornication, we have one Father, God.
Already now have I said that the all-daring Jews were easily sick with bitter and unholy conceptions of our Saviour Christ. For they thought that the holy Virgin had been corrupted, I mean the Lord's Mother, and that she was taken with child, not of the Holy Ghost or of operation from above but of one of those on the earth. For being wholly disbelieving and without understanding, they either made no account of the prophetic writings, albeit openly hearing, Behold a Virgin shall conceive and bear a son, or looking only to the flesh and following the order of events usual with us, and not thinking of the Nature which works beyond speech, to which nought is hard to perform, every thing that seems good to Him easy; they deem that no otherwise could a woman conceive in her |642 womb, save by coming together with her husband and cohabitation. Sick of such a suspicion, the wretched ones dared to accuse the Birth through the Spirit of the Divine and wondrous Offspring. But when putting them forth from kindred with Abraham He allots them to another father, very angry are they, and unrestrainedly foaming up their inherent anger, they reviling say, WE have not been born of fornication, we have one Father, God. For they say darkly somewhat of this sort, Two fathers hast Thou, neither wert Thou born of honourable marriage, WE One, God.
But let a man see and consider clearly how great their disease of madness in this too. For they who by reason of the naughtiness and depravity that was in them are by the Righteous Judge put not even among the children of Abraham, advance to such a measure of madness, as to call even God their Father, perhaps because of what is said in the books of Moses, Israel is My son, My first-born, not admitting into their mind what is said through the voice of Isaiah, Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord.
And one may reasonably enquire what it was that induced the Jews at present to say no longer, Our father is Abraham, or, We have one father Abraham, but to go straight up to One God. To me they seem to have had some thought of this kind. For when they, smiting with their railing the Lord, as though His mother had been dishonoured before marriage, were ascribing to Him two fathers, needs did they seek to take the title of one as an ally of their own ill-will. For whereby they affirm that they have One Father God, by the same they indirectly reproach the Lord of having two, setting the One over against two. For they imagined that if they said, We have one father Abraham, they would be altogether denying the rest, I mean Isaac and Jacob, and the twelve who were from him, which if they should do, they would seem to be arming themselves against themselves and to fight with their own choice and boast, estranging Israel from the nobility of the fathers, and thereby to go along with the Lord's own saying. Escaping then the damage that thence seemed to accrue to them, they no |643 longer say, We have one father Abraham, but rather ascribe to themselves One Father God, spell-subdued by only the most unsure pleasures of railing, that they might fall into yet greater blame, craftsmen of all impiety, yet daring to take as their father the Enemy of all impiety.
42 Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father ye would love Me, for I proceeded forth from God and am come.
The Lord does not hereby take away the power of any to be ranked among the sons of God, but shews rather to whom will pertain the boast of it, and that it will be found rather in the saints, and convicts the insulting Jew of being mad. For I (saith He) am sprung the One and True Son by Nature, from God the Father that is; and all are adopted, formed after Me and mounting up unto My Glory, for images are always after their archetypes. How can ye then (He says) at all be numbered among the children of God, who are minded not only not to love Him Who beamed forth from God and transfashions unto His own Form those who believe on Him, but do even dishonour Him, not in one way but in many? and they who receive not the Image of God the Father, how will they be at all formed after Him? Besides it is lawful (He says) not to any chance persons without blame to call God their Father, but those in whom the beauty of piety towards Him shall flash forth,----those I deem and none other will it befit. I have come from Heaven to counsel you things most excellent, and My Word invites you to the being formed after God. But if it be verily your aim and longing to have God as your Father, surely ye would have loved Me your Guide and Teacher on such a path, Who give you the opportunity of likeness to the One and True Son, Who through the Holy Ghost render conformed to Himself those who receive Him. For he (He says) who altogether boasteth of ownness toward God, how would he not love Him That is of God? how (tell me) will he honour the tree who foolishly loatheth the fruit that is its offspring? Either therefore, He saith, make the tree good and his fruit good, or make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt. If therefore the Tree (i. e. God the |644 Father) be Noble and ye know how to draw the Splendour thereof on your own heads, why loved ye not the Fruit that is of Him, believing It to be such as He is? The verse before us therefore hath at once a bitter reproof of the Jews (for it shews them to be liars, for when they essay to call God their Father, they are far away from the virtue that pertains to those who are called to this, because they love not Him Who is of God by Nature) and at the same time it profitably brings in the mention of His own Ineffable Generation, that they might be caught in impiety in this too, calling Him ill-born and bastard. For if the saying, I proceeded forth from God, signifies His Ineffable and Eternal Generation from the Father; adding I am come, [He shews] His appearance in this world with Flesh. And surely one will not say that God the Word then first beamed forth from God the Father, when He became Man (for so it seemed to some of the unholy heretics) but he will rather take it as is meet and will conceive of it piously. For not because He joined the words, (I mean I proceeded forth and I am come) will the Word of the Father be co-eval in time with the Birth of the Flesh, but to each of the things indicated will we keep its proper meaning. For we believe the first Generation of the Word conceived of as from God to be without beginning and above mind; wherefore it hath been set forth first in the words, I proceeded forth from God; the second, i. e., that after the Flesh, for neither have I come of Myself but He sent Me. I was Incarnate as you, that is, I became Man, in the Good Pleasure of God the Father came I in this world to declare to you the things of God and to tell to those who know not, what it is that pleases Him. But ye loved not (He says) Him Who from the Divine counsel was revealed to you as Saviour and Guide. How then will ye any more be called children of God, or how will ye gain the grace of ownness with Him, if ye honour not Him That is of Him? It is likely that the Lord again means something by this and aims by such words also to silence the people of the Jews who are vainly yelping at Him. And what it is that is intended we will briefly say. |645
Many among the Jews esteeming no whit the Divine Fear, but admiring and accepting only honours from men, and overcome by base lucre, dared to prophesy, speaking out of their own heart and not out of the Mouth of the Lord, as it is written. And verily the Lord of all Himself chid them saying, I sent not the prophets, I spake not to them yet they prophesied; yea, He threatened to do dread things to them crying out, Woe unto them that prophesy out of their their own heart and see nothing at all. Such an one was that Shemaiah who to the words of Jeremiah opposed his own lie and having taken the yokes of wood and shattered them, said, Thus saith the Lord, I will shatter the yoke of the king of Babylon. Since then when our Saviour Christ says, But now ye seek to kill Me a man who have told you the truth which I heard of God, the Jews began to murmur, and not knowing Who He is in truth, to imagine that He is some false prophet and to be therefore hardened, so as to even dare to revile Him, and so angrily desire to kill Him as even to press on to do it:----profitably does He again terrify them, saying that He came not of Himself as was the wont of them who prophesy falsely, but was sent by God, that by the same He both putting aside the reputation of being a false prophet and teaching that they will incur no slight doom, who not only dishonour Him that has been sent by God the Father, but also dare to devise murder against Him, might cut short their unbridled daring.
This then for what is before us. But it is probable that the heretic will make what has been said the food of his innate impiety. He will haply accuse the Essence of the Only-Begotten and will deem that it is in lower case than the Father's because of His saying that He had been sent by Him. But let such an one consider the mode of the economy but now spoken, and remember Paul crying aloud of the Son, Who being in the Form of God thought it not robbery to be Equal with God, but emptied Himself taking servant's form, made in the likeness of men and found in fashion as a man He humbled Himself made obedient unto death. But if He hath of His own will humbled |646 Himself, the Father, that is, consenting and Co-willing it, what accusal will He have, going through the whole mode of the Economy unto its consummation, in any reasonable way? But if because of His saying that He has been sent, you deem that the Son lies in lower case than the Father, how (tell me) doth He That is in lower case, according to thy unlearning, work in all exactitude the things of God? For where does the lesser shew itself in Him who possesses perfectly all that belongs to His own Progenitor and the fullest God-befitting Authority? Therefore He will not be conceived of as less on account of being sent, but being God of God by Nature and verily, since Himself is the Wisdom and Power of the Father, He is sent to us as from the sun the light which is spread abroad from it, in order that He might make wise that which lacks wisdom, and that thus at length that which was weak might be lifted up through Him and strengthened unto the knowledge of God the Father and recovered unto all virtue. For all things most fair beamed on the human race through only Christ. There is therefore nothing at all of servile kind in Christ, but it belongs only to the form of the flesh: but God-befitting is His Authority and Power even all, even though the language meetly conformed to the measure of lowliness take human fashion.
43 Why do ye not understand My speech? because ye cannot hear My word.
What we have oftentimes said we say again for profit to the readers: for there is no harm in our discourse going very frequently through what may profit. It is the custom then of our Saviour Christ not altogether to accept from those who disbelieve Him, the word that boiled up from their tongue, but to look rather on the hearts and reins, and to make His replies to the thoughts that were yet revolving in the depth of their hearts. For man who knows not the thoughts that are in another, will needs admit the uttered word, but God not so; for He knowing all things, takes the thought for the voice. When then the Lord said |647 to the Jews that He had come not of Himself, like them who of their own mind and not of the Divine Spirit advance to prophesy, but that He was sent by God, they again imagine, or reason among themselves, or secretly whispering one to another said, Many Prophets have spoken the things of God and brought words from the Spirit unto us, but we find nought among them of such sort as is in this man's words. For He bears us wholly away from the worship after the Law and removes us to some other polity and introduces to us a strange transition of life. Dissonant therefore manifestly and irreconcileable is His Discourse with that of those of old. Since He beheld them thinking (as is likely) these things, shewing that He is by Nature God and knoweth the counsels of the hearts, He takes hold of it and says, Why do ye not understand My Speech? because ye cannot hear My Word. I am not ignorant (He says) that ye cannot comprehend My Speech, or doctrine; but I will tell you the reason and will clearly set before you what is the hindrance. Ye cannot hear My Word. He says, ye cannot, convicting them of impotence unto perfect good, because of their being fore-mastered by their passions. For the love of pleasure unnerves the mind, and the unbridled tendency towards evil yet weakening the sinew of the heart, renders it feeble and most spiritless to the power of performing any virtue. Being therefore fore-weakened by tendencies to vice and tyrannized by your own passions ye cannot, He says, hear My Word. For right are the ways of the Lord, as it is written, and the just shall walk in them, but the transgressors shall become impotent in them. Akin to this will you find that too which was in another place said to the Pharisees, How can ye believe which receive honour one of another and seek not the honour that, cometh from the only God? for verily in this their not being able to believe shews the voluntary weakness of their understanding or that their mind has been before overcome of vainglory. And we find again that that is true of the Jews which has been spoken by the voice of Paul, But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, |648 for they are foolishness to him. Since therefore they were natural, they deemed that He was foolishness Who was inviting them to be saved, and was teaching them the path of an excellent conversation, and directing them full well unto the power of pleasing God who delighteth in virtue, to whom be all honour, glory, might, for ever and ever. Amen.
[Page running titles]
They of Jerusalem see rulers' aims. 513
514 People perished through Rulers.
Rulers apt to rage restrained by One Mightier. 515
516 A right teacher a door, a wrong destroys.
Christ's Generation of the Father unknown. 517
518 Temporal Generation known, Eternal unknown.
Christ restrains the rulers raging, His Birth here known. 519
520 Christ True of Truth, they false.
Christ God Whose Origin unknown. 521
522 The Son God Who seeth the Father.
524 Christ's Passion willed, bought our salvation.
If we he subject to time, God dethroned. 525
526 Time good: if hours rule, no free-will,
no praise, no blame, we worse off than beasts. 527
528 Hours given to all alike.
Same hour Israel's deliverance, Assyria's overthrow. 529
530 God directs our affairs and cares for us. Christ
blesses marriage, His dutifulness, unsubject to hours. 531
532 Hour fit time for anything. People believe while rulers
plot against: rulers destroy the people. We know of all. 533
534 Rulers destroy their people.
Chief Priests join with Pharisees. Wicked war with saints. 535
536 Good, present, convicts evil. Christ foretells His
return to Heaven; His gentleness our Example. 537
538 Christ's tender reproach. Occasion
must be seized at once, how painted in S. Cyril's time. 539
540 Those who reject Him Christ parts with, the
pious honoured by Him and abide with Him. 541
542 Gentiles' teaching prophesied, of old forbidden.
Tabernacles feast of, regain of Paradise, brook, Christ. 543
544 Tabernacles feast of. Faith allowed to help others too.
Saints rivers. Scripture cited according to sense. 545
Christ as Man received His own Spirit, It lost gave man back. 547
548 Christ for us receives His own Spirit, why Incarnate,
our firstfruits lends us His Stability. 549
550 Them of old the Spirit illumined, us He indwells.
S. John Baptist attained bound possible without Baptism. 551
552 Christ for us receives His own Spirit. Two foretold, the Prophet
and Elias. People search Scriptures about Christ. 553
554 Jews perplexity. Passion reserved for its time.
Rulers anxiety. 555
556 The officers felt Christ's greatness.
The rulers despair. 557
558 Deeper punishment of knowledge, real ignorance of Law.
Nicodemus pungent reproof, his cowardice. 559
560 Nicodemus' reproof: Pharisees' fault-finding.
A Jew one by birth not by upbringing. 561
562 Without Christ they missed of light, He the
Light of all, forsook His old people, One Incarnate. 563
564 Teaching of elder Jews pattern to those now.
Objection to witness to oneself futile. 565
566 Saints have witnessed to themselves,
it does not necessarily involve falsehood. 567
568 Whence I am, God of God; whither, leaving them.
Christ a Physician most kind and forbearing. 569
570 The Son the Judge: the Father
approves the Son and co-witnesses to Him. 571
572 The Father's Nature in the Son therefore He
does nothing of Himself. Father and Son Co-witnesses. 573
574 Jews bowed down dote blaspheme.
The Father and Son known Each through Other. 575
576 Son Equal to Father; Joseph taken economically.
578 Christ suffered to save us willingly and when
He would, He Life by Nature, and gave us to God. 579
580 After-counsel useless; death in sin eternal
death, remorse there. Lesson from loss of health. 581
582 The Saints with Christ; we could not he saved
except He had come: I go My way, what. 583
584 From above, said of God the Son, His
Generation from the Father. 585
The Son God or a creature. 587
588 The Son God by witness of the Father and of S. Paul.
This world, all creation, not this world, God. 589
590 How devil fell. Angels stand around, Son enthroned.
The Son, God. Teachers must not flag. 591
592 Doom & life. The SON the Giver of the Gracious
promises in the Old Testament. 593
594 Jews' all-daring. Punctuation
of verse. Jews spoken to first though unworthy. 595
596 Jews 'preferred give place to Gentiles. Folly of
despising low birth. The Judge despised will doom. 597
598 Christ keeps everything for its time, witnessed to
by the Father, Scripture testimonies to. 599
600 Son leads to Father: Jews' mean thought of:
if mere man no hope for us; their punishment. 601
602 Threat from Him without Whom a sparrow falls not.
After Passion leaves them, goes to Gentiles. 603
604 Christ God Who o'ermasters death.
Jews' dread of the Resurrection. 605
The Son God One in Will and Mind with Father. 607
608 If Son not God, Father imperfect.
works on earth little to His creation of all. 609
610 The Son God. Of Myself I do nothing
does not signify inequality. 611
612 Father and Son distinct in Person: taught
implies identity of Nature. 613
614 God the Word imaged in our word. With Me, of
Nature; with us is God of our nature. 615
616 The Father's Wisdom knows: made Man veils knowledge
as Godhead: God, must do God's Works. 617
618 Choice of evil ours not God's. Persons of
Trinity God. Angels could swerve, the Son not. 619
620 Christ God and Man. Scriptures hard. Teachers unwearied
gain some as did their Lord. Faith demanded. 621
622 Christ the Author of both Testaments.
Value of faith. Christ the Truth. 623
624 Christ brought up out of Egypt. Elder Sacrifices
lead on to Christ the Truth, Who justifies and frees. 625
626 Abraham little by birth great by faith. Jews manifold bondage.
From slavery rulers, from sin Christ frees. 627
628 God's glory sinlessness. Those who are
adopted abide, the bond not. Sheep and goats, 629
630 The created decayeth, the Son, God,
abideth. Sitting signifies abidance. 631
632 The Free frees. Saints if mean to be honoured.
To Christ kinship bodily and spiritual. 633
634 Seed them who do after.
Jews' objections. 635
636 The Son hath one Will with the Father. Olden prophecies.
Condescension. Jews knew of Virgin Birth. 637
638 Jews' hard surmises, Christ's gentleness.
Praise of Abraham. Heard. 639
640 Heard, knew. Of the good God
Father, of the bad the devil. 641
642 impiety yet boastfulness.
The Son renders sons and conforms through Holy Ghost. 643
644 Eternal and Temporal Generation of Son.
Sent the temporal generation. 645
646 The Son sent, to bring all good to us; answers
thoughts. Pleasure and vain-glory unnerve the mind. 647
648 Jews unspiritual, deem the Son even foolishness.
[Most of the footnotes, moved to the end and renumbered. The margin contains mainly biblical references and fragments of Greek. These have been omitted]
1. a ἀκράτῳ, sheer, a conjecture of Dr. Heyse for ἀκάρπῳ, fruitless.
2. a ἐν ἀμείνοσι: perhaps οὐκ ἐν ἀμείνοσι, not above is the right text.
3. b πλουσίαν Ἱερουσαλὴμ, S. Cyril appears to have had in his mind a very favourite quotation of his, Isa. xxxiii. 20, where the LXX has πόλις πλουσία, a prosperous or wealthy city.
4. c Thus I have emended, the MS. gives, καίτοι τοῦ νυμφῶνος οὐκ ὄντες υἱοί: what the real text is, is impossible to conjecture.
5. d for holy convocation the LXX has κλητὴ ἁγία, called out (or choice, notable) holy, and S. Cyril below alludes to this.
6. e seventh. So the MSS. of S. Cyril: eighth, both Hebrew and LXX and S. Cyril when citing the passage more at length, De Ador. book xvii.
7. f S. Cyril does not appear to have more than touched very briefly on the subject in any part of this commentary that we have: it is treated at length, de Adoratione lib. xvii. pp. 619, 620.
8. g I. e., not as a literal citation.
9. b S. Cyril with one or two MSS. adds this word.
10. d Thus reads S. Cyril with the uncial MSS. of the Alexandrine family, B. L.
11. e So reads S. Cyril with the MSS. of the Alexandrine family B. L.
12. f τὸ συνειδὸς, often used for conscience, seems here to mean only, the consciousness that tells one that any thing said of another will apply to him too.
13. g The history of the Woman taken in adultery is omitted by S. Cyril from this place as do most of the oldest MSS. also.
14. h S. Cyril joins on the holy at the end of ver. 5 to verse 6; not following herein the LXX as at present punctuated. There is a remarkable citation of the passage in Origen (ii. 515 A) quoted by Holmes. He omits, of the clause ὅτιἅγιος ἐστι, the words ὅτι and ἐστι and joins ἅγιος to verse 6 just as S. Cyril does here; citing the passage thus, worship at His footstool, Holy was Moses &c.
15. a i. e.,. the Arians. Cf. at the end of the Symbolum Nicaenum, " But those who say, 'There was a time when He was not,' or 'He was not before He was begot,' etc., these doth the Catholic and Apostolic Church of God anathematize."
16. b ὅτι because, for ὅτε when. So reads the MS. of S. Cyril in this place, with the Vatican, Alexandrine, Sinaitic and other uncial codices.
17. c S. Cyril has the word say very often, though he also uses the N. T. word write, as e. g. in his commentary upon Haggai.
18. d The MS. of S. Cyril here omits God, as does the codex Vaticanus: Tischendorf has got a few other instances of this in Fathers.
19. e γένους, the people of Israel, contrasted with ἐθνῶν, the Gentiles, like τῷ λαῷ is with ἔθνεσι in Acts xxvi. 23. and a little before, ver. 17: so in Rom. xv. 10, Rejoice ye Gentiles with His people.
20. f S. Cyril transposes the words Cover us and Fall on us again in the last Book of this commentary and also on the Prophet Hosea [x. 8.]
21. g Cf. Jer. xi. 15, Isa. v. 1, and of Benjamin, Deut. xxxiii. 12.
22. a unless ἰδιότητος be an error for θεότητος, of Godhead.
23. b Κατηργήθητε, cf. Rom. vii. 2 and 6, (pointed out by Liddell and Scott) is loosed from the law of her husband, we are delivered from the law.
24. c I. e., in his relation towards God, like S. John xv. 13-15, where our Lord contrasts the conditions of the relations of bondage and friendship.
25. d For Nehelamite, the Greek text of S. Cyril (following the Alexandrian and Frederico-Augustane MSS. of the LXX) has ἐλαμίτην, Elamite, the Vatican text of the LXX, the scarcely differing form, αἰλαμίτην.
26. e τοὺς ποιοὕντας τὰ ὅμοια αὐτῷ; it does not appear where S. Cyril obtained these words, to explain τὸ γένος, his seed, though he says expressly a little below that they are there.
27. f So reads S. Cyril for ἑωράκατε, ye have seen with the Alexandrine MSS. BCL.
28. g So reads S. Cyril (omitting ὑμῶν, your) with the uncial MSS. BL.: and he takes ποιεῖτε imperatively in his exposition on the present verse.
29. h See Heb. ii. 2, For if the word spoken by (i. e., through) Angels (that is the Law as contrasted with the Gospel uttered through God the Son's own Mouth) were steadfast; Gal. iii. 19, and it was ordained by (i. e., through) Angels in the hand of a mediator (i. e., Moses); S. Stephen's Apology in Acts vii. 53, who received the Law at the appointment of Angels and kept it not. i Battus is explained in Liddell and Scott's Lexicon to be the name of a stammerer, and formed from the continual repetition in stammering in the effort to get out his words.
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Early Church Fathers - Additional Texts
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Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, LFC 43, 48 (1874/1885) Book 6. Vol. 1 pp. 649-684, Vol.2 pp. 1-91.
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, LFC 43, 48 (1874/1885) Book 6. Vol. 1 pp. 649-684, Vol.2 pp. 1-91.
[Translated by P.E. Pusey and T. Randell]
|649
CHAPTERS IN BOOK VI.
That not from sins of the soul prior to birth do bodily suffering's befal any, nor yet does God bring the sins of the fathers upon the children or of any upon other, punishing those who have nothing sinned, but brings righteous doom upon all, on the words, Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind? |650
OUR FATHER AMONG THE SAINTS
CYRIL
Archbishop of Alexandria
ON THE
GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN.
BOOK VI.
[Introduction]
44 Ye are of your father the devil and the lusts of your father ye will do: he was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth because there is no truth in him.
Having with reason led them off from their kindred with Abraham and convicted them of having unlikeness to him in their manners, and of being far removed from piety toward God Himself, and yet moreover having explained the reason of their not being able to be obedient to His speech, He again shews who will rather be more fittingly and properly termed their father. Ye therefore, He says, are of your father the devil, whom He says was also a murderer in the beginning and that he abides not in the truth and is a liar; and that his father was a liar, whom in what follows He defined clearly who he is: for the mighty force itself in their brevity of the words before us has much obscurity and specially needs accurate scrutiny. For deep is the discourse about this, and not clear I ween to the many. For as to the meaning which can readily be got, it allots |651 to the Jews no other father than Satan who fell from heaven. But that which is put next about the father allotted them, that he is a liar just as his father also, troubles us, yea rather compels us to fresh doubt2 not a little. For whom (if we think reasonably) can we imagine to have been father to the devil, or what other before him fell to whom he that comes after can be compared in likeness and manner? for no one will shew us such a reading as this in the holy and Divine Scriptures; and in no wise is that to be received as truth which is not told in the Divinely-inspired Scriptures. For every spirit that is reckoned among devils as a child of the devil is called Satan according to what is said by our Saviour Christ, If then Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself: yet have we heard of one surpassing the rest and above them, him to whom it is somewhere said by the Prophet Ezekiel, Thou art the seal of likeness and crown of beauty begotten in the delight of the Paradise of God, every precious stone hast: thou put on. Whom else then shall we unblamed suppose existed, after whom this one was formed, in likeness I mean as to vice? for some of the elder expositors, citing what is now before us, say that that ancient Satan who is conceived of as being the chief of all the other devils was bound by the Might of God and cast into Tartarus itself there to pay the penalty of what he had done in outrage against God, and that some other appeared after him, coming nothing short of the abominations of his father 1, and they affirmed that of him it was that the Saviour says that he was a murderer from the beginning and that he is a liar, as his father.
But unless we had much considered it in our minds, we should with reason have readily accepted this, but now this one thing above all suffers us not to approve inconsiderately. For at the time of the Saviour's Advent, the tyranny of the devil was receiving the beginning of its fall and the wicked and unclean spirits were being sent |652 forth into the deep. And verily the devils would come and openly beg Him, that He would not command them to go forth into the deep. And we remember that they made a great outcry about this, saying, Let us alone, what have we to do with Thee, Thou Jesus of Nazareth? we know Thee Who Thou art, The Holy One of God, art Thou come hither to torment us before the time? For that our Lord Jesus Christ having come among us would waste them away and manifoldly vex them, they themselves too knew full well, finding much talk of Him among those in Israel, yet found fault as though He had come not in His season, in this too acting tyrannically and perversely accusing the time of the Advent. But they say before the time, as though in no wise tormented in any other time, but looking for one, the time of the Advent, in which they were unquestionably to undergo what they are expecting. And to this we say besides, If, he being bound according to their distinction, some other deceived Adam, and does not yet cease from the madness whereof he is accused, the first one will be wholly blameless as regards us, and this account will free him from all blame, and neither hath he slain any, nor deceived nor lied, nor yet will it be justly said to him by God, As raiment stained in blood shall not be clean, so neither shalt thou be clean, because thou destroyedst My land and slewest My people. If therefore we grant that that he whom they say is the first is wholly without any share in the above enumerated evil deeds, whom shall we decide that the second after him imitated, or after whom was he formed who surpassed in wickedness his leader, and had the deeper impress of that one's villainy?
And it were I suppose not unreasonable that we searching out this matter should go through fuller proofs, but we think it superfluous to put forth too much energy for what needs not: we will therefore go on to another thought and accurately search who it was that Christ allotted to the Jews as their father of like manner and disposition, so that for his father might reasonably be enrolled an evil |653 spirit, that prince of evil, i. e. Satan. He brings them up therefore to Cain who first of all men loved not Him who chastised him by reproofs, but was set forth as the beginning of envy and murder and craft and lying and deceit, next to that Satan whose son he is rightly said to be, inasmuch as he receives in himself the whole impress of that one's wickedness. For as God is the Father of every holy and righteous person, being Himself the beginning of the holiness and righteousness of all:----in the same way I deem will Satan be reasonably styled father of every wicked person, himself being the author of all wickedness. But since we have said that Cain was given to the Jews as their father, to Cain again Satan, come let us following out our own words clearly shew that Satan first of all reared his neck at God's reproofs, then both deceived and lied and lastly through envy committed murder: and having shewn that Cain was of like manner and disposition with him, we in the third place bring down our argument to the Jews who possess complete the image of the wickedness that is in him.
Satan therefore despising his own principality and greatly longing after what was above his own nature, and not keeping the limit of his position, was borne down and fell, thereby convicted by God and taught the measure of his nature. But nothing profited thereby by reason of his ill counsel, he sickened of a worse disease, by no means looking to the duty of amending his own disposition, but minded to abide in steadfast perversity. But when the first man was formed by God, according to the book of Moses, and was in Paradise, yet keeping the commandment given him, that I mean about the Tree, Satan was first kindled to envy, and in that his transgression and disobedience were blamed by the first-created, while they were as yet keeping the commandment given them, he was eager by much-intriguing deceits to draw them away unto disobedience. And knowing that they would waste away if |654 they made light of the commands of the Great King, he persuades them to do this, encompassing with the uttermost ills those who had nothing injured him. For that a deed of devilish deceit and envy was the transgression in Adam and the death that through it sprang upon him, the very nature of the thing will itself teach us, and the saying of the all-wise Solomon will make clear to us speaking on this wise, God made not death, but through envy of the devil came death into the world.
Herein then is his part, let now Cain come in to us and stand before us. For he was the first-born of Adam, an husbandman by occupation, and next after him came Abel, but he was a shepherd of sheep. But since the law of nature called them to offer sacrifice to God, implanting untaught the knowledge of the Creator (for all good things have been sown and infused in our nature by God): Cain offered of the fruit of the ground, as it is written, but Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof; and God had respect unto Abel and to his gifts but unto Cain and to his offerings He had not respect. And Cain was very vexed and his countenance fell. And the Lord God said unto Cain, Why wert thou vexed and why did thy countenance fall? If thou offeredst well but dividedst not aright, didst thou not sin? be still. Then to Abel, Unto thee shall be his resort and thou shalt rule over him. Therefore Cain was blamed for dividing not aright his offering, Abel was rightly deemed worthy of praise and honour, which was to Cain food of envy. For he was exasperated at the correcting reproofs, just as Satan was, then swelling with unrighteous envy, as we said, he goes after his brother in guile, already devising the unholy murder. For, it says, Cain said to Abel his brother, Let us go over unto another field better than this, and inviting as though to enjoyment and tender grass him who was utterly unconscious, he savagely murdered him, and first of all laid him dead on the ground, thinking (it seems) that he would surely win all wonder, having no longer any to surpass him. And having slain him, he told a lie; for when |655 God says. Where is Abel thy brother? he says, I know not, and out of his exceeding folly added in heat, Am I my brother's keeper? For it says that he well-nigh said thus, Thou who crownedst him unjustly what good didst Thou, his Keeper, do him? Thou seest then and that clearly that the whole likeness of the devil's wickedness was accurately finished in him, and the conformation of his manners moulded after an equal and like fashion.
Let our discourse therefore go forward to the impiety of the Jews, and putting around them the likeness of Cain's villainy, let us shew that they essayed those things against Christ, which he did against Abel, that rightly and fitly he may be termed their father. Therefore first-born was Cain, as we have said, first-born again among the children of God by adoption was Israel, as was said to Moses, Israel is My first-born. And he hath brought of the produce of the ground an offering unto God, but to his offerings He had not respect, as it is written. For more earthly was Israel's worship of the law, as has been said, by bullocks and sheep and fruits of the earth, nor does God accept this. For to what purpose, He saith, cometh there to Me incense from Sheba and cinnamon from a far country? and by the voice of Isaiah too He openly crieth, Who required this at your hand? After Cain cometh the righteous Abel to sacrifice of the sheep. For after the service according to the law, and at the consummation of the Prophets came Christ the verily Righteous, bringing not fruits of the earth for a sacrifice to God the Father, but for the life and salvation of all offering to Him Himself as an immaculate Victim for an odour of a sweet smell. For God the Father dismissing as more earthly the worship after the Law, had respect to the sacrifice of our Saviour Christ. The word, had respect to means Delighted in. What followed? Cain was rebuked for not dividing aright, and when blamed was sick of envy, and hastens headstrong unto murder. And God was admonishing in His Son the people of the Jews, was asking of them better things for offering, bidding them transform the worship according to the Law unto spiritual fruit-bearing, and |656 urging them to transfashion the Letter unto truth: but they reproved are angry, and are smitten with the paternal envy, and unrighteously plot murder against our Saviour Christ. Cain deceived Abel, and taking him into the field displayed him dead: the Jews likewise as far as in them lay deceived Christ, sending the traitor in the guise of a friend, who coming to Him to betray Him saluted Him deceitfully saying, Hail Master. And they too took Him into the plain, i. e., they destroyed Him without the gate. For without the gate did Christ suffer because of us and for us. Thou seest then how they are found to be in no way like Abraham or those who were really of him, but bear the image of their own fitly and really belonging father, and madly sick with wickedness conformed and akin to his, they rightly hear, ye are of your father the devil and the lusts of your father ye will do; he was a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth because there is no truth in, him; when he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar just as was his father. And I, because I tell you the truth, ye believe Me not. The aim of the discourse looks to the father of the Jews who was brought forward and exhibited, I mean Cain, but it spreads out more generally. For not at that man's life does He bound the force of what He says, but puts it round about every one who is like him, allotting what is said of one individually to every one who is like him. For when (He says) Cain or other liar like him utters a lie, he utters it as of his own kin. For learning what he has from his rulers and him who hath given him the beginning of wickedness, he making the lie his own as some natural acquisition imitates his own father, for he utters a lie. Wherefore (He saith) since he had for his father one who delighted in lies, he is led on as by natural laws to the ignobility of his grandfather and father and shews forth in himself their villainy, and making the depravity of his ancestors the very clearest image of his own manners and ways, surely brags of his own ill.
Since then this is even so and the wickedness of elders engraven on those of like manners with themselves, causes |657 them to be styled their children, what is it that hinders you from believing Me even when I tell you the truth, that I of a surety am sprung of a True Father, and (as I said before) I proceeded forth from God and am come? For if a person tells lies because he has a liar for his father and utters them thence as from his own kindred, how is it not of necessity that I too speaking the truth must be conceived to have been surely begotten of a True Father and not (as YE blasphemously surmised) from one of the earth who was of fornication and unlawful union?
Such words then will the Lord have used to the Jews. But we must know that in respect of men or of rational spirits in manners and habits is seen the kinness which they may have one to another [and] to the father of all wickedness the devil: in regard of the Only-Begotten this is taken only as an image of this which is before us 2: for by Him it [i. e., the relationship] is full exactly limned, for His Connaturalness with the Father is Natural and Essential. For being of Him in truth, possessing all that is His with Natural Property and the acme of likeness in ail things, He is seen the Form and Image and Impress of Him Who begat Him. Since therefore the Father is True, Truth of a surety is He too That is of Him, i. e., the Christ.
46 Which of you convinceth Me of sin?
The question is not that of one who looketh to be convicted, but rather of One Who takes away and utterly denies the possibility of Very God Who beamed forth of God, falling into sin: for Christ did no sin. For all sin takes its rise from the turning aside from the better unto that which is not so, and is produced in those whose nature it is to turn and who are recipient of change unto what they ought not. For how will he be conceived to even sin who knows no turning nor is recipient of change to ought that is not |658 convenient, but rather is steadfast in His own innate Good, and that not from another but from Himself? The Lord then enquires of the Jews if they can at all convict Him of sin. And the word used for this will go through every transgression universally: but connecting it fitly with what is before us, we say that He does not at present ask it of every sin and do this as fearing to be convicted, but we consider it in this way, that since He was ever zealous to shame the sin of the Jews, He would not have endured by this question to incite them to again accuse Him of those things of which they before said, For a good work we stone Thee not but for blasphemy, and because Thou, being a Man, makest Thyself God: and besides that they should bring forward the breach of the sabbath in regard to which He was judged to have exceedingly transgressed. By sin therefore He at present means falsehood. For if (He says) I am never yet convicted of being untrue, why are ye minded to disbelieve Me who ever speak the truth, and tell you of a surety that I am sprung of the Very Father and know not falsehood? Give therefore give to faith unhesitatingly to hold that I am surely True when I say of Myself, I proceeded forth from God and am come, of you that your father is the devil, for ye lie and desire to kill just as he doth. But He convicts them profitably of desiring to kill Him, cutting short thereby their attempts. For sin exposed often blushes, and after a sort withdraws, finding no way of going forward and persisting: but if it think that it lies hid, it is ever the more lifted up and with unchecked impetus creeps on to basest consummation.
If I say the truth, why do ye not believe Me?
He goes often through the selfsame words, when He sees that they understand nought: for this too is a thing most befitting for teachers, not to shrink from manifoldly revolving the instruction which at the first was not taken in, in order that it may be fixed in the souls of the hearers. When therefore the liar (He says) speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar just as his father:----why do ye reasoning |659 and acting not conformably to what I say, not believe Me, albeit I say the truth, [imagining] that I am therefore speaking apart from the truth, seeing that I am even so True as is the Father also? It is (I suppose) likely that He is convicting the Jews of being therefore infirm in the power of containing the words of the truth, because they are not sons of the truth. To no purpose do they falsely call God their Father, saying, We have One Father, God. For God (He says) being wholly Truth, rejoices in the truth and wills them that worship Him, to worship Him in Spirit and in truth. And the children of the truth receive willingly what is of kin to them, i. e., the Truth. But YE when I tell you the truth do therefore not believe, because ye are not children of the truth. Some such thing does the Lord seem to me to be saying to the Jews, as one will easily see if one adapt the speech to another person. For let one for example of sober character say to an unbridled son or servant or neighbour, If I seem to thee to be of sober character shunning fornication and putting the thought thereof as far from me as possible, why disbelievest thou and givest no credence when I say that it is a foul and polluted deed? One would not I suppose say that he said this, looking for an answer to his question, but whereby he shews him unbelieving clearly convicts him that he rejoicing in licentiousness does not admit the speech that would amend him.
Thus then shall we conceive as to the Jews likewise, when Christ says, If I say the truth, why do ye not believe Me? for the form of such questions has an affirmation alongside of them and ever annexed, from the very questions themselves; yea rather (may one say) the question largely convicts them. For we convict those who are asked of having the sickness of being without what ourselves possess. But note how He says, not absolutely nor generally, why believe ye Me not? but hath added YE, hinting at those who were wont more fiercely to disbelieve, and indicating that there were some there who had haply a nobler mind, and did not preserve in their ways the accurate impress of Cain's stubbornness, but were even now going |660 forward to being even enrolled among the children of God. For I say that we must not think that all the Jews were utterly immersed in untempered folly, but that some having a zeal of God, as Paul saith, yet not according to knowledge, did therefore delay a little as to the faith. But in those who were thus disposed we shall blame, as much looking unto wrath and intemperately kindled unto bloodthirstiness, the unholy scribes and Pharisees in particular, to whom will more fitly pertain the, Why do YE not believe Me, Christ as it were attributing to them as their own, boundless unbelief. For they were they who are the leaders and who persuade their subjects to go along with their profane-nesses. Rightly therefore are they accused as having taken away the key of knowledge, and neither entering in themselves, and hindering others. The YE therefore has its more especial application to the rulers.
47 He that is of God heareth God's words; YE therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.
We must here understand that certain are of God, not as though begotten of His Essence (for that were foolish), nor yet according to what is said through Paul, All things are of God (for since He is Creator and Maker of all things who giveth being to all, the Divine Paul saith that all things are of Him): but it will not harmonize so to understand it here, for all are of God, both bad and good, in so far as He is Creator of all. He says therefore that he is of God who by virtue and a right conversation is related to God, and accounted worthy of kinness to Him, in that He deigns to enrol such among His children. He therefore, He says, that is of God will receive most readily and gladly the Divine words (for that which is of kin and own is always dear) but he that is not of God, i. e., he who in no wise prizes relationship with Him, will not most gladly hear the Divine words: for neither will good easily inexist the bad, nor will longing for virtue be to them a thing worth fighting for, since their mind has been filled with the extremest depravity and looks to only its own will. |661
But when Christ says, He that is of God heareth God's words, let no one think that He is bidding us to give the Divine voice entry in merely our bodily ears. For who that is, even though he be a thoroughly bad man, will not surely hear the voice of him who speaketh, if he have not by some disease lost his hearing? But the word heareth, He here puts instead of Consents, believes and lays up in his mind, as it is said in the book of Proverbs, The wise will receive commandments in his heart. For that of the unwise or despisers the word borne about, like some meaningless sound and like some din that annoys to no purpose, forthwith departs from the recipients: but into the heart of the prudent like some generous soil it sinks in.
Full wisely does now the Lord, convicting the madness of the Jews and shewing that they blaspheme without restraint, say that His words are the words of God. For He reinstructs them (He says) to think more becomingly of Him and not to deem that of Joseph or any other of those on the earth did He of a truth spring, but to believe that of the Essence of God the Father He hath appeared God of God. Which they indeed understanding are annoyed and burn with hotter wrath, adding iniquity to their iniquity, as it is written, through those things whereby they insult Him yet more.
48 The Jews answered and said to Him, Say we not well that Thou art a Samaritan and hast a devil?
Meet is it again to bewail the madness of the Jews and the exceedingness of their folly. For they are taken by their own voice, like wild beasts when they spring upon the hand of them who are slaying them, themselves against themselves lending impetus to the steel. For when reproved of lying as their habit and custom which had grown up with them, they immediately shew that it is true, and they are cut at hearing from the Saviour that they are not of God, yet immediately without an interval do they shew in themselves most exact image of the devil's wickedness. For a Samaritan and possessed do they dare to say that |662 He is Who is sprung God of God, themselves rather having in themselves the bitter and God-opposing devil: for no man saith Anathema Jesus, save in Beelzebub, as Paul saith. Liars therefore and insulters and railers are they hereby too found, and used to fight against God, they shall pay fit penalty to the Judge That can do all.
We must enquire again here too the reason why they call the Lord both a Samaritan and possessed. For the prefacing, Do not WE well say, indicates that for some reason they vilify Him both as a Samaritan, and the other thing too which their utterance dared. They call Him therefore a Samaritan as being indifferent to the commands of the Law and recking nought of the breach of the Sabbath. For among the Samaritans there is no exact Judaism but their worship is mixed with foreign and Greek habits. Or in another way do they say that He is a Samaritan, seeing it was the habit of the Samaritans to falsely testify purity of themselves and to condemn the rest as defiled. On this pretext I suppose, the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans, as it is written, and refuse also to mingle with some others, loathing after a sort the defilement thence arising, since thus to prate seems to them right. And the Lord condemning the ill-disposition of the Jews, used to call them devil's children, and to Himself He testifies entire blamelessness in regard to sin and utter purity saying, Who of you is convicting Me of sin? for this was the language of one who was plainly ascribing to Himself the uttermost purity, by reason that He could not fall into sin, and by calling the Jews Satan's children was condemning them as defiled and having their mind filled with all uncleanness, as is also true. On these accounts therefore do they call Him a Samaritan, they say again that He is possessed, because it is the wont of devils to transfer to themselves the honour due to God and recklessly to seize on God's glory. And this very thing they suppose that Christ does, when being man He puts Himself as it were into the place of God saying, He that is of God heareth God's words: for He is intimating (they say) of His own words that they are such. Of their railing, their blasphemy rather, against |663 Him such is the Jews' plea and occasion for saying those things which pledged unto them the eternal fire.
And it comes to me to wonder at this also. They angered because they were often called devil's children and liars, shew in act that the charge belongs to them, which they ought rather by inclining themselves to virtue to have rubbed off. For their love of railing and saying that things belong to any which do not belong to them, are most fit not for those who have been enrolled among God's children but among the devil's children. And the wretched ones not only rail, lying against their own head, not to say against Christ, but they also affirm that they are doing so well, not so much as condemning their wickedness: and this is the proof of the completest blindness.
49 Jesus answered, I have not a devil but I honour My Father and YE do dishonour Me.
Gentle is the word, but nevertheless very pointed. For most emphatically does He say, I have not a devil, and putting Himself in contradistinction to them, He shews that He is free from their railing and that it is true of them. For unless themselves had a devil, they would (it is likely) have shuddered at calling Him possessed Who was attested to them by His Deeds as God. Most excellently therefore does He say, I have not, transferring the speech to them and allotting it rather to them by reason that so it was in truth. I therefore have not (He says) but YE the devil, and I honour My Father, saying that I am God and have beamed forth of God and affirming that I knew not sin. For it needed, it needed that He Who is of God be God and that He Who is of Him Who knoweth not sin should be beheld such as He of Whom He is. But if (as is necessary the opposite should be) refusing to offend you, I had not used such splendid language (for God would not be honoured if conceived of as having a Son not God) the Father (He says) would not have been honoured if He had been called the Father of one who falls into sin. Hence in witnessing most excellent things to Myself, I in no wise (He says) |664 blaspheme as ye suppose, but rather honour My Father. I honour Him in another way too (for I say with justice of you that ye are not of God, since neither is it right that they who have come to this pitch of wickedness and are drenched in all villainy should say that they are of God. For He honours and deems worthy of kin to Him not the liar and railer and blasphemer and haughty and insolent, nor yet one whose wont it is to seek to kill unjustly, but the gentle and meek and pious and godly and good. Hence in this way too do I honour the Father, putting forth from kinness with Him those who are condemned for utter wickedness; and YE again dishonour Me doing this, and attack the praise that belongs to the Father that ye may be caught, blaspheming not only against the Son, but now against Him too. For if I by witnessing of Myself things most excellent, honour My Father, he will surely (He says) dishonour Him, who clothes Him That is of Him with the deepest reproaches. On all sides therefore is Christ consistent with His own words, and clearly shews that He is God by Nature, and whereby He says that the Father is honoured when the kinness to Him of the multitude of the unholy is thrust off, by this doth He say that the Jews are in all respects alien to God: for what more unholy than they who say those things?
50 I seek not Mine own Glory, there is That seeketh and judgeth.
Herein is that seen to be clearly true which is said through Peter of the Saviour, Who when He was reviled reviled not again, suffering He threatened not but delivered Himself to Him That judgeth righteously. For see how He hearing things of all the worst and cruellest from those who are impiously raging against Him (and this full oft) He abides in His own gentleness, and in no wise departs from what beseems Him, for our ensample doing this too, that we zealous to follow His Footsteps might not be caught in rendering railing for railing, nor ought else of evil for evil, but might rather overcome evil with good.
I therefore seek not My glory (He says) and this not as |665 though He were proffering to those who so willed the insulting of Him as a thing free from peril, nor yet as inciting any to go readily unto this impiety is He seen to say this, but He signifies rather thus: I am come (He says) not to make glory from you My business, nor desiring at all honour or fame: for being in the form of God the Father I have abased Myself and have for your sakes become Man as you. And He Who disdained not to take servant's form, when He might have remained in equality with God the Father and had the full enjoyment of things above mind and speech, how will He be deemed to be seeking glory from any and not rather to be enduring voluntary disgrace for others' good?
Our Lord here is either saying this, or in another way too we will suppose that He seeketh not His own glory. For it being in His Power to punish immediately those who insult Him and to demand satisfaction for their blasphemy as behaving ungodly against the Very Lord of all:----He bears calmly what is grievous and endures to that extent as not so much as to desire to grieve by a mere word the haughty ones, yet in order that blasphemy against God may not seem a beaten track to any, needs does He, forbidding them to advance thereto, straightway oppose as a barrier, the Father's wrath. For though the Son be longsuffering and do not forthwith take vengeance for His own glory, the Father (He says) will not be forbearing, for He will be an Avenger and will rise up against the insulters, not as though taking the part of another nor as though He were pleased to grieve in behalf of one of the saints insulted and deemed it became Him thus to do, but as though the sin reached up unto Him (for there is nought at all intervening between the Father and the Son, as far I mean as identity of Essence, even though either be conceived of as existing separately). For therefore does our Lord Jesus Christ too elsewhere say, He that honoureth not the Son neither doth he honour the Father. For the Son hath in Himself Naturally the Father Co-glorified and Co-existing, the Father again hath in Himself the Son partaker of His Essence, so too of |666 His glory in every thing. The wretched Jews therefore will be punished for their blasphemy against the Lord and Son, impious against the whole Consubstantial and Holy Trinity and grieving in the Son the Nature that is King of all.
Every one therefore who at all practiseth piety must therefore shun in ought offending the good God. For not because He doth not immediately bring His Anger on those who offend against Him, must we therefore be supine. For He is Good, not bringing on His Anger every day, yet if we turn not, He will whet His sword, as it is written, and will bend against us His Bow, wherein are the instruments of death, that is to say, every form of shame and intolerable trouble.
51 Verily verily I say unto you, If a man keep My word, he shall not see death for ever.
He shews that it is superfluous to array long defences against those who are wont to delight in blaming; for He bends Himself to what was necessary, I mean the calling through faith unto eternal life, and all but bidding farewell to those who had through their unlearning grieved Him, He kneads up His own discourse with a sort of art. For having before said of God, He that is of God heareth God's words, He immediately says, If a man keep My word, shewing that He is by Nature God and hence teaching that no further reach of impiety yet remains to the Jews when they have said that He hath a devil Who giveth eternal Life to those who will keep His word. For will He not be known by this too to be God by Nature? for to what other will pertain the being able to quicken for ever them who hear His words, save to Him Who is God by Nature?
The Divine word is kept, when a man does not transgress the Divine Commandment but is instant and does without delay that which is bidden and is in no wise accused of sloth in the Divine laws. But note again how great exactitude the words have, for He does not endure to say, If a man hear My Word, but, If a man keep My Word. For |667 there receive into their ear the word of God, not men alone holden in sin, but also the unhallowed band itself of the devils: and verily Satan the chieftain of them all, when he daring to tempt in the wilderness our Lord Jesus Christ, kicking against the pricks by reason of his much ferocity of character, did set before Him the Divine word also, saying. It has been written That He shall command His Angels respecting Thee to guard Thee in all Thy ways. Therefore not in mere hearing is the word of salvation, nor in only learning is life, but in keeping what was heard, and as a certain rule and guide of life was He setting before [them] the Divine word. He says that the sure keeper of His words shall not see death for ever, not surely as taking away death in the flesh, but as God not accounting that death is death, for to Him nought is dead, in that His it is both to bring to the birth that which is not and easily to quicken that which when so wrought has decayed. Or He says that the saints shall not see death in the age to come, which age will strictly and more truly be conceived of as not having an end like this of ours; and He says that they who have kept His Divine Word, shall not see death during that age, not as though any should die after the Resurrection, for the death of all has been undone in the death of Christ and the might of decay brought to an end, but by death He means (as is like) being punished for ever. And you may learn this, viewing what Himself has said above: for Verily (He says) I say to you, he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, he that disobeyeth the Son shall not see life: albeit all shall rise again and shall hasten anew unto life, both faithful and faithless. For by no means is the Resurrection partial, but equally to all, so far at least that all must live again.
How then will he that believeth not the Son not see life, albeit all look to rise again? it is then manifest to every body that it is Christ's wont to call life, a long living in gladness and glory which refuseth to draw to a close, and this is treasured up in hope for the saints. As therefore He says that he which disobeyeth the Son shall have |668 no sight of life albeit all look to live again, meaning here not the life of the body, but calling by this name the hope prepared for the saints: in the same way He says that the brave and intrepid keeper of His Divine words shall not see death for ever, not surely signifying hereby the death of the body, but the punishment prepared for the sinners. For as in the former joy is indicated through the word life, so here too punishment through saying death.
52 The Jews said to Him, Now we know that Thou hast a devil.
They again accuse the Truth who when called liars take it ill as though they were insulted: yet do they bear witness even against their will to the Saviour's words and whereby they dishonour Him, by these very same words they shew that He is unlying. But blind are these wretched ones and they have their heart replete with so great unlearning as not even to think that they ought to wipe off those charges about which they were accused, but even to fall into evils worse than the past ones and to be caught in their own toils. For see, see by what things they think to excuse themselves as though not in vain they had railed against Him, through these they are the more convicted of being liars and are the faster holden (so to say) in the bonds of their own sins. In most utter folly too do they here say, Now we know: for they who had full often bayed against Him and declared that He hath a devil, say that now they know it, condemning their preceding unbridledness of tongue. For if now they know it, formerly they did not know it: how then did they say that He had a devil who was not yet (as themselves deemed) condemned? A liar therefore long before too was the impious people of the Jews and with unbridled tongue did it use to belch out the devil's malice against Christ. They seize hold for the confirmation of their own idle speech on what was spoken by our Saviour Christ, for their much madness thinking (it seems) that the truth would aid a lie. Next by what means it was in their power to learn that they are transgressing impiously, madly insulting the Giver of everlasting life: |669 they see not that by these very means they are advancing unto intensity of the disease. For they count that it is fit not only not to repent of those things, but they even say that they are persuaded that such is the truth.........3 And the Prophet is true in saying, That right are the ways of the Lord and the just shall walk in them, but the ungodly shall be impotent in them.
But one might be astonished at their unparallelled madness in this too. Beholding a not easily numbered multitude of devils and evil spirits crushed by one word of our Saviour and cast forth against their will from those in whom they are, they shudder not at saying that He has a devil, albeit assured by necessary arguments that Satan will not cast out Satan. For every kingdom (says Christ) divided against itself is desolated and every house and city divided against itself is desolated. And if Satan cast out Satan he is divided against himself; how therefore shall his kingdom stand? Lo therefore (may one say and with good reason) a people verily foolish and without an heart, they have eyes and see not, ears and hear not. For neither by word and teaching, nor viewing with the eyes of the understanding the Nature Supreme above all, are they changed so as to will to think better; they aim at It, yea rather each at his own soul, with excess of dishonour, like as with stones.
Abraham died and the prophets died and THOU sayest, If any keep My saying, he shall not taste death for ever.
When the all-daring folk of the Jews, lying against their own head, say to the Saviour, Thou hast a devil, they want to indicate nothing else than, Thou makest Thyself God, as having put about 4 Him the honour and glory due to the Divine Nature: for such is the practice of devils as we have said before also. And they conceive of nothing beyond what is visible nor acknowledge God the Word in human form, nor vet remove their mind some little from |670 corporeal things, but fastening them only on those of earth, they are conversant only with the inferior part, as subject to touch. Hence the wretched ones are offended and suppose that the Truth, that is, Christ, speaks untruly, yea and imagine that He is lifting Himself up against the glory that befits God, not solely as admitting the being placed in equal rank with Him who rules all things but as even savouring something greater, and fancying He could do, or even promising to do, what God the Father did not. For why it is that they are vexed, saying that Abraham and the Prophets are dead, why they are putting forward the death of the Saints in order to overturn the Saviour's words, it is meet to see.
They want therefore to express something of this sort, We have not spoken falsely in saying that Thou hast a devil, the proof of our words is not far off; for lo, Thou promisest to overpass God Himself in miracles and that Thou canst easily accomplish what He hath not wrought. For Abraham and the Prophets, albeit they kept God's word, have not gainsaid the laws of nature, but swerved and have fallen into this common death of the body, and THOU sayest that he who keeps Thy words shall be utterly untasting of death: how then dost Thou not say that Thine acts are better than His? he who supposeth that he will surpass God, how will he not be clearly distraught? For they of their great unlearning are supposing that the Lord is here pointing to only the death of the body, and promising to those who obey Him that they shall be free from bodily death, even though it be the special business of those who are sober-minded to conceive that nothing dieth to God, being quickened though it die. For if it were brought from not being into being, how will not that which was already so brought, be more readily and easily called unto the future being, even though they conceive 5 that it have been put to sleep some little space for economy's sake? The Jews therefore not witting the glory of the Saviour behave |671 themselves haughtily against His words, and call Him possessed, as promising to do greater things than God has wrought: and in proof of their accusation they put forward the death of Abraham and the holy Prophets, by means whereof they think to convict Christ of boasting with empty words, in promising that He will give endless Life to them that keep His word, and also of doing injury to the glory of God, in that He confesses that He will give them the greater things.
53 Art THOU greater than our father Abraham who died? and the Prophets died.
Overshadowed in this too is the speech of the Jews and clearly big with some deep meaning: for what again do they here say, conceiving after the manner of men, yet bitter things according to their inward scope? for lo albeit (say they) they kept the Divine word, both Abraham and the Prophets have died, yet we heard Thee just now promise to some greater things. For whereby Thou sayest that they shall not die at all, they are full surely greater and in better case than those mentioned, in this very fact of not dying. Therefore (for tell us, they say, and answer us who ask it) art thou thyself greater than Abraham and the Prophets, who dost promise to make others greater than they are? though they have died, wilt thou not die, but remain immortal, though a Man and having a body of earth? how then couldest Thou give to others what Thyself hast not? for Thou wilt surely die, being a Man. But if Thou art not greater than Abraham and the Prophets, being to undergo death in common with them, then Thou wilt not give to others a good which belongeth not even to Thyself: some such meaning hath what is indirectly said by them. And marvel not if they have no greater conception of Christ: for as we have ofttimes manifoldly said, they deem that He is a mere Man and one of those like us, wholly ignorant that the Only-Begotten God the Word was united to flesh. Whom makest Thou Thyself? Of their unmeasured madness they all but think to set right the Lord transgressing and as though He knew not what is becoming, they advise Him to think more lowly. For (say they) Thou hast not known, |672 sir, Thine own nature, Thou forgottest that Thou wert a Man, Thou wert not contented with the measure given by God: for whom dost Thou make Thyself, who dost promise to give better things than those of His bounty and hazardously sayest that Thou wilt accomplish things beyond His Might?
They condemn therefore as having blasphemed, they dart like scorpions upon Him, they suppose it right to blame (thinking it just) Christ as contemning the due measure of the manhood, and springing up and bounding forth to such a degree as to be borne beyond the glory inherent in the Lord of all, yea and trampling on the honour of the holy Patriarchs and Prophets: for now they look to hear Him openly cry out (in reply to those things whereby they think to incite Him, uttering of their perversity Whom makest Thou Thyself?) I am greater than Abraham and the Prophets: albeit the Lord in saying this would have been most true, inasmuch as there is no comparison between men and God Who is above all nature visible and spiritual.
54 Jesus answered, If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing,
The whole aim of the discourse looks in the direction of blessed Abraham and the Prophets, but the Saviour persuasively transforms to Himself what is expressed, not ignorant that prone to anger, even without any plea inviting thereto, is the Pharisee, and that he takes every one of the things uttered by Him, as an additional reason for more fiercely plotting His murder. For envy renders sin-loving those wherein it is, and persuades them more hotly to be vexed even at what they least ought. Something of this sort again does Christ will to signify. The Jews were springing upon and contradicting what was said by Him, perpetually speaking even to satiety, of Abraham and the Prophets and openly crying out, Art THOU greater than our father Abraham who died? and the Prophets died: in addition, they were accusing Him of springing upon the glory of the Saints and lifting up Himself exceeding far above them, saying to Him, Whom dost Thou make Thyself? It |673 would then have behoved the Lord to answer in plain terms to these things and say clearly, I am superior and greater than Abraham and the prophets. But the mighty-minded Jew would not have tolerated the word, for he would forthwith have been indignant thereat and feigning to be a lover of the Father, and making believe to be advocating the glory of the saints, he would have attacked Christ more hotly and in his vexation would have seemed to be now rightly blood-thirsty: hence the Lord transferring to Himself the word says, If I honour Myself Mine honour is nothing; for He is all but saying. Let no one of those upon the earth think great things of himself; for if we would consider with ourselves what the glory of man is, we shall find it nothing at all; for all flesh is grass and every glory of man as flower of grass. No marvel is it then (He says) if Abraham has died and after him the prophets; for what is man's glory, when his nature tyrannized over by both death and decay is therefore likened to easily-fading grass? It seems likely that by skilfully transforming to Himself the measure pertaining to Abraham or the Prophets and saying, My glory is nothing, He is calling the Jew to the memory of Abraham saying most clearly of himself, I am earth and ashes, and of the blessed prophets crying to God, Remember that we are earth. And we do not say that by this He is accusing the glory of the saints, Who glorifies them: but it was necessary and the word of profit was inviting Him to shew how great the difference between His Divine and Ineffable Nature and them which are subject to death and decay.
My Father is which glorifieth Me.
For exact elucidation and idea of the things signified I will use the same words and go through the same speech. The Jews ever putting forward as an invincible question and a problem not lightly to be set aside and saying, Art THOU greater than our father Abraham who died? and the prophets died, whom dost Thou make Thyself?: and supposing in truth that He Himself too will both die and be |674 subject to death and decay and will not lierein be greater than Abraham and the holy Prophets, and having no great opinion at all of Him:----at length of necessity does our Lord Jesus Christ Who is of the Eternity of Him That begat Him shew that He is Eternal, therefore He saith, My Father which glorifieth Me is, wishing the word is to be here conceived of not simply nor without enquiry, but rather putting it as indicative of His Father's Being: and the Son which is ineffably begotten of the Existing Father, full surely brings with Him the property of His Father, that is, Being. He is therefore superior to both Abraham and the Prophets, for the one have died as being earth-born of mortal fathers, the Other, incomprehensibly going forth from Him Who is, is ever glorified by His own Father, not as lacking glory (for He is the King of Glory) but as having His boast in being begotten of an Eternal Father, and being therefore Eternal Himself too, for He carries Essentially the Dignity of Him Who begat Him. Its being said that the Father glorified Him will therefore no ways injure the Son, in regard of God-befitting conception, seeing that the Father Himself too is glorified in like way by the Son, not as though He needed glory, but because the being known to be Father of such an Offspring, God, that is, as He, is esteemed to be and hath glory. Therefore the Son Himself too saith to the Father, Father, glorify Thy Son that the Son too may glorify Thee. Hence the glory of man is absolutely nothing, for that which is of earth falleth into death, so far as the body is concerned, even though it rise. The Only-Begotten is glorified by His Father, as having along with all the other goods that of His Essence as His very Own: to what extent He differs from the whole creation, the blessed Psalmist too briefly signifieth, crying aloud, The Heavens shall perish but THOU shalt abide, and they all shall wax old as a garment and as a cover shalt Thou change them and they shall be changed, but THOU art the same and Thy years shall not fail. For subject to decay is every thing that is made |675 even though it have not yet decayed, holden by the Divine Counsel that it perish not; but Incorruptible and Eternal by Nature is God, not like the Creation gaining this by Another's will, but ever existing in His own goods, in which is also His special Property.
55 Of Whom YE say that He is your God and ye have not known Him.
He refutes them again and that with might as practising the piety of bare words only, but exceeding far removed from truly knowing God: and all but utters against them that which was declared through the Prophet: for then He said, This people draweth nigh to Me, with their lips they do honour Me, but their heart is far from Me, and now profitably and in conformity with that olden [utterance] does He say, Ye have not known Him. And it is true, for not the mere knowing that He is God,----not this surely is having knowledge of God (for that God exists and is, the devils too believe and tremble, as it is written) but in addition to knowing that He is, it is meet to have fit and due thoughts of Him; thus----what God really is by Nature, I suppose that no sober minded person would enquire (for it were impossible to find out) but what things are His Attributes or not His Attributes, one may recognize and that with ease, if one is conversant with the sacred Scriptures. For we know and have believed that He is Mighty, we know that He is not infirm, we know that He is Good, we know that He is not bad, we know that He is Righteous, and again that He is not unjust. We know that He is Eternal, we are agreed and believe that He is not bounded by time, nor yet transitory, as WE are. The Jews therefore as far as in words and voice did say and clearly confess that God is their God, being none the less ignorant of Him, but as far as that He is Incorruptible and Eternal, we shall not find that they understood. For had they known, they would not (I suppose) have sunk down to that degree of distraction as to think that the Only-Begotten Son which cometh forth of His Essence would die; nor yet would they putting forward |676 the death of Abraham and the Prophets have senselessly said, Whom dost Thou make Thyself? for would not a man with reason say outright that it was necessary that they who know Who the Father is by Nature should believe that such is the Son also who proceedeth forth of Him? for like as of a sweet source goeth forth full surely a sweet stream, and as of trees of a good sort of a good sort full surely is the offspring, so I ween must one needs believe that He who is of God by Nature is True God and He That is begotten of an Eternal Father, is Eternal as He who begat Him. Seasonable then is it to say here too to the Jews, Either make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt or make the tree goodly and his fruit goodly, for a good tree cannot hear evil fruits nor a corrupt tree hear good fruits. How then is it possible yea, rather how is it not replete with all folly, to deem that He who was begotten of an Immortal Father is mortal and to make Him who knoweth not corruption connumerate with those who are subject to decay?
But I know Him and if I say that I know Him not I shall be like you a liar.
I spake not falsely (He says) in saying to the Jews, If any keep My word he shall not see death for ever; for I am able to render undying, seeing I know that He of whom I am is mighty to do this, seeing I know that My Father is by Nature Life. I too am therefore as He is, Life that is by Nature and Lifegiving. But if I denied My power of quickening, I should be ignorant of My Father, the Property of whose Essence I possessing, am able to quicken as He. Hence I confess that I have all things that are in the Father, and affirming that I am as He, and for this reason professing to do His works, I full surely hnow Him; and if I say that I have not the properties of the Father uncounterfeit in Myself, I shall he a liar, as you are, as though I knew not the Father. Yea and when I say that the glory of Abraham and the Prophets is nothing, seeing |677 they were of earth and men by nature, to whom death is not foreign, and that My glory is the Eternity of the Father, it is as knowing the Father that I say so: and if I say that I shall fall into decay as they, and that I am not co-eternal with the Father, I shall speak falsely like you, not knowing the Father of whom I am: for it were impossible that He who is of Him That is and ever abideth the same should not full surely both be and abide ever the same, for That which is begotten of Eternal is Eternal.
For one might taking the passage before us more simply, say that it was spoken in another way: I know (He says) My own Father; if I said I knew not, I shall be a liar like you who know not God, but say that you know Him.
And what is the mode of knowing and what the charges of not knowing, having already clearly said, we will add nothing superfluous.
But I know Him and keep His Word.
As far as belongs to the first contact of the words before us, we say this, that Christ is speaking again as man and abasing Himself to our level, not rejecting at its proper time servant-befitting guise. He says therefore that He knows the Father and keeps His word. And we do not surely say that He of necessity witnesses these things to Himself nor yet that He is recounting ought of what pertains to Him, but there is much art mixed up herein. For through His saying that He knows the Father and keeps His word, He shews that the Jews mind the contrary to the things which He affirms that He has, in that they neither know God, nor yet think that they ought to keep His word: for then would they have received with all zeal Him that was foreheralded through Moses and the Prophets. And we shall find among ourselves too some such fashion of speech, goodly and most excellent, having the force of rebuke and gently intimating to some the evils wherein they are, but cutting off their anger at being reproved. For instance let there be a |678 man religious and otherwise good, who reproaching the thief and the drunkard says, I am a religious person, I have not stolen what is another's, nor yet have I ever been drunk. And such an one is not surely bearing witness to himself by this, nor shall we suppose that he is thus speaking, but he is putting the reverse of his own acquirements on those whom he is reproaching. Thus therefore our Lord Jesus Christ too says that He knows the Father and keeps His word, in reverse wise hereby putting about the unholy Jews, that they neither know God nor yet endure His word, or deem worthy of any observance at all the Law prescribed them from above.
But if we must in another way too apply to what is before us and look more subtilly at what is covertly intimated, we shall say this besides, The Son knows His own Father, not having knowledge of such kind as is in us, but Godbefitting and inexplicable. For as man that is begotten of man, not as though learning from any other but from whence himself is, is not ignorant of the nature of him who begat him; so the Son too from whence He is knows His own Father and preserves His word, i. e., has the definition of His Essence preserved whole in Himself, for λόγος means definition. For the λόγος of a man, i. e., the definition of his essence, is, a living creature rational, mortal, recipient of mind and knowledge: the λόγος for example of an angel will be the definition of his being. But of God by Nature we may not receive count or definition, for we know not what He is by Nature, but the Son knoweth His own Father and Begotten of His Essence knoweth what He is by Nature Who begat Him; and taking of our usage and serving Himself of human words, He says that He retains in Himself the Father's word, as though the definition of His Essence: for He is the Image of Him That begat Him and the Impress in no wise charged with unlikeness but having in Himself all the God-befitting Excellencies of Him Who begat Him.
56 Abraham your father exulted to see My Day and saw and rejoiced.
He here calls day nought else save the time of His Advent |679 wherein the Very Light beamed upon us and the Sun of Righteousness arose, the darkness relaxed that held us like a mist while the prince of this world yet tyrannized, darkening (so to speak) the whole world with his perversities, thrusting it down unto idolatrous error, diversely darkening the mind of each one. Therefore the Divine Psalmist too knowing as a day the thrice-longed-for time of His Advent, fore-uttered it in the Spirit, This is the Day which the Lord made, let us exult and rejoice in it. Otherwise, it is the custom of the holy Scripture to call the time for each work, day, as, For the day of the Lord of Hosts is upon every insulter and haughty one and they shall be abased, and again, What will ye do in the day of the assembly and in the day of the feast of the Lord? yea and the Psalmist says that in that day shall the thoughts of certain perish, donning again as day the time of the Divine and looked-for Tribunal, wherein will nought avail to the renowned of the world the deceit of their olden thoughts and the empty swelling of the brow at its wealth.
Your father Abraham therefore (He says) exulted to see My Day and saw and rejoiced. And how or when we shall suppose that blessed Abraham saw the Day of our Saviour Christ, i. e., the time of His Advent with flesh? Not open to view is the utterance (for one cannot take it and just speak and explain it) yet considering well what belongs hereto (as we are able) we will say that God revealed His own Mystery just as to one of the holy Prophets. Or we shall grant that he truly saw the day of the Lord's slaughter (on account whereof all things have turned out auspiciously unto us and were made prosperous), when for a type of Him he was enjoined to offer up for a sacrifice his only-begotten and first-born, Isaac: for it is like that as he was executing the priest's office at that time, the exact force of the Mystery was made clear as in a type in that which was wrought.
One may give other occasions also for this to those who are more zealous for learning. For he saw three men at the oak in Mamre, yea and received promise from God that he should be a father of many nations, which could in no other |680 way be fulfilled, save that the Gentiles were called through the faith Christ-ward, inscribing Abraham their father and about to sit down with him in the kingdom of heaven and to co-partake with him in the munificence unto all good things of our Saviour. Blessed Abraham therefore (He says) saw and seeing rejoiced at My Day. And why Christ proceeds to say these things also, we must needs speak of.
The Jews beholding Him a Man by reason of the veil of flesh, were conceiving of nothing God-befitting about Him, but were supposing that He too is mortal like us, as being brought from not being into being, and they would not of their great ill-counsel believe that He was Eternal, as being of the Eternal Father. In order then that He might clearly shew, that He is not recent nor just-made as are we, but that He was known of their very oldest Fathers also as being Eternal, does He say these things. In the same does He (it seems) profitably reproach them, because acting ill-advisedly and foolishly minded they spurn what was a very gala to the beginner of their race. For he did but see and he rejoiced, they having Him and it being in their power to enjoy Him insult Him by their unbelief and set themselves in braggart wise against so glorious grace. Or perhaps He covertly intimates this that He is both greater and superior to Abraham seeing it was to him a festal assembly, to only know somewhat of Him: for He could not say it openly and apart from any veil, by reason of their being mighty to wrath, but He indicates it in another way.
And let no one suppose that Jesus in saying Abraham your father [died 6], contradicts Himself, in that He in one place removes them from relation with Abraham, saying, If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham, but now again calls them Abraham's sons: but we must know that well does He in either case direct His discourse unto the truth. For in the former, defining the quality of spiritual nobility, He depicts a relation in sameness of habits, here He allots them mere bare kindred of |681 the flesh, that both in the former He may be true, and here not false.
57 The Jews said therefore to Him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast Thou seen Abraham?
Utterly without understanding is the Jews' speech, and big with much absurdity, and one may wonder (and with much reason) at their proceeding to so great lack of understanding, as to be utterly unable to conceive as they ought. For though our Saviour Christ had devised full many turns of speech, over and over going through the same words and manifoldly indicating therein His own Eternity, they think no whit more than they see with the eyes of the body, but as though utterly distraught and the whole power of their mind deranged, they reach not forth their heart unto what beseems God, but as if He were some man like us, then barely beginning to be and be accounted among things that are, when he was born, they senselessly accuse Him of a lie, not even deeming aright of what they heard Him say. For He said that Abraham had seen His Day, they turn about to the contrary the force of His word, for (say they) Thou art not yet fifty years old and how hast Thou beheld Abraham? miserable therefore is the senseless Jew, ever comrade of much uninstructedness, and making madness his wild foster brother.
58 Jesus said to them, Verily verily I say to you, before Abraham was I am.
Again does Christ advance to His wonted and favourite contrivance, for He speaks at times exceeding obscurely and overshadowing His exposition with diverse veils suffers it not to be open to all. But when He sees that the hearers understand nothing at all, then having stripped His discourse of its obscurity, He sets it before them plain and clear. And this He studies to do on the present occasion. For since He found that they understood nought (albeit a long discourse had been gone through) nor yet were able |682 to understand that He is both Eternal as being of an Eternal Father, and that He is incomparably greater than Abraham as being God, He now says openly, adding Amen in the rank of an oath for confirmation of the things said, Before Abraham was I am. And we shall in no wise think that the Only-Begotten is boasting of being before Abraham only, for He is before all time and hath His Generation most ancient, being without beginning in the Father. But since the comparison with Abraham was before Him at present, He says that He is elder than he; just as if the number 100, for instance, were to say, I am greater than 10: it would not surely be saying this, as having the next place above ten, but because it is exceeding much superior and above ten. He therefore is not rivalling Abraham's times, nor does He affirm that He is some little precedent to his times: but since He is above all time, and o'erpasseth the number of every age, He says that He is before Abraham, uttering a truth.
And exceeding rightly and well does He of Abraham put, Was, of Himself, I am, shewing that to him that was made of things which are not, will full surely follow the necessity of decaying, to Him That ever is will never befall the passing into not being.
Greater therefore is He and Superior to Abraham: greater as Eternal, Superior for that He decays not as he does.
59 They took up therefore stones to cast at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went forth of the temple.
They see not the truth (in that they are verily both liars themselves, and have a liar for their father, as the Saviour saith) but are angry at no vexing thing. Supposing that they ought to contend for the glory of their forefather as though wronged, they were kindled thereby unto no seasonable anger, albeit they ought to have known the force of the things said and who it was Who thus speaks: but turning aside unto most unreasonable and beast-befitting madness, they endeavour to aim at Him with stones, as though they had not sufficiently offended Him by their |683 already much railing, or were drawing upon themselves by their folly some small wrath. Hot therefore and most foolish is the attempt of the Jews, but it passes not into act out of season, for the time of His Passion was yet to come.
Christ hides Himself, not retreating beneath walls, not interposing ought else before His Body, but by the power of His Godhead rendering Himself invisible to them who seek Him. And it was not enough to escape their notice but He also goeth forth of the temple, limning to us a sort of type herein of things spiritual. For to them that love Him He is manifest always (as it is said, Blessed are the pure in heart, because they shall see God) but hastens away from those who are prone to fight against God, and is seen of none who behave impiously, nor yet loveth to be with after a sort and to dwell with them that persecute Him, but rather doth He depart from them and removeth, taking away with Him all joy, and leaving bare of graces from Him those by whom He is evil entreated, in regard (I mean) of their wishing to do Him wrong, and of the attempts of the impious ones, even though Christ shews all things to be vain, by His unspeakable might bringing to nought the unholy daring of those who transgress against Him.
Chap. ix. And passing by He saw a man blind from his birth.
While the Jews were raging against Him and now essaying to wound Him with stones, forthwith He goes forth of the temple that is among them, and takes Him away from the unholiness of His pursuers. And in passing by, straightway He seeth one blind from his birth, and setteth him as a token and that most clear that He will remove from the abominable behaviour of the Jews, and will leave the multitude of the God-opposers, and will rather visit the Gentiles, and to them transfer the abundance of His Clemency. And He likens them to the blind from his birth by reason of their having been made in error and that they are from their first age as it were bereft of the |684 true knowledge of God, and that they Have not the light from God, i. e., the illumination through the Spirit.
It is meet to observe again what Christ's visiting the blind man as He was passing by, signifies. And it comes to me to think that Christ strictly speaking came not for the Gentiles but for Israel's sake alone (as Himself too somewhere says, I was not sent save unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel), yet was the recovery of sight given to the Gentiles, Christ transferring His Mercy to them as by the way, because of the disobedience of Israel. And this it was again which was afore-sung through Moses, I will provoke them to jealousy with not a nation, with a foolish nation will I anger them. For a foolish nation was it which serveth the creature more than Creator and like irrational beasts feeds on just all unlearning, and giveth heed only to things of the earth. But since Israel which was wise by reason of the law and prudent from having Prophets angered [God], it in its turn was angered by God, they who aforetime were not prudent being taken into the place belonging to these, for to them through faith was Christ made wisdom and sanctification and redemption, as it is written, i. e., both light and recovery of sight.
Thanks be to CHRIST
PRINTED BY THE SOCIETY OF THE HOLY TRINITY, HOLY ROOD, OXFORD.
|vol . p.1
[S. CYRIL,
ARCHBISHOP OF ALEXANDRIA.
INTERPRETATION OR COMMENT ON THE
GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN.]
BOOK VI. 7
CHAPTER I. That not from sins of the soul prior to birth do bodily sufferings befal any, nor yet does God bring the sins of their fathers upon any, punishing those who have nothing sinned, but brings righteous doom upon all.
8 S. John ix. 2, 3 And His disciples asked Him, saying, Rabbi, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he should be born blind? Jesus answered, Neither did this man sin nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.
Being desirous (and not without good reason) that the mystery should be explained, or rather being Divinely guided, the most wise disciples were urged to ask instruction on the subject. And they are inquisitive with profit, by this means furnishing an advantage not so much for themselves as for us. For we are benefited greatly both by hearing the true explanation of these things from the Omniscient, and in addition also by being warned off from the abomination of effete doctrines. These errors not only used to exist among the Jews, but are also |2 advocated now by some who are insufferably conceited in their knowledge of inspired Scripture and seem to pass for Christians. Such persons of a truth delight too much in their own sophistries, indulging their private fancies, and not fearing to mingle Greek error with the doctrines of the Church. For the Jews, when they were in misery, greatly murmured, as if merely suffering the penalty of their forefathers' impiety, or as if God were most unreasonably laying upon them the sins of their fathers, and scoffed at it as a most unjust punishment; they even said in a proverb: The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge. And these again, being afflicted with a like and kindred ignorance to those just mentioned by us, earnestly maintain 9 that the souls of men existed and had their being before the creation of their bodies, and that these souls having turned willingly to sin even before the existence of their bodies, then souls and bodies became united, when in the order of chastisement the souls received birth in the flesh. But in one brief statement the follies of both these parties are exposed by Christ, Who confidently affirms that neither had the blind man sinned nor his parents. He refutes the doctrine of the Jews by saying that the man had not been born blind on account of any sin either of himself or of his ancestors, no, not even of his father or mother; and he also overthrows the silly nonsense of the others, who say that souls sin before their existence in the body.
For some one will say to them and very reasonably: How, tell me, does Christ say that neither had the blind man sinned nor his parents? And yet we could not grant that they were altogether free from sin. For, inasmuch as they were human, it is I suppose in every way likely or rather it of necessity follows that they fell into errors. Pray then, what time does Christ mean to define as that concerning which His word shall appears to us true, that neither did the man himself sin, nor indeed his parents? |3 Surely He speaks of that which is previous to birth, when having no existence whatever, they did not sin.
Again, concerning such matters, how truly frivolous and beside the mark it is to think that souls sinned before the existence of their bodies, and on that account were embodied and sent into this world, we have argued at length at the beginning of the present gospel, 10 in interpreting and commenting on the words: That was the True Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world; and it would be superfluous for us to discuss the subject again. But it is necessary to say whence it occurred to the Jews to fall into this opinion and supposition; also to shew clearly that from inability to understand the Divine Word, they mistook its proper meaning. Israel once dwelt in tents in the wilderness, and God called His hierophant Moses on Mount Sinai; but when he extended his stay there with God to the number of forty days, he seemed to be a loiterer to those who had influence with the people, who both rose up against Aaron then being alone, and falling back in contempt upon the idolatries of Egypt, cried saying: Make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. Then what followed thereupon I think it necessary to speak of briefly. They made a calf, as it is written, and at this God was justly provoked to anger: then indeed He threatened to destroy the whole congregation at once. Moses fell down before Him and sought for pardon with much entreaty. The Creator of the universe granted forgiveness, and promised to punish the people no further than that He would not continue to go up with them to the land of promise, but would send with them instead His special Angel as it were in the position of leader. At this Moses was sorely grieved, and as God was not willing to go up with the people, he inferred with some likelihood indeed that the Divine anger was not yet thoroughly appeased. So he prayed again earnestly that God would accompany them, |4 knowing that the mere guidance of an Angel would not suffice some of the Israelites, and perhaps also fearing the weakness of the people and therefore deprecating the holy angels' hatred of evil; and he entreated the Good One, the Lover of men, the Supreme King and Lord over all, to be willing rather to be present with those so prone to transgress. For he knew that God would pardon them not once only but many times, and that He would grant mercy to those who should offend. And God also consented to this. Then Moses sought a sign from Him, even that he might see Him, as a full assurance and testimony that He had forgiven them completely: For, said he, if I have found grace in Thy sight, manifest Thyself to me; that I may evidently see Thee, that I may find grace in Thy sight, and that I may know that this great nation is Thy people. This also God granted, as far as it was possible, assuring in every way His own servant both that He had forgiven the people their sin and that He would go up with them to the land of promise. Then, giving as it were a sort of finishing touch to the promises, which seemed wanting, He commands Moses to hew out two other tables for Him, the former ones as we know having been broken in pieces, so that He might write down the Law yet again for the people; even in this affording no small evidence of His kindness towards them. And when Moses was ready also for this, the Lord descended in a child, as it is written, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the Name of the Lord. And the Lord passed by before his face and proclaimed: The Lord God is pitiful and merciful, long-suffering and abundant in mercy, and true, and keeping justice, and shewing mercy unto thousands, taking away iniquities and unrighteousnesses and sins; and He will not clear the guilty; visiting the sins of fathers upon children and upon children's children unto the third and fourth generation.
But now attend carefully, for I am about to take up again the question proposed at first. God declares Himself to shew His kindness and His incomparable love of |5 men in a manner suitable to Deity. For we maintain that these were the words of God, not of any other speaker; not (as some think) the words of the all-wise Moses, offering up laudatory prayers on behalf of the people. For that it is the Lord of all Himself speaking these things of Himself, no other than the blessed Moses himself will bear witness to us, teaching in the Book of Numbers, when the Israelites had again taken offence from unseasonable cowardice, because some, who by Moses at God's command had been sent to spy it out, spake evil of the Land of Promise. For when they returned from the land of the strangers and were come again to their own people, they spat out bitter words concerning it. Affirming the land to be so wild and rugged that it was capable of eating up its inhabitants, they excited so much hatred of it in the minds of their hearers, that bursting into tears they now desired again to be in Egypt with all its hardships. For, Let us make, said they, captains, and let us journey into Egypt. And when God threatened to destroy them, Moses again prayed, and all but reminding Him also of the promise He had given, went on to cry: And now let Thy strength be exalted, O Lord, according as Thou hast spoken, saying, The Lord is long-suffering and of great mercy and true, forgiving transgressions and iniquities and sins; and He will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the sins of fathers upon children unto the third and fourth generation. Forgive this people their sin according to Thy great mercy, as Thou hast been favourable to them from Egypt even until now. It appears therefore that He Who is God over all attributes to Himself love of men and the greatest forbearance towards evil. It will be fitting in the next place to set forth the cause on account of which the Jews, being deceived, could suppose our good God to be mindful of injury and exceeding wrathful.
For my part, I do not think them able to lay hold of the Divine Oracles in any way, or to cavil at them as if they have not expressed what is most excellent or have |6 strayed far from the law of fairness. On the other hand, I think that they only indulge their own ignorance in this matter, to suppose the sins of fathers to be really brought upon children, and the Divine anger to be stretched so far that it may even reach to the third and fourth generation, exacting unjustly from innocent persons the penalties of others' crimes. Would it not at all events be more becoming to them, if they were wise, to hold the opinion that the Source of righteousness and of our moral laws would do nothing so shameful? For even men inflict punishments according to the laws upon habitual transgressors, but by no means visit them on their children, unless perchance they are detected as partners and associates in the misdeeds: and as to Him Who prescribed to us the laws of all justice, how can He be detected in inflicting penalties such as among ourselves are greatly condemned? Then this also in addition is to be considered. By the mouth of Moses He published laws innumerable, and in many cases those living in bad habits were ordered to be punished, but nowhere is a command from Him to be found, that children should share the penalties incurred by their sinning fathers. For penalty is for those who are detected in crime, and it was ordained that it was fitting to punish those only who were obnoxious to the law. To think as the Jews do is therefore surely impious, but it is certainly the part of a wise man to investigate the Divine mind and by every means to observe what things are agreeable to Nature, the queen of all things. Rightly therefore let us hold that the God of the universe, setting as it were before Him His inherent clemency, willing to be admired for His pure love of men and to this end proclaiming: The Lord is longsuffering and of great mercy and true, forgiving transgressions and sins, would not wish to be known as so mindful of evil that He extends His anger even to the fourth generation inclusive. For how can He still be longsuffering and of great mercy, or how does He forgive transgressions and sins, Who cannot endure to limit the infliction of penalty to the person |7 of the sinner, but extends it beyond the third generation, and like a sort of thunderbolt assaults even the innocent? Surely then it is quite incredible and of almost utter folly, to suppose that God attributes to Himself, together with love of men and gentleness, anger so lasting and so unreasonable.
To these things another may be added by those who support the Jewish opinion, and do not allow that God knows a suitable time for every kind of action. For if He promises longsuffering and is found to yield very easily in laying aside His anger, why is He seen to have added: Visiting the sins of fathers upon children unto the third and fourth generation? Of course this was done for no other reason than a wish to frighten those who expect remission of sins from Him, as shewing that the object of their hopes should never be realized, since He Who with reason is grieved with them is so mindful of evil and tenacious in anger.
But further, tell me what the hierophant Moses himself indicates to us. Would he not seem to do a thing most opposite to all reason, if, when Israel had given offence and was about to suffer punishment, he proceeded to pray for them, and, while asking for oblivion of the offence and an exhibition of God's love for men, he should unseasonably say to God: Thou art of such a nature that Thou requitest the sins of fathers upon children's children? For this would be rather the way of one instigating to anger than of one calling for mercy, and of one asking mindfulness of injury rather than longsuffering. But in my opinion by these words he seemed to importune God and to recall to His memory almost the very words which He Himself uttered, when He publicly proclaimed His inherent goodness. For in what way He is longsuffering and of great mercy, and how He is by nature One Who takes away sins and transgressions, will be most excellently discerned, in the very dealings wherein He seems to be somewhat bitter.
In the next place then I think it is fitting to set forth |8 in what way we may rightly understand the words which were spoken by God. The Lord, He says, is long suffering and of great mercy, taking away transgressions and sins. Then we will read that which immediately follows as if with a note of interrogation:. And will He not surely clear the guilty? So that thou mayest understand something of this sort: Will not, says He, the longsuffering and greatly merciful God, Who takes away transgressions and sins, will He not surely clear the guilty? Of course it is not to be doubted: certainly He will thoroughly purge him. For how is He longsuffering and of great mercy and how does He at all take away sins, unless He purges the guilty? At these words He goes off to a demonstration of His inherent longsuffering and forbearance, even that He will visit the sins of the fathers upon children unto the third and fourth generation: not chastising the son for the father; do not think this: nay, not even does He lay upon a descendant the faults of his ancestors like a burden: but meaning something of this sort. There was (we will suppose) a certain man, a transgressor of laws, having his mind full of all wickedness, and who, being taken in this manner of lining, deserved to be punished without any respite; but yet God in forbearance dealt with him patiently, not bringing upon him the wrath he had merited. Then to him was born a son, a rival of his father in impious deeds and outdoing his parent in villainy: God also shewed longsuffering towards this man. But from him is born a third, and from the third a fourth, in no way inferior to their progenitors in wickedness, but practising equal impiety with them. Then God pours out wrath upon them, already even from the beginning deserved by the whole race, after He has tolerated as much as and even more than it behoved Him. A postponement of vengeance even unto the fourth generation, how is it not truly a commendation of Divine gentleness? For that He is wont to chastise neither son for father nor father for son, it is not hard to learn from those words which by the voice of the prophet Ezekiel He clearly spake to the Jews |9 themselves, when over this same thing they murmured and said: The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge. And, says he, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, what mean ye by this proverb in Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge? As I live, saith the Lord, this proverb shall be said no more in Israel. For all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son; they are mine. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of his son: each in his own iniquity in which he hath sinned, in that shall he die. But I suppose no one is so foolish as to think that God did not at the beginning legislate in the most excellent way, but somehow changed His plans and altered His ideas for the better, and like one of ourselves was with difficulty and after subsequent deliberation able to improve His legislation to what was most fitting. In such a case, if we praise the earlier laws we shall clearly be blaming the later, and if we express an opinion that the later laws are superior we shall condemn the earlier by our lower estimation of them. God too will legislate in opposition to Himself, and will have fallen short, as we may have done, of a perfect standard, by ordaining one thing at one time and a different thing at another time. But I suppose every one will say that the Divine Nature cannot be in any way subject to such inconsistencies as this, and could not even have ever fallen short of absolute perfection.
It is then as a demonstration of His incomparable munificence that He alleges the words quoted above, viz:----Requiting the sins of fathers upon children unto the third and fourth generation. For that the merciful God is wont to punish sinners not immediately, but rather to do it reluctantly and to put off punishments for long seasons, thou wilt understand from His own words: And I was full of Mine anger and restrained it, and: did not make a full end of them. And again in another place: For the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. Thou seest that He was |10 indeed full of anger, for some were perpetrating deeds deserving fulness of anger, but as God He forbore patiently and delayed to make a full end of those who offended Him. But in order that we may exhibit to thee as in a picture the proof of what we have said and from actual events demonstrate the praise of God's love for men to be contained in this text, I will bring forward something recorded in the Sacred Books, and will endeavour from the Divine Scripture itself to show the sins of fathers visited on children even to the third and fourth generation; not unjustly, but justly, and in a manner merited by the sufferers themselves. The story shall be summarized, because of the length of the narrative.
Well then, in the First Book of Kings we read that after other kings Ahab reigned over Israel, and burning with a most unrighteous desire for another man's vineyard, he slew the lord of it, even Naboth. For although he did not himself command that deed, yet he expressed no anger at the wickedness of his wife. At this God was of course wroth, and spake to Ahab by Elijah the prophet: Thus saith the Lord, Forasmuch as thou hast killed and also taken possession, therefore thus saith the Lord, In the place where the swine and the dogs licked the blood of Naboth, there shall the dogs lick thy blood; and the harlots shall wash themselves in thy blood. And again immediately: Thus saith the Lord, Behold I bring evil upon thee, and will kindle a fire behind thee, and will utterly destroy from Ahab every male and him that is shut up and left in Israel. And I will make thy house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahab, for the provocations wherewith thou hast provoked Me to anger and made Israel to sin. And of Jezebel he spake, saying, The dogs shall eat her within the outer-wall of Jezreel. And him that dieth of Ahab in the city the dogs shall eat, and him that dieth in the field shall the birds of the air eat. When the Lord of all unmistakably threatened to do all these things and to inflict them, Ahab rent his garment and entered into his house; as it is written, He was pricked |11 to the heart, and burst bitterly into tears, and girded his loins with sackcloth. In which state God pities him, and begins to allay His anger, and putting as it were a bridle to His sudden fury says to the Prophet: Hast thou seen how Ahab was pricked to the heart before Me? I will not bring these things in his days, but in his son's days I will bring the evil. Will it not therefore be right to inquire upon whom these things were fulfilled? Well, the son of Ahab was Ahaziah, Who, Scripture says, did evil in the sight of the Lord and walked in the way of his father Ahab, and in the way of Jezebel his mother. Then the son of Ahaziah was, Scripture says, Joram, of whom again it is written that he walked in the sins of the house of Jeroboam. Next to Joram reigned a third Ahaziah, of whom again the language of the narrative says that he did evil in the sight of the Lord, as did the house of Ahab. But when the time had now come for punishing the house of Ahab, which had not ceased from impiety towards God even to the fourth generation, there was anointed to be the next king over Israel Jehoshaphat son of Nimshi, who slew Ahaziah, and beside him Jezebel; he slew also seventy other sons of Ahab, carrying out as it were the Divine wrath to the uttermost, so that he obtained both honour and favour on account of it. For what saith God to him? Because thou hast done well in executing that which is right in Mine eyes, and hast done unto the house of Ahab according to all that was in Mine heart, thy children of the fourth generation shall sit upon thy throne. Thou seest therefore that He reluctantly punished in the fourth generation the wicked descendants of wicked men, whereas to him from whom He received honour He extends His mercy even to the fourth generation. Cease therefore, O Jew, to accuse the righteousness of God. As a form of encomium certainly we will accept that saying: Requiting the sins of fathers upon children unto the third and fourth generation.
3 But that the works of God should be made manifest in him.
That which lies before us is hard to explain and capable |12 of causing much perplexity, so that it would be perhaps not unlearned to pass it over in silence, and because of its excessive difficulty to leave it. But when the Jewish doctrines have been refuted, lest another thing akin to them, like any root of bitterness springing up, trouble you, as Paul says; (for perhaps some will hence suspect that the bodies of men are affected with sufferings, in order that the works of Grod may be made manifest in them;) I, for my part, think it seasonable to subjoin a few words with reference to this, that thereby we may both keep off any injuries arising from this source, and leave no loophole for deceptive arguments. That God does not bring the sins of parents upon children unless they are partakers of their wickedness, and further, that embodiment is not on account of sins previously committed by the soul, we have shown. For by speaking in opposition to these two errors, Christ in a wonderful manner overturned them, since He unquestionably knows all things, as God; or rather, since He Himself is the over-ruler of our affairs, and the ordainer of those things which befit and are deserved by every man. For in that He says the blind man had not sinned, nor was suffering blindness on that account, He shows that it is foolish to suppose the soul of man to be guilty of sins previous to its birth in the body: moreover, when He openly says that neither had His parents sinned that their son should be born blind, He refutes the silly suspicion of the Jews. Therefore, after He had taught His disciples as much as was necessary for them to know in order to refute the doctrines which we have above stated, and imparted to them as much as it was fitting to exhibit to the understanding of man, He is silent as to the rest, and sets forth no further with clearness the reason why he was born blind who was guilty of no sin previous to birth, attributing to the Divine Nature alone the knowledge of all such things and a management of affairs which is past finding out. But again He very skilfully transfers the language of His answer to something else and says; But that the works of God should be made manifest in him. |13
Does then, some one will say, the Lord declare to us these words here as a certain doctrine, as if for this single reason ailments attack the bodies of men, that the works of God should be made manifest in them? It does not seem so at all to me, but rather it is evidently absurd so to imagine or suppose; He certainly is not dogmatizing at all (as some might think) when He says this. For that it happens to some to be smitten on account of their sins, we have often learnt from the Holy Scriptures. Paul indeed plainly writes to those who with feet as it were unwashed dared to approach the holy altar, and with profane and unholy hand to touch the mystical Eucharist: For this cause many among you are weak and sickly, and not a few sleep. For if we judged ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world. Accordingly, upon the sickly and dead, it is sometimes by Divine wrath that the suffering has been brought. But also our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, after He had loosed the paralytic from a long disease, and had miraculously made him whole, says: Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing befal thee. Surely He says this as though it might happen that unless the man took heed he would suffer something worse for his sin, although he had once escaped and by the Lord's favour been restored to health. But perhaps some may say: we will grant that these things are rightly said; but as to those who suffer something terrible from the cradle and their earliest years, or even from the very womb are afflicted with diseases, it is not easy to understand what kind of explanation any one can satisfactorily give. For we do not believe that the soul previously existed; nor indeed can we think that it sinned before the body, for how can that sin, which has not yet been called to birth? But if there has been no sin nor fault preceding the suffering, what then shall we allege as the cause of the suffering? Truly, by our minds we cannot comprehend those things which are far above us, and I should advise the prudent, and myself above all, to abstain from wishing |14 to thoroughly scrutinize them. For we should recall to mind what we have been commanded, and not curiously examine things which are too deep, nor pry into those which are too hard, nor rashly attempt to discover those which are hidden in the Divine and ineffable counsel alone; but rather concerning such matters we should piously acknowledge that God alone knows some things, peculiar to Himself and excellent. At the same time we should maintain and believe that since He is the fountain of all righteousness, He will neither do nor determine anything whatever in human affairs, or in those of the rest of creation, which is unbecoming to Himself, or differs at all from the true rectitude of justice.
Since therefore it becomes us to be affected in this way, I say, that the Lord does not speak dogmatically when He says, that the works of God should be made manifest in him; but rather He says it to draw off the answer of the questioner in another direction, and to lead us from things too deep for us to more suitable ones; for that is a thing He was in some sort wont to do. And that this assertion is true, hear again how when the holy disciples were earnestly inquiring about the end of the world, and very curiously putting questions concerning His second coming, and going far beyond the limits proper for man, He very evidently draws them away from such interrogations. It is not for you, says He, to know times or seasons which the Father hath set within His own authority. But ye shall receive power, when the Holy Ghost is come upon you; and ye shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea. Thou hearest that He does not permit us at all to seek into those things which no way are fit for us, but rather directs us to come back to what is necessary. So also in this place, having spoken plainly what was meet for us to learn, He reserves the rest in silence, knowing that it behoved Himself alone to understand this. But lest by being altogether silent He should as it were invite them again to ask Him about the same things, in the manner of alleging a reason, and as though courteously fashioning |15 some such answer as the questions seemed to deserve, He says, But that the works of God should be made manifest in him. Which is just as if He had said, in different and simpler language: The man was not born blind on account of his own sins or the sins of his parents; but since it has happened that he was so affected, it is possible that in him God may be glorified. For when, by power from above, he shall be found free from the affliction which lies upon him and troubles him, who will not admire the Physician? Who will not recognise the power of the Healer shown forth in Him?
I think this sense is latent in the words before us, but let those who are clever think out the more perfect meaning. And if any think fit to be contentious and say that the man was born blind for the very end that Christ might be glorified in him, we will say to them in reply: Do you suppose, O good people, that this was the only man in Judea who was blind from birth in the time of the coming of our Saviour, and that there was no other whatever? Surely, even though unwilling, they will confess, I think, that in all likelihood very many such were found in all the land. How was it then that Christ only exhibited His kindness and power to one of them, or at all events to but a small number? Concerning these things, however, I deem it superfluous to hold an argument. Wherefore, the other opinion being rejected as foolish, we will hold it true, that after Christ had revealed to us as much about the questions asked as was meet for us to learn, He passed on to another subject, skilfully turning aside His own disciple from searching into such things.
4 We must work the works of Him that sent us, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.
Lo here again in these words, plainly and reasonably, He rebukes in a similar manner the disciples, as if they had done something they ought not, and having left the high road, well-trodden and firm, had ventured on another |16 which seemed not at all fit for them. For, why do ye ask, says He, things touching which it is good to be silent? Or why, leaving that which suits the time, do ye hasten to learn things beyond the capacity of man? It is not a time for such curiosity, says He, but for work and intense zeal; for I deem it more becoming, passing by such questions, to execute zealously God's commands, and since He has appointed us Apostles, to fulfil the works of the Apostleship. When the Lord numbers Himself with those who are sent, and enrols Himself among those who ought to work, in no way does He make Himself really one of us, or say that He Himself is subject as we are- by a certain servile necessity to the will of a commander: but He uses a common habit of speech, even to ourselves trite and familiar. For, especially when the bare substance of an argument is not calculated to impress our hearers, we are wont to join ourselves to them, and to reckon ourselves with them. For which reason doubtless the most wise Paul addressed the Corinthians as if concerning himself and Apollos, and at last added: Now these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and Apollos; that in us ye might learn not to be wise beyond the things which are written. While therefore it is day, says He, let us work the works of Him that sent us; for the night will come, when no man can work. In these words He calls the time of bodily life, day; and the time we are in death, He calls night. For since the day was given for works, but the night for rest and sleep, therefore the time of life in which we ought to work what is good, people call day; and the time of sleeping, in which nothing whatever can be done, they call night. For he that hath died is justified from sin, according to the saying of Paul, being found unable to do anything, and therefore unable to sin.
Thus Holy Scripture really does recognise a theory of a metaphorical day, and in no less degree a corresponding theory of night. And if taken into consideration at the right moment each of these metaphorical interpretations exhibits the aspect of the questions under investigation in |17 a manner free from error. But concerning unsuitable subjects, and when it ought not to be done, to attempt violently to drag round to a spiritual interpretation that which ought to be taken historically, is nothing else than unlearnedly to confuse what is profitable if understood simply, and to spoil its usefulness through excess of ignorance.
5 When I am in the world, I am the Light of the world.
Shall we then think that Christ is now not at all in the world, or do we believe that He, having ascended to heaven after His restoration to life from the dead, no longer dwells among those in this present life? And yet being very God, He fills and tends not only the heavens and what is beyond the firmament, but also the world which we inhabit. And just as while He associated in the flesh with men, He was not absent from heaven, so if we think rightly we shall hold the opinion that even though He is out of the world as regards the flesh, His Divine and ineffable Nature is yet no less present among those who dwell in the world. Yea, it overrules the universe, being absent from nothing that exists, neither having abandoned anything, but present everywhere in all things; and, filling all the visible universe and whatever may be conceived of as beyond it, is fully contained by Itself alone.
The next thing therefore is to understand what it is that the Lord says in these words. Having cast aside as a stale thing the suspicion of the Jews, and shewn that they were foolishly entangled in unsound doctrines; having given counsel to His own disciples that it was more becoming for them to strive to love the things that please God, and to leave off pursuing a search into what was altogether beyond them; and having in a manner warned them that the time for work will slip away from those who do nothing, unless they devote all their zeal to the wish to do well, while they are in the flesh in the world;----He holds up Himself as an Example in the matter. For behold, He says, I also work at My own proper work, and |18 since I have come to give light to those things that were in want of light, it behoves Me to cause light to dwell even in the eyes of the body, if they are diseased with the terrible lack of light, whensoever any of the sufferers come before Me.
We will accordingly understand what was said as spoken with reference to the occasion, and in a simple sense. For that the Only-Begotten is indeed a real Light, with the knowledge and power to illumine not only the things that are in this world, but also every other supramundane creature, is not to be doubted. And if we accommodate the sense of the words to the matter in hand, I do not think we shall be found guilty of setting forth anything unworthy of credit.
6, 7 When He had thus spoken, He spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and with the clay thereof anointed his eyes, and said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went away therefore, and washed, and came seeing.
Accepting the cure wrought upon this blind man as a type of the calling of the Gentiles, we will again tell the meaning of the mystery, summing it up in few words. First then because it was merely in passing, and after leaving the Jewish temple, that He saw the blind man: and again from this circumstance also, that without in-treaty and no man soliciting Him, but rather of His own accord and from a spontaneous inclination, the Saviour came to a determination to heal the man; hence we shall profitably look upon the miracle as symbolical. It shows that as no intreaty has been made by the multitude of the Gentiles, for they were all in error, God, being indeed in His nature good, of His own will has come forward to shew mercy unto them. For how at all or in what way could the vast number of Greeks and of Gentiles beseech God for mercy, having their mind darkened by gross ignorance, so as to be in no wise able to see the Illuminator? As therefore certainly the man who has |19 been healed, being blind, does not know Jesus, and by an act of mercy and philanthropy receives an unhoped-for benefit; so also has it happened to the Gentiles through Christ. On the sabbath too was the work of healing accomplished, the sabbath being capable thereby completely to exhibit to us a type of the last age of the present world, in which the Saviour has made light to shine on the Gentiles. For the sabbath is the end of the week, and the Only-Begotten took up His abode and was manifested to us all in the last time, and in the concluding ages of the world. But at the manner of the healing it is really fit that we should be astonished and say: O Lord, how great are Thy works; in wisdom hast Thou performed them all.
For some one perhaps will say: Why, although able to set all things right easily by a word, does He mix up clay from the spittle, and anoint the eyes of the sufferer, and seem to prescribe a sort of operation; for He says, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam? Surely I deem that some deep meaning is buried beneath these words, for the Saviour accomplishes nothing without a purpose. For by anointing with the clay He makes good that which is (so to speak) lacking or vitiated in the nature of the eye, and thus shews that He is the One Who formed us in the beginning, the Creator and Fashioner of the universe. And the power of the action possesses a sort of mystical significance; for that which we said just now with reference to this, and what we consider may be understood by it, we will mention again. It was not otherwise possible for the Gentiles to thrust off the blindness which affected them, and to behold the Divine and holy light, that is, to receive the knowledge of the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity, except by being made partakers of His Holy Body, and washing away their gloom-producing sin, and renouncing the authority of the devil, namely in Holy Baptism. And when the Saviour stamped on the blind man the typical mark which was anticipative of the mystery, He meanwhile fully exhibited the power of such participation by the anointing with His spittle. And as an image of Holy |20 Baptism He commands the man to run and wash in Siloam, a name whose interpretation, the Evangelist, being very wise and Divinely-inspired, felt it necessary to give. For we conclude that the One Sent is no other than God the Only-Begotten, visiting us and sent from above, even from the Father, to destroy sin and the rapacity of the devil: and recognising Him as floating invisibly on the waters of the sacred pool, we by faith are washed, not for the putting away of the filth of the flesh, as it is written, but as it were washing away a sort of defilement and uncleanness of the eyes of the understanding, in order that for tho future, being purified, we may be able in pureness to behold the Divine beauty. As therefore we believe the Body of Christ to be life-giving, since it is the temple and abode of the Word of the Living God, possessing all His energy, so we declare it to be also a Patron of light; for it is the Body of Him Who is by nature the True Light. And as, when He raised from death the only son of the widow, He was not satisfied with merely commanding and saying: Young man, I say unto thee, Arise; although accustomed to accomplish all things, whatsoever He wished, by a word; but also touched the bier with His hand, showing that even His Body possesses a life-giving power: so in this case He anoints with His spittle, teaching that His Body is also a Patron of light, even by so slight a touch. For it is the Body of the True Light, as we said above. The blind man accordingly departs with what haste he can, and washes, and without delay performs all that was bidden him, shewing as it were in his own person the ready obedience of the Gentiles, concerning whom it is written: He inclined His ear to the preparation of their hearts. The wretched Jews then were hard of heart, but they of the Gentiles were altogether docile in obedience and bear witness of it in experience. The man having forthwith, removed his blindness, washing it away together with the clay, now returns, seeing. For it was Christ's pleasure that thus it should come to pass. Excellent therefore is faith, which makes God-given grace to be |21 strong in us; and harmful is hesitation. For the double-minded man is unstable in all his ways, as it is written, and shall receive nothing whatever from the Lord.
8, 9 The neighbours therefore, and they which saw him aforetime that he was a beggar, said, Is not this he that sat and begged? Another said, No, but he is like him. He said, I am he.
Hard indeed to be believed are such surpassing wonders, and that [which exceeds man's experience], from whatever source it comes, finds the intellect to be intolerant of it, and is scarcely treated with honour when convincingly forced upon people's minds. For the attempt to investigate what is beyond the grasp of reason indicates a state of mind akin to insanity. Hence, I think, the unbelief of some who had previously known the blind man haunting the cross-roads, and who were astonished afterwards when they beheld him unexpectedly able to discern objects with clear vision. And they are divided, from uncertainty regarding the event, and some who consider more carefully the greatness of the deed say that it is not the same man, but one remarkably like him whom they had known. For indeed it really is not strange that this opinion should be expressed by some, who by rejecting the truth were compelled through the greatness of the miracle to adopt an involuntary falsehood. Others again keep their minds free from obvious objections, and in reverence and fear they recognise the wonder, and say that it is the same man. But he who was healed quickly settled the question, by making his own statement, most worthy of credit as concerning himself. For no man can be ignorant of his own identity, even though very ill in delirium. Thus in every way the marvellous deed, discredited on account of the unusual degree of power it displayed, testifies that the Wonder-worker is to be reckoned among the great.
10 They said therefore unto him, How were thine eyes opened?
With difficulty they consent to believe that he was the |22 same man whom they had known aforetime, and abandoning their hesitation on this point, they ask how he had got rid of his blindness, and what was the manner of such an unhoped-for event. For it seems usual for those who are astonished to make careful inquiries and to investigate the manner of what has been done; and these persons resolved to do the same, not without the guidance of God, in our opinion, bnt in order that even unwillingly they might learn the power of Our Saviour from the narration and clear announcement which the blind man made to them. This thou mayest accept as a beautiful type of the converts from among the Gentiles becoming teachers to the people of Israel, after escaping from their former blindness and receiving the illumination which comes from Our Saviour Christ through the Spirit. And that what we have said is true, the events themselves will loudly proclaim.
11 He answered, A man that is called Jesus made clap, and anointed mine eyes, and said unto me, Go to Siloam and wash. So I went away and washed, and I received sight.
He appears still to be ignorant that the Saviour is by nature God, for otherwise he would not have spoken of him so unworthily. He probably thought of Him and esteemed Him as a holy Man, forming this opinion perhaps from the somewhat indistinct rumour concerning Him that went about all Jerusalem, and was repeated everywhere in the common talk. Moreover we may observe that those afflicted of body and struggling with abject poverty never feel overmuch zeal in occupying themselves about making acquaintance, their unmitigated poverty exhausting as it were their mental faculties. Therefore he speaks of Him merely as a Man, and describes the manner of the healing. He must surely have been compelled by the magnitude of the miracle to attribute a glory beyond the nature of man to the Wonder-worker, but from giving credit to the belief that holy men were enabled by |23 God to work miracles, he was probably drawn to look upon Jesus as one of them.
12 And they said unto him, Where is He? He saith, I know not.
Not from devout feelings do they inquire for Jesus, nor are they moved to inquire where and with whom He was uttering discourses, so that they might go and seek some profit from His doings; but being blinded in the eyes of their understanding, even much worse than he had formerly been in those of his body, they are inflamed with most unjust anger, and rage like untamable beasts, thinking that Our Saviour had broken a commandment of the law, that one namely which forbids any work whatever to be done on the sabbath. And they raved immoderately, because He had dared actually to touch clay, rubbing the dirt round with His finger, and in addition to this had also directed the man to wash it off on the sabbath. Wherefore in anger and desperation they spit out the words, Where is He? without making any excuse for speaking so rudely. For in their pettiness they bestow abuse upon Him Who rightly deserved the highest honour, though they must have admired Him if they had been sincere and had known how to honour God's power with befitting praises. But thrusting aside in their extravagant maliciousness that which I think they ought in fairness to have thought and done, they devote themselves to untimely zeal. And falsely supposing that they were performing a duty in supporting the law which had somehow been wronged, they inquire for Jesus as one who had worked on the sabbath and thus wronged the excellent commandment by healing the man. Certainly they may have supposed that God was (so to speak) cruel and not compassionate on the sabbath, and was very angry when he saw a man healed, who was made in His own image and likeness, and on whose account the sabbath was instituted. For the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath, according to the saying of the Saviour. |24
13, 14 They bring to the Pharisees him that aforetime was blind. Now it was the sabbath on the day when Jesus made the clay, and opened his eyes.
They bring the man to the rulers, not that they might learn what had been done to him, and admire it; for it was not likely that men travailing with extreme envy against our Saviour Christ could ever be pleased by any such thing; but that they might publicly convict Jesus, as they thought, of a transgression of the law, and accuse Him of being a wrong-doer in having made clay on the sabbath. For rejecting the idea of the miracle because of its incredibility, they lay hold of the deed as a transgression, and for a proof of what had been done they exhibit the man upon whom He had dared to perform the miracle. At the same time they think to succeed in gaining a reputation for piety according to Jewish customs, and proceed to strain the legal commandment to the utmost. For in Deuteronomy He Who by Nature is Very God, enjoining the minds of the pious not to be drawn aside to another, nor to think there were any gods besides Him, but bidding them to serve Him only in truth, and to hate bitterly those who should dare to counsel them differently, thus speaks: If thy brother by thy father or mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or thy wife in thy bosom, or friend who is equal to thine own soul entreat thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, thou shalt not consent to him, neither shalt thou hearken to him, and thine eye shall not spare him, and thou shalt feel no regret for him, neither shalt thou at all protect him; thou shalt surely report concerning him. And so the Jews, looking only at the errors of others, and foolishly treating everything by the regulation laid down concerning one thing, brought before the magistrates those who were detected in, any action contrary to the aw, thinking that thereby they were honouring the Lawgiver. For this reason I think they enquired for Jesus, saying, Where is He? but being unable to find Him anywhere, they take as it were in the second place him upon whom the wonder had been wrought, that he might seal |25 with his own voice the testimony to the breach of the law which had been committed by the actions of the One Who healed him on the sabbath.
When the blessed Evangelist is making it manifest to us that they were immoderately vexed at the making of clay on the sabbath, he fitly hints at the absurdity of the thing, by adding: Now it was the sabbath on the day when Jesus made the clay.
15 Again therefore the Pharisees also asked him, How didst thou receive thy sight?
They busy themselves about the manner of the healing, stirring up as it were the fire of malice which was in them to a greater heat, and ask unnecessary questions, not failing, as it seems to me, to recognize the miracle. For is it not altogether absurd to suppose that they, who had come bringing to them the man who aforetime was blind, had not expressed at all the reason for which they had brought him? But as if they were not sufficient to accuse Christ, the magistrates compel him to confess with his own mouth what had been done, believing that by this means the malicious accusation would have greater force. For observe that they do not ask simply and barely if he had been healed, but they seek rather to hear how he received his sight; this was what they were particularly anxious to hear:----"He made clay, and anointed mine eyes." For it was in this that they foolishly conceived all the transgression of the law to lie, and imagining that laws from above were violated, they thought they were righteously vexed, and that punishment ought to be inflicted on Him Who vexed them.
And he said unto them, He put clay upon mine eyes and I washed, and do see.
They receive eagerly, as if it were a sort of food for their envy, his confession of the marvel, and gladly seize upon the excuse for their rage against Jesus. For the man who had been blind relates everything on this occasion |26 very simply, and speaks very abruptly, in brief expressions praising as. it were his Physician: for he is somewhat astounded at the nature of the deed. Probably he may have thought in his mind that Jesus had miraculously enabled him to see by anointing him with clay, an unusual medicament; and it seems to me that it was very significantly and with sharp meaning that he said He made clay, and anointed mine eyes. For it was as though one might suppose him to say: I know that I am speaking to a malicious audience, but nevertheless I will not on that account conceal the truth. I will requite my Benefactor with my thanks; I will be above unseasonable silence. I will honour by my confession the Physician, Who did not trouble me by an elaborate process of healing, or perform the operation by the knife and surgery, or effect what was necessary by compound mixtures of drugs, or adopt any ordinary method, but rather exhibited His power by strange devices. He made clay, and anointed mine eyes, and I washed, and do see. It is perhaps worthy of notice that the man very rightly added, as the climax to his description of these events, the words: And do see. For it is almost as though he said: I will prove to you that the power of the Healer was not exerted in vain; I will not deny the favour I received, for I now possess what I formerly longed for; I, he says, who was blind from birth and afflicted from the womb, having been anointed with clay, am healed, and do see. That is, I do not merely shew you my eye opened, concealing the darkness in its depth, but I really see. I am henceforth able to look upon the things which formerly I could only hear about. Lo! the bright light of the sun is shining around me: lo! the beauty of strange sights surrounds my eye. A short time ago I scarcely knew what Jerusalem was like; now I see glittering in her the temple of God, and I behold in its midst the truly venerable altar. And if I stood outside the gate, I could look around on the country of Judea, and should recognise one thing as a hill and another as a tree. And when the time changes to evening, my eye will no longer fail to notice |27 the beauty of the wondrous objects on high, the brilliant company of the stars, and the golden light of the moon. Thereupon I shall be amazed at the skill of Him Who made them; from the beauty of the creatures I as well as others shall acknowledge the Great Creator. So that however little breadth of imagination or elegance of argument he uttered, his language is pregnant with all this power when he adds: and do see, after saying: He made clay and anointed mine eyes. For the preacher's style of argument, which we employ, does not exclude all that is graceful in imagination, or reject it as useless. He therefore who had received mercy from Christ, when questioned before the priests, speaks as we have said, declaring in a truly innocent manner, and to the best of his ability, the power of the One Who had healed him.
16 Some therefore of the Pharisees said, This man is not from God, because he keepeth not the sabbath.
In their folly they say He is not from God, Who has the power to work the works of God; and although they see the Son crowned with an equal measure of glory with the Almighty Father, they are not ashamed unreasonably to cast upon him the blame of impiety; and disregarding the report of the miracle, they attack the Wonder-worker with their peculiar envy, and carelessly accuse as an evildoer Him Who knew no sin. They foolishly believe the whole law to have been broken by His daring to move one finger on the sabbath, although they would themselves loose their ox from the stall and lead it away to water; moreover, if a sheep fell into a pit, as it is written, with much eagerness they would lift it out. So they strain out the gnat, according to the Saviour's word; for this was their ordinary custom. With much folly and very desperately they do not give credit to Christ for the marvellous deed, nor from the work of healing do they henceforth acknowledge Him to be what He is; but they cavil pettily about the sabbath, and, as if in their opinion all virtue was observed by merely remaining unemployed on the sabbath, |28 they totally deny His relationship to God, saying that He was not from God; although they ought rather to have understood that the One before them had authority over His own laws, and that it was pleasing and acceptable to God to do good even on the sabbath, and not to leave without hope one who needed mercy. For whenever will any of you refuse to praise the doer of good deeds, or what set time can exercise a tyranny against virtue? Yet while they admire the ancient hero Joshua, who captured Jericho on the sabbath, and commanded their forefathers to do such things as are customary for conquerors, and himself by no means observed the proper sabbath rest; they persistently attack Christ, and as their personal ill-feeling prompted them, not only strive to take away from Him the glory due to God, but also to rob Him of the honour due to holy men. And being stirred up by their mere malice to speak very inconsiderately, they pour forth a charge of impiety against Him Who justifies the world, and for that very purpose came from the Father to us.
But others said, How can a man that is a sinner do such signs? And there was a division among them.
Even these still think too meanly, speaking and reckoning as of a mere man; only, being convinced by the marvellous deed, they give the palm to Christ rather than to the law; and, putting the proof afforded by the Divine sign in opposition to the sabbath rest on this occasion, they appear in a better light as just judges. Yet, was it not acting greatly in opposition to the precepts laid down respecting the sabbath, to withdraw altogether the charge of transgression, and to acquit Him of sin, Who had not hesitated, when He thought fit, to do something even on the sabbath? But, coming to this conclusion by reasoning which seems unanswerable and has much common sense in it, they argue thus. For it is manifest and acknowledged beyond question, that to those who neglect the Divine law, and set at nought precepts ratified from on high, God would never give the power to achieve |29 anything wonderful. To Christ, however, in the opinion of the Jews, He gave such power, although He slighted the law respecting the sabbath. Certainly the doing something on the sabbath, does not necessarily involve sin, but neither can any one doubt that the doing of good works is far better than remaining unemployed on that day. At all events, as the Saviour Himself somewhere else says, it is permitted to the Levites to minister on the sabbath, and they exercise their functions on that day without blame, or rather their remaining unemployed would be blamable. For would any one find fault if they were detected sacrificing oxen on the sabbath, or even attending to other kinds of offerings? He would on the other hand more probably accuse them if they were not doing their duty and fulfilling the regulations of Divine service. When therefore things dedicated according to the law for the good of certain persons are brought to the Divine altar even on the sabbath without prohibition, is it not more fitting still that a kind action should be performed unto a man, for whose sake the marvellous deed might be acceptable even on the sabbath? By just reasoning therefore, some of the Jews are inclined to an excellent judgment, and putting off by an effort from the eyes of their understanding the mist of ignorance that characterises their nation, they admire the glory of the Saviour, (although as yet not very ardently, for they speak of Him less worthily than they ought;) and they separate themselves from those who are actually condemning Him. For the one part unholily allowed themselves to be swayed by envy more than by just reasoning, and treat as a transgression that which in its nature could not in any wise be blamed; whereas the others, rightly considering the nature of the action, condemn such a foolish accusation.
It is of course possible that it was with reference to some other matter that they chose to say: How can a man that is a sinner do such signs? Perhaps, to put it briefly, they are eager to defend the general practice of holy men. For, say they, if we allow that it is quite possible |30 for habitual transgressors to make themselves glorious by extraordinary actions and to be seen working marvellous deeds, what is there any longer to hinder those fond of making accusations from bringing charges against most of the prophets, or indeed by and bye attacking the blessed Moses himself, and lightly esteeming one so venerable, even though he was borne witness to by the most mighty actions of all? These men therefore may be contending for the reputation of the fathers as at stake in Christ, treating the circumstances respecting Him as a sort of pretext for shewing their love towards them.
17 They say therefore unto the blind man again, What sayest thou of Him, in that He opened thine eyes?
They imagine those who are disposed to judge fairly to be wandering in their wits, and they seem to me to have forgotten altogether Him Who says: Judge righteous judgment; and having been taken captive as it were in the bonds of envy, they cannot endure to listen at all to any word that honours Christ. Turning away from any one wishing to speak of His miracles as from some one most hostile to themselves, and mistrusting their own powers of explanation, they haughtily address their words to the man that had been healed. Again they ask what had been many times told them, having already proclaimed their belief that He Who had performed an action contrary to the sabbath was both worthless and wicked. They think that in this way the blind man will join them in condemning Him, and take his cue from their words; that he will suppress all outward signs of gratitude, out of fear and trembling before their anger, and readily charge Jesus with contempt of the law, because of its being the sabbath. Evil therefore was the design of the Pharisees, and it cannot be doubted that it was foolish also. For how could the voice of one thankless man weaken the force of the miracle? And would not Christ's Divine glory appear, if it so happened that the blind man, overcome by fear, should deny the kindness he had received, in order to |31 avoid suffering anything from those wont to inflict pain? But envy is powerful to persuade those who are bursting with it to eagerly do any thing in their passion, even though it involves conduct very fairly open to ridicule. The mind which is free from such thoughts, however, is not entangled by foolish arguments; but, ever preserving its natural excellence untarnished, is borne directly towards a right conclusion, and does not go beyond the limits of troth. Mean therefore and insolent are the Pharisees, thinking that those who choose to think and speak rightly are wandering in their wits, and endeavouring to compel the man to speak evil words concerning Him Who had miraculously bestowed on him an unhoped-for blessing. But he was disposed to express gratitude and had been brought nigh to a clear knowledge by means of the miracle.
And he said, He is a prophet.
They receive a sharp arrow into their hearts, who do not admit fair and just reasoning, and are eager to seek that only which gratifies their malice. For, as it is written, the crafty man shall not meet with prey. For their zealous design is upset, contrary to their expectation; and they are greatly disappointed of their hope when to their surprise they receive the reply: He is a prophet. For the man who had been healed, judging very rightly, agrees with the opinion of the other party. For they, not unwisely considering the nature of the action, maintain that a man who was a sinner could not perform such a deed: and he upon whom the marvel has been wrought, all but pursuing the same track of argument, declares Jesus to be a prophet, not yet having accurately learned Who He is in truth, but adopting a notion current among the Jews. For it was customary with them to call wonder-workers prophets, deeming that their holiness was thereby borne witness to by God. Accordingly, just as they wisely determine not to dishonour the majesty of the Divine sign oat of reverence for the sabbath, but argue from it that |32 He Who wrought it was altogether guiltless of sin; so also I suppose this man, thrusting aside the petty cavil respecting the sabbath, with worthier thoughts gives glory to Him Who had freely given him sight, and, having allotted him a place amongst holy men, calls him a prophet. He seems to me, moreover, not to have thought too highly of the regulations of the law; for [otherwise] he would not have admired Jesus so much, or raised his Physician to the rank of a prophet in spite of his apparent transgression of the sabbatical law. Having certainly derived benefit from the marvellous deed, and having arrived at a better state of mind than that of the Jews, he is therefore obliged to admit a superiority to legal observances in the Wonder-worker, Who, in doing good works, deemed an infringement of the law altogether blameless.
18, 19 The Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind, and had received his sight, until they called the parents of him that had received his sight, and asked them, saying, Is this your son, who ye say was born blind? how then doth he now see?
The envy against the Healer which is hot within them does not allow them to believe what is acknowledged by all; and, swayed by the frenzy of madness, they of course care little for the discovery of truth, and speak falsely against Christ. First they applied pressure to the man himself, and now they are seen to be no less rashly distressing his parents, but with the very opposite result to that which they intended. They propose a most superfluous question to the man's parents, and they seem to me, in their unbounded folly, to dishonour the very law which they so venerated and so extravagantly upheld. For the neighbours, as it is written, brought him that aforetime was blind, and setting him face to face with those who were asking these questions, they reported most clearly that he had been born blind, and bore witness that now he had received sight. Thus, whereas the law distinctly says that every matter is established by the mouth of two or |33 three witnesses, they set aside the testimony not merely of two or three but probably of many more, and go for further evidence to the parents of him who was healed, thus acting contrary to the law as well as to good manners. But the law is nothing to them when they are eager to accomplish something agreeable to their private pleasures. For when the testimony borne to the miracle, by the voices both of the neighbours and of the man who was healed, put them out of countenance sorely against their will; they expected to be able to persuade those now being questioned, to make light of truth, and rather to speak as they wished them to speak. For see in how overbearing a manner they put their question, saying: Is this your son, who ye say was born blind? For they all but avow their certain intention to treat them very dreadfully, and they frighten them with unbounded fear, calling as it were by compulsion and violence for that which they wished to hear, namely the answer: "He was not born blind." For they had but one object and that an impious one, namely, to loosen the hold which Christ had on the multitudes, and to turn away the simple faith of such as were now overcome with admiration. And just as men who strive to take some well-fortified city environ it on every side and besiege it in all manner of ways; at one time they are eager to undermine the foundations, at another they strike blows with battering-rams against the towers: so the shameless Pharisees lay siege to the miracle with all their evil devices and leave no method of impiety untried. But it was not possible to disparage as unworthy of credit what was well known to all, or to distort that at which many had marvelled into a less certain conviction.
20, 21 His parents answered and said, We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind: but how he now seeth, we know not; or who opened his eyes, we know not: ask him; he is of age to speak for himself.
They acknowledge as true that which was in no wise doubtful and for which it was hardly likely they would |34 suffer anything disagreeable; for they say that they recognise their own offspring, and do not deny what really was the case at his birth, but distinctly affirm that he was born with the affliction. Nevertheless they shrink from relating the miracle, leaving the nature of the deed to speak for itself, and maintaining that it would be much more suitable to put the question as to how he had been healed to their son himself. Fear of danger is certainly a powerful motive to turn men aside from what it befits them to do. Being greatly alarmed by the harshness of the Pharisees, they do not observe that which is somewhere well said: Strive for the truth unto death. It is likely that they did suffer something of another sort; for the poor man is always timid, and, losing through, his poverty the power to offer bold resistance, often takes refuge in an unwilling silence, and a forced acquiescence: as if already completely crushed in spirit by the vexation of poverty, he seems insensible to being burdened with other misfortunes. We suspect that the parents of the blind man suffered something of this sort, even though their answer on the whole is composed with great plausibility. For every one would agree that the recognition of the man as their son was a matter as to which it was far more reasonable to interrogate them than the man himself, whereas the question as to the Physician was one not so much, for the parents to answer as for him who had experienced the benefit of the wonderful operation. Thus they distinctly acknowledge what they know, inasmuch as they are fairly called upon for this; but what he could tell more truly, since he had the more accurate knowledge, about that they call upon him to give information. And it is not without Divine guidance. I think, that they added to their speech the words: He is of age. For this too seems to indicate the impiety of the Pharisees. Because, if he that received sight was qualified by his time of life to form a sound opinion; when he relates the miracle and how he was treated, he will not speak with the mind of a boy, but with an understanding now well matured, and probably |35 able to support by argument those speakers with whom he agrees. This then will of necessity tend to shew the utterly shameless incredulity of the Pharisees. For behold! they will believe neither the neighbours nor the blind man himself, although it is not with an immature intellect that he gives evidence, nor on account of a boyish understanding does he easily glide into falsehood; but he is of age, a fact which prevents his being ignorant of the nature of affairs.
22 These things said his parents, because they feared the Jews: for the Jews had agreed already, that if any man should confess Him to be Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue.
Well and fitly does our Lord Jesus the Christ utter this woe at the heads of the Pharisees: Woe unto you lawyers! for ye took away the hey of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered. For again let the devout person consider if the beauty of truth will not correspond to these words; for Christ could never be deceived. For behold! besides the unwillingness of any one of them to teach the doctrine of the presence of the Christ among them, they both terrify with cruel fear those who could perceive Him by the brilliance of His actions, and, by imposing a severe compulsion in their savageness, hinder any member of their company who seemed disposed to do so from acknowledging His miracles. For by putting out of the synagogue him who was right-minded and therefore disposed to believe, the wretches do not blush of their own authority to alienate in a manner from God him who cleaves to God; and to persuade him that the Lord of all is a partaker of the madness against all which they themselves possess. The admirable Evangelist however defends such, and says that the persons questioned were overcome by fear and therefore unwilling to say that the Christ had healed their son: so that by exposing the magnitude of the fury of the Jews, he might make it evident to those that come after. For what could be more inhuman than the conduct of these men, who deem right-minded persons worthy of |36 punishment, and bring under the necessity of being punished, such as at all understand Him Who was proclaimed by the Law and the Prophets? And we shall find from the sacred Scriptures that the unholy design of the Jews was not unknown to the holy Prophets. For He Who searcheth the hearts and reins, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart, to Whom all things are naked and laid open, saith by Isaiah: Woe to the rebellious children: thus saith the Lord, Ye took counsel, but not of Me; ye made covenants, but not by My Spirit; to add sin to sin. For he who saith that Jesus is Lord most certainly will speak in the Holy Spirit, according to the words of Paul; but any one who professes the contrary will not speak in the Holy Spirit, (how could it be possible?) but rather in Beelzebub. Surely then the covenants of the Jews were not made by the Holy Spirit, for they added sins to sins. They first of all draw down the doom of disobedience upon their own heads, and then they communicate it to others by forbidding them to confess the Christ. Surely the design is full of the grossest impiety, albeit the Psalmist laughs at those who to their disappointment engage in a fruitless undertaking, saying: Thou O Lord shalt confound them in Thy wrath, and the fire shall devour them; their fruit shalt Thou destroy from the earth, and their seed from among the children of men: for they intended evil against Thee; they imagined a device which they are not able to perform. For they were quite unable to carry out a design which fought against God, although often and in ten thousand ways they attempted to obscure the glory of Christ. Therefore they were turned back, that is, were driven from the face and presence of the Lord of all, justly being addressed with the words: Walk in the light of your fire, and in the flame which ye kindled.
24 So they called a second time the man that was blind, and said unto him, Give glory to God: we know that this man is a sinner.
Being unable to stop the man from speaking well of |37 Christ, they attempt to attain a similar end by another method, and proceed to entice him in a sort of coaxing way to fulfil their private aim. Trying by many arguments to make him forget Christ altogether, and not even mention Him as a Physician, they say most craftily that he ought to ascribe glory to God on account of the marvellous deed, thus pretending piety. Nevertheless they bid him agree with and believe themselves, even when they maintain the highest impiety possible by saying that He is a sinner, Who came to destroy sin. They bring forward no proof whatever of this slanderous assertion, but being boasters and thinking something great and extraordinary of themselves, merely because they were leaders of the people, they command implicit confidence to be put in their discernment of character, and lay it down as a matter of duty. For the words, We know, will be found pregnant with surpassing arrogance by those who closely examine what they imply. But thou mayest in no small degree wonder at the foolish mind of the Jews from this also, that whereas they decree that glory should be ascribed to God on account of the miracle, since He alone is the doer of such deeds, they condemn One Who works the works of God by His own might; and not only do the miserable people act thus themselves, but they compel others to agree with them. Yet when they aver that by their own unaided knowledge they are sure that Christ is a sinner, they are ignorant that they assert something most harmful to themselves. For, being wont to boast greatly of their learning in the Law, and exhibiting intolerable conceit about the Sacred Scriptures, they will suffer a greater penalty; because, it being in their power to know the mystery of Christ, which by the Law and the Prophets in many ways is typified and proclaimed, they with much heedlessness cling to their self-imposed ignorance; or, if they possess accurate knowledge, are always most pertinaciously unwilling to do what they ought. For they ought rather to instruct the mind of the common people to comprehend the mysteries of Christ, and to try to lead |38 others to the knowledge of what it behoved them to know. But they, profuse in arguments and mighty in boasts, and crying out with far too high an opinion of themselves: We know, set aside the words of the Law, account the voice of Moses as nothing, and think the declarations of prophets to be as vain as those of the thoughtless mob; for they quite fail to take notice of what the voice of the prophet foretels will happen at the time of Our Saviour Christ's coming, for he says: Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall hear; then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall be distinct. For the paralytic was healed at the pool of Bethesda, and after passing through thirty and eight years in his infirmity, as it is written, by one word of the Saviour he took up his bed and leaped away like a hart: yet when they ought to have admired Jesus for that, they lamented the breach of the sabbath, and, holding that the law had been transgressed, disparaged the excellence of the miracle. At another time, when an evil spirit had been cast out of him, the dumb man spake; but they fell into such terrible folly as not to gain even a little profit from it. The blind man received sight, the prophetic announcement was fulfilled, the word of the Spirit was brought to pass to the uttermost, and what? Again at this they go mad, they condemn the Wonder-worker, they attribute sin to Him Who is able to shine forth with Divine brightness, and Who displays as actually now present that which had been expected long ages before.
25 He therefore answered, Whether He be a sinner, I know not: one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.
The benefit which the man formerly blind had received from Christ appears to have been twofold: his understanding was in some way enlightened at the same time as his bodily eyes, and as he possesses the, light of the physical sun in his fleshly eyes, so the intellectual beam, I mean the illumination by the Spirit, takes up its abode |39 within him, and he receives it into his heart. For hear how he resists the abominable conduct of the magistrates out of his great love towards Christ, and how cleverly he reproaches them as being well-nigh intoxicated and beside themselves. But he frames h.is speech with proper respectfulness, and giving them their due honour as the ruling order, courteously says: Whether He he a sinner, I know not. We do not argue from this that the man was unaware that Jesus was not a sinner, but shall rather suppose that he so addressed those men with the following design. For he may be imagined to speak thus. Though compelled against my will to acquiesce in what is wrong, I will not endure to slander my Benefactor: I will not join myself to those who wish to dishonour Him Who deserves all honour: I will not say that such a Wonderworker is a sinner: I will not give an unjust vote against One Who is mighty to work the works of God. The miracle wrought in me does not permit me to consent to your words: I was blind and I see. It is not another man's account of His doings that I have believed: I am not carried away by the reports of mere strangers: it is not cures effected upon others that I am led to admire. I myself, he says, am a proof of His power: I stand here seeing, having been formerly blind, as a sort of monument, exhibiting the excellence of His love for men, and flashing forth the greatness of His Divine power. Something like this I conceive to be the real significance of the words used by him who had received his sight. For to say: Whether he be a sinner I know not; and immediately to add: One thing I know, that, whereas I was Mind, now I see, is not in the style of a simple statement, but shews a deeper meaning of very wise reasoning.
26 They said therefore unto him again, What did He to thee? how opened He thine eyes?
They again resort to questioning, and inquire about the manner of the Divine sign; not doing this out of good feeling or a laudable curiosity, but placing and reckoning |40 the speaking well of Christ by any living being as baser than any villainy and worse than any wickedness, they stir up all these matters afresh; thinking perhaps that the man would no more repeat the same words, but would vary his account of the event, and say something inconsistent with his former answers, so that they might lay hold of the contradiction and denounce him as an impostor and a liar. For, supercilious in their excessive cleverness, they imagined the force of the miracle to depend on the mere words of the man, as though it were not evident from the fact of what had been done. And moreover, I think that they may have experienced something of this sort: such as are not backward in hating others unjustly, when they are making inquiries about anything done by them which does not seem to have been rightly done, wish to hear it from the witnesses not once only but over and over again, whetting as it were into keener action the anger which seems too feeble. For, conscience, ever testing our motives, makes us uncomfortable, and ceases not to accuse us of injustice, even though from passionate prejudice we may feel a certain pleasure in the unjust action. The man who had been healed is accordingly provoked and urged against his will to go over the story again and to answer the same questions, while they almost make signs to one another to observe closely whether something illegal might not have been done in the working of this Divine sign on the sabbath. For conscience checks the savage design that rages within them, and (so to speak) puts a bridle on them, though they are unwilling to admit its interference.
27 He answered them, I told yon even now, and ye did not hear: wherefore would ye hear it again?
It seems superfluous now, he says, to tell the story over again to an incredulous audience, and it is useless for you to inquire so often concerning these things, when you do not gain anything whatever, although you learn and have conclusive evidence. But you bid me now again reiterate |41 the same words for no good purpose, as experience proclaims. For hereby the man who had been healed thoroughly convicts the Pharisees of unreasonableness, of turning away their ears from the truth, as it is written, not being laudably angry at the law being broken, but by these questions bidding him who wished to speak well of the Wonder-worker to appear in the character of an accuser, rather than accepting him as an admirer. For this was in truth their aim, since the transgression of the law was altogether a matter of indifference to them, and passed over as quite unimportant. On this account they set aside just judgment and were only bent on gratifying their prejudice; forgetting God, Who says: The priest's lips shall guard judgment and they shall seek the law at his mouth.
Would ye also become His disciples?
He has now confessed distinctly, and without any evasion, that he has been made a disciple, if not by argument yet in consequence of the marvellous deed; and has become a believer, accepting his miraculous sight in the place of instruction. For when he said to them: Would ye also become His disciples? he as it were revealed his own condition of mind, that he was not only willing to become, but actually had already become, a disciple. And in some degree even before he had fulness of faith, acting upon the precept: Freely ye received, freely give, he was prepared at once and very unselfishly to communicate his advantages to them. He affirms unhesitatingly and often his account of the marvellous deed, if they had only considered his narrative really as instruction. He certainly therefore observed in an excellent way that in the Book of Proverbs: He speaketh in the ears of them that hear.
It seems probable that some deep and hidden meaning is obscurely intimated in these words of his, and I will briefly state what it is. There were some of the magistrates who recognised that the Wonder-worker was in truth Christ, but keeping their knowledge of Him buried (so to speak) within their hearts, they as yet were |42 unsuspected by the majority of their companions. And our witness will be the wise Evangelist himself, where he says that the rulers knew that He was the Christ, hut hecause of the Pharisees they did not confess it. The proofs of this will be strengthened also to some extent by Nicodemus, boldly exclaiming and saying to Our Lord Jesus Christ: Rabbi, we know that Thou art a Teacher come from God, and that no man can do these signs that Thou doest, except God be with Him. Certainly therefore some of the rulers knew, and the report of this was spread abroad throughout all Jerusalem. The majority of the Jews suspected that the rulers knew, but were determined not to confess it through malice and envy; and that this also is true, we will shew from the evangelical writings themselves. For the blessed John himself somewhere says that Jesus stood teaching in the very temple and explaining things which, at least to the understanding of His hearers, seemed to be breaking the law. And when the magistrates of the Jews did not proceed at all against Him, nay, did not venture so much as to say: "O fellow, cease teaching what does not harmonize with our ancient laws," they brought suspicion on themselves among the multitudes as we have just observed. Thus for instance it is written: Some of them of Jerusalem said, Is not this He Whom they seek to kill? And lo, He speaketh openly and they say nothing unto Him. Can it he that the rulers know that this is the Christ? Surely he all but says, "Those whose lot it is to be leaders know that He is indeed the Christ; see, although they are generally considered to be desirous of killing Him, He is speaking with very great boldness and they do not rebuke Him even so much as by words." Accordingly, this suspicion being spread abroad through all Jerusalem, the blind man had at some time heard it, and had this report about these men ringing in his ears. Gracefully therefore reproving them, as we may suppose, he says: "Surely it is to no purpose that ye bid me again utter the same words and again speak the praise of the marvellous deed: or do ye indeed consider the narrative a pleasure, thirsting even |43 now for instruction from Him, although, overcome by fear of others, ye allow ungrateful cowardice to stand in the way of such excellent knowledge?"
28 And they reviled him, and said, Thou art His disciple; but we are disciples of Moses.
We almost see the Evangelist smile as he says this. For he beholds those whose lot it was to hold sacred offices degraded in mental stupor so far as to make an object of reviling that which was so excellent, namely discipleship under Christ; smitten with a worthy love of which, some of the saints say: How sweet are Thy words unto my throat, sweeter than honey and honeycomb unto my mouth. And again another, as if speaking to Our Lord Jesus the Christ concerning those that disobey Him, says: Consume them, and Thy word shall be to me a pleasure and delight, yea the joy of my heart. But they attach no value to His sacred words, and think that one who is being instructed by Him is worthy of blame even on that account alone; and holding so far true opinions even against themselves, they speak of the Christ as the blind man's teacher, and Moses as their own. For in very truth the Gentiles were illuminated by Christ through the Evangelical teaching, and Israel died in the types given by Moses and was buried in the shadow of the letter. Wherefore also Paul somewhere says of them: Unto this day, whensoever Moses is read, a veil lieth upon their heart. And there is no doubt that it was as a type of the Gentiles that we were as in a picture delineating the history of the blind man, fashioning, as in a type, the incidents connected with him to express the truth concerning them.
Yet this also is signified, that to suffer reproach for Christ's sake is a thing delightful and most honourable; for the very means by which those who do not shrink from becoming persecutors think to vex those who love Him, become (though the persecutors know it not) sources of joy to them. Yea, those who persecute Christians cause their excellence to shine more conspicuously, and do not |44 so easily succeed in causing them injury. The abandoned Pharisees then, disparaging as seems probable themselves more than Christ, say of the blind man: Thou art His disciple; and being elated and puffed up with pride, foolishly say of themselves: But we are disciples of Moses.
29 We know that God hath spoken unto Moses: but as for this Man, we know not whence He is.
Boldly do they speak again, armed with that folly which is so familiar and dear to them; and in undiminished shamelessness they once more boastfully exclaim: We know. And when they add: that God hath spoken unto Moses, thereby recognising that he deserved great honour, they in another way again insult him, seeing that they take no account of his precepts. For they ignorantly condemn One Whom as yet they know not, or rather they dishonour Him in spite of what they have learnt concerning Him, although the Law forbids them to act unjustly and quarrelsomely towards any or to judge at all in this way. Something of this sort they say again now: "confessedly God hath spoken unto Moses; there is no sufficient reason for any to be in doubt on this point; He enacted laws by him, and laid down regulations how every thing is to be done. Certainly therefore, he says, he is a transgressor of the sacred Scriptures, who has contrary opinions to those expressed by Moses: and manifestly the law concerning the sabbath has been broken, for thou wast healed on the sabbath: it is righteous not to acknowledge one who is detected in this matter and therefore condemned. Now we have good reason to say that He has not observed the Divine law." Then, when they say of Christ: We know not whence He is, they surely do not say so as being ignorant Who or whence He was, for they are elsewhere found publicly confessing that they know all about Him. Is not this the carpenter's Son, Whose father and mother we know? How then doth He say, I am come down out of heaven? Certainly therefore we can not accept this statement: We know not whence He is, as indicative of ignorance, |45 but we shall look upon it as the expression of the arrogance which was in them. For, throwing contempt on their own previous judgment, and setting it altogether at naught, they make this statement concerning Him. Perhaps indeed their words indicate that they argued as follows; for it is only fair to their arguments that we should scrutinise them more carefully. "We know," say they, "that God has spoken unto Moses: certainly therefore we must believe without hesitation what was spoken by him, and observe the commandments given him from God. But this Man we know not, for God hath not spoken unto Him, nor have we recognised any such thing with regard to Him." But the Pharisees, wont to be wise in their own conceit, and boasting much of their knowledge of the Divine word, ought to have considered that God the Father thus speaks, when by the all-wise Moses He proclaims the future advent of Jesus: I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren like unto thee, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak unto them as I shall command Him. And whatever man shall not hearken to whatsoever that Prophet shall speak in My Name, I will take vengeance on him. Surely any one might have rebuked the Jews with good reason, and said: O ye who only know how to disbelieve, if ye are so readily persuaded by the words of Moses, because God hath spoken unto him, ought ye not to believe Christ in the same way, when ye hear Him publicly declaring: The words that I say unto you are not Mine, but the Father's Who sent Me; and again: I speak not from Myself; but the Father which sent Me, He hath given Me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. Certainly therefore the words of the Pharisees are a mere excuse, a fiction of vain reasoning. For if they say they ought rather to follow Moses, on this account, that God spake to him; why do they not think similarly with regard to Christ, when He distinctly says what we have just mentioned? But while in part they honour the law, and pretend to hold God's will in high esteem, in another way they violate it and dishonour it |46 greatly by refusing to accept its proclamation concerning their time, that namely which was announced by it concerning Christ, that by His Incarnation He should appear in the character of a Prophet.
30 The man answered and said unto them, Why, herein is the marvel, that ye know not whence He is, and yet He opened mine eyes.
I am astonished, he says, and very justly, that you say you do not know One Who is borne witness to by such holiness and by the Divine power shewn in His actions; yet you are thought to incessantly give attention to God's teaching, you administer the law, you make the verbal study of the sacred Words your great delight, you possess the chief power among the people and especially may be expected to know who are good teachers. For who ought to rightly know those who by God's power work wonders, if they do not who are appointed to minister in holy things and who have been put in charge of the venerable mysteries? And by saying that he is astonished that they are altogether ignorant respecting the Divine sign, so wonderful and strange, which had been wrought upon him, the man covertly and by implication rebukes them, hinting that they were so far removed from sanctification and fitness for piety, that they shamelessly confessed themselves utterly ignorant of Him Who is truly holy, that is, Christ.
For let us lay bare what we believe to have been the concealed thought. If that is true which is somewhere well said: Every beast loveth his like, and a man will cleave to his like, how then if they were holy and good did they turn away and refuse to cleave to Him Who was holy and good? Certainly therefore that which was spoken was pregnant with a rebuke of the accursed policy and behaviour of the Pharisees. And I think another thing also will help to make this manifest. For I think that the diligent student who devotes his attention to such expressions will perceive more distinctly that which seems to be hidden in each. What then is this? Many rumours |47 went about through all Judaea concerning our Saviour Christ, but they spoke of Him only as a Prophet. For thus the Law prophesied that He would come, saying: The Lord our God will raise up a Prophet from among your brethren; yet they hoped that when He was revealed in His proper time He would instruct them in things above the Law, and by unfolding the truer intent of the Lawgiver would educate them in worthier wise. And thou needest not wonder that there was among the Jews such a hope and opinion, when even among the other nations the same opinion was spread abroad. For instance even that Samaritan woman said: We know that Messiah cometh (which is called Christ): when He is come, He will declare unto us all things. Most clearly therefore the Jews knew that Christ would come, (for this is what Messiah meaneth), and would interpret to them the higher counsel of God; and moreover that He would also open the eyes of the blind was declared by Isaiah, who says distinctly: Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened. But there was also another opinion prevalent in Jerusalem, forasmuch as the prophet Isaiah speaks of the Ineffable Son of God the Father as quite unrecognised, saying: Who shall declare His generation? The Jews, here also distorting the force of the words in accordance with their own notions, imagined that the Christ would be altogether unrecognised, no one whatever knowing whence He was: although the Divine Scriptures establishes for us very evidently His birth in the flesh, and therefore exclaims: Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a Son. And that the mind of the Jews in this again was uneducated as regards the comprehension of essential truths, when they supposed that the Christ would be unrecognised, it is easy to see, from what the blessed Evangelist John declared to be evident concerning Him, when speaking to them of Jerusalem. For some of them of Jerusalem said, Is not this He Whom they seek to kill? And lo, He speaketh openly, and they say nothing unto Him. Can it be that the rulers indeed know that this is the Christ? |48 Howbeit we know this Man whence He is: but when the Christ cometh, no one knoweth whence He is.
While the Jews therefore are thus absurdly laying down these opinions concerning Christ, the man who had been blind already forms [right] ideas about Him, quickly drawing inferences from the marvellous deed, and all but seizes on the words of the Pharisees in confirmation of his own reasoning. For he says: Why, herein is the miracle, that ye know not whence He is, and yet He opened mine eyes. Two signs, he says, I have, and very clear ones, of His being the Christ. For ye know not whence He is, but yet He opened mine eyes. Certainly therefore this is evidently He Who was foretold by the Law, and borne witness to by the voice of Prophets.
31 We know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and do His will, him He heareth.
Having already in some measure shewn his delight in the proclamations made by the Prophets and the Law as now fulfilled, both in its being unknown whence Christ was, and in the eyes of the blind being opened, he collects for himself aids to faith from every quarter, and thus discovers something else also. Starting from necessary and acknowledged principles, he makes a show of going on to the inquiry as to what is profitable and fitting, and constructs what may be termed a piece of reasoning well-pleasing to God. For he maintains, and surely there are good grounds for so thinking, that the God Who loves justice and virtue never hears those who love sin; and laying this down as indisputable and universally acknowledged, he introduces as a contrast the opposite statement as true, and as gainsaid in no quarter, I mean of course that everywhere and always the Lord of all listens to such as are habitually pious. And although the conclusion to be drawn was designed to refer to the Christ alone, it was so constructed as if it had reference to a general and universal principle. For as I have already pointed out by anticipation, the man who had been blind has an unworthy |49 conception of Christ and has not yet learnt accurately that He is by nature God; so that he thinks and speaks of Him as a Prophet, to Whom he might without blame ascribe piety: but this does not rightly apply to Christ at all, because He is by nature God, receiving the worship of the pious as it were a spiritual sacrifice.
32 Since the world began it was never heard that any one opened the eyes of a man born blind.
Pained as it seems very keenly, and grieving as we may say over their revilings against Christ, so as to be vexed beyond endurance because they contemptuously said; Thou art His disciple, but we are disciples of Moses, he is eager to speak on behalf of his Master; hence he draws a sort of comparison between the achievements of Moses and the brilliant deeds of Our Saviour, showing that as the latter is greater in wonder-working, so far He is the better. For indeed, is it not a matter of course that he who accomplishes the greater work should be in every way superior in glory? Surely it is not to be doubted. And at the same time he probably signifies something of this sort. Whereas a very ancient prophecy foretells and declares thus concerning the coming of Christ: Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and no one ever before caused astonishment by having done any such deed; now it has been fulfilled by Him and Him only, Whom you (I know not why, he says) do not scruple to call a sinner. Moreover, a great company of holy prophets are spoken of, and a number not easily computed of just men are mentioned throughout the Sacred Scriptures, but since the world began it was never heard that any one opened the eyes of a man born blind. Is it not therefore certain that this is the Christ, Who accomplishes the declarations of the Prophets, Who thoroughly and completely fulfils the things proclaimed of old? For if no other besides Him opens the eyes of the blind, what henceforth shall stand in the way of faith? What shall turn us aside from accepting Him? Or how can we fail, every doubt being |50 cast aside, to attain by the very easiest way the mystery of knowing Him?
Thus in these words also the man who was healed speaks on behalf of the Saviour Christ. And see how cleverly he puts together the argument of his plea. For it would really have been altogether outspoken and frank to say that Christ was better and more illustrious than Moses and the Prophets, but it was not unreasonable to suppose that the Pharisees, frantic at that, would have pretended that they were contending for the saints thus insulted, and with a good excuse would have attempted to punish the man, that he might not live and be looked upon as a monument of Christ's glory and a sort of representative of the Divine power which Christ possessed: wherefore, craftily avoiding the passion that might arise, and depriving their murderous thoughts of this pretext for development, he diverts the application of the argument to what is universal and indefinite, saying: Since the world began that which Christ had wrought upon him had never been done by any one. This was nothing else than shewing that Christ was certainly greater and more glorious than all, since He manifested by His actions such power and authority to be possessed by Him, as none of the saints had ever possessed. Thus he crowns his Physician with excellent honour in every thing, taking for justification the marvellous deed never before accomplished or attempted, namely, the removal of blindness.
33 If this Man were not from God, He could do nothing.
He who had just received sight and been miraculously freed from his old blindness, was quicker to perceive truth than they who had been instructed by the law, for see, see how by very many and wise arguments he demonstrates the utter baseness of the Pharisees' opinion. For when they absurdly said of Christ: As for this Man we know not whence He is, he in reply severely rebukes them for their unfairness of thought, when they deny all knowledge of One Who worked such wonders; it being evident to all |51 that one who was not from God would be unable to do any of those deeds which are only accomplished by Divine energy. For God works such deeds through the saints only, and would never bestow upon a stranger who had not yet entered on the way of godliness the ability to boast of such glories. Else let the dumbfoundered Pharisee come forward and say what is henceforth the distinction with God between the holy and the profane, the just and the sinner, the impious and the devout. For if He enables each equally to become glorious by the same means, there is no longer any distinction, but at once all things are brought into confusion, and we will say with good reason that which is written: How shall we fitly serve Him, and what will be the profit if we appear before Him? For if, as one of the Greek poets said:
11 Ἴση μοῖρα μένοντι, καὶ εἰ μάλα τις πολεμίζοι,
and the evil and the good are held in equal honour, will it not be useless to experience bitter hardships on account of virtue? But we will not consider that these things are so, and wherefore? Because: Them that honour Me, saith God, I will honour; and he that despiseth Me shall be despised.
For my part, I would ask the self-conceited Pharisees, if God indifferently works such deeds even by the hands of sinners, why the magicians of Egypt did not achieve the same things as the great Moses? Wherefore could they not do equally wonderful works and carry off the same glory as he did? But thou wilt say that Moses' rod when it fell on the ground became a serpent, and those of the magicians became so in like manner. We answer that their rods were not transmuted into serpents, but a deceit was practised, and something which appeared to men like the form of serpents deluded them into error; a certain magical art made their rods look like serpents: whereas Moses' rod was truly changed into a serpent and suddenly |52 received the nature of that beast. And from the distinction which is laid down in the Sacred Scriptures thou wilt see that what I have said is true. For Moses' rod swallowed up their rods: for since the latter were merely in the outward form of serpents, but the former was truly and in nature that which it appeared to be, it was provoked to anger that they should look no longer like rods but like living beings, and devoured them with unheard of power beyond the power of an [ordinary serpent], God rendering such a difficult thing easy to it. And again, let the Pharisee tell me why these magicians, who caused their own rods to take the outward form of serpents, did not exhibit a leprous hand made clean, but in despair openly confessed: This is the finger of God? And tell me why the priests of Baal did not bring down fire from heaven, and yet Elijah brought it down? Are therefore God's ways certainly characterised by respect of persons? God forbid! But because He is just and a lover of just men He works His gracious miracles through the agency of the saints, but by no means through the agency of the sinful. With excellent reason therefore the man who had been blind rebukes the impudent pratings of the Pharisees and convicts them of an erroneous opinion, when they say He is not from God Who is proved to have a Divine Nature by His power of working miracles.
34 They answered and said unto him, Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out.
Hard of acceptation to most people are the wounds of refutation, and the consequent correction of error. They are certainly welcome and sweet to the wise, since they convey much profit, and have an improving tendency, although they may carry with them a painful sting. But to those who love sin they are bitter, and wherefore? Because, having fixed their mind on debasing pleasures, they turn away from any warning that draws them thence as vexatious, and deem it a loss to be diverted from their pleasures, setting no value on what is truly profitable. |53
For just as they who fall overboard from a ship, and, being caught by the current of a river, are not strong enough to resist it, and, thinking it dangerous to swim in opposition to the waves, are simply borne on by the current; so I think these men, of whom we were just speaking, overcome by the tyranny of their own pleasures allow those pleasures to rush on unbridled, and decline to offer any resistance whatever. Hence the wretched Pharisees are displeased, and crying out like wild beasts against him who brought forward excellent arguments, they welcome the beginnings of anger, and spouting forth the extreme rage of madness, unlawfully revile him; and somehow recurring to the haughtiness so natural to them, say that the blind man was born in sins, thus maintaining the Jewish errors, and ignorantly supporting a doctrine that will not hold together. For that no living person, either on his own account or on account of his parents, is born either blind or with any other bodily infirmity; moreover, that God does not visit the sins of their fathers upon children, not unskilfully, in my opinion at least, we have shown at some length, when we had to explain the words: Rabbi, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he should be born blind? Since therefore the man who had been born blind knew how to refute the Pharisees, he was on that account not only reviled, but cast out by them. And here again learn that what was done is typical of a true event: for that the people of Israel were going to utterly loathe the Gentiles as nurtured in sins from erroneous prejudice, any one can recognise from what the Pharisees said to that man. And they expel him, exactly as they who plead the doctrine of Christ are expelled and cast out by the Jews.
35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out.
The inspired Evangelist says that our Lord Jesus Christ heard, not implying certainly or of necessity that any one reported the fact to Him, but because, as one of the wise somewhere says: The Spirit of the Lord filleth the world, |54 and the ear of hearing heareth all things. Surely He hears, as the Psalmist says: He that planted, the ear, doth He not hear? and He that formed the eye, doth He not perceive? When therefore we suffer insult on His account, or endure any grievous thing from those who are wont to fight against God, we are bound to believe that most assuredly God is a looker-on, and listens as it were to the trial that comes upon us: for the very nature of the occurrence, and the sincerity of those who are dishonoured on His account, cry aloud in His Divine Ears.
And finding him, He said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God?
The man who had been blind has been cast out by the Pharisees, but after no long interval of time Christ seeks him, and finding him, initiates him. in mysteries. Therefore this also shall be a sign to us that God keeps in mind those who are willing to speak on His behalf and who do not shrink from peril through faith in Him. For thou hearest how, making Himself manifest as though to give a good recompense, He hastens to implant in him the highest perfection of the doctrines of the faith. And He proposes the question in order that He may receive the assent. For this is the way of shewing faith. Wherefore also those who are going to Divine Baptism are previously as a preparation asked questions concerning their belief, and when they have assented and confessed, then at once we admit them as fit for the grace. Hence therefore arises the significance of the event to us, and we have learnt from Our Saviour Christ Himself how right it is that this profession of faith should be made. Wherefore also the inspired Paul asserted that [Timothy] confessed the confession of these things with many witnesses, meaning the holy angels: and if it is an aweful thing to falsify what is spoken before angels, how much more so before Christ Himself? So then He asks the man who had been blind not simply if he was willing to believe, but also mentions on Whom. For the faith [must be] on the Son of |55 God, and not as on a man like ourselves, but as on God Incarnate. Surely this is the fulness of the mystery concerning Christ. And in saying: Dost thou believe? He all but says "Wilt thou shew thyself superior to the madness of those men? Wilt thou bid farewell to their incredu-lousness and accept the faith?" For the emphatic Thou implies such a contradistinction from other persons in some way.
36 And Who is He, Lord, saith he, that I may believe on Him?
The soul furnished with sound reason, diligently seeking the word of truth with the eyes of the understanding free, without embarrassment makes straight for it like a ship going into port, and obtains its advantages by a chase without fatigue. And again the man who had been blind will be a proof of what has been said. For when he had already by many arguments and reasonings admired the mystery concerning Christ, and moreover had been struck with astonishment at His unspeakable might, which had been experienced not by any other but by himself in himself, he is found thus ready to believe and without delay proceeds to do so. For see, see, he earnestly asks upon whom he should fasten that faith which had been already built up within him. For this alone was lacking to him, and he was previously prepared for it, as we have said.
37 And Jesus said, Thou hast both seen Him, and He it is that speaketh with thee.
Being asked upon whom it was proper to believe, Jesus points to Himself, and not simply by saying "It is I," but by saying that the Person Whom the other was looking at and by Whom he was being addressed, was the Son of God; in every way consulting beforehand our advantage, and in divers manners constructing aids towards a faith both free from error and unperverted, lest while thinking ourselves pious we might fall into the meshes of the net of the devil, by foolishly turning aside from the truth of the mystery. For even now some of those who think |56 themselves Christians, not accurately understanding the scope of the Incarnation, have dared to separate from God. the Word that Temple which was for our sakes taken from woman, and have divided Him Who is truly and indeed One Son into two sons, even because He was made Man. For with great folly they disdain to acknowledge as probable that which the Only-Begotten disdained not even to do for our sakes. For He, being in the form of God, according to that which is written, counted it not a prize to be on an equality with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, that He might become a Man like us, of course without sin: but they in their strange opinions find fault in a sort of way with His Divine and philanthropic design, and thrusting away the Temple taken from woman from the true Sonship as far as they can in their thoughts, they do not accept His humiliation: and conceiving an opinion far removed from the truth, they say that the Only-Begotten Son of God the Father, that is, the Word Begotten of His Essence, is One; and that the son born of woman is another again. Still, when the inspired Scripture proclaims the Son and Christ to be One, are they not full of all impiety who sever into two Him Who is truly and indeed One Son? For inasmuch as He is God the Word, He is thought of as distinct from the flesh; and inasmuch as He is flesh, He is thought of as distinct from the Word: but inasmuch as the Word of God the Father was made flesh, the two will cease to be distinct through their ineffable union and conjunction. For the Son is One and only One, both before His conjunction with flesh, and when He came with flesh; and by flesh we denote man in his integrity, I mean as consisting of soul and body. Certainly therefore on account of this pretence, with the greatest foresight, the Lord here again when asked, "Who is the Son of God?" did not say, '' It is I," for it would then perhaps have been possible for some ignorantly to suppose that the Word alone Who shone forth from God the Father was thereby signified; but shewed Himself forth in the very manner which to |57 some seems so doubtful, by saying: Thou hast seen Him, and also indicated that the Word Himself was dwelling in the flesh by speaking again and adding: And He it is that speaketh with thee. Thou seest therefore what a unity the Word possesses; for He makes no distinction but says that Himself is both that which presents itself to bodily eyes, and that which is known by speech. Certainly therefore it is altogether ignorant and impious to say as some inconsiderately do say: "O Christ's man," for being God He was made man without being severed from His Divinity, and is the Son also with flesh: for in these things is the most perfect confession and knowledge of faith in Him.
38 And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped Him.
Quick to make a confession, I mean as regards his faith, and warm in shewing piety, is the man who had been blind. For when he knew that the One present with him and visible to his eyes was truly the Only-Begotten Son, he worshipped Him as God, although beholding Him in the flesh without the glory which is really God-befitting. But having had his heart illumined by Christ's indwelling power and authority, he advances to wise and good thoughts by fair reasoning, and beholds the beauty of His Divine and Ineffable Nature; for he would not have worshipped Him as God unless he believed Him to be God, having been prepared and led thus to think by what had happened unto himself, even the miraculously accomplished marvellous deed. And since we transferred all the circumstances connected with the blind man to the history of the Gentiles, let us now speak again concerning this. For see, I pray you, how he fulfils by the prefiguring of the worship in spirit the type to which the Gentiles were conducted by their faith. For it was the custom for Israel to serve the Lord of all according to the bidding of the Law, with sacrifices of oxen and incense and with offerings of other animals; but the faithful among the Gentiles know not this manner of service but were turned |58 to the other, that is, the spiritual, which God says is truly and especially dear and sweet to Him. For He says: I will not eat the flesh of hulls, neither will I drink the blood of goats. And in preference He bids us offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving, that is, worship with song, to celebrate which the Psalmist through faith in the Holy Spirit sees that all the Gentiles would go up, and says as if to our Lord and Saviour: All the earth shall worship Thee, and shall sing unto Thee; yea they shall sing to Thy name. Moreover, Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself shows the spiritual to be better than the legal service, when He says to the woman of Samaria: Woman, believe Me, the hour cometh, when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall ye worship the Father. But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth: for such doth the Father seek to be His worshippers. God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth. And if we rightly think, we shall conclude that the holy angels also are distinguished by this kind [of service], presenting unto God such worship as a sort of spiritual offering. For instance when the Spirit gave command to those above to bring God-befitting honour to the Firstborn and Only-Begotten, He says: And let all the angels of God worship Him. Moreover the Divine Psalmist called us to do this, saying: O come let us worship and fall down before Him. And it would not be difficult to treat of this matter at great length; but putting a convenient limit to our words, we will abstain from bringing forward any more arguments for the present. Except that we will once more repeat that the man who had been blind admirably carries out the type of the service of the Gentiles, making his worship the close companion of his confession of faith.
39 And Jesus said, For judgment came I into this world, that they which see not may see; and that they which see may become blind.
Christ, when explaining to us by the voice of Isaiah the |59 cause of His manifestation, I mean in this world, says: The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He anointed Me: He hath sent Me to preach good tidings unto the poor to proclaim deliverance to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind. Moreover he saith somewhere in another place: Hear, ye deaf; and receive your sight O blind, that ye may see. When therefore He saith that for this cause He was chosen by God the Father, that He might proclaim recovery of sight to the blind, how is it that here He saith: For judgment came I into this world, that they which see not may see; and that they which see may become blind? Is then, some one will say, Christ a minister of sin, according to the language of Paul? God forbid. For He came to accomplish the predetermined intention of His goodness towards us, namely, to illuminate all men by the torch of the Spirit. But the Jews, being obstinate in unbelief did not accept the grace shining upon them, imprecating as it were on themselves a self-chosen darkness. For instance, it is written concerning them in the prophetic records: While they waited for light darkness came upon them: waiting for brightness they walked in obscurity. For inasmuch as He was to come according to the declaration of the Law, the Jews waited for brightness and the Light, that is, Christ. For they accepted the fact that He would come, and expected Him, but they who thought themselves pious in this matter were walking in obscurity, that is, in profound darkness, when there was no other cause why they suffered the gloom that came upon them, except that by their own unbelief they drew the affliction upon themselves. I came therefore, He says, to give sight to the blind through their faith; but the unyielding obstinacy of the stubborn and refractory, which tended greatly to unbelief, caused the coming of the Illuminator to be unto them a coming for judgment. For since they believe not, they are condemned. And this the Saviour has said more clearly to thee in other words also: Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on the Son is not judged: but he that believeth not on the Son hath been judged already, |60 because he hath not believed on the name of the Son of God. With beautiful fitness therefore He mentions this in connection with the event now under our consideration, making the deed miraculously wrought upon the blind man the basis as it were of his discourse: for He declares that man to have received sight not only as regards the body, but also as regards the mind, because he had accepted the faith; but that the Pharisees suffered just the contrary, because they did not behold His glory, although it was shining most clearly, even in that marvellous deed that was so great and so novel.
40 Those of the Pharisees which were with Him heard these things, and said unto Him, Are we also blind?
The Pharisees keep close to the Saviour Christ and are eager to associate with Him, although they have a sharp arrow shot into their heart, and pine with vexation and envy at His glory; they associate with Him, however, gathering nourishment for their hatred, and devising various slanders against His marvellous deeds, and by these means perverting the guileless mind of such as are more ready to believe. And when they heard Christ say these words, they were cut to the heart again, for it was not likely they would fail to know that the aim of the discourse was directed against them. But when He said at first, vaguely and indefinitely: That they which see may become blind, not yet having an occasion to find fault with good reason as being insulted, they maliciously question Him, applying the force of what had been said to their own persons, and demanding as it were that He should say more clearly whether He meant that they were blind also, so that they might now condemn Him again as offending against the commandment of the Law. For being constantly familiar with every part of the writings of Moses, they knew that it was written: Thou shalt not speak evil of a ruler of thy people. Either therefore expecting to be insulted they say such words, so that they |61 might seem with good reason to attack Him, and to be angry, and now without blame to take counsel against Christ; or because they really felt such excess of bitterness in their mind, and were bursting to show the malice which was in them. For when Christ said: For judgment came I into this world, that they which see not may see, and by these words indicated the restoration of sight to the blind man, they were unable to endure being reminded of the miracle, and being goaded by envy they once more rise up against Him, and endeavour to oppose Him. In His presence they do not shrink from saying what almost amounts to this: "O fellow, thou boastest strange things, having accomplished none of those deeds which Thou thinkest Thyself to have wrought. Dost Thou indeed wish, say they, to impose even upon us with Thy wonderworking? Wilt Thou be capable of saying that Thou hast healed us, for that we are blind also? Dost Thou wish that we should ascribe to Thee the glory of a physician and wonder-worker, telling lies after the manner of this man, of whom Thou sayest that he has received his sight, having been born blind? Wilt Thou dare to deal falsely with us by similar statements?" Certainly therefore the language of the Pharisees as they mock at the events relating to the blind man is evil and very bitter, and they deem the whole thing an imposture rather than a truth; for nothing convinces the obstinate.
41 Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye would have no sin: but now ye say, We see: your sins will remain.
The Saviour once more confounds them, tempering His reproof with skill. For He holds aloof from all reviling and puts them out of countenance by setting before them the force of the truth: He shows them that they derive no advantage from possessing sight, or rather that they fell into a worse condition than one who could not see at all. For the blind man, saith He, by not beholding any of the deeds miraculously wrought, escaped without sin, |62 and is so far blameless; but they who have been watchers and beholders of the marvellous deed, and through great folly and evilness of disposition have not accepted the faith in consequence of them, make their sin difficult of removal, and it is really hard to escape from the condemnation which such conduct incurs. Therefore it is not hard to understand the meaning of this as regards bodily blindness and restoration to sight: and when we pass to that which is to be understood by analogy, receiving our impressions from the argument itself, we shall again repeat the same signification: that the man who does not understand may claim his pardon with excellent reason from the judge, but he who is keen of intellect and understands his duty, and then, having indulged his debasing inclination in the baser principles of his mind, and given himself to the sway of pleasures and not of duty, shall shamelessly claim compassion,----the request for which he ought to be punished shall in no wise be granted, and he will very justly perish for having kept in himself a sin without excuse. For instance Our Lord Jesus Christ signifies exactly the same thing in the Gospels, saying: He that knew Ms lord's will, and did it not, shall be beaten with many stripes. For the charge against him that knew not is merely that of ignorance; but against him that understood and yet inconsiderately refused to act, the charge is that of overweening presumption. Observe again how guardedly accurate was the language of the Saviour on this occasion also; for He does not say plainly, "Ye see," but He says: Ye say, We see. For it would of course have been very much beside the mark, to ascribe understanding to those who possessed a mind so blind and emptied of light as to dare to say concerning Him: We know that this Man is a sinner. Self-condemned therefore are the Jews, who affirm of themselves that they see, but do not act at all as they ought; aye, most emphatically self-condemned, for they know the will of the Lord, but are so self-conceited that they thus resist even His mightiest miracles. |63
Chap. x. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out. When he hath put forth all his own, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice. And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.
Very probably it may seem to those who listen carelessly that the language of the parable before us is not introduced very appositely: because after a discussion on blindness and recovery of sight, we straightway come upon statements about sheep, and a fold, and a door. But he in whom dwells a wise mind, which hastens more diligently to compare the ideas, will perceive here also that the argument proceeds so to speak straight forward, and swerves not at all from what is right and fitting. And here I will once more repeat what I have said many times before. It was the custom of the Saviour Christ, when any came unto Him, to reply not merely to the words which they expressed through their voice, but to speak with reference to their inward thoughts also, since He sees both heart and reins; for to Him all things are naked and laid open, and there is no creature that is not manifest in His sight. Wherefore also He saith to one of the saints: Who is this that hideth counsel from Me, and hath words in his heart, and thinketh to conceal them from Me? When therefore the unholy company of Pharisees craftily asked, as we said just now, if they were blind also, in order that if he said truly what they were, namely blind, he might again be accused as one who reviled the magistrates and spoke evil of those whose lot it was to rule the people, (for they prided themselves inordinately upon this); Our Lord Jesus Christ, fighting in this case again with their inward thought, necessarily and profitably introduces the parable, implying (somewhat obscurely |64 and as it were in riddles) that on account of their arrogant selfishness they would not be firmly maintained in the leadership, and that the dignity would not be confirmed to such as insulted in their pride God the Giver of it; and teaching that this dignity would only belong to those who should be called by Him to the leadership of the people. Therefore He says that Himself is the Door introducing of His own will to the leadership of His rational flocks the man who is prudent and God-loving. But him who thinks himself able to take by violence and tyranny the honour that is not given to him, He calls a thief and a robber, climbing up some other way. Such were some concerning whom He speaks perhaps by one of the Prophets; They reigned as kings, and not by Me; they ruled, and not by My Spirit. And He intimates by the words before us, that if they would take pleasure in being rulers of the people they must believe and must receive through Him the Divine call to undertake this dignity, in order that they might have their rule unshaken and well established; which of course was the case with the holy Apostles, and with the Teachers of the holy Churches after them; to whom also the porter openeth. That is, either the Angel who is appointed to preside over the churches and to assist those whose lot is to minister in holy things for the good of the people, or else the Saviour Himself, Who is at the same time both the Door and the Lord of the Door. At all events, He very well asserts that the flock of sheep rightly obey and yield to the voice of the shepherd, but very quickly turn away from the voice of strangers; so that thou mayest understand a true matter by extending the application of the argument to something more general. For in the churches we teach by bringing forward our doctrines from the inspired Scripture, and setting forth the Evangelic and Apostolic Word as a sort of spiritual nourishment. And they who believe in Christ and are conspicuous for unperverted faith, are obedient listeners to such teaching; but they turn away from the voices of falsifiers, and avoid them as |65 a deadly evil. But then, some one will say, what is herein intimated to the Pharisees? Gathering it up into a short and summary explanation I will tell thee this again. He shows Himself therefore as Lord of the fold, and Door and Porter, that they may accurately learn that they will not have their position of leadership confirmed to them, unless they come to it through Him and thus possess the God-given honour. And by adding that the sheep obey their own shepherds, but run away from strangers, He again skilfully hints that the Pharisees would never be leaders of those that should become believers in Him, but that His sheep would refuse their instruction and attach themselves to the shepherds appointed by Him.
6 This parable [or proverb] spake Jesus unto them: but they understood not what things they were which He spake unto them.
Simple is the language of the saints, and far removed from the elaborateness of the Greeks: for God chose the foolish things of the world, according to the word of Paul, that He might put to shame them that are wise. He used therefore the name of proverb, for thus he designates the parable, perhaps because the distinction of the two words was always somewhat confused, and the signification is understood equally well whether both or either be used. Yet this we do say, that the inspired Evangelist marvels much at the Jews' want of understanding. For as the experience of events itself bears witness, they have a mind like to rocks or to iron, persistently refusing to accept any profitable instruction of any sort. Wherefore it was said to them by the voice of Joel the Prophet: Rend your hearts and not your garments.
And again, the writer of the Book seems to me not inconsiderately to have said: This parable spake Jesus unto them: but they understood not, he says, what things they were which He spake unto them; and he utters this with no little emphasis. For it is just the same as if he said plainly: So far are the Pharisees from being able to |66 understand any necessary matter, although absurdly wise in their own conceits, that they understood not this parable, so clear to see, and so transparent, in which there is nothing hard to lay hold of, or tortuous to follow, or difficult to comprehend. And with propriety he mocks at the ill counsel of the Jews, since Christ appeared of no account to them, although He taught what was higher than the Law, and exhibited a system of instruction much more pleasing than that of Moses.
7 Jesus therefore said unto them, Verily, I say unto you, I am the Door of the sheep.
He most thoroughly knew, being by nature God, and beholding that which lies in the depth, that the Pharisees understood none of His sayings, although accustomed to pride themselves greatly on their learning in the Law, and excessively supercilious in thinking themselves wise. Therefore He gives them a very clear explanation, and winding up as it were the long thread of the argument, He tells them in few words the main scope of the parable. For being naturally good, He leads on towards a clear comprehension those even who do not deserve it, that perhaps by some method the light may reach them. And He distinctly says that Himself is the Door of the sheep, teaching something which is generally acknowledged; for only through faith in Him are we admitted into relationship with God, and He Himself is a witness to this, saying: No one cometh unto the Father, but by Me. Either therefore He wishes to signify something of this sort, or, as is more suitable to the questions we are considering He once more makes it clear that we come to the rule and leadership of rational flocks through Him, according to what is said by Paul: For no man taketh the honour unto himself, but he that is called of God. For instance, no one of the holy Prophets consecrated himself; no, nor even will the great and shining company of the Apostles be found to have been self-called to this office. For they were consecrated through the will of Christ, Who |67 called them to the apostleship by name, and individually, as He says in the parable before us. For we know how in the Gospel according to Matthew the names of the Apostles are set down in order, and immediately following is the manner of their public proclamation: for. These twelve, he says, the Saviour consecrated; whom also He named Apostles. Seeing therefore that the foolish Pharisees wished to be rulers, and were immoderately boastful of the name and character of leadership, He profitably teaches that Himself is the bestower of leadership upon men and mighty to conduct them to it without difficulty. For being the Door of the sacred and Divine fold, He both will admit him who is fit, and also will block the entrance against him who is not.
8 All that came are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them.
Practising all kinds of enchantment upon the obstinate mind of the Pharisees, and trying to turn them to sound reason, He attempts to show them that it is a bootless and perilous thing to dare to act as leaders, without the election from above or the Divine counsel, but thinking that rule may be obtained by human folly, although the Bestower of it may be unwilling. Wherefore, having plainly said that Himself is the Door, which signifies the only means of admitting such as are fit to the leadership, He straightway brings forward the attempts of those who lived in earlier times, so that, beholding delineated as in a picture the result to which such action leads, they might then clearly understand that the ability to govern and lead flocks of people comes only through grace given from above, and not from ambitious endeavours. Therefore here also his speech is profitable, bringing to mind the history of those who lived in earlier times: All that came are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. For certain men came forward publicly, pretending to have the office of good shepherds; but since there was none who committed the leadership unto them, and who |68 could persuade those whom they ought to have ruled to obey them, the multitude of the sheep ran away from them.
But by no means must we suspect, because He said: All, that the apostleship of the holy Prophets is set at naught by Our Saviour Christ; for the saying is not against them, but against others. For since His object was to speak about false shepherds and such as climbed up some other way into the fold of the sheep, of necessity the language was used with respect to those who had been clearly signified beforehand: He says: All, but we will in no wise think that the persons of the holy Prophets are hereby renounced; for how could they be renounced by Him Who established the truth of their plain declarations regarding His own coming; "Who saith: I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes by the ministry of the prophets; Who consecrated Moses, and said unto Jeremiah: Say not, I am too young: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak; and to the blessed Ezekiel: Son of man, I will send thee to the house of Israel, who are provoking Me bitterly? The scope of the language therefore is not directed against the company of the holy Prophets, but looks rather to such as at any time pretended to prophesy in Judaea, stating falsely that they came from God, and persuading the people not to obey those who were in truth God's prophets, but to join in undertakings and opinions devised by themselves; concerning whom the Lord God, the Sovereign of all, Himself somewhere says again: I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. And unto the blessed Jeremiah: The prophets prophesy lies in My name: I sent them not, neither did I speak unto them, neither did I command them: for they prophesy unto you visions and divinations and prophecies out of their own hearts. If they be prophets, and if the word of the Lord be with them, let them come before Me. What hath the chaff to do with the wheat? For the word that truly is from God has the power of nourishing greatly, and strengthens man's heart, as it is |69 written, but that of the unholy false prophets and false teachers, being thoroughly clean-threshed and chaff-like, conveys no profit to the hearers. When therefore He names those who preceded His coming thieves and robbers, He signifies either the lying and deceiving multitude of whom we have just spoken, or thou mayest apply the force of the words to those also who are mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles. For the rulers of the Jews having on one occasion gathered the holy Apostles together, and brought them into their own most lawless council-chamber, were taking counsel to banish them from Jerusalem, and to force them to be continually facing extreme dangers; but Gamaliel reminded them of certain false teachers in the following words:----Ye men of Israel, take heed to yourselves as touching these men, what ye are about to do. For before these days rose up Theudas, giving himself out to be some great one; to whom a number of men, about four hundred, joined themselves: who was slain; and all, as many as obeyed him, were dispersed, and came to naught. After this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the enrolment, and drew away some of the people after him: he also perished; and all who obeyed him were scattered abroad. From these considerations then thou seest clearly and indisputably that Christ's words do not refer to the holy Prophets, but to those of the opposite description, in order that even against their will He might persuade the Pharisees not to seek in their own foolish notions a pretext for rashly making themselves guides, when God was not willing for them to be at the head of the people, but in all things to subject their authority to the Divine approbation; and to hasten to enter by the real Door rather than to endeavour to climb up by some other way into the sheepfold after the manner of plunderers.
9 I am the Door: by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and go out, and shall find pasture.
After His usual manner, He moulds the form of His speech to a spiritual application as though it arose |70 naturally from the course of His story, and seems to treat things which are simple to look at and contain nothing difficult of comprehension, as images of things more obscure. For the thieves, He saith, and robbers, violently breaking into the enclosures of the sheep, do not enter by the door, but leap in by some other way, and by getting over the wall of the fold put themselves in danger. For perhaps, or rather very probably, one who is robbing in this way and rashly practising villainy may be detected and caught; but they who enter by the door itself, effect an entrance without risk, being manifestly not mean in conduct, nor yet unknown to the lord of the sheep. For he who standeth at the doors openeth to them and they run in: moreover, saith He, such as these shall be together with the sheep in great security, having effected an entrance very lawfully as it were and without guile, and without incurring any suspicion of being robbers. This therefore is the part of the story which is typical; and passing over to what is thereby intimated for our spiritual profit, we say this, that they who without the Divine sanction and will proceed to take the leadership of the people, as though altogether refusing the entrance by the Door, will perhaps also perish, doing violence to the Divine decree, at least by the motive of their endeavours. But they who are allotted a God-given leadership, and come to it by Christ, with great security and grace they will govern the most sacred fold, escaping so entirely from the anger which falls on the others that they even receive honour for their work: they will obtain crowns from above such as they do not yet dare to hope for; because their aim is not at all in any way to grieve their flocks, but rather to benefit them: they will do things well-pleasing to the Lord of the flock, and love by all means to keep safe those who belong to Him. By these words also the Lord greatly troubles the obstinate Pharisees, saying that they will certainly not be kept safe, but will utterly fall from the leadership in which they now are; and very justly, since they suppose they will possess it firmly, not |71 by God's approval, but by their own folly. Bat herein I cannot help admiring the incomparable love for men shown by the Saviour. For the Lord is really compassionate and merciful, offering to all a way of salvation, and in divers manners inviting to it even the very obstinate and hardened. And I will take the proof of my assertion once more from the thing itself. For when He fails, either by marvellous deeds or by the longing which yearns and hopes for the glory which shall be hereafter, to persuade the Pharisees to receive His teaching; He sternly proceeds to that, by which it was likely they would be especially troubled, so that henceforth they might look upon obedience as an inevitable necessity. For knowing them to be attached to the glory of being leaders, and to eagerly reckon upon no ordinary gain from thence, He says they will be deprived of it, and will be utterly despoiled of that which was so highly valued, and which was then in their possession; unless they will yield themselves to willingly listen to Him, and seek pardon at His hands.
10 The thief cometh not, but that he may steal, and kill, and destroy: I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.
While Our Saviour Christ was saying He Himself was the Door, and teaching that it was His both to admit those whom He would and to keep outside him who is unfit and quite useless for shepherd's work; and moreover, in addition to this, had denounced as thieves and robbers those who were self-appointed to an honour not given them from above; the wretched Pharisees again were taking counsel, deliberating Who this Man was that shewed so much boldness, and considering whether He ought not Himself perhaps to be numbered among those whose coming He reproved: for they thought that He too was a false shepherd and a false teacher, as merely self-consecrated by His own determination; not that being God He had been made Man, according to the ancient declaration of the inspired Scripture. And it is indeed |72 probable that even when they had gathered a true knowledge of Him, they rejected it as something which was intolerable to their unbelief, and refused to consider anything which was not in harmony with their own pleasure and their own dear delight; and this was to be leaders of the people and to be spoken of accordingly. When therefore He knew that such were their thoughts and that they so whispered one to another, He did not wait for them to express these ideas more openly, but answered them as was fitting, and declares that the question ought to be decided by testing their actions, as to who was the shepherd, and who was the thief; saying that it would be by no means difficult to thus discriminate, if any one would consider the object and behaviour of each. For the thief cometh, He says, for the destruction of the sheep, since the desire of taking plunder undoubtedly leads to this issue; but the really good shepherd will come without bringing any harm into the sheepfold, but rather will work for their advantage, and whatever he may understand to be for their greatest good, that he will zealously labour for.
Therefore let us now pass as from another image to the truer matter to which the force of the words applies, and let us again consider the Pharisees, how they at that time were acting like false shepherds and false teachers towards such as were, cheated by them; and then let us consider what Christ came to give, and what happiness He came to bring us. They certainly never scrupled to speak falsely, and feigning themselves to be sent from God, they prophesied (according to that which is written) out of their own hearts, and not out of the mouth of the Lord; and besides these, that Theudas also, and Judas of Galilee, drawing away people after them, were destroyed together with those who had been led to join them: but Our Lord Jesus Christ came to bestow upon us eternal life, out of the love which He had towards us. And their aims being so opposite, and the manner of their coming so different, how can it be explained except that their dispositions and offices were of opposite character? Therefore by the test |73 of their behaviour in office we ought to discern. He says, on the one hand what they were, and on the other what He was. For thus it was possible perhaps to persuade the rulers not to think unreasonably of Him any longer by supposing Him to be one of the false shepherds, or one of those who climb up some other way into the sheepfold: but that rather Christ, the Door and the Porter and the Shepherd, had come, not only that the sheep may have life, saith He, but also something more; for besides the restoration to life of those who believe in Him, there is also the certain hope of being blessed with all good things. And probably the word more refers also to this life, meaning what is more abundant or more honourable, and implying the most perfect participation of the Spirit, although very secretly. For the restoration to life is common to both saints and sinners, to both Greeks and Jews, as well as ourselves, for: The dead shall arise, and they that are in the tombs shall awake, and they that are in the earth shall rejoice, according to the sure promise of the Saviour. But the participation of the Holy Spirit is not thus common to all, being the more than life, as it were something beyond that which is common to all; and will be bestowed only upon those who are justified by faith in Christ: and the Divine Paul also will prove this to us, saying: Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall all sleep, hut we-shall not all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For indeed all shall rise from the dead, because this is granted to all nature, through the grace of the Resurrection; and in One, that is, Christ, Who was the first and foremost to break down the dominion of death and attain eternal life, the common lot of humanity was changed and made incorruptible, even as also in one, that is, the first Adam, it was condemned to death and corruption. But there will be at that time an important difference among those who are raised, and very widely distinct will be their destiny. For those who have gone to their rest with faith in Christ, |74 and who have received the earnest of the Spirit in the appointed time of their bodily life, will obtain the most perfect grace, and will be changed to the glory which shall be given from God. But those who have not believed the Son, and have deemed such an excellent reward of no account, shall be once more condemned by His voice, and, sharing with the rest in nothing save in the restoration to life, shall pay the penalty of such prolonged unbelief. For they shall depart down into Hades to be punished, and shall feel unavailing remorse. For, saith He, there shall be the weeping and gnashing of teeth.
11 I am the Good Shepherd.
Having previously well and clearly shown how grievously those who lived in earlier times suffered from the hypocrisy of the false prophets and false shepherds, and having made manifest the advantages to be brought about by His own coming; having now also shewn His own superiority by comparing the future destinies of the sheep, and being crowned as Conqueror by the votes of truth; He appropriately utters the words, I am the Good Shepherd. 'Certainly therefore,' He says, 'your plans against Me will be vain, since without being able to complain that I wish in any thing to damage the interests of the sheep, ye hesitate not to number Me with those who are wont to do this, and Him Who is truly good ye call evil, losing through your self-regard the ability to judge each matter fairly according to the injunction of the lawgiver.' Therefore He rebukes the rulers as unjust, as quite regardless of the words of Moses, as ignorant of the object of His coming, so that henceforth the prophet Isaiah may be acknowledged to speak truly concerning them, for he says: Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that call sweet bitter, and bitter sweet; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness. For indeed will they not be found to do this, who treat the True Light, that is, Our Lord Jesus Christ, as darkness, by scrupling not to reckon our Good Shepherd as one of the falsely-named |75 shepherds, or perhaps daring to esteem Him even less honourable than they? For such as professed themselves utterers of the Divine Word, and exercised themselves under the guise of prophecy in robbing the understanding of the common people and in cunningly stealing them from the way of truth, and led their followers astray to do their own pleasure instead of God's,----such as these were held in high esteem by those who seemed to be in power at that time. Certainly Shemaiah the Salamite opposed his own falsehood to God's words, and made himself bold against the reputation of Jeremiah; for the latter was in bonds, and the former had honour from Zedekiah as a reward for his lies. And now the wretched Pharisees going far beyond similar impiety, and characterised by more daring insolence, do not assign to Christ even the position allowed to false teachers. For indeed what did they actually say to some who were listening with great pleasure to His discourse? He hath a devil, and is mad; why hear ye Him? Wherefore Himself also says concerning them, by the prophet Isaiah: Woe unto them! for they have fled from Me; wretched are they, for they have been impious towards Me: though I have redeemed them, yet they have spoken lies against Me. And again: Their rulers shall fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue. For are they not worthy of every punishment, who foolishly whet their tongue to such a sharpness as to dare to say against Christ such things as are not becoming in any way for us, but only for those who hold similar opinions, either to receive within the ears or heedlessly to repeat?
12, 13 The Good Shepherd layeth down His life for the sheep. He that is a hireling-, and not a shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, beholdeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth, and the wolf snatcheth them, and scattereth them: he fleeth because he is a hireling, and careth not for the sheep.
Having made a skilful comparison between the prating speeches and lawless daring of some and the splendour of |76 His own works, and having characterised and described the former as thieves and robbers and climbers into the sheepfold by some other way, and Himself as the really Good Shepherd; He now passes on to speak of the rulers of the Jews themselves, and shews His own leadership to be better than that of the Pharisees. And the demonstration of this again He makes most evident to them by means of a comparison. For He sets in contrast as it were with their heedlessness and indifference His own watchfulness and love; and again accuses them of caring nothing for the flock, whereas He says His care for it was so intense that He despised even life, which to all is so dear. And He explains the proper method of testing a good shepherd, for He teaches that in a struggle for the salvation of the flock such a one ought not to hesitate to give up even life itself freely, a condition which was of course fulfilled by Christ. For man, having yielded to an inclination for sin, at once wandered away from love to God. On this account he was banished from the sacred and Divine fold, I mean the precincts of Paradise; and having been weakened by this calamity, he became the prey of really bitter and implacable wolves, the devil who had beguiled him to sin, and death which had been germinated from sin. But when Christ was announced as the Good Shepherd over all, in the struggle with this pair of wild and terrible beasts, He laid down His life for us. He endured the cross for our sakes that by death He might destroy death, and was condemned for our sakes that He might deliver all men from condemnation for sin, abolishing the tyranny of sin by means of faith, and nailing to His cross the bond that was against us, as it is written. Accordingly, the father of sin used to put us in Hades like sheep, delivering us over to death as our shepherd, according to what is said in the Psalms: but the really Good Shepherd died for our sakes, that He might take us out of the dark pit of death and prepare to enfold us among the companies of heaven, and give unto us mansions above, even with the Father, instead of dens situate in the depths of the abyss or |77 the recesses of the sea. Wherefore also He somewhere says to us: Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. These words apply to the sheep tended by Christ: but let us now consider the state of the flocks of those others. Surely, by him who looks carefully and fairly into their condition, those others will be detected as nothing else than hirelings and false shepherds and wretches and betrayers and cowards, who have never taken any thought for the benefit of the sheep, but eagerly grasp on every side at whatever seems pleasing in any way to themselves individually. For they were hirelings, according to the Saviour's words, whose own the sheep were not. No: the sheep were Christ's, Who hired those men from the beginning, and appointed the priests to the highest honours and headships over the people of the Jews: but they, [dishonouring] so dignified [a position], and altogether neglecting the sheepfold, betrayed the sheep to the wolf, and we will briefly explain how they did it. In earlier times the numerous people of the Jews acknowledged God only for their king: to Him they paid the half-shekel, to Him they offered sacrifices and brought the observance of the Law as a sort of tribute. But there came upon them like some savage wolf a man of foreign race, imposing on them the name and the reality of slavery, and laying on them the yoke of a human sovereignty, compelling them somehow to adopt a strange and unwonted manner of life, demanding tribute, plundering the kingdom of God. For it was of course necessary for them when reduced to such distress to submit to the enactments of their conqueror. The foreigner came, overthrowing the rule which is from God, that is, the tribe ordained to minister in holy things, to whom judgment and the magistracy were committed by God; changing everything and exercising oppression; causing his own image to be struck on the coins, and practising all manner of arrogance. Against such intolerable insolence the shepherds did not show vigilance. They saw the wolf coming, and abandoned the flock, and fled, for the sheep were not their own; they did |78 not call upon Him Who was able to help, Who delivered them out of the hands of the people of Babylon, and turned away the Assyrians, Who slew by the hand of an angel a hundred and eighty five thousand of the foreigners. And that the people of Israel were in no small degree injured and demoralised by the acceptance of the rule of the aliens, I mean under those of foreign race, thou mayest learn from the actual result. For at one time Pilate rebuked the unlawful boldness of the Jews, because they bade him crucify the Lord, and when he publicly said: Shall I crucify your King? they then actually at once threw aside their servitude under God, and burst asunder the bonds of their old allegiance, and proceeded to subject themselves as it were to a new yoke, exclaiming without more ado: We have no king but Caesar. And these things, both what the people did and what they cried out, appeared to their leaders to be right and proper; certainly therefore we must ascribe to them the authorship of all the people's misfortunes. So they are condemned, and very reasonably, as betrayers of the sheep, as wretches and cowards and most certainly 12 fond of fighting, even refusing altogether to protect and defend the sheep placed in their charge. Wherefore also God reproves them, saying: For the shepherds became brutish, and did not seek the Lord; therefore none of the flock had understanding, and they were scattered. From the events themselves therefore it is made manifest that Christ is a really Good Shepherd of sheep, but that the others are corrupters rather than good [shepherds] and are altogether to be excluded from any praise for sincerity.
14 I am the Good Shepherd.
Again He exults in having gained the victory and obtained the suffrages [of His hearers to the effect] that He ought to be acknowledged as ruler of the Jews, suffrages not expressed by the open testimony of any, but arising from the investigation of facts which has just been |79 undertaken. For just as after He contrasted His own works with the villainies brought about by the false-prophets, and shewed the result of His doings to be better than that of their falsehood: for He says that they came, unbidden, merely to steal and to kill and to destroy, to tell lies and to say things unlawful; but that He Himself was come that the sheep might have not life merely, but also something more; beautifully and rightly He exclaimed: I am the Good Shepherd: so also here, after characterising the really good shepherd as one who is ready to die on behalf of the sheep, and willing to lay down his life for them, whereas the hireling, even the foreign ruler, is a wretch and a coward and worthy of all such names previously given him; since He knows that He Himself is going to lay down His life for the sheep, with good reason He again cries aloud: I am the Good Shepherd. For He Who in all things hath the pre-eminence must of course be superior to all, so that the Psalmist once more may appear truthful, when he says somewhere unto Him: That Thou mightest be justified in Thy words and victorious when Thou art judged.
And besides what has been said, this other matter also deserves consideration. For my own part I think that teaching intended to be of great benefit to the people of the Jews was urged upon them by the Lord, not merely by His own words, but also the utterances of the Prophets, to persuade them to a willingness to think according to right reason, and to know of a certainty that He is the Good Shepherd and the others are not so. And whence? Surely it would not be unreasonable to suppose that even if they were not persuaded by words of His, yet at any rate they would not be unwilling to yield to those of their own Prophets. He accordingly says: I am the Good Shepherd, bringing to their remembrance as it were the words spoken by the voice of Ezekiel and recalling them to the minds of the Jews. For thus speaks the Prophet concerning Christ and those whose lot it was to rule the flock of the Jews: Thus saith the Lord God: O shepherds of Israel, do |80 shepherds feed themselves? do not shepherds feed their flocks? Behold, ye consume the milk, and clothe yourselves with the wool, and ye slay them that are fat; but ye feed not My sheep. The diseased ye have not strengthened, neither have ye refreshed the side, neither have ye bound up the broken, neither have ye turned back the strayed, neither have ye sought the lost; but ye have killed even the strong with hardships. And My sheep were scattered because there were no shepherds, and they became meat to all the beasts of the field: and My sheep were scattered on every mountain, and upon every high hill, and over the face of all the earth; and there was none who sought them or turned them back. For the one aim of the rulers of the Jews was to look only for their own gain, and to make money out of the offerings of their subjects, and to collect tributes, and to impose burdens over and above the law, but certainly not to take any account of anything which was likely to benefit or able to keep in safety the people in their charge. Wherefore again the really excellent Shepherd speaks concerning them in these words: Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require My sheep at their hands, and. I will cause them to cease from feeding My sheep; neither shall the shepherds feed themselves any more: and I will deliver My sheep out of their mouth, and they shall no longer be unto them for meat. And again, after other words: And I will set up One Shepherd over them, and He shall feed them, even My Servant David; and He shall be their Shepherd, and I the Lord will be their God, and David shall be a Prince among them: I the Lord have spoken it. And I will make with David a covenant of peace, and I will cause the evil beasts to disappear out of the land; and they shall dwell in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. And I will set them round about My hill, and I will give you rain, even the rain of blessing, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield her increase. Surely in these words God very well and distinctly declares that the unholy multitude of the Pharisees shall be removed from the leadership of the Jews, and manifestly announces |81 that after them shall be set over the rational flocks of believers He Who is of the seed of David according to the flesh, even Christ. For by Him God hath concluded a covenant of peace, namely, the Evangelic and Divine proclamation, which leads us to reconciliation with God, and wins the kingdom of heaven. Likewise also through Him comes the rain of blessing, that is, the first-fruits of the Spirit, making as it were a fruitful land of the soul in which it dwells. And since the Pharisees caused no small grief to their sheep, in no wise feeding them, but rather suffering them to be in many ways tormented, whereas Christ saved His sheep and was shown to be a giver and promoter of blessings from above, He appears to be right in this which He says of Himself: I am the Good Shepherd.
And let no one find it a stumbling-block, I pray you, that God the Father called Him Who was made Man of the seed of David a servant, although He is by Nature God and Very Son; but let it rather be understood, that He has humbled Himself, taking the form of a servant. He is therefore called by God the Father by a name suitable to His assumed form.
15 And I know Mine own, and Mine own know Me, even as the Father knoweth Me, and I know the Father.
Without sufficient thought any one might say that by these words the Lord wished to signify nothing more than this:----that He would be well-known to His own people, and would freely bestow knowledge concerning Himself upon those who believe on Him; and also that He would recognize His own people, manifestly implying that the recognition would not be without profit to those whose lot it might be to experience it. For what shall we say is better than being known by God? But since what is here expressed somehow claims for itself a keener scrutiny, especially because He added: As the Father knoweth Me and I know the Father; come and let us proceed towards such an understanding of the words before us. For I do |82 not think that any living being who has a sound mind will say that he has power to be able to attain to such knowledge concerning Christ as that which we may suppose God the Father has concerning Him. For the Father alone knows His own Offspring, and is known by His own Offspring alone. For no one knoweth the Son, save the Father; nor again doth any know what the Father is, save the Son, according to the saying of the Saviour Himself. For that the Father is God and the Son likewise is Very God, we both know and have believed: but what their ineffable Nature is in its Essence is utterly incomprehensible to us and to all other rational creatures. How then shall we know the Son in like measure as the Father doth? For we must consider in what sense He declares that He will recognize us and be recognized by us, as He knoweth the Father and the Father Him.
Therefore we must also investigate what meaning we shall consistently attach to the words so as not to be out of harmony with the context; this we must seek for. For my part, I will not conceal that which comes into my mind; nevertheless let it be accepted [only] by such as are willing. For I think that in these words He means by "knowledge" not simply "acquaintance," but rather employs this word to signify "friendly relationship," either by kinship and nature, or as it were in the participation of grace and honour. In this way it is customary for the children of the Greeks to say they "know" not only those who are of more distant family relationship, but also, even their actual brothers. And that the Divine Scripture too speaks of friendly relationship as knowledge, we shall perceive from what follows. For Christ somewhere says concerning those who were not at all in friendly relationship with Him: Many will say to Me in that day, namely, in the Day of judgment, Lord, Lord, did we not by Thy Name do many mighty works, and cast out devils? Then will I profess unto them, Verily, I say unto you, I never knew you. Again if "knowledge" means simply "acquaintance," how can He Who has all things naked and laid open before |83 His eyes, as it is written. Who even knows all things before they be,----how can He be without knowledge of any living beings? It is therefore quite unintelligible, or rather it is positively impious, to suspect that the Lord is without knowledge of any; and we will rather think that He means to speak of them as brought into no friendly relationship or communion with Him. As though He says: "I do not know you to have been lovers of virtue, or to have honoured My word, or to have joined yourselves unto Me by good works." Conformably with this thou wilt also understand what is spoken with regard to the all-wise Moses, when God says to him: I know thee above all [other men], and thou hast found grace in My sight; which signifies: "Thou, more than any other man, hast been brought into friendly relationship with Me, and hast obtained much grace." And when we say this, we do not take away the signification of "acquaintance" from the word "knowledge," but simply attach a more suitable meaning in harmony with our ideas on the subject. Accordingly, when He says: I know Mine, and am known by Mine, even as the Father knoweth Me, and I know the Father; it is equivalent to saying: "I shall enter into friendly relationship with My sheep, and My sheep shall be brought into friendly relationship with Me, according to the manner in which the Father is intimate with Me, and again I also am intimate with the Father." For just as God the Father knows His own Son and the Fruit of His Substance, by reason of being really His Parent; and again, the Son knows the Father, holding Him as God in truth, inasmuch as He is Begotten of Him: in the same way, we also, being brought into friendly relationship with Him, are called His kindred and are spoken of as children, according to that which was said by Him: Behold, I and the children whom God hath given Me. And we both are and are called the kindred in truth of the Son, and through Him of the Father; because the Only-Begotten, being God of God, was made Man, assuming the same nature as ours, although separate from all sin. Else how are we the offspring of God, and in what |84 way partakers of the Divine Nature? For not in the mere will of Christ to receive us into friendly relationship have we our full measure of boasting, but the power of the thing itself is realised as true by all of us. For the Word of God is a Divine Nature even when in the flesh, and we are His kindred, notwithstanding that He is by Nature God, because of His taking the same flesh as ours. Therefore the manner of the friendly relationship is similar. For as He is closely related to the Father, and through the sameness of their Nature the Father is closely related to Him; so also are we to Him and He to us, in so far as He was made Man. And through Him as through a Mediator are we joined with the Father. For Christ is a sort of link connecting the Supreme Godhead with manhood, being both in the same Person, and as it were combining in Himself these natures which are so different: and on the one hand, as He is by Nature God, He is joined with God the Father; whereas on the other hand, as He is in truth a Man, He is joined with men.
But perhaps some one will say, "Dost thou not see, O fellow, to what a perilous hazard thy argument is leading thee? For if in so far as He became Man we shall think that He knows His own, that is, comes into friendly relationship with His sheep; who remains outside the fold? For they will be all together in friendly relationship, because they are men just as He is Man. Why then does He any longer use the superfluous word 'Mine?' And what is the peculiar mark of those that are really His? For if all are in friendly relationship from the above-mentioned cause, what greater advantage will those who know Him intimately have?"
We say in reply, that the manner of the friendly relationship is common to all, both to those who have known Him and to those who have not known Him; for He became Man, not showing favour to some and not to others, out of partiality, but pitying our fallen nature in its entirety. Yet the manner of the friendly relationship will avail nothing for those who are insolent through |85 unbelief, but rather will be allotted as a distinguishing reward to those who love Him. For just as the doctrine of the resurrection extends to all men, through the Resurrection of the Saviour, Who causes to rise with Himself the nature of man in its entirety, yet it will profit nothing those who love sin, (for they will go down into Hades, receiving restoration to life only that they may be punished as they deserve); nevertheless it will be of great profit to those who have practised the more excellent way of life, (for they will receive the resurrection to the participation of the good things which pass understanding): in just the same way I think the doctrine of the friendly relationship applies to all men, both bad and good, yet is not the same thing to all; but while to those who believe on Him it is the means of true kinship and of the blessings consequent upon that, to those who are not such it is an aggravation of their ingratitude and un-holiness. Such is our opinion on this subject, but let any one who can do so think out the more perfect meaning.
Now however we must notice at the same time how true and carefully accurate the language is, for Christ is not found to treat subjects in inconsistent and varying ways, but to put every separate thing in its own and most suitable place. For He did not say: "Mine know Me and I know Mine," but He introduces in the first place Himself as knowing His own sheep, then afterwards He says that He shall be known by them. And if knowledge be taken in the sense of acquaintance, as we were saying at the beginning it might be, thou wilt understand something like this: "We did not first know Him, but He first knew us." For instance, Paul when writing to some of the Gentiles says something of this sort, as follows:----Wherefore remember, ye, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called Circumcision, in the flesh, made by hands; that ye were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in |86 Christ Jesus ye that once were far off are made nigh in the blood of Christ. For out of His unbounded kindness Christ introduced Himself to the Gentiles, and knew them before that He was known by them. And if knowledge be understood as friendship and relationship, again we say likewise: "It was not we who began this state of things, but the Only-Begotten Son of God." For we did not lay hold of the Godhead which is above our nature, but He Who is in His Nature God took hold of the seed of Abraham, as Paul says, and became Man, so that being made like unto His brethren in all things, except sin, He might receive into friendly relationship him who of himself had not this privilege, that is, man. Therefore, as a matter of course, He says that He first knew us, then afterwards that we knew Him.
And I lay down My life for the sheep.
Thus He was prepared on behalf of those who were now His friends and relations to afford protection in every way, and He promises even willingly to incur peril, giving a proof in fact by taking this upon Himself that He really is the Good Shepherd. For some, abandoning the sheep to the wolves, were well designated on that account as wretches and hirelings; but since He knew that He must strive on their behalf so vigorously as not even to shrink from death, He might with good reason be deemed a Good Shepherd. And by saying: I lay down My life for the sheep, because I am the Good Shepherd, He covertly rebukes the Pharisees, and gives them perhaps to understand that one day they would act thus franticly, and reach such a pitch of madness against Him, as to compass the death of One Who by no means deserved this, but rather was worthy of all praise and admiration, both because of the deeds which He wrought and on account of His excellent skill in the duties of a shepherd.
Nevertheless we must remark that Christ did not unwillingly endure death on our behalf and for our sakes, but is seen to go towards it voluntarily, although very easily able |87 to escape the suffering, if He willed not to suffer. Therefore we shall see, in His willingness even to suffer for us, the excellency of His love towards us and the immensity of His kindness.
16 And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring; and they shall hear My voice; and they shall become one flock, one shepherd.
In divers manners He rattles His blows around the lawless Pharisees; for that they would almost immediately be thrust out from the charge of the sheep and that in their stead He Himself would govern and lead them, He intimates by many sayings. And He throws out hints that, having joined the flocks of the Gentiles to the better disposed of Israel, He will rule not merely the flock of the Jews, but will at once extend the light of His own glory over the whole earth, and call the nations in every quarter to the knowledge of God; not suffering Himself to be known in Judaea only, as was the case in early times, but rather in every country under heaven giving the information which leads to the enjoyment of the true knowledge of God. And that Christ was appointed to be a Guide of the Gentiles unto piety, any one may learn, and very easily; for the inspired Scripture is full of testimonies to this, and perhaps it would not be wrong to pass it over altogether, leaving it to the more studious to seek out such passages; but nevertheless I will adduce two or three sentences from the Prophets concerning this, before I pass on to what follows, Well then, God the Father somewhere says with regard to Christ: Behold, I have given Him for a witness to the Gentiles, a leader and commander to the Gentiles. For Christ bore witness to the Gentiles, giving them instruction unto salvation, and frankly telling them the things whereby they must be saved. And the Divine Psalmist, as if calling those in all quarters into one joyous company, and bidding all under the sun to gather themselves together to a heavenly feast says: O clap your |88 hands, all ye Gentiles; shout unto God with the voice of exultation. But if it may seem good to any one to inquire into the cause of such a glorious and noble act of praise, he will find it clearly expressed: For God is the king of all the earth: sing ye praises with understanding: God reigneth over all the Gentiles. And somewhere also he has introduced the Lord Himself announcing in His own words the Evangelic Proclamation to all the Gentiles together; for in the eight and fortieth Psalm He says: Sear this, all ye Gentiles; give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world, both the low-born and the nobles, rich and poor together. My mouth shall speak of wisdom, and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding. For how shall any one mention any thing wiser than the Gospel precepts, or what shall we find so full of hidden understanding as the instruction which comes through Christ? Therefore, for our explanation must revert to what we began with, He clearly foretells that the multitude of the Gentiles shall be united into one flock with the obedient of Israel. But "For what reason," some one who is more keenly searching into the signification of this passage may say, "does the Saviour, when addressing the rulers of the Jews, and speaking to men whose hearts burned with hatred and envy, reveal mysteries? For tell me why such men should be informed that He would rule the Gentiles, and that He would gather into His own folds the sheep from beyond the limits of Judaea? "What then shall we say to this, and how shall we explain it? Not as to friends does He impart mysteries [to these men], but neither does He deem the explanation of these matters useless to them: on the other hand, He thus speaks because He knew it would profit them as much as anything He could do; for this was His object, although the mind of His hearers, being quite obstinate and not yielding to obedience, remained inflexible. And because He was aware that they knew the writings of Moses and the announcements of the Holy Prophets, and in the Prophets the statements are frequent and abundant that Christ was to |89 convert the Gentiles also to the knowledge of God: on this account He set this matter before them as a most manifest sign that He was clearly the One fore-announced. He publicly" declared that He would call even those sheep who were not of the Jewish fold, in order (as we said just now) that they might believe Him to be really the One Whom the company of the holy men had foretold.
17 Therefore doth the Father love Me, because I lay down My life, that 1 may take it again.
He replies oftentimes not only to the words uttered at the time with the tongue, but to the reasonings in the depth [of the heart]; for being Very God, He has a clear knowledge of all things. Accordingly, when the unholy Jews mocked at His words, especially because He promised that He would struggle on behalf of His own sheep to such a degree and so very earnestly that He was actually ready even to die for them, thinking that He now talked foolishly and deeming Him mad; forcibly now at length He shows those who were mockers, because of the ignorance and at the same time the unbounded impiety that was in them, that they are guilty both in words and in deeds of dishonouring that which God the Father recognises as worthy of great honour. For the Father loveth Me, He says, for this very thing that you through your great lack of understanding so utterly despise. Are ye not therefore arrogant and chargeable with gross impiety, when ye say that is a fit object for mockery which to God is most acceptable and well-pleasing? And somehow also He gives them to understand from these words, that they were greatly hated by God. For if God loves the One Who lays down His life for the sheep of the fold entrusted to His care, it is of course necessary to suppose that He holds in detestation the one who beholdeth the wolf coming and leaveth the herd [a prey] to the prowling and ravenous beast, and turneth to flight; just what Christ had convicted those, whose lot it was then to rule the people or flock of the Jews, of doing. At the same time therefore He reproves |90 them both as hated by God and as being ungodly, because they did not shrink from laughing at what God honoured most highly. Moreover, Christ declares that He was loved by God the Father, not merely because He lays down His life, but because He lays it down that He may also take it again: for of course it is in this point especially that the greatness of the benefits He wrought for us appears conspicuous. For if He had only died, and had not risen again, what would have been the advantage? And how would He appear to have benefitted our nature, if He had remained amongst us, dead, under the bonds of death, and subjected to consequent corruption in the same way as others? But since He laid it down that He might also take it again, He in this way saved our nature perfectly, bringing to naught the power of death; and He will display us as a new creation.
Accordingly, the Son is beloved by God the Father; not as though He would have remained without that love, had not His work for us been done; for He was always and at all times beloved. And we will proceed towards the comprehension of what is here said. The qualities which naturally are inherent in any thing, or which happen to be possessed by it, are most strikingly manifested at any particular time when they are exhibited with special intensity. For example, fire naturally has in itself its own heat, but when it displays it upon pieces of wood, then especially we recognise what force and what power there is in it. Similarly, the man who has acquired a knowledge perhaps of grammar or of some other such science, would not be admired for it, I suppose, if he remained silent, but rather when he has exhibited to the appreciation of others the excellence of the knowledge he possesses. In like manner therefore the Divine and ineffable Nature, when it strongly exhibits any of Its own inherent qualities, or any of the attributes naturally belonging to It; at such a time It also is by Itself most strikingly manifested, and so is seen by us. For instance, Wisdom saith in the Book of Proverbs: I it was in Whom He rejoiced, and daily I was |91 delighted, [being] always in His presence; when He was delighted at having finished the world, and was taking delight in the sons of men: although joy always belongs to God, and His gladness is without end. Surely nothing whatever grieves Him Who possesses authority over all; yet He rejoices in His own Wisdom at having finished the world. For when He beholds the energy of His own Wisdom exhibited in His work, then most especially He thought that He must more abundantly rejoice. In this way therefore we will understand what is said in this place. For God the Father being love, according to the language of John, and not simply good but rather goodness itself, when He saw His own Son laying down His life for us through His love towards us, and His surpassing goodness keeping unaltered the exact characteristics of His own Nature, reasonably loved Him; not bestowing His love upon Him as a sort of reward for the things that had been done for us, but, as we have said, beholding in His Son that which was true to His own Essence, and being drawn to love Him as if by certain necessary and irresistible impulses of nature. Therefore, just as even among ourselves, if any one beholds perchance in his own child the image of his own form exactly represented, he is drawn to an intensity of love whensoever he looks at him: after this manner I think God the Father is said to love His own Son, Who for us lays down His own life, and takes it again. For it is a work of love to have chosen even to suffer, and to suffer ignominiously, for the salvation of some; and not to die only, but also to take again the life that was laid down, in order to destroy death and to take away sorrow from [the thought of] corruption. Therefore, being always beloved by reason of His Nature, He will be understood to have been beloved also on account of His love towards us, causing thereby gladness of heart to His Father: since He in that very thing was enabled to see the Image of His own Nature shining forth quite unclouded and unadulterated.
[Page running titles]
Some expositors' notion as to devil: their dread of Advent. 651
652 Time of Advent devils called the time.
Satan, Cain, the Jews. Devil's first and second wickedness. 653
654 Cain's wickedness and imitation of
the devil. Jews imitate. Christ died for all. 655
656 The Jews and such as they like Cain,
Christ like the Father, He His Very Son. 657
658 Sin here falsehood: their sin exposed, teachers to repeat.
Jews calling God Father, self-contradicted. Questions of affirmation. 659
660 Some Jews better. Of God, threefold in meaning.
Heareth holdeth in the heart. Christ Son of God. 661
662 Jews' idea in saying Samaritan and possessed:
themselves having the devil. The Son God of God. 663
664 I honour My Father, disowning you: no love of glory
in Him Who emptied Himself. The Father's vengeance. 665
666 The Son God Who quickens: we may not presume.
Life life for ever, death, punishment. All rise. 667
668 Now we know the Jews' condemnation.
Their madness. 669
670 Death of body remains.
Jews knew not that the Only-Begotten was made Man. 671
672 Their anger. Envy leads to love of sin.
Human glory nought. Christ honours saints. 673
674 The Father is the Son is: Each the glory
of Other. Jews' ignorance of God. 675
676 Son God because Son of the Father,
and Eternal. Witness to self a form of reproof. 677
678 Word may mean totality of Essence.
Christ's Day: through His Passion all auspicious to us. 679
680 Christ, God the Son rejoiced in of Abraham.
Jews understood not, Christ then spake clearly. 681
682 Amen an oath. I am, God.
Christ departing bereaves of joy. Born-blind type of Gentiles. 683
684 Jews, wise, fell, Gentiles, foolish, succeeded.
2 Christ refutes error.
Jewish history appealed to. 3
4 God's mercy revealed by
His proclamation concerning Himself. 5
6 God is surely better than men.
Argument from context. 7
8 True explanation of Exod. xxxiv. 7.
Unchangeable perfection of God. 9
10 An illustration from history of
the true meaning of Exod. xxxiv. 7. 11
12 Two errors corrected.
Connexion of sickness and sin. 13
14 Man's knowledge is imperfect.
Christ checks undue curiosity. 15
16 S. Paul's language illustrates Christ's.
Christ never fails to do His work. 17
18 The blind man a type of the Gentiles,
and his illumination of theirs. 19
20 Virtue of Christ's Body.
Effects of miracle on different minds. 21
22 How the blind man esteems Christ.
Ill temper of the Jews. 23
24 Conduct of Jews explained.
Their rage increases. 25
26 The man's gratitude and delight.
False argument of some Pharisees. 27
28 Others argue more justly.
Consequent division of opinion. 29
30 They again question the man,
who gives a hold and just answer. 31
32 Testimony of the man, and of his parents.
Tactics of the Pharisees. 33
34 Timidity of the man's parents.
Tyranny of the Pharisees. 35
36 Their design frustrated.
They try another method. 37
38 This miracle fulfilled a prophecy.
Paraphrase of the man's answer. 39
40 The Pharisees cross-question him further.
He indirectly confesses Christ. 41
42 Some of the rulers recognised Christ.
But the majority rejected Him. 43
44 Pretended knowledge real ignorance,
and vice versa. 45
46 The man rebukes the Pharisees.
Various prophecies of Christ. 47
48 The man's excellent argument.
Christ shown to be greater than Moses. 49
50 Christ greater than any saint.
Miraculous powers indicate holiness. 51
52 Magical effects are of a lower kind.
The Pharisees persist in error. 53
54 Profession of faith is rewarded.
The proper object of faith. 55
56 "He is not two, but One Christ."
The man rightly and typically believes. 57
58 Faith produces spiritual worship.
Obstinate unbelief blinds the eyes. 59
60 The malicious question of the Pharisees
may be explained in two ways. 61
62 Self-condemnation of the Pharisees.
Connection of ch. x. 1-5 with ch. ix. 63
64 Christ is the Door and the Porter.
Parable means the same as proverb. 65
66 Meaning of 'the Door of the sheep.'
Lawful and unlawful leadership. 67
68 Limitations of the word "All."
Two explanations of "Thieves and robbers." 69
70 Difference between 'climbing over' and 'entering.'
The Pharisees reject Christ's pleading. 71
72 Characteristics of the thief.
Two kinds of future life. 73
74 Christ proclaims His own character.
Impious behaviour of the Pharisees. 75
76 Christ has been a Good Shepherd.
The Pharisees were bad shepherds. 77
78 Effect of bad shepherds on the flock.
Christ's words recall Ezekiel's. 79
80 Prophecy foretold the Pharisees' fate.
The blessedness of Christ's flock. 81
82 "Knowledge" is not mere "acquaintance"
but implies a loving intimacy. 83
84 Christ "knows" all men,
but not all in equal degree. 85
86 Christ willingly died for His sheep.
His "sheep" include the Gentiles. 87
88 The call of the Gentiles had been foretold.
Christ replies to His enemies' thoughts. 89
90 The Father always loved the Son,
but especially for redeeming men. 91
[Most of the footnotes, moved to the end and renumbered. The margin contains mainly biblical references and fragments of Greek. These have been omitted]
1. b Here the MS of S. Cyril gives the words, Κὰωσ τὸν νῦν ἄρχοντα τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου, which Dr. Heyse, the careful and accomplished collator of S. Cyril's Commentaries, looked on as a gloss.
2. d εἰς εἰκόνα τοῦ θεωρουμένου. S. Cyril seems to mean that whereas there exists in good and had, whether angels or men, a kinness (τὸ συγγενὲς) of moral condition and likeness; in our Lord, His relation to His Father being that of Son by begetting, the (so to speak) moral relation is only alluded to improperly, εἰς εἰκόνα τοῦ θεωρουμένου, in regard of the Jews' lying joining them on to the devil, Christ's truth allying Him with the Father.
3. e There seems here to be something omitted in the text which is hardly translateable.
4. f The skilful Collator, Dr. Heyse, conjectured περιπλάσας for περιπλάνας, the reading of the single Manuscript in which have been preserved to us the fifth and sixth Books.
5. g This τι νοοῦσι is a conjecture of Aubert the original Editor, in place of τίνουσιν which the MS.gives.
6. l ἀπέθανεν, died. This word may perhaps have crept in by some carelessness of the scribe.
7. a The Introduction to this Sixth Book will be found in the First Volume of the translation.
8. b The first verse of the ninth Chapter is commented on at the end of the Introduction to S. Cyril's Sixth Book, in the first volume of the Translation.
9. c Compare Vol. I of this Translation, pp. 90-99, especially the paragraph numbered 18.
10. d Pages 90-99 of Translation, Vol. I.
11. f "The same share is allotted to him who remains at home as to him who fights bravely." Homer, Iliad, ix. 318.
12. g Either οὐ should be inserted in the text, or φιλόμαχοι is ironical.
This text was transcribed by Roger Pearse, 2005. All material on this page is in the public domain - copy freely.
Greek text is rendered using unicode. Note that the chapter numbers and titles are part of the original work, as is the table of them at the start of the book. The numerals on verses of John are added by the translator.
Early Church Fathers - Additional Texts
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Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, LFC 43, 48 (1874/1885). Book 7. Vol. 2 pp. 92-137.
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, LFC 43, 48 (1874/1885). Book 7. Vol. 2 pp. 92-137.
|92
[Translated by T. Randell]
[OUR FATHER AMONG THE SAINTS
CYRIL
Archbishop of Alexandria
ON THE
GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN.]
THE FRAGMENTS WHICH ARE EXTANT OF
BOOK VII.
ch. x. 18. No man taketh it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.
In this place He teaches that He is not only a Good Shepherd enduring peril for the sake of His flock, but also in His Nature God. Therefore He would not have suffered death, had He not been willing, through His possessing the very God-befitting power of undertaking this work, so very advantageous to us. And the structure of the discourse taught the Jews this also, that they were never going to prevail against Him unless He was willing. And not only as regards laying down life did He say: I have power; but this expression: I have power, He used with regard to both His Death and His Resurrection, in order that the action of might and energy might not appear to be that of another, as though it were a concession granted to Him as to a minister and servant in office; but in order that He might display as a fruit of His own Nature the power to exercise authority over the very bonds of death, and easily to modify the natures of things in whatever way He wished, which is really a characteristic of Him Who is by Nature God. This then He wishes to show by saying: I have power to lay down |93 My life, and I have power to take it again: because, neither commanded as a servant or a minister, nor even as it were from necessity, nor being violently compelled by any, but willingly, He came to do this.
This commandment received I from My Father.
For lest any one should say that against the will of the Son the Father is not able to take away His life, and hence introduce discord and variance into the One Godhead of the Father and the Son; by these words which He says: I received commandment, He shows that the Father also agrees and consents to this, and professes that They come forward to it as with one accord, although He is the Will of the Father. And this will be found consistent also with His Incarnation. By saying that He received in the way of a commandment that which seemed right in the eyes of His Father, He being by Nature God does not make Himself inferior to the Father, but observes what befits His participation of man's nature. Again, He puts us in mind that He is Himself the Prophet concerning Whom the Father said: He shall speak according as I shall command Him; speaking of the common Will of both Father and Son as received like a commandment. This He spake to the Jews lest they should think that He said things contrary to the ordinances of the Father. And if the Father named His own Consubstantial Son a Prophet, be not troubled; for when He became Man, then also the name of Prophet was suitable to Him, then also we may say that commandments were given to Him by the Father agreeably to His human nature. But one who receives commandments is not for that reason inferior or unlike in essence or nature to one who gives commandments, inasmuch as men give commandments to men, and angels to angels, and we do not for that reason say that those who are commanded are of different nature or inferior. Therefore the Son is not inferior to the Father, although He became Man, in order that He might become a Pattern of all virtue for us. By this means He also |94 teaches us that we ought to obey our parents in all things, although we are equal to them as regards our nature. And in some places when it is said by the Father: "I will command," the meaning is: "I will deal fitly with," as when He said: And I will command the whole world for their evil deeds, and the ungodly for their sins. Moreover there are times when the Son speaks with helpful condescension, so that we may as far as is possible get an understanding of the ineffable oracles: yet His having said: I received a commandment, does not make One Who is in His Nature God cease to be God. Either therefore say He is God and ascribe to Him all that properly befits the Godhead, or say plainly He is a creature. For the fact of having received a commandment does not strip any one of the qualities which naturally belong to him. But since the Son speaks whatever the Father commands Him, and He says: I and the Father are One, thou art obliged to say, either that the Father commanded the Son to tell the truth, or to tell a lie. For what the Son hath received commandment to speak, He speaketh; for He saith: The Father which sent Me, He hath given Me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. And although He also said: My Father is greater than I, that is nothing to the contrary. For in so far as He is in His Nature God, He is equal to the Father; but in so far as He became Man and humbled Himself, He in accordance with this speaks words which befit His Humanity. Nevertheless, as the name of commandment is something external to the essence of a person, it could not be made an objection to His Essence. For it is not in the Father's giving Him commandment that the Son has His Being, nor could this ever be made the limit of His Essence. The Son, therefore, as being the Counsel and Wisdom of the Father, knows what is fittingly determined by Him; and if He receives it as a commandment, do not marvel. For by human modes of expression He signifies things beyond expression, and things unspeakable by our voices are brought down to the mode of expression usual amongst |95 us, so that we may be enabled to understand them. Accordingly let us blame, not the inconsistency of the matter, but the weakness of the words, which cannot reach to the full expression and accurate interpretation of the matters, as they ought.
19, 20, 21 There arose a division again among the Jews because of those words. And many of them said, He hath a devil and is mad: why hear ye Him? Others said, These are not the sayings of one possessed with a devil. Can a devil open the eyes of the blind?
The words of the Saviour go down into the hearts of His hearers, and those whom they find gentle and yielding they immediately mould and transform to a good condition, but those whom they find hard they recoil from or in some manner turn away from. So that he who has his mind somewhat prepared for fair reason will gladly receive the saving words, but he who is not so will not. Something of this sort was what happened to the people of the Jews to experience. For when they had heard the Saviour's words, they are divided into two parties, and those who are more amenable to reason now incline towards the first principle of salvation, but the hard of heart become worse than they were at first. And the inspired Evangelist seems to be struck with astonishment as to how it happened that the people of the Jews were divided on account of these words. For I think it is very evident that from surprise at the hardness of those who did not believe he says: There arose a division because of these words; by means of which, he seems to imply, the Jews ought to have been fully persuaded that Jesus was the Christ. So wonderful were the words of the Saviour. But when even these words were spoken, by which it was fair to expect that even the very hard to catch would be ensnared into conviction, there arose a division among them. He marvels much therefore that they had given themselves over in an unholy manner to a shameless disregard of evidence. For I suppose it was just to accuse them in |96 proportion as it was reasonable to marvel at the words of Our Saviour. He certainly spake God-befitting words and such as went beyond man; and the magnificence and God-befitting boldness of His superhuman words drive the multitude to intemperate folly. And since it was usual for those who were in truth possessed with devils to speak evil very readily, being of course easily provoked to rage and outside the pale of all intelligence, and since they thought that the Lord was a mere man, not understanding that He was in His Nature God; for these reasons they said He had a devil, as one who blasphemed so intemperately. Because they heard Him say such things as it befitted only God to say. Looking upon Him as one like ourselves, and not yet knowing Who He was by Nature, they considered Him to speak evil when He spake in any way that befitted God. Therefore, agreeably to His Incarnation and condescendingly, because of the infirmity of His hearers, He also often employs our manner of speech. The people of the Jews therefore are divided: and some, understanding nothing whatever of the mysteries concerning Him, are insolent in an unholy manner; but others, who are more reasonable in their habit of mind, do not condemn Him rashly, but ruminate on His words, and carefully test them, and begin to perceive the sweetness in them. And in this way they arrive at a most praiseworthy discernment, and do not attribute to the babblings of a demoniac words so sober and full of the highest wisdom. For it is the custom of those [demons] when they are driving men mad, to speak beside the mark. The Pharisees therefore were more like demoniacs, who called by this name One Who was free of all disease; and did not notice that they were proclaiming the disease which was in themselves, and were doing no other than explaining in their folly the very evil that possessed themselves. And for my part I think that they speak with the highest degree of evil craftiness, when they say the Lord is demoniac. For since He charged them with being wretched and hireling shepherds, who abandoned their sheep to the |97 wolf, and cared altogether so little for their flock; being in no small alarm lest perhaps the people, understanding what was said, should now refuse any longer to be shepherded by them, and follow the instruction given by Christ; on this account, trying to cheat the understanding of the common people, they say: He hath a devil; why hear ye Him? But these words too, the words of those men who spake with evil craft, had the opposite result to that which they intended. And the others, judging from the quality of the words, discern that the words of the Lord are without blame, not such as would be those of one possessed with a devil: moreover, the miracles, says one, offer an irresistible testimony. For although you find fault with His words as not blamelessly spoken, yet it is impossible that any one can at the same time be possessed with a devil and do such works as only God is able to do. Therefore, fair judges recognised Him from His works and also from admiration of the words which He spake.
22, 23 And it was the feast of the dedication at Jerusalem, and it was winter; and Jesus was walking in the temple in Solomon's porch.
But the Lord was not present at the feasts as one Who would share the feasting, for how could He? He Who said: I hate, I reject your feast days: but in order that He might speak His most profitable words in the presence of many people, showing Himself openly to the Jews, and to mingle Himself with them without being sought. And we must suppose that the feast of the dedication here signifies, either the chief feast [called by this name], in memory of that when Solomon performed the dedication; or [the other], when Zorobabel at a later time, together with Jeshua, rebuilt the temple, after the return from Babylon. And as it was winter and rainy weather at this time, probably all the people flocked to the porch. Therefore Christ also went there, in order that He might make Himself known to all who were willing to see Him, |98 and distribute blessings to them. For those who saw Him were provoked to ask somewhat of Him, because at holidays more than at other times men are naturally given to stir up anxiously such arguments.
24 The Jews therefore came round about Him, and said unto Him, How long dost Thou hold us in suspense? If Thou art the Christ, tell us plainly.
The envy which embitters them takes away all keenness to perceive what might lead to faith, but the greatness of the works He performed forces them to admiration. Nevertheless they find fault with His words, and say that the obscurity of His teaching stood in the way of their being able to understand what they ought to learn. They accordingly request Him to speak more clearly, although they had often heard Him and had received a long instruction on this point. For though He did not say distinctly: "I am the Christ," yet He brought forward in His public teaching many statements of the honourable names which naturally belonged to Him, at one time saying: I am the Light of the world; and again at other times: I am the Resurrection and the Life; I am the Way; I am the Door; I am the Good Shepherd. Surely by these names which He gives Himself, He signifies that He is the Christ. For the Scripture is wont by such honourable names to decorate the Christ, although the Jews required Him to call Himself plainly by that title. Yet it would perhaps have been in vain and not very easy of acceptance to say in simple words: "I am the Christ," unless actions followed for proof, by which it might have been reasonably believed that He was the Christ. And it is beyond comparison better that He should be recognised as the Christ, not from the words which He said, but from the attributes which naturally belong to Him, and from which the Divine Scriptures concerning Him foretell and declare that He would be manifestly known. Which things the Jews in their littleness of soul not understanding, they say: How |99 long dost Thou hold us in suspense? For it is usual for those who are contemptuous to speak thus.
25 Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believe not: the works that I do in My Fathers name, these bear witness of Me.
Even Christ therefore considered it superfluous to say the same things over again to those who had often heard them and had not been persuaded by them. For every one's nature ought to be estimated from the quality of his works, and we ought by no means to look [solely] at his words. And He says of Himself that He accomplishes His works in His Father's Name, not enjoying the use of power from above in the manner of an ordinary saint, nor accusing Himself of want of power, being God of God, Consubstantial with the Father, the Power of the Father; but as ascribing to the Divine Glory the Power of His performances, He says that He does His works in His Father's Name. Yet He also gives the honour to the Father, lest He might give the Jews a pretext for attacking Him. Moreover He also thought it fitting not to overpass the limit of the form of a servant, although He was God and Lord. And by saying that in His Father's Name He did His works, He teaches that the Jews blasphemed when they said that He cast out devils by Beelzebub. And since the Father does the marvellous deeds, not because He is a Father, but because He is in His Nature God; so the Son also, not because He is a Son, but as God of God, is able Himself to do the works of the Father: wherefore suitably to His Nature He said He did His works in His Father's Name.
26, 27, 28 But ye believe Me not, because ye are not of My sheep. But as I said unto you, My sheep hear My voice, and I know them and they follow Me: and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish.
A willing readiness to obey characterises the sheep of Christ, as disobedience marks those that are not His. For thus we understand the word "hear," as equivalent to |100 "obey," namely, the words that are spoken: and they who thus hear God are known by Him, and "known" signifies "brought into friendly relationship:" for no one is altogether unknown by God. When therefore He saith: I know Mine, He saith this: "I will receive them and bring them into friendly relationship both mystically and firmly. And any one might say that, inasmuch as He has become Man, He brought all men into friendly relationship by being of the same race; so that we are all united to Christ in a mystical relationship, inasmuch as He has become Man: but they are alienated from Him, who do not preserve the correspondent image of His holiness. For in this way also the Jews, who are united in a family relationship with Abraham the faithful, because they were unbelieving, were deprived of that kinship with him on account of the dissimilarity of character. And He saith: And My sheep follow Me; for they who are obedient and follow, by a certain God-given grace, in the footsteps of Christ, no longer serving the shadows of the Law, but the commandments of Christ, and giving heed to His words, through grace shall rise to His honourable Name, and be called sons of God. For when Christ ascends into the heavens, they also shall follow Him. And He says that He gives to those that follow Him as a recompense and reward, eternal life and exemption from death, or corruption, and from the torments that will be brought upon the transgressors by the Judge. And by the fact of His giving life, He shews that He is in His Nature Life, and that He furnishes this from Himself and not as receiving it from another. And we understand by eternal life, not [only] the length of days which all, both good and bad, are going to enjoy after the resurrection, but also the spending it in bliss.
It is possible also to understand by "life" the mystical blessing by which Christ implants in us His own life through the participation of His own Flesh by the faithful, according to that which is written: He that eateth My Flesh and drinketh My Blood hath eternal life. |101
29, 30 And no one shall snatch them out of My hand. My Father, Which hath given them unto Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand. I and My Father are One.
The faithful also have the succour of Christ, the devil not being able to snatch them; and they who have an endless enjoyment of good things, remain in it, no one henceforth snatching them away from the bliss that is given to them into punishment or torments. For it is not possible that they who are in Christ's hand should be snatched away to be punished, because of Christ's great might; for "the hand," in the Divine Scripture, signifies "the power:" it cannot be doubted therefore that the hand of Christ is unconquerable and mighty to all things. But when He saw the Jews mocking at Him as being a mere man, not understanding that He Who to sight and touch was Man was in His Nature God, to persuade them that He is the power of the Father, He saith: No one shall snatch them from My Father's hand, that is, from Mine. For He says that Himself is the all-powerful Right Hand of the Father, forasmuch as by Him the Father effecteth all things, even as by our hand the things are effected which we do. For in many places of the Scripture, Christ is named the Hand and Right Hand of the Father, which signifies the Power; and the all-producing energy and might of God is named simply His hand. For in some way the language used concerning God is always superior to bodily representation. And the Father is said to give to the Son, not as to one who had not alway creation under His hand, but as to Him Who is in His Nature Life; bringing us who are in need of life to the Son, that we may be made alive through Him Who is in His Nature Life, and has it of His own. But also, inasmuch as He has become Man, it is suitable for Him to ask and to receive from the Father things which He already had as being in His Nature God.
For Christ, having admitted what pertained to His humanity, recurs to His God-befitting dignity, taking |102 pleasure in the advantages of His Nature for the profit of the faithful and for the sake of sound faith, which is, never at all to suspect that the Son is inferior to the Father. For thus He is shewn to be the undamaged Image of the Father, preserving in Himself whole and sound the Very Impress of the Father. And we say the Son and the Father are One, not blending their Individualities by the use of that number, as do some who say that the Father and the Son are the same [Person], but believing the Father by Himself and the Son by Himself to personally subsist; and collecting the two into One Sameness of Essence, also knowing them to possess one might, so that it is seen without variation now in One and now in the Other.
I and the Father are One. By the word "One" He signifies the Sameness of their Essence: and by the word "are" He severs into two that which is understood, and again binds them up into One Godhead.
But this also we must understand, in opposition to the Arians, that in His saying: I and the Father are One, there is signified, not the proof of sameness of will, but the Oneness of their Essence. For indeed the Jews understood that in saying this, He said that Himself was God and equal to the Father; and Christ did not deny that He had said this as they understood it.
31 The Jews therefore took up stones again to stone Him.
For not refraining themselves from Him, when He said that Himself was One with the Father, they rush to kill Him; although each of the works wrought by Him proclaimed that He was in His Nature God. And not only now, but on other occasions also when they took up stones to kill Him, they stood motionless through the power of Christ; so that it became evident from this also, that He would not suffer except He was willing. Moreover in His gentleness Christ checked their unreasonable impulse, saying not: "For which of the words that I said, are ye angry?" but: "For which of the works that I did?" For |103 if I had not done, He says, many God-befitting works which shew that I am in My Nature God, ye might be reasonably angry with Me now, hearing Me say that I and the Father are One. But I should not have said this, had I not shewn it by all things that I did. And He speaks of the works as from the Father, not from Himself, shewing this modesty for our profit, so that we may not boast when we receive anything from God. And He says the works were shown from the Father, not to indicate that the power exhibited in them was other than His own, but to teach that they were the works of the whole Godhead. And we understand One Godhead in Father and Son and Holy Spirit. For whatsoever the Father does, this is accomplished by the Son in the Spirit; and again, what the Son does, this the Father is said to do in the Spirit. Wherefore also Christ saith: I do nothing of Myself, but the Father abiding in Me, He doeth the works.
33 For a good work we stone Thee not, but for blasphemy.
Having a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge, they became angry when they heard Christ saying: I and the Father are One. For what was the impediment to His being One with the Father, if they believed that He was God by Nature? Wherefore also they attempt to stone Him, and in self-defence giving the reason why they did so, they say: "We stone Thee, not on account of the good works which Thou didst, but because Thou blasphemest." They were the blasphemers, on the contrary, because they wished to stone One Who was truly God, not knowing that Jesus was destined to come, not in the undisguised Godhead, but Incarnate of the Seed of David; [and thus] they speak of His true confession as blasphemy.
I said, Ye are gods, &c.
Since therefore the Father called certain men gods, and of necessity the honourable name was something external, super-added to them, for He Who is God by Nature is One only; lest Jesus also should be deemed to be one |104 of that class----clothed in the glory of the Godhead, not as essentially His own, but rather as something external, super-added to Himself, in the same way as was the case with those others----He as a matter of necessity clearly distinguishes Himself from them. For He shews that He differed so far from their poverty, that when He was in them, [then only, and] on that very account they were called gods: because He is the Word of God the Father. And if the Word, being in them, was in any cases sufficient to make those who were really [only] men shine with the honour of the Godhead; how could He be anything else than God by Nature, Who bestowed freely even upon those others His splendour in this way?
Now convicting the Jews, that not because He said: I and the Father are One, they were stoning Him, but without reason; He says: "If, because I said I was God, 1 seem to blaspheme; why, when the Father said by the Law to certain men: Ye are gods, did ye not judge that to be blasphemy?" And this He says, not as instigating them to say anything against the Father, but to convict them of being ignorant of the Law and the inspired Scriptures. And seeing that the difference between those who were called gods and Him Who is in His Nature God is great, through the words which He uses, He teaches us the distinction; for if the men unto whom the Word of God came were called gods, and were illumined with the honour of the Godhead, by admitting and receiving the Word of God into their soul, how could He through Whom they became gods, be other than in His Nature God? For the Word was God, according to the language of John, Who also bestowed this illumination on the others. For if the Word of God through the Holy Spirit leads up to superhuman grace, and adorns with a Divine honour those in whom He may be, Why, saith He, say ye that I blaspheme when I call Myself Son of God and God? Although by the works I have done from Him I am borne witness to as in My Nature God. For having sanctified Me He sent Me into the world to be the Saviour of the |105 world; and it is the attribute only of One in His Nature God, to be able to save men from the devil and from sin and from corruption.
But perhaps when the Divine Scripture saith that the Son was sent from the Father, the heretic straightway deems the expression a support to his own error, and will say in all probability: "Ye who refuse to speak of the Son as inferior to the Father, do ye not see that He was sent from Him, as from a superior and a greater one?" What then shall we say? Surely, that the mention of His being sent is particularly suitable to the measure of His self-humiliation; for thou nearest that Paul, uniting Both, then says that the Son was sent from the Father, when He was also made of a woman and under the Law as a Man amongst us, although being "Lawgiver and Lord. And if the Son be understood as made in the form of a servant, then said to be sent from the Father, He suffers no damage whatever, with regard to His being also Consubstantial with Him and Coequal in glory and in no respect at all falling short. For the expressions used among ourselves, if they are applied to God, do not admit of being accurately tested; and I say that we ought not to understand them just exactly as they are usually understood among ourselves, but as far as may be suitable to the Divine and Supreme Nature itself. For what [else could happen], unless the tongue of man possessed words competent to suffice for setting forth the Divine glory? Accordingly it is absurd that the preeminence of the glory which is highest of all should suffer injury through the weakness of the human tongue and its poverty of expression. Remember that which Solomon says: The glory of the Lord maketh language obscure. For when we waste our labour in trying to express accurately the glory of the Lord, we are like to those who wish to measure the heavens by a span. Therefore when anything is said concerning God in words generally applied to men, it must be understood in a manner befitting God. Else what wilt thou do when thou hearest David singing in his psalm: |106 O Thou that sittest upon the Cherubim, shew Thyself; stir up Thy strength and come to save us? For how does the Incorporeal sit? And where does He call upon the God of the universe to come to for us, the God Who saith by the Prophets: Do not I fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord? Where therefore should He come to for us, when He filleth all things? Again, it is written that some were building a tower to reach unto heaven, and the Lord came down to see the city and the tower; and the Lord said, Gome and let Us go down and there confound their tongues. Where did the Lord go down? Or in what manner doth the Holy Trinity urge Itself on to the descent? And how, tell me, did the Saviour Himself also promise to send to us the Paraclete from heaven? For where or whence is That Which filleth all things sent? For the Spirit of the Lord filleth the world, as it is written.
Therefore the expressions ordinarily used of ourselves signify things above us, if they are spoken concerning God. Dost thou wish to understand any of those things so difficult of comprehension? Then thy mind proves too weak to grasp them, and dost thou perceive that it is so? Be not provoked to anger, O man, but confess the weakness of thy nature, and remember him that said: Seek not out the things that are above thy strength. When thou di-rectest thy bodily eye to the orb of the sun, immediately thou turnest it away again, overcome by the sudden influx of the light. Know therefore that the Divine Nature also dwells in unapproachable light; unapproachable, that is, by the understandings of those who over-busily look into it. Therefore also when things concerning God are expressed in language ordinarily used of men, we ought not to think of anything base, but to remember that the wealth of the Divine Glory is being mirrored in the poverty of human expression. For what if the Son is sent from the Father? Shall He then on this account be inferior? But when from the solar body its light is sent forth, is that of a different nature from it and inferior to it? Is it not foolish merely to suppose such a thing for |107 a moment? Therefore the Son, being the Light of the Father, is sent to us, as we may say, from a Sun that darteth forth Its Beam; which indeed David also entreats may take place, saying: O send out Thy Light and Thy Truth. And if it is a glory to the Father to have the Light, how dost thou call that in which He is glorified inferior to Him? And the Son Himself also says concerning Himself: Whom the Father sanctified and sent. Now the word "sanctified" is used in the Scripture in many senses. For it is said that anything dedicated to God is sanctified. For instance He said unto Moses: Sanctify unto Me all the firstborn. And again, that is sanctified which is prepared by God for the execution of any of His designs, for He speaks thus concerning Cyrus and the Medes, when He determined that they should make war against the city of the Babylonians; The mighty ones are come to fulfil Mine anger, being both joyous and proud; they have been sanctified, and I lead them. And again, that is sanctified which is made to participate of the Holy Spirit. Therefore the Son saith that Himself is sanctified by the Father, as having been prepared by Him for the restitution of the life of the world, and for the destruction of those who oppose Him; or still further, in so far as He was sent to be slain for the salvation of the world; for indeed those things are called holy which are set apart as an offering to God. And we say that He was sanctified, even as men like ourselves are, when He became flesh: for His Flesh was sanctified, although it was not in its nature holy, by being received into union with the Word; and because this is come to pass, He is sanctified by the Father; for the Godhead of Father and Son and Holy Spirit is One.
37, 38 If I do not the works of My Father, believe Me not. But if I do, though ye believe not Me, believe My works: that ye may know and believe that the Father is in Me and I in Him.
What He says is this. Though it is easy for any one to call God Father, yet to demonstrate the fact by works |108 is hard and impossible to a creature. By works however of a God-befitting character, He says, I am seen to be equal to God the Father: and there is no defence for your unbelief since you have learnt that I am equal to the Father by the evidence of the God-befitting works which I do, although as regards the flesh I seemed to be one among you like an ordinary man. Hence it is possible to perceive that I am in the Father and the Father in Me. For the sameness of their Essence makes the Father to be and to be seen in the Son, and the Son in the Father. For truly even among ourselves the essence of our father is recognised in him that is begotten of him, and in the parent again that of the child. For the delineation of their nature is one in them all, and they all are by nature one. But when we distinguish ourselves by our bodies, the many are no longer one; a distinction which cannot be mentioned concerning One Who is God by Nature, for whatever is Divine is incorporeal, although we conceive of the Holy Trinity as in distinct Subsistences. For the Father is the Father and not the Son; the Son again is the Son and not the Father; and the Holy Spirit is peculiarly the Spirit: although They are not at variance, through Their fellowship and unity One with Another.
The Holy Trinity is known in the Father and in the Son and in the Holy Spirit. But the designation of each one of These Who have been enumerated denotes not a part of the Trinity, but the Whole of It; since in truth God is undivided and simple, although distributed in These Subsistences.
Therefore, as there is but One Godhead in Father and Son and Holy Spirit, we say that the Father is seen in the Son, and the Son in the Father. And it is necessary to know this other point also, that it is not the wishing the same things as the Father, nor the possessing one will with Him, that makes the Son say: I am in the Father, and the Father in Me, and: I and the Father are One; but because, being the genuine Offspring of the Essence of the Father, He shews forth the Father in Himself, and |109 Himself also is shewn forth in the Father. For He says that He wills and speaks and effects the same things as the Father, and easily performs what He wishes, even as the Father doth, in order that He may be acknowledged in all respects Consubstantial with Him, and a true Fruit of His Essence; and not merely as having a relative unity with Him, only in similarity of will and the laws of love; which unity we say belongs also to His creatures.
40, 41, 42 And He went away again beyond Jordan into the place where John was baptizing; and there He abode. And many came unto Him; and they said, John indeed did no sign: but all things whatsoever John spake of this Man were true. And many believed on Him there.
Leaving Jerusalem, the Saviour seeks a refuge in a place possessing springs of water, that He might signify obscurely as in a type how He would leave Judasa and go over to the Church of the Gentiles which possesses the fountains of Baptism: there also many approach unto Him. crossing through the Jordan; for this is signified by Christ taking up His abode beyond Jordan. They therefore having crossed the Jordan by Holy Baptism, are brought unto God: for truly He went across from the synagogue of the Jews unto the Gentiles: and then many came unto Him and believed the words spoken by the saints concerning Him. And they believe on Him there, where the springs of water are, where we are taught the mystery of Christ. For Christ was not in the streams before the Jordan, but somewhere beyond; and He came and abode, continuing constantly in the Church of the Gentiles. And we honour John, not as having performed any God-befitting work, but as having borne true witness concerning Christ. For Christ was more wonderful, not only than John, but than every saint; for whereas they were Prophets, He was the wonder-working God. And we must notice that the words of John and of the other Prophets are a way [to lead us] to believe Christ. |110
Chap. xi. 1, 2. Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, of the village of Mary and her sister Martha. And it was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.
With a purpose does the Evangelist make mention of the names of the women, showing that they were distinguished for their piety. Wherefore also the Lord loved them. And of the many things which probably had been done for the Lord by Mary, he mentions the ointment, not at haphazard, but to shew that Mary had such thirst after Christ that she wiped His feet with her own hair, seeking to fasten to herself more really the spiritual blessing which comes from His holy Flesh; for indeed she appears often with much warmth of attachment to have sat close to Christ without being distracted by interruption, and to have been drawn into friendly relationship with Him.
3 His sisters therefore sent unto Him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom Thou lovest is sick.
The women send to the Lord, ever wishing to have Him near them, but on this occasion sending under a fair pretext on account of him who was sick. For they believed that if Christ would only appear the sufferer would be set free from his disease. And they gently remind Him of the love which He had for the sick man, drawing Him thither especially by this means; for they knew that He took thought for this man. And He was able, even though absent, to heal him, as being God and tending all things; nevertheless, they thought that if He were present, He would put forth His hand and awaken him. Not even they possessed as yet the perfection of faith, wherefore also they are troubled, as it seems probable, with the thought that Lazarus would not have been ill at all, had not Christ neglected him: for, say they, since such as are beloved by God possess all good things, why is he whom Thou lovest, sick? Or perhaps they even say: Great is the audacity of the sickness, because it dared to attack such as are beloved by God. And it may be too that they |111 seem to say something of this sort. Since Thou lovest and healest even Thine enemies, much rather oughtest Thou to confer such benefits on them that love Thee. For Thou art able to do all things by merely Thy Will. Therefore their language is full of faith and proves their close relationship to Christ.
4 But when Jesus heard it, He said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified thereby.
The Lord now says this, not that the men may go away and report it to the sisters of Lazarus, but as God foretelling what should come to pass, because He saw that the conclusion of the affair would be for the glory of God; not that the sickness came upon the man for this reason, that He should be glorified; for it would be silly to say this; but since it had come, He also saw that it would result in a wonderful end. And He says that Himself is in His Nature God, for that which is done, is done for His glory. For after saying that the sickness was for the glory of God, He added: That the Son of God may be glorified thereby, speaking concerning Himself.
And if He Himself said that the sickness of Lazarus was not unto death, and yet his death took place, there is nothing to marvel at. For looking on to the final result of the affair, and seeing that He was going to raise him up after a little time, we do not consider anything that took place in the interval, but only how the end would result. For the Lord determined to set forth the weakness of death, and to shew forth all that happened as for the glory of God, that is, of Himself.
6 When therefore He heard that he was sick, He abode at that time two days in the place where He was.
And He deferred His arrival in order that He might not heal him while sick, but raise him when dead; which is a work of greater power, so that He would be more greatly glorified. |112
7, 8 And after this He saith to His disciples, Let us go into Judaea again, His disciples say unto Him. Rabbi, the Jews were but now seeking to stone Thee; and goest Thou thither again?
Now when the Lord said: Let us go into Judaea again, He seems almost to declare "Even though the people there are unworthy of kindness, yet now that an opportunity presents itself of conveying them some advantage, let us go back to them;" but the disciples in their love for Him think it right to try to hinder Him, and moreover as men they suppose that He would be unwilling to put Himself in peril by going amongst the Jews. Wherefore also they remind Him of the madness of the Jews against Him, all but saying: "Why again dost Thou seek to be amidst the unbelieving and ungrateful people who are not softened either by Thy words or even by Thy works? who even yet are of murderous intent against Thee, and who are boiling with passionate rage?" Either then they say this, or their language signifies that He is leading them into evident danger. Nevertheless, they are obedient to their Teacher, as to One Who knows what is best.
9, 10 Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If therefore a man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he may see the light of this world. But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because the light is not in him.
Perhaps He compares to the ever-moving course of the day, the easily-swayed and novelty-loving mind of men, which is not established in one opinion, but vacillates from one way of thinking to another, just as the day changes from one hour to another. And thus also thou wilt understand the words: Are there not twelve hours in the day? That is, "I," says He, "am the Day and the Light. Therefore, just as it is not possible for the light of the day to fail, without having completed its appointed time; so it is not among possibilities that the illumination which proceeds from Me should be shrouded from the Jews, without having fully reached its fitting measure of |113 philanthropy." And He speaks of the time of His presence as "day," and of that before it as "night;" as also when the Lord says: We must work the works of Him that sent us, while it is day. This therefore is what He here says: "It is not now a time for Me to separate Myself from the Jews, even though they be unholy, but I must do all things that pertain to their healing. For they must not now be punished, by having the Divine grace (like the light of the sun) withdrawn from them. But just as the light of the day does not fail until the twelve hours have been completed, so the illumination that proceeds from Me is not shrouded before the proper time; but until I am crucified I remain among the Jews, sending forth unto them like light the understanding of the knowledge of God. For since the Jews are in the darkness of unbelief, and so stumble at Me as at a stone, I must go back to them and enlighten them, that they may desist from their madness in fighting against God."
11 These things spake He: and after this He saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus is fallen asleep: but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.
"A worthy cause draws Me towards Jerusalem;" for so much is signified by the words: Our friend is fallen asleep; "and if we should let it pass neglected, we should incur the reputation of being devoid of compassion. Wherefore we must avoid the disgrace of such conduct, and run to the help of our friend, despising the plots of the Jews." And shewing His own God-befitting power, He calls the departure of the human soul from the body by the name of sleep, and very rightly: for He does not think it proper to call it death, Who created man for immortality, according as it is written, and made the generations of the world to be healthful. Moreover, the language is also true, because the temporary death of our body is in the sight of God really a sleep and nothing different, brought to an end by a mere and single sign from that which is by nature Life, namely, Christ. And |114 notice that He did not say: "Lazarus is dead and I go to raise him to life," but says: "He is fallen asleep," avoiding boastfulness, for our instruction and profit; for [without some such good reason] He would not have uttered a sentence so obscure in its hidden meaning that not even the disciples themselves understood what was said. For He did not say: "I go to quicken him into life" or "to raise him up from the dead," but "that I may awake him out of sleep;" which was at the time insufficient to suggest His real meaning.
12, 13 His disciples therefore said, Lord, if he is fallen asleep, he will recover. Now Jesus had spoken of his death; but they thought that He spake of taking rest in sleep.
They, not understanding the force of the words, thought that Jesus spake of taking rest in sleep, which when sick men can do, they generally experience refreshment; wherefore the disciples say: "It is not worth while to go and disturb Lazarus from his sleep, for it does not benefit a sick man to awake him out of sleep." And this they said, wishing to hinder Him from the journey by remarking that it was not meet to go into the midst of those murderers for the sake of doing something which would produce no good result.
14, 15 Then Jesus said unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe; nevertheless let us go unto him.
The disciples therefore not understanding that He had called death by the name of sleep, He made His meaning clearer, saying: He is dead. And He says that He is glad, not out of a love of glory, because He was going to do the marvellous deed, but because this was going to become for the disciples a ground of faith. And the words: I was not there, signify as follows: "If I had been there, he would not have died, because I should have had pity on him when he was suffering only a little; but now in My absence his death has taken place, so that, by raising him |115 life, I shall bestow upon you much advantage through your faith in Me." And Christ says this, not as being able to do God-befitting deeds only when He was present; but because if He had been present, He could not have neglected His friend until the occurrence of death. And He says: Let us go unto him, as unto a living person; for the dead, inasmuch as they are destined to live, are alive unto Him as God.
16 Thomas therefore, who is called Didymus, said unto his fellow-disciples, Let us also go, that we may die with Him.
The language of Thomas has indeed zeal, but it also has timidity; it was the outcome of devout feeling, but it was mixed with littleness of faith. For he does not endure being left behind, and even tries to persuade the others to adopt the same resolution: nevertheless he thinks that they are destined to suffer [death] at the hands of the Jews, even against the will of Christ, by reason of the murderous passion of the Jews; not looking at the power of the Deliverer, as he ought rather to have done. And Christ made them timid, by enduring with patience beyond measure the sufferings He experienced at the hands of the Jews. Thomas therefore says that they ought not to separate themselves from their Teacher, although undoubted danger lay before them; so, perhaps with a gentle smile, He said: Let us go, that is, Let us die. Or he speaks thus: Of a certainty if we go we shall die: nevertheless let us not refuse to suffer, for we ought not to be cowardly to such a degree; because if He raises the dead, fear is superfluous, for we have One Who is able to raise us again after we have fallen.
17, 18, 19 So when Jesus came to Bethany, He found that he had been in the tomb four days already. Now Bethany was nigh unto Jerusalem, fifteen furlongs off; and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary, to console them concerning their brother.
He mentions also the length of days that had intervened after the death of Lazarus for this reason, that the miracle |116 may be the more marvelled at, and lest any one should chance to say that He had come after one day, and that Lazarus was not dead, but He had raised him up from sickness. And he says that many Jews were in Bethany, although the place was not a populous one, being come out of Jerusalem; for the distance of road between the two places was not so great as to hinder their sincere friends from being with Martha and Mary. And since the miracle was talked about by all in Jerusalem and the country round about, he gives the reason, that as there were many people there, the story was naturally spread abroad in all directions; some telling what had been done from admiration, and others through envy, to attach a false accusation to the miracle through their lying account of it.
20 Martha therefore, when she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him; but Mary still sat in the house.
Perhaps Martha was the more eager to do such things as might be necessary; wherefore also she first went and met Him: but Mary was the more intelligent. Wherefore, as possessing a more sensitive soul, she remained at home, receiving the attentions of her consoling friends; but Martha, as a simpler person, started off, intoxicated indeed with her grief, but nevertheless acting with more vigour.
21, 22, 23, 24 Martha therefore said unto Jesus, Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. And even now I know that, whatsoever Thou shalt ask of God, God will give Thee. Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. Martha answered Him, 1 know that he shall rise again at the last day.
What Martha says, amounts to this. "Not for this reason," she says, "did my brother die, because the nature of man is subject to death; but because Thou wast not present, Who art able by Thy word to conquer death." But in her grief, wandering beyond propriety, she considered that the Lord was no longer able to do anything, as the time for help had gone by; and she thought that |117 He had come, not for the raising again of Lazarus, bat that He might console them. For softly and gently she reproaches Him for His tardiness in not immediately coming when it would have been possible for Him to help them, when they sent saying: Lord, behold, he whom Thou lovest is side. And the words: Whatsoever Thou shalt ask of God He will give Thee, are the words of one who is almost afraid to ask plainly what she wishes; nevertheless she stumbles concerning the truth in that she speaks not as to God, but as to one of the saints; His being seen in the flesh causing her to think that whatsoever He should ask as a saint, He would receive from God; not indeed knowing that, being in His Nature God and the Power of the Father, He possesses irresistible might over all things. For if she had known that He was God, she would not have said: If Thou hadst been here; for God is everywhere. Through His aversity to arrogance, however, the Lord did not say: "I will raise up thy brother," but: "He shall rise again;" all but softly rebuking her and saying: "He indeed rises again as thou wishest, but not as thou thinkest. For if thou supposest that it will be accomplished by prayer and supplication, take upon thyself the part of prayer, but do not bid Me do it, Who am a Wonder-worker, able by My own Might to raise the dead." The woman having heard this and being ashamed now to say: "Raise him to life," yet in some degree instigating Him to do the work at once, seems somewhat to be saddened at the postponement of the time, saying: "I know that he shall rise again at the last day, but I long to see before that time the resurrection of my brother." Again when the Lord said: Thy brother shall rise again, the woman all but signifies her agreement with this doctrine, saying: "I know that; for I believe that the dead will be raised, according as Thou didst teach: For the hour cometh, and they shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done ill, unto the resurrection of judgment. And likewise Isaiah also in the Spirit said: The dead shall be raised and they that are in the tombs shall |118 be awakened. For I do not disbelieve in the doctrine of the resurrection, as the Sadducees do."
25, 26, 27 Jesus said unto her, I am the Resurrection and the Life; he that believeth on Me though he die, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth on Me, shall never die. Believest thou this? She saith unto Him. Yea, Lord: I have believed that Thou art the Christ, the Son of God, even He that cometh into the world.
Assuredly a fruit and reward of faith in Christ is eternal life, and in no other way does this come to the soul of man. For although we are all raised to life through Christ, yet this [eternal life given to the faithful] is the true life, namely, to live unendingly in bliss; for to be restored to life only for punishment differs nothing from death. If therefore any one notices that even the saints, who have received promises of life, die; this is nothing, for it is only what naturally comes to pass. And until the proper time has been reserved the display of the grace [of resurrection], which is powerful, not partially, but effectually, in the case of all men, even of those saints who have died in time past and are tasting death for a short time, until the general resurrection. For then, together, all will enjoy the good things. And in saying: Though he die, yet shall he live, the Saviour did not take away the death in this present world: but admits that it has such might against the faithful that it naturally happens to them, and no more; because He has reserved the grace of resurrection until the proper time. He certainly says: "He that helieveth on Me shall not be without a participation in the death of the flesh in the ordinary course of human nature, but nevertheless he will suffer nothing worthy of fear in this, as God is able easily to make alive whomsoever He will." For he that believeth on Him, hath in the world to come an endless life in bliss and perfect immortality. Wherefore let not any of the unbelieving mock: for Christ did not say: "From this present moment he shall in no wise see death," but when He said |119 absolutely: "He shall never see death in any wise," He spake concerning the world to come, reserving the end of the promise until then. And saying unto Martha: Believest thou? He demands the confession of faith as the parent and patron of the [eternal] life; and she readily assented and accurately confesses: not simply believing that He is a Christ and a Son of God; for a prophet also can be a christ, by reason of being anointed, and the same person can be understood to be a son [of God]: but using the definite article and saying: "The Christ, the Son of God," she confessed the Only and Preeminent and True Son. Therefore her faith was on the Son, not on a creature.
Believest thou in this?
Having previously explained the force of the mystery in Himself, and shown plainly that He is by Nature Life and Very God, He demands assent to the faith, furnishing in this matter a model to the Churches. For we ought not quite vainly to cast our words into the air when we confess the venerable mystery, but to fix the roots of the faith in heart and mind and then to let it bear fruit in our confession; and we ought to believe without any hesitation or double-mindedness. For the double-minded man is insolent and halting as regards the faith; wherefore also he is unstable in all his ways. Nevertheless, it is necessary to know that we make the confession of our faith unto God, although we are questioned by men, I mean those whose lot it is to minister in sacred things, when we say the "I believe" at the reception of Holy Baptism. Certainly therefore to speak falsely and to slip aside towards unbelief is a most aweful thing; lest we may have as both Judge and Witness of our folly the Lord of all Himself, saying: Even I am a Witness, saith the Lord. And we must observe that, as Lazarus was lying dead, on his behalf in a certain way the assent to the faith is demanded of the woman, that the type in this also may have force among the Churches; for when a newborn babe is brought, either to receive the chrism of the catechumenate, or that of the complete- [Christian] -condition at Holy Baptism |120 the person who brings it repeats aloud the "Amen" on its behalf. And on behalf of those who are assailed by extreme sickness, and on that account are going to be baptized, certain persons make the renunciation [of Satan] and the declaration of attachment [to Christ], by an act of charity lending as it were their voices to those who are disabled by sickness: a thing which we see to have been done in the case of Lazarus and his sister. And Martha wisely and prudently first sows the confession of faith, that afterwards she may reap the fruit of it.
28, 29 And when she had said this, she went away, and called Mary her sister secretly, saying, The Master is here, and calleth thee. And she, when she heard it, arose, and went unto Him.
She went away to call her sister, that she also might share the happiness which arose from the expected event, and receive at once in common with herself the dead one raised again beyond all hope. For she had heard the words: Thy brother shall rise again. And she told the good news of the coming of the Saviour to her sister secretly, because there were sitting by her some of those Jews who felt ill-will towards Christ for His wondrous works.
And we shall not find in the Gospels that Christ said: "Call thy sister to Me;" but Martha taking the undeniable emergency of the affair and the right due to her sister of being invited to come, as equivalent to an uttered command, she speaks as she does. And Mary readily ran towards Him, and was willing to go to meet Him. For how could she help doing this, when she was in such great grief at His absence, and had such a warm feeling of piety and great love towards Him?
30, 31 Now Jesus was not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha met Him. The Jews then which were with her in the house, and were comforting her, when they saw Mary, that she rose up quickly and went out, followed her, saying that she was going unto the tomb to weep there.
The Jews therefore who were present, thinking she had run to the tomb to tear herself [in her grief], follow her; |121 doing this by the will of God, in order that they might go in a body to see the marvellous deed, even without wishing to do so. For had this not taken place by the providence of God, the Evangelist would not have mentioned it; neither would he have written down the concurrent causes of each matter, had he not been everywhere very zealous for the truth. Therefore he stated the cause wherefore many ran to the tomb, and were found there, and became beholders of the marvellous deed, and reported it to others.
32 Mary therefore, when she came where Jesus was, and saw Him, fell down at His feet, saying, Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.
Certainly Mary says that death had happened to her brother prematurely through the absence of the Lord, and says that He had come to the house, when the time for healing had passed by: and it is possible also from this to conjecture that she said this as to God Himself; although she did not speak accurately, from thinking that He was not present even though absent in the body. But being more accurate and intelligent than Martha, she did not say: Whatsoever Thou shalt ask of God God will give Thee. Wherefore to her the Lord says nothing, whereas to Martha He spake at some length. And Mary intoxicated with her grief, He does not reprove for saying: " If Thou hadst been here" to Him Who fills all creation; doing this also for our example, that we should not reprove those who are in an agony of mourning: and He condescends still further, revealing His human nature, and weeps and is troubled, when He sees her weeping and the Jews who came with her also weeping.
33, 34 When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, He groaned in the spirit, and was troubled, and said, Where have ye laid him?
Now since Christ was not only God by Nature, but; also Man, He suffers in common with the rest that which is human; and when grief begins somehow to be stirred |122 within Him, and His Holy Flesh now inclines to tears, He does not allow It to indulge in them without restraint, as is the custom with us. But He groans in the spirit, that is, in the power of the Holy Spirit He reproves in some way His Own Flesh: and That, not being able to endure the action of the Godhead united with It, trembles and presents the appearance of trouble. For this I think to be the signification of "He was troubled;" for how otherwise could He endure trouble? Shall that Nature which is ever undisturbed and calm be troubled in any way? The flesh therefore is reproved by the Spirit, being taught to feel things beyond its own nature. For indeed on this account the Almighty Word of Glod was made in Flesh, or rather was made Flesh, that He might strengthen the weaknesses of the flesh by the energies of His own Spirit, and withdraw our nature from too earthly feelings, and transform it as it were to such feelings only as are pleasing to God. Surely it is an infirmity of human nature to be abjectly overcome by griefs, but this as well as the rest is brought into subjection, in Christ first, that it may be also in us.
Or thus we must understand the words: He groaned in the spirit and was troubled, viz:----as equivalent to: "Being moved to compassion by reason of many weeping, He in a manner gave commandment to His own Spirit to overthrow death before the time, and to raise up Lazarus." And it is not as being ignorant that He asks: Where have ye laid him? For He Who had known of Lazarus' death when He was in another part of the country, how could He be ignorant about the tomb? But He speaks thus as being averse to arrogance: therefore He did not say: "Let us go to the tomb, for I will awaken him," although asking the question particularly in the way He did has this significance. Moreover also by saying this, He prepared many to go before Him that they might shew Him that which He sought. With a set purpose therefore He said this also, drawing by His words many to the place, and appears not to know, not at all shrinking from the poverty of |123 man's condition, although in His Nature God and knowing all things, not only those which have been, but also those which shall be, before their existence.
And the asking a question therefore does not imply any ignorance in Him Who for our sakes was made like unto us, but rather He is shown from this to be equal to the Father; for He too asks a question: Adam, where art thou? Christ also feigns ignorance and inquires: Where have ye laid him? so that through the inquiry a multitude might be gathered together to the manifestation, and that by His enemies, rather than by others, testimony should be given to the miracle of restoring to life one who was already corrupt.
36, 37 The Jews therefore said, Behold how He loved him! But some of them said, Could not this Man, which opened the eyes of him that was blind, have caused that this man also should not die?
Certainly the Evangelist, seeing the tearless Nature weeping, is astonished, although the suffering was peculiar to the flesh, and not suitable to the Godhead. And the Lord weeps, seeing the man made in His own image marred by corruption, that He may put an end to our tears. For for this cause He also died, even that we may be delivered from death. And He weeps a little, and straightway checks His tears; lest He might seem to be at all cruel and inhuman, and at the same time instructing us not to give way overmuch in grief for the dead. For it is one thing to be influenced by sympathy, and another to be effeminate and unmanly. For this cause therefore He permitted His own flesh to weep a little, although it was in its nature tearless and incapable of any grief, so far as regards its own nature. And even they who hate the Lord, admire His tears. For they who follow philosophy to an extreme and have a brilliant reputation therein, shed tears with the greatest reluctance, as overcoming by manly vigour every misfortune. And the Jews thought that He wept on account of the death of Lazarus, but He |124 wept out of compassion for all humanity, not bewailing Lazarus only, but understanding that which happens to all, that the whole of humanity is made subject to death, having justly fallen under so great a penalty. And others, being wounded by envy, said nothing good; for in truth they did not find fault with the Lord for suffering Lazarus to die; for this would have been the language of men who believed that He was able to stay death: but they almost speak thus: "Where is Thy might, O Wonder-worker? For behold, even when Thou wert unwilling, He who was beloved by Thee has died. For that Thou didst love him is evident from Thy weeping. If therefore that which was done to the blind man was the work of Thy might, Thou wouldst be able also to stay death, which is a similar deed beyond the nature of man." As malignantly rejoicing therefore, because they saw His glory in a manner diminished, they say this.
38, 39 Jesus therefore again groaning in Himself cometh to the tomb. Now it was a cave, and a stone lay against it. And Jesus saith, Take ye away the stone.
Here we understand the groaning as if it were the will struggling with a sort of movement according to its power, both because He rather sternly reproved His grief, and the tears which were about to be shed from His grief. For, as God, He in the way of a master reproves His Manhood, bidding it be manly in sorrowful circumstances; or by His God-befitting movement He distinctly lays it down that we must hence forward overthrow the powerful influence of death. And this He makes manifest by His very own Flesh, and signified by the movement of His Body that which was concealed within. And this is shown here by the expression: "He groaned," which means, that through the outward action of His Body He indicated His hidden commotion.
And He did not roll away the stone Himself for these two reasons: first, to teach that it was superfluous to work wonders when there was no necessity for them; and |125 secondly, [to teach] that He Himself awakes the dead, but His angels will be at hand to minister in the event, whom indeed the Lord elsewhere in a parable calls reapers.
Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto Him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.
It is usual to refuse to believe in the possibility of great deeds, and to be somewhat reluctant to admire is a feeling which naturally is consequent upon things beyond our experience. It seems to me that even the good Martha suffered this; for the excessive greatness of the event took from her the sure confidence of faith, and the strangeness of the hope bewilders her proper reason. And it is nothing astonishing if she who had confessed her faith is again overtaken by littleness of faith through the excessive greatness of the marvellous deed. And either solely out of honour to Christ she said: By this time he stinketh; that He might not be disgusted by the bad smell of the corpse: or she says this as if from shame. For the relatives of the dead hasten, before the body becomes ill-smelling, to bury it down in the earth, out of consideration for the living, and deeming it a dishonour to the dead that it should become an object of loathing to any.
40 Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou believedst, thou shouldest see the glory of God?
A most excellent thing is faith, when it is produced from an ardent mind; and it has such great power that not only is the believer healed, but in fact others also have been healed besides them that believed; as the paralytic let down [through the tiles] at Capernaum, by the faith of those who carried him; and as Lazarus, by that of his sister, to whom the Lord said: If thou believest, thou shall see the glory of God; all but saying: "Since Lazarus, being dead, is not able to believe, do thou fill up that which is lacking of the faith of him that is dead." And the form of faith is twofold: first, dogmatic, |126 consisting of an assent of the soul to something, as: He that believeth on the Son is not judged; and secondly, a gift by the participation of grace from Christ: For to one, He says, is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom, and to another faith, which is not merely dogmatic, but also capable of effecting things beyond human power, so as even to remove mountains. The faith of Martha however, by the feebleness of her reason, fell away into unbelief. But the Lord does not permit it to remain so: He effects a speedy remedy for the suffering. For He says she must believe, that she may behold what was beyond hope. For double-mindedness is a great infirmity and deprives us of the gracious gifts of God. Wherefore, by rebuking her, [Christ] warned the whole human race not to be detected in the evil ways of double-mindedness. And shunning vainglory, the Christ did not say: Thou shalt see My glory, but: the glory of God. And the glory of God was the raising the dead. Surely therefore He Himself Who said: I am the Resurrection, is by Nature the God Whose glory He says not long afterwards the woman should see, since Thou wilt suppose that the Truth----and the Christ is the Truth----does not lie. And it was promised to her that her dead brother should rise again. And Mary, being more intelligent, utters no word of doubt; but Martha was affected by the disease of double-mindedness.
42 And Jesus lifted up His eyes, and said, Father, I thank Thee that Thou heardest Me. And I knew that Thou hearest Me always: but because of the multitude which standeth by I said it, that they may believe that Thou didst send Me.
Of course it is agreeably to His self-humiliation as a Man that the Christ thus speaks in a lowly manner, not according to the excellency of the Godhead: and He offers His thanks to the Father not on account of Lazarus only, but for the life of all men. For being good, He is of one mind with the Father in bringing back to life the nature of man which had fallen into liability to corruption through its disobedience; and there is no distinction |127 between His goodness and that of the Father. And just as we ourselves even are persuaded by our own reasonings to leave undone what we had intended to do, so also the Lord, being the Word and Counsel of the Father, has made the Father friendly to us. And of course we do not say that what is Divine indulges in anger, but that [God], being just and good, knows when it is the proper time to rebuke, and when it is the proper time to relax. However, the Lord gives thanks, and this He does as a Pattern for us, honouring the Father. But when an equal gives thanks to an equal, he by no means does this as a mark of inferiority of essence. And on this account [Jesus] notifies that because of the multitude He spake thus, all but saying: "I have simulated the outward appearance of prayer, and I gave thanks, in conformity with My assumed condition." For I knew that Thou hearest Me always. For the one Nature of the Godhead is not disobedient to itself, since the Mind of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Spirit, is One. Knowing therefore, He says, that Our purpose is one and Our will one, because of the multitude I spake thus. And the Christ thus speaks because of the Jews, giving thanks to the Father as if effecting by Him His God-befitting deeds, that they might no more say it was by Beelzebub He did signs. And He also explains His conduct with regard to the outward appearance of prayer, that we may not be caused to stumble, saying: because of the multitude I did this. Moreover, He says: Thou didst send Me, because of the suspicions of the Jews: for I came not of Myself, as do the false prophets; but with Thy approbation and good will I emptied Myself, taking the form of a servant, that I might restore the life to all. The manner of the prayer therefore was in agreement with His assumed condition and suitable to His outward appearance in the flesh, not to the excellency and incomparable splendour of the Godhead. For to ask and to receive would be actions altogether befitting a servant rather than a lord, and are usual with such as are under dominion. Nevertheless, |128 Christ does even these things without blame; for having accepted for Himself the condition of a Man, how could He any longer decline the characteristics of humanity?
(From the Syriac.)
IN THE SEVENTH BOOK OF THE COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN, CYRIL [WRITES] AS FOLLOWS.
For the Son is in every respect perfect in Himself, and in no way does He lack any single excellence. For He is begotten of the Essence of God the Father, and is full of power and of God-befitting glory. Everything is under His feet and there is nothing which His power cannot effect. For, according to the voice of the saint, He can do everything. Yet, although it is true that everything is in His possession, He asks, it is said, from the Father, and receives the heathen and the uttermost parts of the earth as a glorious inheritance. But it is necessary that we should ask how He receives or when: for this is in truth fitting and necessary, I mean, that we should in such matters ask about the times, and investigate the occasions, and make a diligent inquiry as to their significations. When, therefore, He became Man; when He emptied Himself, as it is written; when He humbled Himself to the form of those to whom it is befitting that they should ask; then it was that He both did and spake those things that are befitting to men, and we are told that they were made perfect concerning Him from the Father. For where did He exhibit the outward appearance of humility, or how did that self-emptying show itself victoriously, except that contrary to His Majesty He endured something willingly, when for our sake He emptied Himself? For in the same way that He was weary from the fatigue of the journey, although He is the Lord of Powers; and as He was in need of food, although He is the Bread which came down from heaven, and giveth life to the world; and as He endured death in the flesh, although it is He in Whom we move and have our being; so it is said that He asked, although He is the Lord of all. That when the Only-Begotten became Man, He was not then at first called to His kingdom, we might |129 easily show. But to dispute much about this would be not far removed from folly. Therefore we maintain that what thou hast spoken of was done rather for the same reason. Thinkest thou that the Lord prayed for Lazarus, and thus obtained for him life? But thou wilt not continue to think this at all, when thou art reminded of the words that remain. For He not only said: Father, I thank Thee that Thou heardest Me; but He added further: Because of the multitude which standeth around I said it, that they may believe that Thou didst send Me. And thou seest here the occasion of the prayer clearly. For because the Jews were wicked and bold, so that they made an accusation when the Lord was working miracles, and said that by Beelzebub He performed those God-befitting deeds; therefore He justly refuted the thought that was in them, and shewed that He performed everything together with the Father as God, and did not (like those men the false prophets) come of His own will. Moreover, as regards His choosing to speak words which seemed not right for God, He said: Because of the multitude which standeth around I said it, that they may believe that Thou didst send Me. Had it not therefore been meet to correct the notion of those standing around, in order that it might be understood that the miracle, which He received for Lazarus' sake, was from above, and from the Father, He would not have said at all these words: Father, I thank Thee that Thou heardest Me. For He was both the Will and the Word, and the Counsel of the Father as regards all excellencies. What counsel did He ask, or what will, or what word, of Him Who begat Him, that He might receive some works,----when He had the Father in Him by Nature, and He was in the Father, because He was of His Essence? How as one far removed did He ask of the Father, or how was He not able to expel from a corpse sad death, Who even at the beginning formed man out of inanimate matter, and exhibited him animated and rational? We will accept therefore the explanation which does not err in the faith, not of those men who speak foolishly, but of the Scripture |130 spoken by the Spirit, in which there is nothing crooked or perverse.
43, 44 And when He had thus spoken, He cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave-clothes; and his face was bound about with a napkin.
O the marvel! the ill-smelling corpse, even after the fourth day from death, He brought forth out of the tomb; and him that was fettered fast and bound hand and foot, He commanded to walk! And immediately, the dead man started up, and the corpse began to run, being delivered from its corruption and losing its bad smell, and escaping through the gates of death, and without any hindrance to running being caused by the bonds. And although deprived of sight by the covering which was over his face, the dead man runs without any hindrance towards Him Who had called him, and recognises the masterful voice. For Christ's language was God-befitting and His command was kingly, having power to loose from death, and to bring back from corruption, and to exhibit energy beyond expression. The use of a piercing cry, however, was altogether strange and unwonted in the Saviour Christ. For instance, God the Father somewhere says concerning Him: He shall not strive nor cry aloud, and so on. For the works of the true Godhead are without noise or tumult of any kind; and this was the case with Christ, for He is in His Nature God of God and Very God. So then what do we say when we see that He cried aloud in an unusual manner? For surely no one will degrade himself to such a depth of folly as to say that Christ ever went beyond what was fitting or indeed ever erred from absolute perfection. How then is it to be explained? Certainly the cry has a reason and a purport, which we feel it necessary to state. It was for the good of the hearers. Christ wrought the miracle upon Lazarus as a sort of type of the general resurrection of the dead, and that which was fulfilled in the case of an individual He set forth as a |131 beautiful image of what will be universal and common to the whole race. For it is part of our belief that the Lord will come, and we hold that there will be a cry made by the sound of a trumpet, according to the language of Paul, proclaiming the resurrection to those that lie in the earth, although it is manifest that the deed will be effected by the unspeakable power of the Almighty God.
For on this account also the Law given by Moses, when laying down directions concerning the feast of Tabernacles, says: Celebrate it as a memorial of trumpets. For when human bodies are about to be set up again, as tabernacles, and every man's soul is about to take to itself its own bodily habitation in a way as yet unknown, the masterful command will be previously proclaimed, and the signal of the resurrection will sound forth, even the trump of God, as it is said. As a type therefore of this, in the case of Lazarus Christ uttered a great and audible cry, not much heeding His usual habit, that He might exhibit the type of what is to be expected hereafter.
Jesus saith unto them, Loose him and let him go.
For their good therefore He bade them with their own hands to loose him, that they might have no opportunity of misrepresenting what had been done, but might be witnesses of the miracle. And this too is representative of the general resurrection, when, being loosed from sin and the corruption of death, every one will be set free. For, falling into sin, we have wrapped the shame of it like a veil about the face of our soul, and are fast bound by the cords of death. When therefore the Christ shall at the time of the resurrection bring us out from our tombs in the earth, then in very truth does He loosen us from our former evils, and as it were remove the veil of shame, and command that we be let go freely from that time forward; not under the dominion of sin, not subject to corruption, or indeed any of the other troubles that are wont to cause suffering; so that there will be fulfilled in us that which |132 was said by one of the holy prophets: Ye shall both go forth and leap as calves let loose from bonds.
And consider I pray you the miracle as regards its inner meaning. For if our mind be dead like Lazarus, it behoves our material flesh and our nobler soul, like Martha and Mary [respectively,] to approach the Christ with a confession of faith, and to entreat His help. Then He will stand by us, and command the hardness that lies upon our 1 memory to be taken away, and cry with the loud voice of the Evangelic trumpet: "Come forth from the distractions of the world," and loose the cords of our sins; so that we may be able in full vigour to devote ourselves to virtue.
45, 46 Many therefore of the Jews, which came to Mary and beheld that which Jesus did, believed on Him. But some of them went away to the Pharisees, and told them that which Jesus had done.
Overcome by the miracle many believe; but others, wounded with envy, deem the marvellous deed a fit opportunity for carrying into effect the intentions of the envious, and reported to the leaders what had taken place; that when those men also were grieved at the works which the Christ had wrought, they might have some consolation of their own grief in the knowledge that others shared their feelings and were partakers of the same foolish grief; and that, as they were unable themselves to injure Him Who had done no wrong, they might rouse to anger against Him those who possessed more power.
47, 48 The chief priests therefore and the Pharisees gathered a council, and said, What do we? for this Man doeth many signs. If we let Him thus alone, all men will believe on Him: and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.
Of course the Pharisees also cease to wonder and are turned to grief, and when they see Him stronger than |133 death, they take counsel to kill Him. Not considering His unspeakable authority, but thinking of Him as a mere man, they said: What do we? for this Man doeth many signs. Although they ought rather to have believed from this that He was indeed the Christ, of Whom the inspired Scripture had previously proclaimed in many places that He would be a Worker of many signs. But they actually allege it as a reason, by which they endeavoured to persuade the more thoughtless to kill Him; and they say: If we leave Him thus alone, that is, if we allow Him to live and to work wonders, we shall suffer terrible things. For if many believe in this breaker of the Law, all that we have will bye and bye go from us; and presently, when at length the Jews have grown weak, the Romans will attack us, and will not permit us to freely practise the customs of our fathers, or to rule our own people, or to give judgment; themselves rather giving judgment, and we doing so no longer.
49, 50, 51, 52 But a certain one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said unto them, Ye know nothing at all, nor do ye take account that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not. Now this he said not of himself: but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for the nation; and not for the nation only, but that He might also gather together into one the children of God that are scattered abroad.
Behold, the very thing of which we were speaking, the very thing which the Jews were secretly exercising themselves to bring into effect, this their high priest openly counsels them to do, even to kill the Christ; saying that it would be for the nation, although the nation was unjust. And he makes a true statement, his words being verified not by the perversity of the people, but by the power and wisdom of God. For they, to their own destruction put the Christ to death, but He, being put to death in the flesh, became for us a source of all good things. And what he calls the destruction of the nation, namely, the being under the hand of the Romans and losing the shadow of |134 the law: the very thing which they were seeking to turn away, they actually suffered. Prompted therefore by an unlawful principle, Caiaphas said what he did; nevertheless his language was made to indicate something true, as being spoken by one in the official position of a prophet. For he proclaims beforehand of what good things the death of the Christ would become the source, saying that which he did not understand, and glorifying God (as Balaam did) under constraint, since he was holding the prerogative of the priestly order: the prophecy being as it were given, not to him personally, but to the outward representative of the priesthood. Unless indeed, as may have been the case, the words spoken by Caiaphas were accomplished and came to pass afterwards, without his having received any prophetic gift whatever. For it is probable that what some people say, will really happen, although they may say it without certainly knowing that it will come to pass. Caiaphas then said that the death of Christ would be for the Jews only, but the Evangelist says that it would be for all mankind. For we are all called the offspring and children of God inasmuch as He is the Father of all, having by way of creation begotten as it were and brought into existence the things that were not. And also, because we had from the first the honour of being made in His image, and were allotted the supremacy over earthly things, and were accounted worthy of the Divine covenant, and enjoyed the life and bliss of Paradise. But Satan, being unwilling that we should remain in that condition, scattered us, and in divers manners led man astray from his nearness to God. And the Christ collected us all together again and brought us through faith into one fold, the Church; and united us under one yoke, all being made one, Jews, Greeks, Barbarians, Scythians; and we are fashioned again into one new man, and worship one God.
53 So from that hour forth they took counsel together that they might put Him to death.
For they had the desire to defile themselves with Christ's |135 Blood, and from the moment at which the assembly took place, it received as it were a fresh start, the common consent of all to it being publicly acknowledged. For the Evangelist did not say simply: "From that hour they took counsel to commit the murder," but: "They took counsel together;" that is to say, the very thing which seemed desirable to each one individually was pleasing to them all collectively.
54 Jesus therefore walked no more openly among the Jews, but departed thence into a city called Ephraim near to the wilderness; and there He tarried with His disciples.
Here also therefore as God, to the condemnation of the Jews, He knows their secret design, although no one reported it to Him; and withdraws, not because He was afraid, but lest His presence might seem to irritate those who were already eager for His death. And He also teaches us to retire from the passions of those who are angry, and not to thrust ourselves into dangers, not even when they may be for the sake of truth: when we are actually overtaken by dangers, to stand firm; but when we see them coming, to get out of their way; because of the uncertainty of the issue.
55 Now the passover of the Jews was at hand: and many went up to Jerusalem out of the country before the passover to purify themselves.
Passing over everything else, the Evangelist goes on to the time of the passion. And he calls it the passover of the Jews typically; for [he refers to] the true Passover, not of the Jews, but of Christians, who eat the Flesh of Christ the true Lamb. And, according to the ancient custom, those who had sinned whether wilfully or through inadvertence purified themselves before the feast; and the typical passover was not shared in by any gentile, or un-circumcised person, or stranger, or hired servant, or unclean person; all which types are spiritually fulfilled in the case of Christians. |136
56, 57 They sought therefore for Jesus, and spake one with another, as they stood in the temple, What think ye? That He will not come to the feast? Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given commandment, that, if any man knew where He was, he should shew it, that they might take Him.
The form of expression however leaves it doubtful whether the words: Think ye that He will not come to the feast?, are the utterance of those who hated or of those who loved Him. For it was not unlikely that those who believed on Him might speak to the unbelievers thus: "Since ye took counsel to put Jesus to death, and think that He is ignorant of what you have secretly planned, this will be a clear sign to you that He is God. For of course He will not come now to join us in celebrating the feast, because as God He knows your plans." Or the expression may be thus paraphrased as the utterance of those who hated Jesus: "As it is ever a custom with Jesus to set aside the law, are ye who believe on Him willing to acknowledge that this is His character, seeing that He is not now come to the feast, disregarding the law of the feast by not joining us in the celebration of it?" And they say this, not because it was necessary for all to go together to Jerusalem at the passover, as at the feast of Tabernacles, but rather implying that His not coming up to Jerusalem was an indication of cowardice, as though He was unable to protect Himself at such a time, and on that account failed to come. Or again, those appointed to take Him may have said these words to one another, being in despair, because they did not yet see Him come, and were eager quickly to execute that to which they had been appointed.
Chap. xii. 1, 2. Jesus therefore six days before the passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, the dead man whom He had raised from the dead. So they made Him a supper there: and Martha served; but Lazarus was one of them that sat at meat with Him.
Disdaining the plot of the Jews, the Lord gives Himself up, willing to suffer when the time for suffering was come, |137 going to Bethany; not actually into Jerusalem, lest, suddenly appearing to the Jews, He might kindle them to anger; but by the rumour of His being so near gradually softening the rage of their wrath. And He eats with Lazarus, thereby reminding those who saw them of His God-befitting power. And by telling us this, the Evangelist shows that Christ did not despise the law; whence also six days before the passover, when it was necessary that the lamb should be purchased and kept until the fourteenth day, He ate with Lazarus and his friends: perhaps because it was a custom, not of law but from long usage, for the Jews to have some little merry-making on the day before the lamb was taken, in order that after the lamb was obtained they might devote themselves, from that time until the feast, to fasting or spareness of food, and to purifications. The Lord therefore is seen to have honoured even in this the customs of the feast. And in amazement the Evangelist says that he who had been four days dead was eating with the Christ, to remind us of His God-befitting power. And he adds that Martha, out of her love towards Christ, served, and ministered at the labours of the table.
[Page running titles]
The Father and the Son have one Will. 93
94 How Christ "receives a commandment."
A division among the Pharisees. 95
96 Christ is blamed for speaking like God.
Uncertainty as to "Dedication" commemorated. 97
98 How Jesus proclaimed Himself Christ.
He appeals to the testimony of His works. 99
100 The blessedness of Christ's obedient sheep.
Scriptural language often metaphorical.101
102 Distinction of Persons, yet Oneness of Deity.
The Pharisees accuse Christ of blasphemy.103
104Argument based on Ps. lxxxii. 6.
Limited capacity of human language. 105
106Divine things transcend human words.
Various meanings of the word 'sanctify.' 107
108 "One God in Trinity."
Baptism of Gentiles typified. 109
110 Love and faith of the sisters.
Christ foreknew the result. 111
112The disciples expostulate, yet obey.
Christ's presence gives light. 113
114 The disciples misunderstand Christ's words.
The language of Thomas explained. 115
116 The meeting of Martha and Jesus.
Explanation of Martha's words. 117
118 How man may die, and yet live.
Faith must be confessed. 119
120Martha was sponsor for Lazarus.
Christ's consideration for mourners. 121
122 Christ, as man, groaned and was troubled.
"Jesus wept," but not overmuch. 123
124 Malignity of the Pharisees.
Intercessory power of faith. 125
126Christ strengthens Martha's faith.
Christ suits His behaviour to the occasion. 127
128 Prayer is suitable to humanity.
Jesus prayed for the sake of others. 129
130 Wonderful effect of Christ's command.
The general resurrection typified. 131
132 Inner meaning of the miracle.
The prophecy of Caiaphas. 133
134 How we are all children of God.
We need not always rush into danger. 135
136Various opinions of the multitude.
Christ observed the customs of the feast. 137
[Most of the footnotes, moved to the end and renumbered. The margin contains mainly biblical references and fragments of Greek. These have been omitted]
1. a μνήμη. There is a play on the word, which is very similar to μνημεῖον, tomb, and is in fact sometimes used in the same sense.
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Early Church Fathers - Additional Texts
SOURCE SECTION: cyril_on_john_08_book .htm
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, LFC 43, 48 (1874/1885). Book 8. Vol. 2 pp. 138-165.
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, LFC 43, 48 (1874/1885). Book 8. Vol. 2 pp. 138-165.
[Translated by T. Randell]
|138
[OUR FATHER AMONG THE SAINTS
CYRIL
Archbishop of Alexandria
ON THE
GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN.]
THE FRAGMENTS WHICH ARE EXTANT OF BOOK VIII.
Chap. xii. 3. Mary therefore took a pound of ointment of spikenard, very precious, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.
While Martha was serving, Mary anointed the Lord with ointment, thus accomplishing her love towards Him; and by the actions of both, the measure of love was filled up and made perfect.
4, 5, 6, 7, 8 Judas Iscariot, one of His disciples, which should betray Him, saith, Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor? Now this he said, not because he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief and had the bag, and took away what was put therein. Jesus therefore said, Let her alone: against the day of My burying hath she kept this. For the poor ye have always with you; but Me ye have not always.
The traitor rebukes the woman who had shown her devotion towards Christ, and attacks the admirable deed, and affects to blame it out of love towards the poor, because ointment was brought and not money. But it was out of ignorance as to what is really excellent that Judas said this. For the bringing of presents unto God ought to be honoured more than the poor. |139 The Evangelist however sets forth the reason, on account of which Judas said this: it was not that he felt any concern for the poor, but because he was a thief and a sacrilegious person, stealing the money which was dedicated to God. And the Lord also makes it clear that the woman was free from any blame, whereby He covertly rebukes the traitor; not in His good judgment finding fault with things that were worthy of praise, but saying: Let her alone. And He said in defence of the anointing with the ointment, that it had been done, not out of luxu-riousness, but because of a certain mystery which had reference to His burying; although she who did it was unaware of the design of the mystery. For many things have been both said and done with, reference to a mystical type, when they who spoke and acted were unaware of it. Yet here again the Lord rebukes Judas, because he said this not out of piety, but because he was greedy of base gain, and was going for a little gain to betray his Master. For the burying and the allusion thus made to His death indicate this plainly. And the Lord also brings forward an argument which convinces us that nothing is better than devotion towards Him. For, He says, love for the poor is very praiseworthy, only let it be put after veneration of God. And what He says amounts to this: The time, He says, which has been appointed for My being honoured, that is to say, the time of My sojourn on earth, does not require that the poor should be honoured before Me. And this He said with reference to the Incarnation. He does not however in any way forbid the sympathetic person to exercise his love towards the poor. Therefore when there is need of service or of singing, these must be honoured before love towards the poor; for it is possible to do good after the spiritual services are over. He says therefore that it is not necessary always without intermission to devote our time to honouring Himself, or to spend everything upon the priestly service, but to lay out the greatest part upon the poor. Or thus: As He bids His disciples to fast after He had ascended to the Father, |140 so also He says that then they may more freely give attention to the care of the poor, and exercise their love for the poor with less disturbance and more leisure: which indeed was the case. For after the Ascension of the Saviour, when they were no longer following their Master on His journeys, but had leisure; then they eagerly spent all the offerings that were brought to them upon the poor.
9 A great multitude therefore of the Jews learned that He was there: and they came, not for Jesus' sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also, whom He had raised from the dead.
Through the strangeness of the sign the multitude are astonished; and that which they heard to have been done they wished also to behold with their eyes, that they might believe it more confidently. And they not only wished to see Lazarus, but also the Christ, the doer of the sign; not then seeing Him for the first time, for they had often seen Him and companied with Him; but inasmuch as He had gone into retirement, that He might not suffer before the proper time, they were seeking again to see Him: and the more reasonable among them even admired Him, as they recognised no fault in Him. With a settled purpose therefore the Lord did not immediately enter into Jerusalem, but remained outside, in order that by the report [which would reach the city] He might draw the common people to a desire of wishing to see Him.
10, 11 But the chief priests took counsel that they might put Lazarus also to death; because that by reason of him many of the Jews went away, and believed on Jesus.
See now how frantic the rulers seem to become, wildly rushing hither and thither under the influence of their envy, and saying nothing coherently. They seriously meditate murder upon murder, thinking to remove the force of the miraculous deed at the same time with their victim, that they might stop the people running to believe Christ. |141
12,13 On the morrow a great multitude that had come to the feast
when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took the branches of the palm-trees, and went forth to meet Him, and cried out, saying: Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the Name of the Lord.
The multitudes, being more obedient and yielding to the effect of the sign, went to meet the Christ, hymning Him as One Who had conquered death, and carrying palm branches. And they do not praise Him with ordinary language, but quote from the inspired Scripture that which was beautifully spoken with regard to Him; confessing that He was indeed King of Israel, Whom also they called specially their own King, accepting the lordship of the Christ. And the Son, they say, is Blessed: not because He Who blesseth all things and guards them from destruction, and Who is of the ineffable Essence of the Father, receives the blessing which comes from the Father; but because the blessing which is due to One Who is God and Lord by Nature is offered to Him from us, inasmuch as He came in the Name of the Lord. For all the saints did not come with the authority of lordship, but as trusted servants; This One, on the contrary, as Lord. Wherefore the prophetic language was quoted very suitably with regard to Him. For indeed some are called lords, who are not such by nature, but have the honourable name granted to them by favour. As also, to take another case, men are called "true," when they abstain from falsehood: but this is not the thing to say with regard to Christ; for He is not called "Truth" for the reason that He does not speak falsely, but because He has that Nature which is altogether superior to falsehood.
14, 15 And Jesus, having found a young ass, sat thereon; as it is written, Fear not, daughter of Zion: behold, thy King cometh unto thee, sitting on an ass's colt.
For when a great multitude were escorting Him like a body-guard and shouting His praises, with the most perfect self-restraint He seated Himself upon an ass, teaching |142 us not to be lifted up by praises, and omitting no necessary thing. Matthew therefore related at greater length the circumstances concerning the ass; but John comes at once to the point of the affair that was most suited to the occasion, as it is his custom to do. And since, contrary to His usual habits, on this occasion only, Christ appears seated on an ass, we do not say that He so sat for the reason that it was a long distance to the city; for it was not more than fifteen furlongs off: nor because there was a multitude; for it is certain that on other occasions when He was found with a multitude He did not do this: but He does so, to indicate that He is about to make subject to Himself as a new people the unclean among the Gentiles, and to lead them up to the prerogative of righteousness, and to the Jerusalem above, of which the earthly is a type; into which this people being made clean shall enter with Christ, Who will be hymned by the guileless angels, of whom the babes are a type. And He calls the ass a colt, because the people of the Gentiles had been untrained to the piety which faith produces.
16 And His disciples understood not these things at the first: but when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things were written of Him, and that they had done these things unto Him.
At first therefore they were ignorant that these words had been written with regard to Him; but after the Resurrection, they did not continue to suffer from the Jewish blindness, but the knowledge of the Divine words was revealed to them through the Spirit. And then was the Christ glorified, when after being crucified He came to life again. And the Evangelist does not blush to mention the ignorance of the disciples, and again their knowledge, since his object was, to take no heed of respect for men, but to plead for the glory of the Spirit; and to show what sort of men the disciples were before the Resurrection, and what sort of men they became after the Resurrection. If therefore these disciples were ignorant, how much more |143 were the other Jews. And after He was crucified, the veil was rent, in order that we may know that nothing any longer remains hidden and concealed from the faithful and godly. They were enlightened therefore with knowledge from the time of the Resurrection, when the Christ breathed into their face, and they became different from the rest of men. And to a still greater extent they were enlightened on the Day of Pentecost, when they were transformed into the power of the Holy Spirit Who came upon them.
17, 18 The multitude therefore that was with Him when He called Lazarus out of the tomb, and raised him from the dead, bare witness. For this cause also the multitude went and met Him, for that they heard that He had done this sign.
The gathering of the common people, having heard what had happened, were readily persuaded by those who bare witness that the Christ had raised Lazarus to life, and annulled the power of death, as the prophets said: for this cause also they went and met Him.
19 The Pharisees therefore said among themselves, Do ye see how ye prevail nothing? Lo, the whole world is gone after Him.
This they say, finding fault with themselves, that they had not long ago put Jesus and Lazarus also to death, urging themselves to murder; being angry concerning the believing multitude, as though deprived of their special possessions----those which really belonged to God.
20 Now there were certain Greeks among those that went up to worship at the feast.
Any one might be perplexed at these words and wonder with what motive certain of the Greeks should be going up to Jerusalem to worship, and this at the time when the feast was being celebrated according to the Law. For surely no one will say that they went up merely to look at the people there; certainly it was with the intention of |144 participating in the feast which was suitable for Jews and Jews only, that they were journeying up in the company of the Jews. What was the point, as regards the motive of worship, that was common to both Greeks and Jews? And indeed we shall find that the habit and inclination of the two differed very widely; for the one honoured the truth, whereas the other honoured what was false. What shall we say then with regard to these words? As the territory of the Jews was situated near that of the Galileans, and as both they and the Greeks had cities and villages in close vicinity to each other, they were continually intermingling together, and interchanging visits, invited thereto by a variety of occasions. And since it somehow happens that the disposition of idol-worshippers is very easily brought to welcome a change for the better, and inasmuch as nothing is easier than to convict their false worship of being utterly unprofitable, some among them were easily persuaded to change; not yet indeed in full perfection to worship Him Who alone is truly God, being somewhat divided with regard to the arguments in favour of abandoning idolatry, and following the precepts of their own teachers, I mean Plato and those who are called the wise men of his school. For they say that one (God) is the Creator of all things, and that the rest are included within the universe, and have been elected by Him as directors for the administration of human affairs. It was then a custom for certain of the inhabitants of Palestine, especially the Greeks, who had the territory of the Jews closely adjoining and bordering on their own, to be impressed in some way by the Jewish habits of thought, and to honour the name of One Sovereign [Deity]; and this was the view current among those Greeks, whom we just now mentioned, albeit they did not express it in the same way that we do. And they, not having the tendency to Judaism in full force, nor even having separated themselves from the habits dear to the Greeks, but holding an intermediate opinion which inclined both ways, are called "worshippers of God." People of this kind therefore, |145 seeing that their own habits of thought were not very sharply distinguished from those of the Jews as regarded sacrificial rites and the conception of a Sovereign Ruler: (for the Israelites did not previously know the doctrine of the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity, nor even the true force of their spiritual worship:) they were in the habit of going up with the Jews to worship, especially at the national gatherings, not meaning to slight their own religion, but as an act of honour to the One All-supreme God.
21, 22 These therefore came to Philip which was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus. Philip cometh and telleth Andrew: Andrew cometh and Philip, and they tell Jesus.
Even though they knew it not, the Pharisees were telling the truth when they said: Behold, the whole world is gone after Him. For not Jews only, but Gentiles as well, were destined to accept the faith. Wherefore also the application of the Greeks happened at that time as a sort of firstfruits; and to Philip as being himself a Galilean, the Galilean Greeks came, asking him to shew them Jesus Whom they wished to see, as they were continually hearing Him well spoken of; that they might worship Him and attain the object of their desires. But Philip, remembering that the Lord said unto them: Go not into any way of the Gentiles, and enter not into any city of the Samaritans, is afraid lest by any means he should seem to give offence by bringing to Christ those who had not believed, not knowing that it was of set purpose that the Lord had forbidden the disciples to approach the Gentiles until the Jews should first have rejected the grace given to them. And so Philip tells Andrew, he being more disposed for and accustomed to such things; and then, with his approval, they both carry the message to the Lord. And by his wise conduct Philip teaches us that it is not well to speak in a careless fashion to those who are above us, even though the matter seem to be a right and proper one, but rather |146 to take counsel with wise friends as to what ought to be done.
23 And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified.
Seeing therefore that Gentiles are hastening in eager desire to see Him and to turn towards Him, on this account He says: The hour is come. For near at hand was the time of His Passion, after which the calling of the Gentiles immediately followed. And He calls the time now present "the hour," with the intention of shewing that no other occasion can bring Him to the necessity of suffering, save only this season marked out by His own appointed limitations. For having done all things that were to lead men on to faith, and having preached the word of the kingdom of heaven, He now desires to pass onward to the very crowning point of His hope, namely to the destruction of death: and this could not otherwise be brought to pass, unless the Life underwent death for the sake of all men, that so in Him we all may live. For on this account also He speaks of Himself as glorified in His Death, and in suffering terrible things at the hands of the sinners who dishonour Him. Even though by the angels in heaven He had been glorified from everlasting, yet nevertheless His Cross was the beginning of His being glorified upon earth by the Gentiles as God. For after He had left to themselves the Jews who openly despised Him, He turned to the Gentiles and is glorified by them as God, being confidently expected to come again in the glory of the Father. And He declares not merely that the Word shall then be glorified, but, shewing that He Who is ineffably to be regarded as sharing in humanity no less than Deity is One Only Son, He uses the title "Son of man:" for He is One Son and One Christ, capable since His Incarnation of no separation of Nature; but ever remaining and ever regarded as God, although clothed in flesh.
(From the Syriac.) [He is One Son and One Christ, capable since His |147 Incarnation of no separation of Nature,] except so far as this, that we may say that we acknowledge separately the Nature of the Word and [the nature] of the flesh. And [we may say] that they are not the same in conception, for the one is of the Essence of God the Father, but the other had its root upon earth in the holy Virgin. Nevertheless there is only One Christ of the two, Who is not divided into a duality of Sons after the concourse of these Natures which have been mentioned, but remains and is regarded as in possession of the power of the Godhead, although clothed in Flesh.
24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit.
He not only foretells His suffering and the nearness of the time, but He also alleges the reason why He counted His suffering most precious, saying that the benefit of His passion would be great; for else He would not have chosen to suffer, for He suffered not unwillingly. For by reason of His clemency towards us, He displayed such great and tender kindness as deliberately to endure cruelties of all kinds for our sake. And even as a grain of wheat sown in the earth shoots forth many ears of corn, not receiving through them any loss to itself, but being present by its power in all the grains of every ear; for out of it they all shot forth: so also the Lord died, and opening the recesses of the earth, brought up with Himself the souls of men, Himself being in them all according to the doctrine of the faith, over and above His own separate and distinct existence. And it is not to the dead only that He has granted the power of receiving the fruits of the benefit He brings, but to the living also; if indeed the doctrine is made faithfully to correspond to the form of the parable. For the life of all men, both of dead and living, is a fruit of the sufferings of Christ. For the death of Christ became a seed of life.
Can it be then that the Divine Nature of the Word |148 became capable of death? Surely it were altogether impious to say this. For the Word of God the Father is in His Nature Life: He raises to life, but He does not fall: He brings death to naught, He is not made subject to corruption: He quickens that which lacks life, but seeks not His own life from another. For even as light could not become darkness, so it is impossible that Life should cease to be life. How then is the same Person said to fall into the earth as a grain of wheat, and also to "go up" as "God with a shout?" Surely it is evident that to taste of death was fitting for Him, inasmuch as He became Man: but nevertheless to go up in the manner of God, was His own natural prerogative.
25 He that loveth his life will lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.
You not only ought not to be offended at the thought of My suffering, or to disbelieve the words I said, but it is even right that you should be prepared in anticipation of it; for he that thinks fit to be careful over his life here, and is not willing to expose it to dangers for My sake, loses it in the time to come. But he who exposes it to dangers in this present world is laying up in store for it great rewards. And he who despises his life in this world shall obtain in the world to come life incorruptible. And the Lord said these words, not as implying that the life [i. e. the soul] can suffer anything here, but meaning by "love of life" the disposition to hold it firmly, as shown by those who do not expose their body to dangers.
26 If any man serve Me, let him follow Me.
What He says is something of this kind: If I, He says, for the sake of benefitting you am exposing Myself to death, is it not indeed cowardly on your part to shrink from despising your transient life for the sake of enjoying your private advantages, and from obtaining life imperishable by means of the death of the body? For they Seem, to be hating their own life, with regard to the |149 endurance of suffering, who expose it to death, and keep it for everlasting blessings. And they also who live in asceticism hate their own lives, not being subdued by the pleasures of the love of the flesh. What therefore Christ did, in suffering for the sake of all men, He did that it might be an example of manly courage; teaching those who are desirous of the hoped-for blessings to be eager in the practice of this virtue. For it is needful, He says, for those who wish to follow Me, to display manly courage and endurance like Mine: for so only will they receive the crown of victory.
And where I am, there shall also My servant be.
And since the Author of our salvation travelled not by the path of glory and luxury, but by that of dishonour and hardships; so also we must do and not complain, in order to reach the same place and share the Divine glory. And of what honour shall we be worthy, if we refuse to endure sufferings like those of our Master? But perhaps in saying: where I am, there shall also My servant be, He speaks not of place, but of progress in virtue. For by the same qualities in which Christ appeared conspicuous, those who follow Him must also be characterised. This does not refer to the God-befitting and superhuman prerogatives, for it is impossible for a man to imitate Him Who is the True God and in His Nature God; but to all such qualities as the nature of man is capable of displaying: not the bridling of the sea and deeds of similar character, but the being humble and meek and tolerant of insults.
If any man serve Me, him will the Father honour.
Herein, He says, certainly consists their recompense, in being honoured by the Father: for the disciples of Christ are sharers of the kingdom and glory of Christ, according to the measure fitting for men. And He says that the honours are given from the Father, although Himself is the Giver of blessings; ascribing to the Divine Nature |150 the act of giving to every man according to his work, and showing us that the Father wills that we should obey the commands of the Son, because the Son does not legislate in opposition to the Father.
We must note therefore that he that does things pleasing to God serves Christ, but he that follows his own wishes, is a follower rather of himself and not of God,
27, 28 Now is My soul troubled; and what, shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour. But for this cause [came I] unto this hour. Father, glorify Thy name.
Now, He says, is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save one from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. See I pray you in these words again how the human nature was easily affected by trouble and easily brought over to fear, whereas on the other hand the Divine and ineffable Power is in all respects inflexible and dauntless and intent on the courage which alone is befitting to It. For the mention of death which had been introduced into the discourse begins to alarm Jesus, but the Power of the Godhead straightway subdues the suffering thus excited and in a moment transforms into incomparable boldness that which had been conquered by fear. For we may suppose that even in the Saviour Jesus Christ Himself the human feelings were aroused by two qualities necessarily present in Him. For it must certainly have been under the influence of these that He shewed Himself a Man born of woman, not in deceptive appearance or mere fancy, but rather by nature and in truth, possessing every human quality, sin only excepted. And fear and alarm, although they are affections natural to us, have escaped being ranked among sins. And yet besides this, profitably were the human feelings troubled in Christ: not that the emotions should prevail and go forward, as in us; but that, having begun, they might be cut short by the power of the Word, nature in Christ first being transelemented into some better and Diviner condition. For in this way and no other was it that the process of the healing passed over |151 even unto us. For in Christ as the firstfruits the nature of man was restored to newness of life, and in Him we have also gained things above our nature. For on this account He is also named in the Divine Scriptures a second Adam. And in the same manner that as Man He felt hunger and weariness, so also He feels the mental trouble that is caused by suffering, as a human characteristic. Yet He is not agitated like we are, but only just so far as to have undergone the sensation of the experience; then again immediately He returns to the courage befitting to Himself. From these things it is evident that He indeed had a rational soul. For as the circumstance of feeling hunger or indeed of experiencing any other such thing is a suffering which is peculiarly that of the flesh, so also the being agitated by the thought of terrible things must be a suffering of the rational soul, by which alone in truth a thought can enter into us through the processes of the mind. For Christ, not having yet been on the Cross actually, suffers the trouble by anticipation, evidently beholding beforehand that which was to happen, and being led by reasoning to the thought of the future events. For the suffering of dread is a feeling that we cannot ascribe to the impassible Grodhead, nor yet to the Flesh; for it is an affection of the cogitations of the soul, and not of the flesh. And although an irrational animal is troubled and agitated, inasmuch as it possesses a soul, yet it does not come to feel dread by a process of thought, nor by a logical anticipation of coming suffering, but whenever it happens to find itself actually involved in any evil plight, then it painfully experiences the sensation of the danger which is present. Here, on the other hand, the Lord is troubled, not by what He sees, but by what He anticipates in thought. Further it is noteworthy that Christ did not say "My flesh is troubled," but "My soul;" thereby dispelling the suggestion of the heretics. And although thou mayest say that in the ancient Scripture God said to the Jews: Your fasts and holiday-keeping and festivals My soul hateth, and other expressions of a similar |152 kind; we shall maintain that He has made use of our habits of speech, especially by reason of His helpful condescension towards us; just as also by a forced use of language He attributes to His Incorporeal Nature a Face and Eyes and other bodily organs. But after the Incarnation, if we were to explain such expressions in the same way, it would follow that He was a mere image or phantom or shadow and not truly a Man, according to the teaching of the ungodly Manes. Therefore the Word of God made one with Himself human nature in its entirety, that so He might save the entire man. For that which has not been taken into His Nature, has not been saved.
Nevertheless, after speaking of being troubled, He does not relapse into silence, but transforms the suffering which had affected Him into dauntless courage, almost going so far as to say: "Death is in itself nothing; but on this account I permitted My Flesh to feel dread, that I might infuse it with a new element of courage. I came to restore life to those who are on earth, wherefore also I am prepared for My Passion."
He then makes a request of His Father and exhibits the outward appearance of prayer, not as being weak in respect of that Nature which is Almighty, but in respect of His Manhood, ascribing to the Divine Nature those attributes that are superhuman; not implying that the Divine Nature was something external to Himself, since He calls God His own Father, but in full consciousness that universal power and glory would be the lot of both Father and Son. And whether the text has: Glorify Thy Son, or: Glorify Thy Name, makes no difference in the exact significance of the ideas conveyed. Christ however, despising death and the shame of suffering, looking only to the objects to be achieved by the suffering, and almost beholding the death of all mankind already passing out of sight as an effect of the death of His Own Flesh; knowing that the power of corruption was on the point of being for ever destroyed, and that the nature of man would be thenceforth transformed to a newness of life: He all but |153 says something of this sort to God the Father: "The body, O Father, shrinks from encountering the suffering, and dreads that death which is unnatural to it; nay more, it seems a thing not to be endured that One Who is enthroned with Thee and Who possesses Almighty power should be grossly outraged by the audacious insults of the Jews; but since this is the cause for which I have come, glorify Thy Son, that is, prevent Me not from encountering death, but grant this favour to Thy Son for the good of all mankind." And that the Evangelist in some other places also speaks of the Cross under the name of "glory," thou mayest learn from what he says: For the Holy Spirit was not yet [given]; because Jesus was not yet glorified. For in his wisdom he in these words speaks of being "crucified" as being "glorified:" and the Cross is a glory. For although at the season of His Passion, Christ willingly and patiently endured many contumelies, and moreover underwent voluntarily for our sake sufferings which He might have refused to suffer; surely the undergoing this for the benefit of others is a characteristic of excessive compassion and of supreme glory. And the Son became glorious also in another way. For from the fact that He overpowered death, we recognise Him to be Life and Son of the Living God. And the Father is glorified, when He is seen to have such a Son begotten of Himself, of the same Nature as Himself. And He is Good, Light, Life, and superior to death, and One Who does whatsoever He will. And when He says: Glorify Thy Son, He means this: "Give Thy consent to Me in My willingness to suffer." For the Father gave up the Son to death, not without taking counsel, but in willingness for the life of the world: therefore the Father's consent is spoken, of as a bestowal of blessings upon us; for instead of "suffering" He spake of "glory." And this also He says as a Pattern for us: for while on the one hand we ought to pray that we fall not into temptation, yet on the other hand if we should be so tried we ought to bear it nobly and not to rush away from it, but to pray that we may be saved |154 unto God. But Glorify Thy Name. For if through our dangers it comes to pass that God is glorified, let all things be accounted secondary to that end.
Moreover, just as death was brought to naught in no other way than by the Death of the Saviour, so also with regard to each of the sufferings of the flesh: for unless He had felt dread, human nature could not have become free from dread; unless He had experienced grief, there could never have been any deliverance from grief; unless He had been troubled and alarmed, no escape from these feelings could have been found. And with regard to every one of the affections to which human nature is liable, thou wilt find exactly the corresponding thing in Christ. The affections of His Flesh were aroused, not that they might have the upper hand as they do indeed in us, but in order that when aroused they might be thoroughly subdued by the power of the Word dwelling in the flesh, the nature of man thus undergoing a change for the better.
(From the Syriac)
AND AGAIN, WHEN [S. CYRIL] IS MANIFESTLY REPROVING THE IMPIETY OP ARIUS AND OF EUNOMIUS, AFTER OTHER THINGS HE TEACHES AS FOLLOWS:----
Since therefore that which is the outcome of thoughts could not truly happen to inanimate flesh, but on the contrary is suitable to a human and rational soul; how can it be improper to imagine that we think rightly in assigning the suffering to it [i. e. the human soul,] rather than in casting it upon the Nature of the Godhead, [as we must do] by forcible and inevitable reasoning, if truly (in accordance with their doctrine) the Divine Nature dwelling in Christ's body occupied the place of the soul?
(From the Greek)
There came therefore a voice out of heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.
The Evangelist did not say that it was the Father Who uttered the voice from above, but that the voice came from heaven; in order that no heretics, because they heard that the Father spake, might attempt to say that also the Divine Nature, to wit, the Father, is encompassed with a |155 gross body. Wherefore he speaks indeed of the harmonious voice, but how the voice was brought to pass it is not in our power to say. But what the interpretation of its words signifies is this: The Son was conspicuous by many signs, the Father withal working the miracles along with Him; and inasmuch as He was Fellow-worker with Him in all things which He did, He says now that He has glorified [His Name,] and freely promises that He will also glorify it again, through the sign at His Death. For inasmuch as the Son is both God of God, and Life born of That which is by nature Life, He raised Himself from the dead; but inasmuch as He is regarded as a Man like us, albeit without sin, He is not regarded as having raised Himself, but as risen by the power of the Father. 30 Jesus answered and said unto them, This voice hath not come for My sake, but for your sakes.
The Father replied aloud----after what manner He only knows----unto His own Son, manifesting His own purpose with intent to rouse the zeal of the hearers, that they might believe without any doubt that He is by Nature the Son of God the Father. But the multitude were perplexed and divided unto different surmisings, without understanding. For they ought to have apprehended that it was the Father that gave answer, unto Whom the Son had addressed His words. For the Son asked not for thunder to come, nor for an angel to utter a voice, nevertheless He saith: The Voice hath not come for My sake, but for your sakes. For He knew the purpose of Him Who begat Him, even if no word had been uttered, for that He was and is the Wisdom and Word of the Father. For your sakes therefore, He says, the Voice hath come; in order that ye may receive Me as Son of God, Whom the Father knoweth to be by Nature His own Son. Now the Lord says that the Voice hath come; yet He adds not that it was the Father's Voice, nor how it came: for this is a superfluous matter. He affirmed however that although they had even heard a Voice as from heaven, they persisted none the less in their impiety. |156
31 Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out.
This sore-yearned-for time of the Saviour's sojourn upon earth showed that the judgment and justice for the Gentiles was already come. For they were about to be delivered from the arrogant usurpation of the devil, and the Holy and Righteous Judge was portioning out most righteous mercy to them. For I think we ought not to suppose that the world was even now being condemned, when the moment of its justification was come; but judgment, in the sense of vengeance, shall come upon the world hereafter. Again: the prince of this world shall be cast out. There shall be, He says, judgment against him that wronged the world, and not against the world that endured the wrong. For truly, as Christ Himself said: God sent not His Son to judge the world, but to save the world. This then He says will be the character of the impending judgment, that the prince of this world shall be cast out. And cast out whence? Manifestly, from the dominion that hath been gained by him through violence, and from the kingdom that in no wise belongs to him. And "out" indicates the punishment of Hades and the passage to it.
32 And I, if I be lifted up from, the earth, will draw all men unto Myself.
Howbeit, after that Christ had given Himself unto the Father for our salvation as a Spotless Victim, and was now on the point of paying the penalties that He suffered on our behalf, we were ransomed from the accusations of sin. And so, when the beast has been removed from our midst, and the tyrant is deposed, then Christ brings unto Himself the race that had strayed away, calling not only Jews but all mankind as well unto salvation through the faith that is in Him. For whereas the calling through the Law was partial, that through Christ was universal. For Christ alone, as God, was able to procure all good things for us. And with exceeding good omen, He speaks of being "uplifted" instead of being "crucified." For He would keep the mystery invisible to those intent on killing Him; for |157 they were not worthy to learn it: nevertheless, He allowed them that were wiser to understand that He would suffer because of all and on behalf of all. And especially I suppose any one might take it in this way, and very fitly; that the Death on the Cross was an exaltation which is ever associated in our thoughts with honour and glory. For on this account too Christ is glorified, forasmuch as the benefits He procured for humanity thereby are many. And by these He draws men unto Himself, and does not, like the disciples, lead them to another. He shows therefore that He is Himself by Nature God, in that He does not put the Father outside Himself. For it is through the Son that a man is drawn unto the knowledge of the Father.
33 But this He said, signifying by what manner of death He should die.
Hereby the Evangelist showed that the Lord did not suffer in ignorance, but voluntarily; and with full knowledge, not only that He was dying, but also in what manner: and He named the Cross [as His] death.
34 The multitude therefore answered Him, We have heard out of the Law that Christ abideth for ever: and how sayest Thou, The Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?
And this they say, as we have remarked, understanding that being "lifted up" meant being crucified. For it was their wont to signify by more auspicious names things which pointed directly to sore disasters. They essay therefore by means of the Scripture to prove that Christ speaks falsehood. For the Scripture, says [one of them], denies that the Christ is but for a time, when it says concerning Him: Thou art a Priest for ever. How then sayest Thou: "I am the Christ," whereas Thou sayest that Thou wilt die? For, because they understand not, the Jews say that by reason of the Passion He cannot be Christ; and they deny that it was written that the Christ must suffer and rise again and ascend unto the Father, to be Minister of the Sanctuary and High Priest of our souls, |158 when He should return to life, a Conqueror and Incorruptible. Albeit the Scripture foretells expressly, not only that He should come in this common fashion of a Man, but that He should die for the life of all men, and should return to life again after breaking asunder the bonds of death: whereby the saying that Christ abideth for ever is fully and fitly accomplished. For when He had shown Himself superior to death and corruption, He ascended unto the Father.
35 Jesus therefore said unto them, Yet a little while is the Light among you. Walk while ye have the Light, that the darkness overtake you not: and he that walketh in the darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.
To the Jews, without understanding and faithless as they were, the Christ does not clearly and at length declare the deep mystery of the saying. But He speeds on at once to utter another, at the same time both expounding what is profitable for them and shewing them the cause wherefore they do not understand the things in the Scriptures, and that, if they believed not Him Who is Light, the darkness of ignorance would overtake them without fail, and they would forfeit the benefits that come of the Light. For inasmuch as their expectations were drawn from the Scripture, they looked for the Messiah as a Light. But when He came, all their hopes fell out contrariwise; for a darkness overtook them because of their unbelief. Recover yourselves therefore (saith He) speedily, while it is possible for you to win some small share in the radiance of the Divine Light, in order that the darkness of sin overtake you not. And right well He said that after the Light cometh the darkness. For the darkness presseth hard on the track of the departing light. But whereas He spake of "the Light," using the definite article, He signified Himself, for He alone is in truth The Light.
36 While ye have the Light, believe on the Light, that ye may become sons of Light.
He proved therefore that the faith which is in Him, |159 through Whom a man comes to the knowledge also of the Father, is the way of salvation. And He names them sons of Light whether of Himself or of the Father, for He speaks of the Father as Light after having spoken of Himself as Light----in order to show that the Nature of Himself and of His Father is One: and we become sons of the Father, when, through the faith which is in Christ, we accept the Father Who is Light; for then shall we also be entitled children of God.
These things spake Jesus, and He departed and hid Himself from them.
After teaching them in few words what was profitable, once again by God-befitting power He betakes Himself from their midst, concealing Himself; and not permitting them to be roused to anger, but giving them opportunity to change their mind, with intent that they might do what was better. And He withdraws with a set purpose, His Passion being nigh; shewing that it was not His will to be put to death by the Jews, notwithstanding that He willingly yielded Himself up to suffer, giving Himself a Ransom for our life; and accepted death, which men naturally liken unto sorrow, and changed the sorrow into gladness.
37 But though He had done so many signs before them, yet they believed not on Him.
And the Evangelist, wishing to convict their immoderate stubbornness, adds also the words: before them; showing that they did not believe even what they saw.
38, 39, 40 That the word of Isaiah might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report? And to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? For this cause they could not believe, for that of old Isaiah said, He hath blinded their eyes, and He hardened their heart; lest they should see with their eyes, and perceive with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
It was not however with intent to fulfil the prophecies that the Jews slew the Lord, for in that case they would |160 not have been impious; but it was by reason of their own malignity. For although the prophets foretold the things which were certainly to be brought to pass by their determined evil counsel, they foretold it for this cause, that the sober might leap over the pitfalls of the devil: for surely they who heard might also have taken heed. On which, account also the prediction was needful.
AGAIN: A SOLUTION OF ANOTHER QUESTION:----
That it was not God Who blinded the Jews. For else He would not have required them to give account thereof, forasmuch as He surely pardons involuntary offences. But the meaning is on this wise. It is just as though Isaiah were setting before us, as having been spoken by God, the words: "If I should become a Man, and with Mine own voice expound unto you what is profitable, not even so will ye hearken unto Me, as neither did ye hearken unto the prophets; neither, when ye see signs beyond description, will ye be profited aught by seeing them." This is really what "Ye will not see" means. For He did not say: "I will harden their hearts and blind their eyes;" but He said: "Although ye hear, ye will not hear; and though ye see, ye will not see, in order that ye may not be converted and I may heal you." For if they had heard and seen in such a way as they ought, they would surely have found benefit thereby. And so the passage contains no indication of an inevitable punishment, nor does it set forth a decree of One condemning and sentencing the Jews; but it is a prediction given with a good purpose. For He knew what manner of men they were going to become, and He made a declaration concerning them. Yet the saying does not go against all [the Jews], but only against the unbelieving; for many of them have believed. In this way therefore the Seventy have rendered the passage. But it is likely that the Evangelist followed the text of the Hebrews, which differs from that of the Seventy, and therefore said: For this cause they could not believe, because: He hath blinded them; and so |161 far as the actual wording of the prophet goes, he has not said that "God" blinded them. And it is likely that some one else did this, in order that the Jews should not convert and find healing. But even though we should accept the supposition that God blinded them, yet it must be understood in this way;----that He allowed them to suffer blinding at the hands of the devil, when they were not good as regards their character. For in this way He gives up to a reprobate mind and to passion those who are of a disposition like theirs. But whilst they were such, it was not just that they should know the depth of the mystery and its secrets, seeing that they were men that kept not even the commandments of the Law. Whereas then they received neither the Law nor the ordinances of the Gospel, closing fast the eye of their understanding; on this account they receive not the instruction that is able to illuminate them.
42, 43 Nevertheless even of the rulers many believed on Him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess [it], lest they should be put out of the synagogue: for they loved the glory of men more than the glory of God.
Now, however, when constrained by the signs to believe and no longer daring to gainsay the Lord, they fail of eternal life through the persistence of their own abominable perversity in esteeming their position in the eyes of men higher than their relationship to God, and in being slaves of a temporal glory, deeming it an intolerable loss to fail of honour at the hands of the Pharisees. Forasmuch therefore as this was what hindered them from believing, hear what the Christ says:----
44, 45 And Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on Me, believeth not on Me, but on Him that sent Me. And He that beholdeth Me beholdeth Him that sent Me.
Contrary to His wont He cries aloud, and the cry convicts the ill-timed fear of men which influenced those who believed on Him and yet veiled their belief. For He |162 wishes to be honoured of men that choose to admire Him, not stealthily, but openly. For He assumed that while faith ought to be laid up in the heart, nevertheless the most wise confession that is founded thereon ought to be made with great boldness. And forasmuch as, being by Nature God, He condescended to take a form like ours, He refuses for the time to declare in plain words into the ears of men who hate Him that they ought to believe in Him, although He often did say this; and with fullest adaptation to the needs of those who suffer the distemper of untamable envy at Him, He gradually accustoms their minds to penetrate towards the depth of the mysteries concerning Himself, [leading them] not to the Human Person, but to That Which was of the Divine Essence; inasmuch as the Godhead is apprehended completely in the Person of God the Father, for He, hath in Himself the Son and the Spirit. Exceeding wisely He carries them onwards, saying: He that believeth on Me believeth not on Me, but on Him that sent Me; for He does not exclude Himself from being believed on by us, because He is God by nature and has shone forth from God the Father. But skilfully (as has been said) He handles the mind of the weak to mould them to piety, in order that thou mightest understand Him to say something of this kind: "When ye believe on Me, Who for your sakes am on the one hand a man like yourselves, but on the other hand am God by reason of My own Nature and of the Father from Whom I am, do not suppose that it is upon a man you are setting your faith. For I am by Nature God, notwithstanding that I appear like one of yourselves, and I have within Myself Him Who begat Me. Forasmuch therefore as I am Consubstantial with Him that hath begotten Me, your faith will assuredly pass on also to the Father Himself." As we said therefore, the Lord, gradually training them to something better, and profitably interweaving the human with what is God-befitting, said: He that believeth on Me and the words that follow. For that the faith must not be directed simply to a man, but to the Nature of |163 God, notwithstanding that the Word was clothed in flesh, because His Nature was not converted into man, He hath very clearly informed us; and that He is on an equality in every respect with God the Father, by reason of Their likeness of Nature and Their identity (as we may term it) of Essence, He made amply clear: by saying:----
46 I am come a Light into the world, that whosoever believeth on Me may not abide in the darkness.
Behold, again He grasps their faith and fixes it on Himself, and effects at once two most useful ends. For on the one hand in professing Himself to be Light He proves that He is God by Nature, for so to be called befits Him alone Who is in His Nature God; and on the other hand by adding the cause of His coming, He brings a blush to the cheek of any man who thinks but little of loving Him. Because we evidently must understand that those who had not yet believed on Him are as yet in darkness, inasmuch as to be in the light that flows from Him is theirs only who have believed on Him. And He leads them also to the remembrance of the things that are spoken in many passages concerning Him, whereby He foretold that He would come to enlighten the world; as for example; Be enlightened, be enlightened, O Jerusalem, for thy Light, the True Light, is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee; and: Send out Thy Light and Thy Truth. Therefore it is just as if He had said: "I am the Light that in the Scripture is looked for, to come for the salvation of the world, to enlighten them that are wandering in darkness as if in night."
48 The word that I spake, the same shall judge him in the last day.
They will be self-condemned therefore, He says, who refuse to hear Him and do not accept the saving faith. For He that came to illumine, came not in order to judge, but to save. He therefore that disobeys and thereby subjects himself to the greatest miseries, let him blame |164 himself as justly punished." For I am not the cause thereof, Who desire to save those that are going to fall into judgment, and Who came for this end. For he that makes a law punishing the disobedient, makes it not for the sake of punishing them that transgress it, but in order that they that hear may take heed of it and be safe. I therefore, having come to save, charge you to believe, and not to despise My words; inasmuch as the present is a time of salvation, not of judgment. For in the day of judgment, the word that called you to salvation will bring the penalties of disobedience upon you. And of what nature was the word that I spake?"
(From the Syriac)
1 FROM THE EIGHTH BOOK OF S. CYRIL's COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN; WHAT HE SAITH CONCERNING THE HERETICS, WHO, DESIRING TO CONCEAL THEIR IMPIETY, USE OBSCURE LANGUAGE.
For justly their conscience does not suffer them [to speak plainly], although an impulse from within urges them to lift up their horn on high, as it is written, and they speak evil against Him Who truly and by Nature is God, namely the Only-Begotten, Who reflects the Nature of the Father, being the essential and natural Likeness and Image of Him.
FROM THE EIGHTH DISCOURSE OF S. CYRIL'S COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN.
For it is by Jesus Christ that those who believe have glory and indwelling with God, and the Divine Paul contends on our side, writing thus, that it was God Who was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. For let none of those who are accustomed after a foolish manner to hear the Scripture which is inspired by God, corrupt what is read, when it asserts that God was in Christ; or think that [Paul] says "one clothed with the Spirit," for the expression is not very correct. For Christ is indeed by Nature God, and not a man "clothed with God" as one of the prophets. |165
SIMILARLY, IN THE EIGHTH BOOK OF THE COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN.
Therefore a type of the change is that faith which justifies, which when the Son receives unto Himself He truly causes to approach the Father also, for there is One Godhead in Them Both, and an undistinguishable glory of Essence.
ON THIS ACCOUNT ALSO THE WISE CYRIL, IN THE EIGHTH BOOK OF THE COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF JOHN, WROTE AS FOLLOWS.
"Was therefore the Mystery of Christians, so adorable and great, an image or shadow, or rather an imagination or phantom: or was it verily real? And did Manes, that lover of heathendom, and a guilty wretch too, as well as ungodly, indeed make no mistake, no not at all; but is it rather we who err, in reasoning thus against these men? But these things are not so: God forbid. Let them rather be "cast away on some mountain far off, or to the waves," 2 as some say. For not in vain do we believe that He was a Man, that is, one Who in everything was like ourselves, sin only excepted.
[Page running titles]
Judas is rebuked, Mary praised. 139
140 The multitude astonished, the rulers enraged.
The Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem. 141
142 The ass a type of the Gentiles.
Enlightenment of the disciples. 143
144 Why Greeks went to a Jewish feast.
Philip's conduct explained. 145
146 Christ glorified by the Gentiles.
Benefits resulting from Christ's death. 147
148 What is meant by "loving" and "hating" life.
The imitation of Christ, and its reward. 149
150 Christ felt fear and alarm,
which proves that He had a human soul. 151
152 Christ's glory in His Death.
The Father's consent to the Son's Death. 153
154 Christ's humanity was perfect.
The miraculous Voice. 155
156 Christ's first Advent was in mercy.
The meaning of "being lifted up." 157
158 Christ speaks of Himself as "The Light."
The reason of His retirement. 159
160 The Jews might have been saved if they would.
But they blinded themselves by obstinacy.161
162 Christ's Oneness with the Father.
Christ, being the Light, fulfils prophecy. 163
164 Christ's warnings were prompted by love.
Christ's Godhead and Manhood equally real. 165
[Most of the footnotes, moved to the end and renumbered. The margin contains mainly biblical references and fragments of Greek. These have been omitted]
1. a The proper position in the Book of this fragment, and the three that follow, is uncertain.
2. Homer Iliad vi. 347.
This text was transcribed by Roger Pearse, 2005. All material on this page is in the public domain - copy freely.
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Early Church Fathers - Additional Texts
SOURCE SECTION: cyril_on_john_09_book9.htm
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, LFC 43, 48 (1874/1885). Book 9. Vol. 2 pp. 166-322.
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, LFC 43, 48 (1874/1885). Book 9. Vol. 2 pp. 166-322.
[Translated by T. Randell]
|166
CHAPTERS IN THE NINTH BOOK.
1. That by reason of the identity of Their Nature, the Son is in the Father, and the Father again is in the Son. |167
CYRIL
Archbishop of Alexandria
COMMENT ON THE
GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN.
BOOK IX.
[Introduction]
S. John xii. 49, 50. For I spake not from Myself; but the Father Which sent Me, He hath given Me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. And I know that His commandment is life eternal: the things therefore which I speak, even as the Father hath said unto Me, so I speak.
He reminds the people of the Jews of the things that had been aforetime proclaimed concerning Him by Moses, and by this means skilfully rebukes them; and, exposing the impiety that was in them, He clearly proves that they were caring nothing for having insolently outraged even the Law itself, although it was believed to have been given from God. For what God said concerning Christ by Moses is well known to all men, but still I will quote it because of the necessity of perceiving the exact idea; I will raise them up a Prophet from the midst of His brethren, like unto thee; that is to say, a lawgiver, and a mediator between God and men: and I will put My word in His mouth, and He shall speak unto them according as I may command Him; and the man who will not hearken to whatsoever the Prophet may speak in My Name, I will take vengeance on him. At one and the same time therefore our Lord Jesus the Christ censures the boastful temper of the Jewish people, displayed in their fighting even, |168 against God the Father; and, by saying that He has received a commandment from the Father and speaks not of Himself, clearly proves that He Himself is the Prophet fore-announced by the Law and heralded by the voice of God the Father from ages long before. And in a way He calls to their remembrance, although their minds were sluggish in comprehending it, that if they refused to be persuaded by the words that came from Him, they would certainly fall a prey to inevitable punishment, and would endure all that God had said. For they who transgress the Divine commandment of God the Father, and thrust away from themselves the life-giving word of God our Saviour Christ, shall surely be cast down into most utter misery, and shall remain without any part in the life that comes from Him; with good reason hearing that which was spoken by the voice of the prophet: O earth, earth, hear, O hear the word of the Lord. Behold, I bring evils upon this people, as the fruit of their turning away, because they obeyed not My Law, and ye rejected My word. For we shall find that the Jews were liable to a twofold accusation: for they failed to honour the Law itself, although it was generally held dear and accounted an object of reverence, in that they refused to believe on Him Whom the Law proclaimed; and they turned a deaf ear to the words of our Saviour Christ, although He announced openly that He was certainly the Prophet spoken of in the oracles of the Law, when He declared that it was from God the Father that He was supplied with His words.
And let no one suppose that the saying of the Lord----that nothing is spoken by Himself, but that all comes from the Father----can do Him injustice in any way at all, as regards the estimate either of His Essence or of His God-befitting dignity; but first let the matter be thought over again, and let an answer be given to this question of ours:----"Can any one really suppose that the name and exercise of the prophetic office befit Him Who altogether is and is regarded as being in His Nature God?" Surely, |169 I think, every one, however simple he may be, would answer in the negative, and say that it is incredible that the God Who speaks in prophets should Himself be called a prophet: for He it was Who multiplied visions, as it is written, and was likened to similitudes by the hands of the prophets. Since however He assumed the name of servitude and the outward fashion of resemblance to ourselves and with regard to His resemblance to us was called a Prophet, it necessarily follows also that the Law has endued Him with the attributes befitting the prophet, that is to say, the privilege of hearing somewhat from the Father and of receiving a commandment, what He should say and what He should speak. And moreover I shall feel obliged to say this much also. The Jews, possessed with a strong prejudice concerning the Law, believing that it had been spoken from God, could not have been expected to accept the words of the Saviour when He changed the form of the ordinances of old into a spiritual service.
And what cause had they to allege for being unwilling to accept the transformation of the types into their veritable significance? They were not aware that He was by Nature God, nor did they even admit the supposition that the Only-Begotten, being the Word of the Father, had borne our flesh for our sakes: for else, in immediate submission to God, they would have changed their opinion in any way whatever without hesitation, and would have faithfully revered His Divine glory. But the wretched men rather thought that He was altogether one like ourselves, and that, although a mere man, He had thought so highly of Himself as even to attempt to put an end to the very laws which came from God the Father. For instance they once said to Him plainly: For a good work we stone Thee not, but for blasphemy; because Thou, being a Man, makest Thyself God. Our Lord Jesus therefore, by much wisdom and with a definite design, seeking to turn His hearers from the idea that had taken possession of their minds, changes the subject of His discourse from |170 that which was simply and solely the human personality to Him Who was the object of acknowledged and undisputed adoration, I mean of course God the Father; thinking it right to use every means of importunately pleading with the uneducated heart of the Jews, and striving by every possible method to lead on their dull minds to the desire to learn true and more befitting doctrines. So much then may suffice in the way of argument and speculation for any one who would get rid of the carping criticisms of the unholy heretics, when they suppose that the Son will make Himself in any respect whatever inferior to His own Father by saying that He speaks nothing of Himself, but that a commandment has been given Him, and that He speaks according as He has heard.
And I think that this would really suffice: yet I will also say something else by way of exposing the insolence of their loquacity. For come now, if it seems good to thee, and let us, having summarized for the present occasion in few words the doctrine of the Incarnation, shew concerning the Only-Begotten Himself that it was well and rightly said: I speak not from Myself; but the Father which sent Me, He hath given Me a commandment what I should say and what I should speak. For being Himself the Living and Personal Word of God the Father, He is necessarily the medium of interpreting what is in the Father; and in bringing to light that which is, as it were, the set will and purpose of His own Father, He says He has in effect received a commandment: and any one might see even in the case of ourselves that the fact is truly so and could not be otherwise. For the language of utterance, which consists in the putting together of words and phrases, and which makes itself heard externally by means of articulate speech, reveals that which is in the intellect, when our intellect gives a commandment as it were to it; although indeed the whole process does not take much time. For, the moment it has decided upon anything, the mind at once delivers it over to the voice; and the voice, passing outwards, interprets what is in the innermost |171 depth of the mind, altering nothing of what it has been commanded to utter. "Where then is the strange part of the matter, sirs," any one might very well say to our opponents, "if the Son, being the Word of God the Father, does (in a manner not indeed exactly like ours, for the ways of God transcend all comparison,) interpret the will of Him Who begat Him?" For does not the prophet speak of Him as called by a title most fitting for Him: "Angel of great counsel?" But this I think is quite clear. The Only-Begotten therefore will suffer no detraction as regards His Essence or His dignity, even though He is said to have received a commandment from God the Father: for we ourselves also are often commanding others and ordering them to do something, but they will not on this account deny their community of nature with us, nor will they lose their likeness to us or be less consubstantial with us, whether before or after the utterance of the command.
But thou wilt say that while they remain consubstantial with us, their dignity suffers from their submission to us.
And I say this to thee on this point, concerning the Only-Begotten: "If it were not written concerning Him that being in the form of God He counted it not a prize to be on an equality with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself,----the form of thy objection might really have had a not invalid significance: but since the manner of His submission and humiliation is clear, why dost thou recklessly rail at Him Who endured to suffer even this for our sakes?" Making therefore our argument on every side to conform to accuracy of doctrine, we maintain that our Lord Jesus Christ has spoken the words of the phrase before us in full agreement with the scheme of His Incarnation.
xiii. 1 Now before the feast of the passover, Jesus knowing that His hour was come that He should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved His own which were in this world, He loved them unto the end.
The meaning contained in the words before us seems |172 to most men somewhat obscure and not very capable of exact explanation, nor indeed to possess (as any one might suppose) any simple signification. For what can be the reason why the inspired Evangelist at this point notifies to us particularly, and (so to speak) as a necessary sequence of things, that: Before the feast of the passover, knowing that His hour was come that He should depart out of this world unto the Father, Christ acted as He did? And again, what is the meaning of: Having loved His own that were in the world, He loved them unto the end? Allowing therefore that the uncertainty involved in this passage is by no means slight, I suppose it to imply something of this sort, namely, that the Saviour, before enduring His suffering for our salvation, although aware (says the Evangelist) that the time of His translation to heaven was now close even at the doors, gave a proof of the absolute perfection of His love for His own that were in this world. And if there is any necessity for conceiving a wider meaning for the passage, I will only repeat once more what I was saying just now. To Christ our Saviour peculiarly belong as His own possessions all things made by Him, all intellectual and reasonable creatures, the powers above, and thrones, and principalities, and all things akin to these, in so far as regards the fact of their having been made [by Him]; and again, to Him peculiarly belong also the rational beings on earth, inasmuch as He is Lord of all, even though some refuse to adore Him as Creator. He loved therefore His own that were in the world. For not of angels doth He take hold, according to the voice of Paul; nor was it for the sake of the angelic nature, that, being in the form of God the Father, He counted it not a prize to he on an equality with God: but rather for the sake of us who are in the world, He the Lord of all has emptied Himself and assumed the form of a servant, called thereto by His love for us. Having therefore loved His own which were in this world, He loved them unto the end, although indeed before the feast, even before the passover, He knew that His hour was come that |173 He should depart out of this world unto the Father. For it would have been the manner of one who loved them, but not unto the end, to have become man, and then to have been unwilling to meet danger for the life of all; but He did love unto the end, not shrinking from suffering even this, although knowing beforehand that He would so suffer. For the Saviour's suffering was not by Him unforeseen. While therefore, says the Evangelist, He might have escaped the rude insolence of the Jews and the unholiness of those who were meditating His Crucifixion, He gave a proof of the absolute perfection of His love towards His own which were in the world; for He did not shrink in the least from being offered up for the life of all mankind. For that herein especially we may see the most perfect measure of love, I will bring forward our Lord Jesus Christ Himself as witness, in saying to His holy disciples: This is My commandment, that ye love one another, even as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. And for another reason the holy Evangelists always set themselves purposely to shew that our Lord Jesus the Christ foreknew the time of His suffering, namely, lest any of those who are wont to be heterodox should disparage His Divine glory by saying that Christ was overpowered through weakness on His part, and that it was against His will that He fell into the snares of the Jews and endured that death which was so very aweful. Therefore the language of the holy men is in accordance with the Divine system and profitable for our instruction.
2, 3, 4, 5 And during supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's [son], to betray Him, [Jesus,] knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He came forth from God, and goeth unto God, riseth from supper, and layeth aside His garments; and He took a towel, and girded Himself. Then He poureth water into the bason, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith He was girded.
The Saviour strives to eradicate utterly from our thoughts |174 the vice of pride, as the basest of all human failings, and worthy of universal and utter abomination. For He knows that nothing so commonly injures the soul of man as this most loathsome and detestible passion, to which even the Lord of all Himself stands in just opposition, after the manner of an open foe; for the Lord resisteth the proud, according to the voice of Solomon. The holy disciples therefore especially stood in need of a sober and submissive temper, and of a mind that reckoned empty honour as no high ambition. For they possessed in no slight degree the germs of this sad infirmity, and would have easily glided down into subjection to it, if they had not received great help. For it is always against those who occupy an illustrious position that the malignant monster vainglory directs its attacks. Think then, what position can be more brilliant than that of the holy Apostles? or what more attractive of attention than their friendship with God? A man who is of little account in life would not be likely to experience this passion: for it always avoids one who possesses nothing that others can envy and nothing that is inaccessible to those whose lot is of no consequence in the world; for how could such a one possibly exhibit vainglory on any subject whatever? But pride is a feeling dear to a man when he is in an enviable position, and when for this reason he thinks himself better than his neighbour; foolishly supposing that he differs very greatly from the rest of mankind, as having achieved some special and surpassing degree of excellence, or as having followed a path of policy unfamiliar to and untrodden by the rest of the world. Since therefore it has come to be regularly characteristic of all who hold brilliant positions to be liable to attacks of the infirmity of pride, it was surely needful for the holy Apostles to find in Christ a Pattern of a modest temper; so that, having the Lord of all as their model and standard, they themselves also might mould their own hearts according to the Divine will. In no other way therefore (as it seems) could He rid them from the infirmity, except by teaching them clearly that each one should regard himself as inferior |175 in honour to the rest, even so far as to feel bound to undertake the part of a servant, without shrinking from discharging even the lowest of menial offices; [and this He taught them] by both washing the feet of the brethren and girding on a towel in order to perform the act. For consider what utterly menial behaviour it is, I mean according to the world's way of thinking and outward practice. Therefore Christ has become a Pattern of a modest and unassuming temper to all living men, for we must not suppose the teaching was meant for the disciples alone. Accordingly the inspired Paul also, taking Christ as a standard, exhorts to this end, saying: Let each one of you have this mind in himself, which was also in Christ Jesus. And again: In lowliness of mind each counting other better than himself. For in a lowly temper there is established a settled habit of love and of yielding to the will of others. Moreover, in order to highly exalt the significance of what was done, and to prevent us from supposing that Christ's action was a commonplace one, the inspired Evangelist again cannot help being astounded at the thought of the glory and the power that were in Christ, and His supremacy over all; as he shows by saying: Knowing that the Father had committed all things into His hands. For although, he says, Christ was not ignorant that He possessed authority over all, and that He came forth from God, that is, was begotten of the Essence of God the Father, and goeth unto God, that is, returns again to the heavens, there sitting as we know by the side of His own Father; yet so excessive was the humiliation He underwent that He even girded Himself with a towel and washed the feet of His disciples. As therefore we have in this act of Christ a very excellent pattern of affectionate care, and a most conspicuous standard for our love for each other to imitate, let us be modest in mind, beloved, and let us consider that, whatever may be our own goodness, our brethren have attained to greater excellences than those to be found in ourselves. For that we may both think and be willing to think in this way, is the wish of Him Who is our great Pattern. |176
6, 7 So He cometh to Simon Peter, and he saith unto Him, Lord, dost Thou wash my feet? Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt understand hereafter. Peter saith unto Him, Thou shalt never wash my feet.
The fiery and impulsive character of Peter, always far more eager than the other disciples to display devotion, can be observed, one might almost say, throughout all the records that are written of him. And so it happens that on this occasion also, following the bent of his peculiar character and usual tone of mind, he thrusts aside the lesson of extreme humility and love, the record of which has been preserved in this passage,----remembering on the one hand who he is himself by nature, and on the other hand Who He is that is bringing the bason to him, and shrinking not from fulfilling the duty of a menial servant. For he is dismayed not a little at the action, which is in a manner hard of acceptance to faith, even though it happened to be seen by many eyes. For who is there who would not have shuddered at learning that He Who with the Father is Lord of all had shown His devotion to the service of His own disciples to be so intensely compassionate, that the very thing that seems to be the work of the lowest grade among servants, He willingly and of deliberate intention performed, to furnish a pattern and type of modesty in temper? Therefore the inspired disciple is dismayed and distressed at the circumstance, and makes the refusal as a natural result of his accustomed and habitual devotion. Moreover, not yet understanding the cause of the action, he supposes that the Lord is doing it with no special motive, and thinking only of the refreshment of their bodies; for that is the sole object of washing the feet, and not a little does it relieve their condition after walking. On this account he insists even very earnestly, saying: Lord, dost Thou wash my feet? For surely, he says, surely this ought to be done by us who are by nature in the condition of "servants," not by Thee, the "Lord" of all. Christ however defers for a |177 while the explanation of the event; yet, to make him account its cause more weighty, He tells Peter that he should understand what the action meant hereafter, meaning of course at the time when He should give a fuller explanation of it.
And this point again, taken in connection with the others, will profit us not a little. For notice how, when the occasion calls for action, He defers His discourse; and again, when the occasion calls for discourse, He postpones action: for He was ever wont to assign all things to their fit and proper seasons. When therefore Peter made a sign of dissent, and plainly asserted that Christ should never wash his feet, the Saviour at once lays clearly before him the loss he would suffer in consequence, saying as follows:
Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with Me.
Inasmuch therefore as He had come to what manifestly and obviously is the central point of the incident before us, He says: "If thou shouldst refuse to receive this strange and novel lesson of humility, thou wouldst find no part or lot with Me." And since oftentimes our Lord Jesus the Christ, taking small matters as the suggestive occasions of His discourses, makes His exposition of general application; and, drawing out to a wide range the lessons arising out of a single event or the words spoken solely with regard to some individual circumstance, introduces into the discussion of the matters in hand a rich abundance of profitable illustrations: we shall suppose that in this also He meant to say that unless through His grace a man washes away from himself the defilement of sin and error, he will have no share in the life that proceeds from Him, and will remain without a taste of the kingdom of heaven. For the uncleansed may not enter the mansions above, but only they who have their conscience cleansed by love to Christ, and have been sanctified in the Spirit by Holy Baptism. |178
9 Simon Peter saith unto Him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.
He who lately exhibited to us so strongly his opposition to what Christ was doing, and who expressly refused to allow the washing of his feet, now offers not them only, but also hands and head as well. For if, says he, my refusal to assent to Thy wish and Thy deliberate purpose, in the matter of washing my feet, is to be followed by my falling away from my fellowship with Thee, and by my being excluded from the blessings for which I hope; then I will offer Thee my other members also, rather than incur so very frightful a loss. Certainly therefore pious devotion was the motive of the former refusal: it was the behaviour of one who feared to submit to the action because there seemed to be something about it which he could not bring himself to tolerate, and not at all the conduct of one who set himself in opposition to his master's injunctions. For bearing in mind, as I said, both the dignity of the Saviour and the utter unworthiness of his own nature, he at first refused; but on learning the jeopardy in which he had thus put himself, immediately he hastens to change his will so as to conform to the good pleasure of his Master.
But look again closely, and accept what was done as a pattern for our profit. For in spite of having said: Thou shalt never wash my feet, he in a moment changes from his purpose thus expressed, not allowing it to be the uppermost thought in his mind that he ought to appear truthful in the eyes of men by adhering to his own words, but rather [influenced by the warning] that he would find a greater and more grievous loss to be the necessary consequence of holding to what he had said. Therefore every one ought to guard against using rash and hasty words, and no one ought in a spirit of violent energy to hastily urge a course of action, which on account of its very recklessness may be afterwards bitterly regretted. But if anything should ever happen to be said by any one in |179 such a way that by persistence in adhering to it something of great value and importance would suffer harm, let the speaker in such a case learn from the words before us that it is very much better for him not to preserve consistency, and not to vainly carry out an intention merely because he has once given expression to it, but rather to use all his efforts to do what will really be profitable to him. For every one, I imagine, will allow that it is safer to incur an indictment for inconsistency in our words, than to suffer a loss of indispensable blessings. And let swearing be altogether absent from our conversation; for words are often spoken on the spur of the moment and without deliberate intention, and our plans are necessarily liable to occasional change and chance. For surely it may be called a worthy and in very truth an enviable possession, to have a discreet tongue, that very rarely lapses into unbefitting language. And since even the Divine Scripture itself has shown to us that the matter is one for violent and tedious struggling----for, as it is written, the tongue can no man tame,----let us keep the utterance of our words free from oaths. For then, if circumstances compel us to refrain from carrying out something we have said, the blame will be less, and our error will be liable to a less severe indictment. And readily will pardon be granted, I think, even by God Himself, for the thoughtless levity of language that is ever besetting us: for who can understand his errors? according to that which is written. Else surely man would utterly perish from the face of the earth, since most easily does language fall away into mistakes of all kinds; for it is a work of the greatest difficulty to keep our tongue under due restraint. |180
10, 11 Jesus saith to him, He that is bathed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all. For He knew him that should betray Him; therefore said He, Ye are not all clean.
He draws His illustration from a common incident of ordinary human life, and opportunely contrives the rebuke to the traitor, teaching the man both to repent of his purpose and to change himself to a better mind. For even if Christ's reproaches do not yet convict him of his meditated treachery, yet the saying must carry with it a stern significance. For in testifying to the perfect cleanness of some [but not all] of the disciples, He thereby makes the one who was not clean feel an uneasy suspicion, and points out the presence of a polluted one. For Christ graciously commends the cleanness of His other disciples, as shown by their willing joy in attending on Him continually, the hardship they underwent in following Him, their firmness in faith, and their fulness of love towards Him. On Judas, however, the reproach of his insatiable covetousness and the feebleness of his affection for our Lord Jesus the Christ are branding the ineffaceable stain, and steeping him in the pollution, of his incomparably hideous treachery. When therefore Christ says: Now ye are clean, but not all, though the language is obscure, yet it conveys a profitable rebuke to the traitor. For although He did not speak plainly, as we have just said, still in each man's heart conscience was sitting in judgment, pricking the sinner to the heart, and bringing home to the guilty one the force of the words according to their necessary meaning.
And notice how fully the conduct of Christ is expressive of a certain set purpose and of God-befitting forbearance. For if He had said plainly who it was that would betray Him, He would have made the other disciples to be at enmity with the traitor. Judas might thence perhaps have suffered some fatal mischief, and |181 have undergone a premature penalty at the hands of one who was spurred on by pious zeal to prevent the murder of his Master by previously putting to death His would-be betrayer. Therefore, by merely giving an obscure hint, and then leaving the conviction to gnaw its way to the conscience, He proved incontestably the greatness of His inherent forbearance. For although He well, knew that Judas had no kindly feeling or wise consideration for His Master, but that he was full of the poison of devilish bitterness and even then devising the means whereby he might effect the betrayal, He honoured him in the same measure as the rest, and washed even his feet also, continually exhibiting the marks of His own love, and not letting loose His anger till He had tried every kind of remonstrance. For thou mayest perceive how this special characteristic also is peculiar to the Divine Nature. For although God knows what is about to happen, He brings His punishment prematurely on no man: but rather, after bearing with the guilty for the utmost length of needful time, when He sees them in no way profiting thereby, but rather remaining in their self-chosen evil ways, then at length He punishes them; showing it to be the actual result of their perverse folly, and not really an effect of His own counsel or of His will. For instance, Ezekiel on this account says: As I live, saith the Lord, I desire not the death of him that dieth, but rather that he should turn from his evil way and live. Therefore with long-suffering and forbearance our Lord Jesus the Christ still treats the traitor just as He does His other disciples, although the devil had already put into his heart to betray Him, (for this also the Evangelist was constrained to point out at the outset of the narrative;) and washes his feet, thus making his impious conduct absolutely inexcusable, so that his apostasy might be seen to be the fruit of the wickedness which was in him. |182
12, 13, 14, 15 So when He had washed the disciples' feet, and taken His garments, and sat down again, He said unto them: Know ye what I have done to you? Ye call Me Lord, and Master: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, the Lord and the Master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye also should do as I have done to you.
He now clearly explains the object of what He has done, and says that this example of incomparable humility had been set forth for the sake of the benefit therefrom derived for us: and in making His reproof of pride unanswerable, He is constrained to put forward the conspicuous example of His Own Person. For in such an act anyone may behold the incomparable greatness of His humiliation. When anything is in itself considered most ignoble, or held to be quite undignified, in what manner could it possibly suffer degradation or pass to a stage of lower esteem? For anyone may see that in such a thing, if in nothing else, there is an original and natural baseness. But when we have been observing an object pre-eminent for its high position, our wonder is excited if we see it suddenly humiliated: for it has descended to a sphere not its own. Therefore it was that our Lord Jesus the Christ felt constrained, in giving the lesson of humility to His disciples, or rather through them to all that dwell on the earth, not merely to say: "As I washed your feet, so also ought ye to do," but rather to bring into conspicuous prominence His peculiar claim to their obedience; and, while setting forth to their minds the glory that was His by natural right, by His action to put to shame the vain-glorious. For He says: Ye yourselves style Me Lord, and Master; and ye say well, for so I am. And observe how in the midst of His discourse He showed His watchful care for the edification of those who believe, and was not unaware of the evil-speaking of the unholy heretics. For after saying to His own disciples: Ye style Me Lord, and Master; then, lest any should suppose that |183 He is not by nature Lord or Master, but that He holds the title simply as a mark of honour from those who shall be devoted to Him, He has emphatically added, to dispel such suggestions, the words: And ye say well, for so I am. For Christ does not hold the title Lord as an empty name of honour, like we do ourselves when, although we remain by nature mere servants, we are decorated by favour of others with titles that surpass our nature and merit: but He is in His nature "Lord," possessing authority over the universe as God; concerning Whom it is said somewhere by the voice of the Psalmist: For all things serve Thee. And He is by nature "Master" [or "Teacher"] also, for all wisdom cometh from the Lord, and by Him cometh all understanding. For inasmuch as He is wisdom He makes all intelligent beings wise, and in every rational creature both in heaven and in earth He implants the intelligence that is fitting for it. For just as, being Himself in His nature Life, He vivifies all things capable of receiving life; so also, since He is Himself the wisdom of the Father, He bestows on all the gifts of wisdom, namely, knowledge and perception of all good things. By nature therefore the Son is Lord and Master of all things. "Since therefore," [He seems to say,] "I, Who am such as this and so mighty in glory, have shown you that I shrink not from condescending to this ill-befitting humiliation, even to have washed your feet, how will ye any longer refuse to do the like for one another?" And hereby He teaches them not to be ever scornfully declaiming against the honour bestowed on others, but each one to think his fellow-servant to excel himself and in every possible respect to be superior. And very excellent this teaching is: for I do not think anyone can shew us anything to match a temper that is ever averse to arrogance; and nothing so severs brethren and friends as the unbridled passion for miserable and petty dignities. For somehow we are always grasping after what is greater, and the empty honours of life are ever persuading our easily-yielding |184 minds to vault up towards a more brilliant station. In order therefore that we may save ourselves from this disease, and obtain final relief from so loathsome a passion,----for the passion for vain-glory is a mere fraud, and nothing less,----let us engrave on our inmost hearts the memory of Christ the King of all men washing His disciples' feet, to teach us also to wash one another's feet. For by this means every tendency to arrogance will be kept in restraint, and every form of worldly vain-glory will depart from among us. For if He Who is by nature Lord acts the part of a servant, how shall one that is a servant refuse to undergo any of those things that are altogether proper for his condition, without suffering in consequence the worst possible penalty?
16, 17 Verily, verily, I say unto you, A servant is not greater than his lord; neither one that is sent greater than he that sent him. If ye know these things, blessed are ye if ye do them.
Christ proceeds to strengthen the effect of His action by [deriving the same lesson from] laws that may be termed necessary, and shows that the transgression of His beneficial commandment would be in the highest degree dangerous. For when a law is confirmed by an oath, the transgressor of it cannot escape a just accusation. He says therefore that it is an offence admitting of no palliation, for servants to refuse to be of the same mind as their own masters: because a passionate longing for greater things, and for things higher than our merits deserve, is really covetousness and nothing else. And just so He would with perfect justice bring the same charge against the Apostles, namely, of seeking to be on a higher level than He Who commissioned them. For the mind of Him Who sent them should suffice for them, as the measure of all their glory. But this is nothing else than to use exactly the following argument:----"You will justly be laughed to scorn before the Divine tribunal if through excess of pride you refuse to do for each other the same |185 things that I have done for you, although you have received as your lot the common name of servants, whereas I have been from the beginning in My nature God and Lord." For it would be truly preposterous, or rather not without indication of a share in the most extreme madness, for those who are servants, and therefore inferior to their Master and Sender, to blush with unsuitable shame at the idea of being servants to one another.
If therefore ye understand these things, He saith----that is, "if ye can clearly perceive the meaning of what I am saying,"----blessed are ye if ye do them. For it is not the knowledge of virtue, but rather the practice of it, that may well be pronounced worthy of both love and zeal. And I think that perchance it may be even better never at all to have learned, than after so learning to hamper one's mind with the bonds of indolence, and refuse to carry out in action what one knows to be the best and right course; according to the saying of the Saviour: He that knew not his lord's will, and did it not, shall be beaten with few stripes; but he that knew it, and did it not, shall be beaten with many stripes. For in the case of a man who has sinned in total ignorance, it would not be at all unseemly for him, if perchance he were being visited with correction for his carelessness, to ask for a partial forgiveness: but in the case of one who knew what he was doing, that knowledge would become grievously weighty towards his condemnation. For though nothing was wanting to enable him, yet he disdained to do what was right and seemly. Knowledge therefore must lead to action: for then, clothed with perfect confidence in our citizenship in Christ, we shall receive in due season our most plenteous reward. As an instance of this, the Saviour said that whosoever did and taught [His commandments] should be called great in the kingdom of heaven: and that very justly, for what is wanting to such a man to make his goodness perfect? And whensoever a man can show that he can take to himself full credit for good deeds, then surely he will be able to glory in |186 receiving most perfect gifts from God. And so whenever actions go hand in hand with knowledge, then assuredly there is no trifling gain; but when either is lacking, the other will be very much crippled: and it is written: Even faith apart from works is dead. Although the knowledge of God Who is One even in nature, and the confession of Him in guilelessness and truth is all included in faith, yet even this is dead, if it is not accompanied by the bright light which proceeds from works. Surely therefore it is utterly profitless merely to know what is good and yet to be undesirous to practise it at once. For this reason then He says that His own disciples, and so also all that believe on Him, will be blessed, if they have not only grasped the knowledge of the words spoken by Him, but are also fulfilling those words by their deeds.
18 I speak not of you all, for I know those whom I have chosen: but that the scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth his bread with Me lifted up his heel against Me.
The meaning of these words is involved in no slight uncertainty. For while saying that they shall be blessed, who, knowing what is good, are ever zealous to carry it out in action, He straightway adds: I speak not of all. In these words, as I with many others believe, He hints darkly at the traitor; for in no enviable plight is one who is hated of God, and never would one be reckoned among the blessed who had so degraded his soul as to make it capable of such horrible impiety. And this interpretation of the passage before us is the one currently accepted with most men: but there is besides yet another possible meaning. For as Christ was intending to say, according to the perfect and most holy word of Scripture: He that eateth My bread did magnify himself contemptuously, or lifted up his heel against Me, He in some sort explains Himself beforehand, and carefully avoids giving pain to the faithful company of the other disciples, by attaching the force of His reproach to one |187 single individual. For since they were all eating His bread, that is, sharing the same feast and helping to consume the food that He had caused to be provided, therefore He does well in not allowing the minds of the innocent to be crushed by vain fears, and He drives away the bitterness of suspicion by saying: I speak not of you all; for I know whom I have chosen. But, He says, that the Scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth My bread lifted up his heel against Me, or, did magnify himself contemptuously, according to the voice of the Psalmist. Something of this kind I imagine the passage to imply. Seeing therefore that a double meaning is delivered to us by these words, let the devout student test for himself the better and truer sense of them: but now let us comment further on the saying, in the endeavour to confirm the faith of simple folk.
For doubts may be felt regarding this passage in two ways. And first, some one will meet us with the objection: "If we believe that Christ was all-knowing, why did He choose Judas; and why did He associate him with the other disciples, if He was not unaware that he would be convicted of treachery and fall a prey to the snares of covetousness?" Furthermore, another will say: "And if, as Christ Himself says, Judas lifted up his heel against his Master on this account, namely, that the Scripture may be fulfilled, surely he himself could not be deemed guilty, as responsible for what had happened, but the blame must rest with the power that caused the Scripture to be fulfilled."
Now it is our duty speedily to give answers in detail to the objections we have mentioned, and to construct by all the arguments in our power the proper defence to be urged against each, for the edification and comfort of those who are not enabled by the resources of their own minds to understand the contents of the Divine Scripture. And first we have this to say, that if we were to be carried away by such criticisms on all the dealings of God, we should never cease to censure our |188 Maker, but should be ever railing against the God Who calls non-existent things into being, and ignorantly depreciating His boundless love to man. For tell me what there is to prevent others also from using, possibly, objections such as this: "Why didst Thou choose Saul and anoint him to be king over Israel, when Thou knewest that he would altogether disregard Thy favour?" And why do I say only this? For the plausible nature of the charge thus laid will extend back to Adam, the leader of our race. Some one of those who are thus minded will perhaps say: "Why didst Thou, the All-knowing, fashion man out of the ground? For Thou wast not ignorant that he would fall and transgress the commandment given to him." On the same principle he would go on to make further clamorous objections on even higher and more important matters: "Why hast Thou created the nature of angels, well knowing, as God, the senseless decadence into apostasy that would befal some of them? For not all of them have kept their own principality." What result therefore would such reasoning lead to? The foreknowledge of God would never have allowed Him to appear as Creator, nor would the rational creation have even passed at all into existence, so that God would have been Sovereign of the irrational and senseless creation only, without anyone to acknowledge Him as being in His nature God. Now I think that those who look into the matter cannot help very clearly perceiving, that the Creator of all things entrusted to the rational among His creatures the guidance of their own purposes; and suffered them to move, at the bidding of impulses regulated by themselves, towards whatsoever object each might individually choose, after discovering by tests the best possible course. Those therefore that have inclined rightly to the side of good, preserve safe their own fair reputation, and remain sharers of the good things that have been allotted to them, and find themselves undisturbed in their tranquillity of mind. But those that are corrupted in their |189 own evil thoughts, and are dragged down to lawlessness as it were by irresistible torrents of passions, endure the penalty that befits their crime; and, justly convicted on the charge of their utter ingratitude, will be subjected to severe and endless retribution. You will find also the nature of the angels to have been created with similar possibilities and limitations. For those that kept their own principality have their abiding-place and station in the midst of all beatitude sure and steadfast: but they who by their proneness to evil have fallen gradually away from their ancient glory, are cast down to hell in chains of darkness, as it is written, and are kept unto the judgment of the great day. In like manner was the first man, that is, Adam, created in the beginning. For he was in Paradise, and amid the highest delights, namely those that are spiritual, and in the presence of the glory of God. And he would have remained in the enjoyment of the good things that were bestowed on his nature at the beginning, if he had not been turned away to apostasy and disobedience, most rashly transgressing the commandment enjoined from above. Thus, too, God anointed Saul to be king: for he was in the beginning a not ignoble character; when however his conduct showed that a change had come over him, God removed him from his honourable rank and regal splendour.
In like manner Christ chose Judas and associated him with the holy disciples, since he was certainly gifted at first with a capacity for discipleship. But when after a while the temptations of Satan succeeded in making him captive to base greediness for gain, when he was conquered by passion and had become by this means a traitor, then he was rejected by God. This therefore was in no way the fault of Him Who called this man to be an Apostle. For it lay in the power of Judas to have saved himself from falling, namely, by making the more excellent choice, and transforming his whole heart and soul so as to become a sincere follower of Christ. |190
And to the second of the objections we are considering we make this answer. Let no one suppose, as do some ignorant persons, that the oracles delivered by the holy prophets are carried onward to final accomplishment simply in order that the Scriptures may be fulfilled. For if this is truly the case, there will be nothing to prevent those who have minutely shaped their conduct according to the letter of Scripture, from finding not invalid excuses for sin, or rather from actually making out that they have never erred at all. "For if it needs must have been," one will say, "that the Scriptures should be fulfilled by such and such things, surely those who were the instruments of the fulfilment must be free from all censure." The Divine Scripture therefore in such a case must have appeared especially as a minister of sin, urging men on as it were by force to the deeds spoken of by it, in order that what was uttered in days of old might really come to pass. But, because of this, I think the argument is very full of blasphemy. For who could ever be so utterly void of proper reason as to suppose that the Word of the Holy Ghost should become to any a patron of sin? Therefore we do not believe that the deeds of any were done simply for this reason, namely, that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. But the Holy Ghost has spoken in perfect foreknowledge as to what will happen, in order that, when the time comes for the event, we may find in the prediction which describes the event, a pledge to establish our faith, and may thenceforward hold it without hesitation. And as our discussion of this question in another book is very full, it seems now somewhat superfluous to linger any further in lengthy discourses on the matter.
19 From henceforth I tell you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am He.
I have been led on, He says, by very urgent reasons to give you, even before the time, this account of the events |191 that will very shortly happen. For it will 1 gratify those who hear Me, and bring them no slight advantage, if they know My aim in the matter. For to be recklessly wasteful in the use of words in meaningless dissertations is contrary to My custom and pleasure: but whatsoever seems likely to be fraught with no slight profit to you provided you have knowledge of it, this I feel constrained to instil in your ears. From henceforth therefore, He says, I tell you things that are even now at the doors, and I implant in you the knowledge of things not yet fulfilled; that, when the time for their occurrence has come, you may be able to harmonise the final issue of the matters with the prophecies uttered by Me, and so may believe that I am He concerning Whom the Divine Scripture has uttered such oracles. At one and the same time therefore our Lord Jesus the Christ wisely attempts to correct the traitor, putting forward His rebuke in a form concealed under slight obscurities, as well as to show that the issue of the treachery would be a sure sign and most clear indication of the fact that He is Christ. For, as we have already said by anticipation, any one who compared the utterances recorded from old time in the sacred Scriptures with the daring deeds of the traitor, would perceive I think very clearly and without difficulty that their interpretation in reference to Him was certainly and very evidently true.
20 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth Me; and he that receiveth Me receiveth Him that sent Me.
Having previously shown in a manner suitable to the occasion that He is the Christ, and having indicated the means by which the traitor was meditating his grievous outrage against Him, He now devises another very effectual method for overthrowing his evil designs. And now again His discourse seems to be marked by a certain want of distinctness: for He is still trying to conceal |192 the daring deed, and as yet does not openly say who is about to betray Him. He proves therefore, and that very effectually by a clear illustration, that it is absolutely necessary to consider the Person of God the Father as included in the object of the love and reverence shown to Himself. And yet the main object that He wishes here to demonstrate is surely not this, but rather perhaps in my opinion exactly the converse. For leaving, as seems probable, the plainer [negative] form of speech, which He used at other times,----as for example in the words: He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father,----He has here passed to the milder [positive] form of expression, intending all the while that His hearers should from this infer the converse. For surely it was a time for threatening rather than for exhortation, when the deed was already at the doors, and when the grievous outrage against Him was already in course of preparation. For Satan had already planted the evil design in the heart of the traitor. "As therefore," He says, "a man would certainly acknowledge Me in My own person and not another, if he received one who had been sent by Me; even so he that received One sent forth by God the Father would in all likelihood receive the Father Himself." But in these words of Christ any one may perceive the meaning indicated, seeing through the mildness of the language. And turning the statement into its converse, the traitor's impiety will be seen to be a transgression, not only against the Son, but also against even the Father Himself. The language used is therefore a form of threatening, though couched in somewhat mild terms; and it conveys the same idea that words of foreboding would properly suggest. For even as one among ourselves will receive one sent by God, assenting to the words he speaks, and paying honour to the God of Whom he preaches by observing the Divine oracles he proclaims; on just the same grounds I think one would receive the Lord, and through Him the Father, by believing on the Son. For the manifestation of the |193 parent is ever the natural office of the offspring. So he who has fully believed that Christ is the Son thereby fully confesses the God Who begat the Son. Terrible therefore is the sentence pronounced on the traitor, since his rebellious insult is even against God the Father, because so much is involved in his impious outrage against the Son. For if with unswerving faith he had acknowledged the Son to be God of God, he would then have accepted and reverenced Him, submitting heart and soul in sincerity to Him as to the Lord; and then would the wretched man have found his love to Christ stronger than base passions, nor methinks would he, by being found guilty of treachery, have made it true concerning himself that it would have been better for him if he had never at all been born.
21 When Jesus had thus said, He was troubled in the spirit, and testified, and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray Me.
Who is there among living men who would not feel plainly convinced that our human faculties are incapable of supplying either ideas or words which may at all express, in an irreproachable and infallible manner, the attributes peculiar to that nature which is both Divine and ineffable? Therefore we depend on the words of which our faculties are capable, as a feeble medium of expressing such things as pass our understanding. For how can we speak with clear fulness on a subject that really transcends the very limits of our comprehension? We are compelled therefore to take the feebleness of human phrases as a faint image of the true ideas, and then to endeavour to pass onward, as far at least as circumstances will allow, to realise the peculiarities of the Divine attributes. The Divine nature is exceedingly terrible in uttering reproofs, and is stirred to violent emotion by unmingled hatred of evil, against whomsoever the Divine decree may have determined that this feeling is justly due; and this in spite of |194 immeasurable long-suffering. Whenever therefore the Divine Scripture wishes to express God's emotion against impious designs of whatever kind, it derives its language as on other occasions from expressions in use among us, and in human phraseology speaks of anger and wrath; although the Divine Essence is subject to none of these passions in any way that bears comparison with our feelings, but is moved to indignation the extent of which is known only to Itself and is natural to Itself alone, for the ways of God are utterly unspeakable. But the Divine Scripture, as we have said, is wont to record things too great for us in accordance with human fashion. Therefore here also the inspired Evangelist says that Christ was troubled in the spirit, calling the evil-hating emotion of the Spirit "trouble," because, as it seems, there was no other word he could use. And it certainly seems as though the emotion of the Godhead, intolerant of the restraint of the flesh, did really bring about a slight shuddering and an apparent condition of disturbance, exhibiting the outward signs of anger; doubtless similar to what is recorded also at [the raising of] Lazarus, [where we read] that Jesus went to the tomb groaning [or, moved with indignation] in Himself. For just as in that passage Christ's stern menace against death is called "groaning," even so here also His emotion against the impious traitor is indicated by the word "trouble." And good cause He had to be troubled, in indignation at the stubborn wickedness of Judas. For what could be the ultimate end of the impiety of one who, although in common with the other disciples he was the recipient of super-excellent honours and enrolled among the elect, yet was persuaded by a little silver to relinquish all his love to Christ, and while eating His bread lifted up his heel against Him,----a man who regarded neither honour nor fame, neither the law of love nor the reverence due to Christ as God, nor any other of the just claims that were laid upon him; but who, with his eyes fixed only |195 on the loathsome pieces of money that were to be the result of his bargain with the Jews, sold his own soul irrecoverably for those few coins, and betrayed the innocent and righteous blood into the hands of polluted murderers? Most reasonable was the plea Jesus had for being troubled. And the reproof comes home to them in all its sternness, affecting indeed in its special significance one person only of the twelve, but enabling them all in a remarkable manner to realise the extreme horror of the accusation laid; and all but loudly imploring each one among the listeners to strictly guard his own soul, lest by any means it should be unwarily caught in such fatal snares, and fall a foolish prey to the cruel wiles of the devil. Instructive therefore was the force of the reproofs, the disregard of which by the traitor's heart left him to the unchecked influence of his own ambitions. Most emphatically then Christ adds the words: One of you shall betray Me. Hereby He either seeks to upbraid the ingratitude of the daring traitor, or indicates the vastness of the wickedness of the devil, which could even carry off one of the Apostles themselves.
22 The disciples therefore looked one on another, doubting of whom He spake.
Terror and dread at once thrill the hearts of the disciples, and they glance one at another, being filled with a twofold alarm at the words uttered. For each one, as was natural, on reviewing the state of his own individual soul, was weighed down with grievous fear; and furthermore, they all felt the agony, no less severe, which was produced by the suspicion that rested on them all in common. For they are well assured that the words spoken will be fully verified. They know that the saying of the Saviour could not pass away unfulfilled; and yet they reckon it as a terrible and unbearable misery that any one of those numbered among the disciples should have relapsed into such a depth of |196 impiety. This leads them each one to examine his own conscience, and to look around him in bewildered inquiry as to who it is to whose share the lot of perdition is to fall, wondering much whence or how Satan will obtain such power as to steal away the allegiance of one even of Christ's own peculiar companions.
23, 24, 25, 26 There was at the table reclining in Jesus' bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved. Simon Peter therefore beckoneth to him to ask who it might be of whom He spake. And he leaning back, as he was, on Jesus' breast, saith unto Him, Lord, who is it? Jesus therefore answereth, He it is to whom I shall give the sop when I have dipped it.
We might naturally be filled with admiration, and especially from this further instance, at the zealous ardour displayed by the holy disciples in their love to God, and at the excessive strictness of their devotion. For being unable of themselves to know the guilty person, whoever he might be, and refusing also to place confidence in the uncertainties of deceitful conjectures, they again give vent to their curiosity by questions, and make one who was preeminent among them, I mean Peter, the representative of their eagerness to learn the truth. Peter shrinks from putting the question by his own mouth, and entrusts the interrogation to him who is reclining next to Christ and who is beloved for his more conspicuous purity, I mean John, the author of the book before us; who, in speaking of himself as beloved by Christ, has concealed his own name, burying it in silence, lest he might seem to any to be making a boastful display. For the mind of the saints is untainted by any such ambition. And so, turning himself gently towards his Master, in a secret whisper he sought to learn who was to be the son of perdition. But the Saviour vouchsafes to him no further indication of the fact save what had been proclaimed of old by the voice of the prophet in the words: He that eateth my bread did magnify himself |197 contemptuously against me. For when He has dipped the sop, He gives it to Judas, thereby showing who it was that was eating His bread. And He thus both removes the fear felt by the holy disciples, and seems to remind them of another prophecy, that runs thus: But it was even thou, O my companion, my guide, and mine own familiar friend: eating at the same board, thou didst make my food sweet to me: we walked in the house of God as friends. For there was a time when even the traitor himself was a companion and a familiar friend to the Saviour, eating at the same board with Him, and sharing in everything that is reckoned to denote true discipleship; inasmuch as he had his allotted portion among the other holy disciples, who, with their whole lives devoted to the Saviour, traversing in His company the length and breadth of Judaea, were zealous attendants on Him in all His mighty works, and hastened on all occasions to do whatever might redound to His honour and glory. And yet this familiar friend and companion exchanged the grateful service owed to One Who had so honoured him for slavery to disgraceful passions.
Notice again how effectually the very wise Evangelist spurs us on to a desire to live, as far as possible, in the manner most accordant with reason, and to train up the keenness of our intellectual powers so as to be able, and that with perfect ease, to act in obedience to the Divine intentions, and to endeavour, as far as in us lies, to thoroughly fulfil the conditions of the vision of God. He tells us that he was himself the object of special honour and love on the part of Christ our Saviour, so as even to recline next Him, actually in the very bosom of the Lord, deeming this circumstance a token of His surpassing affection towards him. Nearest therefore to God, and as it were in the highest place in His honour, will most especially be those whose heart is pure: and to them also the Saviour Himself assigns conspicuous honour when He says that the pure in heart shall be |198 blessed, for they shall see God. And we shall bring forward, as evidence of the truth of this saying, even this very wise Evangelist himself. For he has seen the glory of Christ, according to his own words, for he says: I beheld His glory, the glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. For surely not with bodily eyes could any one gaze at the nature of Him Who to every creature is absolutely invisible. For, according to the Saviour's words: No man hath seen the Father, save He Which is from God, that is, the Son; He hath seen the Father. To those however who keep their mind untainted by worldly stain, and freed from vain imagination whose only concern is with this life, it seems that Christ reveals His own peculiar glory by a subtle and perhaps incomprehensible process, thereby showing forth also the glory of the Father. For it must have been with this meaning that He said: He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.
27 So when He had dipped the sop, He giveth it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. And after the sop, Satan entered into him.
Most distinct was the token to mark the traitor that the Saviour showed to His own disciples. For when He had dipped the sop He gave it to him, thereby making clearly evident who it was that did eat of His bread, and was now about to lift up his heel against Him. Nevertheless the very wise Evangelist tells us that the guide and instigator of his impiety and accursed cruelty to Christ, and the deviser of the whole scheme, had rushed into the heart of the traitor, even that Satan in all his evil power had taken up his abode within him after the giving of the sop. And let no one suppose on the contrary that the sop was to the traitor the cause of his being possessed by Satan. For we shall not have so nearly reached the verge of madness, nor shall we even prove ourselves so bereft of proper intelligence, as to suppose that such a gift could have afforded the evil |199 one any pretext for an entrance; but we will rather say this, keeping our statement about the traitor well within the limits of the truth:----Seeing that, although perfect love had been shown towards him, and nothing was in any way lacking of the things that are generally reckoned to imply a disposition to confer honour, he still clung fast to the same evil endeavours, never correcting by repentance his wicked thoughts, never turning his heart away from its ungodly designs, never weeping in bitter sorrow for the wickedness he had so much as dared to conceive; but still thirsting more and more to accomplish to the full his impious purpose, and so to be finally ruined by his own evil recklessness: Satan consequently entered into him, finding his heart ready and open like a gate to receive him, unprotected by sobriety; and seeing that his mind was not locked against him, but rather already inflamed with a willingness to do whatsoever he might wish and suggest.
And by searching thoroughly the inspired Scripture we shall find this to be an accustomed habit, as we may say, of the evil one. He at the beginning opens his attack by trying the hearts of those who worship God, first of all sowing the seed of evil questionings, and inciting us with the bait of paltry pleasures to false steps of various kinds. And he above all most violently assaults us at any point where he sees we have already suffered and been vanquished before. For he always uses somehow our own weakness as an auxiliary to his wicked devices, and employs again the passion which previously injured our soul. Thus, for example, he harasses one man perhaps with violent assaults through the senses which become the most depraved incentives to fleshly pleasures; whereas in the case of another who is overcome by base gains, to make a profit of unholy wealth seems somehow held up to honour as the best thing possible. Whenever therefore he makes war against us, he uses as an auxiliary force the passion that has before held sway in warring against us, and by its |200 agency he ever devises the scheme of our perdition. For just as a commander, skilled in generalship, when laying siege to a city, hastens with all speed and by every device to attack the weakened parts of the wall, thither ordering his battering-engines to be brought into action, well knowing that in those quarters the capture will be easy; even so methinks Satan, when intending to lay siege to a human soul, sets to work at its weakest part, thinking that he will by this means bring it into easy subjection, especially when he sees it receiving no assistance from those helps by which it is likely the passion would be defeated, such as noble emotions, provocations to manly courage, suggestions to devotion, and the mystic Eucharist. For this most of all is effective as an antidote to the murderous poison of the devil.
Therefore it happened that the traitor was not dismayed at rebukes uttered as yet quietly and secretly, nor did he even regard the invincible might of love, nor honour and glory and grace, nor the gift that he received from Christ. But hurrying on, without pausing to reflect or checking himself for a moment, his eyes fixed on that, and that alone, which had proved too strong for him once before, I mean the curse of avarice, he was now finally ensnared, and fell to utter ruin. For no longer has he Satan merely as a counsellor, but he takes him now to be master of his whole heart and absolute dominator of his thoughts, who was at first merely an adviser who whispered suggestions. For Satan entered into him, according to the language of the gospel.
We must therefore be on our guard against, and very carefully avoid, the harm that may result from the first approaches of evil; and we ought as a duty to remember him who said: If the spirit of the powerful one rise up against thee, leave not thy place, for a remedy will keep in check great sins. For necessity would compel us again to grant authority over our thoughts to the spirit |201 of the powerful one. If there is 2 not in us the power to resist altogether, still we are at any rate able to check a growing impulse at the outset, and not to allow it to take deep root by lazily yielding and giving way to it: rather we should hasten to extirpate it, as the germ of bitterness, desiring that our minds should be free from its vexations. Else we must surely know that Satan will prevail little by little through continual flattery, and we shall probably experience something like what the Psalmist did, who says: Before I was humbled, I went wrong. For before we suffer the full effect of the sin, we go astray in yielding assent to evil thoughts, cherishing them with approval, and so by this means giving Satan a place of access. And the case of the traitor will be to us a type and example of the whole matter.
28 Jesus saith unto him, That thou doest, do quickly. Now no man at the table knew for what intent He spake this unto him.
It may seem perhaps to some that this present verse is somewhat out of harmony, and not in a very close connexion with what has been just previously said. "For what can be the reason," some one may ask, and not inappropriately, "that, while reproving the would-be traitor, and in a secret and somewhat obscure fashion seeking to divert him from his murderous design against Himself, the Lord now seems to be spurring him on to carry it into action, and urges him to proceed without delay to such an accursed and impious deed? And verily," he would say, "what need was there to urge on, more than he himself was inclined, one who was possessed by a disease that sprang out of his own heart, to commit a crime that had been started by his own device; instead of rather curbing his passion by admonitions to amendment, and hindering him from carrying out his intended plans?" |202 One might readily say that the objection here alleged was wanting in proper cogency: still, by fastening our attention more keenly on the sense involved in the passage, we shall find that nothing is spoken unfittingly, but that on the contrary there is latent in the words a very pertinent signification, which I will endeavour briefly to set forth as far as I am able.
It was therefore not without careful foresight that the wise Evangelist told us in the preceding verses that Satan himself had forced his way and entered into the heart of the traitor, to the end that our Lord Jesus the Christ may now appear to be really and truly addressing Satan himself rather than the disciple who by heedless infatuation had fallen into his power, when He said: That thou doest, do quickly. It is as though He were saying plainly: "That work of thine, O Satan, whereof thou alone knowest, and which is ever dear to thee, see that thou do quickly. Thou killedst the prophets: thou wast ever leading on the Jews to impiety: in former days thou didst procure the death by stoning of those who were sent as ambassadors bearing the word of salvation to Israel: thou sparedst not one of those who were sent forth from God: towards them thou didst show forth thy incredible brutality and the excesses of thy madness. And now I am come following in their steps. To those who are still wandering in error I bring the power to avoid wandering so again for ever: to those that are in darkness I ensure a life within the light of God: and to those who have fallen into thy net, and become a prey to thy cruelty, I bring the power of escape from all thy snares. I am come to break up the sovereignty of the sin that thou hast caused to reign, and to make manifest to every man Who is in His nature the true God. But full well I know thy implacable temper. Whatsoever harm therefore thou art wont to attempt against all who wish to accomplish such works as I have come to do, that do thou even now practise against Me. For thou wilt cause Me no more grief by being swift to attack and |203 very urgent in thy assault, however great will be the pang piercing through Me at first."
Verily I for my part imagine that these words of the Saviour imply by somewhat obscure intimations the substance of what I have just said: but pray let us now proceed further to investigate the reason for His urging that the daring deed should be hastened. Terrible indeed beyond all description is the rash cruelty of the godless sinners who had deliberately planned in their ungovernable madness the outrageous crime. Before Him there lay, as He knew, insults and blasphemies intolerable, stripes and spitting, and the final misery of the death on the tree; nails and cross, vinegar and gall, and the spear-wounds. Why then, one may ask, does He hasten it on, and desire that the devil's designs concerning His passion should be brought to a speedy accomplishment? For the Jews were indeed instruments and accomplices in the crime, but it is to the devil that we will attribute the original authorship of the wicked deeds, as well as the supreme direction of the whole matter on to its most accursed conclusion. Still, however terrible may have been the daring insults offered to Christ by the unholy Jews, and however intolerable the overweening impiety of those who crucified Him, He knew most fully the ultimate purpose of all He had to suffer, and foresaw everything that would follow therefrom. For by the effect of His precious cross the sovereignty of the devil was doomed to fall to eternal ruin; death was to be deprived of its sting, and the sway of corruption to be destroyed; the human race was to be freed from that ancient curse, and to be enabled through the gracious love of our Saviour Christ to hope for the annulling of the sentence: Earth thou art, and to earth shalt thou return; all iniquity, in the words of the prophet, was to stop her mouth, and those in all the world that know not Him Who alone is in His nature God were to be utterly brought to nought, and no longer to condemn those that had been in her power but were justified by faith in Christ; and for the |204 time to come the gate of paradise was to be expected to be opened. The world below was to be united with the world above, and the heavens to be opened, according to the saying of Christ; and the bands of the holy angels were to ascend and descend upon the Son of Man. Tell me therefore, seeing that such wondrous blessings were now in store for men, and that so brilliant an expectation was raised into existence for us by the agency of the salutary cross, was it not a matter of course that He Who thirsted for our salvation, and for this cause was made like unto us except in sin, should be eager to see actually present the time for which He longed thus earnestly? And was it not natural for One Who knew no evil to despise the handiwork of devilish ingenuity, and to hasten rather to pass onward to the ardently-desired period of such a joyous consummation?
To Satan then, who knew not that he was fighting against his own existence, and was utterly unconscious of going headlong to ruin in bringing to its accomplishment Christ's death upon the Cross, the Saviour addressed the words: That thou doest, do quickly. For this is the language of one threatening rather than of one exhorting. It is as though some handsome youth in early manhood, his heart swelling with fresh vigour at the sight of an opponent running at full speed to attack him, were to equip his right arm with a keen battle-axe; and, in full knowledge that his enemy will no sooner reach him than die, were then perchance to exclaim: "That thou doest, do quickly; for thou wilt feel the force of my right arm." And surely this would not be the speech of one who is desirous to die, but rather of one who knows certainly that he will be victorious, and will prevail over him who wishes to harm him. In this spirit our Lord Jesus the Christ urges Satan to speed more quickly on his course of daring assault upon Him. For the time has come when He will exhibit the offender fallen into feebleness and universal contempt, and will present to our view the world liberated from the tyrant who in arrogance held it |205 of old, and prevailed against it by cunning deceit so far as even to turn it away from faith in God. The disciples however understand not the force of the saying, and this (it seems) in accordance with the Divine dispensation, as Christ did not unfold its meaning to them: since in other places indeed we find Him teaching them that He would be delivered into the hands of sinners, and that He would be crucified, and put to death, and would rise again on the third day; but ever charging them by no means to tell this to any man. For His aim was to prevent the prince of this world from knowing who in very nature He was, to the end that He might actually be crucified, and by His crucifixion might destroy death, and effectually accomplish salvation for them that believe on Him. Therefore in accordance with His Divine purpose He conceals the deepest meaning of His words: for as God He ever knows what is best for man.
29 But some thought, because Judas had the bag, that Jesus said unto him, Buy what things we have need of for the feast; or, that he should give something to the poor.
The disciples failing to understand the force of Christ's words, readily resort to their ideas of what was usual, and suppose that Christ is once more indicating such commands as it was His wont to give. For as the feast was near at hand, they expected He was ordering the one who had the bag to buy something of what was necessary for it, or at least was very probably bidding him discharge that duty of which Christ was ever careful, namely, to give to the needy what He could, according to the resources at His disposal. For the Lord is gracious and merciful, as it is written. And for us also, the example of this occurrence will be found to be most excellent. For I think that those who wish to celebrate a feast in purity of heart and in a manner well-pleasing to God must not regard their own enjoyment alone, nor must they even take thought as to how |206 they themselves alone may keep the feast in all its fullest gladness; but rather they must interweave with their thoughtfulness about themselves the spirit of mercy towards others who are in need. For then, and then only, fulfilling the Divine law of mutual love, shall we in perfection celebrate a truly spiritual feast to the honour of the Saviour Christ. Therefore also the law ordained of old for the Jews concerning the ingathering of the manna, charges those who are able to gather it not to do so for themselves alone: for it says: Gather ye every man for your companions that are in the tents. For if any one of their tent-mates was troubled with sickness, those who were free from that affliction, lending him as it were their own vigour, gathered in with their own measure what was enough for the weak as well; so that, in the words of Scripture: He that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack. For so it happened, by a sort of mingling of their stores, that the principle of equality was preserved for all. He therefore does dishonour to the example suitable for holy feasts, who does not combine care for the needy with anxiety on his own account. For the union of these would in very truth make a festival perfect.
30 And he having received the sop, straightway went out: and it was night.
In haste he hurries away in obedience to the will of Satan, and like one stung and goaded on to madness he rushes from the house. He sees nothing that can overcome his love of gain, and, marvellous though it is, we shall find him in no way benefited by the gift from Christ, of course because of his irrepressible inclination for getting money. For, completely overpowered by his passion, and possessed heart and soul by the father of all iniquity, the wretched man henceforward cannot even discern whither he is rushing on. So with his soul sunk in a night of its own, and darkened by a gloom-bringing |207 swarm of unholy thoughts, he falls headlong into the abyss of Hades as into a trap; and, according to the saying in Proverbs, he flees away as a stag smitten to the liver with a dart, or like a dog into chains, and knoweth not that he runneth with peril of his life. And it seems to me that the inspired Evangelist did not without a purpose say that, having received the sop, he straightway went out. For Satan is terribly wont to urge on those whom he has once captured, and who have once for all fallen into his power, to straightway accomplish their evil works; and, throwing aside all delay, to compel them even against their will to carry out his pleasure. He fears, perhaps, with his usual bitterness of spirit and continual maliciousness, lest perchance in the interval of postponement some change of mind should overtake the man, inducing him to repent and to form a good resolution, and causing him to lay aside his pleasure in sin as a drunkard might leave off drunkenness; and so drag out of his net a victim whom he had deemed already caught in its toils. For this reason I suppose the offender harasses ever those who have fallen into his power, urging them to make great haste and speed in doing whatever is pleasing to him. For instance, he compels Judas, straightway after receiving the sop, as holding him now in his power, at once to proceed to that unholy deed; being very probably afraid as well of his repentance as of the effective power of Christ's gift, lest this, shining as a light in the heart of the man, should persuade him rather to make a deliberate choice of well-doing, or at any rate should give birth to the genuine honest temper of one who had been at length persuaded against his better feelings even to attempt the betrayal.
For that this is ever the wont of the demon in working against us we shall also see to be the case from what happened by way of type. The Jews were in subjection to Pharaoh while still in Egypt, and being by his orders sore vexed with laborious tasks in working with clay |208 and making bricks, were allowed no time for the services they owed to God. For instance, Pharaoh says to the overseers of their tasks: Let the tasks of these men be made heavier, and let them not regard vain words; meaning by "vain words" their eagerness to escape to a state of freedom, their ardent passionate longing for this object, their lamentations over their slavery, and prayer for the greatest blessings. For he was not ignorant that in the leisure time which would be spent on these they would find great comfort. Passing then from the types to the perfect knowledge of the truer meanings, we shall find Satan ever hurrying onward to perform their wickedness those who have once fallen within his snares, and urging on those over whom he has already won a complete victory to be the ministers of such evil deeds as please him.
31, 32 When therefore he was gone out, Jesus saith, Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him; and God shall glorify Him in Himself, and straightway shall He glorify Him.
The traitor departs to minister to the stratagems of the devil. And now Christ begins His discourse; teaching us thereby, as in a figure, that the things which are fitted only for true disciples are not to be uttered in the hearing of all men. For it is not meet to give that which is holy unto the dogs, as Christ Himself says, nor even to allow pearls to be insulted by the feet of swine. The very same lesson that He had thus given them before in the form of a parable He now endeavours to teach them at a time requiring its practice, and calling for a more distinct explanation of it. So then, after the departure of the traitor and his hasty withdrawal from the house, Christ now, as at the fitting moment, unfolds the mysteries to His true disciples, saying: Now is the Son of Man glorified; and by this He is pointing to His sufferings as Saviour, as being already at the doors, and after but a brief while to come |209 upon Him. He says, however, that "the Son of Man" is glorified, meaning none other than Himself; not implying a separation in Himself, as some have thought, for the Christ is one only Son both before and after His incarnation, as well after He became man like unto us as before He had become man. But we must now inquire what manner of glorification that is to which He now specially alludes; for some perhaps may say: Was He not surely glorified before this, by the mighty wonders which He wrought? Surely, when with a single word He rebuked the angry rage of the sea and checked the violence of the fierce winds, then He was worshipped by those that were in the boat, and heard them say: Of a truth Thou art the Son of God. Again, when He had bidden Lazarus at Bethany return once more to life, the marvellous deed was noised abroad, even so much that as He went up to Jerusalem at the time of the feast all the people together with their babes came forth to meet Him, and joined in the strain of wondrous praise addressed to Him, saying: Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord. Nay, more, there was a time when He brake five loaves and two small fishes, and satisfied therewith the hunger of the multitude who had come together unto Him, amounting to five thousand men, besides babes and women. And to some the wonder then wrought seemed so magnificent that, astonished at the greatness of the achievement, they sought even to proclaim Him king; for this the Evangelist himself has testified to us. And there would be no difficulty in extending our argument at length by enumerating many other deeds wherein Christ's glory was manifested no less highly than in those we have just mentioned. How then, after all, does it happen that He Who had been glorified long before speaks of Himself as glorified at this particular time? Truly He had been glorified in other ways, and had won for Himself most distinctly a reputation for possessing Divine authority: still the perfect consummation of His |210 glory and the fulness of His fame were summed up in the facts of His suffering for the life of the world and opening by His own resurrection the gate through which all may rise. For if we examine as well as we may the real character of the mystery of His work, we shall see that He died, not merely for Himself, nor even especially for His own sake; but that it was on behalf of humanity that He suffered and carried out both the suffering in itself and the resurrection that followed. For in that He died according to the flesh, He offered up His own life as an equivalent for the life of all; and by rendering perfect satisfaction for all, He fulfilled in Himself to the uttermost the force of that ancient curse. And in that He has risen again from the dead to a life imperishable and unceasing, in Himself He raises the whole of nature. For having died once for all, thenceforward, as it is written, He dieth no more; death no more hath dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died unto sin once: but the life that He liveth, He liveth unto God. This also will for Christ's sake be true even in our own case. For we shall rise, no more subject to death, but endowed with endless life; even though there will be hereafter a great diversity of lot among those that rise----I mean as regards their glory and the recompence which each shall receive as due to his works. Christ therefore, after becoming obedient to God the Father even unto death, yea, the death of the cross, according to the saying of Paul, was once again highly exalted, receiving the name which is above every name. For He Who was believed to be a mere man was glorified very much beyond that, by being acknowledged as in very truth really God and the Son of God; not being promoted to a new dignity in possessing the Divine nature, but rather returning with His flesh to the full enjoyment of that very glory which was equally His before He took flesh. For this reason then we shall reckon that He was now glorified, although there never was a time when He was not Lord of glory. |211 For in Christ we do not find one of His God-befitting attributes appearing as a new thing, but all appear as having naturally belonged to Him as God, even before the time when He is said to have emptied Himself. But still, when the form of a servant had been assumed, forasmuch as He raised Himself to those conditions again, even after He became man, He is conceived of as being "glorified," and is said to have "received" [the exalted name]. With Christ therefore in His glorification, God the Father also is greatly glorified. And He is glorified in the Son; not as receiving from His Offspring any addition of glory, for of no such addition does the Divine and ineffable nature stand ever in need; but because it is made known of what a Son He is the Father. For even as it is a pride and a glory to the Son to have such a Being for His Father, likewise also methinks it is a pride and a glory even to the Father to have born from Himself so glorious a Son. Therefore Christ says this: And God is glorified in Him; and God shall glorify Him in Himself, and straightway shall He glorify Him: for at the same time the Father is glorified on account of the Son, and straightway glorifies the Son in return. For to Both, for the sake of Both, the ascription of glory extends.
But in order that we may bring down the application of the passage to our own level, and so make it a source of edification to our hearers, we will add this to what has been said. If in ourselves we glorify God, we may expect that we shall be glorified by Him. For, As I live, saith the Lord, them that honour Me I will honour, and they shall not be lightly esteemed. And God is glorified by us and in us, when, casting away the defilement of sin, we adorn our lives in all the beauty of good works. For thus it is that we live to His glory.
33 Little children, yet a little while I am with you.
He places the disciples in the position of little children and accounts them as new-born babes, although they had |212 advanced to so high a stage in virtue, and were possessed of wisdom such as is fully vouchsafed to few; showing us hereby, and that very plainly, that even he who is accounted very perfect in the eyes of man is an infant in the sight of God, and feeble in mental faculties. For what is the understanding of man in comparison with the wisdom that fashioned the universe? Therefore it is that a Psalmist said to God: I was as a beast before Thee. And no one whatever will say, if he has any perception at all, that the Psalmist compares himself to a beast because of his having cleaved closely unto God; for such an idea would be a bitter disparagement of the Divine nature, and would be seen to involve a great impropriety. For he that cleaves to a wise man and "is" ever "before" him, (for I suppose I must adapt the words of the Psalm so far as is necessary,) would never become "as a beast;" but rather would become ready of mind, and quick of understanding, and skilful in judgment. If therefore any one acknowledged this to be very just and true, would not a person be thought foolish in the extreme who should suppose that one who cleaves fast to the wisdom that comes from God Himself will ever become as a beast in senseless folly? Why then does the Psalmist say that even he who is counted very wise among men will in comparison with the wisdom of God appear to be as a beast, and be reckoned among those who have no sense to guide them? It is because the understanding of man can no more be compared with the wisdom of God than the smallest star can vie with the rays of the sun, or even the heaviest of stones with the highest of all mountains; but rather is as nothing at all in comparison with it. And so it appears that even the perfect man is but as a little child.
Yet a little while, however, Christ said He would be with the disciples; not meaning that He was soon to depart so as to return no more, or to be separated from them altogether and entirely, for He is with us (according to His own words) alway, even unto the end of the |213 world; but implying that He would not be with them in the flesh, as He had been yesterday and the day before, and that now there was even at the door, or rather within the door, the time of His departure thence unto the Father, and of His ascension into heaven. And I say that it is necessary for us all, at least those who are right minded and have their faith well established, to realise the fact that even though He is absent from us in the flesh, now that He has returned from earth to God the Father, yet He pervades all things in His Divine power, and is ever present with those who love Him. For surely this is why He also declared: Verily, verily, I say unto you, wherever two or three are gathered together in My Name, there am I in the midst of them. For just as, while still sojourning among men, yea, while verily on earth with flesh, He filled the heavens, and even then was still present with the holy angels, and never left the realms above; so now also, while verily in heaven with His own flesh, He fills the earth, and is ever present with those who know Him. And notice how, although expecting to be removed from earth as regards His flesh alone, since in the power of His Divinity He is ever with us, He nevertheless speaks of being with us yet a little while, including in this statement His whole and perfect Self without any division: lest any should endeavour to sever the One Christ into two Sons, but that all should think and believe that the Word begotten of God the Father is one with the Temple assumed from the holy virgin; not that they are of the same essence, but that after their ineffable union, none can speak of severing them without impiety: for the Christ is, of them both, One.
Ye shall seek Me: and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say unto you.
Not altogether without pain to His own disciples will the departure be, He says; it will be the departure of Himself. In the first place they will languish in |214 grief on account of it, and will find the weight of bitterness produced by it to be intolerable. For beyond all question they will thirst once more to be with Him, and long to live with Him for ever; just as also the inspired Paul, preferring the being with Christ to life itself here, said it was better to depart and be with Christ. Perceiving this, and well knowing the hearts of those who love Him, Christ said that His Ascension would not be without grief to His disciples. But there was also, besides this feeling, another just cause that forced the holy disciples to seek to be with Christ. They were destined within a brief while to be compassed about with grievous dangers, and to be exposed on all sides to the ungovernable frenzies of the Jews, and even to fall victims to madness on the part of strangers, while on their mission through the whole world, preaching the word of the Saviour to those that were still wandering afar; so as to become acquainted with prisons, and to have their part in all kinds of insult and outrage, and to gain no less experience of other tortures: and all this in spite of their never having experienced any such suffering while they were with Christ. "Then most especially," He says, "ye shall seek My company, when the manifold waves of trial break over you." And hereby He sought not to bring the disciples to cowardly timidity, or to shatter their courage with fear; but rather to brace them up to fresh vigour, and in a manner to teach them to be ready prepared for the patient endurance of all which they expected would come upon them. For we shall find the Psalmist's song to be anything but meaningless, nay, rather to convey very profitable instruction in the words: I was prepared and was not confounded. For the wholly unexpected arrival of misfortune is wont to throw us into confusion, taking us as it were off our guard: but when a trial has been known beforehand and long expected, the greater part of the terror it occasions has passed away before it comes, and its power over its victims is not at all |215 absolute, as the mind has already rehearsed it and often in imagination received its attack. In the same way, if some wild and savage animal, starting up from the midst of a luxuriant and dense jungle, rushes on one who does not see it coming, it tears him limb from limb before he is conscious of the attack, having seized him while he was unprepared for warfare: whereas if the beast is seen from afar and its coming expected, it meets an armed foe, and either does him less harm, or perchance has even to depart in helpless impotence. Just so in the case of temptations: that which is wholly unexpected will attack us more fiercely and more severely than one which has been anticipated for some time. With kind intent therefore does our Lord Jesus the Christ in saying "Ye shall seek Me" hint at the evils that will come on the disciples when His presence is removed, and the troubles that will arise from their enemies; preparing them by this warning for a renewal of their courage: with kind intent also He adds to these hints the statement that there will for the present be an obstacle in the way of their following Him. For as I said to the Jews, He says, even so I say now unto you: Whither I go ye cannot come. For not yet was the time come when the disciples should have accomplished their service on earth, and be admitted to the mansions above. For their entrance to those realms was reserved most strictly to its appointed season.
This point however we must notice again, that in speaking to the Jews, while giving to them this same warning, He said: Ye shall seek Me, and shall not find Me; but to His disciples He only says: Ye shall seek Me, fitly breaking off without the words "and shall not find Me." And why so? The Jews will rightly deserve to be told that they should never find Him, on account of their monstrous infidelity and the surpassing baseness of their impiety towards Him: but to those who have a true affection for Him, and have preserved their love in all sincerity, it could not be fitly said: "Ye shall |216 not find Me." For He was ever with them, and will be with them to the end.
34 A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; even as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
Well and truly writes the inspired Paul: Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are passed away; behold all things are become new. For Christ does renew us, and fashions us again to a newness of life which is unknown to and untravelled by the rest of mankind, who love to regulate their lives by the Law, and remain constant to the precepts given by Moses. For the Law makes nothing perfect, as it is written; but it is very evident that the standard of reverence towards God involved in the commands of our Saviour is the highest possible. For this is why He Himself somewhere says to us: Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. We do not wish to struggle against the manner of life of the Jews, and yet except we outstrip very decisively the righteousness contained in the Law, I doubt if we should ever enter into the kingdom of heaven. And we do not mean to assert that the Law as given by Moses was useless and unprofitable: for it has brought to us, albeit imperfectly, a knowledge of good, or at any rate has been found to be a tutor for our instruction as to the nature of the Gospel dispensation. And in bringing before us by hints and types a pattern of the true worship, it imprinted on our minds the dim outline of the teaching we learn from Christ. Hence, surely Christ Himself also said: For I say unto you, that every scribe who hath been made a disciple to the kingdom of heaven is like unto a rich man, which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old. For in very truth it is the highest form of spiritual wealth, that a man should be |217 well versed in the words spoken by Moses, and have all the good that can be derived from them treasured up in his mind, and besides should have added to this store the beauty of the evangelic teaching, and so have twofold ground for boasting, in his knowledge as well of the ancient as of the new laws. Therefore our Lord Jesus the Christ, by way of shewing that His commandment was better than the ancient one, and that His preaching of salvation was as yet foreign to those who regulated their lives by the Law, now that He is about to ascend into heaven, lays down the law of love as a foundation and corner-stone of all that is good, meaning by love not that which was in accordance with, but that which transcended, the Mosaic Law. Therefore He says: A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another. "But tell me now,' some one may say, "why He has called this commandment new, when He had said to former generations by the voice of Moses: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy mind, and thy neighbour as thyself. For see, while setting love to God in its fitting place, in the forefront of and in preeminence to all other affections, He has there introduced in the very next place our mutual love, and has joined with our love to God love to each other, implying that in no other way would love to God rightly exist, except it were accompanied by the love which is due to our neighbour. For we all are brethren one of another. For instance, the very wise John, most excellent alike in knowledge and in teaching, says: He that loveth his brother loveth God. How then cometh a new commandment by Christ, although the very same had been declared by the ancient laws?" But notice, I pray you, the justifying clause; look at the illustration used. He does more than say: A new commandment give I unto you, that ye love one another; He plainly signifies the novelty involved in His command, and the extent by which the love that He enjoins surpasses that old idea of mutual love, by straightway adding the |218 words: Even as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
We must investigate therefore the question how the Christ loved us, in order to understand clearly the full force of the words used. For then we shall indeed perceive, and that very easily, the novel character and the changed nature of the commandment now given. We know that, being in the form of God, He counted it not a prize to be on an equality with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross. And again: though He was rich, yet He became poor, as Paul elsewhere testifies to us. Dost thou see the novelty of His love towards us? For whereas the Law enjoined the necessity of loving our brethren as ourselves, our Lord Jesus the Christ on the other hand loved us far more than He loved Himself, Else He would never have descended to our humiliation from His original exaltation in the form of God and on an equality with God the Father, nor would He have undergone for our sakes the exceeding bitterness of His death in the flesh, nor have submitted to buffetings from the Jews, to shame, to derision, and all His other sufferings: speaking briefly, so as not to protract our argument to endless length by enumerating everything in detail. Nay, He would never have become poor from being rich, if He had not loved us very exceedingly more than Himself. Marvellous then indeed was the extent of His love. So also He would have us be minded, keeping ever our love to our brethren as superior to all other motives, such as reputation or riches; not hesitating to descend if need be even to death in the flesh, so that we may secure the salvation of our neighbour. And this is exactly what the blessed disciples of our Saviour have done, as also have those that followed in their train; reckoning the salvation of others superior to their own life, enduring |219 toil of all kinds, and suffering the extremest of evils, that so they might sa\e the souls of those that were perishing. For instance, Paul in one place saith: I die daily; and in another again: Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I burn not? Thus the Saviour urges us to practise ever the love that transcends the Law as the root of all true and perfect devotion to God; well knowing that so, assuredly, and not otherwise, we shall be most highly approved in the sight of God, and by tracing out the Divine beauty of the love by Him implanted in us we shall attain to the enjoyment of great and perfect blessings.
35 By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye love one another.
You will set upon yourselves, He says, an irresistible and unquestionable mark of your having been My disciples, if you hasten to follow in the track marked out by My own conduct, at least as far as your nature and the limit of human powers will permit; so as to have ever the bond of mutual love firmly drawn, and to be united one to the other in full sympathy, at least to the extent of mutual love and the incomparable glory of affectionateness: for this it is that will stamp on us most exactly the true character of our Master. "Nay, but," some one will object, meeting us perchance with this question: "How comes it that love alone is the characteristic token of discipleship to Christ, whereas in Him there appeared the perfect display of all possible virtues: not exhibited merely in kindness to others, nor again as the outcome of much labour and struggling, as would be the case in a man; but as the natural and essential attributes of His real self? For to the Divine Nature there belong as its special and peculiar attributes things which transcend all wonder."
In very truth, my good sir, we will admit that you acted most rightly in adding this last remark. For the peculiar and especial attributes of the Supreme |220 Essence are the natural fruits of Itself. But it is quite possible to perceive, by looking into the matter, that every species of virtue is necessarily comprehended in perfect love, and that everything which can rightly be looked upon as really and truly good seems to have its principle and aim comprised in love. For this reason, surely, the Law lays it down as a commandment preeminent above all, to love the Lord God with all the soul, and with all the heart, and with all the mind; and, second only to this, there is joined to it in close proximity the sister commandment, to love one's neighbour, which completes the whole Law. So again, the inspired Paul, summarizing all the commandments in this one, writes in an epistle: For this, Thou, shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not swear falsely, and if there be any other commandment, it is summed up in this word, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love, therefore, is the fulfilment of the Law. And that love has created for itself a fashion of every kind of virtue within its own proper limits, and as it were embraces within its arms all that is really good, the very wise Paul himself again shall testify, exclaiming: Love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its own, and similar expressions ---- for it would be a long task to tell the full extent of love. Most especially then do I say that it is most befitting and right for those who have given themselves up to a life of love that they should make themselves known to all men as having become Christ's disciples, by making the crown of love their chief glory, and by bearing about with them their mutual affection as a sign and seal of their discipleship. And the reason for this I will specify in a few words. Supposing that any ordinary man were practising the art of working in brass or of weaving, would he not appear very evidently to have been a pupil of a brassworker or of a weaver? And what of the man who shows some experience in |221 carpentry? Would he not tell you that the reason why he can succeed in the works of his art is that, while gaining his experience, he had a carpenter as his guide? On just the same grounds I believe that they who display in themselves fully developed the power of Divine love, will speedily make known to the world that they have been disciples of Love, or of Christ Who is filled to the uttermost with love. For He so loved the world as to lay down even His life for it, and to endure the fierceness of Jewish outrages: and He shall Himself testify to this in His words to the disciples: Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. For seeing that God is love, according to the saying of John, He, being the Son of Love, i.e. of Him Who is by nature the only and true God, has Himself also been shown forth to us as love; not resting His claim to the title on elaboration of arguments and grandiloquence of boastful words, but by deeds and positive facts proving Himself to be the Fruit of His Father's Essence. For by no means will we suppose that the Essence which is exalted far above all others is capable of receiving additional good; nor yet will we admit that the possession of any good quality is for It an acquired attribute, as with us; nor again that it is what we term a merely accidental quality, such as may pertain to an ordinary person, similar for example to the knowledge of any science which a man may possess: for man is not in himself knowledge, but is rather a recipient of knowledge; whereas we affirm that the Divine Ineffable Nature is by special right in Itself the sum of all that is good, whatsoever we may believe this to be; and is, as it were, a fountain-head containing within itself every kind of virtue, and pouring it forth in an inexhaustible stream. Most reasonably, therefore, will He, Who is the Fruit of Love, Himself also be Love; and being Himself like to the Father Whose Son He is, He will be shown forth in our lives most chiefly by |222 the token of love, ever engraving on the hearts of good men, as an evident characteristic of their close relationship to Himself, an ardent clinging to the grace of mutual affection. Besides, according to the saying of Paul, Christ is our peace: for in Him all things were united, the world below to the world above; and by His means we were reconciled to God the Father, though we had in old times deliberately wandered far away from Him in our evil courses; and we who had formerly been divided into two peoples, Gentiles and Israelites, were created in Him into one new man, for the middle wall of partition has been broken down, and the power of the enmity abolished, the Law being put to silence by the ordinances of the Gospel. If this be so, how could those who had no peace in their mutual relations be known as disciples of [Him Who is] peace? For what else would be involved in the severance of love than a stirring up of war, and an utter overthrow of peace, and an introduction of every kind of discord? For just as by an unbroken bond of love all the blessings of peace are safely secured to us, so in the same way by the interruption of our love the evil that arises from war finds a way to insidiously enter. And what follows thereupon? Insults arise, and strifes, and jealousies, and angers, and wraths, and whisperings, and back-bitings, and envyings, and every form of baseness.
Seeing therefore that every virtue is summed up and fulfilled in the form and habit of love, let no one among us think highly of himself for fastings, or prostrations on the ground, or any other ascetic practices, unless he be faithful to preserve in all fulness his love for his brethren. For else he is carried away very wide of the turning-post in the race, like the more unskilled of the charioteers; and wanders out of his course like a pilot who, with the ship's rudder in his hand, ignorantly misses the goal that lies directly in front of his course. Wherefore also, he who said in all boldness: If ye seek a proof of Christ that speaketh |223 in me, I mean of course the inspired Paul, gloried not simply in the fact of his hastening onwards, but in the fact of his moving in the right direction, onward towards the goal: for to glory boastfully in bodily labours, while falling short all the while of the more important and essential qualities, this surely is to fail in hastening onwards towards our goal. And he knew so well that love is as it were a corner-stone at the foundation of every virtue, that he most justly says, in eager contention on its behalf: And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing: if I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And so it appears that it is the special glory of love to be in us a figure and characteristic token of belonging to the Saviour Christ.
36 Simon Peter saith unto Him, Lord, whither goest Thou?
Peter again with his usual curiosity is anxious to learn more, and busies himself about the significance of Christ's words, not yet (as seems probable) comprehending the real meaning of what had been said, yet feeling with all the force of his fiery zeal that it was his duty to follow Christ. And in this matter most admirable is the behaviour of the disciples. For certainly no one would allow that it was only the chief disciple who was in ignorance while the others fully understood the matter, and that this was why he asked the question. I should rather say that they yielded to him, as chief among them, the privilege of speaking first, and of taking the initiative in courageous inquiry. For the speaking into the ears of their Master was no light and easy matter, even for those who were reputed to be somewhat. And the conduct of Peter is no less admirable, who is harassed by no fear of being thought sluggish in the comprehension of those matters of which he was ignorant, but zealously seeks for enlightenment, |224 considering that the profit he will derive from gratifying his love of knowledge will be of more value than an unseasonable sense of shame: and so in this also he is a pattern to those that live after him. For we ought never, I think, to pass over the words of our teachers, even though they may not be so very distinct, merely for the sake of seeming to be shrewd people and very quick in intelligence; but rather to investigate the meaning and search it out wisely, in the teaching at first delivered to us for our profit. For the knowledge of what is useful is far nobler than a vain semblance of wisdom, and far better is it to learn a thing in reality than merely to seem to know all about it.
Jesus answered him, Whither I go, thou canst not follow Me now, but thou shall follow afterwards.
Well knowing that the grief caused to His disciples would be heavy and intolerable if He said plainly that He was about to enter into heaven and to leave them on earth bereaved of His presence, though He would ever be with them as God, He employs a style of speech wisely adapted to their present feelings, and gently refrains from giving full information of what was in His mind. And thus, seeing them in ignorance, He suffers them so to continue. For the wise are accustomed occasionally to overshadow with weightier words things that seem likely to cause pain. For although, in returning on His way to the heavens above, He was most especially presenting Himself to God the Father as the firstfruits of humanity, and although what was being done was to secure the advantage of all mankind: for He consecrated for us a new way of which the human race knew nothing before: nevertheless, to the holy disciples, in their earnest longing ever to be with Him, it seemed unendurable that they should be separated from Christ, although He was ever with them in the power and co-operation of the Spirit. Finding therefore the blessed Peter ignorant of the force of the words used, |225 Christ leaves him, as well as the other disciples, in that condition, not at once explaining fully the exact import of what He had said, but waiting in His kindness until He should have finished the teaching that would be able to strengthen them to bear it. This indeed we shall perceive Him doing in the words that soon follow; for He says to them: It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you. He hastens however, as God, to promise the disciple who desires so to do, that he shall follow Him earnestly, and be with Him in all reality, with none to check his zeal; saying: Whither I go thou canst not follow Me now, but thou shalt follow afterwards. And the saying is pregnant with a twofold signification, one part of which is very evident and obvious, while the other is rather more indistinct and wrapped in mystery. For He means to say that Peter could not possibly follow Him now in His passage to the world above and in His return to heaven, yet that he would follow Him hereafter; namely, when the honour and glory for which the saints are ever hoping is conferred upon them by Christ, when they come to the city in the heavens to reign with Him for ever. But the words also contain another meaning, the nature of which I will explain. The disciples had not yet been clothed with the power from on high, neither had they received the strength that was to invigorate them and mould to courage their human dispositions, I mean the gift of the Holy Ghost; and so they were not able to wrestle with death and engage in a conflict with terrors so hard to face. And surely on another ground, since it was fitting for Christ alone, and reserved specially for Him to be able to shatter the power of death, it was unlikely that others should appear engaged in this work before Him. For to be freed from the fear of death could surely mean nothing else than to despise death as being powerless at all to harm us. Wherefore, in our view at least, even the blessed prophets used to dread the approach of death |226 when it had not yet been rendered powerless by the Resurrection of Christ. And it was from a right understanding of this that Paul said that the Word, Who was from God the Father and in God, laid hold of the seed of Abraham, that through the death of His holy Flesh, He might bring death to nought, and might deliver all them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For the saving Passion of Christ is the first means that ever brought release from death, and the Resurrection of Christ has become to the saints the beginning of their good courage in meeting it. As therefore our natural life had failed as yet to crush the power of death, and had not even destroyed the terror that it casts over our souls, the disciples were still somewhat feeble in the presence of dangers. Therefore the Lord graciously intimates that Peter should be crucified when the time had come, and thereby should follow the footsteps of His Master: and in the words: Whither I go, thou canst not follow Me now, but thou shalt follow afterwards, He obscurely implies that now his mind is not firmly enough prepared for so severe a trial. For if it is not the death of Peter to which Christ darkly alludes in these words, why is it that, although admittedly all the other holy apostles have before them the promise that they shall continually be with Christ and follow Him, at the time of the resurrection, when a spotless life is secured to them amid all the blessings for which they hope, nevertheless He here applies the force of His words individually to Peter alone? Nay, it is abundantly evident that in special reference to Peter He dimly shadows forth what will happen to him in after time. In illustration of this He has explained the matter more distinctly in another place, where He says: When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and others shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. Now this He spake, adds the Evangelist, signifying by what |227 manner of death he should glorify God. For even though suffering for Christ's sake is a thing delightful for the saints, yet the danger is not wished for by them: but still it must be endured when of necessity it is brought upon them. Therefore also He bids us pray that we fall not into temptation.
37 Peter saith unto Him, Lord, why cannot I follow Thee even now? I will lay down my life for Thee.
What is there, he means, that prevents or that can keep him back from following His Master, now that his deliberate aim is to die for Christ's sake, reckoning this as his proudest boast? For the utmost of all danger, and the extremest violence of the implacable enmity of persecutors, have no effect beyond the range of the flesh; for with the flesh alone has death to deal: and he that is ready and fully prepared even for this extreme, would not easily be hindered from his purpose, or give up his intense conviction as to the duty of following to the end. The zeal of Peter was most ardent, and the extent of his promise excessive; yet one might see that the power latent in him was not inconsiderable, or rather the issue of the events themselves would convince one of this. One point however must be considered. Our Saviour Christ, speaking now in one way and now in another of His ascension into heaven, says that Peter will not follow Him now, but will follow Him hereafter; as soon, namely, as his apostolate is fulfilled, and when the fit season has come to summon the bodies of the saints to the city above: whereas Peter himself protests that he is now ready even to risk his life, going as it were by a different way, and not coming by a direct course to the meaning of the words. And I think his language must imply this: failing as yet to attach to what has been spoken by Christ its exact signification, he believes that the Lord intends possibly to pass over to some of the wilder villages in Judaea, or even to visit foreign peoples, who will, after carefully listening, so violently |228 dissent from the words which He will be likely to speak, that the daring plots of the Pharisees will seem feeble compared with the base designs of the other Jews, and the madness inherent in them will be shown to be of the very mildest type. For this reason he declares that he will suffer nothing to interfere with his following Christ: he does not absolutely promise to die, but says that if the need should arise he will not shrink from death. Now there is a passage exactly similar to this in the previous part of this book, and I will proceed to tell you where it occurs.
At one time Christ was sojourning among the Galilaeans to avoid the fury of the Jews, their ungovernable temper, and their unbridled insolence in speech; and great was the wonder excited in those quarters by His marvellous deeds. But when the brother of Mary and Martha had died, I mean of course Lazarus, He as God knew of it, and forthwith said to His disciples: Our friend Lazarus is fallen asleep, but I go that I may awake him out of sleep. Hereupon the disciples affectionately reply: The Jews were but now seeking to stone Thee; and goest Thou thither again? And when Christ is on the point of starting, and urgently tells them that He must certainly return to the country of the Jews, Thomas, who is called Didymus, said unto his fellow-disciples, Let us also go, that we may die with Him. I believe that Peter's object in speaking is pregnant with some similar idea. For he thinks, perhaps, as I said just now, that Jesus is on the eve of departing to preach somewhere else among people at whose hands He will be exposed to danger. Therefore he himself also, in his uncontrollable affection for Christ, declares that his zeal now to defend his Master will be invincible and irresistible, meaning that there is nothing left in the world that is strong enough to check his devotion, now that he has convinced himself that he must follow Christ, seeing that he is ready and willing even to die in his Master's cause. |229
38 Jesus answereth, Wilt thou lay down thy life for Me? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, The cock shall not crow, till thou hast denied Me thrice.
Wonderful as the zeal of Peter in this matter may be, his promises are beyond his power to fulfil: Christ, however, with the gloom of the threatening tempest in His mind, knowing well how severe will be the temptation and how bitter the persecution, seems as it were to shake His head in sorrow; and then, unfolding to Himself the whole extent of His sufferings, as though it were present to His bodily eyes, beholding the surpassing fury of the Jews in their madness, and seeing clearly all that will come to pass in that hour, He exclaims as though to say: "Dost thou, O Peter, lay down thy life for Me, and sayest thou that thy fear in this matter is as nothing? and supposest thou that thou wilt be strong enough to overcome the trials that will encompass thee? Nay, thou knowest not the grievous weight of the coming temptation, for the suffering that lies before thee is beyond thy strength to endure: thy heart shall fail thee utterly, even though thou wouldst not have it so: thrice shalt thou deny Me, and that too in one single night." We must surmise that Jesus means to speak somewhat to this effect: yet herein again it is fitting that we should admire the kindness to mankind that appeared in Him: for having predicted that the strength of Peter's courage will not be commensurate with the tone of his zealous assertions, but will fail and flag so utterly as to yield at the mere alarm of a coming danger, He added not one single word of threatening; 3 perhaps for this reason, that Peter had not spoken under any Divine impulse: at all events, for some reason or other He does not hold out any threat of chastisement against one who suffered from human infirmities. For He knew that the nature of man was as yet enfeebled, |230 and unable to endure the threat of death. Death had not yet been deprived of its power through His resurrection, and was still boastfully vaunting against the mind of all men, still strong enough to crush, even by fear and that alone, the hardiest and bravest of heroes. For human nature, being unnaturally subjected to death, yields to death as to a conquering power, or rather used to yield at that time: but now that our Saviour has burst its bonds, the approach of death is delightful to those who love Christ, even though it come in bitterness and pain. For the everlasting life has arisen in its stead, destroying the power of corruption.
And let no one here again imagine that Peter's denial and failure were caused by the words of Christ. He is not speaking by way of imposing any obligation on the disciple, or drawing him on by constraint to the sufferings of which He speaks; but rather He means to predict to His disciple exactly what as God He knows will most surely and certainly come to pass.
But seeing that all that happened to the men of former times has been written for the admonition of those who live after them, let us now say somewhat necessary to our edification, drawing our conclusions from this passage. I do not think that we ought to make any rash vows before God, or to promise to perform what may sometimes be beyond our power, as though we could control human events. And I say this in regard to the charges to which we render ourselves liable in case of failure: especially I consider that hasty statements, such as "I will do this," or, "I will do that," as the case may be, are not far removed from arrogance. For in all cases where one may have deliberately determined to undertake any matter, wishing to carry it out successfully, one's duty is always to use those words of the very wise disciple: If the Lord will, and we live. For while I maintain that a zeal for good works must be inherent in the souls of the godly, as well as eager willingness to carry these virtuous resolves with all our might into effect, yet our duty is to |231 pray for the successful means of gaining this end through the gracious blessing that is from above, and not to make rash promises as though success lay already in our own grasp. Thus we shall be able to keep unbroken our promises to God of all that is good, and we shall have "our feet clear" of blame, according to the saying of the Greek poet.4 And on other authority: Better is it not to vow to any, than to vow and not pay.
Chap. xiv. Let not your heart be troubled.
By saying that Peter's courage will fail him so utterly that he will deny his Master thrice, and will suffer so sad a downfall in one single night, He almost seems by the overwhelming weight of His words to arouse in the disciples the extremity of terror at the dangers before them. Whence it may very well have happened that the other disciples began at once to reason with one another, saying: "What can be the nature, the extent, or the exceeding heaviness of that dread of coming troubles, and of that temptation so irresistible as to attack the chief among us and overcome him, not once only, but many times by the same assault, and that within so brief a space of time? Surely, who among us will escape a yet worse plight, or how can any other among us withstand such an attack, when Peter wavers and yields as of necessity to the grievous weight of the trials that beset him? Vainly it seems have we endured toils for the sake of our duty in following Him: our efforts are ending only in the exhaustion of our vital powers, though they seemed to hold out to us a prospect of life with God." There is surely nothing improbable in supposing that the disciples were thus reasoning in their inmost thoughts: and since it was needful to restore again their drooping spirits, He introduces as it were the necessary antidote to the reasonings and fears that His words had aroused, and bids them arm themselves with a calm and untroubled spirit, saying to them: Let not your heart be troubled. Notice, however, in how guarded a manner He promises them the forgiveness of |232 their coming feebleness of spirit. He does not say plainly: "I will forgive you even in spite of your weakness," or. "I will be present with you none the less, although you deny Me and forsake Me;" His object therein being, not to completely remove their fears of shame, or completely take away their suspicions of failure, lest He should seem to make out their error to be a light matter and teach them to regard as of no account the blame they would incur in their denial of Him. But in bidding them not be troubled, He placed them as it were on the borderland betwixt hope and fear: so that, if they fell into weakness and suffering in their human frailty, the hope of His clemency might help them to recovery; while the fear of stumbling might urge them to fall but seldom, since they had not yet been endowed with the power never to fail at all, not having as yet been clothed with the power from above, from on high, I mean the grace that comes through the Spirit. He bids them therefore not to be troubled, teaching them at once that it was fitting that those who were prepared for the conflict, and ready to enter on the struggles for the sake of the glory that is on high, should be altogether superior to feelings of cowardice: for an untroubled mind is a great help towards a courageous temper: at the same time, with somewhat obscure and not very distinct intimations, yet certainly, sowing the seed of a germinant hope of forgiveness, if ever it should really happen to them in their human weakness to fall away into cowardice. For a mind that is not yet stablished by the grace that comes from above is timid and easily upset, and very apt to be disturbed. For this reason also surely the very wise Paul prays for certain to whom he is writing, in the words: And the peace of Christ, which passeth all understanding, shall guard your hearts. For this is in reality to be untroubled in heart.
Ye believe in God, believe also in Me.
He is making an able soldier out of one who but now |233 was a coward, and while the disciples were smarting with the anxieties of fear He bids them take to themselves the terrible power of faith. For thus are we safe, and not otherwise, according surely to the song of the Psalmist: The Lord is my illumination and my saviour; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the shield of my life; of tvhom shall I be afraid? For if the all-powerful God fights for us and shields us, who could ever have power to harm us? And who will by any chance advance to such a height of power as to keep the elect in subjection to him, and to force them to submit to the evil designs of his perverse imagination? Or who could take by his spear and lead captive those that wear the panoply of God? Faith therefore is a weapon whose blade is stout and broad, that drives away all cowardice that may spring from expectation of coming suffering, and that renders the darts of evil-doers utterly void of effect and utterly profitless of success in their temptations. And this being the nature of faith, we must further notice another point: Christ bade them believe not in God alone, but also on Himself, not implying thereby that He is at all different from the One Who is in His nature God, I mean as regards identity of essence; but that to believe in God and to suppose that the province of faith must be wholly bound up in this one phrase, is rather a peculiar characteristic of the Jewish imagination, whereas the inclusion of the name of the Son within the compass of faith in God indicates the acceptance of an injunction of evangelic preaching. For those at least who are rightly minded must believe in God the Father, and not merely in the Son, but also in the fact of His Incarnation, and in the Holy Ghost. For the Persons of the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity are distinguished both by difference of names and by the peculiar qualities and special offices of each: for the Father is Father and not Son, the Son again is Son and not Father, and the Holy Ghost is the Spirit peculiar to the Godhead. And yet the Trinity is summed up into a common Unity of Essence, so that our |234 Creed gives us not three Gods, but one God. Still, I maintain that we must preserve accurately the definitions of our faith, not content with saying "We believe in God," but fully explaining our confession, and attaching to each Person the same measure of glory. For in our minds there should be no difference as to the intensity of our faith: our faith in the Father is not to be greater than our faith in the Son, or even than our faith in the Holy Ghost. But one and the same is the extent and the manner of our confession, uttered in regard to each of the three Persons with the same measure of faith; in such a way that herein again the Holy Trinity may appear in Unity of nature, so that the glory that encircles It may be seen in unchallenged perfection, and our souls may display our faith in the Father and in the Son, even in His Incarnation, and in the Holy Ghost. And I believe no man, if he were wise, would make any distinction between the Word of God and the Temple formed from the virgin, at least as regards the question of sonship; for there is One Lord, Jesus Christ, according to the saying of Paul. But let him who would sever into two sons Him Who is One and One alone, know surely that he is denying the faith. The inspired Paul, for instance, in working out very excellently and accurately the doctrine on this point, would have us confess our belief not simply in Christ as the Only-begotten, but also in Him as made like unto us, that is, made man, and as having both died and risen again from the dead. For what does he say? The word is nigh thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach: that if thou shalt say with thy mouth, Jesus is Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved: for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Now if we believe on the Son as having risen again, who was He that died so that He might rise again? But it is evident that He is reckoned to have died according to the flesh. |235 For His own body was imprisoned in the bonds of death, and restored to life again: for it was a body that shared in our natural life, though containing in itself in full perfection that peculiar indwelling power so mysteriously united to it, namely an energy capable of bestowing life. Whensoever therefore any one shall sever these two natures, and in separating the flesh from Him Who corporeally dwelt therein shall dare to speak of two sons, let him know that he is believing on the flesh alone. For the Divine Scriptures teach us to believe on Him Who was crucified and died and rose again from the dead, as being no other than the Word of God Himself; not so much in regard to identity of essence, for the body of Christ is body and not Word, though it be the body of the Word; but rather in respect of veritable sonship. And if any one were to think that herein we are not speaking with all possible accuracy, he would have to come forward and show us the Word Who is from God dead as regards His Divine nature, a thing which it is impossible or rather impious even to conceive.
2, 3 In My Father s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I come again, and will receive you with Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
Having forcibly enjoined upon them that they ought not to be troubled, and having bidden them rather believe both in God the Father and in Himself, He now tells them plainly as an encouragement to them to shake off their feebleness of mind, that they shall not be excluded from the holy courts, but shall be made to dwell in the mansions above, living their eternal life in the Church of the Firstborn, in the enjoyment of bliss unending. He says moreover that in His Father's house are many mansions, teaching them thereby that heaven is wide enough for all, and that the world He has created needs no enlargement at all to make it capable of containing those who |236 love Him. And it seems likely that in speaking of the many mansions He wishes also to indicate the different grades of honour, implying that each one who desires to live a life of virtue will receive as it were his own peculiar place, and the glory that is suitable to his own individual acts. Therefore if the mansions in God the Father's home had not been many in number, He would have said that He was going on before them, namely to prepare beforehand the habitations of the saints: but knowing that there are many such, already fully prepared and awaiting the arrival of those who love God, He says that He will depart not for this purpose, but for the sake of securing the way to the mansions above, to prepare a passage of safety for you, and to smooth the path that was impassable in old time. For heaven was then utterly inaccessible to mortal man, and no flesh as yet had ever trodden that pure and all-holy realm of the angels; but Christ was the first Who consecrated for us the means of access to Himself, and granted to flesh a way of entrance into heaven; presenting Himself as an offering to God the Father, as it were the firstfruits of them that are asleep and are lying in the tomb, and the first of mankind that ever appeared in heaven. Therefore also it was that the angels in heaven, knowing nothing of the august and stupendous mystery of the Incarnation, were astonished in wonder at His coming, and exclaim almost in perplexity at the strange and unusual event: Who is this that cometh from Edom? that is, from the earth. But the Spirit did not leave the host above uninstructed in the marvellous wisdom of God the Father, but bade them rather open the heavenly gates in honour to the King and Master of all, proclaiming: Lift up the gates, O ye princes, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in. Therefore our Lord Jesus the Christ consecrated for us a new and living way, as Paul says; not having entered into a holy place made with hands, but into heaven itself, now to appear before the face of God for us. For it is not that He may present Himself |237 before the presence of God the Father that Christ has ascended up on high: for He ever was and is and will be continually in the Father, in the sight of Him Who begat Him, for He it is in Whom the Father ever takes delight: but now He Who of old was the Word with no part or lot in human nature, has ascended in human form that He may appear in heaven in a strange and unwonted manner. And this He has done on our account and for our sakes, in order that He, though found as a man, may still in His absolute power as Son, while yet in human form, obey the command: Sit Thou on My right hand, and so may transfer the glory of adoption through Himself to all the race. For in that He has appeared in human form He is still one of us as He sits at the right hand of God the Father, even though He is far above all creation; and He is also Consubstantial with His Father, in that He has come forth from Him as truly God of God and Light of Light. He has presented Himself therefore as Man to the Father on our behalf, that so He may restore us, who had been removed from the Father's presence by the ancient transgression, again as it were to behold the Father's face. He sits there in His position as Son, that so also we through Him may be called sons and children of God. For this reason also Paul, who insists that he has Christ speaking by his voice, teaches us to regard the events that happened in the life of Christ alone as common to the whole race; saying that God raised us up with Him, and made us to sit with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ. For to Christ, as by nature Son, it belongs as a special prerogative to sit at the Father's side, and the glory of this dignity we can ascribe rightly and truly to Him, and Him alone. But the fact that Christ Who sits there is in all points like unto us, in that He has appeared as Man, while we believe Him to be God of God, seems to confer on us also the privilege of this dignity. For even if we shall not sit at the side of the Father Himself,----for how could the servant ever ascend to equal honour |238 with the master?----yet nevertheless Christ promised the holy disciples that they should sit on thrones. For He says: When the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
"I shall not then," He says, "depart to prepare mansions for you, for many there are already, and to make new habitations for creation is needless; but I go to make ready a place for you on account of the sin that has mastery over you, that so those who are on the earth may be able to be mingled with the holy angels; for else the saintly multitude of those above would never have mingled with those who had been so denied. But now, when I shall have accomplished this work, and united the world below to the world above, and given you a path of access to the city on high, I will return again at the time of the regeneration, and receive you 5 with Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also." And this is also in the mind of Paul, when he thus writes in his own letter: For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we that are alive, that are left unto the coming of the Lord, shall in no wise precede them that are fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
4 And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.
"I Myself," He seems to say, "am going on before to make ready for you the path of entrance into the heavens: but if you wish, and if it is the delight of your heart, to rest within those mansions, and if you have devoted all your endeavours to reach the city above and to dwell in the |239 company of the holy spirits, then ye know the way, which is Myself; for assuredly through Me. and none other, will you gain that blessing so marvellous. No other will ever open the heavens to you, or ever smooth for you the ground that none on earth could hitherto ever tread or ever know, except Myself alone." And the saying is true. Therefore surely it was that the prophet Jeremiah, speaking by the Spirit, bade us ever seek this way most diligently, saying: Stand ye in the ways, and ask for the everlasting paths of the Lord, and see what is the good way, and walk therein; and ye shall find sanctification to your souls. For the ways and paths of the Lord are, according to the prophet, the saving precepts of the holy prophets; but if any one devote his mind to them, he will find the Good Way, that is, Christ, through Whom cometh the perfect sanctification to our souls: for we are justified by faith, and are made partakers of the Divine nature by sharing in the gift of the Holy Spirit. Nay, more, Isaiah himself, that prophet of mighty-sounding voice, thus heralded forth to us the coming of Christ, saying: There shall be in that time an undefiled way, and it shall be called a holy way; where by the phrase "in that time" he clearly means to speak of the time of the Incarnation of the Only-begotten: for He has made Himself for us an Undefiled and Holy Way, along which whosoever shall travel will at the appointed season behold the fair brightness of the city of the saints, and the Jerusalem which is free. And again, the inspired Psalmist himself says to us, addressing himself as to God the Father: Teach me, O Lord, in Thy way: for he is desirous to be instructed in the laws that are given by Christ, as one who is not unaware that he will travel onward even to the city above, if led by the Evangelic teaching, journeying straight towards every blessing. And it would not be difficult to bring forward also many other testimonies out of the prophets, from which we might know assuredly that Jesus was called by them the holy "Way"; but I consider that there is |240 no necessity for laying excessive stress on arguments whose effective use is so self-evident. "Ye know therefore," He says, "the way by which you yourselves also may pass to the mansions above;" signifying thereby just this, and nothing else: "There are indeed resting-places in God the Father's home, many and glorious; and I am going on before you to prepare for you a means of access whereby you may in all boldness enter the regions yonder. But be well assured that no man would ever be able to reach those courts save through Me, and Me alone." If therefore any one fall away from the love of Christ, or (giving way to profane babblings and to impure and unnatural suggestions on the part of men whose hearts are set on false slanders) venture to degrade to the condition of slavery His nature so ineffable and incomprehensible, numbering among those born in the world Him Who is the Word begotten of the Father's essence in perfect freedom, or having any like base thoughts; let that man be well assured that he has lost the track of the journey to heaven above, and that he has been "deceived as to the waggon-wheels of his own farm," according to the saying of some one, and will most certainly undergo the penalties that are merited by those who cling to the world below. Therefore also the most wise Paul says of those who in madness have refused to order their lives in the manner of Christ, rushing back to the shadows of the law, that they have been alienated from Christ, and have fallen from grace in their desire to be justified by the law. For even as he who strays from the direct and beaten path will certainly be exposed to the disastrous consequences of his wandering, just so methinks and in the same degree will they who have rejected the righteousness that is in Christ, and have set at nought the teaching of the Evangelic dispensation, never see the city above, and never dwell with the saints. For Christ alone is the Way that can bring them thither. |241
5, 6 Thomas saith unto Him, We know not whither Thou goest, and how know we the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by Me.
Christ willed not as yet to tell His disciples in so many words that He was going away to the world above and returning to His Father, although in dark hints and through many impressive sayings He had been referring to the event. But one of His disciples, that one being Thomas, now questions Him directly, and by introducing at the same time a sort of argument, all but forces Him in spite of Himself to tell them plainly both whither it is that He is going, and where the path of His journey lies. For we know not, said he, whither Thou goest: so then, how could we know the way? Christ in His reply evades the excessive curiosity of His disciple, for He does not give the desired answer at all, but treasuring up the question in His all-knowing mind, and rather reserving it for a more convenient moment, He in His kindness unfolds a truth which it was essential for them to learn. He says, therefore: I am the Way, I the Truth, I the Life. Now as to the truth of the Lord's saying in these words concerning Himself, no reasonable person can ever have felt the slightest shadow of doubt; yet I conceive it is needful to examine the question attentively. For how comes it that, whereas in the inspired Scriptures He is spoken of as Light, and Wisdom, and Power, and by many other names, He selects a few only as being of very especial significance for the present occasion, calling Himself the Way, and the Truth, and the Life? For the real force of the words is deep and not easily discernible, as it seems to me; yet still we must not shrink from attempting to discover it. I shall say exactly what occurs to my own mind, commending to those who are wont to speculate more keenly the task of thinking out a higher meaning. |242
There are then three means whereby we shall reach the Divine courts that are above and enter the Church of the firstborn; namely, by practice in virtue of every kind, by faith in rightness of doctrine, and by hope of life to come. Is there any one else than our Lord Jesus the Christ, who could ever be a leader, a helper, or a means for granting us success in such matters as these? Surely not: do not think it. For He Himself has taught us things that are beyond the Law; He has pointed out to us the way that any one might safely take as leading to a virtue mighty in operation, and to a zealous and unhindered performance of those acts that are after the pattern of Christ. And so He Himself is the Truth, He is the Way; that is, the true boundary of faith, and the exact rule and standard of an unerring conception concerning God. For by a true belief in the Son, namely as begotten of the very essence of God the Father, and as bearing the title of Son in its fullest and truest meaning, and not even in any sense a made or created being, we shall then clothe ourselves in the confidence of a true faith. For he who has received the Son as a Son, has fully confessed a belief also in Him of Whose essence the Son is, and knows and will straightway accept God as the Father. Therefore He is the Truth, He is the Life; for none other will restore to us the life which is within our hopes, namely, that life which is in incorruption, and blessedness, and sanctification: for He it is that raises us up, and will bring us back again from the death we died under the ancient curse, to the state in which we were at the beginning. In Him therefore and through Him, all that is best and all that is precious has already appeared, and will appear for us. And notice again that the meaning connected with these words is very suitable to the idea involved in the previous verses. For while the disciple was still in doubt, and saying: How know we the way? He shewed him briefly that since they knew Himself to be the motive cause, the leader, and the prince of the blessings that would bring |243 them to the world above, they would have no further need of knowing the way.
But since He has added hereunto the words: No one cometh unto the Father but by Me, let us give some attention to this point in what we are about to say; first examining the question how one could go to the Father. We approach Him in two ways: either by becoming holy, as far as is possible for humanity, we thus are led to cleave to a holy God, for it is written: Ye shall be holy, for I am holy; or else we arrive, through faith and contemplation, at that knowledge of the Father which is as it were in a mirror darkly, as it is written. But no man would ever be holy and make progress in a life according to the rule of virtue, unless Christ were the guide of his footsteps in everything: and none would ever be united to God the Father save through the mediation of Christ. For He is Mediator between God and men, through Himself and in Himself uniting humanity to God. For since He is born of the essence of God the Father, in that He is the Word, the Effulgence, and the very Image, He is one with the Father, being wholly in the Father, and having the Father in Himself; while in that He has become a man like unto us, He is united to all on the earth in everything except in our sin: and so He has become a sort of border-ground, containing in Himself all that concurs to unity and friendship.
No man therefore will come to the Father, that is, will appear as a partaker of the Divine nature, save through Christ alone. For if He had not become a Mediator by taking human form, our condition could never have advanced to such a height of blessedness; but now, if any one approach the Father in a spirit of faith and reverent knowledge, he will do so, by the help of our Saviour Christ Himself. For even as I said just now, so I will say again, the course of the argument being in no wise different. By accepting the Son truly as Son a man will arrive also at the knowledge of God the Father: for one could not be looked upon as a son, except the father who |244 begat him were fully acknowledged at the same time. The knowledge of the Father is thus necessarily concurrent with belief in the Son, and knowledge of the Son with belief in the Father. And so the Lord says most truly: No man cometh unto the Father but by Me. For the Son is in nature and essence an Image of God the Father, and not (as some have thought) a Being moulded merely into His likeness by attributes specially bestowed, Himself being by nature something essentially different, and being so esteemed.
7 If ye had known Me, ye would have known My Father also.
Some may perchance say and think that the Son is here speaking of His own accord, and at His own suggestion. But it is not so. For He never uttered anything in an uncalled-for, or merely casual way; though He does occasionally repeat Himself in a most instructive manner, especially because of the utter inability of some to follow His teaching. But in the present instance His words are most profitable to us in connection with what He had said just before. For when Thomas questioned Him, asking: "Whither wilt Thou depart; or how can we know the way, if we know not whither Thou wilt go?" He thereupon answered him most effectively in the words: I am the Way, and the Life, and the Truth; and again: No man cometh unto the Father but by Me; thereby shewing that if any one willed to know the way which would lead to eternal life, he would strive with all diligence to know Christ. But since it was likely that some, who had been trained in Jewish rather than in Evangelic doctrine, might suppose that a confession of faith in and a knowledge of One Person only out of all was sufficient for a right belief, and that it was needless to learn the doctrine concerning the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity; Christ seems to absolutely exclude those who hold this opinion from a true knowledge concerning God, unless they would also accept Himself. For it is through the Son that we must draw near to |245 God the Father. For in a manner analogous to our acceptance of the Offspring, we shall arrive at our belief in the Parent also. For it is utterly impossible to doubt that a belief in the sonship of Son, as begotten of the essence of the Father, will certainly lead to a knowledge of the Father.
According then to the simpler and more obvious interpretation, He must be supposed to have spoken with this meaning: but if any one believes that He is employing subtle ideas so as to penetrate to the very root of the whole matter, he will find once more that the Son is teaching truth. The Divine Nature, indeed, is utterly incomprehensible by any human intellect; and to claim for oneself to have fully discovered Who and What in very essence the Creator of the universe is, would involve a display of absolute folly. Still, it is not impossible for us, though in a shadowy and uncertain manner, to obtain some kind of knowledge by holding up as a mirror to our mind's eye the catalogue of Divine attributes which are inherent by nature in the Son. For from a knowledge of what Christ is in Himself, and of the works He has wrought when He became Incarnate as well as before His Incarnation, one might afterwards ascend by analogous reasoning to a contemplation of the Father Who begat Him. Behold, I pray thee, the glory and the power that were His: gaze on His authority, that extended without hindrance over all. Tell me, is there anything conceivable or inconceivable that He does not appear to have achieved with perfect success at His own free will, both before and since His Incarnation? Nay, more, He Who shewed Himself to us so mighty by the evidence of His works, says expressly: I and the Father are One, and: He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father. We must therefore, in reliance on what we have just quoted, pass onward from the Likeness to the Archetype, and from the Very Image to the full realisation of Him Whom the Very Image represents. We do not say, as some of the heterodox would have us say, |246 that the Son is fashioned after the Father's likeness by means of certain attributes bestowed upon Him from without; nor even would we admit, as some in error suppose, that He is styled the Image of God the Father as possessing His glory, His power, and His wisdom, although being Himself really of a different nature: these are the foolish babblings of the heretics, sheer nonsense delicately veiled, or rather absolute impiety, designed according to their unholy and ungodly object to overthrow and destroy the doctrine of the Son's Consubstantiality with the Father. But Christ is a Son in very truth, begotten ineffably and incomprehensibly of the essence of God the Father, and as such is the Very Image and Likeness and Effulgence of Him, bearing innate within Himself the proper characteristics of His Father's essence, and possessing in all their beauty the attributes that are naturally the Father's. For we will not imitate the heretics in their extravagant madness, and degrade our own minds to such a depth of foolishness as to say that Christ in any respect differs from a Being Who is in very nature God, or to deny that He is begotten of the essence of God the Father, and so refuse to attribute to Him the glory of God; neither would we allow that any nature which was created and brought into existence out of nothing could ever, without undergoing change, be endowed with the Divine power and wisdom, or ever be such as the Divine and ineffable nature of God the Father may be imagined to be. For else, what distinction could any longer exist between the Creator and the creature; or what could intervene or sever, that is to say, between the thing made and Him Who made it, in regard to identity and essence? For if a creature possesses glory and power and wisdom exactly to the same degree as God the Father, I should be utterly unable to say, and I conceive the heretics would be in the same perplexity, wherein God's superiority can possibly consist, or how He can be greater than we or than His creature. Therefore we maintain |247 that the Son is in no wise fashioned so as to resemble the Father by the addition of attributes from without, nor is He like a representation in a picture, adorned by us with merely ideal colours which gloss over and falsely indicate the royal dignity; but He is truly the Very Image and Likeness of His Father, displaying to us the Father's nature in clearest light by the graces that are His own by nature. And this is why Christ pronounces it impossible for any to have fully known the Father without first knowing Himself, that is, the Son.
And from henceforth ye know Him, and have seen Him.
Wonderful, it seems to me, is the gracious intention and the unspeakably profound purpose that underlies this saying also. For after having just said: If ye had known Me, ye would have known My Father also, and seeming thus to reproach His disciples for their ignorance of truths so essential, He immediately passes on to comfort them with the assurance: From henceforth ye know Him and have seen Him. For since they were destined to become rulers of the Churches throughout the world, in obedience to the Saviour's commission: Go ye and make disciples of all nations, for this reason above all others, as I think, He first utters a most useful truth of universal reference to all time, that whosoever knoweth the Son will most assuredly also know God the Father of Whom the Son is begotten; and then in His kindness He goes on to testify that His disciples possess this knowledge: not speaking at all by way of compliment, for He could never utter aught but truth, but inasmuch as they really knew Him and had most fully acknowledged Him. For that they knew and had believed that the Lord was really Son of God can by no means be a matter of doubt to right-minded persons. For how came it that Nathaniel the Israelite, when he heard Christ say: Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig-tree, I saw thee, immediately put forth his full confession of faith, saying: Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God, |248 Thou art the King of Israel? Moreover, when the sea was marvellously and supernaturally calmed, how was it that those who were in the ship worshipped Him, saying: Truly Thou art the Son of God? Will any one maintain that this saying was uttered by men who did not know that He was God and begotten of God the Father? Surely such an one would give a most convincing proof of his want of intelligence. When, in the district of Caesarea Philippi, they were asked by Christ Himself: Who do men say that I the Son of Man am? did not they first of all give the opinions of others? Some, they say, think Thou art Elijah, and others Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. But Who they themselves said that He was, they shrank not from telling Him plainly, all speaking by the mouth of their chief, and that was Peter, affirming positively: Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Yet when Christ says: If ye had known Me, ye would have known My Father also, do not suppose that the saying is uttered entirely for the sake of the disciples: it is rather a general declaration laid down for all, the holy disciples being taken as representatives of all mankind.
Notice carefully then how clearly we shall find that they have not been ignorant that He is God and the Son of God; but when He spoke of Himself as "the Way" of God, then they did not understand what seemed to be spoken enigmatically: and this will comprise the full extent of any charge of ignorance that can be brought against them. For this reason surely, having briefly refuted the idea of their inability to understand what was told them indirectly, and then grounded on this a declaration affecting all men, teaching plainly that whosoever knows not the Son will also lose his knowledge of the Father; He then most justly testifies to the disciples' knowledge of Him, inasmuch as they had already made open confession of their faith: and this He does in the words: From henceforth ye know Him and have seen Him. And He uses the word "henceforth," not with |249 reference to that hour or that day on which He was uttering His teaching on these matters: but He uses the word in order to contrast with the days of the old and first dispensation the new and recently-arisen season of His own presence, whereby the knowledge of the Father as seen through the Son has been made clearer for all men throughout the world. Therefore also in the Book of Psalms, as speaking to God the Father, He says: The knowledge of Thee has been greatly magnified by Me. For having seen the Son excelling in deeds incredibly marvellous, and with God-befitting authority easily accomplishing His own good pleasure, we have been led on thereby to accept in reverent admiration the knowledge of the Father, believing it to be no other than the knowledge of the Son Who came forth from Him. From henceforth, therefore, ye know Him and have seen Him. For through the Son we have been led, as I said just now, to know Who the Father is, and not only have we known, but we have also beheld or seen. For knowledge indicates that mental contemplation at which one may very well arrive concerning the Divine and ineffable nature that is above all, and through all, and in all. But to have seen the Truth signifies the fulfilment of our knowledge by the vision of the miraculous works. For we have not simply known the bare fact that the Father is in His nature Life; nor have we had within ourselves the knowledge of the matter ideally and theoretically only: we have seen the truth carried out by the Son, in giving life to the dead, and restoring to existence those who had seen corruption. We have not simply known the fact that the God and Father of all is in His nature Life, and has the whole creation in subjection beneath His feet; and that He rules in sovereign authority over all things made by Him, so that, as it is written: All His works shake and tremble at Him, we have seen evidence of the truth in the action of the Son, when, in rebuking the sea and the winds, He said with all authority, Peace, be still. |250
Since therefore He was intending to say that "you have not only known, but have even seen the Father," He considered it essential to prefix the word "henceforth;" and why so? The reason was this: the law of Moses declared to the children of Israel, The Lord thy God is one Lord, and never offered the doctrine concerning the Son to the men of old time; it was content with driving them away from the worship of many gods and calling them to adore One, and One only: but our Lord Jesus the Christ by His Incarnation made known to us the Father through Himself by many signs and mighty works, and has shown that the nature of the Godhead which we believe to be contained in the Holy Trinity is in truth One. And so He does well to say "henceforth," on account of the imperfection of knowledge possessed by those who walk after the law, and order their lives in that system. And we must note well that in saying that He Himself and not the Father has been seen, He in no way denies the real and individual existence of the God and Father from Whom He is; nor does He even say that He Himself is the Father, inasmuch as He claims to have come to represent the Father's Person. But since He is Consubstantial with the Father, He says that His Father is seen in His Person; just as if an ordinary man's son, wishing to indicate plainly the nature of his father, were to point to himself and say to any chance inquirer in the matter: "In me thou hast seen my father." Here again, however, the Godhead will entirely transcend the power of the example to illustrate.
8 Philip saith unto Him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.
Philip is anxious to learn, but not very keen in that understanding which is adapted to Divine vision; for else he would never have supposed it possible with bodily eyes to behold in its fulness the Divine nature in spite of the plain declaration of God: No man shall see My Face and live. For even if God in days of old appeared to the saints, as the inspired Scripture tells us, |251 yet no one I think would suppose that the Divine nature was ever made manifest in its full perfection, but rather that it moulded itself into that peculiar fashion of outward appearance which was more specially suitable for each occasion. For example, the Prophets have seen Him in different manners, and their description of God varies greatly. For Isaiah beheld Him in one way, and Ezekiel again in a manner not resembling the wonder recorded in Isaiah. Philip therefore ought to have understood that it was absolutely impossible that he could see the Divine Essence in the flesh and yet in no fleshly form; especially as it was far from wise, with the Likeness and Very Exact Image of God the Father present before his eyes, to seek to penetrate onward to the presence of the Archetype, as though it were not then visible before him and manifested in the most fitting manner. For surely the contemplation of Christ is most fully sufficient as a representation of the Essence of God the Father, unfolding most beautifully and most exactly the marvellous grace of the Kingly Essence from which He was begotten. For the tree is known by its fruit, according to the saying of the Saviour Himself. Seeing therefore that to one who is really thoughtful the contemplation of the Son suffices to represent to us in perfect fulness the nature of Himself and of His Father, we may in all probability reckon the saying of the disciple as out of place; but still it will be found meet to be reckoned within the number of things that deserve the highest praise. For I think we must admire him, and that more than moderately, for saying: Shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us. For it is as though he had said: "We should acknowledge that we were in the enjoyment of every pleasure, and there would be nothing for us to seek to fill our cup of happiness, if we ourselves also were deemed worthy of the longed-for sight of God the Father." But a man who preferred to every blessing, and to everything that could be imagined to contribute to his pleasure, the sight of |252 God the Father, would surely be acknowledged to be worthy of all admiration. In this sense we shall understand the meaning in this passage, as I think, according to the obvious and simpler view taken by most men. But if it is needful to glance at a more elaborated sense, and perhaps to speak of some of the hidden meanings, we may suppose that Philip both spoke and also thought something on this wise. The leaders of the Jews, and besides them the scribes also and Pharisees, were stung to the quick by the Saviour's wondrous works, and pierced as by stones cast into their heart by His immeasurable proofs of Divine power; they were bursting with jealousy and knew that they were utterly powerless either to perform such wonders themselves or to prevent Him from working them. And so they cavilled at His miraculous acts, seeking to make light of His glory by deceitful words; and running up and down the whole territory of Judaea and Jerusalem itself, they spread reports, at one time that He wrought His signs in the power of Beelzebub; at another time, in the fury of their uncontrollable madness, that He had a devil and knew not what He said. For they kept rebuking the multitudes, saying: He hath a devil, and is mad: why hear ye Him? Moreover [there was another plan of theirs] devised in an insufferable manner to ruin His good reputation; and what this was, I feel it my duty to explain. For they tried to persuade the people, as we showed just now, not to attend to our Saviour's discourses, but to desert His teaching as contrary to the law; hastening to avoid Him as much as possible, and to adhere more firmly to the precepts given as from God by Moses. And on what grounds did they urge this? They said that the great Moses led forth the people of old to meet with God, as it is written, and presented them at the Mount Sinai, showing to them God in the mountain, and preparing them to hear His words, and assuring them most fully and clearly that God was uttering the laws: whereas Christ gave no such proofs of His authority, |253 and did nothing at all of the like. And that this comparison was currently accepted among them thou wilt learn from hence. For thou wilt behold them saying to the man born blind whom the Saviour healed by ineffable power: Thou art His disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. For we know that God hath spoken unto Moses; but as for this Man, we know not whence He is. Those therefore who were arguing with Jewish pleas considered that their argument on this head was difficult to meet and impossible for most men to refute; and, as is probable, they did thereby confound and ensnare many. Bearing this in mind, and thinking that all the gainsaying of the Jews would be stopped if Christ Himself also would show the Father to those who believe on Him, Philip addresses Him in the words: Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. For conceive him to imply this much: "All things, O Master, that are conducive to faith are effected by Thy authority, and by wonders innumerable one might rebuke the immoderate extravagance of the Jewish gibings. But nothing whatever will fail us, if Thou Thyself wilt show forth to us God the Father; for this will be sufficient for Thy disciples, so as to enable them in the future very successfully to arm themselves in defence with the very arguments of those who put forth the former objections." By applying some such view as this to the passage before us, we shall I think succeed in arriving at the argument suitable to the occasion. For Philip himself invites our attention to this view of ths case, by saying, "It sufficeth us to see God the Father," as though this and this alone were wanting to those who have believed. And the Saviour Himself also may seem to suggest the same idea, by saying in what follows: The words that I say unto you, I speak not from Myself: but the Father abiding in Me, He doeth the works. But the sense we should attribute to this saying will be explained not in the present but in the more suitable and neighbouring passage. |254
9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and dost thou not know Me, Philip? He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.
In an unexpected way He convicts the disciple of ignorance. For the less easily discernible portions of the meanings implied, in the apprehension of which our mental faculties are necessarily put to a more subtle test, will certainly, although possibly not in any short period yet still in a longer extension of time, be grasped by those who are desirous to learn, and will explain themselves most clearly; and those whose minds are not hardened and whose knowledge is unobstructed, may at once be expected to perceive such meanings and accept them with perfect ease. "What is it therefore," He seems to say," that hinders you, O Philip, from arriving at perfection of knowledge of Myself? Tell Me. For although so long a time has elapsed since I have been with you as to suffice for a perfect knowledge of all that it was needful for thee to learn, nevertheless thou art still in doubt, or rather art convicted of absolute ignorance, as to Who I am by nature, and whence I come; and yet thou findest Me to be the Creator of all that is more especially admired in thy sight. How was it that thou didst not know that he who hath seen Me hath seen the Father? Thou supposest that the Jews of old saw the Divine Nature on Mount Sinai, and heard it speaking in delivering the laws that govern men's conduct; but not yet hast thou realised that through Me and in Me thou hast seen the Father. For he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father." And to show my hearers that it is no corporeal contemplation that Christ here indicates, needs I think not many words. For no thoughtful person would ever maintain that the Divine Nature can be made an object of corporeal vision; nay, no one could endure to behold with the eyes of the body that which is now apprehended dimly as in a mirror: for we see darkly, and I believe that even the man who |255 boasts of the very highest knowledge has but a faint idea concerning God.
But this also we must say to the enemies of the truth, who are profuse in their railings against us, or rather against the very essence of the Only-begotten. For if it is untrue that the Son is of the very essence of God the Father, so as to be by generation That which He is, namely in His nature and in very truth God; and if He is made illustrious by the mere addition to Himself of features that were not originally His own, so that He shines as it were by reflected light from glories bestowed upon Him, and not by His own natural lustre, while appearing all the while as a true Likeness of the Father and an unchanging Image of God; then surely in the first place He could not be in His nature a Son, or even in any true sense an Offspring, but He must be either a created object like unto ourselves, or some other being standing in a similar relation: and this much being admitted and accepted as true, we shall then, it seems, have established this consequence also, that the Father could never be really and naturally a Father, but only so in will and in semblance, just as He is reckoned a Father of us also. And what will be the natural sequence of this? We shall still necessarily have to acknowledge a Trinity: only no longer do we express any belief whatever in the Holy Trinity, but rather in three utterly distinct Persons, each having nothing essentially in common with any other, each one of those named receding as it were into the special peculiarity of His own nature, each totally separate from the other. For the weightiness of the subject forces us to speak even more firmly still on the point. And if we allow that this is true, and confess that it follows as we have said, and admit that the Son is utterly different from the essence of God the Father, surely then Christ will be speaking falsely in the words: He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father. For since the Father is from the beginning in His nature God, how could the Son, |256 although not being (according to the view of these heretics) in His nature God, shew forth the Father in Himself? For how shall we behold the Uncreated in the created? And in one who once was not (according to their theory), how could any man possibly behold Him Who was from all eternity? For let not any of these blasphemers tell me, in his sophistical declamations against the power of truth, that because Christ is endued with the glory of God and His power and wisdom and good and omnipotence, so that He can bring into being things that never before existed, therefore He is also an Image of Him: but first let such an one prove whether Christ does not display Himself as in His nature God, and that so irrefutably that there is nothing which impairs the universal and absolute resemblance of the Image to the Archetype. And if he hesitates in perplexity and is unwilling to prove this, we will in the next place ask him to tell us what explanation will allow of one who (according to their accursed notions) is not in His nature God, being enabled to fulfil the works that belong to the Godhead: for this is what they mean by saying that He bears the Image of the Father. For if the Son, without possessing as His own a power sufficient for the purpose, borrows the power from the Father, and is by Him supplied with wisdom and might, so as to be able to perform actions which we shall allow to be beyond the power of any nature save that of the Father alone; then in so doing He will be falsely representing the Image and the Likeness. And if we refuse to admit that He (being of the nature we have just been describing) is guilty of falsehood, and accept the truth of His words, we shall then find ourselves convicted of wronging the glory of God the Father in a manner that I will now explain. We are constrained to admit one of two things: either He falsely represents the Image of God the Father, in that He possesses not in Himself the might sufficing for His acts, but is supplied therewith from another, whereas it is not so with the Archetype; |257 or else, if it is true as He says that in Him the Father is seen by us, and that there is really nothing whatever that disfigures or obscures or perverts His perfect similarity, it is absolutely necessary, willingly or unwillingly, to admit that the Father Himself holds His power as something received from another. For in this way He willed to display to us Himself in the Image of His own nature and of His glory.
"Is it possible then," one might go on to say to these heretics, "that you do not perceive whither your theory, when once it quits the safe path, will lead you on, and into what an abyss of error it will plunge those who have held such views?" "But," say they, "surely it is possible that the Son, although a created being, may yet fulfil the works whereof by His nature He is capable, and so advance the glory of God the Father?" Now what suggestion can appear more impious than this? If this be as they say, there can no longer be any superiority or any higher dignity by which God excels His creatures, if even one of them is to be invested with the glory and power of the Godhead. For let no one be so excessively deranged in mind as to suppose that he is imagining and uttering a marvellous and magnificent compliment concerning the Son in thinking or saying that "He is a creature, but not as one of the creatures." Let him be well assured that he is thus in no small degree disparaging His glory. For the question is not whether His nature is specially superior beyond all other creatures, but whether He is at all a created being. For how could He avoid the consequences of being a creature, even though He were the noblest of all creatures? And if the glory of the Son is disparaged by saying that He was brought into existence, why do they vainly advance (to heal as it were His offended dignity) the statement that He was created in the highest of all possible ranks? It follows therefore that we shall offer insult to the essence of God the Father if we bestow such power on the Son, supposing the Son (according to their |258 ignorant and unskilful reasoning) is Himself a created being. And we shall not tolerate them when they tell us that the Son performs the acts of the Godhead, though Himself in His nature a creature, so as to glorify God the Father. If they can prove as much from the Divine Scripture, let them bring forward their citations, and let them observe the sayings of the holy writers in all sincerity: but if these are inventions of their own brains, and if they have themselves manufactured their arguments in this matter, we shall salute them with the words: Woe to those who prophesy after their own heart! For we shall allow that the Father ever is desirous of whatsoever He knows will maintain in integrity His Divine glory and preserve the absolute truth of the declarations made concerning Himself. And so we shall now bid farewell to the ignorant suggestions of those heretics and pass on to the real truth concerning Christ, believing that He is in truth begotten as Son of the essence of God the Father, and that He is in His nature God of God. For thus He speaks in perfect truth, in that He is both the Very Image and the Likeness of God the Father, when He says: He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.
How sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?
"Thou mightest, Philip," He would say, "have beheld the glory of the Father in Me, and from what I am have perceived the nature of My Parent: for I have appeared in My true character as a Very and Exact Image and as a Perfect Likeness of His essence, bearing engraved on Myself the entire nature of God the Father. What additional manner of Divine vision other than this couldst thou ask for, at least if thou wouldst display thy ability to estimate things in true proportion; or tell Me what kind of contemplation thou dost require? Dost thou really suppose that a better and fuller manifestation was granted to the men of former times, when I came down on Mount Sinai in a vision of fire?" For this above |259 all else was the greatest and most usual boast of the Jews.
This we may in all probability suppose to have been the meaning of Christ's answer. We must now, I conceive, feel it our duty to state in all boldness that the manifestation of the miracles of our Saviour Christ was a better guide to the knowledge of God the Father than the vision that appeared on Mount Sinai. For thus thou wilt see that Philip, when the true Image was before his eyes, was in no way constrained to ask for that other sight of God the Father which on Mount Sinai was granted to those of former time. For there the Lord descended, as it is written, in a form of fire, while the Israelites were looking on. But no one could, I think, thereby be made to advance to a right conception concerning God, or to ascend with one bound to a fitting comprehension of the Godhead. For how by means of fire as an image could we be led to realise the existence of God the Father as the Archetype [thereby shadowed forth]? For God is naturally good, and moreover is a Creator, calling previously non-existent things into being, bringing together the universe into consistence, and quickening all things: He is also Wisdom and Power, kind, compassionate, and merciful. And none of these attributes belong to fire. For no one would suppose, at least if he were gifted with sense, that fire was kind and compassionate to men; nor would any one soberly maintain that it was a creative influence, endowed with wisdom and the power of bestowing life. If this be so, tell me how any one could possibly from a vision of fire gather any ideas concerning the true nature of the Godhead. Or how could one behold in a mirror darkly any of those attributes that are inherent in it? What then, one may say, was the ground or reason that induced God to declare Himself in the form of fire on Mount Sinai? We shall answer that as the children of Israel were, at that moment above all others in their career, beginning their education in the way of |260 godliness, and were about to draw up the law which was to be observed as a strict rule to govern their own lives; it was most especially needful that God should appear as a Chastiser and a Terrible One to them, so that transgressors might be able to realise that they had to do with a Fire. Therefore surely it was that the great Moses also in speaking to the children of Israel said: Our God is a consuming Fire. And we should not at all be inclined to say that it was in order to exhibit to us the nature of God that the very wise writer thus compared Him to fire, but that he bestowed this title on God from the fact that, owing to His excessive hatred of wickedness, God shrinks not from wasting and consuming, like an all-devouring fire, those who despise Him. Therefore it is not in consequence of what He is in His nature that God makes Himself known in a vision of fire: but it was found to conduce to the profit of those who listened, that He should be thus named, and that He should have then appeared as fire. Let us pass now to that true and most exact vision of the Father granted to us in the Son. For we shall see Him to be an Image of the One Who begat Him, if we gaze intently with the eye of our minds on the extraordinary powers that are displayed in Him. Goodness belongs naturally to God the Father, and the same we shall find in the Son. For surely He is good, Who endured so great humiliation for our sakes, coming into the world to save sinners, and laying down His life for them. Similarly the Father is powerful, and so it is with the Son. For what power could be greater than that which commanded even the elements themselves, rebuking the sea and the winds, and transforming the nature of substances at His will; bidding the leper be cleansed, and giving sight to the blind: and all with God-befitting authority? The Father is in His nature Life: the Son also is equally Life, quickening those who have been turned to corruption, overthrowing the power of death, and thereby raising the dead to life. Rightly then does he say to Philip: He that hath seen |261 Me hath seen the Father. "For whereas," He would say, "thou mightest in Me and through Me behold very clearly My Father, what other manner of Divine vision dost thou ask for, when thou hast received a far better one than that vouchsafed to the men of former time, and hast met with a most true Likeness of the Father, namely Mine own Self?"
10 Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in Me?
"I indeed, O Philip," He would say, "in depicting in Myself the nature of My Father, am the Image of His essence, moulded as that implies after His likeness, not (as might be supposed) by the bestowal of glories that once were not Mine, nor even by the reflected brilliancy of Divine endowments that once were unfamiliar but have been granted from without: but rather in My own nature are contained the qualities peculiar to My Father; and whatsoever He may be, that in very truth am I, in regard to sameness in essence. To this thou wilt surely reply: for it seems thou didst not go on to realise that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me. And yet the force of my words shall constrain thee henceforth, even in spite of thyself, to acknowledge thy assent to this. Therefore, whatsoever I say is spoken as the words of the Father; and whatsoever I do, is done by the Father also." And Christ says this, not as one making use of the words of another, nor even as speaking in the office and capacity of a prophet to interpret the commands that came from the Father above: for the prophets ever spake, not their own words, but the words which they received by inspiration from God. Again, He attributes to His Father the successful performance of His miracles, not implying that He works His wonders by a power not His own, as did for instance those Apostles who said to the people: "Give not heed to us, as though by our own power or godliness we had healed the sick man." For the saints are wont to use no power of their own in |262 working their miracles, but rather the power of God: for they appear as ministers and servants, showing forth the words and also the works of God. But since the Son is Consubstantial with the Father, differing from Him in no respect except as to distinct personality, He says that His own words are those of the Father, since the Father could in no wise make use of words differing from those of the Son. And further, thou wilt understand the same to be signified in the majesty of His works. For since the Father could never by any possibility carry into effect any work without the Son's knowledge and co-operation, Christ attributes His works to His Father. For consider Him as saying more clearly this: "I am in all respects like to Him Who begat Me, and an Image of His essence; not merely adorned with the outward appearance of a glory that is not Mine, but, owing to the identity of essence, containing within Myself My Father in all His fulness."
The words that I speak, I speak not from Myself: but the Father abiding in Me Himself doeth the works.
"If," He would say, "My Father had spoken anything to you, He would have used words no other than these which I now speak. For so great is the equality in essence between Myself and Him, that My words are His words, and whatsoever I do may be believed to be His actions: for abiding in Me, by reason of the exact equivalence in essence, He Himself doeth the works." For since the Godhead is One, in the Father, in the Son, and in the Spirit, every word that cometh from the Father comes always through the Son by the Spirit: and every work or miracle is through the Son by the Spirit, and yet is considered as coming from the Father. For the Son is not apart from the essence of the Father, nor indeed is the Holy Ghost; but the Son, being in the Father, and having the Father again in Himself, claims that the Father is the doer of the works. For the |263 nature of the Father is mighty in operation, and shines out clearly in the Son.
And one might add to this another meaning that is involved, suggested clearly by the principles that underlie the Incarnation. He says: I speak not of Myself, meaning "not in severance from or in lack of accordance with God the Father." For since He appeared to those who saw Him in human form, He refers His words back to the Divine nature, as speaking in the Person of the Father; and the same with His actions: and He almost seems to say: "Let not this human form deprive Me of that reverent estimation which is due and befitting to Me, and do not suppose that My words are those of a mere man or of one like unto yourselves, but believe them to be in very truth Divine, and such as befit the Father equally with Myself. And He it is Who works, abiding in Me: for I am in Him, and He is in Me. Think not therefore that a mighty and extraordinary privilege was granted to the men of former days, in that they saw God in a vision of fire, and heard His voice speaking unto them. For ye have in reality seen the Father through Me and in Me; since I have appeared among you, being in My nature God, and have come visibly, according to the words of the Psalmist. And be well assured that in hearing My words, ye heard the words of the Father; and ye have been spectators of His works, and of the might that is in Him. For by Me He speaks, as by His own Word; and in Me He carries out and achieves His wondrous works, as though by His own Power."
And so I suppose that no reasonable theory would ever separate Him Who is the Word of the Father and the mighty Power of His essence, from the essence of the Father. Eather would every one freely confess that the Word ever was from the beginning in His nature contained in the Father's essence, every one at least who is anything but distraught in mental perplexity. |264
CHAPTER I. That by reason of the identity of Their nature, the Son is in the Father, and the Father again is in the Son.
11 Believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me
He now admits plainly, or rather enjoins on the disciples henceforth, that it is fitting that we should be no otherwise minded than as the Word of Truth Himself may desire. For He is Consubstantial with His Father, nothing whatever intervening or in any way separating One from the Other into a diversity of nature. He is One with Him, so that the Son's nature appears in the essence of the Father, and in the essence of the Offspring appears conspicuously that of God the Father; just as one might see happen in the case of human relations. For we are in no way different in our nature from our offspring, nor are we sundered from them in an alienation of nature, although we are distinguished by a difference of outward personality; in illustration of which, let any man who has looked upon the son begotten by himself consider the history of the blessed Abraham. But in the case of men the difference is often very considerable, each one tending definitely, in a way, towards a retirement and withdrawal of himself into a peculiar line of life and manners, without feeling personally bound up in the other; although their unity of essence may be certain and evident to all. But in the case of God, Who is ever in perfect accordance with His nature, thou wilt believe it to be otherwise. The Father indeed is in individual personality Father and not Son; and again similarly He Who cometh forth from the Father is Son and not Father; and the Spirit is peculiarly Spirit. But |265 since the Holy Trinity is united and joined together into a oneness of Godhead, there is among us One God alone: and it would be impossible to attribute to each one of the Persons here indicated the habit of secession from the others, and neither will ever withdraw into absolute separation; but we believe that each Person is in very substance exactly what we have here entitled Him. We consider that the Son, being of the Father, that is, of His essence, proceeded forth from Him in a manner ineffable, and yet abides in Him. Likewise also concerning the Holy Spirit: He proceeds in very truth from God as He is by nature, and yet is in no wise severed from His essence; but rather proceeds forth from Him, still abiding ever in Him, and is supplied to the saints through Christ; for all things come through the Son by the Holy Spirit. Such is the true and upright teaching that the wisdom of the holy fathers has taught us: thus we have been trained also by the Holy Scriptures themselves to speak and to think. And the Lord would cheer us onward to accept this unreviled faith, when he says: Believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me.
Or else believe for the very works' sake.
In these words He distinctly says that He could never have worked out and achieved those miracles which were characteristic of the Divine nature alone, if He had not been Himself essentially of that nature. And see on what sure grounds and also with what truth He makes this declaration. He does not claim credence for His words alone, although He knew no deceit, so much as for His actions. And why this is so I will tell you. There would be nothing to prevent any man, however mad and however foolish, from falsely using God-befitting words and speeches, and uttering such expressions in a most reckless manner: but who could ever display a God-befitting power of action? And to whom of created beings will the Father grant that glory which is especially His own? Do we not always say that the power |266 of doing all things and the possession of an all-supreme might is the glory of God alone, attaching to no other being, at least to no one ever numbered among the creatures of God? Therefore it is that Christ, wishing to give a proof of His Divinity resting on cogent and unquestionable arguments, urged them to believe the evidence of His actual works that He was in the Father, and that the Father again was in Him: that is, that he bears in His own substance the nature of the Father, as being His very own Offspring and most truly His Fruit, and appearing in natural relation to Him as Son to Father. But while the Church of Christ, in perfect confidence in the rightness of her teaching, holds in this form her doctrine concerning the Only-begotten, on the other hand the ungodly heretics have attempted to seduce to a different belief those who follow after and attend to their pernicious teachings. For the miserable creatures are furious in their outcries against Christ, and consider one another not to provoke unto godliness, but to the end that each one may appear more godless than another, and may utter something yet more unseemly. For since they drink the wine of Sodom and gather the bitter clusters of Gomorrah, because they receive not from the Divine Spirit their knowledge concerning Him, nor yet by revelation from the Father, but from the dragon himself; they can conceive in their minds nothing that is sound and right, but they utter sayings which bring to absolute wretchedness the souls of those who hear them, hurling them down to Hades and the abyss below. They venture moreover to publish these opinions in books, thus stereotyping their own wickedness for all time. It ought to have been sufficient for us to have said just so much on the present passage as would have been likely to benefit those who may chance to read it, by way of establishing in absolute accuracy the true conception concerning the Son, without making any allusion whatever to the heretical writings. But as it is in no way improbable that some persons of feeble |267 intelligence may, on chancing to meet with their miserable sayings, be carried away by them; I considered it necessary to put an end to the harm that might result from their foolish talk, by exposing the utter weakness of the slanders they wish to raise in their vehement attack on the Son, or rather, for that is the truer way of putting the case, on the whole Divine nature.
I happened then to meet with a pamphlet of our opponents, and on investigating what they had to say on the text now before us, I found, in the course of reading it, these words used after certain others: "The Son therefore being essentially encompassed by the Father, has within Himself the Father, and it is the Father Who utters the words and accomplishes the miracles. This is the interpretation of His words: The things that I speak unto you, I speak not from Myself; but the Father abiding in Me, He doeth the works"
Such are the exact expressions of the author's quibbling jugglery. Now since it is my duty to mention this view, which is opposed to the language of Scripture, and which may very well perplex an inexperienced mind, I make this assertion. As to their phrase, that "the Son is essentially encompassed by the Father," I do not in the least understand what in the world it means, or what it signifies,----I speak the truth, as I feel it my duty to do,----so great is the obscurity of the expression. The real sense of the words seems ashamed of itself, and inclined to veil itself in overmuch dimness, not daring to explain itself openly and clearly. For even as he that doeth ill hateth the light, and cometh not to the light, lest he should be improved, according to the Saviour's word; even so every argument with an ill tendency is wont to move through dark ideas, and will not go towards the light of plain speaking, lest the meanness of its inherent unsoundness should be reproved. What then may we suppose to be the meaning of the Son's being "essentially encompassed by the Father?" For I will spare no pains to discover reasonings which may sift in |268 every possible way the real import of that which is here so dimly expressed, and which perhaps shrinks from being understood lest it may then reveal the folly of its author. If then the meaning be this, that the Son, appearing in the essence of the Father as Consubstantial with Him, displays also in His own Person the Father brilliantly shining in the nature of His Offspring, we also will assent to the truth of the statement: still, the use of the word "encompass" would perchance do more than a slight injustice in its application to the Son. But if this be not the meaning,----and surely it cannot be, for never would it be admitted that the Son is begotten of the essence of the Father by one who has vomited such blasphemy against Him, insisting that like some finite body the nature of the Son is enclosed within that of the Father,----certainly such an one will be convicted of evident blasphemy, and will be shown to be full of the most excessive madness. For while admitting in words that the Son is God, they endeavour most illogically to invest Him with properties peculiar to [created] bodies. For the being parted off by a boundary line and separated by a definitely conceived measure, the starting from a fixed origin and ceasing at a fixed limit, all this surely implies existence conditioned by place and size and fashion and form. And these are surely attributes of [created] bodies. Shall we not then in this way be thinking of Him Who is above us as though He were on a level with us as one of ourselves? Would He not then be a brother to the rest of creation, having henceforth nothing in Himself by way of superiority to it, inasmuch as this theory has come to speak of His existence as merely finite? And, being so, at least according to the foolish supposition of our opponents, why did He vainly reproach us in the words: Ye are from beneath; I am from above, and again: Ye are of this world; I am not of this world? For in saying that He Himself is "from above," He does not simply mean that He came from heaven: else, how would He excel the holy angels, since |269 we shall find that they also are "from above," if we interpret the meaning in a merely local sense? But He signifies that He is the Offspring of that essence which is from above, and which is more excellent than all else in the universe. How then after this can He be speaking the truth, if He possesses the peculiar attributes of [created] bodies in common with all creation, and is "encompassed" by the Father, even as those things that are brought into existence out of nothing? For of course we are ready to agree that no created thing can be situated outside of the Father. And the inspired Psalmist also, speaking surely by the Spirit deep truths and hidden mysteries, says that the Son is all-pervading, attesting thereby His incorporeal and illimitable nature, and that as God He is confined to no one locality. For his words are: Whither can I go from Thy Spirit, and whither can I fly from Thy Presence? If I ascend into heaven, Thou art there; if I descend into Hades, Thou art present: if I take my wings in the morning, and go unto the uttermost parts of the sea, even there also Thy hand shall guide me, and Thy right hand shall hold me. But these heretics, in utter recklessness ranging their own opinions in antagonism to the words of the Spirit, subject the Only-begotten to limitations and boundaries, although they ought to have understood the matter from the cogent and instructive reasoning of this Scripture. For if He has filled the heavens and the uttermost parts of the earth, and therefore also the regions of Hades, is it not excessively unreasonable to apply to Him the word "encompassed," without reflecting that if His Presence, that is, if the Spirit----for the Psalmist calls the Spirit the Presence of the Son----fills all things, it is inconceivable that Christ Himself should be "encompassed" within any boundary, even though it be in the substance of God the Father? Nay, it will be no less outrageous to limit within a confined space that which is incorporeal than to include in a measure that which exists in no finite form. For to say that He |270 is "essentially encompassed by God the Father" is surely nought else than to imply that His essence is finite, exactly like any individual thing of the works that were made by Him: and these we shall safely and truly allow to be capable of being "encompassed ": for they are [created] bodies, even though perchance not all such as ours.
But besides, there is this also to be thought of. If we maintain that it is necessary that whatever is enfolded by anything lies entirely within the limits of that which is said to "encompass" it, will it not certainly follow that we should think of that which is "encompassed" as something less than that which "encompasses" it, and should speak of it as limited thereby, and as it were enclosed within the compass of that which is greater than itself? What sayest thou now, my friend? Here we have Christ presenting Himself before us as a Likeness of God the Father, and plainly saying: He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father, and again straightway adding: I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me. Let us assume then that He means, as you would understand Him to say, that "although I am the Very Image and Likeness of My Father, yet I am essentially encompassed by Him." Surely it is acknowledged by all men that He would have us hold just such ideas concerning the Father as we would conceive concerning Himself also. Therefore it would follow that the Father also is subject to limitation, for He is in the Son: and let the heretic search if he will and find out who or what is greater than the Father; I should deem it impious to express or even to conceive such an idea. The Son can never be a Likeness of the Father in one way and not so in another. For if He has in Himself anything at all that would alter or interfere with His resemblance in all points, He would be, as a consequence of that, a partial and not a perfect Likeness. But where could you show us the Holy Scripture teaching such a doctrine as this? For most certainly we are not |271 going to be led astray by your words so as to reject the plain truth of the Sacred statements. And I wonder how it is they did not shrink in dismay from adding to their former arguments the following: "Just as Paul had Christ speaking in him and effecting the mighty deeds, exactly in the same way also the Son had the Father speaking in Him and working the miracles; wherefore He says: Believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me: or else believe Me for the very works' sake." After this, who will any longer allow the name of Christian to one who holds such views and thinks such thoughts concerning Christ? For behold how very evidently he maintains that Christ is no longer truly God: recklessly He invests Him with the limitations properly characteristic of creatures, proclaiming Him to be a sort of God-bearer, or one who participates in God, rather than One begotten God of God. To put it briefly, his aim is throughout the utter severance of Christ, in every way and in every respect, from the essence of God the Father; and to cut Him off altogether from that intimate relationship in nature and essence which He has with God His own Father.
Now what could be conceived to surpass such views as these in the immense amazement they are calculated to excite? How could one refrain from shedding in torrents uncontrollable tears of love over men so utterly abandoned to ungodliness, as though they were already dead and perished? One might say, and that very appropriately: Who will give to my head water, and to mine eyes a fountain of tears, and I will weep for this people day and night? For over those who have chosen to think such thoughts as these, one might fitly shed innumerable tears. But since it is by means of the doctrines of the truth that I conceive we ought to refute their slanders, for the sake of that which is profitable to simple folk, come now, and let us answer them by saying that we have been very jealous for the Lord. For assuredly, my friends, the inspired Paul or any other among the saints, while |272 they had in themselves Christ tabernacled in their hearts by the Spirit, very easily did such things as seemed good unto God, and appeared as workers of miraculous deeds. It is an established fact therefore, and one that thou wouldst thyself admit to be true, that being really human in nature, and different in essence from the Holy Spirit of Christ that dwelt within them, they were fearers of God, and were glorious by reason of the grace bestowed on them by Christ. And thou wilt altogether agree with us in saying that they were at one time destitute of this gift, and were called thereunto when it seemed good to God, Who directs all things well, that thus it should be. It was then not impossible that, by some untoward action, or deed not well done, the blessed Paul, or any other of those similarly favoured, should after being joined unto God be capable of losing again the grace given to him, and being thrust back again to return to the humiliation whence he had arisen. For that which is wholly adventitious and from without may easily be spurned away, and is capable of being taken back even as it was given. Now then, my good sir: for my question is coming back to thee: if it is true, according to thy ignorant notions and most impious imagination, that even as Christ was speaking and working wonders in Paul, so one must admit that the Father is in the Son; what manner of doubt can there be that He must be in no sense whatever in His nature God, but rather something different from the Father indwelling in Him, the Father being God in very truth? For thus it was that Christ was in Paul. So then, [according to you,] the Only-begotten is a sort of instrument or implement [in the hand of the Father], cunningly devised to set forth His glory, in no wise differing from a flute or a lyre, giving utterance to whatsoever the mouth of the player might breathe into it or the touch of his finger call forth in rhythmic melody. And He will be acceptable to the Father as an assistance in the performance of His wonders, as one might conceive of a saw or an axe in the hands of a skilful carpenter. |273 And then what can be more paradoxical than this? For if He is by nature as those heretics say, He must be altogether alien from God the Father; whereas in our opinion He is by nature God, and none other than God. But if the Son is severed from the essence of the Father, as far at least as pertains to His being in nature God, surely we are correct in inferring that the Son Who sits at the Father's right hand is placed in the same rank with the created world, and reckoned among the results of God's workmanship, and regarded in the light of a mechanical instrument, and looked upon henceforth as a servant to ourselves rather than as a master; or indeed that He is in strict truth not actually a Son at all. For never could one regard or accept in the light of a Son a being who was placed in the rank of a mere instrument. The Father, it would appear, has begotten an instrument to show forth His wisdom and skill, and is deemed to have generated something quite different from that which He is Himself. How could this possibly happen? Surely it is the height of folly to conceive such a notion. If therefore thou refusest to surrender that opinion concerning the Son which regards Him as an instrument or a servant, and if thou art unwilling to acknowledge Him as at all in truth a Son, and deniest His ineffable generation from the essence of God the Father; thou wilt be doing injustice to the glory even of the Father Himself: for then the Father will cease to be Father in veritable reality; for how could one who had not begotten a son of his own essence be at all in his nature a father? It would follow that the Holy Trinity is altogether falsely named, if neither the Father is truly Father, nor the Son in His nature Son. And the logical sequence to this view will be blasphemy against the Holy Ghost as well.
It would therefore follow in this case that we have been grossly deceived: our faith is a falsehood: the Holy Scripture is coining a lie when it calls God by the name of the Father. And if the Son is not in His nature |274 God, as having been begotten of God the Father, we have been led astray, and together with us the citizens of the world above have erred also, even the undefiled multitude of the holy angels, when they joined us in glorifying and adoring the Son as One Who is in His nature God; being led on in some mysterious manner to sing the praise of one who (if we speak after the manner of the heretics' accursed folly) is a God-bearing vessel, the work of God's hands. And if the Father ever willed to withdraw from His relationship to the Son and His indwelling in Him, the Son would then be in no respect different from others who have fallen away from their original sovereignty, with nothing to distinguish Him, no trace within His nature of the Father Who begat Him; but rather one like ourselves in all things, who had only been strengthened by the Divine grace, and indeed honoured with the title of sonship, in the same degree as ourselves. Tell me then, why does He not Himself acknowledge His natural relationship to us? Why is it written: We perish for ever, whereas Thou abidest for ever? And why are we "servants" and He "Lord "? For even if we are called the sons of God, yet by acknowledging none the less our own proper nature we do not disgrace the honour done to us: but tell me the reason why----if He is like unto us and not at all superior to His creatures, inasmuch as He is not in nature God (for this is their ignorant opinion)----He does not confess His community with us in being a servant? Eather we find Him investing Himself with the honour and glory that peculiarly befit and are specially ascribed to the Divine nature, and saying to the holy disciples: Ye call Me Lord and Master, and ye say well; for so I am. This is the Saviour's saying: but our illustrious expositors, who introduce these doctrines attacking His Divinity, accept his words and affirmation asserting that He was truly called Lord, and yet thrust Him away from His natural lordship, because they are unwilling to confess Him as in His nature God of God; though |275 they are not bold enough to bring against Him the worst of all the charges that their accursed blasphemy implies.
For that He wills not to be reckoned among those who hold the rank of servants, or even in the category of created objects, but rather that He ever looks to the freedom inherent in Himself by nature, even at the time when He was made in the form of a servant----all this thou wilt learn in the following manner. He had arrived at Capernaum, as we read in the Gospels: the collectors of the legal tribute-money came to Peter, and said: Doth not your Master pay the half-shekel? And when Christ heard of this, it is right that we should notice the question He addressed to Peter: The kings of the earth, from whom do they receive toll or tribute? from their sons or from strangers? And after Peter had wisely and sensibly acknowledged that it was a stranger to the kingdom, as regards birth and kinship as it is reckoned among us, who would be compelled to submit to ordinances and taxation; Christ forthwith brought forward His claim that a God-befitting nature was truly existent in Himself, by adding the words: Therefore the sons are free. Whereas if He had been a fellow-servant, and not a Son truly begotten of the essence of the Father, with no intimate natural relationship to the Father; why is it that, after implying that all besides are subject to the tribute, inasmuch as their nature is foreign to that of Him Who of right receives the tribute, and they are only in the rank of servants, He has claimed freedom for Himself alone? For it is by an inaccurate use of terms that attributes, which mainly and truly are befitting to the Godhead alone, are ascribed to us; whereas in Him they are in very truth inherent. And so if any one were to investigate accurately the nature of things created, he would perceive that to that nature the title as well as the fact of slavery most appropriately belongs; whereas if any like ourselves have been decorated with the glorious name of freedom, an honour that is due to |276 God alone is attributed to them only by an inexact use of language.
Now here again is another question I should be very glad to ask them. Will they allow to Paul the epithet; of God-bearer, seeing that Christ dwells in him through the Holy Spirit, or will they be silly enough to deny this? For if they shall say that he is not in truth a God-bearer, this will be sufficient I think to persuade all men for the future to reject the nonsense they talk, and to hate them utterly, as men who shrink from saying no absurd thing. And if, avoiding this, they shall turn to the duty of saying the truth, and confess him to be truly a God-bearer, because that Christ dwells in him, will they not be convicted of very impiously saying that the Son is alien from the essence of God the Father? For Paul is no longer a God-bearer, if the Son is not in His nature God. But sometimes they blush, and say----for they are also characterised by recklessness and perverseness in argument----that the Son is truly God, yet not in His nature begotten of God. And there is no manner of doubt that any man whatever will exclaim against them on this point too; for how could one who is not in his nature begotten of God be God? Further, we add this. You say that the Son is in His nature God: how then could He Who is in His nature God be a God-bearer or a partaker of God? For no one could ever be a partaker of himself. For to what end will God dwell in God, as though in something different? For if the recipient is in nature just the same as the indweller may be conceived to be, what henceforth becomes of the need of the participation? And if in the same way that Christ dwelt in Paul, the Father also dwelt in Him, will not Christ be a God-bearer in the same way as Paul? And He will not in any other sense possess the quality of being in His nature God, through His having the need of a greater one, namely, the indwelling God. Then again this noble friend of ours goes further in his clever inventions, and by many proofs (as |277 he seems to think them) he attempts to talk people round to his peculiar doctrine. For I think it is worth while to go through all his words in detail, and to make a direct investigation of the impious plot that he has laid, in order that he may be clearly convicted of numbering the Only-begotten among things created. And the wretched man, having buried his impiety towards Christ beneath a heap of cleverly devised conceits, confesses Him to be God, and yet, excluding Him from the Divinity that is truly and naturally His, imagines that he will elude the observation of those who are looking for the real truth.
Accordingly he writes thus: "But even as we, while we are said to be in Him, have our substance in no way mingled with His; in the same way also the Son, while He is in the Father, has His essence entirely different from the Uncreated One."
What lamentable audacity! What extravagant language, and how full of folly, or rather of all perversity and madness! Professing themselves to be wise they in reality became fools; and holding these views concerning the Only-begotten, they denied the Master that bought them, as it is written. For if they say that the Word of God is a man and one like ourselves, there remains nothing that prevents them from saying that He is in God in the same way that we are: but if they believe Him to be God, and have learnt to worship Him as being so by nature, why do they not rather ascribe to Him existence in a God-befitting way in His own Father, and also the possession of the Father in Himself? For this I think would be more fitting for those who are really lovers of God to think and say. And if we find them still cherishing their shamelessness undaunted, and persisting in the words they have uttered,----saying that the Father is in the Son in the same manner as may be the case with any one of us, who have been created out of nothing and formed out of the earth by Him,----why is it not permissible for those who wish to do so, to say henceforth with impunity: He that hath seen me hath seen the Father, |278 and: I am in the Father, and the Father is in me? But I think that in this way any one would be condemned, and very properly, on a charge of the most utter folly possible. For not only is it absurd, but such a thing was never said by any of the saints in the inspired Scripture. On the other hand, they all concede to Him Who is in His nature Lord and God, the Only-begotten, an incomparable excellence above all good men; yea, verily, they proclaim aloud and say: Who among the sons of God shall be likened unto the Lord? How then is the Only-begotten any longer like us, if (according to the language of the saints) no one is His equal or His peer? Whereas if He is in God in just the same way that we are, we shall in consequence be compelled to say that the ompany of the saints are untruthful, and to ascribe to Him Who is in His nature Son nothing extraordinary which might distinguish Him as of a different rank from those who are sons only by adoption. Away with the loathsome idea, man! For we will not be so persuaded; God forbid! On the contrary, following the opinions of the holy fathers, we believe that we shall be well-pleasing unto God.
But seeing that they brought forward, as a proof of what they think and say, that well-known saying of Paul, that in God we live, and move, and have our being, arguing that when the Son is said to be in the Father the expression lacks precision, being adopted from our everyday life; come and let us subject their statement to the requisite investigation, and so convict them of deliberately misrepresenting the mind of the holy Apostle and most foolishly perverting to their own views what was said in absolute truth. For when the blessed Paul was at Athens and saw the inhabitants abjectly devoted to polytheistic error, although the people in that city were reputed wise, he attempted to lead them back from their ancient delusion, seeking (by argumentative exhortations to true piety) skilfully to convince them of the necessity for the future of knowing one God and one only, Who bestows on those that have been made by Him the power |279 of moving and living and having their being. For the Creator of all, being in His nature Life, implants life in all, infusing into them by an ineffable process the power of His own Individuality. For in no other way was it possible that things which had received their allotted birth out of nothing should preserve their capability of existence: for surely each would have returned to its own nature, I mean back again to non-existence, unless, by the help of its relationship to the Self-Existent One, it had overcome the weakness of its own condition at birth. Therefore the inspired Paul very rightly and properly said, by way of showing that God is the life of the universe, that in Him we live, and move, and have our being: not at all meaning what the heretics invented for themselves, in corrupting (to suit their own peculiar theories) the true signification of the Holy Scriptures; but rather saying exactly what was true, and also highly profitable for those who were just being trained up to a knowledge of God. And, if it is needful to put it even more plainly, he has never wished to imply that we, who are in our nature men, are yet contained in the essence of the Father, and appear as existing in Him; but rather that we live and move and have our being in God, that is, our life consists in Him.
For notice that Paul did not say simply and unreservedly, "We are in God," and nothing more. This was on account of thy ignorance, my good friend, and most naturally so. But he employed different expressions, by way of interpreting the exact meaning of his words. After beginning with the statement: "We live," he added thereto the further idea: "We move" and thirdly he brought in the phrase: "We have our being;" presenting this also, so as to supplement the meaning of the previous words. And I think that the correct argument we shall use concerning this matter will very probably put to shame the ungodly heretic: but if he insists in his opposition, and drags round the words "in God" to the meaning which pleases himself and no one else, we will set |280 forth the common use of the inspired Scripture. Scripture is wont occasionally to use the words "in God" in the sense of "by God." For let that man tell us what is the meaning of a certain Psalmist's declaration, when he says: "In God" let us do valiantly; and again, addressing God: "In Thee" will we push down our enemies. For surely no one will suppose that the Psalmist means this, that he promises to accomplish something valiantly "in the essence of God," nor even that "in that essence" we shall discover our own enemies and push them down: but he uses the words "in God" in the sense of"by [the help of] God," and again, "in Thee" in the sense of "by Thee." And why also did the blessed Paul say in his letter to the Corinthians: I thank my God concerning you all for the grace which was given you "in Christ Jesus," and again: But of Him are ye "in Christ Jesus," Who was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption? For will any one reasonably maintain that the Spirit-bearer says that the grace which was bestowed on the Corinthians from above was given "in the actual essence of Christ," or to quote the authority of Paul in support of heterodoxy? Surely such a one would be evidently talking nonsense. Why therefore, setting aside the ordinary usage of terms in the Sacred Scriptures, and misrepresenting the intention of the blessed Paul, dost thou say that we are "in God," that is, "in the essence of the Father," because thou hearest him say to those in Athens, that in Him we live, and move, and have our being?
"Yes," says the defender of the pernicious opinions, "but if it seems to thee right and proper that the words 'in God' should bear and be acknowledged to bear the sense of ' by God,' why dost thou make so much needless ado? And why dost thou bring against us charges of blasphemy when we maintain that the Son was made ' by the Father'? For behold, He Himself says: I am 'in the Father,' in the sense of 'by the Father,' at least according to thy explanation, Sir, and |281 according to the common usage, which thou hast just laid before us in thy quotations from the Sacred Scriptures."
But I say that it is necessary to defend myself again in reply to this, and lay bare their mischievous intentions and pernicious notions. For I am astonished that, after hearing gladly that it is a usage of the Sacred Scripture to use the words "in God" as equivalent to "by God," and after approving and accepting the phrase merely for the sake of being able to say something against the glory of the Only-begotten, they have by no means become conscious of the fact that they will again be convicted of talking as foolishly as before, although they claim to be wise and acute. For if our opponents were the only ones entrusted with the duty of defending from time to time the usage of the inspired Scripture in reference to the essence of the Only-begotten, and of saying that He was made by the Father, because of this, that He says He is "in God," and we have allowed that "in God" is to be understood in the sense of "by God;" then it might have seemed at least probable that their mischievous intention rested on grounds not altogether unreasonable. But if in truth there is nothing which can prevent us also, in our eagerness to refute by a reductio ad absurdum the unsoundness of the sentiments they hold, from carrying on the force of the meaning implied so as to make it refer to the Father Himself, and from saying plainly that since Christ also adds this: The Father is "in Me," we must understand it in the sense of "by Me," so that as a consequence the Father Himself also will be a creature; surely then they, having relied on arguments so very foolish, will be universally condemned as guilty of unmitigated folly. For just as the Son says that He Himself is "in" the Father, so also He said that the Father, is "in" Him: and if they wish the words "in the Father" to be understood in the sense of "by the Father," what is there that prevents us from saying that the words "in the Son" |282 shall be understood in the sense of "by the Son "? But we will not suffer ourselves again to be drawn down with them into such an abyss of folly. For neither will we say that the Son is made by the Father, nor indeed that He from Whom are all things, namely God the Father, was brought into existence by the Son; but rather, referring the usage of the inspired Scripture in due proportion to each occasion or person or circumstance, we shall thus weave together our theory so as to make it on all essential points faultless and indisputable. For with regard to those who out of nothing have been created into being, and have been brought into existence by God, surely it would be most fitting that we should regard them and speak of them as being "in God" in the sense of "by God:" but with regard to Him Who is in His nature Son and Lord, and God and Creator of the universe, this signification could not be specially or truly suitable. The real truth is that He is naturally in the Father, and in Him from the beginning, and has Him in Himself, by reason of His showing Himself to possess identity of essence, and because He is subject to no power that can sever between Them, and divide Them into a diversity of nature.
And perhaps it might seem to minds more open to conviction that this matter has been sufficiently discussed, as indeed I think myself: yet our opponent will by no means assent to this; but he will meet us again with the objection, dishing up again the argument introduced by him at the first, that the Father is in the Son in the same manner, as we are in Him.
"What then," we might say, judiciously rebuking the unsoundness and childishness of his thoughts and words, "dost thou say that the Son is in the Father even as we are in Him? Be it so. What limit to our natural capacity then," we shall reply, "is there, that prevents us from using expressions with respect to ourselves as exalted as any of those which Christ is seen to have used? For He Himself, seeing that He is in the Father |283 and has the Father in Himself, inasmuch as He is thereby both an Exact Likeness and Very Image of Him, uses the expressions: He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father: I and the Father are One. But with regard to ourselves, tell me, if we are in Him and if we have Him in ourselves exactly in the same way that Christ Himself is in the Father and the Father in Him, why do we not extend our necks as much as we can, and, holding our heads high above those around us, say with boldness: "I am in Christ and Christ in me: He that hath seen me hath seen Christ: I and Christ are one "? Then what would come next? No one, I think, would any longer have any just cause for alarm, or any sufficient ground for hesitation, to prevent his speaking as follows, daring henceforth to say concerning the Father Himself: "I and the Father are one." For if the Father is one with the Son, surely such a man, having become an exact image of the Exact Image, namely of the Son, will share henceforth in all the Son's relations to the Father Himself. Who therefore will ever descend to such a depth of madness as to dare to say: "He who hath seen me hath seen Christ: I and Christ are one"? For if thou attributest to the Son the being in the Father and the having the Father in Himself in some non-essential manner and not in His nature, and supposest that we in like manner are in Christ and Christ in us; in the first place the Son will be on the same footing as ourselves, and in the next place there is nothing that prevents us at our pleasure from passing by the Son Himself as though He were an obstacle in our way, and rushing straight on to the Father Himself, and claiming that we are so exactly assimilated to Him that nothing can be found which distinguishes us from Him. For the being said to be one with anything would naturally bear this meaning. Do ye not then see into what a depth of folly and at the same time of impiety their minds have sunk, and of what absurd arguments the wild attack upon us has consisted? What their excuse is therefore for saying and |284 upholding such things, and for buoying themselves up on such rotten arguments, I will now again tell. Their one endeavour is to show that the Son is altogether alien and altogether foreign to the essence of the Father. For we shall know that we are speaking the truth in saying this, by reference to the words that follow after and are closely connected with the heretic's previous blasphemies. For he proceeds thus: "But even as we, while we are in Him, have our substance in no way mingled with His; in the same way also the Son, while He is in the Father, has His essence entirely different from the Unbegotten God." What sayest thou, O infatuated one? Hast thou made thy blasphemy against the Son in such plain language? Will any one therefore venture to say that we are trying to heap upon the heads of the God-opposers groundless and false accusations'? For see clearly, they attribute to Him no superiority whatever over those who have been made of earth and have been by Him brought into existence. And although I can scarcely endure the things which the wretched men have dared to say, I will endeavour to prove this, as being in accordance with the scope of Divine Scripture, namely, that since they deny the Son they deny at the same time the Father also, and thenceforth are without God and without hope in this world, as it is written. And to prove that we are right in saying this, the God-beloved John will come forward as a trustworthy witness on our side, for he wrote thus: He that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father; he that confesseth the Son hath the Father also. And surely the Spirit-bearer speaketh very rightly, not failing to make his statement conform fittingly to his argument. For because he knows that [God the Father] is essentially in His nature what He is said to be, namely a Father, and that not merely in name but rather in reality, he consequently says that the One is necessarily denied when the Other is denied. For concurrently in some way or other with One Who is really |285 in His nature a Father and is so conceived of, there must always be the knowledge and manifestation of the Offspring that proceedeth from Him; and One Who has been in very truth begotten involves the Personal existence of Another capable by nature of begetting. For no sooner do we recognise a man as a father than we understand him to have begotten offspring, and we can by no means consider the idea of an offspring without implying that some father has begotten it. Thus by either term the other conception is produced in the minds of those who hear it, and so any one who denies that God is truly a Father makes out the generation of the Son to be altogether impossible, and similarly any one who does not confess the Son to be an Offspring must by implication lose all knowledge of the Father. When therefore, as from a sling, he hurls at us his unholy arguments, and maintains that the Son has His essence quite distinct from that of the Unbegotten God, why does He not openly deny that the Son is really a Son? And if there is not a Son, the Father Himself can no longer be conceived of as truly a Father. For whose Father will He be, if He has not begotten any Offspring? What we say is, that the Son is quite distinct from the Person, but not from the essence, of the Father; not being alien from Him in His nature, as forsooth these God-opposers think, but being possessed of His own Person and His own distinct subsistence, inasmuch as He is Son and not Father. But, if we understand our own mind rightly, we would not ourselves say, nor would we assent to any of the brethren who say, that He is distinct from the Father in regard to essence. For how can distinction exist in that one thing, with reference to which each individual has some special characteristic? For Peter is Peter, and not Paul, and Paul is not Peter; yet they remain without distinction in their nature. For both possess one kind of nature, and the individuals who are associated in a uniformity of nature have that same kind without any difference at all. |286
For what reason are we saying such things as this? We confess that our object is to show that those who hold such blasphemous opinions rob the Son of the Godhead which is His by nature, when they (as we have already explained) ascribe to Him nothing more than a non-essential relationship to God the Father. Else why do they put forward ourselves in illustration of their argument, and say: "Even as we have our substance in no way mingled with His, while we are in Him; so also He Himself has His essence entirely different from God, although He is said to be in Him "? Is not their craftiness patent to all men? Will not any one be right in saying that the man who vomited forth such an abominable statement as this must surely be one of the "mockers" announced beforehand by the Spirit? For what does Jude, the disciple of the Saviour, write to us in his epistle? But ye, beloved, remember ye the words which have been spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; how that they said to you, that in the last time there shall come mockers, walking after their own ungodly lusts. These are they who make separations, sensual, having not the Spirit. For no man whatsoever, who speaks in the Holy Spirit, will say anything against the glory of the Only-begotten. For I maintain that this is just the same as saying: Jesus is anathema. On the other hand, sensual and worthless men, and those whose hearts are devoid of the Holy Spirit, make separations between the Father and the Son; asserting that the latter is as essentially and completely severed from the former as are created things and each of the works made by Him, and believing Him to be in the Father only in the same way that we are in Him.
And that they who have dared to write such things have thereby reached the furthest verge of folly, let us if you please proceed to show in another way, as is quite possible, from the Divine Scripture; and let us hasten to prove to our hearers that we are in the Son in one way, whereas the Son is in His own Father in another way. |287 For one person is not a likeness of another's substance when he conforms himself to that other by the exercise of a virtuous will, nor is he on that account said to be in the other; but when he is in natural identity with the other, and possesses one essence with him. And let the most wise John be called in as a witness for us on this point, since he says: Yea, and our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. How then, pray, do they say, and in what manner do they think fit to assert, that we have fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ? For if we are considered to be in Them, as having our own essence commingled with the Divine nature, that is, with the Father and the Son, and if the expression "fellowship" does not rather refer to the similarity of our wills; how can we have it with the Father and with the Son, when (according to these heretics) the Father and the Son are not Consubstantial? For in that case we must hold opinions worthy of ridicule, and say that we have cleft our own nature asunder into two parts, and given one half to the Father and the other to ourselves and to the Son, and thus we consider ourselves to be in Them. Or else we must reject such absurdity of statement, and say that by doing our best to make our own disposition brightly radiant through the exercise of a virtuous will and through conformity to the Divine and ineffable beauty, we obtain for ourselves the grace of fellowship with Them. But shall we therefore say that the Son is in the Father after a similar manner to this, and that He only possesses a non-essential and artificially-added fellowship with the One Who begat Him? And yet, if so, why in the world does He wish, through the similarity and indeed identity of their works, to lead our mind to feel the necessity of believing without any hesitation that He is Himself in the Father, and that He again has also the Father in Himself? For is it not seen by every one to be perfectly evident and true that, wishing the brilliancy of His deeds to be investigated by us, He shows Himself equal in strength to |288 His own Father, as if the severance as regards essence and the difference as to nature no longer maintained their position; since both Himself and the Father glorify themselves by similar achievements"?
For observe how we who constantly strive after conformity with God do (so to say) render ourselves worthy of fellowship with Him, not in such ways as these, but in certain other ways. For when we show pity to one another, are ardently devoted to works of love, and practise all that is truly respectable in our ordinary life, even then we can hardly venture to pronounce ourselves "in God." And John is our witness, saying: Hereby know we that we are in Him: he that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also to walk even as He walked; and again: As for you, he says, let that abide in you which ye heard from the beginning. For if that which ye heard from the beginning abide in you, ye also shall abide in the Son, and in the Father. And what he means by "that which ye heard from the beginning," which he bids to remain in us in order that we may be in God, he himself will make no less clear to us when he says: For this is the command which ye heard from the beginning, that ye should love one another. Thou hearest how we are in God, namely, by practising love one towards another, and striving to the utmost of our power to walk in the footsteps of our Saviour, imitating His virtue. When I say virtue, I do not mean such as was shown by Him in being able to create heaven, and make angels, and set fast the earth, and spread out the sea; nor that which He exhibited when, in His ineffable and simple majesty, by a word He lulled the violence of the winds, and raised up the dead, and graciously bestowed sight on the blind, and with great authority bade the leper be cleansed: but rather that virtue which may be suitable to the capacities of our humanity. We shall find Him, as indeed Paul says, reviled by the unholy Jews, yet not reviling again; instead of that, we see |289 Him suffering, yet not threatening, but rather committing Himself to Him that judgeth righteously. Again, we shall find Him saying: Learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
So then, when we strive by such conduct as this to imitate Christ Who is our guide unto all virtue, we are said to abide both in the Father and in Him, obtaining this distinction as a reward and compensation for the worthiness of our life. But the Son does not wish us to estimate in this way the brilliance that is inherent in Him: He bids us direct our natural shrewdness of attention to the magnificence of His miracles, and infer from thence the exact resemblance which He has to His own Father; so that henceforth we may believe that, as they are Consubstantial, it is thus that He has in Himself the One Who begat Him, and that He Himself is also in the Father. Or let our opponents come forward and teach, that when the Son is conceived of as being in the Father, He too in common with ourselves has this distinction as a reward, and as a fair payment for conducting His life according to the law of the Gospel. But I suppose that even this appears to them nothing dreadful: for to men by whom no form of talking is unpractised, what expression, however extravagant and monstrous, seems unfit for use? It is possible therefore that they will say even this, that the Son is in the Father and again has also the Father in Himself on this account, namely, because He fashions Himself like to the Father by practising the virtues that are also attainable by us. And we would reply, "Why then, honoured Sirs, when Philip said: Lord, shew us the Father, did not the Christ put forward all the holy Apostles as a likeness and accurate representation of Him Whom they meant, and say, 'Have we [all] been so long time with one another, and dost thou not know the Father?" Whereas He does not associate with Himself a single one of the others, but comparing Himself alone |290 to the Father alone, He passes over our attributes as small matters altogether; and not willing that the Divine essence should be thought accurately imaged in human attributes, He has reserved to Himself alone the perfection of resemblance. For He says: He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father. Then to these words He straightway added: Believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me. For seeing that He possesses resemblance in the most absolute exactness, He must as a necessary consequence possess in Himself the Father, and be possessed (so to speak) by the Father. For think of something of the same kind, and accept it as an illustration of the words we are considering. If, for instance, any one were by chance to bring into our presence the son of Abraham or of any other man, and then were to question him as to the nature of his parent, desiring to learn precisely who and what kind of person the parent was; would not the youth employ reasonable language if he were to point to his own nature and say, "He that hath seen me hath seen my father: I am in my father, and my father is in me?" Then as a proof of his speaking the truth, would it not be fitting that he should draw attention to the identity with his father exhibited in his human doings and his physical peculiarities, and say: "Believe me for the very works' sake, seeing that I have all the qualities and can perform all the actions which pertain to human nature?" Indeed I think every one will say and will justly allow, both that he speaks the truth and that (in alleging the identity) he puts forward an accurate indication of the relationship involved in their particular actions. Why then do not they, who pervert such things as are right, persuade their own disciples to travel on the straight path of reasoning, instead of thrusting them off from the well-trodden king's highway, and taking an untrodden and rugged route, both deceiving themselves and destroying those who feel it their duty to follow them? We, however, not taking their road, will keep along the direct path; |291 and, giving credit to the Sacred Scriptures, we believe that the Son, Who is in His nature begotten of God the Father, is of equal strength and Consubstantial with the Father, and essentially His Image; and therefore that He is in the Father, and the Father in Him.
12, 13 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto the Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in My Name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
If anyone should think to discourse hereon commensurately with the extent of the meaning of what is here submitted to us. the task would be broad and deep. But if we consider what is rather profitable for the hearers, we shall think it beseems us to grasp in general wise the things signified, and to curtail the length of our discourse. For so would the meaning be most easy to be received by most men. So then, wishing to show forth that He was Consubstantial with His own Father, and that He is a Very Image of Him; carried in the Father as in an Archetype, albeit having the Archetype in Himself, as being a Very Image both naturally and essentially, and not in virtue of any shaping which implies a process of moulding and fashioning; for the Divinity transcends shape, inasmuch as. it is incorporeal withal: I, He says, am in the Father and the Father is in Me. But to the end that we may not look for the identity of the resemblance and the exact conformity thereof in any other sort than as a conclusion from those prerogatives alone that attach to His nature; for it was possible therefrom to see that the similarity is essential and natural; He says: Or else, believe by reason of the works. For indeed He very rightly thought that of a surety if any man beheld Him radiant with the like mighty works to those of God the Father, He would accept Him for a really natural Image and Likeness of His essence; for nought save what is naturally of God |292 would ever do equivalent deeds to those of God; nay, neither could the power to work wonders on any wise in equal measure with the Divine nature come to belong to any created thing. For utterly unapproachable and beyond reach to them that have been called into being out of nothing are the proper excellences of the Eternal. And in no wise was it likely that any would doubt that the Saviour's saying would be utterly irreproachable, at least in the eyes of the right-minded; yet, as God, He was not ignorant that even what was well said would be, to them that held opposite opinions, an occasion and a pretext for strange teaching. With intent then that no place for loquacity might be left herein for them that pervert such things as are right, and lest they should say it was not of His immanent might nor of His own power that the Son became a worker of wonders, but only inasmuch as He had within Him the Father doing the works: on this account, as He Himself said and insisted, the Lord (when need arose) courted them with words that might allure their minds: for He promises herein that He will be to them that believe on Him a Supplier of what things soever they will ask, and promises that He will supply to them not merely an equal power and authority but the same with increase: for greater things, He says, than I have done, shall he do. Seest thou then how He cuts short, and profitably so, the boldness of our opponents, and by His refutations of error reins in men (as it were) when they are rushing over precipices? For anyone will say to them: "O fools and blind, whereas ye suppose the Son to have been able to effect nothing of Himself, but rather to have been supplied by the Father with the power and authority for all those things that have been wondrously accomplished; how does He promise that He will grant to them that believe on Him to effect even greater things? How shall another, by borrowing the power from Him, effect what He has not done Himself? For notice that He has not said herein that the Father will supply power to them that believe; but, |293 Whatsoever ye shall ask in My Name, I will do it. But He Who as God imparts to others the power to effect even those greater things, how could He have been Himself supplied with the power by another?" So that what they say is utter nonsense, and thoughtless trash, and inventions of a devilish perversity. But no man would contemplate the power of the Son as in any wise limited, nor as extending to one thing but insufficient to reach things still greater; nay, but as doing easily whatsoever it will, and bestowing on the worthy the power to glory in thrones, it may be of equal honour, or it may be even more highly exalted. And let none suppose us to say that any of those who have set store by their faith in Him will ever have such excess of power as to be able to fashion a heaven, or to make a sun and a moon, or the brilliant choir of the stars, or peradventure to create angels, or an earth, or such things as are therein. For the aim of His words is not directed towards these things, but is bent upon the things whereon it was reasonable that so it should be; and He overpasses not the measure of the splendour that beseems mankind, in glory to wit, and holiness. For surely it is for this cause, by way of restraining His words from ranging as it were whithersoever a man might desire, and of confining Himself to those wondrous works which He did while on earth after He became man, when He draws the contrast with the greatness of the still greater deeds, that He says: "He shall do the things which I have done, and greater things than these." For it was not because He was too weak to accomplish the greater things, that He held back His own power within the bounds of the things which He accomplished; but when He has done what was needful, and all perchance for which opportunity offered, He kindly gives us to understand by these words, that the reach of the incomprehensible greatness of His immanent power is not limited to those things. But to the end that, preserving the order of the thoughts presented to us, we may set the minds of our hearers on the contemplation of His |294 utterance, [we will repeat that] He says: Verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto the Father.
Then, "What is this?" one of the hearers might say with some reason, "I mean the Son's going to the Father in order that they who believe on Him may be able to effect things even still greater than the deeds exhibited by Himself? Surely the saying introduces some hidden subject for contemplation." To learn what it is that He says, consider Him as perhaps meaning: ----"O ministers and genuine pupils of My words, so long as I abode with you on the earth, and had My conversation as a man, I did not exhibit the power of the Godhead undimmed before you: I both spake and acted as befitted the measure of My humiliation and the condition of a slave. But thereafter, when those things shall have been be-seemingly accomplished, then also will the mystery of the dispensation in the flesh be completed for Me. For almost immediately I shall suffer death and shall rise to life again. And I promise to then bestow on you the power to accomplish works still greater than My own miracles. And the time for this is even now at hand, and so is the glory of their accomplishment. For I am going to the Father, that is, to sit down with Him and to reign with Him as God of God in unveiled power and authority, [and in the fulness] of My own nature to give good things unto My friends. Whatsoever ye shall ask," He says, "in My Name, I will do it, when the time has been completed wherein it was necessary," He says, "that I should show Myself in the garb of humiliation. I have observed all that was requisite to the proper carrying out of the scheme of the Incarnation; and now henceforth I promise that unveiledly as God I will work the works of God, not thrusting out the Father from the glory so God-befitting, but with intent that He may be glorified in the Son." For if the Offspring is glorified, the Parent also shall assuredly be glorified in Him. For the |295 Son, being ever in His nature God, would have been declared by many other signs; yet no less also is He disclosed by receiving the prayers of the saints, and granting them whatsoever they might ask and wish. How then should not the Father be glorified in Him? For like as He would have been grievously blamed, and naturally so, if the Offspring that came forth from Him had not been in His nature God; in like manner He will be exceeding glorious in that He has for the Fruit that came forth from His essence One Who is God and can skill so well to do all things and to enable others to do them.
But if it tends to the glory of the Father that the Son should be seen possessed of God-befitting prerogatives, what manner of punishment shall fasten upon the heretic, forasmuch as he dreads not to disparage Him with shameless blasphemies in divers manners? And I will further say another thing, in no small measure (as I deem) at issue with their crude ignorances. For if we pray to the Son and seek our petitions from Him, and He pledges His promise to grant them; how could it be that He is not by nature God, and begotten of One Who is in His nature God? For if they conceive Him not so to be, and say that He was created, how shall we any longer be distinguished from those who invoke the sun, or the heaven, or any other of the creatures? For if, exceeding mischievously, ashamed of the ungainliness of their own folly, they say that albeit a creature equally with the rest of the creatures yet He hath a certain incomparable supereminence over all; notwithstanding let them be assured that none the less will they outrage the glory of the Father, that is, the Son, so long as ever they say that He is one in the number of the things that have been made. For the issue is, not whether He is haply a great or a small creature, but whether He is a creature at all, and is not rather in His nature God; which indeed is the truth. |296
14 If ye shall ask anything in My Name, that will I do.
Undisguisedly now He says that, being Very God, He will accept exceeding readily the prayers of His own people, and will supply right gladly what things soever they desire to receive, meaning of course spiritual gifts and such as are worthy of the heavenly munificence. And not as the minister of another's benevolence, nor yet as subserving another's kindness, does He say such things; but as, with the Father, having all things in His power; and as Himself being the One through Whom are all things, both from us to God-ward, and to us-ward from Him. For this cause Paul also prays on behalf of the worthy for such supplies of benefits as are by him ever mentioned in conjunction, in the following words: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ; and surely no man in his senses will ever in the face of this suppose that the Father by Himself separately grants a grace, and again the Son by Himself separately and as it were in turn does so; but the grace is one and the same, albeit it is spoken of as coming through Both. Notwithstanding, it is by the Father through the Son that all good things are wrought for the worthy, and the distribution of the Divine gifts is made; through the Son, I say, not as accepted in the rank of a servant, as we have already explained, but as conceived to be Co-Giver and Co-Supplier, and moreover as being so of a truth. For the nature of the Godhead is one, and also is believed so to be. For although it is extended to Father and Son and to the Holy Spirit, yet it has no absolute and entire severance; I mean, into each of the Persons indicated. For we shall be orthodox in believing that the Son is naturally both of the Father and in the Father, and that the own Spirit of the Father and of the Son, that is, the Holy Spirit, is both of and in the Father. So then, forasmuch as the Godhead of Their nature both is and is conceived of as One, Their gifts will be supplied to the worthy through the Son from the |297 Father in the Spirit, and our offerings will be carried to God manifestly through the mediation of the Son: for no one cometh unto the Father but through Him, as to be sure He also Himself fully confesses. So then the Son both has become and is the Door and the Way as well of our friendship as of our progress towards God the Father, and the Co-Giver as well as Distributer of His bounty, forasmuch as it proceeds from a single and common munificence. For one is the nature of the Godhead in the person and substance both of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. And forasmuch as it was unwonted in a way with them of old time, and as yet foreign to their practice, to approach the Father through the Son, He teaches this also for our profit, and laying first in His own disciples a foundation as it were of the structure, He implants in them both faith in this and knowledge, and despatches to ourselves instruction both how we are to pray and wherein lies our hope. For He promises that He will Himself give us what we ask in prayer; a proof of the Godhead in His nature, and of the royal authority inherent in Him; adding this to the other proofs thereof.
15 If ye love Me, keep My commandments.
Having ordained that when men pray they must ask in His Name and promising that He will Himself supply to them that ask whatsoever they desire to receive, He takes great thought not to seem to speak falsehood, having in view the unholy slanders of such as are wont to be captious. For a man can see, and best out of the Sacred Writings themselves, that some approach and ask earnestly in His Name, and notwithstanding in no wise receive; because God is not ignorant of what is fitting for each and profitable for the askers. Therefore to the end that our Lord Jesus the Christ might clearly exhibit who they are in reference to whom the word has been spoken and stands good, and to whom is due the grace of the promise; He straightway introduced the |298 mention of the persons who love Him, in whose case the promise will assuredly be fulfilled, and conjoins with His saying the exactly-defined keeper of the law, showing that unto such and not unto others shall the promise of kindness and the bestowal of the spiritual blessings hold good and come to pass. For that oftentimes the bounteous hand of God is shortened in hesitation, cutting off from them that will not ask aright the consummation of their hopes, thou wilt easily understand, from what the disciple of Christ is at pains to write on this wise: Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, when ye will spend it in your pleasures. Wherefore also again he says, about them that are wont to be double-minded: For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord; for [he is] a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. For to them that ask for the grace that is from above, not for establishing of virtue, but for enjoyment of carnal pleasure and worldly lusts, God well-nigh shuts fast His ear, and in no wise grants them anything; for what things soever He forbids and wholly casts out by reason of the abomination that is in them, how could He grant them to any? And the spring of all sweetness, how could it give forth a bitter stream? But that unto the lovers of spiritual gifts with rich and readiest hand He distributes blessings, thou shalt easily perceive, when thou hearest Him saying unto them by the mouth of Isaiah the prophet: While thou art yet speaking, 1 will say, What is it? and by the voice of the Psalmist: The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears are open unto their prayer.
So having determined and expressly declared that the enjoyment of the heavenly blessings, supplied, that is, through Him by the Father, is both due to them that love Him, and in very truth shall be theirs; He straightway goes on to describe the power of love, and instructs us excellently and irreproachably, for our profit, with intent that we should devote ourselves to |299 the pursuit thereof. For albeit a man say that he loves God, he will not therefore straightway win the credit of truly loving, forasmuch as the power of virtue stands not in bare speech, nor is the beauty of piety towards God fashioned in naked words; but rather it is really distinguished by means of good deeds effected and an obedient temper; and the keeping of the Divine precepts best gives living expression to love towards the Divinity, and presents the picture of a virtue wholly living and true; not sketched out in mere sounds that flow from the tongue, as we have said, but gleaming as it were and altogether radiant with brilliant colours, to wit, the portraits of good works. And indeed our Lord Jesus the Christ shows us this plainly, when He says: Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father, Which is in heaven. For the proof of faith lies not in barren words or professions, but in the qualities of acts, and indeed the Holy Scripture says that it is dead when the works do not follow therewith. For the knowledge that God is One, it says, we shall find, not only in human minds, but in the unclean devils themselves; who also shudder, even involuntarily, at the power of Him that made them. Howbeit to keep the radiance of their acts concurrent with their faith is manifestly the beauty and ornament of those only who truly love God. So then the proof of love and the most perfect definition of faith is the observance of the Evangelic decrees and the keeping of the Divine precepts. And perhaps it would be in no wise difficult to add other things hereunto, akin in their drift; only that I suppose they do not suit the present occasion. Wherefore we must once more betake ourselves to such points as are more suitable to what lies before us. If ye love Me, He says, ye will keep My commandments. For indeed thou must understand once again and call well to mind that oftentimes, when conversing with His own disciples or even with the Jews themselves, He would |300 say: The words that I speak are not Mine, but His Who sent Me; and again: I speak not from Myself, but the Father Which sent Me, He hath given Me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak; and again: The things therefore which I speak, are not Mine, but His Who sent Me. And yet now again, notwithstanding He has confessed at large, up and down His discourses, that the words He addressed to us are God the Father's, He here says they are His own commandments, which He has spoken to us. And no one that has sense will suppose that He speaks falsely, for let not this thought come into the mind of a Christian; and moreover He will of course speak truly, forasmuch as He is Himself the Truth. For it was not in the manner of one of the prophets, as if with the rank of a minister and a servant, that He conveyed the message from the Father to us; but as bearing such likeness to Him that not even in word was He haply observed to differ, but rather naturally to speak on such wise as the Father Himself might peradventure talk with us. For the exact similarity of essence leads us to believe that the Son also corresponds in His utterances to Him that begat Him; and inasmuch as He is Himself the Word and Wisdom and Purpose of God the Father, He says that He has received commandment what to say and what He shall speak. For we also ourselves individually see that our own minds well-nigh even lay a commandment on our speech uttered through words, as it proceeds to the world without, that it shall interpret what is in the mind itself. Small indeed is the force of the illustration as applied to God; but notwithstanding this, by taking the analogy of human things to assure us of the things that transcend them, we apprehend the Divine Mysteries as it were in a mirror and darkly.
16, 17 And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth: Whom the world cannot receive; for it beholdeth |301 Him not, neither knoweth Him: ye know Him; for He abideth with you, and shall be in you.
He mingles once more the human with the Divine, and neither reverts to the pure glory of the Godhead, nor yet altogether confines His range within the limits of humanity, but traverses both, wondrously and at the same time indistinguishably too, forasmuch as He is at once both God and man. For He was God by His nature, inasmuch as He was the Fruit of the Father and the Effulgence of His essence; and again, He was man, inasmuch as He has become Flesh. Accordingly He speaks as God and at the same time as man: for after this manner it was possible to preserve duly such forms of language as befitted the dispensation in flesh. Notwithstanding, while we are searching for the meaning of the passage before us, we say this: that at this point also, of necessity, our Lord has introduced the mention of God the Father, for the building up of their faith, and for the exceeding profit of the hearers; as indeed the argument will demonstrate as it proceeds. For when He bade us ask in His Name, and revealed, along with the other truths, a manner of praying unused among the ancients, promising withal even very earnestly that He will give whatsoever things we wish to receive: with intent that He might not seem thereby to thrust aside the Person of God the Father, nor yet to curtail the power of Him Who begat Him, the power (I mean) of satisfying the aspirations of the saints, He said that the Father would be a Co-Supplier for our profit, and would join in bestowing on us the Paraclete: adding also the words "I will ask," as man; and referring peculiarly to the whole Divine and unspeakable nature what befits it especially, as in the Person of God the Father. For this was His custom, as we have oftentimes said already in the foregoing parts of this work.
Another Paraclete, however, is the name He gives to the Spirit that proceeds from the essence of God the Father and from that of Himself. For the kind of the |302 essence is the same in the case of Both, not excluding the Spirit, but allowing the manner of His distinctness to be understood as lying solely in His being and subsisting in a separate personality. For the Spirit is not a Son, but we will accept in faith verily and properly to be and to subsist as That Which He is; for He is the Spirit of the Father and of the Son. But [the Son] knowing that He Himself also both is in truth a Paraclete and is so named in the Sacred Writings, He calls the Spirit another Paraclete; not on the ground that the Spirit can skill to effect in the Saints something else perchance more than what He also can, Whose Spirit He both is and is called. And that the Son also Himself both was named and is a Paraclete, John will bear record, in his own compositions, when he says: These things say I unto you, that ye may not sin. And if any man sin, we have a Paraclete with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and He is the propitiation for our sins. So Jesus calls the Spirit another Paraclete, willing Him to be conceived of as possessing the attributes of a proper personality; albeit having so close a likeness to Himself, and able so to work in exact correspondence what things soever He Himself might haply work, as that He might seem to be the Son Himself and no whit different: for He is His Spirit. And indeed Jesus called Him the Spirit of Truth, saying also in the discourse before us that He is Himself the Truth.
But any one will naturally say to those who suppose the Son alien to the essence of God the Father: "How is it, pray, that the Father gives the Spirit of Truth, that is, of the Son, not as foreign or alien, but as His own Spirit; notwithstanding that according to you He has the kind of His essence distinct from that of the Son, and, for of this there is no question, the Spirit is the Son's? And once more, how is it, if it be so that the Son is of another essence, that He gives the Spirit of the Father as His own?" For it is written |303 that He breathed on His disciples, saying, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. So then will not a man suppose, and very rightly, or rather will he not be even firmly convinced, that the Son, being essentially partaker of the natural excellences of God the Father, has the Spirit after the same manner as the Father also would be understood to have Him: that is, not as something added or from without, for it were simple or rather mad to hold such an opinion; but as each of us has within himself his own breath, and pours it forth without from the inmost parts of his body? For indeed it was for this cause that Christ breathed on them even bodily, showing that as the breath proceeds bodily from the human mouth, so also from the Divine essence the [Spirit] from Him is in God-befitting manner poured forth. Forasmuch then as He is the Spirit both of God the Father and of the Son, how can it be but that the power They thus possess at once in division and in conjunction will be altogether one? For the Father is a Father and not a Son, and the Son is a Son and not a Father; notwithstanding, the Father is in the Son, and the Son in the Father; moreover, it is not the Father separately by Himself, or the Son separately by Himself, Who gives the Paraclete or the Holy Spirit, but rather He is supplied to the saints from the Father through the Son. For indeed on this account [we must understand that] when the Father is said to give, the Son also gives, through Whom are all things; and that when the Son is said to give, the Father also gives, of Whom are all things.
But that the Spirit is both Divine and not of another essence, in reference I mean to the Father and the Son, is I imagine doubtful to no one who is right-minded; and furthermore a necessary argument will convince us thereof. For if a man say that the Spirit is not of the essence of God, how then henceforward would the creature in receiving the Spirit be a partaker of God? And after what manner shall we be entitled temples of |304 God, and be so, if we receive a created or an alien spirit, and not rather That Which is of God? And how are those who have a share of the Spirit partakers of the Divine nature, according to the words of the sacred writers, if He is in the number of the things that are made, and does not rather proceed for us from the Divine nature itself; not passing through it unto us, as something foreign to it, but so to speak becoming in us a certain quality of the Godhead, and dwelling in the saints, and remaining for ever----[as He does] if by cleansing the eye of their understanding by all goodness, and by unyielding earnestness in the pursuit of every virtue, they preserve the grace in their hearts. For Christ says that the Spirit is uncontainable and invisible for them that are in the world, that is, for those that savour of the things in the world, and choose to love the things that are on earth; yet that He is containable and easily beheld by the saints. For what reason? They who have an uncleanness hard to be washed out of them, and who have filled their own mind as it were with some unhealthy humour, do not narrowly consider the beauty of the Divine nature, nor yet accept the law of the Spirit, forasmuch as they are wholly tyrannised over by the passions of the flesh; whereas the good and sober, keeping their heart free from the evils that are in the world, voluntarily induce the Paraclete to dwell within themselves, and after receiving Him keep Him and (so far as it is attainable by men) behold Him spiritually, winning therefrom something large and great and enviable for their prize. For He will sanctify them, and will make them at once fulfillers of all good things, and will release them from the shame of man-befitting slavery, and will endue them with the prerogative of the adoption of sons. And Paul will bear witness to this, saying: And because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. |305
18 I will not leave you desolate: I come unto you.
Of necessity our Lord Jesus the Christ at this point finishes the discourse touching the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity. For He has already shown before, setting forth both words and facts for assurance unto them that love Him, both that He is in His nature God and is begotten of God the Father, and is of equal might and like mind with Him. For to this end He also at one time said: What I speak, I speak not from Myself; and at another time again: If I do not the works of My Father, believe Me not. But if I do them, though ye believe not Me, believe My works. But besides these things it was in no small measure needful also that men should receive the right and irreproachable doctrine with reference to the Holy Spirit Himself; for so might the minds of His hearers be directed wholly unto Tightness of faith. Therefore I will set forth in few words what Christ teaches us by the passage before us. By saying that "Another" shall be sent unto us from God the Father, He once more, in accordance with His careful and wise plan, renders the expression of the faith secure. For it was only likely that some, not rightly understanding what was said, would think that He meant that the Holy Spirit was not of the essence of God (as in fact some of the witless did suppose), but that He was in His nature something different; for to say "Another," among the more ignorant sort at least, might carry the appearance of some such ground for its use. So with intent to exhibit clearly that He does not wish the kind of distinctness which the Spirit possesses to be understood in any other way, save solely in virtue of His being in a peculiar and proper sense that which His Name implies, for the Spirit is a Spirit and not a Son, even as the Son is a Son and not a Father; after saying that the Paraclete shall be sent forth, He promises that He will come Himself; showing that the Spirit is not something other than what He is |306 Himself, forasmuch as He is a proper Spirit proceeding from the Father, and is conceived of as the Son's, and for this cause is also called His Mind. For example, Paul says, signifying withal this very thing: But we have the Mind of Christ. So then, understanding the matter rightly and without all error, and rejecting as ungainly all perversion in any direction contrary to what is reasonable, and following the words of the inspired Scripture, we say that He is not something different from the Son so far as regards natural identity, but the same; yet with characteristics both distinct and personal. For, so understanding it, I imagine, the inspired Paul also oftentimes mingles Them and introduces Either as identical with the Other; the Paraclete, I mean, and the Son. For thou wilt find him saying: But if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His, and again directly after: And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of the sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. Hearest thou how he expressly confesses that they have Christ who have received His Spirit? And he says also in another place: For I think that I also have the Spirit of God. And he who spake this unto us, also says: If ye seek a proof of Christ That speaketh in Me; and oftentimes prays that in us also, who have believed, Christ may dwell by faith, howbeit himself receiving the Holy Spirit. And let no one suppose that we say that he annuls the fixity of name or person in respect of each, or that he says that the Son is not a Son but a Spirit, or at least that he does not know the Spirit as Spirit, but says He is a Son; this was not the aim in his mind, and indeed neither do we so believe. For he knows how to count the Persons of the Holy and Coessential Trinity, and teaches that each of the Persons signified subsists in His proper distinctness: notwithstanding he proclaims clearly that the Holy Trinity is fixed in absolute identity. Else how ean it be that the Spirit is and is called God? For do ye not know, he says, that ye are a temple of God, and |307 the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? But if, forasmuch as the Spirit dwelleth in us, we are made temples of God, how can the Spirit not be of God, i.e. of His Essence, whereas He makes God to dwell in us through Himself? So then by way of showing that the Spirit is not alien from His own Nature, the Only-begotten, having said that the Paraclete is being sent forth from the Father for the Saints, promises that He will come Himself and fill the place of a father, to the end that they be not found like some orphans destitute of the assistance of one to stand forth for them, and for this cause be found henceforth easy to be taken in the snares of the devil, and exceedingly easily assailed by the offences in the world, for all they be many and come as of necessity, by reason of the ungovernable madness of them that bring them to pass. So then for a shield and an irrefragable security unto our souls, the Father has given the Spirit of Christ, to fulfil in us His grace and presence and power. For it were impossible for a man's soul to effect ought that is good, or to have power over its own passions, or to escape the great subtilty of the snare of the devil, if it were not fortified by the grace of the Holy Spirit, and had not Christ Himself by reason thereof within itself. And indeed the inspired Psalmist? composing for us through the wisdom that was in him his thanksgivings on this behalf, cried aloud unto God: Lord, Thou didst crown us as with a shield of favour----meaning by a shield of favour nothing else than the Holy Spirit Who shields us, and constrains us, by gifts of unexpected strength, to [the fulfilling of] the good pleasure of God. And so He promises that none the less He will be present and will help through the Spirit them that believe on Him, albeit He ascend into the very heavens, after His Revival from the dead, now to appear in the presence of God for us, according to the words of Paul. |308
19 Yet a little while and the world beholdeth Me no more; but ye behold Me: because I live, ye shall live also.
Now that the Passion is close at hand, and brings along with it the moment of His Assumption, He says that He will be invisible to the world, that is, to them that value the enjoyment of things temporal before the Divine blessings, and set more store by earthly things than by heavenly. And by way of making our belief to the end thereof kindred and consistent with what has been already said above, we shall be right in saying, that God the Father has given the Paraclete, i.e. the Holy Spirit, of course through the Son; for all things are through Him from the Father. Notwithstanding He has come, not on all indiscriminately, both evil and good, but on them on whom it was fitting He should go forth. For so far forth as touches the most rich and unstinted grace of the Giver, no man of all in the earth remained a non-partaker: For I will pour out, He says in the prophets, of my Spirit on all flesh. Yet each man is unto himself an accessory cause of his possessing or else wholly failing to get the God-given blessing. For some men, because that in no wise do they strive to cleanse their own mind by all goodness, but love exceedingly to dwell in the evils in the world, shall abide non-partakers of the Divine grace, and shall not see Christ in themselves, forasmuch as they have a heart void of the Spirit. For this cause albeit they are ranged on the side of the Protector of the orphans they are torn in pieces by simply everything that is strong enough to overreach, be it a passion or a devil, or yet any other worldly lust, and by everything that can drag them down as it were and overpower them unto sin. Howbeit, unto the holy and them that were purposed to receive Him, He said, as was likely He would, forasmuch as they were going to endure none of those ills, I will not leave you orphans, I am coming unto you. And so He says He shall be invisible and wholly unbeheld by them that mind the |309 things in the world, after His Departure hence, I mean His Ascension into heaven. But He says He will be found visible unto the holy, forasmuch as the Holy Spirit is putting a certain Divine and spiritual flash in the eyes of their heart, and sowing therein all good knowledge.
For we shall either suppose that this is what He means by Yet a little while and the world beholdeth Me no more; but ye behold Me; or else turning aside to a different point of view----especially when there is intertwined with His words the saying Because I live, ye shall live also----we reason somewhat on this wise. For after His Revival from the dead, when He had effected for our nature the return unto that whereunto it existed from the beginning, and had made man incorruptible, He ascended, as it were by way of first-fruits and in the Temple of His own Body first, unto God the Father in heaven. But after in the meanwhile accomplishing a short time, He will descend again, as we believe, and will return again unto us, in the glory of His Father with the Holy Angels, and will set up the appalling tribunal before all men, both evil and good. For all created things shall come to judgment. And rendering becoming awards, corresponding to the life each one has led, He will say to them on the left, i.e. to those that have minded the things in the world: Depart from Me ye cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; howbeit to them on the right, i.e. to the holy and good: Come ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For they shall be with Christ and shall reign with Him, and shall revel in the heavenly blessings, having been made conformable to His Resurrection, and escaped the meshes of the ancient corruption, being endued with the long and ineffable life, and living endlessly with the ever-living Lord. For that they who have practised a life dear to God and exalted, shall be with Christ without ceasing, to wit contemplating His |310 divine and unspeakable beauty, Paul will make clear where he says: For the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord; and again, to them that have chosen to mortify worldly passions: For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, Who is our life, shall be manifested, then shall ye also with Him be manifested in glory. So----for I will sum up the meaning of the Lord's saying----the lovers of the evil things in the world shall go down to Hades and be banished from the presence of Christ; howbeit there shall be with Him and dwell with Him for ever the lovers of virtue, they who have kept inviolate the earnest of the Spirit, and being with Him of a surety they shall also behold His Divine Beauty without all hindrance. For, he says, the Lord shall be thine eternal Light, and God thy glory. And it is also likely that this is what the Lord means to make manifest, when we hear Him saying: Yet a little while and the world beholdeth Me no more; but ye behold Me; because I live ye shall live also. Howbeit in no wise will He speak falsely in saying that the time intervening, before His Revelation as it were, is a little while. For to God Who always is, even what is a long time with us counts utterly for nothing; and the Psalmist will testify this when he says: For a thousand years in Thy sight, O Lord, are but as yesterday that is past, and a watch in the night.
20 In that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you.
The meaning of the passage before us is somewhat hard to reach, and as it were demands that the inquiry applied to it be keen, and imposes very considerable delay on our discourse: howbeit we believe that Christ |311 will once more direct us into truth. Now some, albeit among the number of those once supposed among the impious heretics to be of eminence, refusing malignantly to confess that the Son is of the essence of God the Father, and is therefore in Him, conceive that the union is an accidental one and not one of nature; and in fact they have written----belching forth thereby what proceeds from their own minds, not from the Holy Spirit----that, forasmuch as the Son is loved by the Father, and Himself loves the Father in return, it is after this sort that He is in Him. And these demented men bring as a proof hard to overthrow, the words attached to the clause before us, to wit concerning us and Him; and indeed they say, resting withal their blasphemies on the staff of a reed, that as we are said to be in Him, and have Him in ourselves, and are not united to Him in the matter of our essence, but the manner of the union is determined by our capacity to love and be loved in return; so the Son also, one of them would say, is not at all within the essence of God the Father, but being wholly distinct in the matter of His nature, and being quite differently characterised, is understood to be in the Father solely by virtue of the law of love. For it is their aim, as we said just now, to show that the Only-begotten is an effect and a creature, and produced and honoured merely with His preeminence over the rest of the creatures, notwithstanding He is external to the essence of God the Father.
But forasmuch as concerning this we have already spoken at length, assaying thereby to show to the best of our power, that the Son is by nature in the Father and that the union which He has with Him is substantial, we will forbear further for the present to extend our remarks touching this subject. Howbeit we will not wholly leave as it were the ground of the argument clear for our opponents to overrun, but will set the battle in array against them in a few words, exhibiting so far as possible at once the mischief and the ignorance |312 of their wicked and loathsome artifice; and particularly we will say: If it is solely by reason that He is loved and loves that the Son is in the Father, and if by the same law we are in Him and He in us, and no different bond of union is discernible, whether we consider that which binds the Son to the Father, or us to Him and Him to us: in what sense or on what principle, I pray you, does He say that it is in that day we shall know the mystery of this? For seemingly we do not yet know that the Father loves the Son, and the Son also loves the Father; nor, I suppose, do we yet know our own condition, but a vain calculation mocks us, when we think that the Son loved us, and for this cause won us unto the Father, and that we also loved Him! For when He says In that day ye shall know, He shows that the time of the knowledge is not yet present; then, why did the Lord all in vain make our ears ring with His words: The Father loveth the Son? For that He Himself loves the Father, who will deny? And how, I pray you, said He also that His choosing to suffer in our behalf was a clear proof of His love to us-ward? For greater love hath no man than this, He says, that a man lay down His life for His friends. And why did He manifestly seek for love from us towards Himself, and that for this cause we should be eager to fulfil His good pleasure? For he that loveth Me, He says, will keep My commandments. For when shall we keep the Divine commandment, if at the present we make no account thereof? Forasmuch then as it is fit we believe that the Son loves the Father, and loves us and is beloved by us, how is it not consistent to conceive that the Son has purposed to signify something diverse from this, and not to define the manner of the union by the law of love; or rather that He has manifestly introduced it to us as after some different sort, when He says: In that day ye shall know that I am in My Father and ye in Me and I in you. But peradventure the opponent will answer, that |313 before the Passion Christ said such things as these to us, to wit that He loves the Father and is loved again by the Father, and He loves us also and we Him; but that after the Passion and the Revival from the dead, when we saw that He burst the bonds of death, we learnt that He is in the Father, forasmuch as also He is loved, and for this cause rose from the dead. For this cause also He is in us and we in Him, according to the same law of love.
But we reply: Your opposition is exceeding idle, and wholly without understanding, and a tissue of rotten words. But, excellent Sirs, consider once more that what we knew of a truth before the Resurrection from the dead, there was no need to learn after the Resurrection. For if it was only imperfectly that we believed that the Son is loved of His own Father, and Himself loves the Father, it was indeed necessary to await the Resurrection, with intent we might therefrom have the perfection of knowledge. But if the Father be worthy of belief when He says even before the Resurrection: He is My beloved Son; and if the Saviour Himself also speaks true when He says: The Father loveth the Son; and if the law of love is fittingly to be conceived in its entire perfection; why do ye foolishly strike at us with hard words? And why, thrusting aside the beauty of the Truth, do ye fashion you an unsightly lie, dragging outside of the Father's essence the Son that is of Him and through Him, and withal inventing right rotten words, and contriving tricks of absurd argumentation? For that the Only-begotten loved us, and that we also loved Him, will be open to any one to see with utmost readiness, so he be willing to regard intently the nature of the truth: For being in the form of God the Father, He counted it not a prize to be on an equality with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant. Then what, I pray you, was the ground of such actions? Was it not the law of love towards us? And how is it possible to doubt? And our willingness too on behalf of Christ and |314 readiness to abandon our very life to the persecutors, that we may not deny our own Lord, will it not supply proof to demonstration of our love to Him? But a man will also say that this either is entirely true, or will condemn the Holy Martyrs as having wrought a desperate struggle for Christ for no useful end, and endured so grievous a danger all unrecompensed. So then, whereas it is proved with all clearness that the Father has towards the Son love in perfection, and that in like sort also He loves the Father, and we Him and He us, what reason could there be in supposing that the discernment thereof is referred perchance to other times, when the Lord says: In that day ye shall know that I am in the Father, and ye in Me, and I in you.
For away with their idle talkings and the pretentiousness of their God-hating speculations! But we waxing bold in the consciousness of bearing the torch of the Spirit, will not hesitate to say what seems to be right, with intent to clear up the questions at issue. So then, having said above: Because I live ye shall live also, straightway He is found to have added: In that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you. Then to what man, upright and wont to think rightly, would it not be abundantly clear, that He limits a day, the time to wit of the knowledge hereof, upon which we ourselves also, renovated after His likeness, shall ascend unto eternal life, escaping from the curse of death? And something after this sort the Christ-bearer seems to me to indicate----I mean, Paul----when, revealing to us the Divine Mystery, he writes to some: For ye died and your life is hid with Christ in God; when then Christ, which is your life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory. For He shall transform the body of our humiliation----this body assuredly, and not a diverse----to be conformable unto His glory, and shall transmute the nature of man unto the ancient type with power unspeakable, changing all things easily unto whatsoever He will, none forbidding; for He is very |315 God That maketh all things and changeth the fashion of them, as it is written. So then at that day, or time, when ye also yourselves shall live----for I do live, albeit made man like unto you, and clad with the body which as touching its proper nature is subject to corruption----ye shall recognise clearly, He says, that I am in the Father, and ye in Me, and I in you. And we shall be disposed to think that the Lord said this unto us, not with intent we might suppose that He is in the Father according to the law of love, as indeed our opponents thought fit to believe, but according to the power of a deep mystery, which is also both difficult to conceive, and hard to utter; howbeit I will essay how I may be able to expound it.
Now I hold that the mind of any man on earth is very far from equal to the accurate exposition hereof; notwithstanding, in the fervour of love, albeit with powers of sight and utterance but little whetted, let us now consider the aim of the Incarnation of the Only-begotten. Let us, I pray you, examine the cause, wherefore, being as God in the form of God the Father, He counted it not a prize to be on an equality with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, and endured the cross despising the shame. For in this way the depth of the mysteries before us will be manifest, so far as is possible, howbeit hardly so. But we shall learn how the Son is in the Father, naturally, that is, and not by virtue of the relation of being loved and loving as invented by our opponents; and we again in Him after the same sort, and He in us. Well then, one cause the wise Paul expounded was a true and most general cause of the Incarnation of the Only-begotten, when he said: For God the Father was pleased to gather together in one all things in Christ; and "gathering in one," both the name and the thing, plainly involves the bringing back again and resumption of the things that have digressed to an unconformable end unto what they were in the beginning. Then desiring to put before us in a clear |316 light the methods of the gathering in detail, at one time he said: For what the Law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the ordinance of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit; and at another again: Since then the children are sharers in flesh and blood, He also Himself in like manner partook of the same; that through death He might bring to nought him that had the power of death, that is the devil; and might deliver all them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. And herein we have two methods of the gathering together which Paul expounded the doctrine of the Incarnation of the Only-begotten as of necessity involving; but a further method, inclusive of the others, was set forth by the wise Evangelist John. For he writes thus touching Christ: He came unto His own, and they that were His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on His Name: which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. So then it is abundantly evident and manifest I conceive unto all, that it was for these causes especially that, being by nature God and of God, the Only-begotten has become man; namely with intent to condemn sin in the flesh, and by His own Death to slay Death, and to make us Sons of God, regenerating in the Spirit them that are on earth unto supernatural dignity. For it was, I trow, exceeding good, after this sort to gather together again into one and to recover unto the ancient estate the sore-stumbled race, to wit, the human. Again, let us set each of the causes just given side by side with the Lord's saying, and thereupon make such remarks that seem fit. For we must inquire in what sense it may be seemly to conceive that God the Father condemned sin in the flesh by sending His own Son in |317 likeness of sinful flesh. For albeit the Son were by nature God and had shone forth from His essence and possessed naturally the immutability of His proper being, and for this cause in no wise could stumble into sin, or turn aside anywhither into what is not right, the Father caused him voluntarily to descend into the flesh that is subject to sin, with intent that making very flesh His own, He might bring it over unto His own natural property, to wit, sinlessness. For, I conceive, we shall not be right in believing that it was with intent to effect this for the Temple of His own Body alone that the Only-begotten has been made man; for where were the glory and profit of His Advent unto us to be seen, if He accomplished the salvation of His own Body alone? But we believe rather that it was to secure the benefits for all nature through Himself and in Himself first as in the firstfruits of humanity, that the Only-begotten has become like us. For like as we have followed after not only death but all the sufferings of the flesh, undergoing this suffering in the first man by reason as well of the transgression as of the divine curse; after the same sort, I conceive, shall we all of us follow Christ, as He saves in many ways and sanctifies the nature of the flesh in Himself. Wherefore also Paul said: And as we love the image of the earthy, we shall bear also the image of the heavenly. For the image of the earthy, to wit of Adam, is to be in sufferings and corruption; and the image of the heavenly, to wit of Christ, is to be in impassibility and incorruption. So then the Word being God by nature condemned sin in His own flesh, by charging it to cease its activity, or rather so amending it as that it should move after the good pleasure of God, and no longer at its own will; and so whereas the body was natural, He made it spiritual. This then is one method of the gathering together; but the method that is most befitting and appropriate to the drift of the passage before us shall follow it. And it will be our task to speak touching eternal life and the slaying of Death, and how |318 the Only-begotten removed from human nature the corruption that came of the transgression. Therefore forasmuch as the children are partakers of blood and flesh, He also in like manner took part in the same with intent to slay Death, and that He that created all things unto immortality and made the generations of the world healthful, according as it is written, might remould once more the fashion of things unto their ancient estate.
And once again, albeit my argument be more minute than behoves, yet, as it needs must, it shall proceed, setting forth the ancient condition of our estate. For I conceive the sincere purpose to grasp the meaning of the words before us, will wholly escape the dangers that come of mere loitering. So then this rational creature upon earth, I mean man, was made from the beginning after the image of Him that created him, according to the Scriptures; and the meaning of image is various. For an image may be, not after one sort, but after many; howbeit the element of the likeness to God that made him, which is far the most manifest of all, was his incorruptibility and indestructibility. But never, I conceive, would the creature have been sufficient unto himself to be so, merely by virtue of the law of his own nature; for how could he that is of the earth in his own nature have been shown to possess the glory of incorruption, unless it were from the God that is by nature both incorruptible and indestructible and ever the same, that he was enriched with this boon in like manner as with all others? For what hast thou that thou didst not receive? saith somewhere unto us the inspired Paul, with exceeding reason and truth. With intent then that what was once brought into being out of that which is not, might not, by sinking back to its own original, once more vanish into nothing, but rather be preserved evermore----for this was the aim of Him that created it----God makes it partaker of His own nature. For He breathed into his face the breath of life, i.e. the Spirit of the Son, for He is Himself the Life with the Father, |319 holding all things together in being. For the things that are receptive of life both move in Him and live, according to the words of Paul.
And let none of us found hereupon any words of false teaching, by supposing that we said that the Divine inbreathing has become a soul unto the living creature; for this we deny, guided unto the truth of the matter by such reasoning as this. If any suppose that the Divine inbreathing became a soul, let him tell us whether it was turned aside from its own nature and has been made into a soul, or has it remained in its own identity? For if they say it has been on anywise changed and that it traversed the law of its own nature, they will be convicted of blasphemy; for they will say that the immutable and ever-unchanging Nature is altogether mutable; whereas if it was in no wise turned aside, but has ever remained what it always was, after coming forth from God, to wit His inbreathing, how did it deflect unto sin, and become susceptible of so great diversity of passions? For, I trow, they would not say that there is, in anywise, in the Divine Nature the possibility of transgression. But to get over the words due to the subject before us without using lengthy proofs, I say we must repeat this once again and say,----that no one, I imagine, rightly minded would suppose that the Breath which proceeded from the Divine Essence became the creature's soul, but that after the creature was ensouled, or rather had attained unto the propriety of its perfect nature by means of both, soul and body to wit, then like a stamp of His own Nature the Creator impressed on it the Holy Spirit, i. e. the Breath of Life, whereby it became moulded unto the archetypal Beauty, and completed after the image of Him that created it, enabled unto every form of excellence, by virtue of the Spirit given to dwell in it. But whereas, being free of will, and entrusted with the reins of its own purposes----for this also is an element in the image, forasmuch as God has power over His own purposes----it turned and has |320 fallen----but how this came to pass the Holy Scripture must teach you, for the account of it therein is plain----God the Father both determined and took in hand to gather together once more in Christ the nature of man unto its ancient estate, and willing it accomplished it withal. So then it naturally follows that we should observe how it has come to pass. It was not otherwise possible for man, forasmuch as he was of a nature that was perishing, to escape death, save by recovering that ancient grace, and partaking once more in God Who holdeth all things together in being and preserveth them in life through the Son in the Spirit. Therefore He hath become partaker of blood and flesh, i.e. He hath become man, being by nature Life, and begotten of the Life that is by nature, i.e. of God the Father----to wit, His Only-begotten Word, with intent that ineffably and inexpressibly and as He alone could skill to do, uniting Himself with the flesh that by the law of its own nature was perishing, He might bring it back unto His own Life and make it through Himself partaker of God the Father. For He is Mediator between God and men, according as it is written, knit unto God the Father naturally as God and of Him, and again unto men as man; and withal having in Himself the Father and being Himself in the Father; for He is the impress and effulgence of His Person, and not distinct from the Essence, whereof He is impress and wherefrom He proceeds as effulgence; but both being Himself in It, and having It in Himself; and again having us in Himself according as He wears our nature and our body has become entitled the Body of the Word. For the Word was made flesh, according to the utterance of John. And He wears our nature, remoulding it unto His own Life. And He is also Himself in us; for we have all been made partakers of Him, and have Him in ourselves through the Spirit; for, for this cause we have Both, being made partakers of the Divine Nature, and are entitled sons, after this sort having in us also the Father Himself through the Son. |321 And Paul will testify hereof where he says: Because ye are sons God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. For His Spirit is not something diverse from the Son, I mean as touching the law of identity, to wit, identity of nature.
This being the result of the progress of our discourse of these things, let us now take the meaning of what has been set forth, and adapt it to the interpretation of our Saviour's words: For in that day ye shall know, He says, that I am in the Father, and ye in Me, and I in you. For I live Myself, He says, for I am Life by nature, and have shown the Temple of My own Body alive; but when ye also yourselves, albeit ye are of a corruptible nature, shall behold yourselves living in like manner as I do, then indeed ye shall know exceeding clearly, that I, being Life by nature, did knit you through Myself unto God the Father, Who is also Himself by nature Life, making you partakers as it were and sharers in His Incorruption. For naturally am I in the Father----for I am the Fruit of His Essence and Its real Offspring, subsisting in It, having shone forth from It, Life of Life----and ye are in Me and I in you, forasmuch as I appeared as a man Myself, and made you partakers of the Divine Nature by putting My Spirit to dwell in you. For Christ is in us through the Spirit, converting that which has a natural tendency to corruption into incorruption, and transferring it from the condition of dying unto that which is otherwise. Wherefore also Paul says that He that raised Jesus Christ from the dead, shall quicken also your mortal bodies, through His Spirit that dwelleth in you. For albeit the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, yet He comes through the Son, and is His Own; for all things are through the Son from the Father. For that it was through the Spirit we were wrought anew unto eternal life, the Divine Psalmist will bear us record, when he cries as unto the God of all: When Thou openest Thine Hand, all things shall be filled with goodness; when |322 Thou turnest away Thy Face they shall be troubled; Thou shalt take away their breath and they shall fail and shall turn again to their dust. Thou shalt send forth Thy Spirit and they shall be made, and Thou shalt renew the face of the earth. Hearest thou how the transgression that was in Adam, and the "turning away" as it were from the Divine precepts, sore troubled the nature of man, and made it return to its own earth? But when God sent forth His Spirit, and made us partakers of His own Nature, and through Him renewed the face of the earth, we were transfigured unto newness of life, casting off the corruption that comes of sin, and once more grasping eternal life, through the grace and love towards mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom and with Whom unto God the Father, be glory with the Holy Spirit unto the ages. Amen.
[End of the ninth book.]
[Page running titles]
168 Jesus was the Prophet foretold by Moses.
The title "Prophet" befits His human nature. 169
170 The Word is a Prophet, for He reveals the Father.
Christ's Divine dignity maintained. 171
172 The difficult verse, S. John xiii. 1, explained.
The infinite love of Christ. 173
174 The Apostles' position might have made them proud.
Christ taught humility to them and to us. 175
176 S. Peter's conduct explained.
The Lord's wisdom in teaching. 177
178 Explanation of S. Peter s conduct.
Lessons to be learned from it. 179
180 Christ's covert allusion to Judas.
Divine forbearance towards sinners. 181
182 Consideration of Christ's humility.
Christ is truly "Lord" and "Master." 183
184 Christ's own explanation of His conduct.
Ignorance lessens guilt. 185
186 Works must accompany faith.
Difficulties found in this passage. 187
188 Free-will in men and in angels.
God must not be blamed for man's sin. 189
190 Fulfilment of prophecy no excuse for sin.
The real design of 'prophecy. 191
192 Our Lord's words imply their converse.
Weakness of human language. 193
194 Anthropomorphisms are necessary.
Alarm of the disciples. 195
196 Question asked by S. John for S. Peter.
Treachery of Judas. Happiness of S. John. 197
198 The pure S. John saw Christ's glory.
Craftiness of the evil one. 199
200 How the devil should be resisted.
Danger of yielding to evil thoughts. 201
202 Christ addressed Satan in Judas,
foreknowing His own victory. 203
204 Explanation of Christ's words,
which the disciples misunderstood. 205
206 Duty of unselfishness at feasts.
Satan hastens Judas, lest he should repent. 207
208 Best teaching is for best disciples.
Christ was often glorified before. 209
210 Christ's Passion brought Him, greatest glory.
Father and Son glory in each other. 211
212 Men are as nothing compared with God.
When absent as Man, Christ is present as God. 213
214 Christ foretold His departure,
that the disciples might be prepared for it. 215
216 The Law of Moses was good,
but Christ's commandments are better. 217
218 Christ loved others better than Himself,
and we must imitate Him. 219
220 Love is the chief Christian grace.
Love is the mark of Christ's disciples. 221
222 Love is the Pleroma of Law.
S. Peter spoke for all the disciples. 223
224 Christ's thoughtfulness in teaching.
A twofold signification. 225
226 He foreshadows Peter's death.
Peter misapprehends His meaning. 227
228 The desire of the disciples to die with Him.
Christ's consideration for Peter. 229
230 We should avoid rash vows.
The disciples doubt their own strength. 231
232 Christ infuses due confidence.
Faith protects in temptation. 233
234 Nature of Faith in the Holy Trinity.
The reward of endurance. 235
236 Christ first entered heaven,
that we might follow. 237
238 We shall thus join the angels.
Jesus is the Way. 239
240 We must not reject Christ--the Way.
Christ selects His appellations. 241
242 How Christ is
the Way, the Truth, and the Life. 243
244 A knowledge of the Son
begets a knowledge of the Father. 245
246 Christ is very God.
An assurance to comfort the disciples. 247
248 The assurance was general.
Christ's works conveyed knowledge of the Father. 249
250 Christ revealed the Son.
man has seen God. 251
252 The arguments of the Jews
perhaps prompted Philip's request. 253
254 The vision is not corporeal.
The falsity of heretical arguments. 255
256 Christ is necessarily Himself God.
The Son is uncreate. 257
258 Christ is God of God.
God's Nature not manifested. 259
260 Christ is the perfect manifestation
of the Nature of the Father. 261
262 The Godhead is One.
The Father works in the Son. 263
264 The identity of Nature
of Father and Son. 265
266 Heretical opinions render
further investigation necessary. 267
268 The Son is not "encompassed"
by the Father. 269
270 If the Son be "encompassed"
then the Father also is so. 271
272 The heretical analogy is incorrect.
The Son----like the Father----is God. 273
274 Christ is Divine,
since He is superior to man. 275
276 The Son is begotten of the Father,
and is of His Essence. 277
278 The saying of S. Paul
to the Athenians considered. 279
280 The Scriptural meaning of
"in God" and "by God." 281
282 The heretical argument
shown to be absurd. 283
284 He that denieth the Son
denieth the Father. 285
286 We are in the Son in one way,
the Son is in the Father in another way. 287
288 How we are in God.
The Father and the Son are Consubstantial. 289
290 A natural illustration,
The identity of works. 291
292 The Lord's words
forestall perverse criticism. 293
294 Christ's perfect glory is disclosed
after His humiliation. 295
296 The Godhead is One.
The Son is the Way. 297
298 Love gives the necessary disposition
to ask aright. 299
300 The words of the Son are His Own.
Christ speaks both as God and Man. 301
302 Christ is a Paraclete.
The Spirit is of the Father and the Son. 303
304 The worldly-minded receive not the Spirit.
The necessity of a right faith in the Holy Spirit. 305
306 The Spirit is One
with the Son. 307
308 The Paraclete is offered to all,
but received only by some. 309
310 The reward of virtue.
The union of Father and Son is not accidental. 311
312 The Union is not by the law of love,
since Christ says "in that day." 313
314 The Mystery will only be comprehended
"in that day"; i.e. of our Resurrection. 315
316 Causes of the Incarnation.
He was Incarnate for our sakes. 317
318 Man was created in God's Image
by the inbreathing of the Spirit. 319
320 Mans fall and redemption.
Christ is in us through the Spirit. 321
322 Newness of life comes by the Spirit.
[All of the footnotes moved to the end and renumbered. The margin contains mainly biblical references and fragments of Greek. These have been omitted, apart from one reference to Aeschylus]
1. a Adopting Mr. P. E. Pusey's conjecture of ἡσθήσεται.
2. b Adopting Mr. Pusey's conjecture of εἰ γὰρ μή.
3. c From this place to the end of the period the original is obscure, partly owing to a lacuna in the manuscripts.
4. Aesch. P.V.263, Eccl. v. 4.
5. d Reading μετ̕ ἐμαυτοῦ instead of Mr. Pusey's μεθ̕ ἑαυτοῦ.
This text was transcribed by Roger Pearse, 2005. All material on this page is in the public domain - copy freely.
Greek text is rendered using unicode. Note that the chapter numbers and titles are part of the original work, as is the table of them at the start of the book. The numerals on verses of John are added by the translator.
Early Church Fathers - Additional Texts
SOURCE SECTION: cyril_on_john_10_book10.htm
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, LFC 43, 48 (1874/1885). Book 10. Vol. 2 pp. 323-452.
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, LFC 43, 48 (1874/1885). Book 10. Vol. 2 pp. 323-452.
[Translated by T. Randell]
|323
CHAPTERS IN THE TENTH BOOK.
1. That in nothing is the Son inferior to God the Father, but rather equal to and like Him in nature; on the words: If ye loved Me, ye would have rejoiced, because I go unto the Father: for the Father is greater than I.
2. That the Son is Consubstantial with God the Father, and not of an alien or foreign nature; on the words: I am the Vine, ye are the branches, and My Father is the husbandman. |324
OUR FATHER AMONG THE SAINTS,
CYRIL,
Archbishop of Alexandria,
ON THE
GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN.
BOOK X.
[Introduction]
21 He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself unto him.
Our Saviour here says that the revelation of the mystery in us will then be clearest when we see ourselves living in conformity with His likeness. For as I live, He says, ye shall live also; the mind of each being fulfilled as it were not with what he has heard and believed merely, but rather with what he actually enjoys, when he has reached the completion of the promise. For experience is more powerful than language in ability to convince and satisfy. That we may not think that all without distinction are endowed with the power to partake of so holy a blessing, even though they be not good men and illuminated by the fear of God, He has added at once to His speech the qualification, "they that love Me;" clearly showing thereby that no others will be allowed to choose so incomparable a grace, but those who have chosen to live most righteously: for they would be "those that love Him." For even if it be the fact that Christ raises the bodies of all men, for there will be a resurrection of the evil and the good alike, yet not to all without distinction will a new life of glory and felicity be given. For it is clear that some only rise again to punishment, and will have a life more grievous than any death, while others spending ages of blessedness, will actually live the desirable and holy |325 life in Christ. For that they who are doomed to receive the sentence of punishment from Christ on the occasion of the judgment, will abide without a taste of the blessed life, although they shared with the Saints the lot of resurrection, He makes plain by these words: He that believeth on the Son hath eternal life, but he that obeyeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God shall abide on Him. For know that although while all the evil and the good alike await the resurrection, He says that those who are fast bound by the charge of disobedience cannot even attain to a glimpse of the life, as He declares that it is not the mere act of resurrection that is life, but that that life rather consists in rest and glory and felicity, spiritual of course and of no other kind. A spiritual kind of felicity is meant, the perfect knowledge of God and the complete revelation of the mysteries of Christ, not as in a glass and in riddles, even as now showing the characters of the object of our quest dimly, but shining out to us and glistening in perfect purity and making our knowledge quite complete. For that which is in part shall be done away, as Paul says.
Our Lord Jesus Christ then, when He teaches us that to those who choose to love Him and to those who do His commandments is the promise of His revelation given, and to them it is more appropriate and pertinent, and not to those who are otherwise minded and who do the contrary, has conveyed this useful lesson in the words: He that hath My commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me. And a man has His commands when he has received the faith, and, laying it to heart, has let into his inmost soul the unpolluted and unmistakeable teaching of the Gospel commandments. And he fulfils them by carrying them out into actuality, and by making haste to distinguish himself by the light of his actions. Such a man then is perfect and wholly wedded to righteousness, a shining light by his faith and conduct, who has witness borne him of his holiness after |326 the pattern of Christ. For At the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established, according to the Scripture. A man of this sort again, God the Father will surely love, and no less also the Son will love him. For as He is of the same Substance, so also has He the same Will as His Father. For as the Substance is one the Will also is one, and there is one purpose over all, and there is no discord severing Their Wills in twain. For to those who are thought worthy of the Divine love He promises that He will give a glorious reward and that He will crown them with exceeding great blessings. For I will manifest Myself unto him, He says. For to the pure in heart the mystery of the Godhead will be clearly revealed, and Christ gives them light, illuminating the path of every duty by His Spirit, and unveiling Himself and making Himself visible as it were by the ineffable torchlight of the soul. And those who have made their choice once for all are blessed and worthy of all admiration. And methinks the prophet David was a man after this sort when he says, I will hear what the Lord God will say in me. And so is also the Divine Apostle when he exhorts us, saying, If ye seek a proof of Christ that speaketh in me; for He speaks of things concerning Himself in His Saints by His Spirit; yea, reveals other mysteries besides. Therefore it is true that knowing these things well, the Saints sometimes say, Unto us God revealed them through the Spirit; sometimes, But we have the mind of Christ, meaning by His mind His Spirit.
22 Judas (not Iscariot) saith unto Him, Lord, what is come to pass that Thou wilt manifest Thyself unto us, and not unto the world?
It is out of love that the disciple proceeds to make this inquiry, but he clearly does not quite understand our Saviour's language. For our Lord Jesus Christ promised to His Saints a kind of special knowledge and not like that vouchsafed to others. For the characters of Divine |327 mysteries are more defined and shine out far more clearly among the men of God: while those who have not yet attained to such purity of heart as to be able definitely to choose the knowledge of those things which pass understanding by the gift of the Spirit, display their knowledge in bare logical processes, and it is limited to their chance acquaintance with the doctrine that Christ is God and truly the Son of the living God. Although then there lies this vast difference between them, widely dissevering the knowledge of the vulgar from that which is seen in the Saints, the disciple, making no distinction, proceeds to inquire why He does not promise to reveal Himself to all in the world, but only to the Saints. And by the exclamation, How comes it to pass? he means to hint at some such meaning as this: Is the aim of Thy coming amongst us, Lord, to give to some a complete knowledge of Thyself, which to others is wholly denied? For we heard in the prophets that all flesh shall see the salvation of God, and Thou Thyself didst cry out, saying, Rejoice and be glad, daughter of Sion, for lo! I come and shall dwell in thy midst, saith the Lord, and all nations shall flee to the Lord on that day and shall be His people. And when we had continual converse with Thee, we heard with our own ears Thy voice when Thou didst say unto us, I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Myself; and Thou saidst also to the Jews themselves, And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they shall become one flock, one shepherd. Now then, when the expectation is raised that Thy grace will be poured upon all men and that all will be gathered in to the knowledge of God, and when Thou Thyself hast made us this clear promise and the voice of the holy prophets bears this testimony----What is come to pass? cries the Apostle. Whither has the purpose of the promise then shifted and diverted? Why dost Thou manifest Thyself not to all that are in the world but only to us? This then and no other I think |328 is the meaning of the disciple's words. It is well to show what it was that in fact led him astray from truly apprehending our Saviour's words.
For when our Lord Jesus Christ used the words, A little while, and, the world beholdeth Me no more; but ye behold Me, it is very clear that by the world He did not at all mean those who are in this life or living upon the earth, for all men are in this world, evil and good alike: but by the world He rather meant those who are persuaded to mind earthly; things, who have yoked their understanding to the vanity of the world. The disciple then, not quite understanding this, thought that He said that of all the rest of mankind who dwell in this earthly sphere He would escape the eye, I mean the inner and secret vision of the soul, and would be wholly unseen, and known by no living man but His disciples only; and this was the cause of the disciple's misapprehension. For if he had understood at first, he would never have proceeded to ask, What is come to pass that Thou wilt manifest Thyself unto us, and not unto the world? For he had this meaning I have spoken of suggested to him through his taking the signification of the word in its common and generally-received sense. For we are accustomed to mean by the world, using it in its well-worn and obvious sense, all the inhabitants of the world, just as when one speaks of the city one means all the dwellers in it. Still the disciple, even when he says these words, deserves our admiration. For see how he longs that the glory of the Saviour should shine forth through all the world like the sun, although if he had only been taking thought for his own personal welfare, he might, as he had the promise of knowledge, have enjoyed blessings peculiar to himself. But it was not enough to gratify his soul that the boon should be granted as it were to him individually, but because he was at once a lover of God and of his fellow men he longs for the glory of the Saviour to have a wider field and that grace should be extended to all his brethren. |329 For what joy can equal the being called to the complete knowledge of God?
23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love Me, he will keep My word: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
When He saw that the disciple did not quite understand, He goes back again to what He said at first, and teaches clearly that He will not manifest Himself to His own, according to the conception he had formed in his mind, but that the manner of His manifestation will be special to His disciples, and not that common to the rest of mankind. For the vulgar, and those, for instance, who have just escaped from the deceitfulness of idols and have been called to the knowledge of the Living God, rest their faith on bare and unquestioned axioms, merely having learnt to know that there is no idol in the world, and that the Living God is One only; while they who have their minds illumined by every virtue and are already in a state to fitly apprehend Divine and hidden mysteries, will receive the torch of the Spirit, and will behold with the eyes of the soul the Lord Himself, Who has taken up His abode in them. The knowledge therefore that the Saints possess is not common to the rest, but is in a manner special and distinct and widely diverse. Christ then benefits us by every kind of word and way. For, first of all, anyone that loves Him is very broadly distinguished from the rest, showing as it seems to me, and as I justly apprehend, that it has not been given to all men to receive the power of His grace, but only to those in whom the glory of intimate connexion with Him may be seen indwelling through their keeping His commandments.
Then in what way He will declare Himself and how He will take up His abode in them He goes on to declare. For My Father will love him, He says. For any man who has honoured by his obedience to the Son the Father from Whom He springs, will reap His love as |330 the fruit of his conduct. Then He clearly shows what will be the issue thereof and what profit such a man will gain when He says, I and the Father will come unto him and make Our abode with him. For when our Saviour Christ dwells in us by the Holy Spirit, surely there too will be also His Father; for the Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of the Father Himself also, and the inspired Paul at one time speaks of the Spirit as belonging to the Father, and at another as belonging to the Son: not by way of logical contradiction, but rather saying what is true of either, for it is so in fact. He says then to some: He that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall quicken also your mortal bodies through His Spirit that dwelleth in you. Then again, And because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Do you see that the same Spirit is of the Father and the Son? When then the Only-begotten dwells in your hearts, the Father is not far from you: for the Son hath in Himself the Father, being of one substance with Him, and is Himself by nature in the Father.
This then we may give as the definition and incontrovertible doctrine of the faith; and I should be glad to question thereupon those who have chosen heretical opinions from excess of ignorance and who arm their tongues with conceits about the Spirit. For what have they to answer when we say to them, "If the Spirit is created and alien to the substance of God, as you say, how can God abide in us through Him? And how can he that receiveth the Spirit partake of God?" For if it is within the bounds of possibility by the agency of any created being whatever for us to partake of the ineffable Divine Nature, what can be found to hinder God the Father thrusting aside the Spirit and by means of any other created being that He chooses to select dwelling in us and sanctifying us? But this is impossible: for no one can partake of the living God by any other means than by the Spirit. The Spirit therefore is God and of |331 God, and is not numbered among creatures, as some think.
This consideration also must be taken into account. That which partakes of anything as being superior in nature and distinct from what it is itself must of necessity be different in nature from that which is partaken of. If then the Spirit is created or made, what remains for the sum of creation to partake of? Surely not itself! For in that case both that which partakes and that which is partaken of would alike owe their origin to a creator. But as it is, we being by nature both created and begotten partake of the Spirit as being different in nature from ourselves. The Spirit therefore is not created. And if this is true, and it is true, the Spirit is God and of God, as we have said. For nothing that exists can escape being included in the category of created things except the living God alone, from Whom the Holy Spirit, ineffably proceeding, dwelleth in us as He from Whom He springs. For He is an attribute of His Substance, and as it were a quality of His holiness.
So much for my controversy with these heretics. But as against the Anomoeans and those who have resolved on war with the Son, who are diseased with a like and kindred madness to these which we have just spoken of, I will refute them as briefly as possible. If a man love Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love Him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him. What, then, my good Sirs, have you to say if any one chooses to inquire and desires to know of you whether we shall have two Gods indwelling in us, the Father and the Son, or whether you conceive of one God as really existing in us. For if the Son is wholly distinct in nature and is conceived of as having a separate nature, how can we avoid believing that there is a duality of Gods in us when we keep His commandment? And if we are temples of one, that is, and not of two Gods, when the Father and the Son take up Their abode in us, how can you prove that the two coalesce |332 unto unity in us, as, according to your crazy notion, identity of nature is out of the question? For either you must say that Christ has told us falsehoods, and that the Father only dwells in us by the Spirit, or He Himself dwells in us and the Father is absent. But this is absurd, and there is one God in us when we receive both. The Only-begotten then will appear to be not different in substance from His Father, but of Him and in Him, as the light includes the effulgence which proceeds from it. Such, and no other, is the true meaning of the mystery. And certainly the inspired Paul did not call us temples of two Gods, but clearly of one and the same. Know ye not, he says, that ye are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? You see that making the Father and Son coalesce in identity of Substance he says that we have been made temples not of Gods but of one God. Why then do you bring your rash arguments into conflict with the power of the truth, and sow the seed of your poisonous impiety in those who are wont heedlessly to handle the holy and inspired writings?
24 He that loveth Me not keepeth not My words.
When He has premised and rightly defined who those that love Him are, and of what blessings they will partake, He at once proceeds to treat of others who have not yet chosen to love Him. "For they will not keep My words," He says; for this is the meaning of the saying, "he will not keep My word," spoken as if of and concerning one man, even though it has a broad and generic signification. And this that He says has a very apt connexion with what precedes. For, if the keeping of His commandments or His Word is a clear proof of love towards Him, surely the converse of this will be true. For treating His bidding as of no account and thrusting His commandment aside will be a sign that we refuse to love Him, as these are the acts of men inured to evil-doing. But just as He promised that |333 together with God the Father He would Himself abide with those who keep His laws, for the same reason, I think, He will pass away from and wholly abandon those who do the reverse. For thus the truth of Solomon's saying will be seen: Into the soul of him that maketh iniquity wisdom will not enter, nor dwell in the body given over to sin. For in common life you can observe that a similar result follows: for does not a man gain repute by conversing with those who are likeminded and who choose the same path of life, rather than with others? And Every creature loves his like, according to the saying, and Man will seek union with his like. And if it seems most desirable even among ourselves to live with those of similar habits to ourselves, how can we escape the reflection that this is still more the case with God? For as He is good by nature and the beginning and source of all virtue, He takes up His abode not in the lovers of wickedness but in the workers of virtue, and disdains the impure, and with good reason. As then we ourselves are naturally eager to rid our houses of filth and stench if any such there be, disdaining to live in them, will not the pure and all-holy God still more disdain the polluted soul, and abominate a heart sunk in the slough of sin? Of this there can be no question. For that he that doth not keep His commandment will be found among these and not elsewhere, being as he is impure and of filthy lusts, our speculation will perforce teach you. For in not keeping the Divine commands the origin of sin is found.
For just as the deprivation of light introduces its opposite, I mean darkness, just so refusing to do virtuous acts causes wickedness to spring up. For inasmuch as the subject-matter that underlies them is one and the same, things diverse from each other in quality may admit of comparison (I am far from saying they are identical) according to the law of contraries.
And so vice and virtue are separate and widely |334 opposed to each other in quality, or how could one speak without falling into error? But both characters cannot belong to any one among us in the same relation and be fulfilled in action. For either a man is good or bad, though he may not have reached the height of iniquity or virtue. Then when the one principle is powerful within us, the other, that is the opposite, will be weak. And so if the formal principle of virtue consist in keeping His commandments, is it not most plain that in not keeping them wickedness originates? Just as to have in himself the Father and the Son, which is the origin and basis of all satisfaction of soul and glory, is in store for him that keeps His commandments, so he that keepeth them not is wholly cut off from participation in the ineffable Divine nature; which is, in effect, incapacity to enjoy any blessing. If any man then think it a good and desirable thing to partake of the Divine nature and to have God Who is the Father of the universe indwelling and abiding in the shrine of the heart by His Son, in the Spirit, let him thoroughly purge his soul, and wash away the stain of wickedness, by whatever means he can; and most of all, by all kinds of well-doing. For then will he become truly the temple of God; and He will rest and abide in him, according to the Scripture. For then it will not be with him as it was with the lawyer mentioned in the Gospels, who did not wait for grace from the Saviour, but said that he went self-called to follow Him; and, eager to seize so desirable a blessing, exclaimed, Master, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest: but what said Christ to him as in a parable and in riddles, The foxes have holes and the birds of the heaven have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His Head. By foxes and birds of the heaven He meant wicked and unclean devils, and the spirits of the world and of the air, which love to dwell and take up their abode in the hearts of pleasure-seekers, fulfilling their own lusts, and so cramping the miserable souls of those who receive them that |335 God can find no place at all for rest in them. This is what He means by laying His Head.
Let us then cleanse our hearts from every defilement, for so will God dwell in us and will render us proof against all the malice of the devil, and will make us happy and blessed, and will render us partakers of His ineffable Divine nature.
24 And the word which ye hear is not Mine but the Father's Who sent Me.
He once more deals with a difficult subject which required of Him accurate explanation, and again brings forward illustrations by which they might have their understanding better fitted to fully comprehend the depth of the mystery. And He confirms the minds of His hearers in order that they might not be allured by the ignorant prejudices of the Jews, and in their desire to bring their own ideas into conformity with the Jewish do despite unto the holy teaching of the Gospel. What I wish to say is this in plain words: For the law having a shadow and an impressed type until a time of reformation, according to the saying of Paul, hath been our tutor to bring us unto Christ, and provided, as it were, a preliminary training for virtue according to godliness. If any one then were to call the Mosaic dispensation preparatory to true worship in Spirit, he would not miss the mark. For, for this reason, the Law brought nothing to perfection; but our Lord Jesus Christ showed us no longer the shadows of things, but the reality itself openly, no longer sketching the outline of virtue in types and figures, as Moses did, but setting it up naked in the public sight, accomplishing the perfect man in righteousness. The instruction of the words of Christ was then a shifting and moulding of the types into truth. And since, as the truth was already shining forth, it was superfluous for the shadow any longer to prevail, Christ ordained that those who came to Him by faith should no longer frame their conduct by the types |336 of the Law. This was very grievous to the Jews, for they thought that Christ came to destroy the old Law, although they heard Him saying openly, I come not to destroy the Law, but to fulfil. For I say unto you, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the Law till all things be accomplished. The realisation of excellence which was introduced by the laws of Christ brings with it the fulfilment of the shadow of the Law, as we have just said. For inasmuch as in their headstrong passion they became backsliders into disobedience, and assuming a zeal for the Law not according to knowledge, they thought themselves to be advocating the Law by rejecting the commandments of Christ, it was for this very reason in order that He might not seem to any to be laying down some new and peculiar laws adverse to the will of God the Father He conveyed this useful and necessary rebuke----The word which ye hear is not Mine, but the Father s Who sent Me. Let not any one of those who come to Me by faith, He says, think that I have made any discourse not in accord with the will of God the Father. The tidings of the Gospel are His and not another's, but He gave them not as ashamed of the older enactments, nor again as though the better commandment had been unveiled at the moment; but rather because the type had been moulded into reality at the fitting time. For He That said those things by Me to the men of old time says this also now to you: for I am the living Word That interprets the ineffable Will of God the Father, wherefore am I called the Angel of great counsel.
For either after this manner we shall receive the saying, I mean the following ---- The word which ye hear is not Mine, but the Father s Who sent Me, or we shall understand it in another way. For He says that His own word is the word of God the Father, that they who keep it may know that they honour God when they are persuaded by the words which come from Him: while others, falling into the contrary extreme and not |337 disdaining by disobedience to insult the commandment given to them, sin against the nature of the Most Highest. Now it was possible in two ways to confirm the minds of His hearers: for either the wish to honour God would incline them at all events to obedience, or the fear of coming into conflict with Him would also have this effect. For the calculation of what is useful and expedient runs through both methods. And when He says, "It is not My word," He does not at all put out of our sight the peculiar character which He bears as the Word and God. And, while He still wears His homely shape, and appears and truly is in the guise of manhood, and is really like as we are when He is saying this, He is not willing that His word should be thought merely human, but really Divine and regal; of necessity merging His character in that of the Father, in order that He might not by sundering Himself admit the conception of two Sons, as the Son is one and the same both before and after His Incarnation. For Christ is one, and not two, as some say: for the Word proceeding from the Father, being God, became flesh according to the saying of John not by conversion into flesh, but by enshrining His divinity in flesh from the womb of the holy virgin. In order then that we may not think His word is merely human, or divest the Gospel teaching of its Divine character, but may be convinced that it comes from the God Who is over all, appropriately and with great reason, inasmuch as He was then appearing to them in the form of man, He attributes His words to His Divine Nature, as in the character of God the Father, from Whom and in Whom He is by nature as His effulgence and His word and the Express Image of His Person.
25, 26 These things have I spoken unto you, while yet abiding with you. But the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send unto you in My Name, He shall teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said.
Contrariwise, His speech has in it the human element, and is not quite foreign to the standards we apply to |338 ourselves, to the extent that the mind into which it entered was fitted to receive the words before us. Perhaps some one will plausibly say that Christ is not amongst us according to the power of His Godhead, although He fills the Universe and is not wholly separated from anything, but rather encompasses with unspeakable might earth and heaven, and does not leave the depths of the abyss: for where is not God"? When, then, He says, These things have I spoken unto you, while yet abiding with you, we must think that He there speaks as a man; and since He was about to vanish from our sight, I mean according to the flesh, He says this when the preparation for His departure into heaven was complete; and He says that the most perfect and complete revelation to us of the mystery is through the Comforter, that is the Holy Ghost, sent from the Father in His Name, I mean that of the Son. For as His Spirit is Christ in us, therefore He says, He shall teach you all things that I said. For since He is the Spirit of Christ, and His mind, as it is written, which is nought else but what He is, in regard to identity of nature, even though He be both conceived of and is existent, He knows all that is in Him. And Paul will be our witness, saying, For who knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of the man which is in him? even so the things of God none knoweth save the Spirit of God. Wherefore as knowing what is in the counsel of the Only-begotten, He reporteth all things to us, not having the knowledge thereof from learning, that is; that He may not seem to fill the rank of a minister and to transmit the words of another but as His Spirit, as we said just now, and knowing untaught all that belongeth to Him of Whom and in Whom He is, He revealeth to the Saints the Divine mysteries; just as man's mind too, knowing all things that are therein, ministereth externally by uttered word the desires of the soul whose mind it is, being mentally discerned in the thoughts, and named as something else than itself, not other by nature, but |339 as a part complemental of the whole, existing in it and believed to go forth from it. Such a relation as this is inapplicable to the ineffable Divine Nature. For small is all the power of illustrations, even if it go on to subtleties. The perfect knowledge then is begotten in the Saints by the Spirit. And indeed the inspired Paul exhorts some: I also, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which is among you, and the love which ye show toward all the Saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him; having the eyes of your heart enlightened, that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the Saints, and what the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to the working which He hath wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and made Him to sit at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come. For in the revelation of these things by the Spirit working in us in an unspeakable way, we see the deep meaning of the Incarnation and the power of the hidden mystery. And that His Spirit, indwelling in the Saints, accomplishes the presence and the power of Christ Himself and teaches all things that He has spoken unto us, Paul will once more make none the less clear to us by the words: For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father, from Whom every family both in heaven and on earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, that ye may be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inward man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith to the end; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be strong to apprehend with all the Saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know |340 the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled unto all the fulness of God.
Furthermore, we must show that when He said that all would be revealed by the Spirit to the Saints, He does not give them over to another master----do not think that: but He keeps them by His side, through the Spirit, no longer seen by the eye of the flesh, but rather gazed upon as became a God by the intellectual vision of the heart.
27 Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be fearful.
Herein when He reminds His holy Apostles of His ascension into heaven, and prepares them for the knowledge that they will be left thereby alone by the saying: These things have I spoken unto you while yet abiding with you, He was stricken at heart by the knowledge, being as He was by nature God, that the saying gave them no small alarm, and put them into great fear and trembling, and by laying a burden of grief upon them had stirred the mind of each to its depths. For what could be more grievous than their sorrow, and what so burdensome as to be robbed of the highest blessings and to undergo the unexpected loss of that which was most dear to them? He therefore stablishes them when they were disturbed by grief and fear. For the cause and root of their sorrow, His being about to leave them and go to His Father, was most well-grounded. But He considered their apprehension of unknown suffering as the cause of their grief, and very readily, as He Who was strong to save was no longer present, according to the actual vision of the body. And how does He stablish them, and in what way does He produce in them the brightness of a cheerful spirit, and how are their minds lulled again into a Divine calm? Peace I give unto you, He says, My peace I leave with you. I have often told you, He says, that I will not leave you desolate, nor will |341 you dwell alone in the earth, stripped and robbed of your defender; nay, rather, I will be with you, and though absent in the flesh will again edify you by My consolations as God, and will set you above every terror, and no man shall surpass you in boldness; for all fear shall dwindle away, and cowardice shall vanish from your path, and a Divine power shall spring up in you, bringing you with peaceful mind, and heart at rest, to the revelation of those things which pass man's understanding. And now, He says, Peace I give unto you, not simply, but My peace. And this was clearly nothing else but saying: I will bring the Spirit, and of Myself will abide with those who receive Him.
For that the peace of Christ is His Spirit, it needs no long argument to completely demonstrate. But I suppose one ought to say this, if He is peace in heaven and on the earth, how can it fail to be clear to everyone, that as we have said, the peace is certainly His Spirit? And indeed the inspired Paul said to some: And the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall guard your hearts and your thoughts. And surely it is right to reflect, that it is not about that peace which has reference to common thought and action that He says this. For that disposition which loathes dispute and strife has and works peace, so far as its own waverings and inclinations will allow it. And we shall not think that the peace which is here meant is something which has not a real and independent existence; but we must suppose that it is found in the temper of those who love it. How then can one think that such a peace as this surpasses all understanding? For that which nowhere and nohow has an independent existence, how could that be thought better and nobler than men, or angels, or even higher beings? for these too we say are mind. The peace therefore that is above all principality, and power, and thrones, and sovereignties, and excels all intellectual existence, is the Spirit of Christ, by Which the Son reconciles all things to God the Father, by willing the things that are His and by wishing to |342 think and do them, and not by being perverted or falling away through turning aside to wickedness. And it is easy and expedient to reflect on this. For just in the same way as since the Son is by nature life, and wisdom, and power, and the Spirit is called and is His, the Spirit is of life, and wisdom, and power; so since the true and sovereign peace is He Himself and no other, His Spirit might rightly be named and thought as He is----" peace." For this reason and in a special manner referring His own peace, that is to say the Spirit, to His own nature, He says concerning Him, My peace I leave with you. That also in the holy prophets the Spirit of Christ has been so named, you will easily perceive, when you hear this from the mouth of Isaiah: O Lord our God grant us peace: for Thou hast given us all things. For as the Law brought nothing to completion, and righteousness according to it did not suffice to bring men to perfect piety, He entreats that the Holy Spirit be vouchsafed, by Whom, reconciled to God the Father, we have been admitted into fellowship with Him, who have before been shown to be reprobates through the sin that reigneth in us. Grant us then peace, he says, Lord; for Thou hast given us all things. And what he wants to show, I say, is this: "Grant us too, Lord, the peace; for we shall then confess that we have all things, and no blessing will be found lacking to him that has once for all reached the fulness of Christ. For it is the completion of all good that God should dwell in us by the Spirit." For since the Spirit is fully sufficient to allay all tumult of the mind, and to dispel all cowardice in us, He promises to give us as provision by the way, that which is needful to maintain our courage and peace, when He says, My peace I leave with you: let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be fearful.
28 Ye heard how I said to you, I go away, and I come unto you.
You learnt, He says, from no other lips than Mine My |343 departure hence, for you heard My sayings with your own ears, and what have I, Who cannot lie, promised unto you? I go away, and I come unto you. If then His words had threatened that His departure would leave them comfortless, and that their bereavement would be eternal, it was very likely that they would thereupon be dreadfully dismayed, and find it unbearable, and fall into excess of despondency. And whereas I said unto you not simply that I would go away, but that I would come again in due season, why then, He says, do you let into your hearts only the cause of grief, and slight by your forgetfulness that which is able to cheer. Let that which knows how to succour arise in you to combat that which affrights: and let the power of the Comforter wrestle with the incitements to grief. For it has been ordained that I should ascend to God the Father, but I have promised to come again. He allays then the agony of grief He found in His disciples; and just as a fond and good father, compelled for some needful purpose to take his children from the nurse that bears them, and seeing a flood of tears bedewing their delicate and dear cheeks, he tries every blandishment, and by always insisting on the good that will result from her absence, arms in some sort hope against grief, where the affections are most nearly concerned; so also our Lord Jesus Christ shields the souls of His Saints from sorrow. For He knew, being truly God, that His abandonment of them would be very grievous unto them, although He were ever with them by the Spirit. And this proves His love and extreme holiness. For to wish to be with Christ, how does not that most truly become the Saints? And of a truth the admirable Paul has this aim in view when he says: It is better to depart and be with Christ. |344
CHAPTER I. That in nothing is the Son inferior to God the Father, but rather equal to and like Him in nature.
28 If ye loved Me, ye would have rejoiced, because I go unto the Father; for My Father is greater than I.
He turns the occasion of sorrow into a source of solace, and plainly rebukes them because they do not rather rejoice at what now gives them pain: and at the same time tries to teach them, that those who practise an unaffected and sincere love towards others, must not merely seek their own pleasure and advantage, but rather to benefit those they love, when an opportunity to do this gives them inducement. Therefore also Paul exhorts us in the words: Love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its own. He speaks of some who seek not their own but others' good. For true love shows itself in our not only providing for our own advantage but also considering our neighbour's benefit. For our Saviour, in the words before us, persuades His disciples to lay this to heart. And, further, let us imprint the power of this thought in clearer characters on our hearts as on a tablet, and thereby attain unto the mystery of Christ. For a type taken from trifling things will oftentimes avail to enable us to arrive even at those things which we hold to admit of no comparison. It was pleasant then, for example, to the disciples of Paul that they should be always with him, but better for Paul to depart and be with Christ, as he has assured us by his own words. It was the duty then |345 of those who chose to love him to be eager to fulfil their love towards him, and not to consider that only as endurable which was pleasant to themselves, but rather to reflect upon this, that his departure would be to the benefit of their master; for he was eager to be with Christ.
You have the outline of the speculation so far as concerns Christ's human nature. Let us therefore, illuminating as it were with varied tints our sketch of the power of the mystery of Christ, clearly show the absolute truth. For the Only-begotten, being in the form of God the Father, and in equality with the Spirit, counted it not a prize to be on an equality with God, and through His love towards us emptied Himself of His glory, taking the form of a servant, and underwent this that He might direct us all to perfect knowledge of virtue, so as to prepare us by the incomparable brightness of His miracles to behold the power, and glory, and exceeding might that is inherent in the Divine Nature. For so He might have induced those who have fallen into the depths of ignorance to recover knowledge once more, and no longer to worship the creature beyond the Creator, but to figure to themselves the One true and living God. And the Only-begotten has aided us in other ways by His incarnation, for He destroyed the power of death, and loosed the bonds of sin, and granted us to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy. It was then, and with great reason, sweet and pleasant beyond all description to ourselves and the holy disciples, to have continual converse with Christ the Giver of such blessings to us, and to be ever present with Him and in His company. But it was clearly not to His advantage, so long a time to choose to abide in the guise of humility, which He had taken for our advantage, through His love to us, as we just now said: rather was He bound, when His dispensation towards us had been already suitably accomplished, to ascend to His own glory, and, with the flesh that He had |346 taken for our sake, to hasten back to equality with God the Father, which thinking it not robbery to do (for He might have had this honour in His own right), He descended to human humiliation. For while He was yet upon the earth, though He was truly God and Lord of all, He was thought no better than the rest of men, by those who knew not His glory. Nay, more, He was smitten, and spat upon, and crucified, and underwent the ridicule of the impious Jews, who dared to say, If Thou art the Son of God, come down now from the cross, and we will believe Thee. And when after He had fulfilled the mystery of our redemption, He ascended to God the Father in the heavens, when the time of His humiliation was already past, and the period of His voluntary degradation accomplished, He showed Himself very God to the powers above. For heaven did not deny the Lord of all when He ascended, but the charge was given to the sentinels at the gates above, that the Lord of Hosts was drawing nigh, although He was borne upward in the raiment of the flesh; and the Spirit was representing the opening of the gates, when He said: Lift up the gates ye rulers, and be lifted up ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in. The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle, the Lord of Hosts, He is the King of Glory. For the manifold wisdom of God which He purposed in Christ was known unto the principalities and the powers, as Paul says. For when He ascended to the Father, although He may be thought greater than the Son in this respect, that He remained in His everlasting home, while the Son underwent voluntary humiliation, and descended in the form of a servant, and ascended up again to His own glory, and heard the words: Sit down on My right hand until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool. And it was to the intent that He might not seem too presumptuous, and that God the Father in the heavens had not of His own will made the Son sit on His right hand, the Father Himself is introduced saying this: Sit Thou on My |347 right hand, the Psalmist says this. And no one with any sense will say that the Father has the second place of honour though He has the Son on His right hand, but will rather take what I have said into consideration. For it is not the Father, but rather the Son, on account of His voluntary degradation and suffering, Who must be conceived as sitting on the right hand, and having a place from which no inferiority could be inferred, as He might be numbered among inferior beings by those who cannot comprehend the mystery of His Incarnation. Therefore a place on the right hand of His Father, against Whom no such charge can be brought, is allotted to the Son that His equality may be maintained.
We have done well to introduce these explanations now, which have an intimate connexion with the present subject. Now taking up again and unfolding from the beginning the whole purpose of our disquisition, I proceed to say that continual converse with our Saviour Christ is sweet and acceptable and pleasant to us, although for our sake He has emptied Himself of His glory, as has been written, and taken the form of a servant and the dishonour of man's nature. For what is man's nature as compared with God! Nor was the Incarnation to the advantage of the Son, but to ascend to His Father profited Him more, and to recover His own glory and power and Divine honour in the sight of all, and no longer obscured. For He sat on the right hand by the will of His Father. For He loves Him as His own Offspring and the fruit of His Substance, and therefore He says, If ye loved Me, ye would have rejoiced because I go unto the Father: for the Father is greater than I. Surely it was a proof of His Father's love towards Him that He did not sorrow over His seeming abandonment and the compulsory absence that He had taken on Himself, but rather took into consideration that He went to the glory befitting Him, and His due, and to His ancient honour, that is the Godhead manifest. Nay more, the Psalmist, though he speaks mysteries by the |348 Spirit, says, Clap your hands, all ye people: then he explained the occasion of the festival, and introduced the Ascension of the Saviour into heaven, saying, God is gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trump: meaning by the shout and the trump the piercing and clear voice of the Spirit, when He bade the powers above open the gates, and named Him Lord of Hosts, as we said just now. On the same occasion moreover, we shall find the choir of the Saints rejoicing with great joy of heart. Then too he said in one place, The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice; and in another, The Lord reigneth: the Lord hath put on glorious apparel, the Lord hath put on and girded Himself with might. For He that was with us as a man before His resurrection from the dead, when He ascended to His Father in the heavens, then put on His own glorious apparel, and girded Himself with the might that was His from the beginning, for He sat and reigneth with the Father. Then it is right and meet that those who love Him should rejoice because He has gone to His Father in the heavens, to take upon Him His own glory, and to reign again with Him as at the beginning. And He says that He is greater, not because He sat down on the right hand as God, but as He was still with us, that is, in human shape. For as He still wore the guise of a servant, and the time had not yet come that He should be reinstated, He calls God the Father greater. Moreover, when He endured the precious cross for us, the Jews brought Him vinegar and gall when He was athirst, and when He drank, He said, It is finished. For already the time of His humiliation was fulfilled, and He was crucified as man. He had overcome the power of death, not as man but rather as God, I say by the working of His power and the glory and might of His conquest, not according to the flesh. The Father then is greater since the Son was still a servant and in the world, as He says that He is God of Himself, and adds this attribute to His human form. For if we believe |349 that He degraded and humbled Himself, will it not be obvious to all that He descended from superiority to an inferiority, and rather from equality with the Father to the reverse. The Father underwent nothing of this, and He abode where He was at the beginning. He is greater therefore than He that chose inferiority by His own dispensation, and remained in such a state until He was restored to His ancient condition, I mean His own and natural glory in which He was at the beginning. We may rightly judge that His equality with the Father, which while He might have had it uninterruptedly He did not consider robbery to take for our sake, is His own and natural position.
And as we have spoken at length about the equality of the Son with God the Father in previous books, it may well be fitting to proceed to illustrate all things in order, leaving long discussions on the subject for the present. And since a certain dull-witted heretic, receiving from the Jews some marvellous knowledge of the holy writings, and attempting to explain the verse we have before us, has committed to writing intolerable blasphemies against the Only-begotten, I deemed it a mark of feebleness, and very unbecoming to myself, calmly to pass them by, and to dismiss in silence the awful madness of the man to whom I allude. I think then we ought to encounter him in argument, and show that his words are baseless and old wives' fables, and wholly devoid of sense, and the quibbles of a perverted logic. And with reference to the same passage, I will read over to you what he has dared to write when giving the view he took of the text: "When He called His Father greater than Himself, He not only displayed His own humility but also refuted the heresy of those who maintain that His nature is twofold." And having thus shattered the opinion of Sabellius, he makes a furious and vigorous onslaught, as he thinks, on those who put the Son on an equality with the Father in these words: "Some have reached such a pitch of |350 madness that they cannot at all endure to say that the Father is superior to the divinity of the Only-begotten, but only that the Father seems to surpass Him when compared with Him in reference to the Incarnation, though they are not even able to look at them together in this aspect; and things different in kind can in no way be compared. For no one would ever say that man is wiser than a beast, or that a horse runs faster than a tortoise; but that one man has more reason than another, and that one horse has greater speed than another. Since then only things belonging to the same class are capable of comparison with each other, we must admit that the Father is greater even than the divinity of the Son. For those who fall into the contrary error of drawing a comparison with reference to the Incarnation, so far as in them lies, lessen the honour of the Father."
Such are his puerile babblings. And we must take care to show that he does not even know that he is inconsistent with himself. For he admits that the Son maintains becoming humility, when He says, The Father is greater than I; and I marvel that he did not also lay this to heart. For whatever was it which induced him to meddle with theology, although one would not make of no account the knowledge of the fitting time to speak or act if one were wise? What need was there then of such unseasonable discussion of the Divine Nature to His disciples in their agony, when He was about to depart from the world to God the Father? For what kind of consolation could this consideration bring to them? And why does not He merely rebuke them, saying, "If you loved Me, you would rejoice that I go to the Father, because the Father is greater than I?" Tell me then, did He think that this tended to solace the disciples, or to rid them of the sorrow they felt from their love of God, that He was going to the Father Who was greater than Himself? Although when Philip asked Him and said, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us, then |351 indeed, and very opportunely, as the occasion for theological teaching had arrived, He showed that the Father was in Him, and He Himself in the Father, and that He was in no way inferior to Him, but distinguished by His perfect equality, when He said: Have I been so long time with you, and dost thou not know Me, Philip? He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father. Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? I and the Father are one. Then indeed, very opportunely, He unravels His discourse thereupon, and it is worthy of admiration. But here, how is the reference opportune? Or what construction would it admit of other than His desire to allay His disciples' grief, and to furnish them, as it were, with a medicine of consolation bidding them rejoice because He "goes to the Father?" Is it not then obvious to any one, however dull-witted he may be, from the very state of the case, that since He was hastening to return to His own glory with the Father, He bade those who loved Him rejoice at this, devising this admirable means of consolation for them with the rest?
But I will now pass this by, and will not lay much stress on their demented folly. But I say that we ought rather to go on to the following considerations. For He thought perhaps when comparing His Incarnate Nature with His Divine, they could not help making profit out of the inquiry, when we say that the Son was emptied of His glory when He became a Man. Is it not so? How could it be otherwise? But speaking of His Divine glory, in contrast with His place as a servant, and His position of subjection, we say that the Son was inferior to the Father, in so far as He was human; but that He was reinstated into His equality with the Father after His sojourn here, not endued with any new, or adventitious, or unaccustomed glory, but rather restored to that state in which He was at the beginning with the Father. And indeed, the inspired writer who initiates us into mysteries, I mean Paul, no longer attributing to Him the humiliation |352 belonging to man's estate after His resurrection from the dead and ascension into heaven, exhorts us saying: Even though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now we know Him so no more. And of himself again: Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, not from men, neither through man, but through Jesus Christ. And yet, why is it that when He says that on His second coming to us He will change the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of His glory, he now denies it, saying: Not from men, neither through man, although destined to be an apostle by Jesus Christ? But how is it that he says he knew Him not in the flesh? Did he then, tell me, deny the Master that bought him? God forbid; for he is rightminded. For when the period of the actual humiliation or degradation of the Only-begotten had been accomplished, and come to an end, He makes haste to proclaim Himself and to gain recognition, not in the character which He presented when emptied of His glory, but of His natural attributes of God. For when it had once been known and admitted that He was human, He was bound to instruct believers in Him that He was also God by nature; and for this reason He chooses to speak of His divinity, rather than anything else.
And I marvel that the heretic of whom we are speaking does not blush when he says that "as only things which belong to the same class admit of comparison with each other, they must confess the Father is greater than the Divinity of the Son." For he does not perceive, it seems, that he has armed his own argument against himself. For let him answer us this pertinent inquiry: From what starting point can comparisons of things of the same class best proceed? Can we reasonably start with what they are, according to the common definition of their nature, or with the qualities which belong to, or are deficient in each, or inhere or do not inhere in each? And I will give an example, and will select that which he gave to us by way of illustration. If any one choose to |353 compare one man with another, looking to the one common definition of their essence, he would find no distinction; for there is no difference between man and man, so far as each is a thinking animal, mortal, and capable of sense and knowledge, as in all men there is one and the same definition of their essence. Nor does one horse differ from another in its essential character as a horse; but one man differs from another in some special sort of knowledge, as writing, and in divers other ways. This does not affect the essence, but clearly proceeds from quite another cause. So also one horse excels another in speed, or is smaller or larger than another; but you will find that superiority or inferiority in these respects lies outside the definition of their essence, otherwise things brought into mutual comparison could have no distinctions made between them. For if one man had a less or greater degree of the essential character of man, how could we conceive or speak of him at all? Then all things of the same type in their essential characters are uniform. But the difference lies in those attributes which either inhere in them, or which lie outside (viewing them in the light of accidents). Since then, according to his premise or statement, which I will proceed to deal with, only things of like nature admit of comparison at all appropriately, he must start by admitting that the Son is of the same class as the Father, that is, of the same Essence. For so you will have the same class in view; for he proved that man might be compared with man, and horse with horse. Then let him go on to tell us the reason why, when the Son is compared with God the Father as being of the same class He has any kind of inferiority to Him, and where we shall find it, when one and the same definition of their essence belongs to things of the same class? For in the case of the essence of a class, its definition is not perfect in some cases and imperfect in others, but is one and the same for all. But we may say that any accident may have a separate cause and accrue to a thing in a different manner. |354
In order to make what I have said quite clear, I will set before you the illustration I gave at the outset. No man differs from another in his essential character as man; but one man is pious and another wicked; and one is weak and maimed, while another is healthy and strong; and one is vile and another good. But when a man accurately investigates the reasons for these distinctions, he will not trace them to their common definition of the essence, but rather attributes the causes to diseases of mind or body. As then, there is one definition of Godhead for the Father and the Son both in conception and reality (otherwise one could not but go astray), for They are compared as belonging to the same class, and I will use his words for the purpose of the argument----let these deluded men tell us what they think it was that paved the way for the inferiority of the Son to God the Father; was it disease, or indolence, and those things which are known to affect created beings'? Who would be so mad and such a slave of contradictions as even to lend an ear to such blasphemy? When then, being (as He is), of the same class as the living God, He Himself also is manifestly by nature God----for He is brought into comparison with the Father: and nothing can hinder His having a like state with His Father----how is He inferior?
Since, then, this adversary of the truth has given in detail a mass of contradictions, with reference to the text, and has not hesitated to affirm that "the Father is greater than the Godhead of the Son," let us then, after having made a brief defence of the Incarnation, and separated it in our demonstration from the consideration of the matter under discussion, compare the Divinity of the Son with that of the Father, according to Their definition; but let us previously inquire of him who dares to say this, whether he thinks that God, when He is God, is so by nature, or something else besides, but honoured with the appellation of Divinity, as there are many so that are called gods and lords in heaven, and many on earth. When then he asserts that the Son has been honoured |355 by the bare appellation of Divinity, but that He is not by nature really that which He is said to be, we who are rightminded will encounter him, and openly exclaim, "My good Sir, if He is not really God, we shall worship the creature in preference to the Creator, and not only we who inhabit this earthly sphere, but also the multitude of holy angels; and we shall also accuse every Saint who has spoken of Him as the real and true God, and most of all we charge S. John, who said of Him: We know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know the true God, and we are in His true Son Jesus Christ: this is the true God, and eternal life." But if, rejecting all inspired writings alike, he confess that He is really God, and be so minded and still suggest the doctrine that even so He falls below the Father's dignity in some respect, has he not introduced to us a new God, wholly dissevered from His natural connexion with the Father, and conceived of as having a separate existence and not inhering in the substance of God the Father? But I think the matter is obvious to every one. For if nothing is conceived of as being greater or less than itself, but as greater than anything which is less, and less than anything which is greater, must he not perforce admit that there are two true and real Gods, so that one is thought the greater, and the other the less. So the faith of the Church is wholly destroyed and overturned by their doctrine, for we shall have not one God but two. Whose temples then are we according to the Scriptures? Surely His Who established His Spirit in our hearts. When then we find in the Holy Writings the Spirit spoken of as not of the Father only but also of the Son, what are we to infer, and what view must we take? Which of the two reject and call the other God? If, however, we are to admit a duality of Gods, one less and the other greater, we shall say that both abide in our hearts by separate Spirits, and we shall be found temples of more than one God, and there are two Spirits dwelling in us, a greater and a less, |356 corresponding to the nature of those who gave them. For who could tolerate such ravings, and who cannot see that their doctrine is absurd and ridiculous, after he has considered the view I have just set forth? But, perhaps, if he is forced to admit that there is a duality of Gods by nature, one the greater and the other the less, he will proceed to that doctrine that is always recurring in his writings; I mean, he will say that the Son has a separate nature----though He is not wholly devoid of the nature of a created being, yet neither does He wholly decline from the Divinity of God the Father. For those who do not scruple to say plainly that He is a creature take refuge in refinements of language, trying as it were to gloss over their profanity. When then we say that the Son has such a nature as not to be wholly God, nor yet to fall entirely into the category of creatures, but that He holds an intermediate place, so as to fall beneath the dignity of God the Father, and yet to exceed created beings in glory, we will say first of all, that there is no authority to induce us to lay down the doctrine they choose to propound. For either let them satisfy us from the holy and inspired writings, or confessing they have no voucher for their private opinion, blush for laying down definitions in matters of faith from their own private judgment.
But since it occurred to them to say this in their rash folly, I will proceed to the view they have propounded, and I will say once more that if only things of the same class are properly capable of mutual comparison,----and the Son has proved that He may properly be compared with God the Father in the plainest language, The Father is greater than I,----must not then the Father be conceived of as having the same nature you attribute to the Son? What follows then? Your whole speculation is upset. For so long as you maintain that the Father is greater than the Son, but a created being is less according to you, the nature of the Only-begotten lies between the two. And when the nature of the Father is lessened to that of the Son, one of the extremes is left out, as |357 there is no longer anything above and superior to the Son. And if, as he says, He is compared with the Father as being one of the same class, must not the definition of Their Essence be one and the same for both? And if you scruple to admit that the Son is of the same Essence with the Father, but rather put Him in a position of inferiority, and debase the glory of the Father to that of a being whom you reckon less than and inferior to Him, do you not see blasphemy springing up like a thorn? Does not then a root of bitterness springing up rankle in the heart of those thus minded? Why then do you leave the straight path of truth, and launch into such absurd discussions? Grant then to the Only-begotten in your thoughts an equality with God the Father. For thus there will be One God, worshipped and glorified in the holy and consubstantial Trinity, both by us and by the holy angels.
29 And now I have told you before it come to pass, that when it is come to pass, ye may believe.
A prophecy of the future is manifestly a sure pledge of what the future has in store for us. Christ confirms therefore the heart of His disciples, and seems to inspire in them a firm conviction that He is really ascending to God the Father in the heavens, to reign with Him and share His throne as God, and as God really begotten of Him. For do not, He says, set My departure, which is according to the flesh and an object of sight (for I will be with you as God for ever), on a level with that of the holy prophets. For they, as they passed from the earth and paid the debt of nature, were brought low, and died according to the law of human creatures. But I, Who am the true God, am not measured by the same standard as My creatures awaiting the time of the resurrection. For I live for ever, and I am the True Life. And I will send the Comforter, and I will grant you My peace also, and will not lie; but to the intent that, when you: receive the promise and are illumined by the grace of |358 the Holy Spirit, you may ratify the truth of My words, recollecting what I have said in the light of experience, and to the intent that you may have the firm conviction that I live and reign with the Father, I have foretold and spoken this to you. The fulfilment of the promise will then confirm the truth of My words. For if I be not the Life, He says, and if I be not enthroned with God the Father, how can I Myself vouchsafe Divine and spiritual graces? And I will bestow them as I have promised, and I will bring to you the Spirit and peace. Is it not then beyond dispute that I am the Life, and that I reign with the Father. For it is not the act of one who is dead, or powerless to illumine with Divine graces those who love him, but it is the act of One Who is living and powerful and Who reigns for ever. Christ therefore has hereby taught us that He made no empty prophecy of the future. For He says that He made this discourse that they might have their faith in Him confirmed, when they came to think upon and reflect on His promises, after they had experienced His grace.
30, 31 I will no more speak much with you, for the prince of the world cometh: and he hath nothing in Me; but that the world may know that I love the Father, as the Father gave Me commandment even so I do.
Now when the impious Jews were already at hand, with the band of soldiers whom they brought, and their leader who also had promised to betray Him, and were ready to take Him and bear Him away in no long time to His sufferings upon the cross, and before the Crucifixion, He declared that He would break off His discourse with them. For, He says, the time is short and already past. And now that the bloodthirsty spirit of the Jews is at its height against Me, and shows itself already within the gates, the time for speech with you is past, and the period of My passion has arrived. But He says, The prince of this world hath nothing in Me. And I shall die very gladly, and undergo death to save |359 the world, and through reverence to My Father and love towards Him willingly encounter inconceivable anguish, that I may fulfil His Will. The aim of what He says here is very plain, and compressing His words into smaller compass we say: Adam, the author of our race, underwent death by a Divine curse, through his breaking the commandment given to him, accused by himself and the devil. He indeed seems to have suffered for good reason, since the doom of punishment justly pursues those who have sinned from indolence; but the second Adam, that is our Lord Jesus Christ, Who can have no such charge brought against Him at all, for He did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth, underwent His sufferings for us, having of Himself no responsibility whatever for them, but by His sufferings procured a ransom for the world, owing to His love for the Father, Who yearned for the salvation of the world. For it was truly the work of His love for the Father not to set at nought His decree and firm resolve, but to hasten to bring it into effect. And what was this decree? He willed that His own Son, though of like fashion with Himself and distinguished by His perfect equality with Him, should descend to such humiliation as to take the form of man for our sakes, and not shrink from death to save the world. This the Son did through love of His Father, Who is said to have ordered Him by His own power to suffer death in His fleshly nature, and to destroy the power of corruption, and to quicken the dead, and to restore them to their ancient state. Therefore He says that the time for speech is short. For My suffering is drawing nigh, and the presumptuous counsels of the Jews have burst into flame. I will suffer willingly, as for this cause I have come.
But the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me; that is, I shall not be convicted of sin, and the Jews will not be able to establish their charge of drunkenness against Me, the devil hath no part in Me, for vices are as it were his attributes, and wickedness |360 owes its parentage to him. For the truth of our Saviour's words will be most clearly seen from what follows. For how did He sin, Who knew no sin, the true and living God, Who was wholly incapable of turning from the path of righteousness? And we shall see this most clearly by the actual writings of the holy Evangelists. For the most wise John has represented Pilate saying, I find no crime in Him; and again, after putting on Him the crown of thorns, as saying these words: Behold, I bring Him out to you, that ye may know that I find no crime in Him; and Matthew says that he so hated the crime, that he washed his hands before the Jews and said, I am innocent of the blood of this righteous man; and the same Evangelist points Him out to us, when He was brought into the presence of the high priests themselves, and says: Now the chief priests and the whole council sought false witness against the Christ, that they might put Him to death; and they found it not, though many false witnesses came. Still, though accusations were sought against Him by the agency of men, the devil used them as ministers and instruments of his own malice, and it was he more than any one else who sought to find sin in Him. It is then true that the devil had no part in Him, whom Christ called prince of this world, speaking of the present moment, not as though he were truly lord of it, but as a foreign intruder who has gained by the law of conquest what does not belong to him. For by sin he subjected mankind to himself, and driving them away from God as sheep who have no shepherd, he ruled over them though they were not his own. Therefore was he rightly cast out from the kingdom he had so obtained. For Christ has become King over us, and therefore He says: Now shall the prince of this world be east out; and I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Myself.
Arise, let us go hence.
The common and usual acceptation of the words before |361 us suggests the thought, that as the period of the madness of the Jews had come, and the priceless Cross of our Saviour was well-nigh set up, He was hastening to depart with His holy disciples, to that place in which the band of men and officers found and took Him. And the thought is a plausible one. But probably there was another meaning hinted at; I mean a spiritual and hidden meaning. For when He says the words, Arise, let us go hence, He means to signify that to all of us there lies open by Him and with Him a change from one state to another, and a refuge from a worse condition in a better; in order that we may realise some such conception as this,----the passing from death unto life, and from corruption into incorruption, by Him and with Him, as I just said, as passing from one place into another. It is a fine saying then, Arise, and let us go hence; or you may interpret it to yourselves in some other way. From henceforth we are bound to be transformed from loving to think on earthly things into choosing the will to do God's pleasure; and besides this, to pass from slavery into the dignity of sonship; from earth into the city above; from sin to righteousness,----the righteousness I mean that is due to faith in Christ; from the impurity of man's nature to the sanctification by the Spirit; from dishonour to honour; from ignorance to knowledge; and from cowardice and faintheartedness to endurance in goodness.
Localising then, figurating as it were, our transgressions upon earth in the spot whereon He stood, He says, Arise, and let us go hence. For if this meaning entered into the scope of His speech, and He means to show thereby His affinity to us, it can do us no harm at all to act in this way, since He found it in His nature so to do. Moreover, in other places you will find Him saying to His own disciples: We must work the works of Him That sent us, while it is day; the night cometh, when no man can work. Do you hear how He implicates Himself together with us in the duty of doing work, although He |362 does not lie under the necessity of working as we do? And this form of speech is usual with us, and we shall find it just as much amongst ourselves; and the inspired Paul, when he rebuked the Corinthians, ventured on this expression, exhorting them in these words: Now these things, my brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and Apollos; that in us ye might learn not to think beyond the things which are written. And there is no question that we have not an elder, nor an angel, but the Lord of all Himself, though He was not subject to our infirmities, to point out the way to all that is good, and to turn us from our old lusts to better things. For we have been ransomed not by ourselves, nor by any other creature, but rather by Christ Himself our Saviour. Therefore, when escaping as it were with us, in our company, from the wickedness of the world, He says, Arise, let us go hence. He speaks these words not as subject to it as we are, or bound by human infirmities; but as our leader and champion and guide, to point out the way to incorruption and life in sanctification and love of God. |363
CHAPTER II. That the Son is Consubstantial with God the Father, and not of an alien or foreign nature, as some of the perverse assert.
xv. 1 I am the true Vine, and My Father is the Husbandman.
He wishes to show us that it behoves us to love, to hold fast to our love towards Him, and how great a gain we shall have from our union with Him, when He says that He is the Vine, by way of illustration; and that those who are united and fixed and rooted in a manner in Him, and who are already partakers in His nature through their participation in the Holy Spirit are branches; for it is His Holy Spirit Which has united us with the Saviour Christ, since connexion with the Vine produces a choice of those things which belong to It, and our connexion with It holds us fast. From a firm resolve in goodness we proceed onward by faith, and we become His people, obtaining from Him the dignity of Sonship. For according to the holy Paul, He that is joined unto the Lord is one Spirit. As then in other places He has been called the foundation and coping-stone by the voice of the prophets, for upon Him we are built up, ourselves being the stones, living and spiritual stones, into a holy priesthood for a habitation of God in the Spirit, and in no other way are we able to be built up into this, save only if Christ be the coping-stone, so here by a similar reflection He says that He is a Vine, as it were the mother and nourisher of its branches. For we are begotten of Him and in Him in the Spirit, to produce the fruits of life; not the old life |364 of former days, but that which consists in newness of faith and love towards Him. And we are preserved in our hold on this life by clinging as it were to Him, and holding fast to the holy commandment given to us, and by making haste to preserve the blessing of our high birth; that is, by our refusing to grieve in any way whatever the Holy Spirit That has taken up His abode in us, by Whom God is conceived to dwell in us. For in what manner we are in Christ and He in us the wise John will show us when He says: Hereby we know that we are in Him and He in us, by the Spirit Which He gave us; and again, Hereby know we that we are in Him; he that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also to walk even as He walked. And he makes this even clearer to his hearers by the words, He that keepeth His commandments abideth in Him, and He in him. For if the keeping of His commandments worketh love towards Him, and we are joined to Him by love, surely what has been said has been shown to be true by these quotations. For just as the root of the vine ministers and distributes to the branches the enjoyment of its own natural and inherent qualities, so the Only-begotten Word of God imparts to the Saints as it were an affinity to His own nature and the nature of God the Father, by giving them the Spirit, insomuch as they have been united with Him through faith and perfect holiness; and He nourishes them in piety, and worketh in them the knowledge of all virtue and good works.
And when He calls the Father Husbandman, why does He give Him this title, for the Father is not idle or inert in His dealings with us, and while the Son nourishes us and sustains us in a perfect state by the Holy Spirit, the rectification of our condition is as it were the function of the whole sacred and consubstantial Trinity, and the will and power to do all the actions done by It pervades the whole Divine Nature? Therefore it is glorified by us in its entirety, and in one single aspect. For we call God a Saviour, not gaining the graces which are |365 compassionately bestowed upon us partly from the Father, and partly from the Son Himself or the Holy Spirit, but calling our salvation the work of One Divinity. And if we must apportion the gifts which are bestowed upon us, or those activities which They display about creation, to each person of the Trinity separately, none the less do we believe that everything proceeds from the Father by the Son in the Spirit. You will think then quite rightly that the Father nourishes us in piety by the Son in the Spirit. He husbands us, that is He watches over us, and cares for us, and deems us worthy of His sustaining providence by the Son in the Spirit. For this view will be more correct than any other, in my opinion. For if we attribute to each a separate activity in His dealings with us, apart from the others, is it not beyond controversy that since the Son is called a Vine and the Father a Husbandman, we are nourished and sustained in well-being especially by the Son alone, while from the Father we receive merely His providential care. For it is the function of the vine to nourish the branches, and of the tiller of the soil to tend them. And if we think aright, we shall believe that neither the one function, if performed apart from the Father, nor the other apart from the Son or the Holy Ghost, could sustain the whole. For all proceeds from the Father by the Son in the Spirit, as we have said. Very appropriately now the Saviour called the Father a Husbandman, and it is not at all difficult to assign the cause. For it was to the intent that no one might think that the Only-begotten merely exercised care over us that He represents God the Father as co-operating with Him, calling Himself the Vine that quickens His own branches with life and productive power, and the Father a Husbandman, and for this reason teaching us that providential care over us is a sort of distinct activity of the Divine Substance. For we were bound to know that God did not only make us partakers of His nature, conceived of as belonging to the Holy and |366 consubstantial Trinity, but also He watches over us with, the most diligent care, which is illustrated to us very appropriately on this occasion by the figure of husbandry. For when He has before spoken of the vine and its branches, how is not the illustration of the husbandman most apt, introducing the One Who takes the care and charge of the whole, that is God. And if we are convinced that the Son is really and truly in His own Father, and He has Him that begat Him in His own nature, and all things are brought to perfection by Both in the Spirit as by One Divinity, neither will the Father be without His share in nourishing us, nor can the Son be thought not to partake in His husbandry. For where Their identity of nature is seen in unmistakeable language, there too there is no division of activity, though any one may think that they have manifold diversities of operations. And, as there is one Substance, that is the true and real Godhead conceived of in three Persons, that is in the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, is it not extremly clear and incontrovertible that when we speak of an activity of one, it is a function of the One and entire Divinity, in the way of inherent power?
Moreover, our Lord Jesus Christ, accepting His Father as His Fellow-worker in all He did, once went amongst the impious Jews and said: Many good works have I showed you from My Father: for which of those works do ye stone Me? And again, about working on the Sabbath-day: My Father worketh even until now, and I work. And no one would think He said that the Father acts separately in His dealings with the world, and so also the Son. For since the Father does all things by the Son, and could not otherwise act, as He is His wisdom and power, for this reason He, on the other hand, called the Father the doer of His own works, when He said: I do nothing of Myself; but the Father abiding in Me doeth His works. I think, therefore, we ought to take this view and no other, that Christ takes |367 the place of the vine, and we are dependent on Him as branches, enriched as it were by His grace, and drinking in by the Spirit spiritual power to bear fruit.
And since we who have chosen the right path are assailed by the trenchant arguments of our adversaries, who try to persuade us to take a false view, we will make things clear to our hearers, compressing into short compass what one of them has set forth at length. "Well," he says, "has the Only-begotten refuted and brought to shame those who think that He is of the same Substance with God the Father. For note how He clearly calls Himself the Vine and the Father the Husbandman: for as the vine is not the same in substance with the husbandman, for the one is wood and the other is man, and these things are altogether separate and alien in nature, so the Son is not of the same Essence with the Father, and the definition of Their Essence is widely different and distinguishes Them, if the One is a Husbandman and the Other a Vine. For there is no question that some people unjustifiably attempt to prove that this has only reference to the Incarnation. For He does not say that His Flesh is the Vine, but rather His Godhead. But will it not be clear to everyone," he says, "that our body has no dependence on the Flesh of the Saviour as the branches on the vine, nor yet is the fruit of the Saints fleshly but spiritual? Therefore," he says, "putting on one side for the present all reference to the flesh, we say that the meaning of the speech relates to the Divinity itself of the Son; and we maintain that that Divinity is the Vine on which we depend by faith."
These idle ravings then suggested themselves to him, as he capriciously rejected according to his own private judgment the correct interpretation of the Divine doctrine, and distorted it, in his headstrong folly, into conformity with his own preconceived theory. But we who cling to the truth are quite of the opposite opinion, and following in the lines of the knowledge of the holy |368 fathers shall retain the correct doctrine. We may now pertinently inquire, according to our lights, how we ought to interpret the meaning of the text, and we must also see how and in what manner we may equip ourselves to encounter their arguments. For if we saw that no harm could steal therefrom unto the hearts of the simple-minded, we would pass them over in silence, and, rightly disdaining to intermeddle with their vain theories, have embarked on the investigation of the ensuing passage. But since such doctrines would be very calamitous if they gained acceptance, does it not follow that we ought, fired with religious zeal, to enter on the contest of words and arguments? For thus the wickedness of our adversaries can be very easily detected. Let us commence by saying that it is the height of folly unseasonably to reject what has been given by way of illustration and brought in as a similitude of the relations of the Trinity to display the manner of Their Nature or Essence. For I say that those who wish rightly to comprehend anything that is said, do well in looking at the purpose of the discussion, and ought attentively to consider what is the meaning of the Maker of the speech in His conversation. For consider, too, in the light of what lies before us, whether I do not seem to you to speak well. It was not the purpose of our Saviour Christ to teach the disciples that He was different in nature or separate from the Father; and it was not for this reason that He resolved to call Him That begat Him the Husbandman and Himself the Vine. For if this was His aim, why did He not end His speech here, without adding any qualification to it? For He would have illustrated what His purpose was, according to your idea, without chance of confusion, if He had merely given these names to Himself and the Father. But now, after premising that He was the Vine, and saying that we depend on Him as branches, and then investing the Father with the character of the Husbandman, He makes it quite clear and obvious to all, I think, that He |369 has no such meaning as you suppose, and wishes, by palpable illustrations visible to the bodily eye, to persuade His hearers that all power of producing the fruits of the Spirit proceeds from Him; as the branches which grow up from the root are pervaded by its inherent quality. For every good thing which we have is given; but it is not so with God. For He is in Himself the originator of His own peculiar attributes, glory and might, which appertain to Him alone. Therefore Christ, being as it were the root, is the Vine, and we are the branches. And if He called the Father the Husbandman, do not think that He spoke of Him as being different in substance. For He does not mean this, as we have said; but wishes to point out that the Divine Nature is the root and origin in us of the power of producing the fruits of the Spirit of life, besides the blessings we have spoken of, tending us like a husbandman, and extending over those who are called by faith to partake in it the providence of love. The unlikeness of the illustrations used then has no reference to the definition of the essence, for it is not the purpose of our Saviour Christ to speak on that subject, but His teaching has quite another object.
And since the deluded heretic chooses to propound his false views in his folly, and says that no argument will induce those who as it were distort the aim of the words which are before us from their right meaning, and attribute to them a reference to the Incarnation of Christ, for we were not united to Him in the body, nor yet did the Apostles as branches abide in the body of Christ, nor were they after this fashion connected with Him, but in temper of mind and faith unfeigned; let us briefly reply to this, and show him that he is altogether astray, and does not follow aright the holy writings. For that we are spiritually united with Christ in a disposition made conformable to perfect love, in true and uncorrupted faith, in virtue and purity of mind, the statement of our doctrine will no way deny. For we confess that he is |370 quite right in saying this; but in venturing to say that no reference is intended to our union with Him after the flesh, we will point out that he is wholly out of harmony with the inspired writings. For how could it be disputed, or what right-minded man could deny, that Christ is the Vine in this relation? And we, as being branches after a figure, receive into ourselves life out of and proceeding from Him, as Paul says: For we are all one body in Christ, seeing that we who are many are one bread: for we all partake of the one bread. And let any one account for this and give us an interpretation of it without reference to the power of the blessed mystery. Why do we receive it within us? Is it not that it may make Christ to dwell in us corporeally also by participation and communion of His Holy Flesh? Rightly would he answer, I deem. For Paul writes, that the Gentiles have become fellow-members of the body, and fellow-partakers, and fellow-heirs of Christ. How are they shown to be "embodied"? Because, being admitted to share the Holy Eucharist, they become one body with Him, just as each one of the holy Apostles. For why did he (S. Paul) call his own, yea, the members of all as well as his own, the members of Christ? For he writes thus: Know ye not that your members are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ, and make them members of a harlot? God forbid. And the Saviour Himself says: He that eateth My Flesh and drinketh My Blood, abideth in Me, and I in him. For here it is especially to be observed that Christ saith that He shall be in us, not by a certain relation only, as entertained through the affections, but also by a natural participation. For as, if one entwineth wax with other wax and melteth them by the fire there resulteth of both one, so through the participation of the Body of Christ and of His precious Blood, He in us, and we again in Him, are co-united. For in no other way could that which is by nature corruptible be made alive, unless it were bodily entwined with the Body of That Which is by nature |371 Life, the Only-begotten. And if any be not persuaded by my words, give credence to Christ Himself, crying aloud: Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink His Blood, ye have not life in yourselves. He that eateth My Flesh and drinketh My Blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up in the last day. Thou nearest now Himself plainly declaring that, unless we "eat His Flesh, and drink His Blood," we "have not in ourselves," that is, in our flesh, "Eternal Life." But Eternal Life may be conceived to be, and most justly, the Flesh of that which is Life, that is, the Only-begotten. And how or in what manner this raises us up on the last day hear now; and I will not scruple to tell you. For since the Life, that is the Word which shone forth from God the Father, took unto Himself flesh, the flesh became transformed into a living principle, and it is inconceivable that the life should be vanquished by death. Therefore, since the life is in us, it will not endure the bondage of death, but will wholly vanquish corruption, since it cannot endure its results. For corruption does not inherit incorruption, as Paul says. For if Christ uses the emphatic expression, I will raise him up, He not only invested His own Flesh with the power of raising those who are asleep, but the Divine and Incarnate Word, being one with His own Flesh, says, I will raise him up, and with good reason. For Christ is not severed into a duality of Sons, nor can any one think that His Body is alien from the Only-begotten, as no doubt no one could maintain that the body in which the soul dwells is alien from it.
When then by these disquisitions Christ has been shown to us to be the Vine in this sense, and we the branches, inasmuch as we partake in a fellowship with Him that is not merely spiritual but also corporeal, why does he talk so vainly, asserting that, since our dependence on our fellowship with Him is not corporeal, but consisting rather in faith and disposition to love according to the law, He did not call His own Flesh, he says, the vine, |372 but rather His Godhead? And yet, why, some one may say, does he reject the interpretation that is more fitting and appropriate to the passage, and hasten to adopt one widely divergent? For shall we not grant that Christ is the Vine in a more appropriate way also according to the fellowship of the flesh, and that we are branches through the similarity of our nature? For that which proceeds from the vine is of like nature with it. And this we say, not as attempting to deny the possibility of union with Christ by right faith and sincere love, but rather from a wish to point out that Christ is the Vine and we are the branches, both in a spiritual and corporeal sense.
Further, the statement of the truth is simple and obvious; but our adversary, in his wickedness, disdains the admission that Christ was the Vine in a corporeal sense also, as conferring His own Life on the branches, that is to say on us, just as the visible and earthly vine confers life on the branches that cling to it. He distorts and does violence to the meaning of the thought, making it have reference only to His Godhead. For he thought that he might thus bring a calumny against it, raising this ignorant contention: "If the Son is the Vine," he says, "and the Father the Husbandman, and the Son differs in nature from Him, as in the figure of the vine, the Son will not be of the same Substance with the Father."
And he thinks he has built up a profound, trenchant, and incontrovertible theory against the doctrines of the Church, but will no less here also be convicted of folly. For when he first asserts that the Son is alien in nature, and places Him outside the Substance of Him That begat Him, how then can he any longer call God a Father, and the Son a Son in any sense? For if he says that He was not begotten, that is, proceeded from the Substance of the Father, just as the offspring of men from men, how could He be in any true sense the Son? How then can he set aside the blessed John, when he says: He that denieth the Son, will deny the Father also: he that confesseth the |373 Son, confesseth the Father also? And the saying is true. For the denial or confession of the One altogether involves the denial or confession of the Other. For the Father could not exist if the Son did not; nor could the Son be conceived of if He That begat Him were not conceived of with Him. If then he denies the Son, for he says that He belongs to another class, he thereby denies the Father also. What answer then, my good Sir, have you to make? Whom has faith left? Where is the glory of the Holy Trinity? For the nature that rules over the universe is hereby wholly taken away; that nature which is shown to us in plain language in the Holy Scripture. For their temerity and falsehood force us into the midst of difficult discussions. But, perhaps shrinking from so prodigious a blasphemy, he says that the Son belongs to another class, but was begotten of God the Father. But we will ask him once more to tell us how then does he grant and confess that He is begotten? For if as one of created beings, according to a state of mind that is in love and according to will, for all things are said to be produced from God, this none the less involves the same blasphemy. And if he says that He is truly the Son, but asserts that He is alien, and asserts even after saying this that He is different in class, even after this admission he commits an impiety against the Father Himself. For that which the nature of created beings disdained to suffer, this he would show that God underwent. For surely is not that which is truly the offspring of anything by nature manifestly of the same substance with the father of it? Is it not quite obvious to every one? The world then proceeds according to a suitable principle, for no creature produces anything different in kind from itself. And only in God shall we find the reverse, since He has begotten the Son different in kind and not of His own Nature.
It were likely then that our adversary should not like to make any reply; but if he persists in his folly, and thinks that the Son is different in kind from God the Father, we will not be slack in our advocacy of the |374 doctrines of the truth. For we shall show that he says that God the Father is the same in kind with created beings; and how, or in what way, you may now learn. He clearly contends and maintains that it is not so much the flesh as the Divinity Itself of the Only-begotten that is called the Vine. Suppose it is so then. For I will ask the question, and let him make the reply. "Does he think that the Son is truly God, or not; or does he maintain that He is spurious, or that His dignity only consists in empty titles?" And if he maintains that He is not God by nature, let him ponder over the testimony of the Only-begotten Himself, when He says, I am the Truth. For the truth has only one form, and does not admit of the spurious or mis-named. And let him accept the witness hereon of the most wise John, when he clearly exclaims, and says: And we are in the true God, Jesus Christ: this is the true God and eternal life. But if perhaps he is ashamed of this, and gives up his contention, and confesses that the Son is truly God, we will not shift our position, but will use his own words to overturn what he said. "Is not the Father, as the Husbandman, different in nature from the vine; for the one is man and the other wood?" Thus must not the vine be conceived of as really and truly of the same nature with its branches? And I suppose some would attain such a pitch of folly as to venture to deny what is so clear. When then, being truly God, He is of the same Substance with the true and living God, that is the Father, and He is the vine, and we are the branches, of the same nature plainly for this reason with the vine; shall not we ourselves also surely be Gods by nature, putting off as it were our own nature? But such an idea, only those wicked men, who shrink from no impiety, can entertain. For we have been created, and the Son is God by nature. Then how can this be? And how can that which was said of Him be true, if the branches are of the same nature with the vine? For it must be that either we ourselves are uplifted into the nature of the true Godhead, or that is brought down to |375 us. For the branches are of like nature with the vine. And since the Son clearly says: I and the Father are one, either we shall ascend with Him to perfect likeness with the Father, or the Father Himself will be drawn down with the Son, Who is like in nature to us, into our likeness. You see then what a mass of blasphemies we have arising from his statement. Therefore we will rather follow the true doctrine, believing that the Son says by way of illustration: "I am the Vine, ye are the branches, My Father is the Husbandman."
2 Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit, He taketh it away: and every branch that beareth fruit, He cleanseth it, that it may bear more fruit.
Our connexion with Christ is of the mind, and implies a power of union affecting the tenor of our lives; perfecting us in love and faith. And the faith dwells in our hearts, making the manifestation of the Divine knowledge complete: while the manner of the love requires us to keep the commandment laid down for us by Him. For thus He also indicated him that loves Him, saying: "He that loveth Me will keep My commandments." We must know then that being united with Him by faith, and giving effect to the manner of our union in mere barren confessions of faith, and not clenching the bond of our union by the good works that proceed from love, we will be branches indeed, but still dead and without fruit. For faith without works is dead, as the Saint says. If then after this manner the branch be seen to exist fruitlessly, depending, so to speak, from the trunk of the vine, know that such a man will encounter the pruning-knife of the husbandman. For He will wholly cut it off, and will give it to the fire to consume as worthless rubbish; for this is the judgment of the barren, as I think also in the case of the fig-tree, which was set before us by way of parable. The lord of the vineyard says to the tiller of the soil: Cut it down; why doth it also cumber the ground? So in this case too I think that the God |376 and Father of all mows down the thick and barren burden of branches that hangs down from the vine in the figure with no produce of fruit. And I think that the Overseer of our souls, that is God, wishes to show by the parable here employed what and how great is the injury which the soul that is cut off from fellowship with Him has to endure. For it will wholly wither away, and become barren of every good work, and will unquestionably be abandoned to punishment, and be the prey of all consuming flames. Moreover, by the mouth of the prophet Ezekiel, wishing to show this very clearly, He said: Son of man, what is the vine-tree more than any other tree, or than a branch which is among the trees of the forest? Shall wood be taken thereof to do any work? Or will men take it to hang any vessel upon it? The yearly purging of it the fire performs; and at last it faileth. Is it meet for any work? Know then that that which has once been cut off and wholly severed is altogether useless, and cannot be taken to serve for any necessary purpose, but is soon only useful for firewood. Is it not clear that if we be a branch, and have been drawn away from the deceitfulness of a plurality of gods, and have confessed the faith of Christ, but are still barren, so far as the union which shows itself in works is concerned, we shall surely suffer the fate of the barren branches? And what then? For we are wholly cut off, and we shall be given to the flames, and shall have lost besides that life-giving sap, that is to say, the Spirit, Which we once had from the Vine. For that which Christ said of the man who buried his talent one may see accomplished in the case of those who have suffered complete severance. For just as the talent was taken away from him at once, so I think also is the Spirit taken from the branch, as in figure of sap or quality. And why is it taken away? That the Spirit of the Lord may not seem to share in the condemnation of those who are doomed to go to the perdition of fire by the sentence of the judge. For if earthly rulers will not |377 on a sudden determine the fate of those who have once been held in honour, and dignified by kingly favours, but if such an one be convicted of some crime for which he may justly pay the penalty, this fate could not overtake him before he has been robbed of his honours; is it not necessary then that the soul that has been sentenced by the verdict from above to the fate of punishment, should in a manner be divested of, and lay aside, the grace of the Spirit before experiencing the evils? We say further that the barren branch will suffer such a fate, wishing to confirm our minds as far as possible, to be prone to lay fast hold on love towards Him by the active principle of virtue within us and faith unshaken, while He says that the fruitful branch will not at all be left without experiencing the care of the tiller of the soil, but will be throughly cleansed, so as to be more able to bear fruit. For God works with those who have chosen to live the best and most perfect life, and to do good works so far as in them lies, and have elected to seek perfection as citizens of God. He, as it were, uses the working-power of the Spirit as a pruning-hook, and circumcising in them sometimes the pleasures which are always calling us to fleshly lusts and bodily passions, and sometimes all those temptations which are wont to assail the souls of men, defiling the mind by divers kinds of evils. For this we say is that circumcision which is not the work of hands, but is truly that of the Spirit, of which Paul in one place says: For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly: neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly: and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God. And in another place, again: In Whom ye also believed and were circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands. And therefore they say to some, that if the branches of the vine in the figure suffer any purging, that cannot take place, I suppose, without suffering. |378 For it is painful so far as, and to the extent that, the wood can suffer pain. In the same way then we must think it affects the Saints: and, if we consider attentively, we shall give them our consent and approval. For our God, Who loves virtue, instructs us by pain and tribulation. Moreover the prophet Isaiah says thus: When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the sons and daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning. And the inspired Paul himself too says: If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as sons, for what son is there whom his father chasteneth not? Nay, more, the choir of the Saints themselves, who exceed all conception, do not reject the instruction given by the Holy Ones, but rather eagerly welcome it with the words: Instruct us, Lord, but in judgment, and not in wrath, that Thou make us not few. For in wrath will be accomplished the complete severance of the barren branches, for He sends them to punishment; but in judgment rather----that is, consideration and in mercy----will be accomplished the purging of those which bear fruit, which brings but small pain, to the quickening of their fertility, and occasioning a greater abundance of blossom springing up. Further, some accepting this exclaim: Lord, by brief tribulation dost Thou chasten us; for the tribulation of purification lasts but a short while, but, giving us instruction from above, makes us blessed. And we will receive the blessed David as a witness, who thus exclaims: Blessed is the man whom Thou, Lord, chastenest, and instructest in Thy law, to comfort him in evil days. For the days of the impartial judgment are truly days of evil omen, and dreadful to those who are wholly cut off and doomed to the perdition of punishment by fire; but to those who are chastened in that day the Lord robs them of their terrors. For such a man can no way be numbered among those who are doomed to judgment and punishment, as he is not a |379 barren branch. Let then the fervour that shows itself in works be combined with the confession of the faith, and let it unite action with the doctrines concerning God. For then shall we be with Christ, and experience the secure and safe power of fellowship with Him, escaping the peril that results from being cut off from Him.
We made these observations because we thought we ought to deal with the investigation of the passage after a spiritual manner, and it is likely that Christ wished to hint at some other meaning, by His clearly saying: Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit, He taketh it away; and every branch that beareth fruit, He cleanseth it, that it may bear more fruit. For by the branch that has been taken away from fellowship with Christ by the severance of the Father, He means, I think, the people of the Jews, who are not capable of bearing fruit; against whom the thrice-blessed John declares that the axe will be brought; saying that the wood which is cut off will be given over to the flames; while by those branches which do not need to be completely cut off, but which abide in the Vine, and which are to be purged by the providence of God, He means those among the Jews themselves who believed, and the converts to them from other nations, who have one and the same purification; for it is accomplished in the Holy Spirit, according to the Scriptures: but the manner of their purification is separate and distinct. For the children of Israel have cast off from them the wish to guide their life and conduct by the Mosaic Law, while the heart of the worshippers of idols is stripped of the past deceitfulness that held sway over their hearts, and also of the rubbish of impure and ignorant customs, in order that they may bring forth the fruit of the divine training of the Gospel, which may be meet for the table of God, and be acceptable to Him. And that what we have said is clearly true there is no difficulty in satisfying ourselves from the inspired writings themselves. For the inspired |380 Paul enjoins those of the Jews who believed, when making light of the doctrines of the Gospel, they were once more backsliders, honouring the shadows of the Law: Ye are alienated from Christ, ye who would he justified by the Law; ye are fallen away from grace. And again: I say unto you that if ye receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing. And if the wish to be justified according to the Law alienates them from Christ, is it not beyond question that it is the discarding of the Law as a guide of conduct that invites the power of union with Christ? In this way, then, the Israelites are circumcised, or rather purged, and so also he that once worshipped the creature more than the Creator, by getting rid of his past disease. And what does Paul say to them? For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God, through the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, shall we be saved by His life. And he charges them in another passage, and says: But now, after ye have come to know God, or rather to be known of God, how turn ye back again to the weak and beggarly rudiments of the world, whereunto ye desire to be in bondage over again? As therefore those who are willing to serve the beggarly elements become alienated from Christ, while those who do not endure to serve the creature rather than the Creator become one with Him, shall we not confess that the manner of the purification of the Gentiles shall be the most profitable cutting away by the Spirit of the old deceit, bringing in all manner of good things to us in divers ways in its stead? For in the putting off and casting aside of evil things, the beauty of virtue is conspicuous by contrast. For where vileness is driven out, there holiness is seen to arise.
We must show, too, that our circumcision is by the Spirit fulfilling the need of purification in us, and that the Son brings in the Spirit; for of His fulness we all received, as John saith; and He it is that says to us, Receive ye the Holy Spirit. The Father then worketh |381 our purification through the Son, by means of the circumcision that we conceive of through the Spirit. We have humbled then the rash and impious hardihood of our adversaries, who did not scruple to maintain that as Christ spoke of Himself as the Vine, and God the Father as the Husbandman, He could not be the same by nature with Him. "For no argument shall convince us," he says, "that the husbandman and the vine are identical in essence." When then the Son is found to be a Husbandman through the circumcision by the Spirit, they must be of this mind for the future, that since husbandmen are of the same class with each other, in so far as they are men, it is clear that the Son is not alien to God the Father, but like in substance with Him.
3 Already ye are clean, because of the word which I have spoken unto you.
He makes then His disciples a palpable and convincing demonstration of the art of the purifier of their souls; for already, He says, they are purged, not through a participation in anything else, but merely by the word spoken unto them, that is, the divine guidance of the Gospel. And this word proceeds from Christ. What man of sense, then, can any longer call in question that the Father has, as it were, a pruning-knife and hand, through whose instrumentality everything exists; that is, the Son, fulfilling the activity of that husbandry in us, which He attributes to the person of the Father, teaching us that all things proceed from the Father but by the instrumentality of the Son? For it is the Word of the Saviour that purgeth us, though the husbandry of our souls is attributed to God the Father. For this is His Living Word, sharp as a sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart. For, reaching into the depths of each man's inmost soul, and having every man's |382 hidden purpose revealed before It as God, It brings Its keen edge to bear upon our vain pursuits by the working of the Spirit. For in this, I suppose, we shall deem our purification to consist. And all things that profit us in the attainment of virtue It increases and multiplies to bear the fruit which is conceived in righteousness.
When then the manner of His husbandry of our souls is shown in the excellence of its operation, the ingenious and impious attempt of our adversaries is surely brought to nought, when they say that the Son is distinct in nature from God the Father, as He is called the Vine, and the Father the Husbandman. Let us consider and reflect on the fact that He declares that His disciples are clean, not through the special and distinct working of God the Father in them, that is, apart from the Only-begotten, but because they were obedient to His Word. As then He is the Quickener of our souls by the Son, and in the Son, in the same way as He is also the Husbandman or Guardian, He may properly be thought to act not otherwise than by the Son. And if those who start the argument against us think they ought to abide by the false theory they once broached, and, as Christ said that He was the Vine, think they are therefore, as it were, perforce compelled to degrade Him into a separate and foreign nature, what is there now to hinder us too from going to the same height of shamelessness, and distorting the meaning of the illustration, and being converted against our will by a like folly, and choosing to revolt from this puerile and ridiculous conception? For if, since He is spoken of as the Vine, they think that for this reason He falls away from His natural relationship with God the Father, and is wholly different in Substance, since the vine and the husbandman are not identical in nature; why cannot we also, encountering them with an argument as ignorant and unscholarly as their own, say this----Are only the branches profited by the care of the tiller of the soil; and will the branches |383 that depend from the stem alone reap the profit of His art, or will the nourisher or nurse too of the branches, that is, the vine, to which they cling and are fixed by nature, require some tending? I do not think this will be difficult to demonstrate. For our adversary himself will at once agree with us that if the trunk were not tended, the branches could not remain in good condition. Since then Christ has called Himself the Vine, and the trunk itself of the vine requires the fostering care of the tiller of the soil, or it will be wholly and entirely ruined, we shall draw the inference that the Son is on a level with ourselves, and requires, as we do, the Father's providence, that He may not Himself be distorted from what He is into something else, and fall away from His native dignity or the position that He holds. For the ridiculous argument of the enemies of divine truth reduces itself to this.
But let us have done with these diseased and foolish ravings, and enter upon a discussion concerning the Holy Apostles. For He says: Already ye are clean, because of the word which I have spoken unto you: just as though He were to say, the manner of your spiritual purification, which is conceived of as by the Spirit and in the Spirit, has been wrought by the Father, through My Word on you first. Behold, casting off the burden of the vain customs and corruption of this world, be ready to bring forth fruits acceptable to God: rid yourselves of the vain and profitless law of the Jews, and pay heed to it no more. My Word has purified you: for no longer do you conduct your lives by the Mosaic Law, or according to the dispensation of the writings thereof. For you will not seek sanctification in what ye eat and drink, nor in doctrines of baptisms, nor yet in sacrificial atonements; but consider that ye are established in firm faith, and make haste to appease God by every kind of good work. For in them is seen the power of spiritual bondage. Those who are destined to be pure will be, He says, even as you are. For they, just escaping from the |384 net of the devil, and getting away from the snares of idol-worship, will be taught no longer to be governed by his decrees; but, shaking off the impurity of former customs as vain rubbish, and being thus for the future fitted to bear the fruits of the virtue that loves God, will be joined to Me in the manner of branches; and, being dependent on their love towards Me, will have their hearts enriched by the influences of the Spirit, and, imbibing the grace of My goodness, will continue stedfast to the end and be nurtured in righteousness. The Israelites, when they have been converted to faith in Me, and have been attached to Me in the manner of branches, then receiving into their mind purification through My Word, no longer devote themselves to the service of the letter; and not fixing their heart, as now, on shadows and types, bear the fruit of a true and spiritual service to God. For God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him, must worship in Spirit and truth. At the same time also He shows clearly, as in a figure, to His disciples the beauty that will belong to those who are about to be purified, and gives them the greatest encouragement to attain the still more ample excellence; showing them that their service and the training of their past teaching had not been vain ----that teaching of the Gospel, through which they were destined to benefit those who dwell in the whole world----displaying themselves as an example to those that believe on Christ. For it has been written concerning the
Saints, that it behoves us to watch closely the issue of their life, and to imitate their faith. And Paul incites those who serve God to be imitators of himself.
4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; so neither can ye, except ye abide in Me.
We shall know then, by an accurate investigation of the words before us, that the being received of Christ through faith pure and true is the first work of that zeal which is requisite and dear to God. For this is the |385 meaning of being numbered among the branches, which cling to the true Vine, I mean Christ. But the fruit of our second meditation is by no means less in importance than our first, but it has, indeed, an even more pregnant meaning: the loving to be united to God, and to lay fast hold on Him, through a love exhibited in works, which has the fulfilment of the holy and Divine command. For this causes us inseparably to inhere in, and to be closely united to, Him, as the Psalmist expresses it: My soul has been joined unto Thee. The being received then as it were into the rank of branches will not be sufficient for complete joy of heart, or for the sanctification which, as it were, exhibits Christ sanctifying us. But I maintain that the following Him purely through love perfect and unfailing is also necessary. For by this means, the power of union or intimate conjunction with the Father may be best maintained and preserved. When therefore Christ said to His disciples, Already ye are clean because of the word which I have spoken unto you; lest any one of those who have once been purified should be considered incapable of falling away, even though he should bestow no care to remain in a state of grace, He adds this useful injunction----that it is necessary to abide in Him. And what will this be? Nothing else, as I think, but quite obviously that which Paul well expresses: Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. For a thousand backslidings befall those who think that they are firmly fixed, and who do not take great precautions not to lose the place which they have obtained; and I think that we require the utmost modesty and sobriety, even though a man think himself firmly fixed by the progress he has already made towards establishing himself in righteousness. He then has shown the nature and extent of the punishment of him who has, as it were, been cut off from intimate union with God, through slipping back from negligence into what is wrong, in the statement, As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, so neither |386 can ye, except ye abide in Me. For unless the branch had supplied to it from its mother the vine the life-producing sap, how would it bear grapes, or what fruit will it bring forth, and from what source? You will perceive that the language of Christ has an application by analogy to ourselves. For no fruit of virtue will spring up anew in us, who have once fallen away from intimate union with Christ. To those, however, who are joined to Him Who is able to strengthen them, and Who nourishes in righteousness, the capacity of bearing fruit will readily be added by the provision and grace of the Spirit, as by life-producing water. And knowing this, the Only-begotten said in the Gospels: If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink. And to this, the Evangelist, inspired by the Spirit, has testified, when in his excellent explanation he says: But this spake He of the Spirit, Which they that believe on Him were to receive. And the blessed David, speaking as though to God the Father, thus addressed Him: With Thee is the fountain of life, and Thou shalt give them to drink of the river of blessedness. For by the fountain of Divine and spiritual life and of the fulness of blessedness, who else could be meant but the Son, Who fattens and waters our souls in the position of branches clinging to Him by faith and love, with the quickening and joy-giving grace of the Spirit.
5, 6 I am the Vine, ye are the brandies: he that abideth in Me and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for apart from Me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
Our Lord Jesus Christ openly says that He has been called the Vine for this reason, and this reason only, that we may clearly understand, and not merely perceive with the eyes of the body, as by a palpable, sensible, and most visible figure, that to those who are eager to be closely |387 joined to Him, and who choose to enjoy a close union with His nature, will be added the capacity and the conditions requisite for the production of virtue and spiritual fruit-bearing; since they are evidently provided, from its source, as from the vine their mother, with a potential and an actual force. In those however who have as it were been torn away or cut off from their hold on Him, by turning to what is wrong and to conduct displeasing to God, not merely will no capacity of a fitness for virtue, or of being able to show the fruits that spring from goodness be seen, but the doom of being consumed by all-devouring fire, as by an inevitable necessity, will await them. For that which is useless for righteousness seems fit to pay the penalty, just as the withered branches will be only useful for the fire.
You would find an indisputable and true proof of what we have said, not by perusing the chapters of the saints of old, but rather by applying your attention to the study of the holy Apostles themselves. For they, by neglecting in no way love towards Christ, but abiding in Him, and considering that nothing whatever should be set before righteousness towards Him, have become known throughout the world. And they exhibited through the world the fruit of their virtue, and showing themselves a pattern of a God-loving state, as a bright image to all under the sun, they wreathed for themselves the fadeless crown of glory with God. But he, who by a few pieces of silver was entrapped into the net of destruction, I mean the base and most mercenary Judas, was cut off from the true Vine, that is Christ, and withered away in a certain sense, and lost together his position of discipleship and the quickening quality of the Spirit. For he was cast outside, according to the saying of the Saviour. For he became alienated from Christ, and was given over like rubbish to him that chastises with fire. Pertinently then does our Lord Jesus Christ set forth to His hearers the joy of heart that springs from the desire of intimate union with Him, and on the other hand place before them the |388 punishment resulting from severance, thus conceiving a twofold method of salvation. For either by an aim which looks forward to glory and life, or our dread of the chastisement by fire, we shall lay hold more earnestly, with all the strength of our mind, on intimate union with Him.
But He calls the Father Husbandman, attributing to His Divine Nature the watchful care over us, as also we have previously shown at length. For He will be found doing the work of a hand to the Husbandman, Who uses no other hand, according to His Consubstantiality both from Him, and in Him; as is really the case, and as it is in our power to see in the following way. For as a proof that all things are done by the Son, as by the hand of the Father, listen to what the Father Himself says respecting His creatures: My hand made all these things; whereas all things were made by the Son, according to the holy writings.
We must observe that the divine Paul figures darkly to us the true cutting, even though it be not that of a vine, when he says: Behold then the goodness and severity of God: toward them that fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in His goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.
7 If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ash whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
He says that the love of unbroken union with Him, and the keeping in mind as a Divine and spiritual treasure entrusted to them the pure treasure of the lessons of the Gospel, and the true instruction of the doctrines of the faith, established also by unerring interpretations, will be the root of the most perfect goodness. For the whole discourse of the Saviour would convey this meaning to us, if we consider the aim set forth in the Gospels. For in the promise of Christ that He will continually give what is good to those who ask Him, how shall we deny that a very clear pledge of this is given to us? I suppose |389 it is necessary to inquire what in addition is the accurate meaning of the words: If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done unto you. For can any one say that to abide in Christ can be attained without keeping in oneself also His words? Now to this question men of sense will doubtless answer "No." For our hearer must remember, that when inquiring into the kind of love towards Christ, and investigating what it was, and how it could exist in perfection, we said that there are two methods given; I mean that through faith which is wholly blameless, and that again which projects itself in actuality, which enters secretly by pure love. And if we trust our Saviour's words that this is so with us, it follows that they adopt a dangerous and intolerable explanation of the relationship, in admitting the bare faith, which consists in words only, but not receiving the love which is moulded by right actions to perfection. They indeed abide in Christ in the sense of the relationship that results from belief, and so far as they do not adopt another religious worship; but when they no longer have His words in themselves they will be condemned. And we do not go so far as to say that, burying the preaching of the Gospels in oblivion, they are altogether unmindful of the words of the Saviour, submitting everything to their own pleasures, and directing their unbridled impulse to the consideration of earthly things alone, and, on account of this, carry themselves away from the true Vine, and, despising the favour of intimate relationship with Him, by their own passions, they deem the citizenship that is in Christ of no account. Now concerning every such person Christ Himself says: Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven: but he that doeth the will of My Father Which is in heaven. And that faith which is alone, and by itself, and which does not obtain the assistance of the light that proceeds from works, will not suffice to secure an intimate relationship with God, the disciple of Christ |390 also proves, saying: Thou believest that God is one; the devils also believe and shudder. Shall one then say to those who think that a faith bare and alone will be sufficient to enable them to get possession of the fellowship that is from above,----will even the band of demons rise to fellowship with God, since they acknowledge His Unity, and have believed in His Existence? How could this be? For the mere knowledge that the Creator and Producer of all things is One God is useless. But I think it necessary that the confession of piety towards Him should accompany faith. For such a man abideth in Christ, and will be seen to possess His words, according to the text in the Book of Psalms: I have kept Thy saying in my heart, that I may not sin against Thee. Just as if any one should place into a brazen vessel the element of fire, he will make the vessel entirely the sharer of the warmth arising from it, so also the mind which in soul and heart is wholly possessed by the Divine and heavenly doctrine, by striving up to every kind of virtue is always thereby inflamed towards it. For it is written: Thy word is very pure: therefore Thy servant loveth it.
" Let him therefore," He says, "who establishes himself therein, and has attained to this high honour, so as to remain in Me, and to have My words in him, go boldly on, and with complete confidence ask for whatever tendeth to bliss, and without delay it shall be given him. For," He says, "I will grant it." "Well then," says our opponent," if any one should ask for what is wrong, will He take more fully of this, and will He that loves virtue allot him such a portion as this?" Get thee behind me, thou man of evil counsel! For God will provide nothing that is opposed to His own Nature, nor any of those things which are numbered among evil things. But my view seems more appropriate: does it not appear right and just? It is clear then that He who abides in Christ, and has His words in him, knows, by the very fact of his goodness and righteousness, how |391 to think only those things which are acceptable to God. For it is clear that He has permitted to those who have His Word in their hearts to ask whatsoever they may reasonably wish; well knowing that they only aim at a participation in blessings of a spiritual and Divine nature. As then our Saviour Christ has excellently defined, in these words, the character of the man who prays and asks to receive whatever he wills from God, let us mould our own condition into conformity with this ideal, if we desire to obtain the heavenly blessing. But if you know that you are yourself not such an one as Christ has just indicated to us, take it not ill if you stumble, but if the effort seems burdensome to you, uniting with your faith the glory which proceeds from good works, (for this is abiding in Christ), and, having in yourself His words, go forward in confidence, and yourself receive without delay whatever you request from God.
8 Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit, and so shall ye be My disciples.
He says that God His Father has been glorified, being justly admired for His incomparable goodness and crowning as it were His exceeding kindness with actual proof. For He so loved the world according to the Scripture, that He gave His Only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal life. The life of all, that of course which is fulfilled by Christ, is then the fruit of the kindness of God the Father. For this reason I suppose He Himself, conversing with God the Father, said: I glorified Thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which Thou hast given Me to fulfil it. For the Only-begotten, being entrusted as it were with the salvation of us all, has well accomplished it by the Father, and He a Being not comprehended under the condition of necessary obedience, but Himself the absolute wisdom and power of His Father, apart from Whom nothing whatever can |392 exist. For all things are by Him, according to the Holy Evangelist, and we in a special manner. And for this reason the blessed David declares that the ordering of all that concerns us, and the directing aright of the life of all is entrusted by the Father to the Son, as His power and wisdom, when he says: O God, order the working of Thy power: O God, confirm that which Thou hast prepared; and once more: O God, give Thy judgment to the King. For it was the work of Him Who alone reigns with God the Father to restore the earth that was entirely corrupted, and to be able to mould it anew into its former state. Therefore My Father was glorified by giving His Own Son as a ransom for the life of the world, being content to see among us Him Who is above every creature, not that He might bring any addition of perfection to His Own Nature. For He is all perfect and self-sufficing, having power over all things, but in order that you may bring forth more fruit and become My disciples. For if He had not become man, we should not, being deemed worthy of sharing His nature, and being united to Him like branches, and gaining for Him the power of bearing fruit by sharing in His Spirit, have produced the fruit of a state of life pleasing to God, which He even calls much, putting in the background that which sprang from service of the Law, and showing that it is of less importance. For the Law hath made nothing perfect, according to the saying of Paul. For this reason He said to His holy disciples, nay to all of us who have been united to Him by faith and perfect love: Verily, verily I say unto you, Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again: Every scribe who hath been made a disciple to the kingdom of heaven, is like unto a rich man which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old; casting, as it were, from the treasury of their hearts the Mosaic injunctions, and the memory of the ancient |393 writings. He therefore, who is a willing hearer, and ready to learn, and is full of the torchlight of the Gospel, has his wealth increased and multiplied; I mean, of course, spiritual wealth. For he brings forth things new and old, transforming the shadow of the Law and the power of servitude to the Law into the pattern of citizenship according to the Gospel. For what the Law figured by types, this Christ did openly in truth. Wherefore also He said: I came not to destroy the Law, but to fulfil; and again: Verily, verily, I say unto you, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass away from the Law, till all things be accomplished. The power then of the service of the Gospel is the much fruit, spiritual, and in truth; seeing that the Only-begotten became Man for the glory of God the Father. And on this account it has followed that those who are on the earth are His disciples. For He spoke to those of old time and formerly through the prophets as God; but has told us and said concerning us: And they shall all be taught of God. For to us who believe in Him, not merely has no other person intervened and conveyed the message from Him, or become a mediator of His Will towards us, as Moses doubtless was to the Israelites in Mount Sinai: or again, the prophets after Moses to those among them; but Christ Himself has taught us. And for this reason we are all taught of God. We should not then have at all become His disciples, we should not have brought forth the fruits of love towards God, and this in abundance, unless the Father had been glorified by His goodness, taking such pleasure in us, that the Word proceeding from His Essence should become Man. For we shall think thus when we hear the Holy Scripture declaring that He gave His own Son. For He also approved of His choosing to suffer this for us; and, on this account, is said to have given Him: and with justice. |394
9, 10 Even as the Father hath loved Me, I also have loved you: abide ye in My love. If ye keep My commandments, ye abide in My love; even as I have kept My Father s commandments and abide in His love.
We must consider the mysteries set forth in the text with the clearer eye of the understanding; for the saying has a deep meaning, and puts before us in its completeness, so to speak, the significance of the Incarnation. For He assures us that He Himself was loved by God the Father, and that He so loved us in turn, after the same manner, that is, according to which He Himself considered that He was loved by His own Father. What charge then did He lay upon them? That it is our duty to abide in His love. But He gives, as it were, an explanation and most convincing reason of His being with justice loved by the Father, namely, the keeping of His commandments; and exhorts us, too, to hasten to fulfil this, and thus, He says, to remain in His love. We have clearly shown what His meaning is then, summing up and condensing into small compass the sense of the passage, so far as possible. But since I think it right to rob of its terrors that which is likely sometimes to disturb in no small degree the mind of the pure, come, let us say how and in what way we apprehend the meaning of the passage. Our Lord Jesus Christ then appears, setting Himself forth as a type and pattern of the holy state of life, and as being on this account under the Law, and not disdaining to take the measure of our poverty, in order that designedly moulding Himself, according to His plan, into conformity with our dispositions, He might be found as in figures to those that are His, a guide of the way to our recovery of a state and of a life strange to us and wholly untrodden. We must now inquire then what commandment of the Father He has kept, and in what way, or in what manner He is said to have been loved by Him. Let then the most wise Paul come to our aid, and initiate us into |395 the mystery by his words concerning Him; how being in the form of God, He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, He hath humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death; yea, the death of the cross. Wherefore also God highly exalted Him, and gave unto Him the Name which is above every name. You have heard how, though He was the true God, seeing that He was of the same fashion with His Father, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient unto death. For when God determined to save the corrupted race upon the earth, and it did not satisfy justice that any created being should accomplish this, the Only-begotten God, Who knows the Will of God the Father, Himself undertook the task, as the enterprise exceeded all the power that there was in the world. And thus He came down to a voluntary subjection, so as even to descend to death, and that a most shameful one. For how could the being nailed to a cross be honourable, and how would it not rather pass every disgrace? Since therefore He endured these things, God hath highly exalted Him. You have therefore in His willing obedience the fulfilment of the purposes of the Father; which purposes, the Son says, were ranked by Him as commands. For understanding as Word the counsels in the Father, and searching out the secret thoughts of Him that begat Him, nay rather being Himself the Wisdom and the Power of the Father, He realises His plan, accounting it as a command, and thus naming it after a human analogy. And see herein the measure of His love. For God hath highly exalted Him, He says. He exalts and glorifies Him that was already exalted and glorified; although He is by nature very God; inasmuch as He does not exist as one of the creatures, according to the identity of His Substance, on this account being deemed, and being in reality, beyond all height that is conceived, and even the Lord of Glory, according to the holy writings. But of a truth, He says, |396 He is exalted and glorified; how, or when, and in what way? When of course, He was in the form of a servant and in the likeness of our humiliation; that is, man like ourselves. For He returns clothed with our flesh to be again highly exalted and glorified with the Father. And He was loved by Him, and not then for the first time, when He fulfilled His voluntary subjection; and you will better understand this by the following considerations. For according to the manner in which He was always exalted and glorified, with reference to His Own Nature, He that was bereft of the glory suited to God, so far as the definition of His Humanity was concerned, is said to have been glorified and exalted when He became Man. For being thus from the beginning loved always and through all time, He is said to have been loved even when clothed in flesh. For on this account He appeared amongst us; that is, He took our form upon Him and became Man, in order that He might make pleasing to God that which was hated on account of the transgression at the beginning, and the sin which had crept in in the interval. For, for this reason, Christ is said to have appeared as the Door, and the Beginning, and the Way of all things good to us. Does He then tell you that He has been loved without reproach, because His Father's commands have been kept by Him? Did not the declaration of the mystery seem difficult to you, and was not the deep meaning of the Incarnation accomplished in our behalf hardly attainable by your reason? But they are all plain to him that understandeth, and right to them that find knowledge.
Abide therefore, He says, in My love; that is, coming with all zeal and ardour, make it the object of your anxiety and concern to be worthy of such a love from Me as I have from God the Father. For I was an obedient worker of the wishes of the Father, and on this account I abide closely in His love. But when ye also yourselves become keepers of My commandments, ye in a like manner will wholly abide in My |397 love. You will have then, He says, no excuse for apathy in the work. For you will not bestow labour on these things without profit. For I shall manifestly give you as much love as I have from the Father; and crown the keeper of My words with honours almost equal. For the Father has highly exalted Me, and has given Me the Name which is above every name. For I have been declared God of the universe, yet I shall not be found envious or to grudge you such good things. For I have shown you, who are men, and who have for this reason received the nature of slaves, to be gods, and sons of God; making you illustrious through My grace with dignities surpassing your nature to receive; have admitted you into the fellowship of My kingdom; have shown you conformed to the Body of My glory; have honoured you with incorruption and life. But this standeth as yet but in hope, and is preserved for the age that is to come. And what have ye now for the time present? Have I not made you illustrious, and glorified you, and made you holy beyond the devotees of all nations? Nay, ye have rebuked the unclean spirits; I have given you power to heal all manner of disease, and all manner of sickness. I have given the promise unto you: Verily, verily I say unto you, He that believeth on Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do. If we allow our minds to be impressed with the sense of the passage before us, we shall think that this is what He says to His holy disciples. And if we at all times keep our mind yoked fast to the doctrines of the truth, and if we turn the investigation into which we enter so far as we can to the profit of our hearers and to foster the practice of a righteous life, we shall avoid foolishly falling over any stumblingblock in the way. For it is written in the Book of Psalms: Great is the peace that they have who love Thy law; and they have no stumblingblock in their path. |398
11 These things have I spoken unto you that My joy may abide in you, and that your joy may be fulfilled.
When, after introducing to us the parable of the vine, He went on to teach us that the branch which is separated and sundered, as it were, from the mother who nourishes it will be wholly useless, and doomed to be consumed by fire, He thereby terrified His disciples not a little. For awful tidings, even though they have no reference to the present, are likely to cause no little alarm to their hearers, especially when the obscurity of the future engenders the suspicion that what they hear may come to pass. Just as the voyager who is about to cross the sea before him, when it seems probable that a storm will actually arise, and the billows rage, and the wild waves lash themselves in fury, even though he do not see these things before his eyes, and they stand yet merely in expectation, and that perhaps baseless, fears them as though they were in his sight. He then fitly raises up anew His disciples, trembling and struck with terror at these dreadful tidings, and stupefied by the thought of future trials, to a sustained courage; and leaving His sad discourse, speaks to them of their joy of heart in God. For it is not, He says, O My disciples, for this cause that I have now spoken these words unto you, to rob your minds of courage, or to inspire in you a vague terror, nor that you should be found altogether broken down by the thought of evil to come, and unable to endure to secure your own blessedness, but that you might be quite otherwise affected, and have pleasure of heart in Me, and that My joy should abide in you.
And I think we ought to consider more attentively what the sense of this passage is, and what Christ wishes us to take as His meaning. We must take it then as having a twofold meaning: for either one may say the words that you may have joy concerning Me or in Me, as used in an argument which bears no |399 meaning but the obvious one: for so ye yourselves may make your own power complete, reflecting on the reward of blessings which exceed all things earthly, and the return that your exertions will win, and the greatness of your glory with God; or considering it in another sense, we will not shrink from entering upon a more profound inquiry. For we ought most eagerly and keenly to hunt in all reverence for the aim of all these investigations. What do then the words that My joy may be in you signify? Do they mean that the Only-begotten is as we are, that is, a Man, only without sin, resolved to undergo all the sufferings which the accursed madness of the Jews compelled Him to experience? For we shall find Him insulted and persecuted, and buffeted with bitter reproaches, and spat upon, and beaten with rods, and not exempt from the insult of the scourge, and, last of all, to crown all this, nailed to the cross through our means and for our sakes. And in the presence of all this awful suffering, He was not bowed down in agony, and did not even shrink from the ignominy of suffering as His plan required, but was full of the pleasure of heart and joy which became Him, since He saw the multitude of those who were saved, and the Will of God the Father fulfilled. For this cause He accounted dishonour joy, and thought suffering pleasure. For when they dared against Him many things repugnant to His nature, we shall find it written that Jesus then rejoiced in the Spirit, and said, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou didst hide these things from the wise and understanding, and didst reveal them unto babes: yea, Father, for so it was well-pleasing in Thy sight. Note that when He saw wisdom given to babes and simple folk, He rejoiced and exulted by the Spirit, and offered up thanks, as in our behalf, to the Father Who saves us; but when He passed through the land of the Samaritans, and was wearied with His journey, as it is written, He sat by the well of Jacob. But when the |400 woman represented to Him the need of drawing water, He told her what was likely to come to pass; and foretold that a multitude of Samaritans would come, and seemed to make of small account the necessaries of life. For what did He say to His disciples, when they counselled Him to partake of what they had to eat? My meat is to do the will of My Father, and to accomplish His work. Is it not thereby clear that He accounted the fulfilling of His Father's Will, that is, providing a refuge in salvation for the backsliders, as pleasure and joy? It is beyond doubt.
All this then, He says, I have spoken unto you, that My joy may be in you; that those things may give you encouragement that give encouragement to Me; that you may face perils bravely, girding yourselves with the hope of those who will be saved; and, if suffering come upon you in this work, that ye may not be brought low into the feebleness of apathy, but may joy more abundantly, when the pleasure of Him That willeth that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth is fulfilled by you. For I, too, rejoiced at this, and thought My sufferings very sweet. When then, He says, you elect to have this joy, which I thought became Myself, then you will have it perfect and complete.
For we think that joy most full and complete, which is in God, and through God, and results from good works, through the fixity and stability of the hope; and because it arose from a proper source, not only we, but also Jesus Himself took pleasure in it. And we say that the joy which is of the world is incomplete: because it is clearly transient and excited by unworthy causes; earthly things which flit away like phantoms and shadows. Just as we say that hatred is perfect which has a just and righteous origin amongst us; just as, of course, the blessed David says about the opponents of the glory of God, I hated them with a perfect hatred; and perfect love that which prepares those who have chosen it, in God and through God, to offer themselves wholly |401 unto God; not that which is fixed on any earthly objects, and things worthy of no account.
12, 13 This is My commandment, that ye love one another, even as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
He now makes clearer by the illustration here given the meaning of the preceding passage; that is, the necessity of His disciples having His joy in them; and clearly says, "I give you this injunction, and teach those who think they ought to follow Me to do this, and be thus minded to practise such manner of love towards one another as I have heretofore shown and fulfilled." How great a measure can a man then find to the love of Christ, He Himself shows when He says that nothing can be greater than such love, which excites to forsake life itself for those one loves. And by all this He not only exhorts His own disciples that it becomes them so little to shrink from fearing to encounter dangers for those they love, but that also He Himself without shrinking held Himself in utmost readiness to undergo the death of the flesh. For the power of our Saviour's love attained so great a measure. And these words were borne out by His action, and by His encouragement to His disciples to attain an exceeding great and extraordinary courage, and by His exhorting them to the perfection of brotherly love, and fencing their hearts with the armour of enthusiasm and love of God, and raising them up into a zeal invincible and undaunted, so as impetuously to hasten to establish everything according to His good pleasure. Such a man Paul showed himself to us, when he said, For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain. And again: For the love of Christ constraineth us: because we thus judge that one died for all, therefore all died. And besides: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or anguish, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Note how he promises that nothing |402 shall be able to overcome it or prevail to cut us off from the love of Christ. But if tending the flocks and feeding the lambs of Christ be to love Him, is it not quite clear that he who preaches the word of salvation to those who know not God will prevail over death, persecution, and the sword, and will think distress of no account at all? And, if it be fitting to condense the meaning and to compress the words of our Saviour, and to express in a few words what He wishes His disciples to do, He bids them to keep their hearts undaunted and free from every fear, and minister the word of faith in Him, and to preach the Gospel to all who are in the world. And the selfsame command He gives by the word of the prophet Esaias: O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain. O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; be strong, fear not. And we shall find that the holy disciples themselves have power to do this aright, when they ask of God by earnest prayer: for on one occasion, accusing the madness of the Jews, they exclaimed: And now, Lord, look upon their threatenings: and grant unto Thy servants to speak Thy word with boldness.
For those who resist and impiously rail against such as openly minister the Gospel are very many. But even if the terror be keen and the waves of evil counsel rise up most dreadfully, there will be no mention of suffering among His true disciples until the righteous acts that proceed from love attain their end----such love, I mean, as our Saviour set forth to us as a pattern, Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, in order that He might accomplish salvation for those who have sinned. And if He had not been willing to suffer for us, we should be still dead, servants of the devil, fools and blind, and remaining in need of everything good, and slaves of pleasure and sin; having no hope, and without God in the world. But now the Saviour has even given His life for us from the love that He has unto us, and, exhibiting an incomparable love of |403 mankind, has made us enviable and thrice-blessed, in want of no manner of thing that is good.
The meaning then of the text as thus conceived will fit in with the inspired chapters of the disciples. And if the saying shall go forth to all the world, that is, This is My commandment, that ye love one another, even as I have loved you, much profit will result to all from the investigation. For if love towards brethren keeps and works the fulfilment of the whole command of our Saviour, how will not he who tries as far as possible to accomplish this without laying himself open to censure and blame be very worthy of admiration, since the sum. of all the virtues, so to speak, is stored up in it? For love towards one another is next to love to God, and all the power of righteousness towards God is concluded as in this one word, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
14, 15 Ye are My friends, if ye do the things which I command you. No longer do I call you servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known unto you.
In contrast to the terrors which will sometimes assail those inclined towards obedience and love of virtue He has set the gain of their love towards Him, in order that by the consolations ensuing from this, and by their aiming at what is greater, that which is burdensome may disappear and that which sometimes seems to cause pain sink into insignificance. Sweet is their labour to those who love God, since indeed theirs is a near and rich reward. Who then could conceive any thing greater, and what will he say is more glorious, than to be and be called the friend of Christ? For see how the reward surpasses the very limits of the nature of man. For all things are subject unto Him that made them, according to the saying of the Psalmist; and there is, I suppose, nothing in Creation which has not been subjected to the yoke of slavery, in accordance with the |404 decree becoming the Creator and His work. For the work produced is not on an equality with its producer; and how could it be'? But God, Who is over all, will hold sway over and direct His own works. The universe then being under the yoke of subjection, and putting itself under servitude to God, the Lord leads up His holy ones to a supernatural glory, if they appear willing to work His Will and bring to Him, as an offering that is due, a blameless subjection. Their reward then is glorious and worthy of envy.
But we must consider this point especially at this juncture, for it will be of no small profit. For if friendship towards Christ will be sufficient in the case of any for the dignity of freedom and the being no longer called slaves, how could He be a slave except as made and created, according to the thoughtlessness of some? For He is not able to allot the honour of freedom to all others, while His own Nature is bereft of this attribute. For I suppose He must appear in possession of it more than all the rest, for then will He most suitably give to those who have it not the blessing that is His own. But the dignity must be conferred on and given to the holy Apostles, or perhaps also to all others who mount up through faith to the friendship that is towards our Lord Jesus Christ, as by way of honour, but not existing in like manner with that enjoyed by Him. For they, mounting up by their likeness to Him to the glory of liberty, would display by this that which naturally belongs to Him alone. For that which is by position is compared with that which is by nature.
This however we must demonstrate; for I think it is necessary to go through every inquiry which is useful and particularly necessitates explanation. For the justice which is derived from faith in Christ has a more ancient manifestation than that justice which is according to the law; and further, because the knowledge of the Divine mysteries is revealed to those that believe and obey Christ, and the counsel of God the Father is |405 interpreted by him who knows that of the Son, but to those who are disobedient, not at all.
Come then, let us again illustrate this by the inspired Scripture, dwelling somewhat at length upon it to advantage. It has then been written in a book of Moses that Abraham believed in God, but his faith was accounted unto him for righteousness; and he was called the friend of God. And what was the manner of his faith, or how then was he called the friend of God? He heard the words, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, unto a land that I will show thee. Moreoyer, when he was enjoined to sacrifice his only son as a type of Christ he learnt the purpose hidden in God. And for this reason the Saviour spoke concerning him to the impious Jews, saying: Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day; and he saw it and was glad. Therefore the inspired Abraham, owing to obedience and sacrifice, was called the friend of God and put on himself the boast of righteousness.
And not only this, but he was deemed worthy of Divine converse, and knew the counsel of God, which came to pass in the last times. For in the fulness of time Christ died for us----the true, sacred, and holy sacrifice which taketh away the sin of the world.
But see again a like fulfilment in the case of those who mount up by faith to the friendship of our Saviour Christ. They also heard the words Get thee out of thy country. And that they did it eagerly we may learn from what they say: For we have not here an abiding city, but we seek after the city which is to come, whose builder and maker is God. For they are strangers and sojourners upon earth, being citizens of heaven and leaving the land of their birth to speak allegorically of their heavenward aspirations, desiring eagerly the resting-place above. For this the Saviour set before them when He said, I go and will prepare a place for you; and when I come, I will receive you with Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. They were told |406 to go forth from their kindred; and how shall we show this? We will refer to Christ's own words: He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And that the things of God were preferred to their earthly and fleshly relationship, and their love towards Christ set forth as far stronger, is certainly unquestioned among those who reverence Him. And the blessed Abraham was ordered to bring to God his own son for an odour of a sweet-smelling savour, while others, girding themselves with the righteousness that is by faith, were commanded to offer not others but themselves. For he says: Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. Since it has been written concerning them: They that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts thereof, they knew the mystery that is in Christ. For they know the powers of the age to come, and what will be in the last days; for they will receive the rewards of their labours, and take as requital the recompence of their piety towards Christ. Therefore we shall become just and the friends of God, as did Abraham. And the Gospel dispensation is far more ancient than that of the Law. I mean by the Gospel dispensation that which is by faith and friendship towards God, then moulded first in Abraham, as in the beginning of his race according to the flesh, that is of Israel, but now coming as from a type to truth, and being well fulfilled in the holy disciples themselves, as in the beginning of a spiritual race preserved as a people for God's own possession, which also is called a holy nation and a royal priesthood. Therefore it has been said to the mother of the Jews, I mean the synagogue, by the voice of the Psalmist: Instead of fathers thy sons have been born.
For the inspired disciples are truly sons of the synagogue of the Jews, for they were nourished up in the Mosaic usages. They became fathers, holding the position of Abraham, and were the beginning of the spiritual |407 race, and for this reason were ordained as rulers, offering up as a sacrifice the Gospel of Christ in all the world, as did Abraham Isaac as a type of Christ. We thus speak, not depriving the blessed Abraham of the glory which is his due and befits him, but showing in him, as in a figure, what has been appointed in the last days by Christ. The reward of friendship with God which was then seen in Abraham first is intimately conjoined with the freedom which comes by faith, and now also it is seen in the holy disciples as the firstfruits of a new generation. Let then the inspired Paul point out to us the necessity of thus speaking, vehemently contending with the Jews, that the righteousness that is of faith is far older than that of the Law. For when he made mention of the circumcision according to the flesh, he affirmed that this was given to the firstfruits of the race, that is Abraham, for no other reason save his becoming the sign and seal of the faith which he had while he was in uncircumcision. But if uncircumcision with which also is faith was before the Law, but circumcision which has not the glory of faith after the Law, and Abraham believed in uncircumcision, how will not the justice through faith of those who are justified and freed through love towards God, as was Abraham, be more ancient than the dispensation by the Law? For thus also he will be father of many nations by promise, not according to the flesh. And these things have we now pertinently said on account of our Lord's word: No longer do I call you servants: ye are My friends; for all things that I heard from My Father, I have made known unto you.
16 Ye did not choose Me, but I chose you, and have appointed you, that ye should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in My name, He shall give you.
His aim is neither to depress His holy disciples by words too grievous, being aware, as God, of the great |408 tendency of human reason to weakness, nor again does He permit them by immoderate assurances to fall into a state of backsliding, for this is indeed a disease and a serious one. But forming a mean between these two from a mixture of both, He fitly leads them into a safe path, and works in them a knowledge of the more stable state and of the complete uncertainty of that which is removed from it.
When therefore, then, he has abundantly comforted them with the words of consolation, and with respect to those things at which they would be likely to be cast down, persuading them in turn to rejoice, He again incites them by His injunctions to diligence to a confident courage; persuading them to change their minds and rather to rejoice at those things at which they had not without reason been dismayed, and charges them to display the utmost zeal, and put into practice an overflowing measure of brotherly love, and to benefit those as yet without faith, and to hasten by the words and deeds that make for righteousness to draw those who are astray to a willingness to be united to God by faith.
Offering Himself then as an Image and Pattern of that which must be done, and bringing before them that which has been already accomplished by Him in their behalf, He persuades them to imitate their Teacher and themselves to be conspicuous in like righteousness when He says: Ye did not choose Me, but I chose you, and what follows.
Conceive Him then as saying: "Gird yourselves with love towards one another, O My disciples; for ye ought indeed yourselves also to devise and do towards one another, and perform with an eager zeal, those things which I have first accomplished towards you. For I chose you, and it is not you that have chosen Me. I drew you to Myself and made Myself known to those who knew Me not through My exceeding kindness, and I brought you into a steadfast opinion so as to lead you up, that |409 is, to confer on you the ability to reach forward to what is greater, and to bear fruit unto God. Attain therefore to the complete confidence that whatsoever ye shall ask in My name ye shall receive. Since, therefore, ye follow in the track of My words and ministry, and have the mind which My true disciples ought to be endued with, it follows that ye ought not by your own tarrying to throw obstacles in the way of him who of his will seeks the faith and is self-called to a life of piety; but that you should rather attach yourselves as guides to those who are still ignorant and astray, and bring to those who do not yet prefer to learn it the Gospel of salvation, and eagerly exhort them to attain unto the true knowledge of God, even though the mind of your hearers be hardened into disobedience. For thus they would be in your condition, that is, they will advance and will return by gradual growth in what is better to fruit-bearing in God, so as to have the fruit that ever remains and is preserved and that most acceptable object of prayer, the bestowal of whatsoever they wish, if only they ask in My name."
So much then on this head: for it is necessary again, compressing in a few words the drift of the text, to make it clear to our hearers. He persuades His disciples to have so much love towards others, and wishes them to exhibit as much zeal in their persistent endeavour in all directions to pursue and bring to holiness the souls of those who have not yet believed, as He Himself first showed towards us and them. For that He Himself chose His disciples is unquestioned, and I think it unnecessary to state how and in what way the call of each was made. Still, that the discourse of the Saviour is pregnant with the meaning I have just given to it what follows will equally persuade us. For he says:
17 These things I have spoken unto you that ye may love one another.
For shall we not allow that the choosing out of those |410 still faithless and astray to obedience to God is the work of the highest love of all? But this is undeniable. And Paul hastened to do this when he said: We are ambassadors therefore on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us: we beseech you on behalf of Christ, be ye reconciled to God. So also does Peter, saying boldly to the Jews: And now, brethren, I wot that in ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers. Repent ye therefore and be baptized every one of you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. You see then how and with what zeal they meet those who have not believed, and bring to them the word which they have not sought, not making it necessary for these in their ignorance to choose themselves as their teachers, but anticipating in this even him who has as yet been unwilling to learn any elementary truth.
But since our Saviour's words have this addition, that ye should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, it is our duty to inquire what this means. For what is the meaning of the expression that the fruit of His disciples remains? I think then that by fruit which remains our Saviour means that produced by the training of the Gospel and not by the righteousness of the Law. For the latter has become obsolete by reason of its inability to accomplish anything. For the Law accomplished nothing, as Paul says; but the new righteousness burst as it were into blossom in its stead and lifted up its head, making obsolete and putting away the former, and bringing in the fruit that truly remains and is preserved. Thus speaks the inspired Paul addressing us, and saying that the righteousness by the Law was gladly and readily accounted by him as loss in order that he might gain Christ, that is, the righteousness and fruit-bearing of the Gospel by the faith that is in Him. For such fruit as this will continue and be perennial, being capable of fulfilling the soul of man with righteousness. For no other new instruction will steal in beside the messages of the Gospel making |411 the former obsolete, as was undoubtedly the ease with the Mosaic command. But the Word of the Saviour will stand for ever, as indeed He Himself says: Heaven and earth shall pass away: but My words shall not pass away.
18 If the world hateth you, ye know that it hath hated Me before it hated you.
We shall find the course pursued in each case by our Saviour in no way whatever inferior, as I suppose, to the skill and fine art of physicians, as He everywhere follows a plan profitable to His hearers. For physicians check the stubborn maladies which sometimes arise in bodies by means of the resources of their art. But Christ fences off the entrance to evil, fortifying as it were each individual soul with commands ensuring prevention. Since therefore the disciples were destined to be rulers, not indeed over one nation or one district only, but rather to be the instructors of the universe, and to preach to all throughout the world the message of the Gospel and of God, and to turn their hearers to a belief in the true God alone, and to change them from sin to a willingness to do what became them, and to make the law, I mean that of the Gospel, the rule of their life; He bids them account as nothing the hatred of the world, that is of those who set their hearts on worldly things and choose to live wantonly and impiously. For could any one venture to say that, in seeing fit to give such injunctions to His disciples, showing that it was profitable to be hated, He did so without a reason, and not to profit them in any thing that is necessary? Put aside this folly; for His Word would not fall away into such a meaning as this. He counsels them not to guard against being noway hated by every one, and says excellently, in the clearest and most precise language, If the world hateth you, that is, if those who honour what is of the world and set their affections on earthly things alone should view you with hatred, know then indeed, He declares, that your Master endured this before you. |412
But any one might very readily perceive that the command of the Saviour will bring full profit to the expounders of the sweetest mysteries, if he would look at the nature of the circumstances. For it is always dear ----nay, rather, it is the object of their earnest endeavour----to thrust away as grievous and as monstrous the word that maketh wise, and to set upon those who are zealous to introduce the noblest of studies, and those by which they will become better than they were before; yielding up the victory to their private pleasures only. But a necessary consideration had well-nigh escaped my notice, although especially appropriate to, and connected with, the investigation of the words before us.
For the Jews, serving only the letter of the Mosaic Law, and putting their own construction on those things that were performed as types until a time of reformation, made no account whatsoever of the training of the Gospel, but thought they ought to consider its ministers as even more unendurable than their bitterest foes. And others, pursuing a different error, and attaching the unspeakable glory of God to the creature, I mean the heathen, did not very gladly receive the word that was capable of illumining them. For being as it were absorbed in their former vices, they accounted their ignorance as most precious, and were as little as possible inclined to depart from the disease akin to it. And since the nature of the case was so, who could doubt that the disciples of the Saviour would not only be hated by the Jews but also utterly despised by those diseased with the error of the Greeks? But they were very unwelcome, nay, they were intolerable, to those preferring to devote themselves to pleasure and honouring a life that spent itself in luxury. But if the disciples of the Saviour were to consider the consequence of being hated by those already mentioned as grievous, while they rather hastened to strive after and extravagantly to pursue the affection of those in this diseased condition, is it not quite clear to all that they would be manifestly not putting forth the word that is able to save |413 to any one whatsoever, but would be rather bestowing their thoughts on vain trivialities, and restraining the rebuke that proceeds from boldness of speech according to the Will of God, speaking and expounding forsooth according to each individual taste?
The injunction therefore not too eagerly to seek to be loved and to disregard incurring the hatred of some is necessary if they gain profit from their counsels. This also we shall see St. Paul doing when he says plainly:----For am I now persuading men, or God? or am I seeking to please men? If I were still wishing to please men, I should not be a servant of Christ. And again, when he had rebuked someone in Corinth, and heard that he was excessively pained, he says: For if I make you sorry, who then is he that maketh me glad, but he that is made sorry by me? For godly sorrow worketh repentance unto salvation, a repentance which bringeth no regret. It will therefore be quite indisputable that the word which consults the pleasure of the listeners will flatter rather than benefit the world; but he who obeys the words of the Saviour will not conduct his ministry in this way. For he will prefer rather to please Him, and will regard even the being hated by those, and will consider even the hatred of those who have chosen to treat virtue with the utmost hostility, as spiritual wealth.
When then, He says, the hatred that you have stirred up against you in the world is found at times to militate against your good repute, overcome and cast aside this stumblingblock in your path, seeing that honours paid you by those who love the world cannot give you much pleasure, if they cannot endure to hear the word that profits them. For I am of a truth your Lord and Master. But that those who preferred to mind earthly things and despised the heavenly blessings hated Christ Himself also to their own destruction, I think it not difficult to show. For He said in the Gospels to some: The world cannot hate you; but Me it hateth, because I testify of it that its works are evil. Making Himself then again a pattern to |414 His holy disciples in this, He bids them follow the track there laid down when He said again openly in another place: Blessed are ye when men shall persecute you, and shall reproach you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad; for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
19 If ye were of the world, the world would love its own: but because ye are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.
He lightens by His art even that which was most grievous, and gives them unexpected pleasure at that which it was reasonable to suppose would greatly trouble them. For to be hated by any is truly burdensome, because sly injuries and unexpected devices are the result; yet this too is sweet when it happens for the sake of God and righteousness, and it supplies a convincing proof that the man against whom some thus act is not of the world. For as we find physical so also shall we find moral affinities, and a sameness and complete likeness of disposition is sufficient to undermine mere blood-relationship.
For every creature loveth its like, according to the Scripture, and a man will be attached to his like. Now whereas similarity of character renews the law of love towards one another, the holy will live with the holy and very readily conform to him, and be joined to him in friendly union. And so also will be the attitude of one of like disposition towards a blasphemer. For this reason the Mosaic Law made a complete distinction between what was holy and profane, keeping such things apart and separate from one another according to the law of love.
Evil company doth corrupt good manners, and differences of disposition are at war with one another, and wills that are divided look in opposite directions and almost accuse one another: each being enamoured of its |415 own pursuit. The lover of virtue then must incur hatred for the very things which excite our admiration----his rebuking vice and unveiling the vileness of the wicked by the contrast that his own manner of life presents. For when goodness is seen by its side, what is evil must appear unseemly. For this cause then I think those who are not enamoured of the same manner of life rage against the virtuous.
He bids then His disciples not be pained, even though they see themselves hateful to the world on account of their love of virtue and righteousness towards Him, but explains that they ought on the contrary to rejoice, receiving the hatred of the world as a proof of their dignity and praise with God. For see how dangerous He has shown their not enduring to suffer (which it was likely they would prefer) to be. For to be hated by any was not absolutely without loss. But it has not the free pardon from God, and the great gain which results from preferring to suffer it. For if the man who is hated by those who mind worldly things is considered as outside the world, it is necessary then to suppose that the man who is not hated is united to the vices of the world.
What then has Christ established by these words? That they should preach His word with boldness, and should not permit their hearers to be unprofited, from their regard towards sinners or those who prefer to disobey the Divine command; but that, leaving unnoticed the affronts that will often result from being hated, they should give bold and fearless counsel, passing by nothing whatsoever or esteeming anything of more consequence than the necessity of serving God. This object St. Paul well accomplishes when he writes thus: For am I now persuading mien, or God? or am I seeking to please men? If I were still pleasing men, I should not be a servant of Christ. For it is not possible to please evil men and God. For how could the two coincide, the will of each presenting the widest divergence? For one looks towards virtue, and the other looks towards vice. The |416 man therefore who wishes only to be the servant of God, and who regards nothing as superior to piety towards Him, must necessarily be in conflict with those who love the world, whenever he persuades them to a state of mind out of harmony with the vain folly of the world. For advice which calls to something else is most intolerable to lovers of pleasure, as assuredly are profitable and severe remedies to those whose bodies are diseased by these passions.
20 Remember the word that I said unto you, A servant is not greater than his lord. If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.
After having first then shown that the hatred His followers would incur was honourable to them if justified by the occasion----for it can well be borne, nay, it is even thrice-longed for, when it happens on account of God, Who is able to set men above hindrances----He removes that which, as God, He was aware would induce them to be slow to be willing to devote all their energies to the duty of preaching the heavenly doctrine. For whereas disgrace and danger follow for the most part those that are bent on teaching, whenever their words are not found agreeable to those whom they admonish, and besides persecution is incurred, their message sometimes not being received, He vigorously and earnestly exhorts them to be prepared for these things and very ready to meet them. This too He has set forth in other words, saying: Woe unto the world because of occasions of stumbling! for it must needs be that the occasions come. But He exercises an entire control over them, representing His own condition in this respect in order that they may not aim at what is greater nor be found behaving unseemly after a different manner, but necessarily as it were following in the wake of the glory of the Lord may be anxious not to be above Him. He signifies to them that they will meet every kind of |417 opprobrium, saying, "the slave is not above his lord." For Me, He says, wicked men assailed with unbridled tongue; and, leaving no kind of insult untried, they called Me a man possessed of a devil, and a drunkard, and the fruit of fornication. Yet I did not immediately seek their punishment, but not being cut to the heart by their insults, I vouchsafed unto My hearers the word of salvation. Do not, then, seek out of reason your own aggrandisement, nor scorn the limits within which your Lord was bound, Who lowered Himself to such humiliation for us to benefit all. Therefore it makes men superior to the bitterness of speech and the impiety of those who are accustomed to find fault, as indeed also the blessed prophet Jeremiah when harassed said with respect to this very thing: My strength hath failed me by reason of those who curse me; while the inspired Paul, showing still more nobility of character under the like treatment, and gaining a great victory over the impiety of those who insulted him, says: Being reviled, we bless; being defamed, we entreat. For to love to contend against such things as these is the work of a mind humble of spirit according to the Scripture, and adorned with a truly modest temper. For long-suffering and forbearance spring up and arise as though from a good root, especially at such a time. But the inability to endure words of provocation or any kind of ill repute whatever among men, would give a clear proof of an understanding that loves boasting, and of a disposition but little estranged from the love of worldly glory. For what injury can insolence inflict on him who is free from pride? And how shall the reviling of any one be grievous to him who aims not at worldly reputation?
He well exhorts us to have a mind that goes beyond this most worthless reputation----I mean that which is the object of worldly honour----and that mounts far beyond such things as these. But He forearms them as it were with a necessary safeguard, so that they may be willing to manifest such a spirit, and sets before them an |418 argument which thrusts aside the contumely that results from weakness, namely that which we mentioned at first, the following in the wake of the glory of the Lord, and with joy confronting everything that comes in its season, until they attain to glory through God; not being bowed down by dishonour like a feeble laggard, nor checking the boldness of their teaching and neglecting the Divine commands when they are bitterly reviled, but rather to lay hold of love towards their brethren, and to hasten in every way to help those that are astray.
Persuading them therefore to shun the temporary honour of the world that lies immediately before them, He makes another earnest contention, useful and necessary. For if, He says, they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. And the drift of this is allied to His previous words. He still therefore persuades them to endure suffering, and removes by anticipation the weakness caused by the reflections that naturally arise in us. For there was no doubt that the disciples of the Saviour, incurring the anger of the persecutors of the truth, would fall into the terrors of persecution. But it was very right for them to reflect that when they preached the message of the glory of Christ, they would at all events partake of the riches of His mercy, so that they should think nothing at all a hindrance in the way of so desirable a zeal, but should appear superior to all panic and danger, having nothing painful to undergo, but rather exulting in the honours that all men would bestow on them as ministering unto them the word of salvation. And it was a perfectly right object that those who were anxious to call men into eternal life and were found to be messengers to their hearers of blessings from God should expect this, and seek to be included among men so blessed. But as every man inclines his own purpose in the direction of his wishes, and directs it to suit his will and pleasure, it was the more necessary that it should be pointed out that those who are hostile to the truth and are subjugated by the pleasures of vice must fight through |419 conviction with those who call them away from the objects of their pursuit. For lessons which have this object are not pleasant to those who love pleasure. It remained then of necessity to show what they would have to expect from those who, being ranked among their foes, would persecute them, and insult them, and try every kind of assault.
Christ therefore exhorts them to confront this boldly, not denying that it will happen. And because His followers ought to show a manful spirit, He instructs them and foretells the dangers they will encounter. For if, He says, they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. This is just as if He had said: "I, the Creator of the Universe, Who have all things under My hand, both in heaven and on earth, did not put a bridle on their rage, nor restrained as it were by bonds the inclination of each of my hearers. But I rather left to the choice of each his own course, and permitted all to do as they liked. And therefore I, when persecuted, endured it, though I had the power of preventing it. When therefore ye also are persecuted, enduring for a time the aversion of those who hate you, and not being too much troubled by the ingratitude of those whom you benefit, following in the wake of My dispensation pursue the same course as I did, that you may attain the like glory. For those who surfer with Me shall also reign with Me."
And by the third addition, If they kept My word, they will keep yours also, He bids them not to be disheartened when their teaching is sometimes not received; and He does this also excellently and well. For he who has been appointed to this work thinks that he has lost his labour if any refuse to obey his words. But the case is not so. Let no one think that it is: for how is that possible? For the adviser who has once spoken and set forth the knowledge of what is good, has done that which was in his power. The rest will depend upon the disposition of his hearers. For it is easy for them to turn, each to what he wishes, either to obedience or the opposite. Those then who |420 are our guides to the best life must not shrink back, so that they may sow in the reprobates the Word that is able to profit by Divine power, and may be able to order aright what we cannot attain unto by their faithful ministration, a thing which we find well practised and brought to perfection in the distribution of the talents. For one is found taking ten, and another five, and another two, and besides these yet another taking one, who, disdaining to use it for commercial purposes, buried the talent in the earth. And for this reason it was said to him: Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou oughtest to have put my money to the bankers, and at my coming I should have received back mine own with interest. For just as those who have been trained to agricultural industry, and who have this object in view, cutting up the land with the plough and then burying the seed in the furrow, leave the rest no longer to their own skill but rather entrust it to the power and favour of God, I mean the taking root of that which is cast into the earth and nourishing it up to perfect fruit, so I think the expounder of the noblest truths ought only to distribute the Word and leave the rest to God.
The Saviour therefore gives His advice in this matter to His disciples as a medicine for want of spirit and a cure of listlessness. For do not ever choose to shrink, He says, from continuing to teach, even if some of those who have once been admonished should make of no account the teaching that has been given them. But finding that even My words are often not received by many, do not strive to surpass My reputation, and, following in My steps in this also, lay aside despondency. And this instruction was very necessary to the holy Apostles, since they were about to preach to all men the message of God and salvation. And therefore the inspired Paul, as having been nominated to his Apostleship by Christ, has shown himself to us a man of this kind, and is often seen to attain manliness herein. |421 For it is easy to show that he thought he ought to despise the love of honour, and to treat persecution as utterly of no account, while he considered it of great importance not to be too fainthearted, even if some entirely refused to receive the Word that was once scattered among them. For he writes to some: Ye are wise in Christ, but we are fools for Christ's sake; we are weak, but ye are strong; we have dishonour, but ye have glory. Even unto this present hour we both hunger and thirst; and yet again, besides, these words: We are made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things even until now. So you see then that he was above worldly repute, on account of the commandment of the Saviour. But, showing his nobleness in persecutions, he said: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? He writes also to others, that to speak the same things, to me indeed is not irksome, but for you it is safe. And yet again to the Galatians: My little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you. You hear with how little hesitation he repeats the same message, though the first that he had originally given had not gained acceptance, and well says that he travailed in birth for some until the forming of Christ in them should appear. And his preaching effected this, moulding his hearers into the love of God and into the likeness of Christ by faith.
21 But all these things will they do unto you for My Names sake, because they know not Him that sent Me.
He declares that those who choose to act impiously against His holy disciples will do it on no other plea than "My Name" only. For this is a reproach against those who honour God, and an excuse for setting themselves against them on the part of those who do not know Him. But since it is clear to all that no one would suffer |422 anything for the sake of God without reward, for a glorious crown will await them, He incites them again to courage, and makes their spirit steadfast, thrusting aside the misery of that which they expect by the hope of the return. He points out then that the very perils they endure are gain and an object of prayer, and rids of all its terrors that, the very prospect of the occurrence of which might stupefy some, and exhorts His disciples to welcome it with the greatest eagerness. And indeed when they were once summoned before the impious Council of the Jews, and had been severely buffeted with stripes for the sake of Christ, they went forth from the presence of the council, rejoicing, according to the Scripture, that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonour for the Name of the Lord. And of a truth they earnestly exhort us to endure suffering in this cause, and in no way to be dismayed by it, even if we have to encounter any pain for Christ's sake. For let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or an evil-doer: but if a man suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God in this Name. Most pleasant then is suffering for Christ's sake, and sweet is peril when its presence is occasioned by love towards God.
But consider how here again, showing Himself as One with His Father, He says that neither the Jews nor those who were about to persecute the preachers of the Name of Christ, knew either the Father or the Son. For he who deems it his duty to dishonour the Son is avowedly a hater of the Father; not indeed as transgressing against another nature, but as insulting the true dignity of His natural Divinity. For none could be convicted of insolence against the Son, if he respected the nature of the Father. And if he were at all acquainted with the actual nature of the Father, how came he to be ignorant that He was begotten by Him? And will not he who spoils the fruit produced from it injure the parent tree? Sin against the Son therefore is a convincing proof of ignorance of God the Father. |423
But whereas He did not say, Because they know not My Father, but Him that sent Me, I think He wished to hint at something of this kind. His aim, as it seems, was to show that those who practised persecution against His devoted servants, plainly tied their heads as it were in a noose of a double transgression. For not merely, He says, will they be convicted of ignorance of My origin, or be justly condemned on he charge of atheism, but will actually be found rebuking the true wisdom of God the Father. For if He sent His own Son to raise that which had fallen away, to renew that which was worn out, to set forth life to all in the world, while those in the world set themselves against and impiously oppose such as choose to preach Him the Saviour of the world, they will be very clearly convicted of ignorance and of fighting against Him that sent Me. For by the expression "being sent," He introduces a clear proof of His Incarnation. But he that is ignorant of Him that sent Me, shows by this very fact his ignorance of God, and dishonours the mystery of My mission.
22 If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no excuse for their sin.
We may take in two ways the meaning of the words before us. For if any one should suppose that this passage was directed against Greeks and Jews alike, we say that unless the Divine and heavenly message, I mean the Gospel, had come to all that are on the earth, pointing out to each individual the way of salvation and making plain the works of righteousness, their complete ignorance of what is pleasing to God would perhaps have been a strong reason in each case for the pardon of those who are not eager in pursuing virtue. This ignorance of theirs makes them seem worthy of pardon. But whereas the word of the Gospel has been directed to all men, what reason for pardon is there, or with what words should any one address Him that judgeth, when accused after |424 knowledge of the worst crimes? But if the Lord is saying this concerning the Jews only, as having very often listened to His teaching, and as being in no way ignorant of what He commanded them to think and do, let Him illustrate it thus: They will not endure your teaching, He says, but will bring upon you trials and persecutions, and will devise against you every kind of terror, and from their bitterness will be consumed with an unjust hatred against you, not able indeed to charge you with any wickedness, but blaming only your love towards Me. But searching as it were for an excuse for the cruelty of their madness, and diminishing the baseness of their love of self-gratification, they will actually cite Moses and the books of Moses, and will pretend that I was an opponent of their ancestral laws. But if I had not come and set forth commands superior to the Law given by Moses; if I had not fulfilled it by many words, showing that it was now high time to pass beyond mere types, and that there had been enough of patterns and shadows, but that the hour had come in which the truth itself should shine forth; if I had not shown this from the Law itself, saying in the clearest language, If ye believed Moses, ye would believe Me; for he wrote of Me; if I had not made it clear that My word harmonized with the testimonies of the prophets, and that the power of My Presence had already been predicted and proclaimed, they would have had reasonable grounds for their madness against Me and you. Since nothing has been left out, but everything that was essential has been said, the reason which they have devised to cover the nakedness of their sin is vain.
This consideration then I think should harmonize with the words of the Saviour; but in showing the terrible charges that will be brought against those who injure them, and in saying that those who dare to do such things will one day be chastised, He removes the greater part of their grief and wisely withdraws that which was likely to cause them no small pain. For |425 the conviction that the workers of wickedness will pay the penalty of their crimes sometimes makes it possible to those who are injured to endure their wickedness. And, knowing this, the Master of all things says: Vengeance belongeth unto Me; I will recompense, saith the Lord. Nay, even the blessed Paul himself, when struck by one of the high priests, had no other consolation for the bitterness of suffering than this that we have mentioned. For what did he say?----God shall smite thee, thou whited wall. This then is a medicine for human weakness----I mean the expectation of the punishment of those who have chosen to act unjustly. Our Lord, however, is superior to and above human littleness. When He was reviled, He reviled not again; when He suffered, He threatened not, according to the Scripture. But when struck on the face, He made no angry remark, nor threatened the man who dared to strike Him, but answered indeed with the greatest mildness and forbearance, If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil; but if well, why smitest thou Me? The word then of the prophet is true: Who shall be made equal to the Lord in the clouds, or who shall be likened to the Lord among the sons of God?
23 He that hateth Me hateth My Father also.
He makes a definite charge of atheism against those who choose, in the impiety of their minds and the estrangement of their hearts, to hate Him. And the charge is a true one. For those who dishonour the Son will not be guiltless of transgression against the Father, convinced of the justice of their hatred. For just as those who depreciate the shining of the sun, because it appears and exists for no necessary purpose, bring charges of uselessness, and direct their censure also against its Author; and just as whoever sees fit to despise the scent of flowers will cast reproach on this account against that from whence it was derived----the case will be the same, I suppose, with respect to the Only-begotten and |426 His Father. For it is impossible for those who censure what proceeds from anything else to praise its author. For this reason Christ said to the Jews: A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit: neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit; when He further told them to make this accurate and unexceptionable distinction in this matter: Either make the tree corrupt and its fruit corrupt. For whatever one could truly predicate of one of such things as these, that I suppose he must necessarily make applicable to both. For when there is one nature, surely the attributes are entirely common even though they are capable of separate manifestation; and whatever a man might do against what proceeds from any fountain, that he would plainly do against the fountain itself. Wherefore Christ says that he that hateth Me, hateth My Father also. And He appropriately attributes a reference to the Person of the Father to any charges that men may make against Himself. And He will none the less satisfy us by this discourse that He is not distinct from Him by reason of the complete identity of Their Natures. And besides He terrifies His hearers by showing how very perilous it is to choose to transgress by hating Him, and He assures them that the man who rejects His worship will be defenceless and an easy prey to his enemies, inasmuch as he insults the Person of the Father Himself. For since insolence against His Son affects Him too, He will also be offended.
Is it not quite clear that the reception of this belief raised the confidence of His holy disciples? At the same time, Christ illustrated another essential and profound truth----I mean this of which I will speak. Some thought in their unparalleled madness and excessive folly, that when they were transgressing against the Son, and opposing the words of the Saviour, they were giving pleasure to God, Who was the Giver of the Law; and while they continued to confer the meed of victory on the prophetic dispensation of Moses, they showed themselves true guardians of the love of God. It was |427 necessary therefore to show the falsity of their boast, and to teach the world that those who act counter to the laws of the Saviour set themselves as it were against the entire Divine Nature, insulted in the Person of the Son by their contumacy, and by their persistent and inexcusable disobedience, which He clearly declares is not merely aimed against His own Person, but also affects all who preach the Word for Him and through Him. He then that enters upon opposition against the holy Apostles themselves is an enemy of God, and shows insolence towards Him, and is altogether hostile to the ineffable and unspeakable Nature of the Divine Being, for the Apostles do not preach themselves, but the God and Lord of all, that is. Christ.
24 If I had not done among them the works which none other did, they had not had sin; but now have they both seen and hated both Me and My Father.
Christ none the less shows by these words that no excuse was left to the Jews why they should not encounter the doom of punishment and meet irretrievable damnation For clearly nothing that could profit them is left undone, as both a long discourse is vouchsafed them which might easily have put them on the way of salvation, and miracles were shown to them which no one in the world had ever seen before. For what saint ever vied with the Saviour in working miracles? As then the desire of honouring Him was so far repugnant to the Jews that they even preferred to hate Him in the impiety of their minds, will not the burden of the charge weigh most grievously upon them? For it would be better for them that they should never have heard His wise words or witnessed His unspeakable wonder-working power; for perhaps then they might have devised some such specious plea as this for pardon: "We never heard any of the truths essential to salvation, nor did we see anything to induce faith in us," But since it was not from one of the holy prophets, but from Christ Himself Who |428 came from above and was sent to us, that they got their information; and since they also saw strange miracles with their own eyes, for Christ opened the eyes of the blind although no other man had ever before been able to do this; what can excuse the madness of the Jews, or what plea can extricate them from punishment? For though they had heard and seen, they hated both the Son and the Father; they both dishonoured the Word sent from the Father through the Son, and also, rejecting the honour due to the works of the Divine Nature, stood convicted of glaring impiety against the entire Nature of God, which was the agent. For the Father Himself certainly co-operated with the Son when He worked His wonders, not as doing marvellous works by an external instrument, but as being in the Son through the identity of Their Nature and the immutability of Their Substance. The wretched Jews then showed ingratitude, and lie under the grievous charge of gross contumacy, since they held as of no account the incomparable teaching of the Saviour, and besides dishonoured through the Son and in the Son the Nature of the Father, although that Nature was shown to be the worker of exceeding great miracles to them, which ought to have drawn and attracted the most stubborn and unteachable into ability to think what was right and what conduced to the glory of God.
25 But this cometh to pass, that the word may he fulfilled that is written in their Law, They hated Me without a cause.
And He shows clearly that this was not unforeseen by the Law, which predicted all that was to come to pass; but we say that it. was not for this reason that the Law predicted these latter days that the Jews when they visited with hatred both the Father and the Son might be convicted of injustice, but, inasmuch as They were destined to be so hated by them, the Divine and Sacred Law presaged it, showing that the Spirit was in no way ignorant of the future. For it was written in the Book of Psalms, as spoken by the Person of Christ, as rebuking |429 the madness of the Jews and saying, They hated Me with an unjust hatred. For surely the hatred was unjust. Certainly they were exasperated against Him without a cause, who so far from having their hatred justified, in regard at any rate to the character of the works that were done among them, ought rather to have loved Him with surpassing devotion and have delighted in a willingness to follow Him. For let any one who wishes to excuse the disobedience of the Jews come forward and tell us what ground for hatred any one could have against Him. Was any one of the works of Christ deserving of hatred or enmity? His deliverance of them from death and corruption? His emancipation of them from the tyranny of the devil, and destruction of the dominion of sin, and restoration of that which was enslaved to sonship with God? His lifting up into righteousness (by His love of mankind and forgiveness of injuries) those who were dead in sin? His allowing them to participate in the Holy Spirit an the Divine Nature, and throwing open unto us even the dwelling-place of the holy angels, and granting men an access unto heaven? How was it just, that He Who provided and ordained all this for us should incur hatred, and not rather be requited by the silence of unspoken thanksgivings and with the boon of ceaseless gratitude at our hands? Nothing, however, could I think convert the stubborn Jew to willingness to think aright. For he hated without a cause Him Whom he ought rather to have loved with his whole heart and adorned with the honour of obedience. But herein our Lord well shows that He was not unaware of the stubborn temper of the Jews, but had foretold and foreknew that it would be so with them, but still treated them with mildness and forgiveness, as became His Divine Nature. For He set before them, ill-suited as they were to receive it, the Word which called them to salvation; even to confirming the confession of their faith by miracles, if there were any men among them of a good and suitable disposition. Herein too He gives His disciples no small |430 benefit, to the intent that in a forgiving spirit they might extend the preaching of salvation even to those who offered them insult, and might even in this be seen to walk in the track of that excellence which first was conspicuous in Him. For if there be any good thing, it is seen in Christ first, and shown to us-ward; and from Him all blessings flow.
26, 27 But when the Comforter is come, Whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall bear witness of Me. And ye also bear witness, because ye have been with Me from the beginning.
When He says that both He Himself and His Father were hated by the perverse Jews, this hatred of theirs being gratuitous and without justification, He with good reason makes mention of the Spirit. He thus at once adds to the Word the completion of the Holy Trinity, and also shows that it was dishonoured, to the intent that the spectators of His miracles, who were guilty of insult against the Son, might also be convicted of treating with contumely the power which so far excels every substance, not only by refusing to accept Christ, even though He had worked great marvels to convince them, but also by their actions against Him. For they treated Him with an impiety which is shocking even to think of; and yet one might say, O senseless Jew, Christ was a worker of wonders before you far exceeding the glory of Moses and the glory of every Saint. For the saying of the Lord, If I had not done among them the works which none other did, brings back a thought before our minds. While then you crown with honours so illustrious Moses, the servant and minister of lesser things than these, you do not blush when you so perversely reject Him Who is immeasurably superior and a worker of far nobler deeds; even though He brought to their long foretold fulfilment the oracles given by Moses, and terminated the shadow by the truth. Our Lord Jesus Christ therefore of necessity joined the mention |431 of the Spirit to that of Himself and the Father. And He also shows what has been said to be true; that is, that if any one chooses to hate the Son, he will also utterly contemn the Father from Whom He proceeds. And how, or in what way, consider further.
For observe, when calling the Comforter "the Spirit of truth," that is, His own, He says that He comes from the Father. For as the Spirit naturally belongs to the Son, being in Him and proceeding through Him, so also He belongs to the Father. But the qualities of Their Substance cannot be distinct, where the Spirit is common to both. Let not then any of those who are accustomed impiously to employ the language of folly lead us to the perverted opinion that the Son, executing as it were a kind of ministerial service, vouchsafes the Spirit that is received from the Father to the creature. For some have not scrupled perversely to say this. But it is more consistent to believe that since the Spirit belongs to Him, as He also certainly belongs to God the Father, He sends Him to His holy disciples to sanctify them. For if they think that in making the Son in this also a minister and servant to us, they form and utter a shrewd conception, surely it follows that we say to them: Ye fools and blind; do you not perceive that you are going back, and diminishing the glory of the Only-begotten, when you string together miserable sophistries from the ignorance that is in you? For if the Son ministers the Spirit from the Father, being ranked as a servant, surely it is necessary to admit that the Spirit is utterly different in Essence from Him, and perhaps His superior and far above Him, if the case be as you in your ignorance suppose. For if the Son does not proceed from the Father, that is, from His Essence, as you think, surely the Spirit when compared with the Son would be regarded as superior to Him. What then say we, when we hear Christ himself saying of the Spirit: He shall glorify Me; for He shall take of Mine and shall declare it unto you? |432
Now, besides what has been mentioned, this also will necessarily follow. For if you consider that the Son performs a ministerial service, providing us with That which is of another Nature, that is, the Spirit proceeding from God the Father Which is naturally holy, the Son is not by Nature holy, but only by participation, as we are. For by the ignorance of the impious He is declared to be different in Substance from the Father, from Whom also the Spirit provided unto us by Him proceeds. It will then be possible, since the Spirit does not belong to the Son, but He Himself is sanctified by adoption, as is the case with the creature, that He may fall away from the holiness that is in Him. For that which has been acquired as an addition might surely be removed, at the pleasure of Him Who has bestowed it. Who then will not flee away from such doctrines as these? I think, however, that our statement is more conformable to the truth.
The truth then is dear to us, as are the dogmas, expressing the truth; and we will not follow those heretics, but, pursuing the faith handed down by the holy fathers, we declare that the Comforter, that is, the Holy Spirit, belongs to the Son, and is not introduced from outside nor acquired in His case, as He is in that of those who receive sanctification, in whom though not originally innate He is implanted; but that the Son is of one Substance with the Spirit, as also He is with the Father. For if we take this view, the power of the doctrines of the Church will not be reduced in our case to a polytheistic mythology, but the Holy Trinity is united in the doctrine of a Single Divinity. Showing then that there is a Unity of Substance, I mean that of Himself and God the Father, in the same Being, in saying that the Comforter is the Spirit of truth He declares that He proceeds from the Father, and makes plain and beyond contradiction that the opposer of Christ is wholly at enmity with God. For he who in any degree allows himself to contemn the Son may be reasonably considered to transgress against Him from Whom He proceeds. |433
When then, He says, the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, that is My Spirit, Which proceeds from the Father, is come, He will testify of Me. And how will He testify? By working marvels in you, and by you He will be a just and true witness of My Godlike authority, and of the greatness of My power. For He that works in you is My Spirit, and as He is My Spirit, so also is He That of God the Father. Therefore it is necessary to consider that they who, to confirm our faith, work marvels in us by the one good Spirit are alike insulted in the Person of Christ, in Whom dwelt, as Paul says, no mere part of the ineffable Divine Nature, but all the fulness [of the Godhead] bodily.
But when the Spirit bears witness, you yourselves also, He says, will bear witness with Him. For you have been eye-witnesses and spectators of what I have done among My own, being even with Me as My disciples.
xvi. 1 These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be made to stumble.
The Saviour, having clearly set before His disciples the madness of the Jews, was perhaps about to add to what He had said, that these misguided men would reach such a height of disobedience, and so stubbornly refuse to listen, and in their cowardice advance so far in hatred of God, that even if there should be two witnesses of His glory they would decline to admit it----and this though the Law openly declares that whatever is testified by two or three witnesses should be believed and received as unquestionably true. But He avoids mentioning this on the present occasion for good reasons. For His statement would thus have produced in them an immoderate grief, and, breaking the hearts of His disciples even to despair, would have made the entrance of faint-heartedness and cowardice into their hearts absolutely certain. For they might reasonably have questioned among themselves;----If the masses of the Jews would not only lend |434 to no one a complete obedience, but also set at nought the Comforter though He astonished them with marvels passing description, and in spite of this would actually afterwards be found as guilty of hating Christ as they were before, and in hating Him of hating the Father, what necessity was there for spending their labour in vain? Why should they not rid themselves of their troubles, and choose silence in preference to teaching men unwilling to hear? Knowing then in all likelihood the thoughts that would agitate His disciples, He skilfully conceals what was too grievous to be told, and what would have been calculated to produce cowardice and faint-heartedness in the duty of teaching. But He rightly turns the drift of His speech into an exhortation to hold themselves in readiness and make vigorous preparation for the results that might be expected to follow in the future. For whatever comes to men suddenly and unexpectedly is likely to disturb even the mind that is stable. For the reception of that, the advent of which has been anticipated, the way is made smooth and its burden is lightened, since it has been already foreseen, and lost its edge by the expectation of certain suffering. Something of this kind, I think, Christ wishes to signify. For if, He says, I have already worked such marvels even before your eyes, the Comforter also will work marvels in you. And if the headstrong madness of the Jews is not diminished, and their conduct is the same as before, and even worse, be not offended, He says, when you find yourselves its victims. But keep ever in mind My words: A disciple is not above his master, nor a servant above his lord.
2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the hour cometh, that whosoever killeth you shall think that he offereth service unto God.
He extends His forewarning of danger to that which is the most dreadful of all terrors, but not with the intention of arousing in His disciples an unmanly panic. For |435 this would not harmonise with His anxiety to stimulate them to a fearless proclamation of the heavenly message. His object rather was that, thrusting aside the extremity of fear, as already anticipated and for this reason having lost its edge, they might gain a complete victory over every evil, and consider even the possible approach of intolerable evils as of no account whatsoever. For what loss could the lesser evil inflict on those who do not even dread the greater? And how could those who know how to be superior to the worst objects of fear be dismayed by any of the rest? In order then that they might have their minds bent on enduring everything with a cheerful courage, and to convince them of the necessity of so far withstanding the malice of the Jews as not even to fear an immediate and cruel death, He not only tells them that these things will continually happen, and the devices or opposition of the Jews not be satisfied with merely turning them out of the synagogues, but forewarns them that their impiety will reach such a height of cruelty as to make them consider their extreme inhumanity towards them to be the path of piety towards God. It must be plain that those who held fast to the love of Christ actually were cast out of the synagogues by the Jews, and endured this punishment at the outset of their work----when we are told by the Evangelist that nevertheless even of the rulers many believed on Him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess it, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; and again: For the Scribes and Pharisees had agreed already, that if any man should confess Him to be the Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue. But if, He says, any are indisposed to endure the malice of the Jews, let them then know that their devices against you will not stop here. For be not at all alarmed, He says, even though you must endure this suffering. Their audacity will reach such a pitch of wickedness as to make them suppose your death to be as an actual service towards God. And this we shall find happening in the case of the holy Stephen, the |436 first of the martyrs, and in that of the inspired Paul. For involving Stephen in a charge of blasphemy, and simulating herein the zeal that loves God, they slew him by stoning him. And some of the Jews were so enraged against the holy and wise Paul that they bound themselves under a curse neither to eat nor to drink till they had slain him. For we shall find this recorded in the Acts of the holy Apostles. Excellent then and profitable is His prediction, moderating by anticipation their fear of what was dreadful, and forging His disciples anew (as having as it were already suffered), into a courageous disposition. For the foreknowledge in the minds of the sufferers of the dreadfulness of their danger will give them strength beforehand, while it deprives the approach of evil of its power.
3 And these things will they do, because they have not known the Father nor Me.
He showed that the zeal of the Jews was a zeal not according to knowledge, as also Paul says, but that it had gone far astray and wandered out of the straight path, even though according to the purpose that was in them it seemed to be manifested for the sake of God. For these misguided men thought that by arming themselves with the command given by Moses they pleased God, the Giver of the Law, and actually supposed, that by opposing the prophetic utterances of Christ, they gained credit with Him. For it was for this reason that they persecuted so hotly the preachers of the message of the Gospel, but were ignorant that they were falling into every kind of folly, and by their insults against the Son were transgressing against God the Father Himself, and further, were convicted of complete ignorance of the Nature of the Father and that of the Son Who manifested Himself from Him. And, what is marvellous, they were eager to crown Moses, the wisest of men, who was a minister of the Law given by angels, with the highest honours, but did not shrink from loading with the worst insults our Lord |437 Jesus Christ, Who expounded the unspeakable Will of God, and said clearly, I do nothing of Myself: but the Father which sent Me He hath given Me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak----even though God the Father worked marvels with Him, and testified by a voice heard from above: This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased. It is then unquestionable that if any one should choose bitterly to assail those who convey the Divine message, he will be in complete ignorance of the Undivided and Consubstantial Trinity. For such an one, when he excludes from the honour that is His due the Word manifesting Himself from Him, to suit his own conceit, knows not the Father. For would it not be received as an assured truth by those who are able discreetly to deal with the doctrine of the Trinity, that, since He is of the same Substance with the Father, He will speak in absolute conformity with the Will of the Father; and that, as He partakes in His glory, the dignity of the Father will be equally insulted when He is attacked? In these words then the Lord Jesus Christ defends Himself, and also accuses the audacity of the Jews; fastening thereby a bitter and dreadful censure on those who dishonour Him by their cruelty towards the holy Apostles. For the charge of transgression will not merely have reference to the Saints, but will mount up to Him Who laid upon them the service of apostleship; just as God said unto the holy Samuel concerning the children of Israel: They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected Me.
Most dangerous is it then to refuse to bestow on the Saints the honour which is their due; for the charge of transgression against them will mount up to Him Who gave them their mission.
4 But these things have I spoken unto you, that when their hour is come, ye may remember them, how that I told you.
He contends that mention has been made to them of these things for no other reason except that they might |438 know that, meeting for His sake the assaults of sin, they would at all events gain glory therefrom. For I have not foretold it unto you, He says, from any wish to enfeeble your courage or to inspire in you a premature alarm by the anticipation of suffering, but rather to give you foreknowledge, in order that by this means you may derive a double benefit. For in the first place, remembering that I forewarned you, you will marvel at My foreknowledge, and the time of peril will itself conduce to complete the security of your faith. For He Who knows the future must be by nature God. And bring this, too, to your recollection; He who is prepared and knows beforehand that he will suffer, will have his fear much diminished; for he will readily overcome all that seems to be dreadful, and will have his mind undisturbed, even in the midst of troubles. For I think the sudden and unexpected advent of suffering sharpens its sting; and for this reason the Psalmist says: I was prepared and was not dismayed. He bids His disciples then, for a good and necessary reason, to remember that He has foretold unto them the future. For it was certain that on this account they would believe Him to be the true God (for omniscience is peculiar to the true God), and they will readily believe that He will extricate them from their dangers.
5, 6 And these things I said not unto you from the beginning, because I was with you. But now I go unto Him that sent Me; and none of you asketh Me, Whither goest thou? But because I have spoken these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart.
Another necessary and useful consideration entered into the mind of Christ. For it was beyond question, that, called as they had been to discipleship at the beginning by Him, and living ever in continual converse with Him, and having often had experience of His miracles, and having laid to heart His incomparable might and power, they thought they would overcome every trial, |439 and at once triumph over perils of every kind. For how could they any longer entertain doubt and be faint at heart, after they had experienced the support of One Who had such power? And inasmuch as Christ forewarned them that they would fall into unexpected perils, with the intent that they might not be much dismayed thereby, reflecting within themselves and saying, "Have we then been disappointed of the hopes we had at first, and has our purpose failed, inasmuch as we thought that we were called to partake of every blessing, but in the end find ourselves involved in unexpected calamities?" our Lord then is compelled to expound to them the reason why He did not forewarn them at first; and says: These things I said not unto you from the beginning, because I was with you; for while He was with them, He sufficed to preserve their peace of mind, and to rescue them from every trial, and to afford them suitable instruction and assistance in all that might befall them. But since He was going to the Father, He suitably, and at the fitting time, expounds to them the inevitable approach of what awaited them in the future. For if even we ourselves are very anxious not to miss the fitting time, surely this would be God's pleasure. The time then for silence was at the beginning, when the need for their receiving this instruction had not yet arisen. But when He was going to the Father, the time for speech had arrived. Did the Saviour then separate from His disciples when He ascended to the Father, and was He still with them, by the working and power and grace of the Spirit? How, or in what way, was He with them? For it is beyond question that He cannot lie when He says, Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world, except so far as the flesh and His bodily presence were concerned. But the Saviour knew that the ascent into heaven of His own Flesh was most essential to His Human Nature, but, as God, He well knew that the heart of His disciples was overwhelmed |440 by the bitterness of their sorrow. For the departure of Christ was very grievous unto them, because they longed to be ever with Him. But since He had resolved to do this, they do not even ask when or for what reason He will leave them, or what is the motive or inducement of His Ascension. He sympathises then with their suffering, as it proceeded from love; and with their ill-timed preference of silence, which did not allow them to inquire the reason for His departure, although to know it would bring them much profit.
7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter cannot come unto you.
Grievous is the sorrow that has consumed your heart, He says, and bitter the affliction that has cast you down. For you consider that separation from Me will be fraught with pain to you, and your apprehension is well grounded. For you will certainly have to encounter all the trials which I have already foretold, and will endure the fury of impious persecutions. Considering then that expediency should always be preferred to pleasure, I will tell you the truth: It is expedient for you that I go away. And we will make all our thoughts subject to the Saviour Who is over us, though I think that the saying may be likely to cause no little perplexity to a simple-minded hearer. For surely the thought will arise in him and occur to his mind, that, if it was better that Christ should go away, His Presence with them could not but infer some loss. And if our advantage lay in His Ascension, surely the reverse would result from His remaining with us. The question may perhaps perplex an unaided judgment; but the man who is guided by knowledge from above to an accurate comprehension of the saying can find here no occasion of stumbling, but will rather discover its true meaning.
We must therefore ponder over and clearly understand this thought in particular, that according to the |441 saying, There is a time for everything, and all things are good in their season. At the fitting season, then, it was well for Christ to be present in this world in the flesh: but, on the other hand, when the time came that was proper and suitable for the complete fulfilment of His purposes, He ascended to the Father. And the charge can in nowise be brought against Him that His presence with His disciples was not very advantageous to them, because at the last His departure became necessary. Nor, again, can He be reproached at all because advantage resulted from His departure, inasmuch as His Presence was profitable to them. For both these events, coming to pass at the proper season, brought us advantage. And that, briefly touching on the drift of the inquiry, we may make it easier for our brethren to apprehend it, let us by way of digression give an explanation of the cause of the Incarnation of the Only-begotten; and, in addition, of the advantage which would result from His departure.
In order then that He might free from corruption and death those that lay under the condemnation of that ancient curse, He became Man; investing Himself, Who was by Nature the Life, with our nature. For thus the power of death was overcome, and the dominion of corruption, which had gained sway over us, was destroyed. And, since the Divine Nature is wholly free from inclination to sin, He exalted us by His own Flesh. For in Him we all have our being, inasmuch as He manifested Himself as Man. In order that He might mortify the members, which are upon the earth, that is, the affections of the flesh, and might quench the law of sin that holds sway in our members, and also that He might sanctify our nature, and prove Himself our Pattern and Guide in the path to piety, and that the revelation of the truth according to knowledge, and of a way of life beyond possibility of error might be complete----all this Christ, when He became Man, accomplished. It was necessary then to confer on the nature of |442 man the height of blessedness, and not only to rid it of death and sin, but to raise it even to the heavens themselves, and to make man a companion of the angels, and a partaker in their joys. And just as by His own Resurrection He renewed in us the power of escaping corruption, even so He thought it right to open out for us the path heavenwards, and to set in the Presence of the Father the race of man who had been cast out of His sight owing to Adam's transgression. And the inspired Paul, adopting this view, says: For Christ entered not into a holy place made with hands, nor into one like in pattern to the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear before the Face of God for us. He tells us that being ever in His Father's Presence, and partaking of His Nature by reason of the sameness of Their Essence, He now manifests Himself not for His own sake but for us. For I will repeat what I have already said. He places us in the sight of the Father, by departing into heaven as the firstfruits of humanity. For just as, being Himself the Life by Nature, He is said to have died and risen again for our sake, even so He is said, ever beholding His Father and being in like manner beholden of Him, to appear as Man now, that is, when He has taken human nature upon Him, not for His own sake but for us. And as this one thing was seen to be lacking in His dispensation to us-ward, our ascension into heaven has been prepared for us in Christ, Who was the firstfruits and the first of men to ascend. For He ascended thither as our forerunner, as the inspired Paul also himself says. There, as Man, He is in very truth still the High Priest of our souls, our Comforter, and the propitiation for our sins; and, as God and Lord by Nature, He sits on His own Father's throne, and even on us too will the glory thereof be reflected. For this reason also Paul said concerning the Father: And He raised us up with Him, and made us to sit with Him in the heavenly places in Christ. When then His mission on earth was accomplished, it was necessary that He should fulfil what yet |443 remained----His Ascension to the Father. Wherefore He says: It is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away the Comforter cannot come unto you.
Come, then, let us add yet another reflection, profitable and true, to our previous investigations. All His work on earth had indeed been accomplished, as we just now affirmed. It was however surely necessary that we should become partakers and sharers of the Divine Nature of the Word; or rather that, giving up the life that originally belonged to us, we should be transformed into another, and the very elements of our being be changed into newness of life well-pleasing to God. But it was impossible to attain this in any other way except by fellowship in, and partaking of, the Holy Spirit. The most fitting and appropriate time, then, for the mission and descent of the Holy Spirit to us was that which in due season came----I mean, the occasion of our Saviour Christ's departure hence. For while yet present in the body with those who believed on Him, He showed Himself, I think, the bestower of every blessing. But when time and necessity demanded His restoration to His Father in heaven, it was essential that He should associate Himself by the Spirit with His worshippers, and should dwell in our hearts by faith, in order that, having His presence within us, we might cry with boldness, Abba, Father, and might readily advance in all virtue, and might also be found strong and invincible against the wiles of the devil, and the assaults of men, as possessing the omnipotent Spirit.
For it might easily be shown, both from the Old and New Scriptures, that the Holy Spirit changes the disposition of those in Whom He is, and in Whom He dwells, and moulds them into newness of life. For the inspired Samuel, when he was discoursing with Saul, said: And the Spirit of the Lord will come upon thee, and thou shalt be turned into another man. And the blessed Paul thus writes: But we all, with unveiled face reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed |444 into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit. Now the Lord is the Spirit. You see that the Spirit moulds as it were into another likeness those in whom He visibly abides. For He easily turns them from an inclination to dwell on the things of earth, to the contemplation only of that which is in heaven; and from an unmanly cowardice to a courageous disposition. And that we shall find the disciples thus affected and steeled by the Holy Spirit into indifference to the assaults of their persecutors, and laying fast hold of the love that is towards Christ, can no way be questioned. Therefore the saying of the Saviour is true, when He says, "It is expedient for you that I depart into heaven." For that was the occasion of the descent of the Spirit.
8, 9, 10, 11 And He, when He is come, will convict the world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they believe not on Me; of righteousness, because I go to the Father, and ye behold Me no more; of judgment, because the prince of this world hath been judged.
When He has shown that His departure to His Father is the fitting occasion of the descent and mission of the Spirit, and has by this means sufficiently allayed the pangs of grief in His holy disciples, He rightly proceeds to show what the work of the Holy Spirit will be. For when He is come, He says, He will convict the world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. And He has clearly pointed out what form the reproof in each of these cases will take. But since some are likely to stumble in dealing with this question, I consider it necessary to interpret the text point by point, and to state more plainly its signification.
The reproof of sin, then, has been set first. How then will He reprove the world? When those who love Christ, as being made worthy of Him, and as true believers, are convinced of sin, then it is that He will condemn the world, that is those who are ignorant and persist in |445 unbelief, and are enslaved by their love of worldly pleasure, by the very nature of their case, in that they are bound by their sins and doomed to die in their transgressions. For God will in nowise be a respecter of persons, nor will He vouchsafe the Spirit to some in the world without sufficient cause, and to others wholly deny Him; but will cause the Comforter to dwell only in those who are worthy of Him, who by a pure faith have honoured Him as truly God, and confessed that He is the Creator and Lord of the Universe. And that which the Saviour Himself by anticipation told the Jews when He said, Except ye believe that I am He, ye shall die in your sins, the Comforter when He is come will in fact show to be true.
But further, He says: He will reprove the world in respect of righteousness, because I go to the Father and ye behold Me no more. For He will duly hold converse with those who believe in Christ after His ascension into heaven, as duly justified thereby. For they received as the true God Him Whom, though they had in nowise seen Him, they yet believed to sit on His Father's throne. For by calling to mind what Thomas said and did, one might readily perceive that Christ calls those who thus believe blessed. For when he was in doubt about the restoration of the Son to life, he said: Except I shall put my hand into His side, and see the prints of the nails, I will not believe. And when, after Christ had permitted him to do as he desired, he believed, what words did he hear? Because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed. Justly then have those been justified who without seeing have believed; but the world has missed the attainment of an equal blessedness, not seeking to obtain the righteousness that is of faith, but deliberately preferring to abide in its own wickedness.
It is necessary, however, to know that the two reproofs already mentioned will apply not merely to the Jews, |446 but rather to every man who is stubborn and disobedient. For the appellation "the world" signifies not merely the man who is incessantly engaged in the pursuit of pleasure, and who clings to the wickedness that is of the devil, but signifies equally those who are dispersed about and dwell in the whole world. Thus the double reproof has a generic meaning, and applies to all. For Christ included not merely Judaea, as was the case in the beginning, or the seed of Israel only, but the entire race that was descended from Adam. For His grace is not partial, but the benefit of faith is extended to the whole world.
The third reproof by the Comforter will be, as the Saviour says, the most righteous condemnation of the prince of this world. And what form this reproof takes I will explain. For the Comforter will testify to the glory of Christ, and, showing that He is truly the Lord of the Universe, will reprove the world as having wandered astray, and as having left Him Who is truly God by Nature and fallen down and worshipped him whom Nature owns not as God, that is Satan. For the judgment against him is, I think, sufficient to show that this statement is true. For he could not have been condemned and lost his power, nor have paid the penalty of his conflict with God, being delivered into chains of darkness, if he were by Nature God, Who sits unshaken on His throne of majesty and power. But now we see him so incapable to preserve his own honour, that he is even cast under the feet of those filled with the Spirit, I mean the faithful who have confessed that Christ is God. For they trample the demon under foot when he tries and struggles. When then any one sees the swarm of impure demons shuddering and cast out by the prayers of such men, and by the working power of the Holy Spirit, will he not with reason say that Satan has been condemned? For he has been condemned by his no longer being able to prevail over those who have been impressed with the seal of righteousness and sanctification by the Holy |447 Spirit, through the faith that is in Christ. How then, tell me, have we trodden all his power under foot, according to the saying in the Psalms addressed to every man that lives in the world? By the help of the Most High thou shalt tread upon the asp and basilisk; the lion and the dragon thou shalt trample under foot. When then the Comforter from heaven enters souls that are pure, and manifests the righteousness of His mission by faith impartially bestowed, then will He show that the world is bound in its own sins, and without share in the grace that is from above, since men repulse their Redeemer; and He will also reprove the world----as causelessly accusing those who have believed----of sin, and as far as they have rightly been justified, although they gaze not on Christ as He departed unto God and wrought marvels, but honour Him by faith. It was, I think, with some such thought as this in his mind that Paul said: Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth; who is he that shall condemn? For the mouth of all lawlessness is stopped, according to the word of the Psalmist, as it can lay nothing to the charge of the faithful elect, who are invested with the glory of the righteousness that proceedeth from faith. He will reprove the world as having gone astray and resting its hopes on [the devil], who has received such condemnation that he has lost all the glory of his former condition, and only deserves our contempt, and to be held of no account by those who worship God.
God then has called him the prince of this world, not as really being so in truth, or as though this overruling power were a dignity inherent in his being, but as he had the glory thereof by fraud and covetousness, and as he is still holding sway and ruling over those that are astray by reason of the wicked purpose that is in them, by which having their mind fast bound in error they are inextricably entangled in the noose of captivity, even though it was in their power to escape by being |448 converted through faith in Christ to a recognition of Him Who is truly God. Satan then is but a pretender to the title of ruler, and has no natural right to it as against God, and only maintains it through the abominable wickedness of those who are astray.
12, 13 I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He shall guide you into all the truth: for He shall not speak from Himself; but what things soever He shall hear, these shall He speak; and He shall declare unto you the things that are to come.
He found their sorrow increased by their knowledge of the future, and that they were ill-disposed to bear the coming evils. For sorrow, He says, hath filled your heart. And He thought that it would not be meet to dispirit them by adding the rest, but He buries as it were in timely silence what He had to say next, as likely to cause them no small alarm, and reserves what remained for them to know, for the revelation through the Spirit, and for the light that was to be given them at the fitting season 1. And perhaps also, seeing the disciples slow to apprehend the mystery, because they had not yet been illuminated by the Spirit, nor become partakers of the Divine Nature: For the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Christ was not yet glorified, as the holy Evangelist says, He speaks thus, wishing to suggest to them that He would hereafter be able to reveal mysteries exceeding deep and passing man's understanding, while at present He refuses to do this, and with good reason, because He says that they are not yet prepared for it. For when, He says, My Holy Spirit shall transform you and change the elements of your mind into a willingness and an ability to despise the types of the Law, and rather to |449 prefer the beauty of spiritual service, and to honour the reality more than the shadow; then, He says, you will surely be able readily to understand the things concerning Me. For the complete expression of these things will find place in your hearts when you are well fitted to receive it.
One might suppose then that our Lord thought He ought thus to address His disciples. For what He once said as by way of illustration is of a piece with, and will fit in with, the meaning we have just given to His words: No man rendeth a piece from a new garment and putteth it upon an old garment; and again: But neither do men put new wine into old wine-skins; else the skins burst, and the wine is spilled. But new wine must be put into new wine-skins. For the new instruction of the Gospel message belongs not to those who are not yet moulded by the Spirit into newness of life and knowledge, and they cannot as yet contain the mysteries of the Holy Trinity. The exposition then of the deeper mysteries of the faith is suitably reserved for the spiritual renovation that was to proceed from the Spirit when the mind of those who believed on Christ would no longer allow them to remain in the obsolete letter of the Law but rather induce their conversion to new doctrines and implant in them thoughts enabling them to see a fair vision of the truth. And that before the Resurrection of our Saviour Christ from the dead, and before partaking of His Spirit, the disciples were living too much after the manner of the Jews, and were clinging to the legal dispensation, even though the mystery of Christ was clearly superior to it, one might very readily perceive. And therefore the blessed Peter, even though he was pre-eminent among the holy disciples, when the Saviour was once setting forth His suffering on the Cross and telling them that He must be outraged by the insults of the Jews, rebuked Him, saying, Be it far from Thee, Lord; this shall never be unto Thee. And yet the holy prophets had plainly |450 declared not only that He would suffer, but also the nature and extent of what He would endure. And let us also examine this further consideration. For when, as is recorded and as we read in the Acts of the Apostles, Peter was hungry and desired to eat, and when he saw thereupon the sheet let down by four corners from heaven, in which were included all creatures of the earth and the sea and the air, and heard a voice from heaven, saying, Rise, Peter, kill and eat; he answered, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean; and for this received a well-merited rebuke in the answer: What God hath cleansed, make not thou common. And yet he ought to have remembered the frequent statement of our Saviour to the Jews: Not that which entereth into the mouth defileth the man. See then what need there was in his case for the illumination of the Spirit. Do you perceive then that it was necessary that his temper of mind should be forged anew into another better and wiser than that which was in the Jews? And therefore when, by being enriched with the grace that is from above and from heaven, they had their strength renewed, according to the Scripture, and had attained to a better knowledge than before, then we hear them boldly saying: But we have the mind of Christ. By the Mind of Christ they mean nothing else but the advent of the Holy Spirit into their hearts, revealing unto them in due measure all things whatsoever they ought to know and learn.
When then "He," that is the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He shall guide you into all the truth. See how free from extravagance the expression is: note the soberness of the phrase. For having told them that the Comforter would come unto them, He called Him the Spirit of Truth, that is, His own Spirit. For He is the Truth. For that His disciples might know that He does not promise them the visitation of a foreign and strange power, but rather that He will vouchsafe unto them His Presence in another form, He calls the |451 Comforter the Spirit of Truth, that is, His own Spirit. For the Holy Spirit is not in truth alien from the Substance of the Only-begotten, but proceeds naturally from it, having no separate existence from Him so far as identity of nature is concerned, even though He may be in some sort conceived of as having a separate existence. The Spirit of Truth then, He says, will lead you to complete knowledge of the truth. For as having perfect knowledge of the truth, of which He is also the Spirit, He will make no partial revelation of it to those who worship Him, but will rather engraft in their hearts the mystery concerning it in its entirety. For even if now we know in part, as Paul says, still, though our knowledge be limited, the fair vision of the truth has gleamed upon us entire and undefiled. As then no man knoweth the things of a man, according to the Scripture, save the spirit of the man which is in him, in the same way, I think, to use the words of Paul, none knoweth the things of God save the Spirit of God which is in Him.
When then He cometh, He says, He shall not speak from Himself (He does not say, He will make you wise, and will reveal to you the mystery of the truth); He will tell you nothing that is not in accord with My teaching, nor will He expound to you any strange doctrine, for He will not introduce laws peculiar to Himself; but since He is My Spirit, and as it were My Mind, He will surely speak to you of the things concerning Me. And this the Saviour saith, not that we should suppose that the Holy Spirit has merely ministerial functions, as some ignorantly maintain, but rather from a wish to satisfy the disciples that His Spirit, not being separate from Him so far as identity of Substance is concerned, will surely speak the things concerning Him, and will work and purpose the same.
And for this reason He added the words, and He will show you things to come; and it is almost as though He said these very words, "This will be a sign |452 unto you that the Spirit is in very truth of My Substance and as it were My Mind----His telling you things to come, as I have done. For I foretold, even though you have not been able to take everything to heart. He would not then foretell things to come, as I have done, if He did not indeed exist in Me and proceed through Me, and if He were not Consubstantial with Me."
[End of the tenth book.]
[Page running titles]
The nature of "eternal life." 325
326 The Spirit is the mind of Christ.
The promise was to all men. 327
328 "The world" signifies the worldly minded.
Christ is specially manifested to His disciples. 329
330 The Spirit is of the Father and the Son.
The Spirit is not created. 331
332 One God dwelleth in us.
God abides in the virtuous. 333
334 The necessity of purity.
The Mosaic dispensation was preparatory. 335
336 Christ fulfilled the Law.
The Gospel is of Divine origin. 337
338 The complete revelation
is through the Comforter.339
340 The fear of the Apostles
is to be calmed by the Spirit. 341
342 The Spirit is "peace."
Christ shields His Saints from undue sorrow. 343
It was better for Christ to depart. 345
346 Heaven received Christ
to an equality with God the Father. 347
348 The Son is inferior to the Father
as touching His Manhood. 349
350 Christ consoles His disciples
by the mention of His departure. 351
352 S. Paul witnesses to Christ's Divinity.
Things comparable are of one essence. 353
354 The heretical argument
involves a duality of Gods. 355
356 The comparison between Father and Son
demonstrates Their equality. 357
358 Christ confirms the heart of His disciples.
Christ the second Adam. 359
360 Christ was not convicted of sin.
The mystical meaning of the words. 361
362 Christ points out the way to all that is good.
364 The rectification of our condition is the function
of the whole Sacred Trinity. 365
366 The signification of the allegory.
The heretical objection. 367
368 What was the purpose of Christ's saying?
To show God us the origin of the fruits of the Spirit. 369
370 The reference is to the Blessed Sacrament,
by Which Eternal Life is implanted in us. 371
372 Denial of Christ
involves denial of the Father. 373
374 The identity of vine and branches would thus
make God human, or men Divine. 375
376 Faith without works is dead;
therefore the branches need purging. 377
378 The general application of the words.
The particular application to the Jews. 379
380 The nature of the purification
of the Jews and of the Gentiles. 381
382 The inconsistency of pressing
the application too far. 383
384 The beauty of holiness.
We are united to God through love. 385
386 The life-producing water of the Spirit.
The example of the holy Apostles. 387
388 Christ's twofold method of salvation.
Faith alone is insufficient. 389
390 A right faith tends to
good works and fit requests. 391
392 The service of the Gospel
is the "much fruit." 393
394 We must do Christ's Will,
as He accomplished His Father's Will. 395
396 A promise for the future,
and a promise for the present. 397
398 Christ encourages His disciples
by His Words and Example. 399
400 Our joy may be like Christ's.
The boundless love of Christ. 401
402 The disciples are encouraged
to preach the Gospel boldly. 403
404 We are made friends of God
through obedience and sacrifice. 405
406 The Gospel dispensation----that by faith----
is more ancient than that of the Law. 407
408 Christ encourages the zeal of His disciples
by reference to His own work. 409
410 The disciples work with zeal.
Christ forewarns His disciples. 411
412 The disciples, disliked by Jews and heathens,
were not to seek to please men. 413
414 Christ turns trouble into joy.
Hatred by the world a proof of virtue. 415
416 Christ removes impediments from His disciples path.
Men by humility endure provocation. 417
418 The disciples are forearmed against persecution
by the Example of Christ. 419
420 The Apostle must preach the Word,
but he must leave the result to God. 421
422 Those who reject Christ's servants
reject both Father and Sun. 423
424 Christ foretells to the disciples
that God will judge those who reject Him. 425
426 A warning to those
who reject the Son. 427
428 The grievous contumacy of the Jews.
Christ's works deserved not enmity. 429
430 Christ's works greater than those of Moses.
The Equality of Father, Son, and Spirit. 431
432 The Unity of the Holy Trinity.
The stubborn disobedience of the Jews. 433
434 Christ exhorts His disciples to endurance
by foretelling the conduct of the Jews. 435
436 The zeal of the Jews was not according to knowledge.
To reject the Apostles is to reject God. 437
438 Christ's prophecy will increase their faith.
Christ's departure rendered His prophecy necessary. 439
440 His departure was expedient,
but His Presence had been advantageous. 441
442 Christ entered heaven as the firstfruits of humanity.
The Spirit transforms us. 443
444 Christ demonstrates the work of the Spirit.
The righteousness which is by faith. 445
446 The prince of this world is condemned
by the victory of the Elect over him. 447
448 Christ comforts them with the hope of new revelations.
The Spirit was to reveal hidden mysteries. 449
450 The Apostles had much to learn
concerning the mysteries of the new revelation. 451
452 The Spirit is Consubstantial with the Son.
[All of the footnotes moved to the end and renumbered. The margin contains mainly biblical references and fragments of Greek. These have been omitted]
1. a This sentence is unintelligible as the text stands. Probably ὅ ought to be left out, and τὸ λοιπὸν read for τὸ λεῖπον.
This text was transcribed by Roger Pearse, 2005. All material on this page is in the public domain - copy freely.
Greek text is rendered using unicode. Note that the chapter numbers and titles are part of the original work, as is the table of them at the start of the book. The numerals on verses of John are added by the translator.
Early Church Fathers - Additional Texts
SOURCE SECTION: cyril_on_john_11_book11.htm
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, LFC 43, 48 (1874/1885). Book 11. Vol. 2 pp. 453-588.
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, LFC 43, 48 (1874/1885). Book 11. Vol. 2 pp. 453-588.
[Translated by T. Randell]
|453
CHAPTERS IN THE ELEVENTH BOOK.
1. That the Holy Spirit is naturally of God, and in the Son, and through Him and in His Substance.
2. That His Spirit, that is, the Holy Spirit, is naturally in the Son and in His Substance, as He is also in the Substance of the Father.
3. That no man should consider that the Son has any lack of God-befitting glory, though He be found to say, "Father, glorify Thy Son."
4. That it will in no way damage the glory of the Son when He is said to have received aught from God the Father, since for this we can assign a pious reason.
5. That the Son will not be excluded from being true God, even though He names God the Father "the only true God"
6. That the Son is not bare of God-befitting glory, even though He is found saying to the Father, "And now glorify Me with the glory which I had," &c.
7. That the fact that something is said to have been given to the Son from the Father does not rob Him of God-befitting dignity; but He plainly appears to be Consubstantial, and of the Father, even if He is said to receive aught.
8. That nothing which is spoken of as belonging to the Father will be excluded from the kingdom of the Son, for both alike rule over all.
9. That the dignity of Godhead is inherent in the Son; even though He is said to have received this from the Father, because of His humanity and the form of His humiliation.
10. That the Christ is not holy from participation in anything different from Himself, and that the sanctification through the Spirit is not alien to His Substance.
11. That the Son is naturally one with God His Father; and that He is in the Father and the Father in Him, according to the essential bond and character of their Unity; and that likewise also we ourselves, when we receive faith in Him, are proved one with each other and with God, both in a corporeal and in a spiritual sense.
12. That the Son is by nature one with God His Father, though He says that He received, as by way of grace, His being one with the Father. |454
OUR FATHER AMONG THE SAINTS,
CYRIL,
Archbishop of Alexandria,
ON THE
GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN.
BOOK XI.
CHAPTER I. That the Holy Spirit is naturally of God, and in the Son, and through Him and in His Substance.
14 He shall glorify Me: for He shall take of Mine, and shall declare it unto you.
As the Holy Spirit was about to reveal to those who should be found worthy the mystery that is in Christ, and to demonstrate completely Who He is by nature, and how great is His power and might, and that He reigneth over all with the Father, Christ is impelled to say, He shall glorify Me. For He sets our mind above the conceits of the Jews, and does not suffer us to entertain so limited and dwarfed a conception as to think that He is a mere Man, slightly surpassing the prophets in the stature they attained, or even falling short of their renown----for we find that the leaders of the Jews had this idea concerning Him, because they not knowing the mystery of piety, frequently uttered blasphemies against Christ, and, encountering His sayings with their mad folly, said on one occasion: Who art Thou? Abraham is dead, and the prophets are dead; and Thou sayest, If a man keep My word, He shall never see death. Whom makest Thou Thyself? And on another occasion they cast in His teeth the meanness of His birth according to the flesh, and His great insignificance in this respect: Is not this the son of Joseph, whose father |455 and mother we know? How then doth He say, I am come down out of heaven? Note herein the miserable reasoning of the Jews. As then the multitude were so disposed and thought that the Lord was not truly God because in this human frame He was liable to death, and because they did not scruple to entertain the basest conception of His Nature, the Spirit, when He came down from heaven, illustrated completely His glory to the Saints; not that we should say, that He merely convinced them by wise words, but that He by actual proof also satisfied the minds of all that He was truly God, and the fruit of the Substance of God the Father. What then is this proof? And how did He increase the honour and admiration in which Christ was held? By exercising His activity universally in a marvellous and Divine manner, and by implanting in the Saints complete and perfect knowledge, He furthered His glory. For to the Sovereign Nature of the Universe alone must we ascribe omniscience and the sight of all things naked and laid open to the view, and the ability to accomplish all His purposes.
The Comforter then, that is, His own Spirit, being omnipotent and omniscient, glorifies the Son. And how does He glorify Him? Surely what His Spirit knows and is able to effect, Christ knows and is able to effect. And if, as He says, the Spirit receives of Him, the Spirit Himself being omnipotent, surely He Himself has a power which is universal. And we must in no wise suppose that the Comforter, that is, the Spirit, is lacking in innate and inherent power in such a way that, if He did not receive assistance from without, His own power would not be self-sufficient to fully accomplish the Divine designs. Any one who merely imagined any such idea to be true about the Spirit would with good reason undergo the charge of the worst blasphemy of all. But it is because He is Consubstantial with the Son, and divinely proceeds through Him, |456 exercising universally His entire activity and power, that Christ says, "He shall receive of Me." For we believe that the Spirit has a self-supporting existence and is in truth that which He is, and with the qualities predicated of Him; though, being inherent in the Substance of God, He proceeds and issues from it and has innate in Himself all that that nature implies. For the Divine Substance is not His by participation or by relation, still less is It His as though He had a separate existence from It, since He is an attribute of It. For just as the fragrance of sweet-smelling flowers, proceeding in some sort from the essential and natural exercise of the functions or qualities of the flowers that emit it, conveys the perception thereof to the outer world by meeting those organs of smell in the body, and yet seems in some way, so far as its logical conception goes, to be separate from its natural cause, while (as having no independent existence) it is not separate in nature from the source from which it proceeds and in which it exists, even so you may conceive of the relation of God and the Holy Spirit, taking this by way of illustration. In this way then the statement that His Spirit receives something from the Only-begotten is wholly unimpeachable and cannot be cavilled at. For proceeding naturally as His attribute through Him, and having all that He has in its entirety, He is said to receive that which He has. And if this meaning is conveyed in language that is obscure, far from being offended at it, we should with more justice lay the blame on the poverty of our own language, which is not able to give expression to Divine truths in a suitable way. And what language is adequate to explain the ineffable Nature and Glory of God? He says then that the Comforter "will receive of Mine, and will show it unto you;" that is, He will say nothing that is not in harmony with My purpose; but, since He is My Spirit, His language will be in every way identical with Mine, and He will show you of My Will. |457
CHAPTER II. That His Spirit, that is, the Holy Spirit, is naturally in the Son and in His Substance, as He is also in the Substance of the Father.
15 All things whatsoever the Father hath are Mine: and therefore I said unto you, that He taketh of Mine and shall declare it unto you.
The Son once more shows to us herein the complete and perfect character of the Person of the Father Himself also, and allows us to see why He said that He, being the fruit of the Father's Substance, engrosses in Himself all that belongs to It, and says that It is all His own, and with reason. For, as there is nothing to dissever or estrange the Son from the Father, so far as their complete similarity and equality is concerned, save only that He is not Himself the Father, and as the Divine Substance does not show Itself differently in the Two Persons, surely Their attributes are common, or rather identical; so that what the Father hath is the Son's, and what He That begat hath, belongs also to Him that is begotten of Him. For this reason, I think, in His watchful care over us, He has thus spoken to us concerning this. For He did not say, All things whatsoever the Father hath I have also, in order to prevent our imagining He meant a mere likeness founded on similarity, only moulded by adventitious graces into conformity with the Archetype, as is the case with us; for we are after God's likeness. Rather, when He says, All things whatsoever the Father hath are Mine, He illustrates hereby the perfect union which He hath with His Father, and the meaning of |458 their Consubstantiality existing in unchangeable attributes. And this you may see, that He clearly says elsewhere, when addressing the Father, All things that are Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine. For surely they are identical in nature, in whom there is no severance at all, but complete and perfect essential equality and likeness. God the Father then hath, of Himself, and in Himself, His own Spirit; that is, the Holy Spirit, through Whom He dwelleth in the Saints, and reveals His mysteries to them; not as though the Spirit were called to perform a merely ministerial function (do not think this), but rather, as He is in Him essentially, and proceeds from Him inseparably and indivisibly, interpreting what is in reality His own when He interprets that which belongs to Him in Whom He exists, and from Whom He springs. For God only has union with the creation through His Son in the Spirit. And this Spirit is also an attribute of the Only-begotten, for He is Consubstantial with the Father.
Since then, He says, it is seen to be natural to God the Father to reveal Himself in His own Spirit to those who are worthy of Him, and to accomplish through Him all His purposes, and since this kind of action belongs to Me also, for this cause I said, "He receiveth of Me and will show it unto you." And let no man be perplexed when he here hears the word "receiveth," but rather let him consider the following fact, and he will do well. The things of God are spoken of in language as though God were even as we are; but this is not really the case, for His ways are superhuman. We say then that the Spirit receives of the Father and the Son the things that are Theirs in the following way; not as though at one moment He were devoid of the knowledge and power inherent in Them, and at the next hardly acquires such knowledge and power when He is conceived of as receiving from Them. For the Spirit is wise and powerful, nay, rather, absolute Wisdom and |459 Power, not by participation in anything else, but by His own Nature. But, rather, just as we should say that the fragrance of sweet-smelling herbs which assails our nostrils is distinct from the herbs so far as their conception in thought is concerned, but proceeds from the herbs in which it originates only by being a recipient of their faculty of giving scent in order to its display, and is not in fact distinct from them, because its existence is due to, and is wrapped up in, them; even such an idea, or rather one transcending this, must you imagine about the relation of God to the Holy Spirit. For He is, as it were, a sweet savour of His Substance, working plainly on the senses, conveying to the creature an effluence from God, and instilling in him through Itself participation in the Sovereign Substance of the Universe. For if the fragrance of sweet herbs imparts some of its power to garments with which it comes in contact, and in some sort transforms its surroundings into likeness with itself, surely the Holy Ghost has power, since He [is by nature of God, to make those in whom He abides partakers in the Divine Nature through Himself. The Son then, being the Fruit and express Image of the Father's Person by nature, engrosses all that is His. And therefore He says, All things whatsoever the Father hath are Mine: therefore said I unto you, that He taketh of Mine and shall declare it unto you----the Spirit, that is, Who is through Him and in Him, by Whom He personally dwells in the Saints. For His Spirit is not distinct from Him, even though He may be conceived of as having a separate and independent existence: for the Spirit is Spirit, and not the Son.
16 A little while, and ye behold Me no more; and again a little while, and ye shall see Me; because I go to the Father.
After having first said that He would reveal to them by His Spirit everything that was necessary and |460 essential for them to know, He discourses to them of His Passion, nigh unto which was His Ascension into heaven, rendering the coming of the Spirit very necessary; for it was no longer possible for Him, after He had gone up to the Father, to hold converse in the flesh with His holy Apostles. And He makes His discourse with the greatest caution, thereby robbing their sorrow of its sting; for well He knew that great fear would once more reign in their hearts, and that they would be consumed with an agony of grief, expecting to be overwhelmed by terrible and unendurable evils, when their bereavement should come to pass and the Saviour ascend to the Father. For this cause, I think, He does not tell them that He would die----the madness of the Jews requiring even His life of Him----but keeps this secret. Rather in His great consideration for them He greatly softens the rigour of His discourse, and shows them that close upon their suffering would follow the joy of heart which His Resurrection would occasion them, saying: A little while, and ye behold Me no more; and again a little while, and ye shall see Me. For now the time of His death drew nigh which would take the Lord out of the sight of His disciples for a very short season, until, after despoiling hell and throwing open the gates of darkness to those that dwelt therein, He built up again the temple of His Body. Whereupon He manifested Himself once more to His disciples, and promised to be with them alway [even unto the end] of the world, according to the Scripture. For even though He be absent in the body, taking His place for our sake at the Father's side and sitting at His right Hand, still He dwells by the Spirit with those who are worthy of Him, and has perpetual converse with His Saints; for He has promised that He will not leave us comfortless. As then, there was but a short interval of time before His Passion would begin, He says, A little while, and ye see Me no more; for He was to be hidden from sight in |461 a manner by death for a brief space: and again, He says, a little while, and ye shall see Me. For on the third day He revived, having preached unto the spirits in prison. The proof of His love towards mankind was hereby rendered most complete by His giving salvation, I say, not merely to the quick, but also by His preaching remission of sins to those who were already dead, and who sat in darkness in the depths of the abyss according to the Scripture.
And remark how, with reference to His Passion and His Resurrection, He said: A little while, and ye behold Me no more; and again a little while, and ye shall see Me; and how, merely adding, because I go to My Father, leaves the rest unsaid. He did not explain to them how long He would remain there, or when He would come again. And why was this? Because it is not for us to know times and seasons which the Father hath set within His own authority, according to the words of our Saviour Himself.
17, 18 Some of His disciples therefore said one to another, What is this that He saith unto us, A little while, and ye behold Me not; and again a little while, and ye shall see Me; and, Because I go to the Father? They said therefore, What is this that He saith, A little while? We know not what He saith.
The inspired disciples, not yet understanding what He had said, converse among themselves, and are in doubt as to what a little while, and again a little while, and ye shall not see Me, might mean. Christ, however, anticipates their desire for information, and once more very seasonably shows them that He knows their hearts as God, and that He is as well aware of what they are turning over in their minds, and what was as yet buried in the depths of their hearts, as though they had already given utterance to it in speech. For what is there which can be hid from Him before Whom all things are naked? Wherefore also He saith to one of the Saints: Who is this that hideth counsel from Me, and putteth together |462 words in his heart and thinketh that he keepeth it secret from Me? He then at every turn uses occasion as it offers to nurture in them secure and unshaken faith.
19, 20 Jesus perceived that they were desirous to ask Him, and He said unto them, Do ye enquire among yourselves concerning this, that I said, A little while, and ye behold Me not, and again a little while, and ye shall see Me? Verily, verily, I say unto you, that ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.
As then they were thirsting for information and sought to know more exactly the meaning of His words, He gives a clearer exposition of His Passion, and vouchsafes them the foreknowledge of the sufferings that He was about to undergo to their great profit. It was not in order that He might engender in them premature alarm that He deemed it meet to give them this explanation beforehand, but in order that, forearmed by their knowledge, they might perchance be found more courageous to withstand the terror that would assail them. For that of which the advent is expected is milder in its approach than that which is wholly unlooked for. When then you who are truly Mine and united to Me by your love towards Me shall behold your Guide and Master undergoing the brunt of the madness of the Jews, their insults and outrages, and all that their mad frenzy will prompt, then, indeed, ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice; that is, those who are not minded to follow God's Will, but are, as it were, enchained by worldly lusts. He refers also to the vulgar herd of Jewish rabble, as well as the impious band of enemies of God who had secured the lead among them, namely, the Scribes and Pharisees, who made jests at the trials our Saviour had to endure, and raised many cries to their own damnation, at one time saying, If Thou art the Son of God come down now from the cross, and we will believe Thee: and at another, Thou that destroyest the temple and buildest |463 it in three days, save Thyself----for such will be the foul utterances of the blasphemous tongue of the Jews. But while the men of the world would be of this mind, and such will be their deeds and cries, "you will mourn;" but not for long will you have this suffering to endure, for your sorrow will be turned into joy. For I shall live again, and will wholly remove the cause of your despondency, and I will comfort the mourners, and will renew in them a good courage that will be eternal and without end. For the joy of the Saints ceaseth not. For Christ is alive for evermore, and through Him the bonds of death are loosed for all mankind. It is perhaps, too, not impertinent to reflect that the worldly will contrariwise be doomed to a fate of endless misery. For if, when Christ died after the flesh, those who were truly His mourned, but the world rejoiced at His Passion; and if, when death and corruption were rendered powerless by the Resurrection of our Saviour Christ from the dead, the mourning of the Saints was turned into joy, surely in like manner also the joy of the worldly-minded will be lost in sorrow.
21, 22 A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but when she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for the joy that a man is born into the world. And ye therefore now have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no one taketh from you.
He once more dilates upon the solace He had given them, and illustrates it by divers words, in every way aiding them to dispel the bitterness of their sorrow. For observe how earnestly He persuades them, by obvious illustration, of the necessity of endurance, and of not being over dismayed by troubles or sorrows, if they must surely and inevitably end in rejoicing. For the child, He says, is the fruit of sore travail; and it is through pain that the joy they have in their children comes to mothers. And if at the first they had felt |464 fainthearted at the prospect of the travail of childbirth, they would never have consented to conceive; but would rather have chosen to escape marriage, which is the cause, and would never have become mothers at all; avoiding by their cowardice a state which is highly desirable and thrice blest. In like manner then will your suffering also not fail to meet its reward. For you will rejoice when you see a new child born into the world, incorruptible and beyond the reach of death. Plainly He alludes to Himself here. He tells them that the joy of heart that they will have in Him cannot be taken away from them or lost. For, as Paul says, or rather as the Very Truth Itself implies, having died once for all, He dieth no more. The joy of heart then that rests upon Him hath in very truth a sure foundation. For, if we mourned at His death, who shall take from us our joy, now that we know that He lives and will be alive for evermore----He Who gives and ordains for us all spiritual blessings? No man then "taketh their joy" from the Saints, as our Saviour says; but they who nailed Him to the Cross were bereft of their joy once and for ever. For now that His suffering is ended, which they thought an occasion for rejoicing, sorrow will be their portion of inevitable necessity.
23, 24 And in that day ye shall ash Me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, If ye shall ask anything of the Father, He will give it you in My Name. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My Name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be fulfilled.
He says that His holy disciples will increase in wisdom and knowledge when they should be clothed with power from on high according to the Scripture, and with their minds illumined by the torchlight of the Spirit should be able to conceive all wisdom, even though they asked no question of Him Who was no longer present with them in the flesh. The Saviour does not indeed say this because they will have no more |465 need of light from Him, but because when they had received His own Spirit, and had Him indwelling in their! hearts, they would have in their minds no lack of every good thing, and would be fulfilled with the most perfect knowledge. And by perfect knowledge we mean that which is correct and incapable of error, and which cannot endure to think or say any evil thing, and which has a right belief concerning the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity. For if we see now in a mirror darkly, and we know in part, still while we wander not astray from the doctrines of the truth but adhere to the spirit of the holy and inspired writings, the knowledge that we have is not imperfect, a knowledge which no man can acquire save by the light of the Holy Spirit given unto him. Hereby he exhorts the disciples to pray for spiritual graces, and at the same time gives them this encouragement----that what they ask they will not fail to obtain; adding the comforting assurance of the word "verily" to His promise that if they will go to the Father's throne and make any request, they will receive it of Him, He Himself acting as Mediator and leading them into the Father's Presence. For this is the meaning of the words in my Name; for we cannot draw nigh unto God the Father save by the Son alone. For through Him we have obtained access in One Spirit unto the Father, according to the Scripture. Therefore also He saith: I am the Door: I am the Way: no one cometh unto the Father but by Me. For inasmuch as the Son is also God, together with the Father He conveys good gifts to the Saints, and associates Himself with Him in granting us the portion of the blessed. Moreover, the inspired Paul most evidently confirms our belief herein by writing these words: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And in right of His titles, Mediator, High Priest, and Advocate, He conveys to the Father prayers on our behalf, for He gives us all boldness to address the Father. In the Name then of Our Saviour Christ we must make our requests, for so |466 will the Father most readily grant them, and will give to those that ask good gifts, that we may take them and rejoice therein. So being fulfilled with spiritual graces, and enriched with the grant of knowledge from Him through the Holy Spirit dwelling in our hearts, we shall gain a very easy triumph over every strange and abominable lust; and thus being active in good works, and attaining to the practice of every virtue with fervent zeal, and strengthened with everything whatsoever that maketh for sanctification, we rejoice with exceeding joy at the prospect of the reward that awaits us; and, dismissing the despondency that springs from an evil conscience, we have our hearts enriched with the joy that is in Christ. This did not enter into the life of the men of old time; they never practised this manner of prayer, for they knew it not. But now is it ordained for us by Christ, at the appropriate season, when the time of the accomplishment of our redemption was fulfilled, and the perfect fruition of all good was gained for us by Him. For just as the Law accomplished nothing, and as righteousness according to the Law was incomplete, so also was the mode of prayer inculcated thereby.
25 These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: the hour cometh when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but shall tell you plainly of the Father.
By proverbs He means language that is indistinct and does not bear its meaning on the surface, but is in some sort veiled by obscurities so subtle that He says His hearers could not very readily comprehend it; for this was the fashion of what was said in proverbs. What I have told you then, He says, I have told you as it were in proverbs and riddles, reserving for the fitting season which has not yet come, though it is drawing nigh, the revelation of these things beyond possibility of doubt. For the hour will indeed come, He says; that is, the proper time in which I shall in plain language expound to you the things that concern the Father's glory, and |467 implant in you a knowledge that surpasses human understanding. What that time would be, He did not tell them very clearly. We must surmise that He either meant that time when we were enriched with the knowledge that comes to us through the Spirit, Whom Christ Himself brought down to us after His Resurrection from the dead; or it may be the time to come after the end of the world, in which we shall behold unveiled and open to our gaze the glory of God, Who will Himself impart to us knowledge concerning Himself in perfect clearness. Therefore also Paul says, that prophecies shall be done away, and knowledge shall cease, having no other meaning in his mind than that which we have accepted for this passage. For we see in a mirror, and we know in part, as we just now said. But when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away. How or in what manner this shall come to pass I will go on to explain, if you are willing to listen.
For, just as in the darkness of the night the bright beauty of the stars shines forth, each casting abroad its own ray of light, but when the sun arises with his radiant beams then that light which is but in part is done away, and the lustre of the stars waxes feeble and ineffective, in like manner I think also the knowledge that we now have will cease, and that which is in part will vanish away at that moment of time when the perfect light has come upon us, and sheds forth its radiancy, filling us with perfect knowledge of God. Then, when we are enabled to approach God in confidence, Christ will tell us the things which concern His Father. For now by shadows and illustrations, and various images and types deduced from different phases of human life, we feebly trace our steps to a vague uncertain knowledge, through the inherent weakness of our minds. Then, however, we shall stand in no need of any type or riddle or parable, but shall behold after a fashion, face to face and with unshackled mind, the fair vision of the Divine Nature of God the |468 Father, having seen the glory of Him Who proceeded from Him. For we shall see Him even as He is, according to the saying of John. For now we know Him in the perfection of the glory that belongs to His Divine Nature because of our humanity. But when the season of His incarnation is past, and the mystery of our redemption completely wrought out, henceforth He will be seen in His own glory and in the glory of God the Father. For being God by Nature, and thereby Consubstantial with His Father, He will surely enjoy equal honours with Him, and will shine henceforth in the glory of His Godhead.
26, 27 In that day ye shall ask in My Name: and I say not unto you that I will pray the Father for you; for the Father Himself loveth you, because ye have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from the Father.
He suffers them not to ask for anything at all by prayer and supplication, except only in His Name. He promises, however, that His Father will very readily grant their requests, not indeed as induced thereto by the intercessions of the Son in His capacity as our Mediator and Advocate, but prompted by His own Will to be liberal in His dealings towards them, and making haste to shower upon those who love Christ the exceeding riches of His goodness, as though He were but paying them their due. And no man in his senses can think, nor can any one be so ignorant as to affirm, that the disciples or any others of the Saints stand in no need of the mediation of the Son in working out their own salvation. For all things proceed through Him from the Father in the Spirit, since He is the Advocate, as John saith, not for our sins only, but also for the whole world. And in saying this, He shows us too, to our profit, that very acceptable to God the Father is the honour and love which we have towards His Offspring. Not understanding this, the miserable people of the Jews did not shrink from assailing Him with intolerable |469 blasphemies, and sought to kill Him, according to the Scripture, because of the conversion of the mind of His believers from the obscure commandment of the Law to the clearness of the life according to the Gospel. For these wretched men said in their ignorance, or rather in their desire to sharpen their blasphemous tongues against Him, If this man were from God, He would not have broken the Sabbath day. He says then, that God the Father will very readily vouchsafe His favour to those who have undoubting faith, and are well assured that He came out from God the Father. For the Father will, as it were, He says, hail in advance, and anticipate, the request of the Mediator, and overwhelm with spiritual blessings the mind of those who have a right understanding concerning Me, and not according to the imaginations of those who are too much enamoured of the letter of the Law.
And by the words I came out from God, we must surmise that He means either I was begotten from, and manifested Myself out of, His Substance (the words being taken with reference to what goes before as to His existing in a sense independently of His Father but not altogether separately from Him; for the Father is in the Son, and the Son again by Nature in the Father); or we must take the words "I came out from," as meaning I became even as you are; that is, a Man, endued with your form and nature. For the peculiar nature of any being may be conceived of as the place from which it proceeds, when it is transformed into anything else and becomes what it was not before. We are indeed far from asserting that when He took the form of man even as ourselves, being at the same time truly the Only-begotten, He divested Himself of His Godhead. For He is the same yesterday, and today, yea and for ever. But when He took upon Himself a nature that was not His own, while at the same time He retained His peculiar attributes, He may be conceived of as having come forth from God, in a |470 sense appropriate to this passage. You may take, if you choose, the words I came forth from the Father, in yet another sense, as follows: The Pharisees, only apt in error, as I have already said, thought that Christ came before the world like one of the false prophets, with no mission from God, but of His own motion; inasmuch as they were accustomed to point out to those that went to Him, that Christ's teaching conflicted with the Law. And for this reason they considered Him guilty of disobedience, declaring that the keeping of the Law is most acceptable to God the Father, but it was broken by His teaching. They therefore rejected Christ as an enemy of God, and as having chosen to oppose the dispensation given to them from Him through Moses, and argued that He was for this reason an alien from God. But not so the blessed disciples. For they loved Him, and had their minds exalted above the madness of the Jews, and they had a genuine faith that He came out from God, as we have just been told. For this cause then were they beloved of the Father, and were requited, as it were, by receiving equal favour from Him. And if they who believe that the Son came out from God are very dear and acceptable to God the Father, surely they who are diseased with the contrary opinion are accursed and abominable in God's sight. And if God is very ready to hearken to those who love the Son, clearly He will not accept the prayers of His enemies; and this is what is said by the mouth of Isaiah to them: And when ye spread forth your hands to Me, I will hide Mine eyes from you; yea, when ye make many prayers I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.
28 I came out from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go unto the Father.
Herein, then, in the fact that our Lord went back to the Father and returned with power to the place from which He knew that He had gone forth, is proof |471 clear and incontrovertible, that He was not one of the false prophets, and that He did not come to utter to us the promptings of man's private judgment, or to teach us doctrines contrary to the Father's Will, as the demented Jews ignorantly imagined. Granting then, (so a man might speak, wishing to combat the perverse opinions of the Jews) that He was not the true Christ, as you say. O Jews, and that without the approval of God the Father He introduced the teaching of the life according to the Gospel, showing that the commandment of the Law was now barren, and so profitless for the attainment of perfection in piety; (for you accuse Him as a Sabbath-breaker, and, when He did any wonderful works among you, you impiously said that He used to do them by Beelzebub the prince of the devils); how then was it that He ascended into heaven itself? How was it that the Father gave a share of His throne, and the angels threw open wide the gates of heaven, to Him Who combated His decrees as you say, and propounded doctrines contrary to the Will of the Sovereign of the Universe? Was His Ascension unobserved? Of a truth, great was the crowd of witnesses to whom the Divine and heavenly messenger spake the words: Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye looking into heaven? this Jesus, Which was received up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye beheld Him going into heaven. What hast thou, O Jews, to say in reply? Wilt thou not honour with obedience even the voice of an angel? Wilt thou not accept the testimony of the witnesses, though those who gazed upon the scene were many in number? And yet the Law says clearly, In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established. How then any longer can the reproach of being a false prophet be brought with any justice against Him, Who of His own power returns to the Father in heaven? And will it not rather follow, by the convincing logic of facts, that we should entertain the firm conviction that He came from God, that is from the |472 Father, and is in fact no other than He Whom the Law and the prophets foretold unto us?
And when He says that He came into this world and again left the world and went to the Father, He does not mean that He either abandoned the Father when He became Man, nor that He abandoned the race of man when in His flesh He went to the Father; for He is truly God, and with His ineffable power filleth all things, and is not far from anything that exists.
29, 30 His disciples say unto Him, Lo, now speakest Thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. Now know we that Thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask Thee: by this we believe that Thou earnest forth from God.
They marvel at the convincing nature of the proof He gives them, and are amazed at the clearness of His language, for without any concealment He made His speech to them right openly. They rejoice therefore at receiving a proof rid of all difficulty, and declare that His words have in them nothing hard to understand, but that His language here is so easily intelligible that it does not seem in the smallest degree to partake of the nature of a parable. And they get also this additional benefit: Since Thou knowest, they say, what is whispered in secret, and hast now given us this information in the words Thou hast just spoken, anticipating thereby the questions we might have asked in our desire to elicit it, we are persuaded that Thou art indeed come from God. For to know, they say, what is secret and hidden can belong to the God of all and to none other. And since Thou knowest all things of Thyself, is it not beyond question that Thou hast emanated from God that knoweth all things? So this truly Divine and marvellous sign also availed to nurture in the disciples with the rest undoubting faith, so that we can see in them the truth of the saying: Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning. And they say, "Now are we sure;" |473 not meaning thereby that they then let into their minds the first beginning of faith when they heard these words and recognised the sign, I mean the omniscience of Christ; but rather that they began to establish firmly in their hearts the faith that had at first gained admittance there, and to attain a state of unalterable conviction that He was God, and sprang from the true and living God. We shall accept then the expression "Now are we sure," as referring not to the first beginning of faith, but to the occasion of its first being firmly settled in that apprehension of Christ's Nature now honoured with approval.
31, 32 Jesus answered them, Be ye now believe? Behold, the hour cometh, yea is now come, that ye shall be scattered every man to his own, and shall leave Me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.
The Saviour, however, very gently tells them that the time when they should be confirmed in all goodness was not yet; but that this would come to pass on the occasion of the descent of the Holy Ghost unto them from heaven and power from on high, according to the Scripture. For then, declaring that their human faintheartedness was perfected in strength, they were pre-eminent for their invincible hardihood, not fearing the risings of the Jews against them, nor the unbridled wrath of the Pharisees, nor any other peril, but showing themselves the champions of the Divine message, and openly declaring: We must obey God rather than men; for we cannot but speak the things which we saw and heard. While then He points out that they are not yet confirmed in perfect faith, through their not having partaken of communion with the Spirit; setting before them, as a proof, the cowardice that they would presently display; at the same time, by foretelling that this would shortly come to pass, He manifestly confers on them no small benefit. For they would be grounded more firmly in the faith, that He was by Nature God, when they had fully grasped the belief |474 that the future was in no way hid from Him. Behold then, He says, the time will shortly come, nay, is now at hand, when ye will leave Me alone and depart to your own. Herein He says indirectly, only by implication, that, overcome by unmanly cowardice, they would take thought only for their own lives; and, preferring their own safety to the affection they owed to their Master, would flee to the nearest place of refuge. How then "are ye now sure," when you have not yet quit yourselves of the reproach of imputations on your courage, because as yet you have no participation in the courage which is given by the Spirit? And that the blessed disciples betook themselves to flight and were terrified at the onslaught of the Jews, when the traitor appeared bringing with him the impious band of soldiers and the servants of the leaders, is beyond question. Then did they leave Christ alone; that is, with reference to the absence of all those who were wont to follow and attend upon Him: for He was not alone, insomuch as He was God, and of God, and in God, by Nature and indivisibly. Christ indeed says this, speaking rather as Man and for our sakes, with intent to teach us that when we are assailed by temptation, persecution, and such like, and are called to encounter some peril that may bring us glory, I mean in God's service, we are not therefore to be fainthearted about our ability to escape, because none of our brethren of kindred soul to us are running the race side by side with us, cheering us so far as in them lies, and all but sharing by their sympathy the danger which is imminent. For even if all these betake themselves to flight, gaining in their own persons an advantage over us by their cowardice which is grievous and hard to bear, we ought to bear in mind that God's arm will not be shortened on that account. For He will alone avail to save him that is faithful unto Him. For we are not alone; and, though we see no friend beside us, as I have just said, we have God Who is all powerful with us at our side, to aid and fight in the conflict, shielding us |475 with all-sufficient succour, as the Psalmist says: With favour hast Thou encompassed us as with a shield! We make these observations on this passage, not as considering love of life something honourable and worthy admiration, on occasions when we can bring our life in the body to a glorious end, fighting in the ranks with those who risk their lives for God's sake, but that we may rather be persuaded of this, that even though there be none willing and zealous to share the conflict with us, we ought not to be faint at heart, for we shall not be alone, for God is with us.
33 These things have I spoken unto you, that in Me ye may have peace. In the world ye have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.
Christ herein, so to say, well sums up to our profit His discourse to them; and, compressing into a few words the meaning of what He had said, sets before them in brief the knowledge of His Will. For I have now, He says, spoken these words unto you, exhorting you to have peace in Me, and that ye may also know clearly that you will meet with trouble in the world, and will be involved in many tribulations for My sake. But you will not be vanquished by the perils that encompass you, for I have overcome the world.
But that I may make what I have said as clear as possible unto you, come let me first explain what "having peace in Christ" means. For the world, or those who are enamoured of the things in the world, are continually at peace among themselves, but in nowise have they peace in Christ. As, for example, the dissolute seekers of the pleasures of sense are therefore most dear and acceptable to those of similar pursuits; and the man who covets riches that do not belong to him, and is for this reason grasping or thievish, will be altogether to the taste of those who practise a kindred vice. For every creature loves his kind, according to the saying, and man will be attracted to his like. But in all connexions |476 of this sort the holy name of peace is put to base uses; and the proverb is true, but it is not with the Saints as it is with the wicked. For sin is not the bond of peace, but faith, hope, love, and the power of piety towards God. And this is in Christ. The chiefest then of all good gifts towards us is clearly peace in Christ, which brings in its train brotherly love as near akin to itself. Paul says that love is the perfect fulfilling of the Divine Law; and that to those who love one another will surely come the love of God Himself above all things else is beyond question, as John says that if a man love his brother he will as a consequence love God Himself.
He points out also another truth, I mean in the words: In the world ye have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. Any one choosing to construe these words in a simple sense might reason thus: Christ appeared superior to, and stronger than, every sin and worldly hindrance; and since He has conquered, He will also bestow the power to conquer upon such as attempt the struggle for His sake. And if any man seek to find a more recondite meaning for the words, he might reflect in this wise: Just as we have hereby overcome corruption and death, since as Man, for us and for our sakes Christ became alive again, making His own Resurrection the beginning of the conquest over death, the power of His Resurrection will surely extend even unto us, since He that overcame death was one of us, insomuch as He was Incarnate Man; and as we overcome sin, and as we overcome death that wholly died in Christ first, Christ, that is, being the purveyor to us of the blessing as His own kindred, so also we ought to be of good cheer, because we shall overcome the world; for Christ as Man overcame it for our sakes, being herein the Beginning and the Gate and the Way for the race of man. For they who once were fallen and vanquished have now overcome and are conquerors, through Him Who conquered as one of ourselves, and for |477 our sakes. For if He conquered as God, then it profiteth us nothing; but if as man, we are herein conquerors. For He is to us the Second Adam come from heaven, according to the Scripture. Just as then we have borne the image of the earthy, according to its likeness falling under the yoke of sin, so likewise also shall we bear the image of the heavenly, that is Christ, overcoming the power of sin and triumphing over all the tribulation of the world; for Christ has overcome the world. |478
CHAPTER III. That no man should consider that the Son has any lack of God-befitting glory, though He be found to say, Father, glorify Thy Son.
xvii. 1 These things spake Jesus; and lifting up His eyes to heaven He said, Father, the hour is come; glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son may also glorify Thee.
Having given His disciples a sufficiency of things necessary for salvation, and incited them by fitting words and arguments to a more accurate apprehension of His doctrines, and made them best able to battle against temptation, and confirmed the courage of each one, he straightway changes the form of His speech for our profit, and turns it into a kind of prayer, allowing no interval to elapse between His discourse to them and His prayer to God the Father; herein also by His own conduct suggesting to us a type of admirable life. For the man who aims at serving God ought, I think, to bear in mind that he ought at all events either to be fond of discoursing to his brethren of things profitable or necessary for their salvation, or, if he be not so engaged, to hasten to employ the service of the tongue in supplications to God, so as to render it impossible for any random words to slip in between; for in this way the governance of the tongue may be well and suitably ordered. For is it not quite obvious that, in vain conversations, things blameworthy may very readily escape a man? Moreover, a wise man has said: In the |479 multitude of words thou shalt not escape sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise.
You may find besides another thing to admire, which is in no small degree profitable for us. The beginning of His prayer has reference to His own glory and that of God the Father, and afterwards, in intimate connexion with this, He introduces His prayer for us. And why is this? The reason is one which convinces the pious man that loves God, and actually disposes the worker of good deeds to prayer. For just as we ought to perform good actions, and do all things, not turning to our own glory our zeal herein, but to the glory of the Father of the Universe, I mean God, for He says: Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father Which is in heaven; so also it best befits us, when occasion calls us to prayer, to pray for what redounds to God's glory before what concerns ourselves, as indeed Christ also Himself enjoins us when He says: After this manner pray ye: Our Father Which art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done as in Heaven so on earth. Give us this day our daily bread. What Christ here does, then, ought to be to us the pattern of prayer. For it was necessary that not an elder or messenger, but Christ Himself, should manifest Himself to be our Leader and Guide in all good, and in the way which leadeth to God. For we are called, and are in very truth, as the prophet says, taught of God.
And what He says to His Father it is right that we should consider with the greatest care. For I think we ought in a spirit of the most earnest attention to handle the investigation of His words, and most carefully search after the true intent of His teaching. Father, then, He says, The hour is come; glorify Thy Son that Thy Son may also glorify Thee. So far as the mere form of His language is concerned, one could think that the speaker had some lack of glory; but any one who considers the majesty of the Only-begotten would, I think, quickly |480 shrink from so grievous a conclusion. For it were great folly to think that the Son has any lack of glory, or falls short of the honour which is His due, though He is the Lord of glory, for so the inspired writings call Him. Especially when in another place we observe Him saying to His Father: O Father, glorify Me with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was. Then who can any longer doubt, or who is so demented and so far the enemy of all truth as not to know and confess that the Only-begotten is not bereft of Divine glory so far as His own Nature is concerned; but that since being in the form of God, and in perfect equality with Him, He counted it not a prize to be on an equality with God, but nevertheless descended to the humiliation of human nature, and emptied Himself of His glory, wearing this mean body; and from love towards us putting on the likeness of human littleness, now that the fitting time had actually arrived, at which He was destined, after fulfilling the mystery of our redemption, to gird Himself about with His pristine and essential glory; having wrought out the salvation of the whole world, and secured life and the knowledge of God to those that are therein; herein I say He shows that He has God's Will and favour, and makes this speech to Him, saying that He ought to recover the majesty due unto His Nature.
And how does He ascend into heaven? Surely He That even in the flesh showed Himself able to accomplish the deeds of a God was not in this subject to another's power, but ascended of Himself, being the Wisdom and Might of God the Father. For we must think that thus in no other way He accomplishes the words of a God with power. For all things are from the Father, but not without the Son. For how could God the Father perform any of His proper functions, if His Wisdom and Might, I mean the Son, were not with Him, and accomplishing with Him those things in which His power is seen in active operation? Therefore also the wise Evangelist who wrote this book at the beginning of |481 His work says: All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made. Since then the doctrine of His Consubstantiality compels us by consequence to think that all things proceed from the Father, but wholly through the Son in the Spirit, and that He, having slain death and corruption and taken away from the devil his kingdom, was about to illumine the whole world with the light of the Spirit, and to show Himself thereby henceforth in very deed the true God by Nature, He is impelled to say, Father, glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son may also glorify Thee. And no man of sense would maintain that the Son asks glory from the Father as a man from man, but rather that He also promises to give Him glory, as it were, in return. For it would be very unbecoming, nay rather wholly foolish, to have such an idea about God. The Saviour indeed spake these words to show how very necessary His own glory was to the Father, that He might be known to be Consubstantial with Him. For just as it would entail dishonour on God the Father, that the Son That was begotten of Him should not be such as He That is God by Nature and of God ought to be, so I think, to have His own Son invested with those attributes, which He is conceived of as having, and which are predicated of Him, will confer honour and glory upon Him. The Father therefore is glorified in the glory of His Offspring, as I said just now; giving glory to the Son, by considering throughout His earthly career, both from how great, and of what, a Father the Only-begotten sprang; and in turn receiving glory from the Son by the consideration of how great indeed is the Son, of Whom He is the Father. The honour and glory then, which is Theirs essentially and by Nature, will be reflected from the Son on the Father, and in turn from the Father on the Son.
If any man concede that, owing to the degradation of His Incarnation, our Lord here speaks more humbly than His true Nature warrants, for this was His custom, he will not altogether miss arriving at a proper |482 conclusion, but will not quite attain to the truth in the inquiry. For, if He were seeking only honour from the Father, there would be nothing unlikely in setting down the request to the inferiority of human nature; but, since He promises to glorify the Father in turn, does it not follow of necessity, that we should readily embrace the view we have just given? |483
CHAPTER IV. That it will in no way damage the glory of the Son, when He is said to have received aught from God the Father, since for this we can assign a pious reason.
2 Even as Thou gavest Him authority over all flesh, that whatsoever Thou hast given Him, to them He shall give eternal life.
In these words Christ expounds once more to us the kind of glory whereby God will exalt and glorify His own Son; and He will also Himself be glorified in turn by His own Offspring. And He expands the saying, and makes the point clear to our edification and profit. For what need had God the Father, Who knoweth all things, of learning the kind of request? He invites then the Father's goodness towards us. For since He is the High Priest of our souls, insomuch as He appeared as Man, though being by Nature God together with the Father, He most fittingly makes His prayer on our behalf; trying to persuade us to believe that He is, even now, the propitiation for our sins, and a righteous Advocate; as John saith. Therefore also Paul, wishing us to be of this mind, thus exhorts us: For we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but One that hath been in all points tempted like as we are; yet without sin. Then, since He is an High Priest, insomuch as He is Man, and, at the same time, brought Himself a blameless sacrifice to God the Father, as a ransom for the life of all men, being as it were the firstfruits of mortality, that in all things He might have the pre-eminence, as Paul says; and He reconciles to Him the reprobate race of man upon the earth, purifying them |484 by His own Blood, and shaping them to newness of life through the Holy Spirit; and since, as we have often said, all things are accomplished by the Father through the Son in the Spirit; He moulds the prayer for blessings towards us, as Mediator and High Priest, though He unites with His Father in giving and providing Divine and spiritual graces. For Christ divideth the Spirit, according to His own Will and pleasure, to every man severally, as He will.
So far with reference to this. Now let us examine and declare what is meant by the form of prayer used. Father, then, He saith, glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son may also glorify Thee. How then, or in what manner, will what I have said be brought to pass? I will, He says, that as Thou hast given Me power over all flesh, that so also, all that Thou hast given Me may have life eternal. For the Father glorified His own Son, putting the whole world under His rule: and He was glorified Himself also in turn by Him. For the Son was glorified of the Father, being believed of all to be the Offspring and Fruit of Him That is all-powerful, and at His pleasure puts all things under the yoke of His Son's kingly power; and the Father was glorified in turn, so to speak, by His own Son. For since the Son was known to be able to accomplish all things at His pleasure, the splendour of His reputation has reached to Him That begat Him. As therefore, He says, Thou didst glorify and wast glorified, giving to the Son power and sovereignty over all, after the manner just now stated, so I will that nothing that Thou hast given Me be lost; for this honour will pass from the Father to the Son, and from the Son to the Father. For it was meet that all those who were wholly subject to, and under, the rule of the Word, the all-powerful God, now having been saved once for all, should also abide in blessings without end; so as to be freed from the power of death, and the dominion of corruption and sin, and should no longer lie in subjection to their ancient enemies. |485
And, as the words, Thou gavest Him authority over all flesh, may possibly perplex some simple-minded hearers, let us make a few reflections thereon which may be useful; without scruple, as it is necessary, even though language may be wholly inadequate to such an exposition. For the Lord will say this most suitably in the character He had assumed; I mean His humiliation and His lowly humanity. For listen to the argument: If indeed we feel ashamed, when we hear that He became a slave for our sakes, though Lord of all with the Father; and that He was set up as King upon His holy hill of Zion, though He had the power to reign over the universe by right of His own Nature, and borrowed it not from others; we must needs also feel ashamed, if He says that He receives anything as Man. And, if we marvel at His voluntary subjection, when we bear in mind the dignity that is His by birthright, why are we not also astonied when we hear this saying? For, possessing all things as God, He says that He receives as Man, to whom kingly power comes, not by natural right, but by gift. For What hast thou that thou didst not receive? will suit the limitations of created beings; and Christ is also a creature in so far as He is Man; though by Nature uncreate, in so far as He came from God. For all things are conceived of, as naturally and individually being in God's hand, and are so in truth; but all good things in us are borrowed and brought down to us by Divine grace. When then, as Man, being appointed to rule over us, He says that the Father has given Him power over all flesh, we must not be offended at it; for we must bear in mind the scheme of our redemption. But, if you choose to listen to His words as having more reference to His Divinity, think on what the Lord said to the Jews: Verily, verily, I say unto you, no man can come to Me except the Father which sent Me draw Him. For whom the Father will quicken, them, as by His own life-giving power, He brings to His Son, and through Him gives them power and wisdom; nay. if He will to bring any into subjection to |486 His own rule, He calls them in no other way, save by the living and all-sufficient Might, whereby He rules over the universe----I mean His Son. For men, who have of themselves no power to accomplish anything that is above and beyond themselves, borrow from God the power, which can bring all things superhuman into subjection; for through Him, kings have their dominion, according to the Scripture, and monarchs through Him rule over the earth. And the God of the universe, having this power in Himself alone, subjects to Himself the race of man, who are reprobates from His love, and have shaken off the yoke of His kingdom, together with all beside; receiving, as it were, from His own might, the gift of dominion over them, and subjugating thereby whatsoever He will. For God the Father subjects them to His Son, as to His own power; and through Him wholly, and in no other way, all things that exist become His willing subjects, through obedience to His yoke. For as He endows with wisdom, and quickens with life, all things through Him, so also He rules over the universe through Him.
We must observe, however, that it was not to Israel alone any longer, that the favour of the Divine love of mankind was confined, but it was extended to all flesh. For that which is wholly subject to the power of the Saviour, will wholly partake in life and grace from Him. |487
CHAPTER V. That the Son will not be excluded from being true God, even though He named God the Father the only true God.
3 And this is life eternal, that they should know Thee the only true God, and Him Whom Thou didst send, even Jesus Christ.
He defines faith as the mother of eternal life, and says that the power of the true knowledge of God will be such as to cause us to remain for ever in a state of incorruption, and blessedness, and sanctification. And we say that that is true knowledge of God, which cannot incur the reproach of turning aside to aught else, or running after things unseemly. For some have worshipped the creature rather than the Creator, and have dared to say to a block of wood: Thou art my Father; and to a stone, Thou hast begotten me. For to such abysmal ignorance did miserable men relapse, that they even gave, in all its fulness, the great Name of God, to senseless blocks of wood; and invested them with the ineffable glory of that Nature, which is over all. He calls God the Father, then, the only true God, by contrast to spurious gods, and with the intention to distinguish the true God, from those who are so named in error; for this is the object of His words. Very appropriately, then, He first speaks of God as being One and One only, and then makes mention of His own glory in the words: And Jesus Christ Whom Thou hast sent. For a man can in nowise attain to complete knowledge of the Father, unless side by side, and in most intimate connexion with it, he lay hold on the knowledge of His Offspring; that is, the Son. For, if a man know what the |488 Father is, he cannot but know also the Son. When, then, He said that the Father was the true God, He did not exclude Himself. For being in Him, and of Him, by Nature, He will be also Himself the true God and the only God, as He is the only God: for beside Him, there is none other god who is the only true God. For the gods of the heathen are devils. For the creation is enslaved, and I know not how any worship them, or sink into such a slough of unreasoning and sensuous folly. With the many gods, then, in this world, who are erroneously so conceived, and have won this spurious title, the only true God is brought into contrast; and the Son also, Who is by Nature in Him, and of Him, at once in diversity and in identity of Nature, according to a natural Unity. I say in diversity of Nature, because He has in fact an individual Existence; for the Son is the Son, and not the Father. In identity of Nature also, because the Son, Who came forth from Him, is inseparably joined by Nature, with the existence of His Father. For the Father is one with the Son, even though He is the Father; and is so spoken of, because He did in fact beget Him.
This, then, He says, is eternal life, that they should know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ Whom Thou hast sent. Then one of those who are never weary of hearkening to the Scripture, and seriously pursue the study of Divine doctrines, will ask: Do we say that knowledge is eternal life; and that to know the one true and living God will suffice to give us complete security of expectation, and nothing else be lacking? Then how is faith apart from works dead? And when we speak of faith, we mean the true knowledge of God, and nothing else; for by faith comes knowledge: and the prophet Isaiah bears us witness, who said to some: If ye do not believe neither shall ye understand. And that the writings of the holy men are referring to the knowledge which consists in barren speculations, a thing wholly profitless, I think you will perceive from what follows. For one of the holy disciples said: Thou believest that |489 God is one; thou doest well: the devils also believe and shudder. What then shall we say to this? How does Christ speak truth, when He says that eternal life is the knowledge of God the Father, the One true God, and (with Him) of the Son? I think, indeed, we must answer that the saying of the Saviour is wholly true. For this knowledge is life, travailing as it were in birth of the whole meaning of the mystery, and vouchsafing unto us participation in the mystery of the Eucharist, whereby we are joined unto the living and life-giving Word. And for this reason, I think, Paul says that the Gentiles are made fellow-members of the body and fellow-partakers of Christ; inasmuch as they partake in His blessed Body and Blood; and our members may in this sense be conceived of, as being members of Christ. This knowledge, then, which also brings to us the Eucharist by the Spirit, is life. For it dwells in our hearts, shaping anew those who receive it into sonship with Him, and moulding them into incorruption and piety towards God, through life according to the Gospel. Our Lord Jesus Christ, then, knowing that the knowledge of the One true God brings unto us, and, so to speak, promotes our union with, the blessings of which we have spoken, says that it is eternal life; insomuch as it is the mother and nurso of eternal life, being in its own power and nature pregnant with those things which cause life, and lead unto it.
And I think we ought attentively to observe in what way Christ says that the knowledge of the One true God is perfected in us in all its fulness. For see how it cannot exist apart from the contemplation of the Son, and it is clear that it cannot exist apart from the Holy Spirit; for such is the nature of the belief in each Person of the Trinity, according to the Scripture. The Jews indeed, following in the steps of Moses' commandments, rejected the many false gods, and betook themselves to the worship of the One true God, under his guidance. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, saith the Law, and Him |490 only shalt thou serve. But those who still cling to the worship of the One true God, as not yet having complete knowledge of Him they worship, are called thereto to know not that the Creator of all things is one only, the One true God, but that He is a Father and has begotten a Son; and moreover, and yet more than all this, to gaze attentively on Him in His unchangeable Likeness, that is, the Son. For through the lineaments of that which is modelled, we can readily attain to perfect knowledge of the model. Very necessary then was it, for our Lord Jesus Christ to tell us, that those who have been called through faith to sonship and eternal life, not only ought to learn that the true God is One only, but that He is also a Father; and is the Father of One Who became flesh for our sakes, and Who was sent to restore the corrupted nature of rational beings, that is, of mankind. |491
CHAPTER VI. That the Son is not bare of God-befitting glory, even though He is found saying to the Father, And now glorify Me with the glory which I had, &c.
4, 5 I glorified Thee on the earth: I accomplished the work which Thou hast given Me to do it. And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own Self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.
Our Saviour's speech now intertwines the human element in His Nature with the Divine, and is of composite nature, looking both ways; not merging overmuch the Person of the Speaker in the perfect power and glory of His Divinity, nor allowing it altogether to rest on the lowly level of His Humanity; but mingling the twain into one, which is not foreign to either. For our Lord Jesus Christ thought that He ought to teach His believers, not merely that He is God the Only-begotten, but that He also became Man for us, that He might reconcile us all to God the Father, and mould us into newness of life; purchasing humanity with His own Blood, and venturing His life for the salvation of the world, while, though He was One, He was more precious than all mankind. He says, then, that He glorified the Father upon the earth, for He finished the work which He gave Him to do.
Come now, let us follow out, as it were, two roads, in our investigation of this passage, and say that it has reference both to His Divine and His Human Nature. If then, as Man, He says this, you may take it in this way: Christ is for us a type and origin and pattern of the. Divine life, and shows us plainly how, and in what |492 way, we ought to live our lives; for after this fashion the commentators on the Divine writings give a most subtle exposition of the passage. He instructs us, then, by what He here says, that each one of us, if he fulfils his allotted task, and follows out to the end what is commanded of God, then in truth he glorifies Him by his righteous acts; not indeed as though He had any lack of glory, for the Ineffable Nature of God is complete, but because he causes His praise to be sung by those who see his acts, and are profited thereby. Yea, the Saviour saith: Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father Which is in heaven. For when we are made truly manly, and willing to do good works for God's sake, we are not winning for our own selves the reputation thereof, but are carrying God's worship into our actions, to the honour and glory of Him That ruleth over all. For just as when, for leading a profligate life displeasing to God, we are rightly called to account, as doing despite unto His unspeakable glory, and make our own souls liable to punishment, as the prophet tells, if we hearken to his voice: My Name through you is continually blasphemed among the Gentiles, on the same grounds I think that when we display pre-eminent virtue, we are then preparing for Him a song of praise. When, therefore, we have accomplished the work that God has given us to do, then and most rightly may we attain to a freedom of speech in His own most seemly words; and claim, as it were, like glory in return from God Who has been glorified by us: For as I live, saith the Lord, them that honour Me will I honour, and he that lightly esteemeth Me shall be lightly esteemed. In order, then, that He might show us, that we might suitably ask for glory in return from the only true God, I mean glory in the world to come, when we have displayed towards Him perfect and blameless obedience, and have shown ourselves keepers of His commandments to the letter, Christ says that He glorified the Father, when He finished the work upon earth that |493 He gave Him. He requests, however, for Himself in return, no foreign or borrowed glory, as we do, but rather that honour and renown which is His own. For we were bound to ask for it, and not He. Observe how in and through His own Person, He first renders possible to our nature this boldness of speech, on two accounts. For in Him first, and through Him, we have been enriched both with the ability to fulfil those things essential to our salvation, which are entrusted to us by God, and also the duty of boldly asking for the honour which is due to those who distinguish themselves in His service. For of old time, through the sin that reigned in us, and the fall that was in Adam, we both failed of ability to accomplish any of those things which make for virtue, and also were very far removed from freedom of speech with God. Yea, God, to that end, out of the abundance of His kindness, spake consolation by the voice of the prophet, saying: Fear not, because Thou hast been ashamed, neither be confounded because thou hast been put to shame. As, then, in all other things that are good our Lord Jesus Christ is the Beginning, and the Gate, and the Way, so also is He here.
But if the Saviour is seeking His own glory that He had before the world began, and we, suiting the meaning of the passage so as to make it apply to our case, maintain that we ourselves ought also with great zeal to do God's Will, and so boldly ask for glory from above, let no one think that we say this,----that it becomes a man imitating Christ, to ask for some ancient glory that was before the world began, as due also to himself; but let him rather remember that each ought to speak according to his deserts. For if Christ, like us, had only the human element in His Nature, let Him then speak only as befits the earth-born, and not exceed the limits of humanity. But if the Word, being God, became Flesh, when He says anything as God, it will be suitable to Himself alone, and not to those who are not as He is.
Considering, then, the passage as though He spoke it |494 more as a Man, we shall take it in the sense above given; but if we reflect, on the other hand, on the Divine dignity of Christ, we rightly think it has a meaning above human nature. We say, then, that He glorified His own Father, God, when He fulfilled the work which He received from Him, not being His servant or in any ministerial capacity; and this as of necessity, that the Lord of all might not appear in the lowliness of our nature and that of the creation which is enslaved. For to perform the duties of a servant, and submissively obey the Divine commands, is the part of men and angels. Rather, we say that He, being the Power and Wisdom of His Father, well accomplished the task of our redemption, entrusted as it were to Him; as indeed also said the Divine Psalmist, expounding the meaning of the mystery: O God, command Thy Strength; strengthen, O God, that which Thou hast wrought for us. For in order that he may clearly prove that the Son is the Power of the Father, though not separate from Him so far I mean as His identity of Essence and Nature is concerned, he first says, Command Thy Strength, bringing in a duality of Persons----I mean Him that commands and Him to Whom the command is given----he suddenly unites them in their natural unity, attributing to the Ineffable Nature of God in its entirety the result achieved; for he says in his wisdom: "Strengthen, O God, that which Thou hast wrought for us." The Son, then, receives or has entrusted to Him from the Father, the work of saving the world. But in what manner, or how, God commands His own Strength, we ought to examine and explain, so far as it is possible humanly to interpret things which exceed man's understanding. Let us take for example, then, some man among us, and imagine him learned in the art of making bronzes. Then let us suppose that he sets himself to mould a statue, or perhaps to repair one that is decayed or mutilated. How, then, will he work, or how will he repair, as he has determined? Clearly he will entrust to the power of his hands and his skill in the art, |495 the fulfilment of what he chooses to do. But if any one thinks his wisdom and power appear distinct in some sense from himself, so far as their conception is concerned, still are they not in fact distinct. For these also are included in the definition of his essence. You must think the case is something like this wise, but must not accept the illustration as exactly similar. For God is above all things, and must be thought superior to any power of illustration. The sun and the fire, taking this by way of illustration, may be thought to occupy a similar relative position. For, just as the sun commands the light which it sheds to illumine the whole world, and allots to the power of its rays as their function, so to say, to cast the power of their heat on all things that receive it, so likewise also the fire commands and enjoins in some sort the peculiar qualities of its nature to fulfil its peculiar duties; but we do not, on this account, say that the ray and the light are in the position of ministers and servants to the sun, or the power of burning to the fire. For each of the two works by means of its own inherent qualities. But if they appear to be in a sense not self-working, yet are they not distinct in nature from their own. Some such idea we must hold about the relation between God the Father and the Word Who is by Nature begotten of Him, whenever He is said to be entrusted with work to do to us-ward.
His Wisdom and Power, therefore, that is Christ, glorified God the Father upon the earth, having finished the work which He gave Him. And, as He brings His work to its fitting termination, He claims the glory which always attaches to Him; and now that occasion calls for the recovery of His ancient glory He seeks it. What work, then, has He fulfilled, whereby He says that He glorified the Father? For while He was the true God He became Man, by the approval and will of the Father, through His desire to save the whole world, and raise up anew the fallen race on the earth to endless life and the true knowledge of God. And this was in very |496 truth accomplished by the Divine power and might of Christ, Who made death powerless, upset the dominion of the devil, destroyed sin, and showed incomparable love towards us, by remitting the charges against us all, and giving light to those astray, who now know the One true God. Christ, then, having accomplished this by His own power, the Father was glorified by all----I mean all those in the world who knew His wisdom, and power, and the mercy and love towards mankind, which is in Him. For He has shone forth and manifested Himself in the Son, Who is, as it were, the Likeness and Express Image of His Person; and by its fruit the tree is known, according to the Scripture. And when the works were fulfilled, and the wonderful scheme of our redemption brought to its fitting conclusion, He returns to His own glory, and assumes His ancient honour; save only, that being still endued with the human shape, He moulds accordingly the form of His prayer, and asks as though He possessed it not: for man hath all things from God. For though in the fullest sense, as He was God of God the Father, He was invested with Divine glory, still, since at the season of His Incarnation for us He in a sense diminished it, taking upon Him this mean body, He with reason seeks it as though He had it not, speaking the words as Man. The wise Paul also himself had some such idea, when he enjoins us concerning Him: Let this mind be in each of you which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, counted it not a prize to be on an equality with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the Cross. Wherefore also God highly exalted Him, and gave unto Him the Name which is above every name; that in the Name of Jesus Christ every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the |497 glory of God the Father. For though the Son is high, inasmuch as He proceeded as God and Lord from the Father, none the less is the Father recorded to have exalted man in Him, for on man the degradation of his nature brings the need of exaltation. He prays, then, for the recovery of His own glory, even in the flesh. He is not wholly bereft of His own glory when He so speaks, even though He were to ask without receiving, for the Word, being the true God, was never robbed of His own majesty. He rather refers to the glory which belongs ever to Him, and its appropriate temple in the heavens, and His own return thither in the raiment of the flesh, on which the interval of His humiliation had been consequent. For that He may not appear to be claiming for Himself a strange and unusual glory to which He had not been accustomed in time past, He distinguishes it by the addition of the epithet "before the world was," and the words "with Thine own Self." For the Son has never been excluded from the honour of the Father, but ever reigneth with Him, and with Him is adored and worshipped by us and by the holy angels as God, and of God, and in God, and with God. And this is, I think, what the inspired Evangelist John means to teach us, when He says: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. |498
CHAPTER VII. That the fact that something is said to have been given to the Son from the Father does not rob Him of God-befitting dignity; but He plainly appears to be Consubstantial, and of the Father, even if He is said to receive aught.
6, 7, 8 I manifested Thy Name unto the men whom Thou hast given Me out of the world: Thine they were, and Thou hast given them to Me; and they have kept Thy word. Now they know that all things whatsoever Thou hast given Me are from Thee,: for the words which Thou hast given Me I have given unto them; and they received them and knew of a truth that I came forth from Thee, and they believed that Thou didst send Me.
I have previously stated with reference to the passages I have just examined, not without care, if I may say so, that Christ made His prayer to the Father in the heavens both as Man and also as God. For He carefully moderates His language so as to avoid either extreme, neither keeping it altogether within the limits of humanity, nor yet allowing it to be wholly affected by His Divine glory; and none the less here also may we see the same characteristic observed. For, as being by Nature God, and the express Image of His unspeakable Nature, He says to His Father: I manifested Thy Name unto the men, using the word "Name'' instead of "glory;'' for this is the usual practice in speech amongst us. Moreover, the wise Solomon wrote: A good name is more to be desired than great riches; that is, "a good reputation and honour" is better than the splendour and eminence which wealth confers. And God Himself says, by the mouth of Isaiah, to those who have made |499 themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake, Let not the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree. For thus saith the Lord unto the eunuchs that keep My commandments, and choose the things that please Me, Even unto them will I give in Mine house and within My walls a place and a name better than of sons and daughters: I will give them an everlasting name. And no man ought to imagine, I think, if he be wise, that the honour with which God will requite them will be paid out in bare names and titles to those who, with noble and virtuous aspirations, have wrestled with worldly pleasure, and have mortified their members which are upon the earth, and regarded only those things which are not displeasing to the Divine law; rather He uses the word name instead of glory, for they who reign with Christ will be enviable and worthy all admiration.
The Saviour therefore plainly declares that He has manifested the Name of God the Father; that is, He has established His glory throughout the whole world. And how? Clearly by the manifestation of Himself, through His exceeding great works. For the Father is glorified in the Son, as in an Image and Type of His own form, for in the lineaments of that which is modelled, the beauty of the model is always clearly seen. The Only-begotten, then, has manifested Himself, being in His Essence Wisdom and Life, Architect and Creator of the universe, superior to death and corruption, holy, blameless, compassionate, sacred, pure. Hereby all men know that He That begat Him is even as He is; for He cannot be different in Nature from His Offspring. He showed Himself, therefore, as in an Image and Type of His own form, in the glory of the Son. Such was indeed the language concerning Him among the men of old time, but now has He manifested Himself to our very sight, and that which we see with our eyes is more convincing than any words.
I think, indeed, that what we have here stated is not irrelevant. We must now, however, tread another path, |500 that is, enter on another line of speculation. For the Son manifested the Father's Name clearly by bringing us to the knowledge and perfect apprehension, not of the fact that He is God alone (for this message was conveyed to us before His coming by the inspired Scripture), but that, besides being God in truth, He is also Father in no spurious sense; having in Himself, and proceeding from Himself, His own Offspring, Coequal and Coeternal with His own Nature. For He did not beget in time the Creator of the ages. And God's Name of "Father" is in some sort greater than the Name God itself; for the one is symbolical only of His Majesty, while the other is explanatory of the essential attribute of His Person. For, when a man speaks of God, he indicates the Sovereign of the universe; but, when he utters the Name of Father, he touches on the definition of His individuality, for he manifests the fact that He begat. And Christ Himself gives to God the Name of Father, as in some sense a more appropriate and truer appellation; saying on one occasion, not "I and God" but I and the Father are One; and on another occasion, with reference to Himself, For Him the Father, even God, hath sealed. And also when He bade His disciples baptise all nations, He did not bid them do this in the Name of God, but He expressly enjoined them to do this into the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. And the inspired Moses, when he was explaining the origin of the world, did not attribute its creation to a single person, for he wrote, And God said, Let us make man in our Image, after our Likeness: and by the words Let us make, and in our Likeness, the Holy Trinity is signified; for the Father created and called into being the universe, through the Son, in the Spirit. But the men of old found such expressions hard to understand, and the language obscure; for the Father was not individually named, nor was the Person of the Son expressly introduced. Our Lord Jesus Christ, however, without any concealment, and with perfect freedom of speech, called |501 God His Father; and by naming Himself Son, and showing that He was Himself in very truth the Offspring of the Sovereign Nature of the universe, He manifested the Father's Name, and brought us to perfect knowledge of Him. For the perfect knowledge of God and the Creator of the universe standeth not in believing merely that He is God, but in believing also that He is the Father; and the Father also of a Son, not unaccompanied of course by the Holy Spirit. For the bare belief, that God is God, suits us no better than those under the Law; for it does not exceed the limit of the knowledge the Jews attained. And just as the Law, when it brought in this axiom of instruction, which was insufficient to sustain a life of piety in God's service, perfected nothing, so also the knowledge which it instilled about God was imperfect; only able to restrain men from love of false gods, and persuade them to worship the One true God: For thou shalt have, it says, no other gods beside Me. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve. But our Lord Jesus Christ sets better things before those who are under the Law of Moses; and, giving them instruction clearer than the commandment of the Law, vouchsafed them better and clearer knowledge than that of old. For He has made it plain to us, not merely that the Originator and Sovereign of the world is God, but also that He is a Father; and facts prove this; for He has set Himself before us as His Likeness, saying, He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father. I and the Father are One.
And this, as we suppose, as being God and of God by Nature, He saith openly 1, in His Divine character, to His Father; but He adds at once, speaking more as Man: Whom Thou hast given Me out of the world: Thine they were, and Thou hast given them to Me. We must think that our Lord says this, not as though some |502 separate and particular portion had been allotted and belonged to the dominion of the Father, in which the Son Himself had no part, for He is King before the ages began, as the Psalmist says, and eternally shares the Father's rule. Moreover, the wise Evangelist John, teaching us that all things belong to Him and are put under His sway, wrote: He came unto His own, and they that were His own received Him not; calling those His own who knew Him not, and were rejecting the yoke of His kingdom. He spake this on this occasion, from the wish to make clear to His hearers, that there were some in this world, who did not even so much as receive into their minds the One true God, but served the creature, and devils, and the inventions of devils. Still, though they knew not the Creator of the world, and were astray from the truth, they were God's; insomuch as He is Lord of all, as their Creator. For all things belong to God, and there is nothing that exists over which the One God is not ruler, though the creature may not know his Maker. For no man can maintain that the fact, that some have gone astray from Him, can avail to deprive the Creator of the world of His universal dominion; but he must rather admit that all things are subjected to His rule, through His having made them and brought them into being. Since, then, this is the truth, even they who were fast bound by the snares of the devil, and entangled in the vanities of the world, belonged in fact to the living God. And how were they given to the Son? For God the Father consented that Emmanuel should reign over them; not as though He then first began His reign----for He was ever Lord and King as being God by Nature----but because, having become Man and ventured His life for the salvation of the world, He purchased all men for Himself, and through Himself brought them to God the Father. He then, That of old reigneth from the beginning with His Father, was appointed King as a Man, to Whom like all else the sceptre comes by gift, according to the |503 limitations of human nature. For not in the same sense as that in which man is a rational being, capable of thought and knowledge (these things being included in his natural advantages), is he also a king; for while the former attributes are comprehended in the definition of his essence, the latter is extraneous and additional, and not among those which attach inseparably to his nature; for kingly power is given and taken away from a man, without affecting in any degree at all the definition of his essence. The dignity of kingship, therefore, is thrust upon a man by God as a gift, and from without: For by Me, He says, kings rule, and princes reign over the earth. He then, That ruleth over all with the Father, insomuch as He was, and is, and will be, by Nature God, receives power over the world, according to the form and limits proper to a man.
And therefore He saith: All things whatsoever Thou hast given Me are from Thee. For in a special and peculiar sense all things are God's, and are given to us His creatures. Universal possession and power are most appropriate to God, but to us it is most fitting to receive. He bore witness, however, before His devout believers, to what was fitting to the servant, and prompted to obedience. For, He saith, the words which Thou hast given Me I have given unto them, and they received them and knew of a truth that I came forth from Thee, and they believed that Thou didst send Me. He expressly here calls His own words the sayings of God the Father, because of Their identity of Substance, and because He is God the Word declaratory of His Father's Will; just as the word, which proceeds out of our own mouths, and by its utterance assailing the hearing of one who stands by, interprets the hidden mysteries of the heart. Therefore also the saying of the Prophet declared concerning Him: His Name is called Messenger of Great Counsel. For the truly great, wonderful, and mysterious counsel of the Father is conveyed to us by the Word That is in Him, and of Him, through the words He uttered as a |504 Man, when He came among us, and also by the knowledge and light of the Spirit after His ascent into heaven; for He revealeth to His Saints His mysteries, as Paul bears witness, saying: If ye seek a proof of Christ That speaketh in Me.
He testified then to those who love Him, that they received and kept the words given Him by the Father, and were besides satisfied that He came, and was sent, from God; while those who were diseased with the contrary opinion were otherwise minded. For they who neither received His words nor kept their minds open to conviction, were not disposed to believe that He came from God, and was sent by Him. Moreover, the Jews said on one occasion: If this Man were from God, He would not have broken the Sabbath; and on another, We are disciples of Moses: we know that God hath spoken unto Moses, but as for this Man we know not whence He is. You see how they denied His mission; so that they even cried in their shamelessness, they knew not whence He was. And that they did not admit His unspeakably high birth from everlasting, I mean His proceeding from God the Father, diseased as they were by the great perversity of their thoughts, and ready to stone Him with stones merely because of His Incarnation, you may easily satisfy yourself, if you will listen to the words of the Evangelist: For this cause therefore the Jews sought to kill Him, because He not only brake the Sabbath, but also called God His own Father, making Himself equal with God. And what the impious Jews said unto Him is also recorded: For a good work we stone Thee not, but for blasphemy; because that Thou, being a man, makest Thyself God. You will understand then very clearly, that those who truly keep His words have believed and confessed that He manifested Himself from the Father (for this is, I think, what I came forth means), and that He was sent to us to tell us the commandment of the Lord, as is said in the Psalms; while they who laughed to scorn the Word, Who was thus Divine and |505 from the Father, rejected the faith, and plainly denied that He was God and from the Father, and that He came to us for our salvation, and dwelt among us, yet without sin. Justly, then, does He commend to God the Father, those who are good men, and are His own, and have submitted their souls to the hearing of His words, and will ever hold them in remembrance; that what He said may be made clear, beginning from the time of His sojourn amongst us. And what are His words? Everyone therefore who shall confess Me before men, him will I also confess before My Father Which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father Which is in heaven. This also God the Father Himself long ago declared that He would do, speaking by the mouth of Isaiah: Ye are My witnesses, saith the Lord, and the servant whom I have chosen. Our Saviour then speaks, at the same time, in His character as God, and in His character as Man. For He was at once God and Man, speaking in either character without reproach, suiting each occasion with appropriate words as it required. |506
CHAPTER VIII. That nothing which is spoken of as belonging to the Father will be excluded from the kingdom of the Son, for Both alike rule over all.
9, 10, 11 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for those whom Thou hast given Me; for they are Thine: and all things that are Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine; and I am glorified in them. And I am no more in the world, and these are in the world, and I come to Thee.
He once more mediates as Man, the Reconciler and Mediator of God and men; and being our truly great and all-holy High Priest, by His own prayers He appeases the anger of His Father, sacrificing Himself for us. For He is the Sacrifice, and is Himself our Priest, Himself our Mediator, Himself a blameless Victim, the true Lamb Which taketh away the sin of the world. The Mosaic ceremonial was then, as it were, a type and transparent shadowing forth of the mediation of Christ, shown forth in the last times, and the high priest of the Law indicated in his own person that Priest Who is above the Law. For the things of the Law are shadows of the truth. For the inspired Moses, and with him the eminent Aaron, continually intervened between God and the assembly of the people; at one time deprecating God's anger for the transgressions of the people of Israel, and inviting mercy from above upon them when they were faint; at another, praying and blessing the people, and ordering sacrifices according to the Law and offerings of gifts besides in their appointed order, sometimes for sins, and sometimes thank-offerings for the benefits they felt that they had received from God. But Christ Who manifested |507 Himself in the last times above the types and figures of the Law, at once our High Priest and Mediator, prays for us as Man; and at the same time is ever ready to cooperate with God the Father, Who distributes good gifts to those who are worthy. Paul showed us this most plainly in the words: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. He then prays for us as Man, and also unites in distributing good gifts to us as God. For He, being a holy High Priest, blameless and undefiled, offered Himself not for His own weakness, as was the custom of those to whom was allotted the duty of sacrificing according to the Law, but rather for the salvation of our souls, and that once for all, because of our sin, and is an Advocate for us: And He is the propitiation for our sins, as John saith; and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.
But perhaps someone, wishing to controvert what we have said, will exclaim, "Is not what the disciple says quite contrary to the Saviour's words?" For our Lord Jesus Christ expressly in these words repudiates the necessity of praying to God for the whole world, while the wise John affirmed quite the contrary. For he maintains that the Saviour will be the Advocate and propitiation, not merely for our sins, but also for the sins of the whole world. It is not hard to find the solution to this difficulty, or to say how the disciple may be seen to be in accord with his Master's saying. For the blessed John, as he was a Jew and of the Jews, that some might not perhaps think that our Lord was merely an Advocate for the Israelites, and not in any sense for the rest of the nations scattered over the whole world, though destined to distinguish themselves by faith on Him and to be shortly called to knowledge of salvation through Christ, is perforce impelled to declare that our Lord will not only be the propitiation for the race of Israel, but also for the whole world; that is, those of every nation and kindred, who shall be called through faith to righteousness and sanctification. Our Lord |508 Christ distinguishes from His own those who are otherwise minded, and who have chosen to insult Him by stubborn disobedience; and, referring to those who are prone to listen to His Divine commands, and who have already submitted, as it were, the necks of the hearts, and well-nigh bound round them the yoke of submission to God, said that for them only it was most fitting for Him to pray. For to those only, whose Mediator and High Priest He is, He thought it meet to bring the blessings of His mediation; to those, I mean, who, He says, were given to Himself, but were the Father's, as there is no other way of fellowship with God save by the Son. And He will Himself teach you this in the words: No one cometh unto the Father, but by Me. For observe how the Father, when He gave to His Son those of whom He speaks, won them over to Himself. And the Apostle, who was so conversant with the sacred writings, knowing this well, says: God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself. For when Christ acted as Mediator, and received those who come to Him by faith, and brought them aright through Himself to the Father, the world was reconciled to God. Therefore also the Prophet Isaiah taught us, in anticipation, to choose peace with God, in Christ: Let us have peace with Him; let us who are in the way have peace. For if we banish from our hearts whatsoever estrangeth us from the love of Christ, I mean the base lasciviousness which hankers after sinful pleasure and is ever inclined to the delights of the world, and is besides the mother and nurse of all vice, and leads us widely astray, we shall become united in fellowship with Christ, and shall make peace with God, being joined to the Father Himself through the Son, inasmuch as we receive in ourselves the Word That was begotten of Him, and cry out in the Spirit, Abba, Father.
Those then who have been given to Christ are the Father's, but are not therefore removed from Christ. For God the Father reigneth with Him, and through |509 Him ruleth over His own. For the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity share the same kingdom, and their universal dominion is one and the same; and whatever is the Son's will be subject to the glory of the Son and the Father; and also, whatever is said to be under the rule of the Father, over that the Son will surely hold sway. And therefore He saith: And all Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine. For as in Them perfect identity of Nature is visible and evident, the opinion held about Their majesty is not various, and does not attribute anything individually to One apart from the Other, but considers one and the same glory, identical in every respect, to attach to Both. For He That is by right of His Nature the Heir of His Father's Divine dignities will clearly have all that the Father hath, and will also show that His Father hath all that He Himself hath. For Either naturally reveals the Other in Himself; and the Son is seen in the Father, and the Father also in the Son. This kind of instruction the inspired writings gave us in the mystery. When, then, universal dominion is one of the dignities of the Father, it will belong also to the Son; for He is the express Image of His Person, and can endure no shadow of unlikeness or variance at all. He declares that He has been glorified in them, showing that His prayer for them is, as it were, a recompence well deserved.
What then is His request, and why does He endeavour to obtain God's favour for His followers? I am no more in the world, He says, and these are in the world, and, I come to Thee. For while He yet lived in converse with His holy Apostles in the flesh upon earth, the consolation of His visible Presence was ever with them in their daily path, as it were to give instant succour to those in peril; and they were therefore sustained in courage. For the mind of man is readier to rely upon the things that are seen than the things that are unseen, for encouragement or pleasure. When we say this, we are far from asserting that the Lord is |510 powerless to save, if He be not visibly present; for any one who thought this would rightly be convicted of folly. For Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, yea, and for ever. But He knew that His disciples were very faint at heart, left desolate as it were on the earth, with the world raging round them like fierce billows, and ever ready to beleaguer with intolerable terrors and imminent and great dangers those who persist in bearing God's tidings to the uninitiated.
Since then, He says, I come to Thee, for I shall soon ascend to sit on the throne of God the Father, and reign with Him, and these will remain the while in the world, I pray for them, for Thou gavest them Me; and as Thine and Mine now I rightly care for them, and I am glorified in them, for all things whatsoever Thou hast given Me are Thine, and Thine are Mine. And the saying is true. For those in the world who have been given to Christ, and are on that account the Father's, have not therefore disavowed the duty of praising Him through Whom they were united to God the Father, and having been brought to Him, will remain none the less His. For He hath all things in common with the Father, together with His inherent Godhead and power. For there is one God in us, Who is worshipped in the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity; and we all of us belong to the one true God, being subject as servants to the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity. |511
CHAPTER IX. That the dignity of Godhead is inherent in the Son; even though He is said to have received this from the Father, because of His humanity and the form of His humiliation.
11 Holy Father, keep them in Thy Name which Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, even as We are.
He still preserves the blending of two things into one: the human element, I mean, which, so far as we are concerned, imparts humiliation, and the Divine element, which is pregnant with the most exalted majesty. For His speech is combined of both; and, just as we stated in our interpretation of the foregoing passage, the Divine element is not perfectly exalted to the height, nor yet is it wholly sundered from the limitations of humanity, holding as it were a middle place by an unspeakable and ineffable fusion of the two, so as not to pass outside the limits of true Godhead, nor yet altogether to leave behind those of humanity. For His ineffable descent from God the Father exalts Him, inasmuch as He is the Word and Only-begotten, into a Divine Nature and the majesty which naturally accompanies it, while His humiliation brings Him down in some sort to our level, not as though it availed perforce to overpower the kingship over the universe which He shares with the Father, for the Only-begotten could never submit to violence against His Will. Rather was His humiliation self-chosen, accepted and maintained from love towards us. For He humbled Himself, that is, of His own Will and not by any compulsion. For He would be proved to have undergone the Incarnation against His Will, if there were any one at all |512 able to prevail over Him, and who bade Him unwillingly take this upon Him. He humbled Himself therefore willingly for our sakes, for we should never have been called His sons and God's, if the Only-begotten had not undergone humiliation for us and on our account; to Whose Likeness we are conformed by participation in the Spirit, and so become children of God, and God's. Whenever, therefore, in His sayings, He blends together in some way the human with the Divine, do not be therefore offended, nor lightly relinquish the admiration you ought to feel at the incomparable art displayed in His sayings, skilfully preserving for us in divers ways their twofold character, so that we can see at the same time the God and the Man speaking truly in His Nature, marvellously combining the humiliation of His Humanity with the glory of His ineffable Divinity; preserving wholly blameless and irreproachable the harmonious fusion of the two.
And how is it that, when we say this, we do not affirm that the Nature of the Word is degraded from its original majesty? To think this would indeed display the greatest ignorance; for that which is Divine is altogether and wholly changeless, and endureth no shadow of turning but rather ever remaineth on one stay. We rather make such a statement because the manner of His voluntary degradation, as by necessary inference investing Him with the form of humiliation, causes the Only-begotten, Who is coequal with, and in the Likeness of, the Father, and in Him and proceeding from Him, to be apparently in an inferior position to Him. Be not astonished at hearing this, if the Son appear to fall short of the Father's majesty because of His Humanity, when for this very reason Paul declared that He was thus inferior even to the angels, in the following words: Him Who hath been made a little lower than the angels, even Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honour, though the holy angels were bidden to worship Him, |513 for when, He says, He bringeth in the Firstborn into the world, He saith, And let all the angels of God worship Him, as well as also the Holy Seraphim, who stood around and fulfilled the office of servants when He appeared unto the prophet sitting on a high and lofty throne. Then, so far as His being begotten and proceeding from God the Father is concerned, His Humanity is not proper to the Son; but it is proper to Him in so far as He is Incarnate Man, and remaineth ever what He was and is, and will be such for evermore, and debaseth Himself to what He was not of old for our sakes.
He saith, then: Holy Father, keep them in Thy Name which Thou hast given Me; that they may be one, even as We are. He desires His disciples to be kept by the power and might of the Ineffable Divine Nature, well and suitably attributing the power of saving whomsoever He will, yea, and with ease, to the true and living God; and thereby, again, He glorifies no other nature than His own, as in the Person of the Father, from Whom He proceeded as God. Therefore He saith, Father, keep them in Thy Name which Thou hast given Me; that is, the Name of God. He says again, that the Name of God was not given unto Him as though He had not been God by Nature, and were now called from without to the dignity of Godhead. For then would He be created, and possess a spurious and elective glory and an adulterate nature, which it were impious for us to imagine. For thereby He would be mulcted of His inherent character of Sonship. But since, as the inspired writings prophesy, the Word became flesh, that is, man, He says that He received Divine attributes by gift; for clearly the title and actuality of Divine glory could not naturally attach to man. But consider, and attentively reflect, how He showed Himself the living and inherent Power of God the Father, whereby He doeth all things. For when, addressing His Father, He says, Keep them, He did not indeed suffice for |514 them alone, but suitably brought in Himself as working for their preservation and being for that purpose also the power and instrument of His Father; for He says: Keep them in Thy Name which Thou hast given Me. Note how guarded the saying is. For allotting and attributing as suitable only to the Nature of God providential care over us, He declares at once that to Himself has been given the glory of Godhead, because of the form of manhood, saying that what was His by natural right was given to Him; that is, the Name which is above every name. Therefore also we say that this Name belongs to the Son by nature, as proceeding from the Father; but, so far as He is Man, those things are His by gift which He receives as Man, using herein the form of speech applicable to ourselves; for man is not God by nature, but Christ is God by nature, even though He be conceived of as Human because He was amongst us.
He wishes indeed the disciples to be kept in unity of mind and purpose, being blended, as it were, with one another in soul and spirit and the bond of brotherly love; and to be linked together in an unbroken chain of affection, so that their unity may be so far perfected as that their elective affinity may resemble the natural unity which exists between the Father and the Son; and, remaining undebased and invincible, may not be distorted by anything whatever that exists in the world, or by the lusts of the flesh, into dissimilarity of purpose; but rather preserving in the unity of true piety and holiness the power of love intact, which also came to pass. For, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles, the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and soul, in the unity that is of the Spirit. And this is what Paul himself also meant, when he said: One body and one Spirit; for we who are many are one body in Christ, for we all partake of the one bread, and we have all received the unction of one Spirit, that is, the Spirit of Christ. As, then, they were to be one body, and |515 to partake of one and the selfsame Spirit, He desires His disciples to be preserved in a unity of spirit which nothing could disturb, and in unbroken singleness of mind. And if any man suppose that after this manner the disciples are united even as the Father and the Son are One, not merely in Substance, but also in purpose (for the holy Nature of God has one Will, and one and the selfsame purpose altogether), let him so think. For He will not stray wide of the mark, since we can see identity of purpose among true Christians, though we have not consubstantiality as the Father and the Word That proceeded from Him, and is in Him.
12, 13 While I was with them, I kept them in Thy Name which Thou hast given Me: and I guarded them, and not one of them perished, but the son of perdition; that the Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I come to Thee.
Our Saviour's speech soon proceeds to illustrate His meaning more plainly; and while at the first dark hints were given, it is now proclaimed and revealed like a storm breaking into sunshine. For the disciples thought that our Saviour's abandonment of them,----I mean in the flesh,----would inflict on them great loss; for nothing could prevent His being with them as God. But they expected that no one could then save them after Christ's Ascension into heaven, but that they would fall a prey to those who wished to injure them, and that there would be nothing to restrain the hand of their powerful adversaries, but rather that any one so disposed might work his will on them without hindrance, and involve them in any peril. But wise as they were and fathers in the faith, and bearers of light to the world, we need not shrink from saying that they ought not merely to have regarded the Incarnate Presence of our Saviour Christ, but to have known that even though He were to deprive them of converse with Him in the flesh, and they saw Him not with the eye of the body, yet that it was their duty at any rate to think of Him as present with them for |516 evermore in the power of His Godhead. For will God ever lose the attributes of His Person? Or what power can resist an Omnipotent Nature, or is able perforce to hinder it in the performance of its functions? And it is the power and actuality of God's Being to be present everywhere, and unspeakably to fill the heavens and also the earth, and to contain all things, but to be contained of none. For God is not bounded by place, nor separated by distance within any sphere, however great; for such like things cannot avail to affect that Nature which has nothing to do with the dimensions of space. Then, since Christ was at the same time God and Man, the disciples ought to have been aware that, though He were absent in the body, yet He would not wholly forsake them, but would be ever with them by reason of God's unspeakable might. And for this reason also our Saviour Himself said, in the foregoing passage: Holy Father, keep them in Thy Name which Thou hast given Me; and here again: While I was with them, I kept them in Thy Name which Thou hast given Me; almost pointing out this fact to His disciples, that the ability to save them suited rather the working of His power as God than His Presence in the flesh: for this very flesh was not sanctified of itself; but when, by His Incarnation, the Word was made one with it, it was in some sort transformed into His inherent power, and is now become the channel of salvation and sanctification to those who partake thereof. We must not then attribute the whole of the Divine activities of Christ to the flesh by itself, but we shall be rather right if we ascribe them to the Divine power of the Word. For does not "keeping the disciples in the Name of the Father" mean this, and nothing else? For they are kept by the glory of God. He removes, then, from His disciples' minds, the fear which they felt because they thought themselves forsaken; often following the same course of thought, He assures them that they will be in perfect safety, not through living with their Master in the body, but rather |517 because He is by Nature God. Evidently the universal dominion and might which are His have no end; for He can suffer no change or alteration from that state in which He dwells eternally, but will keep them safe with ease for evermore, and rescue them from every peril that may assail them. Consider also the forethought wrapped up in the saying, to our profit and edification. For when He asks that they----I mean His holy disciples ----should be kept by God the Father, He declares that He Himself had done this, showing Himself like in power and works to His Father, or rather, His inherent might. For surely He Who is seen to have the same power as God, He Who is acknowledged the true God, must be thought to be wholly inherent in Him, and to possess equality of power and identity of Nature with Him. And how can He Who kept them as God in the Name of God, and as a God crowned them with the glory that proceeded from righteous actions befitting the title, be foreign to God, or of different nature? Is He not in very deed shown to be that which He is, namely, God? For nothing that exists can do those works which are peculiar to God, without being in its own nature that which we imagine God to be. He still preserves in the passage the twofold conception of His character owing to His Incarnation. For He takes away, as it were, from His Nature, as a created Being, the power of saving and preserving all to whom this is due for their piety towards God. and ascribes it to the Name of the Father, attributing to the Divine Nature alone the things which are of God. And for this reason, again, though He says that He kept the disciples, He did not give the honour of taking up the work to His Humanity, but rather says that it was fulfilled in the Name of God; excluding Himself, in a manner, from its accomplishment, so far as He is flesh and is so conceived of, but not excluding Himself from the power of keeping them, and of accomplishing the works of a God, insomuch as He is God, and from God, the all-working power of the |518 Father----a Divine force which even when at rest displays by its very attributes the Nature from which it ineffably proceeded 2. And if here too, again, He says that the Name of God has been given unto Him, although He is in fact God by Nature, as the Only-begotten Who proceeded from Him, He is not thereby in truth degraded, nor would He thereby exclude Himself from the honour and glory which is His due. Far from it. For to receive is appropriate to His Humanity, and can be fittingly ascribed thereto; for, of itself, humanity possesses nothing.
He says that He so kept His disciples, and had such care for them, that none of them was lost save one, whom He called the son of perdition; as though he were doomed to destruction of his own choice, or rather his own wickedness and impiety. For it is inconceivable that the traitor disciple was by a Divine and irresistible decree entangled, as it were, in the snare of the fowler, and brought within the devil's noose; for then would he surely have been guiltless when he succumbed to the verdict of heaven. For who shall oppose the decree of God? And now he is condemned and accursed, and it would have been better for him if he had never been born. And why? Surely the wretched man met his doom as a consequence of his own volitions, and is not convicted by destiny. He that was so enamoured of destruction may well be called a son of perdition, inasmuch as he merited ruin and corruption, and ever awaits the day of perdition as fraught with anguish and lamentation 3.
And as Christ added to the words He used concerning him, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, we have given an explanation which may be useful to readers of this passage. For it was not because of any prophecy in Scripture that the traitor was lost, and became so vile as to barter for a few coins the precious Blood of Christ, |519 but rather, as through his own innate wickedness he betrayed his Lord, and was infallibly destined to destruction on that account, the Scripture, which cannot lie, foretold that so it would be. For the Scripture is the Word of God, Who knows all things, and carries in His own consciousness the character and life of each one of us, and his conversation from the beginning to the end. Moreover, the Psalmist, attributing to Him knowledge of all things, of the past as well as of the future, thus addresses Him: Thou understandest all my thoughts afar off; Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. The Divine Word, then, Which had complete foreknowledge, and saw the future as though it were already present, besides all the rest which It told us about Christ, revealed unto us that he that was ranked a disciple would also die the death of a traitor. Still, the foreknowledge and foretelling of the future indicated not the pleasure and commandment of God; nor yet was the prophecy directed to compel the actual fulfilment of the evil that was foreshadowed and the conspiracy against the Saviour, but rather to avert it. For when Judas had this knowledge he might, at any rate, if he had so chosen, have shunned and avoided the result, as he was free to determine his inclinations in any direction.
Put perhaps you will say, "How, then, can Christ be said to have kept His disciples, if merely in pursuance of the inclinations and volitions of their own wills the rest escaped the devil's net while Judas alone was taken, ill-fated beyond the others? How, then, can the safekeeping here spoken of be said to have been of profit?
Nay, my good friend, we answer, soberness is indeed a good thing, and the keeping guard over our minds profiteth much, together with an earnest endeavour towards the doing of good works and stablishing ourselves in virtue, for so shall we work out our own salvation; but this alone will not avail to save the soul of man. For it stands in urgent need of assistance and |520 grace from above, to make what is difficult of achievement easy to it, and to render the steep and thorny path of righteousness smooth. And to prove to you that we are not able to do anything at all of ourselves without the aid of Divine grace, hearken to the voice of the Psalmist: If the Lord build not the house, their labour is in vain that build it: and if the Lord keep not the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.
I say, then, that it is our bounden duty to foster and practise a home-bred self-denial and a religious frame of mind; but in so doing also to ask help of God, and, receiving the aid that comes from above as a panoply proof against every assault, to acquit ourselves like men. When God has once for all vouchsafed to grant our prayer, and it is therefore in our power to subdue the might of our adversaries, and conquer the power of the devil, if we do not choose to follow him when he allures us to pleasure or any other kind of sin; then, I say, if we let our wills comply with him, and, yielding to our wicked inclinations, are entangled in his noose, how can we any more with justice accuse any one else, or fail to attribute our doom to our own folly? For is not this what Solomon said long ago: The foolishness of man perverteth his way, and his heart fretteth against the Lord? And this is unquestionably the case. If, however, the traitor was unable to enjoy the succour of the Saviour as much as the other disciples, let any man only prove this, and we submit; but if, while he was, in common with the rest, encompassed by the Divine grace, of his own will he relapsed into the abyss of perdition, how can Christ be said not to have kept him, when He vouchsafed him the riches of His mercy, and increased, so far as it was possible in any man's case, his chance of safety, if he had not chosen his doom of his own will? His grace, moreover, was conspicuous in the rest, continually keeping in safety those who made their own free-will, as it were, co-operate therewith. For this is the manner in which the salvation of each one of us is achieved. |521
13 And these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves.
Keep in mind once more what we were just now saying, and you will easily understand the drift of the passage. For He on all occasions preserved the juxtaposition of the two aspects of His character, at the same time displaying the Divine majesty for which He was pre-eminent, and not discarding the proper limitations of the Human Nature which He assumed at His Incarnation. For there would be something absurd in the supposition that He wished to disown what He had willingly taken upon Himself. For being Himself in lack of nothing, but the all-perfect Son of a perfect Father, He emptied Himself of His glory, not to do Himself any service, but rather to convey to us the blessing which would result from His humiliation. Showing Himself, then, to them as at the same time both God and Man, He, as it were, induces His disciples to reflect that absent, as well as present, He would work the things which made for their salvation in God; and that, as He had them in His keeping while He was yet with them on the earth in the form of Man, so also would He keep them while absent from them as God, through the excellency of His Substance. For that which is Divine is not bounded by space, and is not far from anything that exists, but fills and pervades the universe, and though present in all things is contained of none. When, addressing His own Father, He says: Holy Father, keep them, He at once refers, by right of its existence, to the universal working of the power of the Father; and at the same time shows that He standeth not apart from His Nature, but, being in it and proceeding from it, is indivisibly united with it, though He be conceived of as independently existing. Keep them, He says, in Thy Name which Thou hast given Me; and again: While I was with them, I kept them in Thy Name which Thou hast given Me. We are bound, therefore, to think that, if He had kept them hitherto in the |522 Name given Him by the Father, that is, in the glory of Godhead, for He gave unto Him the Name which is above every name; and if He wishes the Father Himself also to keep them in the Name given unto Him, He will not be excluded from acting in the work; for the Father will keep those who are knit to Him by faith through the agency of the Only-begotten, Who is His power and might. For He will not exercise His power in any way save through Him. Then, if even in the flesh He kept them, by the power and glory of His Godhead, how can we think that He will fail to think His disciples worthy of the mercy which they need; and how can they ever lose His sure support while the Divine power of the Only-begotten abideth evermore, and the power which is His by Nature is for ever firmly established? For that which is Divine admits of no variance at all, or of any change into any evil agency, but shines forth for ever in those attributes which belong to it eternally.
I have spoken then, He says, these things in the world, that My disciples might have My joy fulfilled in them. What kind of joy is meant we will proceed to show, putting away from us fear of dispute, because of the obscurity of the expression. The blessed disciples, then, thought indeed that while Christ was present with them in their daily lives, I mean, of course, in the flesh, they could easily rid themselves of every calamity and readily escape danger from the Jews, and that they would remain proof against every assault of their foes; but that when He was separated from them, and had gone up to heaven, they would fall an easy prey to perils of every sort, and would have to bear the attack of the king of terrors himself, as there was no one any more with them who was strong to save, and who could scare away the temptations that assailed them. For this cause, then, our Lord Jesus Christ neither disavowed the Manhood He had once for all taken upon Himself, nor yet showed Himself deficient in Divine power; speaking plainly to this intent, and |523 saying that the Name of God had been given to Him as Man, but that through Him, and in Him, the Father c showed mercy to those who worshipped Him, and had them in safe keeping. What, then, was the wise object that He here had in view"? It was that the blessed disciples might understand and know well, if they only slightly considered this saying, that even when He was in the flesh, it was not through the flesh that He was working for their salvation, but in the omnipotent glory and might of His Godhead. My absence in the flesh then, He says, will do My disciples no harm, while the Divine power of the Only-begotten can easily keep them safe, even though He be not visibly present in the body.
We give this explanation, not as making of no account the holy Body of Christ----God forbid; but because it were more fitting that the accomplishment of His Word should be ascribed to the glory of the Godhead. For even the Body Itself of Christ was sanctified by the power of the Word made one with it. and it is thus endowed with living force in the blessed Eucharist, so that it is able to implant in us its sanctifying grace. Therefore also our Saviour Christ Himself, once conversing with the Jews, and speaking many things concerning His own Body, calling it the true Bread of Life, said: The bread which I will give you is My Flesh,; which I will give for the life of the world. And when they were sore amazed and perplexed to know how the nature of earthly flesh could be to them the channel of eternal life, He answered and said: It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I spake unto you are spirit, and are life. For here, too, He says that the flesh can profit nothing, that is, to sanctify and quicken those who receive it, so far, that is, as it is mere human flesh; but when it is understood and believed to be the temple of the Word, then surely it will be a channel of sanctification and life, but not altogether of itself, but through God, Who has been |524 made one with it, Who is holy and Life. Ascribing everything, then, to the power of His Godhead, He says that His disciples will suffer no loss from His departure in the body, with reference, at any rate, to their seeking to be in His keeping. For the Saviour, though He be vanished into heaven, will yet not be far from those who love Him, but will be with them by the power of His Godhead.
In order, then, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves, He says, I have spoken these things in the world. What, then, is this joy which is fulfilled and perfect? It is the knowledge and belief that Christ was not a mere Man as we are, but that, besides being as we are, yet without sin, He is also the true God. It is clear, then, and beyond dispute, that He will always have the power to save those who worship Him at any time He will, even though He be not present in the body. For this knowledge will involve the perfect fulfilment of our own joy, inasmuch as we have an ally ever near us, Who is strong enough to rescue us from every evil.
14, 15 I have given them Thy Word; and the world hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that Thou shouldest take them from the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil one.
He points out to us the most needful increase of favour from above and from the Father, which, He says, is almost owed by Him to those who incur danger for His sake, as a just and well-deserved return. For the world hateth on God's account those who worship Him, and who are obedient to the laws that He has laid down, and who lightly esteem worldly pleasure, and who also, as is most right, will receive succour and grace from Him, and continuance in well-being. For surely they who after a manner rely upon Him, and are of good courage and engage in warfare on His account, |525 will receive a recompense in harmony with the aim they have in view. Therefore the Saviour says: I have given them Thy Word; and the world hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. For they received with great gladness, He says, Thy Word given unto them by Me, that is, the Gospel message, which easily extricates from a worldly life and thoughts of earth, those who welcome it. Therefore also are they hated of the world, that is, of those who choose to have at heart the things of this world, and who love this pleasure-loving and most impure life. For the conversation of Saints is displeasing to worldlings; ever making light as it does of the hardships of this life, and pointing out how abominable is a worldly career, and accusing its vileness, and assailing with bitter rebukes those who think that pleasure consists in succumbing to temptation, and in having continual intercourse with the evil of this world, and triumphing over all selfish desire, and contemning ambition, and teaching men to abhor covetousness the mother of all evils, and to cast it far from them, and furthermore bidding those who are ensnared in the net of the devil to escape from old deceits, and to betake themselves to the God of the universe.
For this cause, therefore, O Father, He says, are they hated. For they are in ill odour with the world, not because they have been convicted of any crime or impiety, but because I have given unto them Thy Word, so that they are also out of the world even as I am. For the life and conduct that is in Christ is wholly dissevered from earthly thoughts and worldly conversation; that life, by following after which we shall ourselves also, so far as possible, escape being reckoned among the men of this world. Therefore the inspired Paul enjoins us to follow His steps; and we shall then best follow Him, when we love only the things that are not of this world, and, lifting our minds above fleshly thoughts, gaze only on heavenly things. He ranks Himself, too, with |526 His disciples because of His Manhood, by imitating which, in the conception of Him as Man, we attain every kind of virtue, as we just now said; passing unscathed through all the wickedness of the world, and showing ourselves strangers and aliens to its wickedness. Just so, then, the Divine Paul indeed himself exhorts us; and, with reference to himself and Christ, through Which the world hath been crucified unto me, and I unto the world, bids us, speaking in another place, Be ye imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ. Paul did not indeed imitate Christ in so far as our Lord is Creator of the world; for he did not establish a new firmament, nor did he ever reveal to us new seas, or a new earth. How, then, did he imitate Him? Surely it was by moulding in his own character and conduct an admirable pattern of the life of which Christ was Himself the exemplar, so far at least as Paul could attain to it; for who can be equal to Christ?
Putting Himself, then, on a level with us, because of His Human Nature, or, to speak more accurately, as first presenting us with the blessing of taking ourselves out of the world by the life which transcends worldly things, for the life and teaching of the Gospel is above the world, He says that He Himself is not of the world, and that we are even as He is, since His Divine Word has taken up its abode in our hearts. Furthermore, He declares that as the world hated Him so will it also hate them. The world indeed hateth Christ, because it is in conflict with His words, and accepts not His teaching, men's minds being wholly yielded up to base desires; and even as the world hates our Saviour Christ, it hath hated also the disciples who carry through Him His message, as Paul also did, who said: We are ambassadors, therefore, on behalf of Christ, as though God were intreating by us: we beseech you on behalf of Christ, be ye reconciled to God.
What, then, is His prayer, after that He has shown that the disciples are hated by those who are fast bound by the evil things of the world? I pray not, He saith, that |527 Thou shouldest take them from the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil one. For Christ does not wish them to be quit of human affairs, or to be rid of life in the body, when they have not yet finished the course of their apostleship, or distinguished themselves by the virtues of a godly life; but he wishes them, after they have lived their lives in the company of men in the world, and have guided the footsteps of those who are His to a state of life well pleasing to God, then at last, with the glory they have achieved, to be carried into the heavenly city, and to dwell with the company of the holy angels. We find, moreover, one of the Saints approaching the God Who loves virtue with the cry: Take me not away in the midst of my days; for pious souls cannot, without a pang, put off the garment of the flesh before they have perfected their life in holiness above their fellows. Therefore also the Law of Moses, teaching us that sinners are visited as in wrath, and by way of penalty, with premature death, often reiterates the warning to stand aloof from evil, that thou diest not before thy time. Besides, if the Saints chose to keep themselves apart from our daily life, it would infer no small loss to those who are unstable in the faith; nay, they could in nowise be guided in the way of righteousness, without the aid of those who are able to lead them therein. Paul knew this when he said, To depart and be with Christ is far better for me, yet to abide in the flesh is more needful for your sake. Christ, therefore, in His care for the salvation of the uninstructed, says that those who are in the world ought not to be left desolate without the Saints, who are men of light, and the salt of the earth; but prays rather for the safe keeping of His holy ones, and that they may be ever untouched by the malice of the evil one, shunning the assault of temptations by the power of His Omnipotent Father.
We must also remark that He calls the Word, which is His, and came forth from Him----I mean the Gospel-----the Word of God the Father, showing that He is not |528 separate from the Father, but Consubstantial with Him. For we shall find in the writings of the Evangelists that the people of the Jews were amazed at Him, because He taught them as one having authority, and not as their Scribes. For these latter were seen to apply the teaching of the Law in every case in their discourses to them; while our Lord Jesus Christ did not at all follow slavishly the types shadowed forth in those writings, but, illumining His own Word by Divine power, exclaimed: It was said to them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: but I say unto you, Thou shalt not covet; though the Law expressly says, with reference to the statutes of God, that none should add thereto or take away therefrom: but Christ took away from, and also added unto them, changing the type into truth. Therefore He cannot be reckoned among those under the Law, that is, among creatures; for on whomsoever Nature has put the brand of slavery, on him is imposed the necessity of being under the Law. Christ, then, represented His own Word as the Word of the Father. For He is the Word That is in the Father and proceedeth from Him, and That enunciates the Will of the Godhead----I mean the only true Godhead Which is in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
16, 17 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Holy Father, keep them in truth: Thy Word is truth.
By these words He indicates once more, and makes clear to us, the reason why He requires to ascend to God the Father, and why so to do becomes Him, while He is still our Mediator, and High Priest, and Advocate, according to the Holy Scripture; and shows us that it is in order that, if at any time we encounter failure, or miss the straight path in thought or action, or are assailed by unexpected perils or buffeted by the tempest of the devil's malice, He may approach His Father on our behalf in His appropriate character as Mediator; and |529 join with Him in granting good gifts to those who are worthy. For it would well become Him so to do, as He is God by Nature. Those then, He says, who have received Thy Word, O Father, through Me, show forth My Likeness in themselves and are conformed to the pattern of Thine own Son, who, like Him, pass unscathed through the ocean of the world's wickedness, and have shown themselves foreigners and strangers to the love of pleasure in this life, and every kind of vice. Therefore keep them in Thy truth, for exceeding purity is inherent in Christ. For He is truly God, and cannot be subject to sin nor endure it, but is rather the fountain of all goodness, and the beauty of holiness. For the Divine Nature, that ruleth over all, can do nothing but what is in truth suitable and belongeth thereto. And the holy disciples, I mean all who believe on Him, cannot otherwise exhibit purity unspotted by the wickedness of this world than by means of forgiveness and grace from above, which putteth away the defilement of previous offences and the accusing sins of their past lives; and, further, conferring on them the glory of a life of sanctification, though their continuance therein be not free from conflict, as Paul wisely teaches us, saying: Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. For our life is cast upon the deep, and we are tossed by divers storms, as the devil tempts without ceasing, and continually assails and strives to defile if he can, by the insidious inventions of malice, even those who have been already made pure. For his meat is well chosen, as the prophet says. Having then borne witness to His disciples that their life was out of the world, and that they were conformed to the likeness of His own essential purity, He proceeds to pray to His Father to keep them. It is almost as though He said: O Holy Father, if they were in the world----that is, if they lived the life that has honour in this world----if, sowing the seed of earthly and temporary pleasure in their hearts, they imprinted on themselves the foul image of the evil one, |530 would not have attacked them with temptation, nor have armed himself against his own children, for he would have in them the likeness of his own inherent wickedness. But since they, following after Me, laugh to scorn the deceitfulness of this world, and are out of the world, and, moreover, in their conduct show most clearly the impress of My incomparable holiness, and on that account have Satan, who is ever murmuring against the Saints, for their bitter foe, ever lying in wait for them; therefore of necessity I desire them to be in Thy safe keeping. And to be in Thy safe keeping is not to be far from Thy truth, that is, from Me. For I am by Nature Thy truth, O Father, the Essential, True, and Living Word.
We must suppose that this is what He thinks right to say. See how, in all His sayings, so to speak, He insinuates His own Person into the action of the Father, whatever that action has reference to, and puts Himself altogether side by side with Him, wishing probably to show how true the statement is: All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made. In the previous passage, indeed, He briefly besought His Father to keep the disciples in the Name which had been given unto Himself. In this, however, He desires His prayer on their behalf to be fulfilled in the truth of the Father. What, then, does this mean; or what does the change in the language signify? Is it meant to show that the working of the Father, shown through Him in mercy to the Saints, is not uniform? For in the first passage, when He says that His disciples ought to be kept in the Name of the Father, that is to say, in the glory and power of His Godhead, so that they should be out of the power of the enemy, He declares that aid is vouchsafed to the Saints in whatever happens unto them, after the secret fashion that Christ at the proper season revealed to His disciples when He said: Simon, Simon, behold, Satan asked to have you, that he might sift you as wheat: but I made supplication for thee, that thy |531 fail not. For many of God's dealings concerning us are in secret, Christ taking thought for the life of each of us, and covering us as with a shield. But here, when He says Keep them in the truth, He signifies clearly their being led by revelation of the truth to apprehend it. For no man can attain to the knowledge of truth without the light of the Spirit, nor can he at all, humanly speaking, work out for himself an accurate comprehension of the Divine doctrines. For the mysteries of Holy Writ exceed our understanding, and glorious is the blessing of having even a moderate knowledge concerning Christ.
The blessed Peter, moreover, when he confessed that the Lord was in truth the Son of the living God, heard the words: Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona; for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father Which is in heaven. For He reveals to the Saints His Son, Who is truth, and does not allow Satan to lead the mind of His believers astray to false knowledge; relying on whom, in their season, Hymenaeus and Alexander have made shipwreck concerning the faith, rejecting the true doctrine of the faith. Of great avail, then, towards a right continuance in the straight path of thought and action, is our safe keeping by the Father in the Name of God and in truth; that we may not fail in making our light shine forth in action, nor, by turning aside to folly, stray far away from the doctrines of true holiness. And this may easily be our lot, if we are seen to be out of the world while not disavowing our birth in the world; for of the dust of the earth are we all framed, as the Scripture saith, but by the quality of our deeds we rid ourselves of life in the world. For while they walk upon earth, those who love conformity with Christ are citizens of heaven.
We must also remark that He very appropriately here calls the Father holy, almost, as it were, reminding Him that, as He is holy, He takes pleasure in those that are holy. And all men are holy, whosoever are seen to be |532 unspotted by the world, and whosoever are by nature in Christ, in the Father's likeness adopted, and chosen to be His disciples by the sanctification according to grace, and the light and goodness of their lives. For a man may thus be conformed to the Image of God, Which transcends the world. |533
CHAPTER X. That Christ is not holy from participation in anything different from Himself; and that the sanctification through the Spirit is not alien to His Substance.
18, 19 As Thou didst send Me into the world, even so sent I them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.
After giving the Father here especially the name of Holy, and praying that the disciples might be kept in the truth, that is, in His Spirit (for the Spirit is the truth, as John says, as He is also the Spirit of truth, that is, of the Only-begotten Himself), He declares that He sent them into the world after the fashion of His own mission; for Jesus is the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, as Paul says, in the appropriate character of His Manhood, and by the way of His humiliation. He says, then, that the disciples, after having been once for all thereto prepared, stand wholly in need of sanctification by the Holy Father, Who implanteth in them the Holy Spirit through the Son. For in truth the disciples of the Saviour would never have become so illustrious as to be the torchbearers of the whole world, nor would they have withstood the brunt of the temptations of their enemies, nor the terrible assaults of the devil, had they not had their minds fortified by communion with the Spirit; and had they not been continually thereby enabled to accomplish a bidding unheard of before and passing mere human power; and had they not been ever led by the light of the Spirit, without effort, to a perfect knowledge of the inspired writings and the holy |534 doctrines of the Church. Furthermore, the Saviour, being assembled together with them after His resurrection from the dead, as is recorded, and bidding them preach grace through faith throughout the whole world, charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which they had heard of Him as well as by the mouth of the holy prophets. For it shall come to pass in those days, saith the Lord, that I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh. And the Saviour Himself plainly declared that His Holy Spirit would be shed forth upon them, in the words: I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit, when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He shall guide you into all truth; and again: I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter. For the Spirit belongeth unto God the Father, and none the less also unto the Son Himself, not as distinct Entities, or as though He was inherent or existed in Either divisibly; but, inasmuch as the Son by Nature proceeds from the Father and is in Him (being the true Offspring of His Essence), the Spirit----Which is the Father's by Nature----is brought down to men; shed forth indeed from the Father, but through the Son Himself conveyed to the creature; not merely ministerially or in the manner of a servant, but, as I said just now, proceeding from the Substance Itself of God the Father; and shed forth on those worthy to receive Him through the Word, Which is Consubstantial with and proceeded from Him, and so proceeded as to have a self-dependent being, and ever abideth in Him, at the same time in unity, and also, as it were, with an individual existence. For we maintain that the Son has an independent existence, but still inheres in His Father, and has in Himself Him that begat Him; and that the Spirit of the Father is indeed the Spirit of the Son; and that, when the Father sends or promises to distribute the Spirit to the Saints, the Son also vouchsafes the Spirit to them as His own, because of His identity in Substance with the Father. And that the Father works in every respect |535 through Him He has Himself very clearly pointed out to us in the words: It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away the Comforter cannot come unto you; but when I depart I will send Him unto you. And again: I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter. Plainly here He promises to send us the Comforter.
Since, then, the disciples, who respect My sayings, have been sent forth on their mission in the world, even as I myself, keep them, Holy Father, in Thy truth; that is, in Thy Word, in Which, and through Which, the Spirit Which sanctifies is and proceeds. And what is the Saviour's aim in saying this? He besought the Father for that sanctification which is in and through the Spirit to be given to ourselves; and He desires that which was in us at the first age of the world, and at the beginning of creation by gift of God, to be quickened anew into life. This we say, because the Only-begotten is our Mediator, and fulfils the part of Advocate for us before our Father Which is in heaven. But that we may free our explanation from all obscurity, and make the meaning of what is said clear to our hearers, let us say a few words about the creation of the first man.
The inspired Moses said concerning him, that God took dust from the earth and formed man of it. He then goes on to tell the manner in which, after the body was perfectly joined together, life was given to it. He breathed, he says, into his nostrils the breath of life; signifying that not without sanctification by the Spirit was life given to man, nor yet was it wholly devoid or barren of the Divine Nature. For never could anything, which had so base an origin, have been seen to be created in the Image of the Most High, had it not taken and received, through the Spirit moulding it, so to speak, a fair mask, by the Will of God. For as His Spirit is a perfect Likeness of the Substance of the Only-begotten, according to the saying |536 of Paul: For whom He foreknew, He also fore-ordained to be conformed to the Image of His Son, He maketh those in whom He abides to be conformed to the Image of the Father, that is, the Son; and thus all thoughts are uplifted through the Son to the Father, from Whom He proceeds by the Spirit. He desires, therefore, the nature of man to be renewed, and moulded anew, as it were, into its original likeness, by communion with the Spirit; in order that, putting on that pristine grace, and being shaped anew into conformity with Him, we may be found able to prevail over the sin that reigns in this world, and may simply cling to the love of God, striving with all our might after whatsoever things be good, and, lifting our minds above fleshly lusts, may keep the beauty of His Image implanted in ourselves unspoiled. For this is spiritual life, and this is the meaning of worship in the Spirit.
And if we may sum up in brief the whole matter, Christ called down upon us the ancient gift of humanity, that is, sanctification through the Spirit and communion with the Divine Nature, His disciples being the first to receive it; for the saying is true, that the husbandman that laboureth must be the first to partake of the fruits. But that He might herein also indeed have the preeminence (for it was meet that He, being, as it were, one of many brethren, and still Man even as we are men, should, through being in our likeness, be seen to be and in fact be the Beginning, and the Gate, and the Way, of every good thing for us), He is impelled to add what follows, namely, the words: For their sakes I sanctify Myself.
And, indeed, the saying is hard to explain and difficult to understand. Still, the Word Which maketh all things clear, and discovereth deep things out of darkness, will reveal to us even this mystery. That which is brought by any one to God by way of an offering or gift, as sacred to Him, is said to be sanctified according to the custom of the Law; as, for example, every firstborn child |537 that opens the womb among the children of Israel. For sanctify unto Me all the firstborn, whatsoever openeth the womb, God said to the good Moses; that is, offer and dedicate and set down as holy. We do not indeed assert, nor would we listen to any one's suggestion, that God bade Moses impose on any the sanctification of the Spirit, for the stature of created beings attains not unto ability to perform any such act, but it is adapted and can be ascribed to God only. Moreover, when He wished to appoint to office the elders together with Him, He did not bid Moses himself impose sanctification upon those who were selected; but, instead, plainly said that He would take of the Spirit That was upon him and would put It upon each of those who were called. For the power of sanctifying by communion with the Spirit belongs only to the Nature of the Ruler of the Universe; and what the meaning of sanctification is, I mean so far as the customs of the Law are concerned, the saying of Solomon will make quite clear to us: It is a snare to a man hastily to sanctify anything that is his, for after he has made his vow repentance cometh.
Since, then, this is what sanctification is, so far as the custom of offering and setting apart is concerned, we say that the Son sanctified Himself for us in this sense. For He brought Himself as a Victim and holy Sacrifice to God the Father, reconciling the world unto Himself, and bringing into kinship with Him that which had fallen away therefrom, that is, the race of man. For He is our Peace, according to the Scripture. And, indeed, our reconciliation to God could no otherwise have been accomplished through Christ that saveth us than by communion in the Spirit and sanctification. For that which knits us together, and, as it were, unites us with God, is the Holy Spirit; Which if we receive, we are proved sharers and partakers in the Divine Nature, and we admit the Father Himself into our hearts, through the Son and in the Son. Further, the wise John writes for us concerning Him: Hereby know |538 we that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And what does Paul also say? And because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father, as, if we had chanced to remain without partaking of the Spirit, we could never at all have known that God was in us; and, if we had not been enriched with the Spirit that puts us into the rank of sons, we should never have been at all the sons of God. How, then, should we have had added to us, or how should we have been shown to be partakers in, Divine Nature, if God had not been in us, nor we been joined to Him through having been called to communion with the Spirit? But now are we both partakers and sharers in the Substance That transcends the universe, and are become temples of God. For the Only-begotten sanctified Himself for our sins; that is, offered Himself up, and brought Himself as a holy Sacrifice for a sweet-smelling savour to God the Father; that, while He as God came between and hedged off and built a wall of partition between human nature and sin, nothing might hinder our being able to have access to God, and have close fellowship with Him, through communion, that is, with the Holy Spirit, moulding us anew to righteousness and sanctification and the original likeness of man. For if sin sunders and dissevers man from God, surely righteousness will be a bond of union, and will somehow set us by the side of God Himself, with nothing to part us. We have been justified through faith in Christ, Who was delivered up for our trespasses, according to the Scripture, and was raised for our justification. For in Him, as in the first-fruits of the race, the nature of man was wholly reformed into newness of life, and ascending, as it were, to its own first beginning, was moulded anew into sanctification. Sanctify them, He says, O Father, in Thy truth; that is, in Me, for Thy Word is truth; that is, I once more. For I sanctified Myself for them; that is, brought Myself as an offering, One dying for many, that I might reform |539 them into newness of life, and that they might be sanctified in truth, that is. in Me.
Now that the foregoing speech has been explained, and understood in the sense we have just given out, we shall not be slack to enter on another investigation. For to be very zealous in searching out the meaning of difficult passages in Scripture, must, I think, reflect much honour both on those who have this desire, and also on those who listen to them attentively. Our Lord Jesus Christ, then, said that He sanctified Himself for our sakes, that we also may be sanctified in truth. In what sense He is sanctified, being Himself by Nature holy, in order that we may be sanctified also, let us then, adhering to the doctrines of the Church, and not starting aside from the right rule of faith, so far as we can, carefully consider. We say, then, that the Only-begotten, being by Nature God, and in the form of God the Father, and in equality with Him, emptied Himself according to the Scripture, and became Man born of a woman, receiving all the properties of man's nature, sin only excepted, and in an unspeakable way uniting Himself to our nature by His own free will, in order that He might in Himself first, and through Himself, regenerate it into that glory which it had at the beginning; and that He, having proved Himself the second Adam, that is, a heavenly Man, and being found first of all, and the firstfruits of those who are built up into newness of life, in incorruption that is, and in righteousness and the sanctification which is through the Spirit, He might henceforth through Himself send good gifts to the whole race. For this cause, though He is Life by Nature, He became as one dead; that, having destroyed the power of death in us, He might mould us anew into His own life; and being Himself the righteousness of God the Father, He became sin for us. For, according to the saying of the Prophet, He Himself beareth our sins, and He was counted together with us among transgressors, that He might justify us through Himself, rending the bond that was |540 against us, and nailing it to His cross, according to the Scripture. Being also Himself by Nature holy as God, and granting to the whole creation participation in the Holy Spirit, to their continuance and stablishing and sanctification, He is sanctified on our account in the Holy-Spirit; no one else sanctifying Him, but rather He Himself working for Himself to the sanctification of His own Flesh. For He receiveth His own Spirit, and partakes of It in so far as He was Man; yea, and giveth it unto Himself as God. And He did this for our sakes, not for His own, that, originating in Him first, the grace of sanctification might henceforth reach even unto all mankind. Just as by Adam's transgression and disobedience, as in the founder of the race, human nature was doomed to die by the fault of one man, the first of men hearing the sentence, Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return; in the same way, I think, through the obedience and righteousness of Christ, in so far as He became under the Law, though as God He was Himself the Lawgiver, the Eucharist and the quickening power of the Spirit might be extended unto men universally. For the Spirit reforms into incorruption that which was by sin corrupted, and fashions into newness of life that which was obsolete through apathy, and verging to decay.
But perhaps you will ask, How, then, was He That is holy by Nature sanctified, and that through participation? And in what sense does He Who granteth His own Spirit to all who are worthy to receive it, both those, I mean, in heaven and those on earth, do Himself this service? Such things are indeed hard to fathom or comprehend, and difficult to explain, when you consider the Word That proceeded from God as still devoid of, or as only partially endued with, the humanity so sanctified; but when you think with wonder on His incomprehensible Incarnation and union with the flesh, and have present before your minds the true God now become Man, even as we are men, you will no longer be |541 surprised; but, putting off all perplexity of mind, and having before your thoughts the Son Who is at the same time God and Man, you will not think that the proper attributes of humanity ought to be cast aside, even though they be merged in the Person of One Who is the Son by Nature, I mean Christ. For do we not think, for example, that death is foreign to the Nature of the all-quickening Word?
Still, you will say, He endured death in the flesh; for the body is mortal, and therefore is said to die, for His own Body died.
You are quite right in your idea, and say well; for of a truth in His scheme for our redemption, He did give up His Body to die, and again infused His own life into it, and did not, that is, rescue Himself from the bonds of death, by the power He actually has as God. For He came among us and became Man, not for His own sake, but rather He prepared the way, through Himself and in Himself, for human nature to escape from death and to return to its original incorruption. Let us, then, by an analogous train of reasoning, find out the manner of His sanctification. Can we then at all maintain that the body, which is of earth, is holy by the law of its own nature, even if it receive not sanctification from God, Who is by Nature holy? How could this be? For what difference could there then be any longer between earth-born flesh and that Substance Which is holy and pure? And if it be true to say that all rational creatures, and in general everything that has been called into being and ranks among created things, do not enjoy sanctification as the fruit of their own nature, but, as it were, borrow grace from That Which is by Nature holy, would it not be the height of absurdity to think that the flesh had no need of God, Who is able to sanctify all things? Since, then, the flesh is not of itself holy, it was therefore sanctified, even in the case of Christ----the Word That dwelt therein sanctifying His own Temple through the Holy Spirit, and changing it into a living instrument of |542 His own Nature. For the Body of Christ is for this cause holy and pure; as being, in accordance with what I said just now, in a corporeal sense, as Paul says, the Temple of the Word united with it. Therefore the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, descends upon Him from heaven; and the wise John bore testimony to this, that we might also know that on Christ first, as on the first-fruits of the renewed nature of man, the Spirit came down, in so far as He was Man, and so capable of sanctification. We do not indeed affirm that Christ then became holy as to His Flesh, when the Baptist saw the Spirit descending upon Him; for He was holy when He was still unborn and in the womb. Yea, and it was said unto the Blessed Virgin, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee. Rather was the sight given as a sign to the Baptist. We are of opinion, nevertheless, that Christ's Flesh was sanctified by the Spirit; the Word, Which ia by Nature holy, and proceedeth from the Father, anointing His own Temple that is in Him, like all else that is created. And the Psalmist, knowing this, exclaimed, while he gazed upon the human Person of the Only-begotten: Therefore God, even Thy God, hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows. For when the Son anoints the Temple of His Body, the Father is said so to do. For He only works through the Son. For whatsoever the Son doeth is referred to the Father from Whom He springs, as the Father is, as it were, the Root and Source of His Offspring.
And no marvel if He declares that even He Himself is sanctified, though by Nature He is holy, when the Scripture calls God His Father, though He is Himself by Nature God. But I think one may well and justly attribute such expressions, without fear of error, to the requirements of human reason, and to analogy with human relationships. Just as, then, He died in the flesh for our sakes as Man, though being by Nature God; and just as, ranking Himself among creatures, and |543 under subjection on account of His Manhood, He calls God His Father, though He was Lord of all; so He affirms that He sanctifies Himself for our sakes: that, when the influence thereof reaches even to us, as through the firstfruits of regenerate human nature in Him, we also may be sanctified in truth, that is, in the Holy Spirit. For the Spirit is the truth, as John says; for the Spirit is not separate from the Son, in Substance at any rate, inasmuch as He exists in Him and proceeds through Him.
He says that He was sent into the world, though He was in it before His Incarnation. For He was in the world, though the world knew Him not, according to the Scripture; signifying that the manner in which His mission was given Him was by the unction of the Holy Spirit, in so far as He was Man, and was the Angel of great counsel, after the analogy of the prophetic office. And when He says that His disciples have been prepared, as He was Himself, and sent from Him to announce to the world the message of the Gospel from heaven, He declares that they stand in great need of being sanctified in truth, that they may be enabled well and strenuously to run the course of their apostleship to the end. |544
CHAPTER XI. That the Son is naturally One with God His Father; and that He is in the Father and the Father in Him, according to the essential bond and character of their Unity; and that likewise also we ourselves, when we receive faith in Him, are proved one with each other and with God, both in a corporeal and in a spiritual sense.
20, 21 Neither for these only do I pray, but for them also that believe on Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us: that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me.
Christ is, as it were, the Firstfruits of those who are built up into newness of life, and Himself the first heavenly Man. For, as Paul says: The second Adam, is the Lord from heaven. Therefore also John wrote: And no man hath ascended into heaven, but He That descended out of heaven, even the Son of man. And in close connexion with Him, the Firstfruits, yea, and far nearer unto Him than others, were those who were chosen to be disciples, and who held the rank of His followers; who also with their own eyes beheld His glory, ever attending upon Him, and in converse with Him, and gathering in, as it were, the firstfruits of His succour into their hearts. They were then, and are after Him, Who is far above all others, the Head of the body, the Church, the precious and more estimable members thereof. Furthermore, He prays that on them the blessing and sanctification of the Spirit may be sent down from His Father, but through Him wholly; for it could not be otherwise, since He is the living, and true, and active, and |545 all-performing wisdom and power of Him That begat Him. But that none of those, who are not well-practised attentively to hearken to the inspired writings, might thoughtlessly imagine that upon the disciples only He prayed that the Spirit of God might come down, and that He did not pray for us, who clearly follow after them, and live in an early age of Christianity, the Mediator between God and man, the Advocate and High Priest of our souls, is induced, with a view to check beforehand the foolish imaginations of such men, to add this passage to what He had said, namely: Neither for these only do I pray, but for them also that believe on Me through their word. For it would have been in a manner absurd, that the sentence of condemnation should fall upon all men through one man, who was the first, I mean Adam; and that those who had not sinned at that time, that is, at which the founder of our race transgressed the commandment given unto him, should wear the dishonourable image of the earthy; and yet that when Christ came among us, Who was the Man from heaven, those who were called through Him to righteousness, the righteousness of course that is through faith, should not all be moulded into His Image. And, just as we say that the unlovely image of the earthy is seen in types, and in a form bearing the defilement of sin, and the weakness of death and corruption, and the impurity of fleshly lusts and worldly thoughts; so also, on the other hand, we think that the Image of the heavenly, that is, Christ, shines forth in purity and sincerity, and perfect incorruption, and life, and sanctification. It was, perhaps, impossible for us who had once fallen away through the original transgression to be restored to our pristine glory, except we obtained an ineffable communion and unity with God; for the nature of men upon the earth was ordered at the beginning. And no man can attain to union with God, save by communion with the Holy Spirit, Who implants in us the sanctification of His own Person, and moulds |546 anew into His own life the nature which was subject to corruption, and so brings back to God and to His Likeness that which was bereft of the glory that this confers. And the Son is the express Image of the Father, and His Spirit is the natural Likeness of the Son. For this cause, moulding anew, as it were, into Himself the souls of men, He stamps them with the Likeness of God, and seals them with the Image of the Most High.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, then, prays not for the twelve Apostles alone, but rather for all who were destined in every age to yield to and obey the words that exhort those who hear to receive that sanctification that is through faith, and to that purification which is accomplished in them through partaking of the Spirit. And He thought it not right to leave us in doubt about the objects of His prayer, that we might learn hereby what manner of men we ought to show ourselves, and what path of righteousness we ought to tread, to accomplish those things which are well-pleasing to Him. What, then, is the manner of His prayer? That, He says, they may be one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us. He asks, then, for a bond of love, and concord, and peace, to bring into spiritual unity those who believe; so that their unitedness, through perfect sympathy and inseparable harmony of soul, might resemble the features of the natural and essential unity that exists between the Father and the Son. But the bond of the love that is in us, and the power of concord, will not of itself altogether avail to keep them in the same unchangeable state of union as exists between the Father and the Son, Who preserve the manner of Their union in identity of Substance. For the one is, in fact, natural and actual, and is seen in the very definition of the existence of God; while the other only assumes the appearance of the unity which is actual. For how can the imitation be wholly like |547 the reality? For the semblance of truth is not the same in conception with truth itself, but presents a similar appearance, and will not differ from it so long as there does not occur an occasion of distinction.
Whenever, then, a heretic, imagining that he can upset the doctrine of the natural identity and consequent unity of the Son with God the Father, and then, to demonstrate and establish his crazy theory, brings forward our own case, and says, "Just as we are not all one by reason of actual physical identity, nor yet by the fusion of our souls together, but in temper and disposition to love God, and in a united and sympathetic purpose to accomplish His Will, so also the Son is One with the Father," we shall then reject him wholly, as guilty of great ignorance and folly. And for what reason? Because things superhuman do not entirely follow the analogy of ourselves; nor can that which has no body be subject to the laws to which bodies are subject; nor do things Divine resemble things human. For if there were nothing at all to separate or create a distinction between us and God, we might then apply the analogy of our own case to the things which concern God; but if we find the interval betwixt us to be something we cannot fathom, why do men set up the attributes of our own nature as a rule and standard for God, conceiving of that Nature Which is not bound by any law in the light of our own weaknesses, and so suffer themselves to be guilty of doing a thing which is most irrational and absurd? In so doing, they are constructing the reality from the shadow, and the truth from that which is conformed to its image; giving the second place of honour to that which has of right the first, and inferring their conception of that which is first from that which is second to it.
But that we may not seem to dwell too long on the discussion of this subject, and so to be straying away from the text, we must once more repeat the assertion, that when Christ brings forward the essential unity |548 which the Father has with Himself, and Himself also with the Father, as an Image and Type of the inseparable fellowship, and concord, and unity that exists in kindred souls, He desires us in some sort to be blended with one another in the power that is of the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity; so that the whole body of the Church may be in fact one, ascending in Christ through the fusion and concurrence of two peoples into one perfect whole. For as Paul says: For He is our peace, Who made both one, and brake down the middle wall of partition, having abolished in His Flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; that He might create in Himself of the twain one New Man, so making peace; and might reconcile them both in one Body unto God through the Cross, having slain the enmity thereby. And this was, in fact, accomplished; those who believed on Christ being of one soul one with another, and receiving, as it were, one heart, through their complete resemblance in piety towards God, and their obedience in believing, and aspirations after virtue. And I think that what I have said is not wide of the mark, but is rather requisite and necessary. But, as the meaning of the passage compels us, leaving this subject, to enter upon a more profound inquiry, and our Saviour's words especially incite us thereto: Even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us, we must attentively consider what explanation we must here give. For in what has gone before we rightly maintained that the union of believers, in concord of heart and soul, ought to resemble the manner of the Divine unity, and the essential identity of the Holy Trinity, and Their intimate connexion with Each Other; but in this place we are now desirous of pointing out a sort of natural unity by which we are joined into each other, and all of us to God, not altogether falling short of a kind of physical unity, I mean with each other, even though we are distinguished by having different bodies, each one of us, as it were, retiring to his own personal environment and |549 individuality. For Peter cannot be Paul, or be spoken of as such; or again, Paul as Peter, even though both be in fact one, after the manner of their union through Christ. Taking for granted, then, the physical unity that exists between the Father and the Son, and also of course the Holy Spirit (for we believe and glorify One Godhead in the Holy Trinity), let us further inquire in what manner we are proved to be one with each other and with God, both in a corporeal and a spiritual sense. The Only-begotten, then, proceeding from the very Substance of God the Father, and having entirely in His own Nature Him That begat Him, became Flesh according to the Scripture, blending Himself, as it were, with our nature by an unspeakable combination and union with this body that is earthy; and thus He That is God by Nature became, and is in truth, a Man from heaven; not inspired merely, as some of those who do not rightly understand the depth of the mystery imagine, but being at the same time God and Man, in order that, uniting as it were in Himself things widely opposed by nature, and averse to fusion with each other, He might enable man to share and partake of the Nature of God. For even unto us has reached the fellowship and abiding Presence of the Spirit, which originated through Christ and in Christ first, when He is in fact become even as we are, that is, a Man, receiving unction and sanctification, though He is by Nature God, insomuch as He proceeded from the Father Himself, sanctifying with His own Spirit the temple of His Body as well as all the creation that to Him owes its being, and to which sanctification is suitable. The mystery, then, that is in Christ is become, as it were, a beginning and a way whereby we may partake of the Holy Spirit and union with God; for in Him are we all sanctified, after the manner I have just indicated.
In order, then, that we ourselves also may join together, and be blended into unity with God and with each other, although, through the actual difference which exists in |550 each one of us, we have a distinct individuality of soul and body, the Only-begotten has contrived a means which His own due Wisdom and the Counsel of the Father have sought out. For by one Body, that is, His own, blessing through the mystery of the Eucharist those who believe on Him, He makes us of the same Body with Himself and with each other. For who could sunder or divide from their natural union with one another those who are knit together through His holy Body, Which is one in union with Christ? For if we all partake of the one Bread, we are all made one Body; for Christ cannot suffer severance. Therefore also the Church is become Christ's Body, and we are also individually His members, according to the wisdom of Paul. For we, being all of us united to Christ through His holy Body, inasmuch as we have received Him Who is one and indivisible in our own bodies, owe the service of our members to Him rather than to ourselves. And that, while Christ is accounted the Head, the Church is called the rest of the Body, as joined together of Christian members, Paul will prove to us by the words: That we may be no longer children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error; but, speaking truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him, Which is the Head, even Christ; from Whom all the Body, fitly framed and knit together through that which every joint supplieth, according to the working in due measure of each several member, maketh the increase of the Body unto the building up of itself in love. And that those who partake of His holy Flesh do gain therefrom this actual physical unity, I mean with Christ, Paul once more bears witness, when he says, with reference to the mystery of godliness: Which in other generations was not made known unto the sons of men, as it hath now been revealed unto His holy Apostles and Prophets in the Spirit; to wit, that the Gentiles are fellow-heirs and fellow-partakers of the promise in Christ. And if we |551 are all of us of the same Body with one another in Christ, and not only with one another, but also of course with Him Who is in us through His Flesh, are we not then all of us clearly one both with one another and with Christ? For Christ is the bond of union, being at once God and Man. With reference, then, to the unity that is by the Spirit, following in the same track of inquiry, we say once more, that we all, receiving one and the same Spirit, I mean the Holy Spirit, are in some sort blended together with one another and with God. For if, we being many, Christ, Who is the Spirit of the Father and His own Spirit, dwells in each one of us severally, still is the Spirit one and indivisible, binding together the dissevered spirits of the individualities of one and all of us, as we have a separate being, in His own natural singleness into unity, causing us all to be shown forth in Him, through Himself, and as one. For as the power of His holy Flesh maketh those in whom It exists to be of the same Body, so likewise also the indivisible Spirit of God That abideth in all, being one, bindeth all together into spiritual unity. Therefore also the inspired Paul thus addressed us: Forbearing one another in love; giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one Body, and one Spirit, even as also ye were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, Who is over all, and through all, and in all. For while the Spirit, Which is One, abideth in us, the One God and Father of all will be in us, binding together into unity with each other and with Himself whatsoever partaketh of the Spirit. And that we are made one with the Holy Spirit through partaking of It, will be made manifest hereby. For if, giving up the natural life, we have surrendered ourselves wholly to the laws of the Spirit, is it not henceforth beyond question, that by denying, as it were, our own lives, and taking upon ourselves the transcendent Likeness of the Holy Spirit, Who is joined unto us, we are well-nigh |552 transformed into another nature, so to say, and are become no longer mere men, but also sons of God, and heavenly men, through having been proved partakers of the Divine Nature? We are all, therefore, one in the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit; one, I mean, both in identity of mental condition (for I think we ought not to forget what we said at first), and also in conformity to the life of righteousness, and in the fellowship of the holy Body of Christ, and in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, Which is One, as we just now said. |553
CHAPTER XII. That the Son is by Nature One with God His Father, though He says that He received, as by way of grace, His being One with the Father.
22, 23 And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given unto them; that they may be one, even as We are One: I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected into one; that the world may know that Thou didst send Me, and lovedst them, even as Thou lovedst Me.
We say, and therein we are justified, that the Only-begotten hath an essential and natural unity with His Father, insomuch as He was both in the true sense begotten, and from Him proceeds, and is in Him: and though He seem in His own Person to have a separate and distinct Being, yet that He is accounted, by reason of His innate identity of Substance, as One with the Father. But since, in His Incarnation, on our behalf, in order to save our souls, He abdicated, as it were, that place which was His at the beginning, I mean His equality with God the Father, and appears to have been in some sort so far removed therefrom as to have stepped outside His invisible glory, for this is what is meant by the expression, He made Himself of no reputation, He that of old and from the very beginning was enthroned with the Father, receives this as a gift when in the Flesh; His earthy and mortal frame and human form, which was actually part of His Nature, of necessity requiring as a gift that which was His by Nature; for He was and is in the form of the Father, and in equality with Him. Though, therefore, the flesh from a woman's womb, that temple wherewith the Virgin endowed Him, was not in |554 any wise consubstantial with God the Father, nor of like Nature with Him; yet, when once received into the Body of the Word, henceforth it was accounted as One with Him. For Christ is One, and the Son is One, even when He became Man. In this aspect of His Person He is conceived of as taken into union with the Father, being admitted thereto even in the Flesh, which originally enjoys not union with God. And, to speak more concisely and clearly, the Only-begotten says, that that which was given unto Him was given to His Flesh; given too, of course, wholly by the Father, through Himself, in the Spirit. For in no other way than this can union with God be effected, even in the case of Christ Himself, so far as He manifested Himself as, and indeed became, Man. The flesh, that is, was sanctified by union with the Spirit, the twain coming together in an ineffable way; and so unconfusedly attains to God the Word, and through Him to the Father, in habit of mind, that is, and not in any physical sense. This favour and glory then, He says, given unto Me, O Father, by Thee, that is, the glory of being One with Thee, I have given unto them, that they may be one, even as We are One.
For we are made one with each other after the manner already indicated, and we are also made one with God. And in what sense we are made one with Him, the Lord very clearly explained, and to make the benefit of His teaching plain, added the words: I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfected into one. For the Son dwells in us in a corporeal sense as Man, commingled and united with us by the mystery of the Eucharist; and also in a spiritual sense as God, by the effectual working and grace of His own Spirit, building up our spirit into newness of life, and making us partakers of His Divine Nature. Christ, then, is seen to be the bond of union between us and God the Father; as Man making us, as it were, His branches, and as God by Nature inherent in His own Father. For no otherwise could that nature which is subject to corruption be |555 uplifted into incorruption, but by the coming down to it of That Nature Which is high above all corruption and variableness, lightening the burthen of ever sinking humanity, so that it can attain its own good; and by drawing it into fellowship and intercourse with Itself, well-nigh extricating it from the limitations which suit the creature, and fashioning into conformity with Itself that which is of itself contrary to It. We have, therefore, been made perfect in unity with God the Father, through the mediation of Christ. For by receiving in ourselves, both in a corporeal and spiritual sense, as I said just now, Him that is the Son by Nature, and Who has essential union with the Father, we have been glorified and become partakers in the Nature of the Most High.
When Christ desires us to be admitted to union with God the Father, He at the same time calls down upon our nature this blessing from the Father, and also declares that the power which the grace confers will be a convincing refutation of those who think that He is not from God. For what ground will there be any longer for this false accusation, if of Himself He exalts to union with the Father those who have been brought near to Him through faith and sincere love? When, then, O Father, they gain union with Thee, through Me, then the world will know that Thou didst send Me; that is, that I came to succour the earth by Thy lovingkindness, and to work out the salvation of those who err therein. Besides, none the less, He says, will they know, who have partaken of a grace so acceptable, that Thou lovedst them, even as Thou lovedst Me. For surely He that received into union with Himself Him that is Man, even as we are, that is, Christ, and deemed Him worthy of so great love (we are arguing here concerning Christ as Man), and gave to us the chance of gaining this blessing, surely He would speak of His love as dealt out to us in equal measure. And let not any attentive hearer be perplexed hereby. For it is clear beyond dispute, that the servant can never vie with his |556 master, and that the Father will not give as full a measure of His love to His creatures, as to His own Son. But we must consider that we are here looking upon Him That is beloved from everlasting, as commencing to be loved when He became Man. What, therefore, He then, as it were, took and received, we shall find that He took not for Himself, but for us. For just as, when He lived again after subduing the power of death, He accomplished not His Resurrection for Himself, for He is the Word and God, but gave us this blessing through Himself, and in Himself (for man's nature was in Christ in its entirety, fast bound by the chains of death); in like manner we must suppose that He received the Father's love, not for Himself, because He was continually beloved of Him from the beginning, but rather He accepts it at His Hands upon His Incarnation, that He may call down upon us the Father's love. Just as, then, we shall be, nay, we are even now, as in Christ first the Firstfruits of our race, made conformable to His Resurrection and His glory, even so are we, as it were, like Him; beloved, but yielding the supremacy in all things to the Only-begotten, and justly marvelling at the incomparable mercy of God, shown towards us; Who showers, as it were, upon us the things that are His, and shares with His creatures what appertains to Himself alone.
24 Father, those whom Thou hast given Me, I will that where I am, they also may be with Me; that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me: for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world.
After having prayed for His disciples, or rather all those who come to Him through faith, and having required of the Father that they may have union with Him, and love, and sanctification, He proceeds at once to add these words; showing that to live with Him and to be deemed worthy to see His glory, belongeth only to those who have been already united to the Father |557 through Him, and have obtained His love, which He must be conceived to enjoy from the Father. For we are loved as sons, according as we are like Him Who is actually by Nature His Son. For though it be not dealt out to us in equal measure, yet as it is a complete semblance of the love the Father hath for the Son, and is coincident therewith, it images forth the glory of the Son. I will, therefore, He says, O Father, that those who are Mine, through their coming to Me through faith, and the light that proceedeth from Thee, may be with Me and see My glory. And what language can reveal the greatness of the blessing which is implied in being with Christ Himself? For we shall enjoy ineffable fruition of soul, and eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor mind conceived, what God hath prepared for those that love Him. For what thing that maketh for the fulness of joy can be lacking to those who have allotted to them the portion of being with Christ Himself, the Lord of all? Yea, the wise and holy Paul seems to have thought it a thing surpassing conception, for he says, to depart and be with Christ is far better. And surely he that preferred this great and acceptable reward to this world's life, will bear us true testimony that great is the blessing of converse with Him which He confers on His own; He that giveth all things to all men plenteously. And the word spoken through him to us will also help to support our contention. For having in himself Christ speaking, and revealing the powers of the age to come, he spoke also after this manner: For the dead shall rise, he says, and also we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Further, our Lord Himself plainly promised us this blessing, saying: I go and will prepare a place for you. I will come again, and will receive you with Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also with Me.
For either, without thinking deeply on the subject, |558 we shall readily conclude that our abiding home in heaven is meant, or, following another line of thought, we shall suppose that the same place will be allotted to us as to Christ; that is, similar and analogous honours, according to our likeness to Himself. For we shall be conformed to His glory, and shall reign with Him, according to Holy Writ; and He promises that, like as He is wont, we shall also be enthroned in the kingdom of the heavens.
Leaving, then, for the present, as beyond dispute, any further proof that we shall be with Christ and share His glory, and be partakers in His kingdom, we proceed to the other point, I mean the words, that they may behold My glory. Not, therefore, to the profane and sinners, nor to those who dishonour the law of God, will it be given to gaze on the vision of Christ's glory; but only to the holy and righteous. This also we may know by the prophet's words: Let the impious man be taken away, that he see not the glory of the Lord; and in the Gospel message of our Saviour Christ: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. And who can the pure in heart be but they who, by union with God, through the Son, in the Spirit, have rid themselves of fleshly lusts, and put far away from them the pleasure of the world, and have, as it were, denied their own lives, and resigned them wholly to the Will of the Spirit, and who are in all purity and sincerity fellow-citizens with Christ; such as was Paul, who out of his own exceeding purity feared not to say: I have been crucified with Christ, yet I live; and yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me? I hear also the voice of another of the Saints in his song: Make me a pure heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from Thy presence, and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. Give me again the comfort of Thy salvation, and establish me with Thy free Spirit. He calleth the Spirit the comfort of salvation, as giving men joy unceasing and perpetual, and affording them guidance through all the |559 changes and chances of the world; for the Spirit belongeth to the only true Saviour, that is, Christ. He giveth Him many names, and adds a pure heart to his prayer, and straightway invokes the Spirit; since they who are not yet united unto God, and made partakers of Christ's blessing through the Spirit, have not a perfect heart, but rather one that is froward and distraught.
To sum it up, therefore, in brief: Christ desired that to His followers might be granted in special the blessing of being with Him, and beholding His glory; for He says that He was loved even before the foundation of the world, hereby clearly showing how ancient was the great mystery of the redemption He wrought for us, and that the way of our salvation, effected through the mediation of Christ, was foreknown by God the Father. This knowledge was not, indeed, vouchsafed to men upon earth at the beginning, but the Law intervened, which was our schoolmaster to teach us the Divine life, creating in us a dim knowledge through types, God the Father keeping for the fitting time the blessing through the Saviour. And this knowledge seems to us of much avail to show how groundless was the scorn and impious murmuring of the children of Israel, who chose continually to advocate the Law, even when at the advent of the truth, they ought henceforth to have made of no account the types; and it seems very useful also to controvert the others who think that the counsel of the Father, Which contrived the great mystery of our redemption, was an afterthought. Therefore also Paul said concerning Christ (destroying the contention of those who hold this view), that He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the last times.
We must observe, also, that He says that the Father had given unto Him the disciples themselves, as well as Divine glory and universal dominion; not in His character as by Nature God, the Lord of all, Who |560 therefore has kingly dignity inherent in Himself, but rather in so far as He manifested Himself as man, who has all things as gifts from God, and not as his birthright. For the created world receives everything from God; and nothing at all that is in it is its own, though it appear to possess things that are good.
25 O righteous Father, the world knew Thee not, but I knew Thee; and these knew that Thou didst send Me.
He here calls the Father righteous, where He might have used another title. For He is holy, pure, undefiled, Maker and Creator of the world, and whatever else befits the Ruler of the Universe. It is very desirable, then, to inquire why Christ entitled Him righteous, when He might have given Him another name. It will, then, be productive to us of much profit, if we do not allow any passages of Holy Writ to escape us. When, then, Christ desired us to be sanctified by the favour of His Father, fulfilling Himself the character of Advocate and Mediator, He made His intercession for us in the words: Holy Father, keep them in Thy Truth; meaning by Truth nothing but His own Spirit, by Whom He secureth our souls, sealing them in His Likeness, and edifying them, as it were, by His ineffable power, so that courage is undaunted; and exhorting us to manifest unrestrained zeal in abundant good works, and to let nothing stand in our way, or avail to call us back, that so we may hasten eagerly on our course to do God's pleasure, and may set at naught the manifold inventions of the devil and the pleasures of the world. For they who have once been sealed by the Holy Spirit, and who receive into their minds the earnest of His grace, have their hearts fortified, as they are girded with power from on high. Christ, therefore, besought the Father that He would sanctify us, in order that we might enjoy blessings so acceptable. Here, too, I think, He seems to have some such idea in His mind. For besides what He said about our need of sanctification from the Father, |561 He also added these words concerning us: And the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given unto them; that they may be one, even as We are One; for Thou lovedst them, even as Thou lovedst Me; and again: Father, those whom Thou hast given Me, I will that where I am, they also may be with Me.
After thus speaking, He straightway calls the Father righteous, and with reason; for by His approval and consent the Son became Man, that He might endow the nature of man, which was created for good works, with sanctification through the Spirit, and union with God, and with an abiding place in the mansions above, there to live and reign with Him. For God did not create man at the beginning to work wickedness; but his nature was perverted into vice by the impious wiles of the devil, and was led astray from its guidance of old by the hand of God, and, as it were, upheaved from its foundation. Truly, it well beseemed the righteous Father to lift up again that human nature which had been cast down through the devil's malice, and to establish in its former position that which had been unduly debased, and to rid it of the foulness of sin, and, as it were, transform it into its original image as it had been at first created, and also to subject the adversary that assaulted man and impiously dared to compass his ruin, that is, Satan, to the vengeance that was meet; though methinks any kind of chastisement were slight for him who exhibited such madness against God. Therefore He saith: O righteous Father----for Thou art righteous and good, and true is Thy judgment; for Thou hast sent down Me, Who am Thine own true Son, to the world to succour and renew it. But, alas for the blindness of the world! He says: For though Thou wert such as I have said, the world knew Thee not. For surely they should straightway have seen the loving-kindness of Thy judgment and Thy merciful Will, and should have hastened to welcome their Saviour, and have brought Him willing service.
Christ, then, held this discourse with the Father, |562 offering up, as it were, thanks on our behalf and for our sake, inasmuch as He, in His righteousness, had vouchsafed salvation to those who had suffered through the devil's malice, and had doomed the devil to perdition. And the world, He says, that is, they who oppose the Divine message of the Gospel through their worldly-mindedness, have not learnt that the Father is righteous, for the god of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving, as Paul says, that the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ should not dawn upon them. But He bore witness to His own disciples that they knew and understood Him, and hereby He endows them once more with a great and enviable dignity. For He shows them to be far above all the humiliation and contumely of the world, through their knowledge of the Father, and clearly also through their confession that Christ was the Son. When, therefore, at the same time as the charge was brought against the world that it knew not the Father, that is, the true and living God, He bore witness to the disciples that they knew Him, is it not henceforth quite beyond dispute, that they were not of the world now that they had become Christ's, Who is above the world, according to the saying of Paul: Through which the world hath been crucified unto me, and I unto the world; who saith again concerning us: And they that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts thereof? When we say that the disciples were out of the world, we do not mean that they were absent so far as their bodies and position in space were concerned, for they appear as lights in the world, holding forth the Word of Life. We rather mean that, while they still walked upon earth, they were citizens of heaven; and that, bidding farewell to the lusts of the flesh, and lifting their minds high above all worldly desire, they had attained to an exceeding height of virtue, according to the saying in the Psalms: The mighty men of God have been exalted high above the earth. For they who have reached true manliness through God have put aside the grovelling thoughts of earth, and |563 turned their minds heavenward; for this, I think, is the meaning of the word exalted. The world then, He says, O Father, knew not Thee in Thy righteousness. But I know Thee, for I am Thy Counsel and Wisdom. I regarded not the glory and Divine dignity that is Mine by Nature, but humbled Myself, and descended to human poverty, that I might save with Thine approval the race that had fallen away from kinship with Us. Though the world knew not this, yet were the disciples enriched with this knowledge, and verily comprehended that Thou hast sent Me; that is, that I have come to bring Thy purpose to a glorious issue, by rescuing the world which was in peril.
26 And I made known unto them Thy Name, and will make it known; that the love wherewith Thou lovedst Me may be in them, and I in them.
He says that knowledge of God the Father was at once in Him and in the disciples who attended Him. And, lest any man should be beguiled into gross extravagances of opinion, and think that His disciples had this knowledge in an equal degree with Himself, Christ at once distinguishes between them and Himself, and makes the difference very clear, showing that He revealed God unto them, while they, through Him, received knowledge. For our Lord Jesus Christ, as He is the Word, and Counsel, and Wisdom of the Father, intuitively knows what is in Him, and concerns Himself about His Father's most secret thoughts; just as, indeed, the mind of a man knows what is in him, and as nothing that is in our hearts is hidden from our human understanding. The inspired disciples, on the other hand, do not enjoy, as the fruit of their own understanding, the ability to form any conception about God; but, through the light of the Spirit, lay hold of the true meaning of the mysteries of the Son, and so are enabled to know the Father. Very appropriately, then, and to our profit, Christ added the words: And I made known unto them Thy Name, and will make it known. |564
Observe, too, how Both Persons, I mean the Father and the Son, effectually work together to make the Godhead comprehensible to men. For the Father makes us wise by revealing to us His own Son, and none the less also the Son makes us wise by revealing to us the Father. To the blessed Peter, moreover, He spake these words, about the parts of Caesarea called Philippi: Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona; for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father Which is in heaven. For the disciple confessed and maintained his belief that He was Christ, the Son of the living God. And now He says, concerning Himself: I made known unto them Thy Name, and will make it known. For the Only-begotten ceaseth not to reveal unto us the meaning of the mystery concerning Himself, as He revealed it to His first followers at the beginning; and this He doeth continually, implanting in each of us the light of the Spirit, and guiding those that love Him to knowledge of those things which pass their understanding and conception. What His purpose is, and what kind of benefit He will confer on us by His declaration that He had already revealed the Father unto the disciples, and would also make Him known to their successors, He pointed out to us, when He said, that the love wherewith Thou lovedst Me may be in them, and I in them. For they who have been able, by purity of thought, to know God the Father, and have been throughly instructed in the knowledge of the mystery that is in Christ, will wholly gain and indisputably enjoy the perfect love of the Father, like unto the Son. For the Father loves His Son with a perfect love; and Christ also Himself abideth in Him, through the Holy Spirit, uniting, through Himself, into spiritual fellowship with God the Father him that knows Him, and is in travail, as it were, with the unperverted word of Divine Truth. He makes known to us the Name of the Father by declaring to us Himself, Who is His Son. For hand in hand with the knowledge of Him That was begotten will be closely |565 linked the knowledge of Him That begat Him, just as the converse is also true. And if the saying is true, and to be accepted without question, that the conception of the Son is necessarily implied in that of the Father, and so also the conception of the Father in that of the Son, and the knowledge of One is contained in the knowledge of the Other; how can the Son any more be a creature, as some impious men say? For if a man speak of the Son, he thereby instils the idea of a Father in his hearers; while if he were to call Him a creature, he leads them on to the conception of a maker. But as the Son calls God Father, not Maker or Creator, He is clearly conscious that He is Himself in fact a Son. Therefore the Son is deemed, and is, a Son, and not a creature, as they say, which would imply that He That made Him was His Creator, and not His Father. And the force of the argument will be no whit damaged by the fact, that the title of child or son is accounted human. For the attributes which peculiarly and especially belong to Him, as being by Nature the Son of God His Father, these were brought down even to us; Holy Writ often so applying them on occasion, and at times investing those who are sons by adoption with the attributes of a son by nature. And it is no marvel, if we also have obtained the title of son, and that God has thus chosen to honour us in His loving-kindness, as He has even called those gods who are avowedly sprung from the earth.
xviii. 1, 2 When Jesus had spoken these words, He went forth with His disciples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden, into the which He entered, Himself and His disciples. Now Judas also, which betrayed Him, knew the place: for Jesus ofttimes resorted thither with His disciples.
After having enlightened His disciples, and turned them by suitable instruction to all those things that make for righteousness, and after having bidden them |566 choose the life which is most spiritual and pleasing to God, and besides also promising Himself to fulfil them with spiritual graces, and saying that blessings from the Father above would be showered down upon them, Jesus goes forth readily, not shrinking from the time of His suffering, nor yet fearing to die for all men. For what likelihood could there be that He should do this, Who was brought face to face with suffering, that, by His own agony, He might purchase exemption for all; when, too, for this purpose only He had come, that He might by His own Blood reconcile the whole earth to God the Father? It is true, that often when the Jews chose to rage against Him, and attempted in their fury to stone Him, He escaped by His Divine power, rendering Himself invisible, and withdrawing Himself with the greatest ease from the reach of those who sought Him; for He was not willing yet to suffer, the fitting time not yet calling Him thereto. But, as the time had now come, Christ left the house where He had instructed His disciples in the mystery, and came to the place whither He Himself, the Saviour of all mankind, was wont often to resort, together with His holy disciples. He did this, too, from a wish to make it easy for the traitor to find Him. The place was a garden, typifying the Paradise of old. For in it, as it were, all places were summed up; and in it was consummated our return to man's ancient condition. For in Paradise the troubles of mankind had their origin; while in the garden began Christ's suffering, which brought us deliverance from all evil that had befallen us in time past.
3 Judas then, having received the band of soldiers and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, cometh thither, with lanterns, and torches, and weapons.
Very appropriately, then, the inspired Evangelist says that Jesus was in the garden, when no number of men, nor any crowd, were congregating together, or |567 contemplated coming to His succour; and that He was alone with His disciples, that He might display, in all its nakedness, the great folly of the thoughts the traitor harboured in his heart. For our conscience is very apt to create alarms in us, and torment us with the pangs of cowardice, whenever we are bent on any unholy deed. Such, I think, was the state of the traitor's mind, when he brought in his train the cohort, armed with weapons of war, together with the officers of the Jews, as though to capture a notorious malefactor. For in all likelihood he knew that he could never take Him, unless He chose to suffer, and encountered death by His own Will. But he had his understanding perverted by his unholy enterprise, and was, as it were, intoxicated by his own excessive audacity; and so he did not see whither he was tending, nor perceive that he was attempting what it was beyond his power to perform. For he thought, that by the multitude of his followers, and by the hand of man, he could prevail over the Divine power of Christ. And be not amazed that the miserable man should be afflicted with such madness, and be convicted of conceiving so ridiculous an idea. For when he gave up the rudder of his mind into another's hand, and sold to the devil the power over his desires, he was wholly possessed by his madness; for the devil leapt upon him once for all, and nestled in his bosom like a poisonous snake. Surely, one may well wonder at the traitor's fall, and find in it cause for ceaseless weeping. He that had just been supping with Christ, and shared His food, and partaken at the Holy Table, and, equally with the rest, had had the benefit of His words exhorting unto righteousness, and had heard Him declare plainly that one of you shall betray Me, so to say, leapt up from his seat at that very Table, and straightway, after reclining with Him at the Board, hurried off to the Jews to earn the reward of his treachery. He gave no thought to Christ's inspiring words, entertained not the desire of future glory, and paid no heed to the honour |568 given unto him; in short, preferred before the perfect blessedness, which has no end, a mean and paltry sum of money, and proved himself the net and snare wherewith the devil entrapped Christ, the prime mover and fellow-worker with the Jews in their iniquity against God.
The following thought, too, moves my scorn in no small degree. The crowd that attended the traitor, when they made their attack upon Christ, carried lanterns and torches. They would seem to have guarded against stumbling in the dark, and falling into pitfalls unawares, for such accidents often happen in darkness. But, alas for their blindness! The miserable men, in their gross ignorance, did not perceive that they were stumbling on the stone concerning which God the Father says: Behold, I lay in Sion a Stone of stumbling and a Rock of offence. They who were on occasion seized with fear of a small pitfall, saw not that they were rushing into the depths of the abyss, and the very bowels of the earth; and they, who were suspicious of the twilight of evening, took no account of perpetual and endless night. For they who impiously plotted against the Light of God, that is, Christ, were doomed to walk in darkness and the dead of night, as the prophet says; and not only so, but also to vanish away into outer darkness, there to give an account of their impiety against Christ, and to be consigned to bitter and endless punishment.
4, 5, 6 Jesus therefore, knowing all the things that were coming upon Him, went forth, and saith unto them, Whom seek ye? They answered Him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am He. And Judas also, which betrayed Him, was standing with them. When therefore He said unto them, I am He, they went backward, and fell to the ground.
During the night the traitor appeared, bringing with him the servants of the Jews together with the band of soldiers. For, as we said just now, he thought that he |569 would take Him even against His will, trusting in the number of his followers, and believing that he would find Him lingering in the spot whither He was wont to resort, and that day had not yet dawned to allow of His going forth elsewhere, but that night would be still detaining the Lord in the place of His lying down. Christ, then, in order to show that Judas, in holding either view, had been regarding Him as a mere Man, and that his plans were vain, anticipates their attack and goes out readily to meet them; showing thereby that He well knew what Judas presumed to attempt, and that, though it were easy for Him, through His foreknowledge, to escape unawares, He went of His own Will to meet His sufferings, and was not, by the malice of any man, involved in peril; to the intent that the scorn of philosophers among the Greeks might not be moved thereby, who, in their levity, make the Cross a stumblingblock and a charge against Him, and that Judas, the murderer of his Lord, might not be highly exalted against Christ, thinking that he had prevailed over Him against His Will. He inquires of those who come to capture Him, Whom they have come in search of, not because He did not know (for how could that be?), but that He might thereby prove, that those who were for that very reason come, and were gazing upon Him, were not able so much as to recognise Him of Whom they were in search, and so confirm us in the true conviction that He would never have been taken, if He had not of His own Will gone to those who sought Him. For observe, that when He openly asks, Whom seek ye? they did not at once rejoin, We are here to take Thee Who thus speakest; but they reply, as though He were not yet present or before their eyes, and say, Jesus of Nazareth.
But perhaps some may reply: The Roman soldier perhaps knew not Jesus, and the servants of the Jews shared their ignorance. We answer that any such suggestion is groundless. For how could they who were selected to the priesthood fail to know Him, Who was in their |570 power continually when He was teaching daily in the temple, as our Saviour Himself says? But that no one should trust in arguments of this sort, and miss apprehending the truth, the inspired Evangelist, foreseeing this, is impelled to add, that with the soldiers and the servants was standing Judas also, which betrayed Him. Then how could the traitor fail to recognise the Lord? You may answer that it was night, and dark, and therefore not easy to see Him of Whom they were in search. How worthy our admiration is the writer of the book, in that not even so small a point as this has escaped his notice! For he has said that, when they came into the garden, they had lanterns and torches in their hands. A solution, therefore, is found to this curious inquiry, and the Divine dignity of Christ is seen, Who brought Himself to those who were seeking Him, though they could no longer of themselves recognise Him. In order to prove that they were so blinded as not to be able to recognise Him, He says plainly, I am He. And that He might show the fruitlessness of numbers, and the utter incapacity of all human power to affect anything against the ineffable power of God, by merely addressing them in mild and courteous language He bows down to the earth the multitude of those who sought Him, that they might be taught how powerless to endure His threatenings is the nature of created beings, unable as it is to bear one word of God, and that spoken in kindness; according to the word of the Psalmist: Terrible art Thou, and who shall withstand Thy wrath? That which happened to a portion, and befell those who came to take Him, is, as it were, symbolical of the humbling of the entire race; yea, the prophet Jeremiah laments for the Jews, saying: The house of Israel is fallen: there is none to raise it up. That which here happened is a type of what inevitably comes to pass in a similar case; for it teaches us, that he is altogether doomed to fall who practises iniquity against Christ. |571
7, 8, 9 Again, therefore, He asked them, Whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus answered, I told you that I am He: if therefore ye seek Me, let these go their way: that the word might be fulfilled which He spake, Of those whom Thou hast given Me I lost not one.
He asks them again a second time, of set purpose, that He might show the extent of the blindness He had put in their minds. For they were robbed of their right judgment, and had their minds, as it were, deranged by their impiety, and knew not that they were speaking to Him Whom they sought. Christ, indeed, proved by His actions the truth of what He professed: I am, He says, the Good Shepherd: the good shepherd layeth down his life for the sheep. Christ, then, saves the Apostles as with a shield; and, bearing the brunt of the danger Himself, advances to those who were come to lead Him to death, sent thereunto, that is, by the high priests and Pharisees. When they answered, Jesus of Nazareth, to His question, Whom have ye come to take and bind in the bonds of death? He pointed to Himself, and, well-nigh accusing them of delay, bade them take Him away and let the rest go free; for it was necessary that One should die for all, Whose life was an equivalent for the lives of all men, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living.
For other reasons, too, it were wholly impossible to accept the opinion of some that the deaths of the holy Apostles themselves also resulted in the overthrow of death and corruption, when they must themselves be reckoned among those who have been delivered from death and corruption; and with great reason, for their nature is one with ours, and over us death had dominion. It was necessary, then, that alone, and first of all, the Son of the living Father should give over His own Body to death as a ransom for the lives of all men, that by connexion with the Life of the Word, Which was united with Itself, It might so prepare the way, that our mortal bodies might be enabled henceforth also to triumph over |572 the bondage of death. For the Lord is the Firstfruits of them that are asleep, and the Firstborn from the dead; and so, by His own Resurrection, makes smooth for those who come after Him the way to incorruption. He therefore withdraws the disciples from the peril of the moment, as well knowing that the conflict was in special meet for Himself; and showing thereby that our redemption was the work of none other, save only that Nature Which is supreme over the universe.
The wise Evangelist turns to a clear proof of the general and universal mercy, which will be shown to all who come to Him through faith, this partial and special care here manifested to those who were with Him. For, he says, He procured that His disciples should be suffered to go their way, that the word might be fulfilled which He spake, Of those whom Thou gavest Me I lost not one. For how can there be any question that He will show mercy on them that come after the disciples? For where care is shown in small things, how can there be neglect in greater? And is it likely that He, Who showed mercy to a mere handful, will pay no heed to a multitude whom no man can number? For the multitude of believers is exceeding great. You must receive, then, the partial as a type of the universal; and you can easily perceive, by His refusal to put His disciples in any danger at all, what and how great will be His wrath against His murderers. For does He not altogether hate whatever opposes His Will? Can there be any further doubt that severe and endless punishment awaits those who do the things which are hateful to Him?
10 Simon Peter therefore, having a sword, drew it, and struck the high-priest's servant, and cut off his right ear. Now the servant's name was Malchus.
What was it, someone may say, that induced the inspired Evangelist to make mention of this, and point out to us the disciple using a sword, contrary to his wont, against those who came to take Christ, and stirred to a |573 hotter and more precipitate fit of wrath than was meet, and Christ thereupon rebuking him? This narrative may, perhaps, seem superfluous; but it is not so. For he has here given us a pattern expressly for our learning; for we shall know, from what took place here, to what lengths our zeal in piety towards Christ may proceed without reproach, and what we may choose to do in conflicts such as this, without stumbling on something displeasing to God. For this typical instance forbids us to draw a sword, or lift up stones, against any man, or to strike our adversaries with a stick, when, through our piety towards Christ, we are in conflict with them: for our weapons are not of the flesh, as Paul saith; but we ought rather to treat even our murderers with kindness when occasion precludes our escape. For it is far better for other men to be corrected for their sins against us by Him That judgeth righteously, than that we ourselves should make excuses for our blood-guiltiness, making piety our plea. Besides, we may call it most irrational to honour by the death of our persecutors Him Who, to set men free from death, Himself cheerfully suffered death. And herein we must surely follow Christ Himself; for if He had been called to die perforce and of necessity, as unable by His own power to repel the assault of His foes, who were invincible through the number of the servants of the Jews, there might perhaps have been nothing unreasonable in those who chose to love Him succouring Him with all their might, and showing the utmost courage in order to rescue Him from the peril, into which He had been brought by the impiety of His foes, against His Will. But since, being truly God, He was able to destroy His adversaries, root and branch, and at the very outset of the conflict, so to say, had given them such a token of His might, as by a single word, and that spoken in courtesy, to lay them low on the earth, for they all fell backward; how could it be right for us, in unbridled and inordinate wrath, to wilfully and recklessly proceed to lengths that He did not, though He |574 might have done so with the utmost ease? We find also traces of the same spirit elsewhere recorded by the holy Evangelists. For our Saviour once came to a village bordering on Judaea, to lodge there. It belonged to the Samaritans; and when He was drawing nigh unto it they roughly drove Him away. The disciples were enraged thereat, and came to Him, and said: Lord, wilt Thou that we bid fire to come down from heaven, and consume them? And the Saviour answered them: Let them alone; know ye not that I can beseech My Father, and He shall even now send Me twelve legions of angels? For He came not as God to use His own innate power against those who vented their fury upon Him; but rather to school us to patient forbearance under every affliction, and to be Himself a type of the most perfect and passionless tranquillity. Therefore also He said: Learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart.
The purpose of Peter in drawing his sword against the adversaries does not trespass outside the commandment of the Law; for the Law bade us requite unreproved evildoers----foot for foot, hand for hand, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. For with what other object did they come armed with swords and staves, equipped with armour, and banded together in numbers, than to wage such a conflict as they thought the disciples would wage in their extremity? For that they brought swords and staves, the Saviour tells us plainly, when He says elsewhere to them: Are ye come out as against a robber with swords and staves to seize Me? I sat daily in the temple teaching, and ye took Me not. The passion of Peter, therefore, was lawful, and accorded with the old enactments; but our Lord Jesus Christ, when He came to give us teaching superior to the Law, and to reform us to His meekness of heart, rebukes those passions which are in accordance with the Law, as incompatible with the perfect accomplishment of true virtue. For perfect virtue consists not in requital of like for like, but is rather seen in perfect forbearance. |575
Someone may now, perhaps, raise the question, and ask himself. Why did Peter carry a sword? We reply, that the duty of repelling the assaults of evil-doers, according to the Law, brought the need of a sword. For if one of the disciples had chosen to strike the innocent with a sword, how could the same issue have been tried? It is likely, too, that the holy disciples, as they were hurrying at midnight from their place of rest, and expected to find woods and gardens in their way, were suspicious of the attacks of wild beasts; for of these Judaea was very fertile. Perhaps you may rejoin: "But what need had the disciples of a sword? Was not Christ sufficient for them in time of peril; and could not He scare away wild beasts, and release them from all fear on that account?" If you say this, you say well; for Christ can do all things. But we shall find that, though Christ might have effected it otherwise, the disciples continued to live after the manner usual to men. For must we not suppose that Christ was able to turn stones into bread, and out of nothing to create money sufficient to defray their expenses? Still they fetched loaves and carried a purse, taking alms of those who brought them. And when Christ wished to cross the sea in their company, they entered into a ship, though He might have walked over the billows, if He had been so minded. It is fruitless, then, to cavil at the disciples, for following the ordinary usages of mankind.
Peter strikes off the right ear of the servant, and his action points, as in a figure, to the inability of the Jews to hear aright. For they would not hearken to Christ's words. They rather, so to say, honoured the left ear, obeying simply the dictates of their own misguided prejudice, deceiving and being deceived, according to the Scripture; for even when walking in the Law ordained them of old, they turned to doctrines the precepts of men. |576
11 Jesus therefore said unto Peter, Put up thy sword into its sheath: the cup which the Father hath given Me, shall I not drink it?
Christ's bidding is fraught with the enactment of life according to the Gospel, and the spirit, not of the Mosaic Law revealed to the men of old time, but of the dispensation of Christ; which so dissuades us from using the sword, or offering resistance, that if a man choose to smite us on one cheek, and then to demand the other to be smitten, we ought to turn to him the other also; cutting out, as it were, by the roots the human weakness of our hearts. But, He says, in effect, even if no law had been laid down by Me concerning forbearance under evil, thy mind, Peter, has failed to reason aright, and thou hast made an attempt altogether un-suited to the occasion. For when it was the decree and pleasure of God the Father, that I should drink this cup, that is, willingly undergo, as it were, the deep sleep of death, in order to overthrow death and corruption, how then can I shrink from it, when so great blessings are certain to result to the race of man through My drinking it? The foregoing words well explain the drift of the passage before us. There is another passage also of a similar purport. Our Lord Jesus Christ, wishing to confirm the disciples in the faith, and to remove, in anticipation, the stumblingblock of His precious Cross, said once to them in His discourse, as they were halting on the way: Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man is betrayed unto the hands of sinners: and they shall crucify Him, and shall hill Him, and the third day He shall be raised up. And the inspired Peter, not considering the benefits of His death, but only regarding the ignominy of the Cross, said: Be it far from Thee, Lord; this shall never be unto Thee. What answered Christ? Get thee behind Me, Satan; thou art a stumblingblock unto Me: for thou mindest not the things of God, but the things of men. |577 For he that savourest the things that be of God, makes it his end and object to set at naught worldly honours, and to account as nothing the loss of reputation among men, so long as the good of his fellow-men is achieved thereby; for love, the Apostle says, seeketh not its own. But he who is absorbed in the contemplation of the things of men, deems the loss of the paltry honours of earth intolerable, and looks only to his own advantage, and feels no sympathy with the losses of others. Just as, in that passage, Christ called Peter an offence unto Him, though he was not wont so to be, and though he spoke out of love, which yet could not escape blame, because he looked only at the death on the Cross, and not at the benefits to result therefrom; Peter tried, so far as in him lay, to prevent that which had been resolved and determined for the salvation of all men. So also here we see him doing the same, by his passion and impetuous act with his sword. He is once more rebuked, not merely by the words: Put up thy sword into its sheath; but, according to another Evangelist, Christ added: For all they that take the sword, shall perish with the sword. And, to repeat once more what we said before, seeing that His capture was effected by His own Will, and did not merely result from the malice of the Jews, how could it be right to repel or thwart, in any way, and with a sword, too, the bold attack of His combined foes and the impious conspiracy of the Jews? He says, that God the Father gave unto Him the cup, that is, death, though it was prepared for Him by the obstinate hatred of the Jews; because it would never have come to pass if He had not suffered it for our sakes. Therefore also Christ said to boasting Pilate: Thou wouldest have no power against Me, except it were given thee from above. When Christ says that power was given Pilate from above, He refers to His own willingness to suffer death, and the consent of His Father in heaven. |578
12, 13, 14 So the band, and the chief captain, and the officers of the Jews, seized Jesus and bound Him, and led Him away to Annas first; for he was father-in-law to Caiaphas, which was high priest that year. Now Caiaphas was he which gave counsel to the Jews, that it was expedient that one man should die for the people.
Now that all obstacles had been overcome, and Peter had put away his sword, and Christ had, as it were, surrendered Himself to the hand of the Jews, though He need not have died, and it was easier for Him to escape, the soldiers and servants, together with their guide, give way to cruel rage, and are transported with the ardour of victory. They took the Lord, Who gave Himself up wholly to their will, and put fetters upon Him, though He came to us to release us from the bondage of the devil, and to loose us from the chains of sin. And they bring Him to Annas, who was the father-in-law of Caiaphas, whence we may conclude that he was the prime mover and contriver of the iniquity against Christ, and that the traitor, when he received his hire, obtained from him the band to take Christ. He is, therefore, taken away to him first of all. For the Jews were bent on showing to us, that that was indeed truly spoken of them which the prophet put into their mouths: Let us bind the righteous Man, for He is useless unto us. Christ was, indeed, to the Jews useless, not because of His own Nature, but because, as they were prone to love sin and pleasure, He seemed to bring them no good thing, when He expounded to them a righteousness exceeding the Law, and set before them, without concealment, the knowledge of the pleasure of the God that loves virtue, when the Law pointed out no such way, but rather, in the darkness of allegory, feebly and indirectly indicated what might be of profit to its hearers. Just as, then, the sunlight is useless to those whose sight is injured, and brings them no profit, because the disease prevents it; and just as, |579 to people in bad health, healthy food sometimes seems the most useless, though it used to bring the health so much desired; so likewise to the Jews the Lord seemed useless, though He was the Prince of Salvation. For they refused to be saved.
They sent Him bound to Caiaphas, the high priest. Now Caiaphas was he which gave counsel to the Jews, that it was expedient that one man should die for the people. The sacred and holy Victim, then, that is, Christ, was captured by the malice of Annas and the services of his hirelings; and, ensnared within the net, was led to him that compassed and instigated the slaughter of the innocent. This was Caiaphas, and he was adorned with the office of the priesthood. And by his questions he seems to have begun the shedding of blood, as he also is convicted of having originated the impious enterprise. He receives Jesus bound, and, as the fruit of his counsel and impious designs, the miserable man committed the most impious act that has ever been committed. For what can be more grievous than impiety against Christ?
15 And Simon Peter followed Jesus, and so did the other disciple.
While the other disciples, it seems, were panic-stricken, and fled from the present wrath of the murderers, Peter, who was always moved thereto by more fervent passion, clings to his love for Christ, and follows Him at the peril of his life, and watches the issue of events; the other disciple accompanying him, and, with like courage, sustaining a similar resolution. This was John, the truly pious writer of this Divine work. For he calls himself that other disciple, without giving himself a definite name, fearing to seem boastful, and abhorring the appearance of being better than the rest. For the crowning achievements of virtue, if manifested by any of the righteous, yet are never blazoned forth to the world by their own mouth. For it very ill beseems a man to win praise rather out of his own mouth than the conversation of other men. In the Book of Proverbs it is written: Let |580 another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips.
15 Now that disciple was known unto the high priest, and entered in with Jesus into the court of the high priest.
The Apostle shows great forethought in condescending to mention this fact, and does not scruple to enter into detail where it is profitable for us. For, as he was about to set down in order in his book what was done and said in the palace of the high priest, he was, as it were, compelled to show us how he was able to enter there with Christ; for, he says, he was known unto the high priest. He enters, therefore, without hindrance, his knowledge of the leader of the people----for he has not thought proper to say friendship----allowing him free entrance within the doors. In order, then, that he might convince us that he did not compile his account of what took place in the palace from information drawn from others, but that he himself saw and heard what passed, he has given us this most useful explanation of his knowledge of the high priest.
16 But Peter was standing at the door without. So the other disciple, which was known unto the high priest, went out, and spake unto her that kept the door, and brought in Peter.
Peter did not lag behind from any lack of fervour of heart, but only because the vigilance of the damsel at the gate made entrance perilous for those with whom she had no previous acquaintance. And though it might not have been difficult for a man to push a woman aside, yet it might have involved a charge of unruly behaviour. The disciple, therefore, though in great distress of mind, was compelled to stay without, till the other, seeing that he was much grieved thereat, brought him in with himself by speaking to the maiden presiding at the door, and asking as a favour that his companion in jealous fervour might accompany him. |581
17 The maid, therefore, that kept the door, saith unto Peter, Art thou also one of this Man s disciples? He saith, I am not.
As Christ had already foretold to Peter that he would thrice deny our Saviour Christ, and that before the cock crew his faith would fail, the inspired Evangelist relates in detail where, and how, the prophecy was fulfilled. The maid, seated at the door, then, inquires of him whether he was not one of the number of the disciples of Him Who was undergoing the unjust trial. Peter denies it, and parries the question as though it were a charge, saying, "I am not;" not fearing at all to be taken, or shrinking from proclaiming the truth, but disregarding and making light of enduring any kind of evil against his will in comparison with being with Christ. His transgression, then, proceeds from love, and his denial has its root in the love of God; not indeed proceeding from any just reasoning, but, at any rate, testifying to the fervour of his desire to be with Christ.
18 Now the servants and the officers were standing there, having made a fire of coals; for it was cold, and they were warming themselves: and Peter also was with them, standing and warming himself.
Peter, having passed inside the door, and finding himself encircled by the servants, affects to do what they do (though bowed down with grief and with an intolerable burden of agony at heart), that he might not be convicted by his despondent and sorrowful countenance of feeling sympathy with the Man Who was on trial, and be cast out from the doors which contained all he loved. For it is quite incredible that the disciple should have been so carnally minded as to seek out a means of appeasing the chill of winter, when he was thus heavy with grief. For if he might have enjoyed greater luxuries than this, he could not have borne to do so while Christ was thus afflicted. He intentionally models his behaviour on the apathy of the attendants, and, as though he had no inducement to despondency, shakes off the chill of winter, |582 in order that he might create the belief that he was one of the inmates of the house, and might thus for the future escape answering any further questions with a denial. But the word of the Saviour could not be falsified; for He foretold to the disciple what He, as God, knew would certainly happen.
19 The high priest therefore asked Jesus of His disciples, and of His teaching.
A teacher of the people, learned in the Law, one of those on whom the Divine bidding lays the duty, "Judge ye righteous judgment," after having taken the Lord, as though He had been a notorious robber, by a band of armed soldiers and a number of impious officers, asks Him of His disciples and of His doctrine, showing thereby that he was in want of charges to bring against Him. For the Man Who was now on trial knew no sin. He asks Him about His doctrine, to elicit from Him whether it accorded with the Mosaic Law, or coincided and concurred with the old dispensation; and what purpose His disciples had implanted in their hearts, whether to submit to be guided by ancient customs, or to practise any strange and novel kind of worship. He did this in malice, for he supposed that Christ would make an outspoken attack on the Law, and that, by pleading for the rejection of the Mosaic dispensation, He would excite the Jews to embittered and furious revilings against Himself, so that He might in the future appear to be paying a just penalty for deliberately fighting against God. For to enter the lists against the Divine commandments, if any mere human being were convicted of any word or deed with that intent, were to declare oneself an open enemy of God. And they were treating Christ as a mere man, and thought that they were doing well to chastise the Lord of the Law for the transgression of the Law, not remembering him that said: Impious is he that saith unto a king, Thou art a law-breaker. |583
20 Jesus answered him, I have spoken openly to the world; I ever taught in synagogues, and in the temple, where all the Jews come together; and in secret spake I nothing.
It were fruitless labour, Christ says, to search out as obscure what is universally known; and how can it be seemly, where full knowledge is present, to set up a pretence of ignorance? This is what Christ seems to us to say, with the object of releasing Himself from the charges that had been fabricated and maliciously devised against Him by the malice of the leaders of the people. But I think, also, that there is a suggestion of another meaning. For He says: I have spoken openly to the world; that is to say, the utterances given to you by the mediation of Moses come in types and shadows, and do not teach expressly the Will of God, but rather create a vision of the actual truth beyond themselves, and, wrapped up in the obscurity of the letter, do not completely reveal the knowledge of those things which are needful for us. I have spoken openly to the world; and, apart from riddles, and the shadow, as it were, of the form of that which is good, I set before you the right, and pointed out the straight path of piety towards God without any tortuous turnings. I spake to the world----not, He says, to the one nation of the Israelites; for if the things that are of Me are not yet known throughout the whole world, they will be so in due season. I ever taught in synagogues. We can scarcely fail to see what He means here. He reminds those of the Jews who were in His Presence, methinks, however reluctant, of prophecy which thus spoke concerning Him. For what said the Divine Isaiah, putting the words in Christ's mouth? I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth; and again: I have spread out My hands all the day unto a disobedient and rebellious people. For what else can "not speaking in secret, in a dark place" mean, but giving discourses openly, and speaking in places where there is no small concourse of hearers? Very well and appropriately He brings to |584 their recollection the saying of the prophet, that they might learn that they are judging impiously that Messiah, Who was the due fulfilment of their hopes. For to the Jews belonged the promise, as Paul says.
21 Why askest thou Me? Ask them that have heard Me, what I spake unto them: behold, these know the things which I said.
He rebukes those learned in the Law, for that they themselves sinned against the Law in which they took pride. For before He had been condemned, they passed premature sentence upon Him, and yet busied themselves in seeking for errors on His part. Why, then, He says, dost thou question Me, and call on Me to answer, Who have already endured your attack, and had punishment allotted Me before conviction? Or you may put another construction on what He said: Those who already hate Me, and receive with such extreme dishonour whatever I tell them of the things that are Mine, would not, perhaps, shrink from proclaiming what is false. Learn, then, from the lips of others. The search for witnesses would not be at all difficult, for these heard My words. Someone may, perhaps, imagine that He That knoweth the hearts and reins indicated some of the bystanders as having chanced to hear His words. But it is not so. For He referred to certain of the officers who once marvelled at His doctrine; and perhaps, to make our meaning clear, we ought to explain the time and occasion when this occurred. This same inspired Evangelist has told us, that once, when our Saviour Christ was preaching, and unfolding the doctrine concerning the Kingdom of Heaven to the assembled Jews, the teachers of the Jewish ordinances were sore enraged, and full of bitter envy of Him. and strove to remove Him from their midst. In the words of the Evangelist: And the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to take Him. But as our Saviour was continuing His long and full discourse, those which were sent by the Jews were |585 convinced along with all the rest, and were more amazed than any one else among the multitude of His hearers. Thus speaks the Evangelist: The officers, therefore, came to the chief priests and Pharisees; and they said unto them, Why did ye not bring Him? The officers answered, Never man so spake. The Pharisees, therefore, answered them, Are ye also led astray? Observe how distressed at heart the Pharisees were, when they found that the officers had been at length convinced and sore amazed. The Saviour, then, knowing this, says: Ash them that have heard Me: behold, these know the things which I said. Either, then, He says, these know, looking at those who were then standing by, or else referring to the fact, that even they who ministered to the impiety of the chief priests themselves marvelled at the beauty of His teaching.
22 And when He had said this, one of the officers standing by struck Jesus with his hand, saying unto Him, Answerest Thou the high priest so?
It had been foretold, by the mouth of the prophet, that with Christ this would come to pass: I gave My back to the scourge, and My cheeks to them that smite. He was being led on in truth to the end long ago foretold, to the verdict of Jewish presumption, which was also the abolition and determination of our deserved dishonour, for that we sinned in Adam first, and trampled under foot the Divine commandment. For He was dishonoured for our sake, in that He took our sins upon Him, as the prophet says, and was afflicted on our account. For as He wrought out our deliverance from death, giving up His own Body to death, so likewise, I think, the blow with which Christ was smitten, in fulfilling the dishonour that He bore, carried with it our deliverance from the dishonour by which we were burthened through the transgression and original sin of our forefather. For He, being One, was yet a perfect Ransom for all men, and bore our dishonour. |586 But I think the whole creation would have shuddered, had it been suffered to be conscious of such presumption. For the Lord of glory was insulted by the impious hand of the smiter.
And I think that it would display a spirit of pious research to desire to learn why this insolent and presumptuous officer smites Jesus, Who had made no stubborn or angry reply at all, but had returned a very gentle answer to all the charges brought against Him. And it may be observed, that the leader of the Jewish nation had not bidden him smite Jesus, and assail Him with such extravagant impiety. Some may, perhaps, allege as a reason the ordinary and received custom among the officers, when they brought to the rulers men accused of some transgression to compel them to reply courteously, even against their will, and treat them at times with contumely when they returned a rude answer. But I do not think this ever occurred to excite his passion against Christ; and, if we fix our attention on what has already been said, we shall find another reason for his insolence. For we said just now, that certain of the officers, who were bidden to take Jesus, came into collision with the rulers, and returned so far initiated into the mysteries of Christ, and amazed at Him, that they openly declared: Never man so spake. Whereat the Pharisees were greatly enraged, and said: Are ye also led astray? Hath any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on Him? But this multitude, who know not the Law, are accursed. As, then, the Saviour's words reminded the rulers of the indignation then stirred up in them against the officers (for He referred to them as witnesses of His teaching, saying: Behold, these know the things which I said), the officer was charged before them with having been struck with admiration of Christ; and, wishing to repel the suspicion of being well-disposed towards Him, and to divert their thoughts elsewhere, smote Him on the mouth, not suffering Him to say anything that could injure the reckless band of officers. |587
23 Jesus answered him, If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil: but if well, why smitest thou Me?
He proves the officer guilty of a gross wrong, even if He That was on His trial had been a man of obscure position. For he smote Him causelessly, contrary to his express duty; not urged thereto by legal commands, but rather incited to brutal ferocity of behaviour by his own inbred madness. Call in question, if it please thee, and refute My words, as not spoken aright; but if thou canst not do this, why smitest thou Me, with Whose speech thou canst find no fault?
This is, indeed, the ordinary and most usual interpretation of the passage; but I think the meaning of the passage is different from this. For it may be, that He convicts the officer as guilty of the greater sin; not because he smote Him merely, but because, after having been previously amazed at His teaching, and not having now found Him in any wise guilty, he yet endured to treat Him with contumely. For if, He says, thou hadst not once been struck by My words; if I had not then seemed to you to teach most noble doctrines, and thou hadst not been convinced that I expounded Holy Writ in a marvellous way; if thou hadst not thyself exclaimed: Never man so spake, perhaps some plea might have been found for giving mercy to thy inexperience, and acquitting thee of this charge; but since thou hast known and hast marvelled at My teaching, and wouldst not, perhaps, Christ says, have borne witness against My words, if thou didst now think it right to bear in mind thine own words, how canst thou have any cloak for thy sin? You may understand the passage in this way; but also remark how the Saviour herein sketches for us the pattern of His great long-suffering towards us, in all its incomparable excellence, and, as in a well-defined portrait, by the actions of His life, gives us a type of the nature of His exceeding great mercy. For He That, by one single word, might have brought utter ruin on the Jews, endures to be smitten as a slave. He offers no resistance, and does |588 not requite His persecutors with instant chastisement; for He is not subject to our infirmities, nor under the dominion of passion, or resentment, or discomposed by their malicious insults; but He gently puts His adversary to shame, and tells him, that he did not right to strike One Who answered courteously, and in the hour of His imminent peril forgets not the virtues He continually practised. For, by proper argument, He strives to induce the servant that ministered to the malice of the Jews to abandon his fit of passion, Himself receiving evil for good, according to the Scripture, but requiting those who were dishonouring Him with good instead of evil.
But our Lord Jesus Christ, even when He was smitten, endured it patiently, though He was truly God, the Lord of heaven and earth; and we poor miserable mortals, mean and insignificant as we are, mere dust and ashes, and likened to the green herb: For, as for man, his days are as grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth, according to the Scripture,----when one of our brethren happens to have some words with us, and lets fall some vexatious expression, we think we do right to be enraged with the fury of dragons, and cease not to pelt him with a storm of words in return for one; not granting forgiveness to human littleness, nor considering the frailty of our common humanity, nor burying in brotherly love the passions that thus arise, nor looking unto Jesus Himself, the Author and Perfecter of our faith; but eager to avenge ourselves, and that to the uttermost, though Holy Writ declares in one place: He that pursueth vengeance, pursueth it to his own death; and in another: Let none of you harbour resentment in your heart against your brother. But let Christ, the Lord of all, Himself be unto us a Pattern of gentleness to one another, and exceeding great forbearance; for He, for this very reason, saith unto us: A disciple is not above his master, nor a servant above his lord.
[End of the eleventh book.]
[Page running titles]
The Spirit illustrated Christ's glory to the Saints. 455
456 An illustration of the relation of Son and Spirit.
458 Language is insufficient to express
the relations of the Persons of the Holy Trinity. 459
460 Out of consideration for His disciples
Christ did not allude to His Passion. 461
462 Christ vouchsafes further information,
and adds comfort thereto. 463
464 Their joy cannot be lost.
We ask in the Name of Christ, the Mediator. 465
466 The superiority of this manner of prayer.
We shall understand perfectly after tins life. 467
468 God, from His own Good Will,
will bestow the riches of His Goodness. 469
470 The disciples rigid faith rendered them acceptable.
Christ's Divinity proved by His Ascension. 471
472 Christ's Divinity accepted by the disciples,
by reason of His omniscience. 473
474 We may take courage in God's service,
for we are not alone. 475
476 Christ was superior to sin,
and conquered death. 477
God's glory must hold the first place. 479
480 Christ was not bereft of Divine glory.
God the Father gave and received glory. 481
482 Christ spoke as God and Man.
484 The method by which
God gave and received glory. 485
486 The Father works through the Son,
488 Jesus Christ is One God
with the Father. 489
490 The Gospel reveals God as the Father.
492 We glorify God
by good works, through Christ. 493
494 Christ worked as God;
not in a ministerial capacity. 495
496 Christ never relinquished His own glory,
even in His humiliation. 497
The Father's glory is manifested by Christ's works. 499
500 The Name "Father" greater than "God."
Christ revealed God as Father. 501
502 All things are God's,
and were "given" to Christ as Man. 503
504 The "words" which the disciples accepted
signify His Divine Mission. 505
Christ mediates as Man; as did Aaron. 507
508 Those given to Christ are yet the Father's.
Christ and the Father glorified in the disciples. 509
510 Christ's prayer is for the disciples left in the world.
512 The fusion of Christ's Divinity and Humanity.
God's Name is inherently Christ's Name. 513
514 The unity of the disciples resembles
the unity of purpose of Father and Son. 515
516 Christ promises protection to His disciples
through His power as God. 517
518 Judas fell by his own act.
Scripture foretold, but did not compel, his action. 519
520 Christ did sustain and aid His disciples.
Christ indicates His twofold Nature. 521
522 Christ, whether present or absent in Body,
saved through the power of His Godhead. 523
524 The "joy" is the knowledge of Christ's Divinity.
Christian life is dissevered from the world. 525
526 Christ puts Himself on a level with us,
for our encouragement. 527
528 The Saints remain for our example.
They must continue in purity. 529
530 Satan, being of necessity a foe,
renders Divine assistance necessary. 531
532 God, being holy, takes pleasure in the holy.
534 The Father, Son, and Spirit
are essentially One. 535
536 The Saviour "sanctified" Himself
by offering Himself for us. 537
538 Sanctification is by the Spirit, through Christ.
Jesus bore our sins. 539
540 Further explanation may be found
in the mystery of the Incarnation. 541
542 The requirements of human reason
render such expressions necessary. 543
Christ prayed for all. 545
546 The Divine Type of our unity
does not support the heretic s contention. 547
548 We are one with each other and with God
both in a corporeal and a spiritual sense. 549
550 Corporeal union is through the Eucharist,
spiritual union is through the Spirit. 551
552 All are one in the Holy Trinity.
554 By receiving Christ
we are partakers of the Divine Nature. 555
556 Christ accepted the gift for us.
The blessedness of being with Christ. 557
558 The pure will behold His glory.
Man's redemption foreknown by the Father. 559
560 Why did Christ use the word "righteous?"
Because He sent Christ into the world. 561
562 The disciples were out of the world
by their knowledge of the Father and Son. 563
564 The mutual revelation of Father and Son
demonstrates the Divinity of the Son. 565
566 Christ shrank not from suffering.
The utter madness of Judas. 567
568 The folly of the crowd.
Christ manifested His Divine Power. 569
570 How great and terrible is God!
Christ the Good Shepherd. 571
572 Christ's care extends to all believers.
S. Peter is our warning and example. 573
574 Christ taught perfect meekness.
The disciples lived in human fashion. 575
576 Christ bowed to the Father s pleasure.
Christ suffered for mans salvation. 577
578 The Jews bound Christ
Who loosed us from the chains of sin. 579
580 S. John was an Eye-witness.
S. Peter's transgression originated in love. 581
582 Caiaphas questioned Christ out of malice.
Christ spoke openly and taught plainly. 583
584 Christ refers Caiaphas to the occasion
when His enemies had been convinced. 585
586 The officer acted from self-interest.
The enormity of the officer's sin. 587
588 Christ a Pattern of gentleness.
[All of the footnotes moved to the end and renumbered. The margin contains mainly biblical references and fragments of Greek. These have been omitted]
1. a Very questionable what is the proper meaning. ἀνεωγμένως as suggested, seems unintelligible.
2. a The text here is probably corrupt. It is unintelligible as it stands.
3. b Is οἷ μον a false reading for οἰμωγή, or some kindred word?
This text was transcribed by Roger Pearse, 2005. All material on this page is in the public domain - copy freely.
Greek text is rendered using unicode. Note that the chapter numbers and titles are part of the original work, as is the table of them at the start of the book. The numerals on verses of John are added by the translator.
Early Church Fathers - Additional Texts
SOURCE SECTION: cyril_on_john_12_book12.htm
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, LFC 43, 48 (1874/1885). Book 12. Vol. 2 pp. 589-708.
Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on John, LFC 43, 48 (1874/1885). Book 12. Vol. 2 pp. 589-708.
[Translated by T. Randell]
|589
CHAPTER IN THE TWELFTH BOOK.
1. That the Son is by Nature God, even though we find Him calling the Father His God: on the words:----I go to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God. |590
OUR FATHER AMONG THE SAINTS,
CYRIL,
Archbishop of Alexandria,
ON THE
GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN.
BOOK XII.
[Introduction]
xviii. 24, 25, 26, 27 Annas therefore sent Him bound unto Caiaphas, the high priest. Now Simon Peter was standing warming himself. They said therefore unto him, Art thou also one of His disciples? He denied, and said, I am not. One of the servants of the high priest, being a kinsman of him whose ear Peter cut off, saith, Did not I see thee in the garden with Him? Peter therefore denied again: and straightway the cock crew.
The inspired Evangelist, to our profit, checks the course of his narrative, like a horse at full speed, and turns it back again. And why? Because he was bound, before narrating what next ensued, to point out to us Peter's third denial; and this event is best and most appropriately described as it occurred. He therefore designedly refers to what took place at first, and says, that Jesus was sent by Annas to Caiaphas; and shows us that Peter was questioned by the servants who were warming themselves with him at the fire, and also by a kinsman of him whom he had smitten; and that this was the occasion of his third denial. Then He mentions the crowing of the cock, making, it plain to us that no word of our Saviour ever falls to the ground; for He had foreknown and foretold the frailty of His own disciple in the midst of danger. Perhaps the divinely taught compiler of this book would have made no mention at all of this fact, had he not bethought himself of the captious |591 spirit and ceaseless babbling of the adversaries of God. For some of those who seek to make bitter war on the glory of the Saviour would straightway have said: "Show us the denial of Peter, and how, and where, that came to pass which was foretold by Christ, Who, you say, cannot lie. For you maintain that He is Truth, and that He proceedeth from a Father Who is true." It was very essential, therefore, that the inspired Evangelist should narrate to us this occurrence, and show that Christ at all times said what was true.
But perhaps some opponent, abstaining from bringing any such attack against us, will bring a grievous charge against Peter, and accuse the well-beloved disciple of incomparable cowardice, and say that he was so ready to make this verbal repudiation of his Lord, as thrice to fall away and deny Him, when he had not so much as had any actual experience of danger, and when peril was not, indeed, nigh at hand. Talk of this sort may be suitable to those who are not yet initiated in the faith; but I will at once dismiss it, and, bidding farewell to such nonsense, will attempt to make some excuse for the Apostle's conduct, setting forth my argument for the benefit of those who are already accustomed to reflect upon the mysteries contained in the mysterious working of Divine Providence. For it was the bounden duty of the wise Evangelist to make mention of such things, that his hearers might know what even the teachers of the world were in themselves before Christ's Resurrection, and before the Holy Spirit descended upon them; and what they were thereafter, when they had received the grace of the Spirit, Which Christ called power from on high. For any one may see how very jealous they were in assuming virtue; how readily they girded up their loins to follow Christ, and to overcome perils of every sort which they so frequently encountered. But when our Saviour Christ had not yet subdued the power of death, the fear thereof was still stubborn, and altogether invincible; and they who had not yet received the Spirit, nor had their |592 hearts steeled by grace from above, showed that their minds were not yet wholly free from human frailty, and they were not altogether unshaken by the terrors of death. For just as iron, though naturally strong, cannot encounter without injury the harder kinds of stone, if it be not strengthened in the forge; so the soul of man may be buoyed up with unslacking enthusiasm for every thing that is good, but can never be triumphant in the conflicts that so arise, except it be first perfected by the grace of the Spirit of God. Even the disciples, therefore, themselves were frail at first; but, when they had received the Spirit of Almighty God, cast aside their native weakness, and, by communion with Him, attained to exceeding boldness.
It was expedient, then, that the frailty of the Saints should be recorded to the praise and glory of God, Who changed their weakness into power, and raised up, like a strong tower, their spirits, which were easily daunted even by slight dangers, and at times broken down by the mere apprehension of suffering. And that which befell a single one, or some few of the Saints, may afford us at the same time a lesson and a consolation. For we are taught thereby, not, through dwelling on our own infirmities inconsiderately, to slacken in God's service, but rather to trust in Him Who is able to make us all strong, and to boast ourselves in His miraculous works and favour shown to us beyond hope.
28 They lead Jesus therefore from Caiaphas into the palace: and it was early; and they themselves entered not into the palace, that they might not be defiled, but that they might eat the passover.
Judge righteous judgment, and Thou shalt not slay the innocent and just man, were the express injunctions of the Law and the Word of God. These miserable men could not help being ashamed of their lack of charges against Him; but, finding their fury against Christ to be without excuse, and being prevented from killing Him |593 with their own hands by the approach of the atoning sacrifice (for they were about to sacrifice the Paschal lamb, according to the Law, which yet with them had lost its power), they bring Him to Pilate; trusting, in their gross folly, that they would not be quite implicated in the charge of shedding blood unjustly if they did not slay Him themselves, but only brought Him to suffer death at the hands of another; though what was in their hearts was altogether at variance with the Mosaic Law. And we must convict them, besides, of the greatest folly in acting as follows. For, while sentencing the sinless One to the doom of death, and bringing down upon their own heads the guilt of so frightful an impiety, they yet shun the threshold of the judgment hall, as though it would cause them to be defiled, and anxiously shrink from having intercourse with men who were still unclean. For they believed, I suppose, that stones, and the bodies of men who were their brethren, could defile the soul of man; but deemed that the worst of all crimes, the most unjust shedding of blood, stained them not a whit. And, marvel of marvels, the most absurd and irrational idea of all, they think themselves purified by the slaughter of a lamb, which typified for us nothing but the shadow of the mystery that is in Christ; and, while honouring the type of what is coming to pass, they scorn the reality itself. For while they were performing that which was but the semblance of His Atonement, they were defiled by the shedding of the Blood of Christ. Christ, then, said well when He called them whited sepulchres, outwardly adorned with the superficial embellishments of art, but inwardly full of evil odours and detestable impurity; and when, in another place, He said that they strained out the gnat and swallowed the camel. For while they were often exact about matters that were, so to say, wholly unimportant and insignificant, or, rather, about a mere nothing (for what is the gnat?), they made of no account the most weighty of all the charges against themselves, and made |594 clean the outside of the cup and platter, while they regarded not at all the uncleanness within. For see how, though the prophet Jeremiah said plainly: Wash thy heart from wickedness, O Jerusalem, that thou mayest be saved, they were thoroughly convinced that the inward impiety of the soul mattered not a whit; and, when they brought Christ to Pilate, they shrank from places as accursed, and from the bodies of uncircumcised men; and if they did not commit the lawless act with their own hands, they yet made Pilate, as it were, minister to their cruelty, and in their stupidity imagined that they remained free from all blame. It may well excite our wonder to find that the holy prophets were well aware even of this impiety of theirs; for the blessed Isaiah said concerning them: Woe unto the wicked I for the reward of his hands shall be given him. And Ezekiel also: As thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head. Moreover, the inspired Psalmist exclaims: Render to them their desert; give them according to the work of their hands. For as they led Christ, the Saviour of all, captive to the Roman officers, so they received in their turn their reward, and were abandoned to the dominion of Rome, and were spoiled by the hand of their conquerors. For so fearful was the war that was kindled against them, and so frightful the extremities in which they were involved, that, if it had been possible, some, nay many, among them would rather have chosen to go into the mountains and rocks, and die there, before they saw the war----a choice which Christ foretold that they would make, when He said: When ye see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then shall ye say to the mountains, Cover us; and to the hills, Fall on us.
29 Pilate therefore went out unto them, and saith, What accusation bring ye against this Man?
They shrank from the pollution, as they deemed it, of stones and walls, but Pilate went forth and inquired of |595 them the reason of their coming to him, and required them to tell him the charges against the Captive they had brought unto him, judging the leaders of the Jews on the other hand. For, though he was a foreigner, he held in respect the ordinances of the Jews, and treated with consideration their prevailing customs. For he hastened out of the judgment hall, as was not his habit, expressing to the Jews by this significant action that their Law ought to be observed. They, being contrariwise minded to the Divine commandments, and paying very little heed to the Mosaic dispensation, were bringing about an unrighteous blood-shedding; while Pilate, who was outside the pale of the Law, inquired the charges, and investigated the accusations, they brought against Him, and pointed out to them, that it was absurd to chastise or exact a penalty from a Man Who had done no sin. And they, though they had nothing to say against Him, brought Him to Pilate, like a fierce robber. Well, then, was it said to the Synagogue of the Jews: Sodom has been justified by thee; and Christ Himself cries out, accusing the madness that the children of Israel here showed: Thou hast not done according to the judgments of the nations round about. And the saying is true; for the Greeks would not with defiled and unwashed hands have brought the usual sacrifices to the stones and blocks of wood they conceived to be gods, nor would they have destroyed one, unless it was in the most evil plight; but the Jews, though about to sacrifice the Passover to the true God, had their souls stained with the guilt of innocent blood, and were hastening to put to death unjustly Him Who was a stranger to all sin.
30 They answered and said unto him, If this Man were not an evil-doer, we should not have delivered Him up unto thee.
They were perplexed for a specious plea against Him, but cloak the baseness of their impiety, and their apparent resolution to put Him to death unjustly, by the sophistical reply, that they would never have brought |596 Jesus to suffer justice, if they had not taken Him in a criminal act. For they still affected to observe the Law, which bade them execute righteous judgment in all things; and, marvellous to relate, they use their respect for the Law as a weapon against the Lawgiver. They, who did not shrink from bringing an accusation against the Lawgiver, claimed credit as keepers of the Law. They declared that He That had come to take away sin had done evil, that the truth of the words that Christ spake, by the mouth of the Prophet Isaiah, might be seen: Woe unto them! for they have fled from Me: their doom is misery, because they have transgressed against Me. Though I have redeemed them, yet they have spoken lies against Me.
31 Pilate therefore said unto them, Take Him yourselves, and judge Him according to your Law.
I should not do justice, he says, if I were to subject to legal penalties a Man Who has been convicted of no wrong, and Whose doom you left undecided; but judge Him, rather, according to your Law, if, indeed, he says, it has ordained that the Man Who is wholly without guilt deserves chastisement. It is not a little absurd, or, I should rather say, it is a subject for perpetual regret, that, while the Law of the Gentiles justified our Lord, so that even Pilate shrank from punishing Him That was. brought to him on so vague a charge, they, who made it their boast that they were instructed in the Law of God, declared that He ought to be put to death.
31, 32 The Jews therefore said unto him, It is not lawful for us to put any man to death: that the word of Jesus might be fulfilled, which He spake, signifying by what manner of death He should die.
They answer, that their purification, accomplished by the slaughter of the Paschal lamb (if any purification at all were possible for such murderers), stood in their way, and was, as it were, an overpowering obstacle to their |597 shedding His innocent Blood. For, surely, they would have been very ready to commit the impious crime, and would not have needed the co-operation of any other. The Jewish mind was very prone to work every kind of evil deed, and to shrink from no atrocity; and to feel no shame at doing anything displeasing to God. They deemed it right for Pilate to lend them the service of his own cruelty, and to' imitate the fury of the Jews, and to minister to them on this occasion, and to be by them overruled, so as to partake of their madness. And this also they say, that Christ might be proved to speak truth, and to have foreknown what manner of death He would die, and to have foretold it to His holy disciples. For what spake He unto them? Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man is betrayed unto the hands of sinners; and they shall crucify Him, and kill Him, and the third day He shall be raised up. It is requisite to make mention of this. For it was necessary that He should have this foreknowledge, that none might suppose that He, in Whose sight all things are naked and laid open, encountered His death involuntarily; but that men should believe that, of His own Will, He underwent the Cross on our behalf, and for our sakes.
33 Pilate therefore entered again into the palace, and called Jesus, and said unto Him. Art Thou the King of the Jews?
Having nothing at all to accuse Him of, and none of those crimes to allege against Him, which seem to bring in their train just punishment on the doers of them, and Pilate persisting in inquiring why they had brought Him, they assert that Jesus had sinned against Caesar, in assuming on Himself the dominion which Caesar had acquired over the Jews, and in changing the glory of his kingdom to suit His personal pretensions. Great was the malice which suggested this device, and caused the false accusation to assume this shape; for they knew that Pilate, however reluctant he might be, would take |598 thought for his own safety, and would swiftly and precipitately punish the man against whom any such outcry was raised. For, as the inhabitants of Judaea ever were continually moved to tumults and civil strife, and were easily provoked to revolt, Caesar's officers were the more vigilant in this respect, and were more careful guardians of order, and inflicted the most summary penalties on men who had this charge brought against them, sometimes groundlessly. The Jews, therefore, make it a charge against Christ, that He reigned over Israel. Therefore justly were they cast out, and the Gentiles brought in, and made subject to the yoke, and put into the Kingdom of Christ. Ask of Me, He says, and I shall give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession. For when the one nation of the Jews provoked Him to wrath, all the nations of the world are given to Christ; and instead of one country, I mean Judaea, the uttermost parts of the earth. For, as Paul saith: Their fall is the riches of the world, and their loss the riches of the Gentiles. Pilate, then, speaks out plainly what he heard the Jews muttering, and bids Jesus answer him, whether He was in truth the King of the Jews. He was full of anxiety, it would appear, and thought Caesar's rule was menaced, and was, therefore, very desirous to learn the truth, in order to visit what had been done with appropriate retribution, and acquit of blame the office entrusted to him by the Romans.
34 Jesus answered, Sayest thou this of thyself, or did others tell it thee concerning Me?
As no one, He says, has openly brought this charge against Me, whence proceeds your question? There can be no doubt that this trick proceeds from the malice of the Jews, and that they devised this cruel stratagem; for else you would not be, He says, at once judge and accuser. And Christ said this, wishing to bring it to the knowledge of Pilate that nothing that was unseen, |599 and devised, and said in secret, could escape Him; and that, seeing that He was more than man, he might be more reluctant to minister to the cruelty of those who brought Him; and at the same time to teach him that he did very wrong in forcing Him, Who had been convicted of no crime, on the mere word of others to pay the penalty.
35 Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Thine own nation and the chief priests delivered Thee unto me: What hast Thou done?
He now exposes the villainy of the Jews, and almost publishes the multitude of His accusers. It is as though he said: "It does not concern me to know about Thee, for I am not a Jew; but rather befits Thine own nation and kindred, who. it may be, have this knowledge, and so bring Thee to suffer death." He then accuses himself. For to say, What hast Thou done, implies nothing else but this. The holy Evangelist was very zealous to narrate every detail about the trial of Christ, and among them he tells us the fact that Pilate asked Jesus the question: What hast Thou done? And hereby we may best observe the total absence of charges against Him, and that, as none were brought forward, and Christ our Saviour was convicted of no crime, the sentence of death that went forth against Him was impious and most unjust.
36 Jesus answered, My Kingdom is not of this world: if My Kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is My Kingdom not from hence.
He dispelled the fear Pilate felt as the appointed guardian of Caesar's kingdom, for he supposed that Christ was meditating insurrection against temporal rule, as the Jews had vainly talked. For they hinted at this when they said: If this Man were not an evildoer, we should not have delivered Him up unto thee; |600 meaning insurrection by the evil they said He was doing. For they affected to be so well-disposed to the Romans, as not even to be able to utter the word revolt. For this cause, then, they said they had brought Him to Pilate, to suffer judgment. Christ, in His reply, denied not that He was a King, for He could not but speak truth; but He clearly proved that He was no enemy to Caesar's rule, signifying that His Kingdom was not an earthly kingdom, but that He reigned, as God, over heaven and earth, and yet greater things than these.
What proof, then, did He give? and how did He remove this suspicion? He says, that He had never employed any spearmen or warriors, and had never had with Him any men at all resolved on resistance; not merely in order to prevent His losing His Kingdom, but not even, that He might escape from the imminent danger cast upon Him by the hand of the Jews; for it did not proceed from their ruler himself, namely, Caesar. When, then, He had shown the groundlessness of this outcry by so clear a proof, Pilate perceived that the presumptuous attempt against Christ was without excuse. Yet, without any compulsion, and when there was nothing to incite him to that consequence, he complied with the pleasure of the Jews, to the perdition of his own soul, and shared with them the guilt of having put Christ to death. Christ, indeed, when He said that His Kingdom was a supernatural kingdom, not only freed Pilate from all alarm, and dispelled his suspicions about an insurrection, but induced him also to have an exalted opinion of Him, and by His reply in some sort commenced to instruct him.
37 Pilate therefore said unto Him, Art Thou a king then?
He makes use of Christ's truth-speaking to charge Him withal. When he heard Him say: My Kingdom is not from hence, he was indeed quit of his fear of an insurrection; but he still compels Him to openly profess this thing, and defines as a charge His mere assertion |601 that He had a kingdom, though He asserted that it was not of this world. He drives Jesus, as it were, to make this profession; and says, Thou hast confessed already that Thou art a King.
37, 38 Jesus answered him, Thou sayest that I am a King. To this end have I been born, and to this end am I come into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth My voice. Pilate saith unto Him, What is truth?
He does not deny the glory of His Kingdom, nor leave it to the voice of Pilate only to affirm it, for as God He is King, whether man so will, or no; but He once more showed the power of the truth which impelled Pilate, though reluctant, to declare the glory of Him Who was on His trial; for, He says: Thou hast said, that I am a King. For this cause was I born, He says, and came into this world when I became Man, that I should bear witness unto the truth; that is, that He might take lying out of the world, and, having subdued the devil, who gained his way by guile, He might show truth triumphant over the universe; truth----that is, that nature that is truly sovereign by nature, which has not by craft acquired the ability to hold rule and dominion over heaven and earth, and, in a word, everything that is brought into being; nor has this been added unto it from without, but it is seen to be essentially and naturally inherent. In order, too, that He might show that Pilate's dulness of apprehension arose from his stubborn heart, and his reluctance to admit the truth, Christ fitly adds the word: Everyone that is of the truth heareth My voice. For the word of truth gains a ready acceptance from those who have already learnt and love it; but with others it is not so. Yea, the Prophet Isaiah said to some: If ye will not believe, neither shall ye understand. Pilate showed at once the truth of this, when he said: What is truth? For, just as those whose sight is injured, and who have wholly |602 lost the use of their eyes, have their sense of colour entirely annihilated, so as not to note when gold is brought before them, or a shining and precious stone shown them, nay, even the very light of the sun's rays excites in them no wonder, as they have no perception thereof, and can gain no profit from any such thing; so to men whose minds are warped, truth seems a foul and ugly thing, although it instils into the minds of those who behold it its spiritual and Divine radiancy.
38, 39 And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find no crime in Him. But ye have a custom, that I should release unto you one prisoner at the Passover: will ye therefore that I release unto you the King of the Jews?
For a condemnation at once of the want of piety, and of the cruelty of the Jews, he excels them in the knowledge of what was just and right, though he could not boast of Divine instruction, but was merely the guardian of human ordinances, and reverenced most of all the enactments of those from whom he had his office as a gift. If the teachers of the Jewish Law had so done, and chosen to be thus minded, they might very likely have escaped the net of the devil, and shunned the most abominable of all crimes, I mean the shedding of the Blood of Christ. Pilate, then, hesitates to condemn Christ, Who had been taken in and convicted of no criminal act, and says that He That was far removed from all guilt ought not to pay a penalty, and strongly maintains that it is wholly at variance with the laws he observed; putting to shame the frightful frenzy of the Jews in contradiction to their own Law. For he thought that, as they professed to reverence the doctrine of impartial justice, they ought at once to yield to the statement of what was just and right that he put before them. But, perceiving that to acquit Him That they had brought to him of all blame would imply no small condemnation of the precipitancy of the Jews, that they might not on this account insist |603 the more vehemently, and stir up a strange commotion, he paved the way, as it were, and put the best complexion upon the matter, by saying: Ye have a custom, that I should release unto you one prisoner at the Passover: will ye therefore that I release unto you the King of the Jews? When he called Jesus King of the Jews, he spoke in jest, and tried to abate by ridicule the anger of the furious mob, and hereby also clearly showed that this particular accusation was brought in vain; for a Roman officer would never have thought a man condemned of plotting for a kingdom and revolution against Rome, worthy to be released. He bore witness, then, to His utter guiltlessness by the very reasons he gave for His release.
I think these words explain the drift of the passage. And as I was considering and meditating in my mind how the custom arose for the Jews to ask for one man to be released to them (a robber, it might be, or a murderer), the idea occurred to me that they no longer regulated their actions altogether according to the Law, but, choosing rather to use their own customs, they fell into a decayed state of manners not altogether in accordance with the Mosaic dispensation. But while I was searching the Divine Scriptures, and hunting everywhere for the origin of this custom, I came upon one of the Divine dictates, which caused me to suspect that when the Jews sought the release of a malefactor, they were, in fact, in however mistaken a way, fulfilling one of the customs of the Law. At the end of the book called Numbers we find recorded the law concerning voluntary and involuntary homicide; and when the penalty in the case of premeditated murder has been clearly laid down, the book goes on to speak of involuntary homicide, and, after other remarks, makes the following declaration: But if he thrust him suddenly without enmity, or have cast upon him anything without laying of wait, or with any stone wherewith a man may die, seeing him not, and cast it upon him that he die, and was not his enemy, |604 neither sought his harm: then the congregation shall judge between the slayer and the revenger of blood, and the congregation shall restore him to the city of his refuge, whither he was fled. Such, then, being the written commandment, when any, as it chanced, were involved in such a calamity, the Jews, when they were congregated together, that they might not appear altogether to neglect this enactment, sought the release of one of them. For the Law laid down that it was to be the act of the entire assembly. As, then, they were permitted by the Law to ask for the release of a prisoner, they make this request of Pilate. For after they had once accepted the Roman yoke they were henceforth, for the most part, in the administration of their affairs ruled by their laws. Nay, further, though it was lawful for them to put to death any one convicted of a crime, they brought Jesus to Pilate as a criminal, saying: It is not lawful for us to put any man to death. For though they alleged as a plea their purification by the sacrifice of the Passover, yet they showed themselves flatterers of Rome, in entrusting to the laws of the Romans the duty which the Divine commandment from heaven laid upon themselves.
40 They cried out therefore again, saying, Not this Man, but Barabbas. Now Barabbas was a robber.
Herein also the Jews show themselves indeed lawbreakers, and more inclined to give way to their own inclinations than to honour their ancient commandments; for though the Mosaic Law ordered that a man who had committed involuntary homicide should be released, and not a man like Barabbas (for how could such a thing be?), they prefer to ask for a notorious robber. And that the man here named was, in fact, a dangerous and brutal criminal, and not free from blood-guiltiness, the words of the inspired Peter to the people of the Jews will make clear to us: But ye denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to |605 be granted unto you. For they preferred a robber to Him Who regarded not His equality with God the Father, and took our poverty upon Him for this very end, that He might deliver us from the true murderer, that is, Satan; and they were men adorned with the priesthood of the Law, and who greatly vaunted themselves thereon. Yet they passed by and utterly rejected the commandment, Judge righteous judgment, and justified the murderer, condemning Christ, and cried with one accord: Not this Man, but Barabbas. The Jews, however, will pay the penalty of their impious act; but we may well admire the Holy Scripture, examining it in the light of Christ's Person, and this desperate outcry; for thus saith the Prophet Jeremiah: I have forsaken mine house, I have left mine heritage, I have given my beloved soul into the hand of her enemies. Mine heritage is unto me as a lion in the forest; it crieth out against me. It may be well to explain this simile of the lion in the forest. He says it is with his heritage as when this great and frightful beast desires to seize some prey in the forest, it goes up to a high peak, and gives forth a great and fearful roar, and strikes such terror into those who hear, that man or beast at once fall prostrate, not able to endure the awful sound of his threatening voice, and the beast, as it were, makes them fall by the breath of his mouth. And God confirms this saying also by the prophet, when he thus speaks: The lion roareth; who will not fear? The assembly of the Jews, therefore, was as a lion in the forest to our Saviour Christ, so far, at least, as their presumptuous clamour against Him went; for the Nature of God endureth not panic or fear at all. For the assembly, by its clamour, put Him to death, though Pilate invited them to choose His release; so that even those who had not yet learnt the Divine Law might be proved better than men instructed in the Law. |606
xix, 1, 2, 3 Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged Him. And the soldiers plaited a crown of thorns, and put it on His head, and arrayed Him in a purple garment; and they came unto Him, and said, Hail, King of the Jews! And they struck Him with their hands.
He scourges Him unjustly, and suffers the crowd of soldiers to insult Him, and put a crown of thorns about His Head, and throw a purple robe upon Him, and buffet Him with the palms of their hands, and otherwise dishonour Him. For he thought he could easily put to shame the people of the Jews, if they saw the Man Who was altogether free from guilt suffering this punishment, only without a cause. He was scourged unjustly, that He might deliver us from merited chastisement; He was buffeted and smitten, that we might buffet Satan, who had buffeted us, and that we might escape from the sin that cleaves to us through the original transgression. For if we think aright, we shall believe that all Christ's sufferings were for us and on our behalf, and have power to release and deliver us from all those calamities we have deserved for our revolt from God. For as Christ, Who knew not death, when He gave up His own Body for our salvation, was able to loose the bonds of death for all mankind, for He, being One, died for all; so we must understand that Christ's suffering all these things for us sufficed also to release us all from scourging and dishonour. Then in what way by His stripes are we healed, according to the Scripture? Because we have all gone astray, every man after his own way, as says the blessed Prophet Isaiah; and the Lord hath given Himself up for our transgressions, and for us is afflicted. For He was bruised for our iniquities, and has given His own back to the scourge, and His cheeks to the smiters, as he also says. The soldiers indeed take Jesus as a pretender to the throne, and insult Him soldierlike. And for this cause was a crown of thorns brought and put upon His brow, being the symbol of earthly |607 sovereignty; and the purple robe was, as it were, an image and type of royal apparel; and ridicule also was thereby heaped upon Him, for they came near unto Him, and cried, as the Evangelist says: Hail, King of the Jews!
And I have heard some say, and to some the conceit is well-pleasing, that the crown of thorns further signifies the multitude of idol-worshippers who will be taken up by Christ, as it were, into a diadem, through faith in Him; and they liken the Gentiles to barren and useless thorns, through their bearing no fruit of piety, and being rather fit to feed consuming fire----just like rubbish in the fields, just as wild thicket, which grows up without any culture; and the royal apparel, I mean the purple robe, they say, means Christ's Kingdom, which will be extended over all the world. We may well receive any interpretation which is not alien to the truth, and which it is not unprofitable to believe in. We need not therefore reject such a construction of the passage, indicative as it is of careful ingenuity.
4 And Pilate went out again, and saith unto them, Behold, I bring Him out to you, that ye may know that I find no crime in Him.
He confesses the wrong he had done, and is not ashamed. For he admitted that he had scourged Him without a cause, and declares that he will show Him unto them, supposing that he would glut their savage passion by so pitiable a spectacle, and well-nigh accuses them henceforth, and that publicly, of putting Him to death unjustly, and of compelling him openly to be a law-breaker, who, if he transgressed his own laws, could not escape scot free. The saying was fulfilled in Christ, and shown to be true, that the prince of this world cometh, and he will find nothing in Me. For observe how Satan, after throwing everything into confusion, finds nothing at all cast out from God, and ranked under the power of sin, which he might, perhaps, if it had been referred to the Saviour Christ, have caused to be rightly |608 condemned and implicated in his accusations. Just as; then, in Adam he subdued the whole human race, showing it to be subject unto sin, so now was he vanquished by Humanity. For He That was truly God, and had no sin in Him, was yet Man; and just as the sentence of condemnation for transgression went forth over all mankind, through one man, the first Adam, so likewise, also, the blessing of justification by Christ is extended to all through One Man, the Second Adam. Paul is our witness, who says: As through one the judgment came unto all men to condemnation; even so through One the free gift came unto all men to justification of life. We therefore are diseased through the disobedience of the first Adam and its curse, but are enriched through the obedience of the Second and its blessing. For He that was Lord of the Law as God came among us, and kept the Law as Man. Yea, we find Him saying unto us: He that loveth Me will keep My commandments; even as I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His love. Note how He, as Lawgiver and God, has enjoined upon us the keeping of His commandments; and how, as keeping the Law while a Man among men, He declares that He Himself also kept the commandment of His Father.
5, 6 Jesus therefore came out, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple garment. And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the Man! When therefore the chief priests and the officers saw Him, they cried out, saying, Crucify Him, Crucify Him.
He showed, then, the Lord of all impiously outraged, and mocked by the intolerable insults of the soldiers, trusting that the furious wrath of the Jews would be sated, and now, at last, abate, and rest content with that most pitiable and dishonourable spectacle. But they were so far from showing any mercy in word or deed towards Him, and from entertaining any kind of good intentions, as even to surpass the ferocity of beasts, and to hurry onward to greater evil still, and make a still |609 more furious outcry, condemning Him to the worst of deaths, and compelling Him to undergo the extremity of suffering. For what punishment can be as severe as the Cross? And it is to the leaders of the Jews alone, it appears, that the wise Evangelist ascribed the origin of this impious doom. For see how, as it were, carefully guarding his words, he says: When, therefore, the chief priests and the officers saw Him, they cried out, saying, Crucify Him, crucify Him. For, when the multitude of the vulgar were, it may be, somewhat ashamed by the sight of Christ's sufferings, for perhaps they called to mind the wonderful miracles wrought by Him, the rulers first start the clamour, and kindle into strange fury the passions of the people subject unto them. That which was said of God in the prophets, concerning them, is true: For the pastors have become brutish, and have not sought the Lord; therefore all their flock perceived Him not, and were scattered abroad. And the saying is true. For as those in the pasture, that is, the multitude of the vulgar, did not enjoy the direction of their rulers to the knowledge of Christ, they perished, and relapsed into ruinous heedlessness of Christ. For let any man that likes probe the origin of the impious crime, and he will ascribe it to the rulers. For it was in the outset their most unholy design; they it was who induced the traitor to make a bargain with them, and bought Him over with the money of the Sanctuary; they joined the band of soldiers to the officers, bade them bind Him like the meanest of robbers, and brought Him to Pilate; and now, when they saw Him scourged, and well-nigh beside Himself with insults from every quarter, are but exasperated the more, and utter the dictates of their unmeasured hatred. For they purposed to put the Lord of the Vineyard to death, and thought they would securely enjoy His heritage, and, if Christ were removed, that they would again rule and enjoy all honour. But, as the Psalmist says: He that sitteth in the heavens, shall laugh them to scorn; the Lord shall hold them in derision. For nothing happened |610 according to their expectation, but, on the contrary, the course of events was completely reversed.
6 Pilate saith unto them, Take Him yourselves, and crucify Him; for I find no crime in Him.
Pilate is in consternation, that the people of the Jews and the inhuman crowd of the chief priests should attain to such a pitch of presumption, as not even to shrink from subjecting Christ to so frightful a death, though no fault was found in Him to bring Him to such a doom. And, therefore, he says, almost like one annoyed at an insult offered to himself: "Make you me a judge of this unjust shedding of blood? Am I, contrary to all Roman Law, become the murderer of the Innocent? and shall I, at your beck and call, fling to the winds all thought of myself? and shall I not, if I minister at my own peril to your requests, live in expectation of paying the penalty? If you do not think that you are doing an unholy deed; if you think the work presents no difficulty; do you yourselves, he says----you, who boast of Divine instruction, you, who vaunt so highly your knowledge of your Law----do you fix the cross, dare the murder, do of yourselves the unholy deed, bringing down on your own heads the charge of this great impiety; let the presumptuous act be the act of Jews, and upon them let the blood-guiltiness rest. If you have a Law that subjects the Sinless to so fearful a penalty, that chastises the Guiltless, execute it with your own hands; I will not endure to be a party to it." We may imagine this to be what Pilate says, for his words are pregnant with some such meaning. And the shamelessness of the Jews may here also well excite our amazement, for they are not even put to shame by the just judgment of a foreigner, though the Divine Law said concerning this people: For the priest's lips should keep judgment, and they should seek the Law from his mouth. |611
7 The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law He ought to die, because He made Himself the Son of God.
When their false accusation that they had at first contrived proved fruitless, and they established against Him no attempt at revolution or revolt against Caesar's rule (for the Lord parried these charges, saying: My Kingdom is not of this world; if my Kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews), and when Pilate thereupon gave a just and impartial verdict, and did not as yet comply with their will, but said openly that He found no fault in Him, the audacious Jews completely changed their tactics, and asserted that they had a law, which condemned the Saviour to death. What law was that? That which fixes the punishment for blasphemers; for in the book called Leviticus it is recorded, that certain men, who were counted among Jews, strove together, according to the Scripture, in the camp, and that one of them made mention of the Name of God, and blessed Him, for thus saith the Scripture euphemistically, meaning that he cursed and blasphemed Him, and was then doomed to die, and to pay a bitter penalty for his impious tongue, God plainly declaring: Whosoever curseth his God shall bear his sin, and he that taketh the Name of the Lord in vain, shall be put to death, and all the congregation of Israel shall stone him: as well the stranger as he that is born in the land, when he taketh the Name of the Lord in vain, shall be put to death.
But, perhaps, someone may be in doubt, and ask this question: "What, then, does the Law say, and what does it intend to signify hereby?" For that a man who is convicted of blasphemy against God should die is, indeed, just, and he very rightly meets his doom. But suppose a man treat a false god with contumely, is he then not free from guilt? For the words of the Law are, If any man curse God, he shall bear his sin. What do we reply? The Lawgiver is infallible, for to |612 love to hurl scorn upon false gods is, as it were, a course of preparation which makes us ready to utter blasphemies against the true God. Therefore also, in another passage, He dissuades us from it, saying: Gods thou shalt not revile; for He thought it meet to give unto the name of Godhead, though it be sometimes misplaced, the honour that is its due. The Law, however, did not certainly bid us ascribe any honour to gods erroneously so called, but teaches us to regard as holy the name of Godhead, though it be stolen by some.
As the Law, then, orders that the man who is convicted of blasphemy should be rewarded with death, they say that Christ is subject to the penalty, for that He made Himself the Son of God. We ought to bear in mind where, and in what sense, this was said by Christ. At the pool that was called after the sheep-gate, He healed the impotent man of his long and grievous infirmity on the Sabbath-day. And the Jews, when they ought to have marvelled at the wonders that He wrought, were, on the contrary, offended at His breaking the Sabbath, and for that reason only railed against Him. Then Christ answered, and said: My Father worketh even until now, and I work; and thereupon says the Evangelist: For this cause therefore the Jews persecuted Jesus, because He not only brake the Sabbath, but also called God His own Father, making Himself equal with God. The Jews, then, were offended when Christ called the Lord of all His Father; and then He made this most mild reply to them, saying: It is written in your Law, I said, Ye are gods, and are all sons of the Most High. If he called them gods unto whom the Word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), say ye of Him Whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God? But the people of the Jews, remembering none of these things, make the truth a charge against the truth; and because Christ said what |613 was in fact the truth, they assert that He is worthy of death. Here I will make use of the Prophet's words: How do ye say, We are wise, and the Law of the Lord is with us? For would it not have been right, either first to ascertain by the strictest scrutiny Who Christ was, and whence He came; and if He had been convicted of falsehood, then, very justly, to pass sentence upon Him, or if He spoke the truth, to worship Him? Why, then, did you Jews give up searching and satisfying yourselves by Holy Writ, and betake yourselves to making a mere outcry against Him? and why made you what was in fact the truth, the ground for accusation? You ought, when you said unto Pilate: He made Himself the Son of God, to have charged Him also with the works of Godhead, and to have made His mighty wonder-working power a count in the indictment; you ought to have cried out thereafter, that a man who had been three days dead, rose again, and came back to life at the mere bidding of the Saviour; you ought to have brought forward the only child of the widow, and the daughter of the leader of the synagogue; you ought to have called to mind that Divine saying, spoken unto the son of the widow: Young man, I say unto thee, Arise; and to the damsel: Maiden, Arise. You ought, besides, to have told Pilate, that He gave sight to the blind, and cleansed the lepers of their leprosy; and also, that by a single word of command He calmed the storm of the angry sea, and the onslaught of the raging billows; and whatever else Christ did. All this, however, they bury in the silence of ingratitude, and passing over those miracles whereby Christ was seen to be God, in malice they proceed to basely state the paradox; and, miserable wretches that they were, they cried out to a foreigner, who had no knowledge of the Divine Scripture, and saw that Jesus was a Man: He made Himself the Son of God; though the inspired Scripture declared that the Word of God should visit the world in human form: Behold, the Virgin shall be with child, and shall bring |614 forth a Son, and they shall call His Name Emmanuel; which is, being interpreted, God with us. And what could that which was born of a virgin be but a man, like unto us in bodily appearance and nature? But, besides being Man, He was also truly God.
8, 9 When Pilate therefore heard this saying, he was the more afraid; and he entered into the palace again, and saith unto Jesus, Whence art Thou? But Jesus gave him no answer.
The malicious design of the Jews had a result they little expected. For they wished to pile up the indictment against Christ, by saying that He had ventured to sin against the Person of God Himself. But the weighty character of the accusation itself increased Pilate's caution, and he was the more oppressed with alarm, and more careful concerning Christ than before, and questioned Him the more particularly, what He was, and whence He came; not disbelieving, as I think, that though He was a Man, He might be also the Son of God. This idea and belief of his, was not derived from Holy Writ, but the mistaken notions of the Greeks; for Greek fables call many men demi-gods, and sons of gods. The Romans, too, who in such matters were still more superstitious, gave the name of god to the more distinguished of their own monarchs, and set up altars to them, and allotted them shrines, and put them on pedestals. Therefore Pilate was more earnest and anxious than before, in his inquiry Who Christ was, and whence He came. But He, the Scripture saith, answered him not a word, remembering, I suppose, what He Himself had said unto him: Every one that is of the truth, heareth My voice. And how could Pilate, a worshipper of idols, have hearkened to the voice of the Saviour, when He said that He was Truth, and the Child of truth? And how could he at all have received and honoured the name of truth, who at once ridiculed it, and said, What is truth? because he still worshipped |615 false gods, and was buried in the darkness of their deceitfulness?
10 Pilate therefore saith unto Him, Speakest Thou not unto me? Knowest Thou not that I have power to crucify Thee, and have power to release Thee?
Pilate thought this silence the silence of a madman. Therefore, he stretches over Him, as it were, the wand of his official power, and thought that he could induce Him by fear, against His Will, to return a fruitless answer. For he says that nothing could hinder his inclining whichever way he chose, either to punish Him, or to take compassion upon Him; and that there was nothing to turn him aside, to give a verdict against his will, with whom alone rested the fate of the accused. He rebukes Him, therefore, as though he felt himself insulted by untimely silence, and, so far as that went, his indignation were whetted against Him. For he perceived not at all the hidden meaning of Christ's silence. Observe here the accurate fulfilment of that which was foretold by the voice of the Prophet: He was brought as a lamb to the slaughter; and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth. In His humiliation His judgment was taken away. Thus saith the blessed Isaiah, and the Psalmist also, assuming the Person of Christ, saith in the Spirit: I have kept My mouth with a bridle, while the wicked congregated themselves before Me. I was dumb, and humbled Myself, and kept silence from good words. By good words, curses must be understood. For it is usual with Holy Scripture to speak euphemistically on such occasions, when reference is made to the Person of God Himself.
11 Jesus answered him, Thou wouldest have no power against Me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivereth Me unto thee hath greater sin.
He makes no clearer revelation of what He was, or |616 whence He came, or Who was His Father. Nor, indeed, does He suffer us to waste the word of revelation, by giving it to ears that are estranged, saying: Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast your pearls before the swine. When, then, Pilate was parading before Him his official power, and, in his folly, alleging that he could wholly determine His fate according to his mere will and pleasure, He very appropriately meets him with a declaration of His own power and might, and stops him short, as it were, as he was vaunting himself with vain and empty boasting against the glory of God. For, in truth, it were no small calamity that any should suppose that Christ could be dragged, against His Will, to suffer insult; and that the malice of the Jews vanquished Him, Who was truly God, and proclaimed Sovereign of the universe by the holy and inspired writings. He has, therefore, removed this stumblingblock from our path, and cuts up, as it were, such an error by the roots, by the words: Except it were given thee from above. And when He says, that power was given to Pilate from above, He does not mean that God the Father inflicted crucifixion upon His own Son, against His Will; but that the Only-begotten Himself gave Himself to suffer for us, and that the Father suffered the fulfilment of the mystery in Him. It is, then, plainly the consent and approval of the Father that is here said to have been given, and the pleasure of the Son is also clearly signified. For, no doubt the force of numbers could never have overcome the power of the Saviour; but we may easily see this from the numerous plots they laid against Him, which resulted in nothing but their being convicted of having made an insolent attempt. They, indeed, desired to seize Him, as the Evangelist says; but He, going through the midst of them, went His way, and so passed by. He says, so passed by, meaning, not cautiously, or with bated breath, or practising the manoeuvres that men do who wish to escape; but with his usual step, free from all alarm. For |617 He hid Himself by His Divine and ineffable might, and then eluded the sight of His would-be murderers; for He did not wish as yet to die nor did He suffer the passions of His persecutors to determine, as it were, without His consent the hour of His peril. Therefore He says, that by His own command, and the consent of God the Father, power was given unto Pilate, so that he was enabled to accomplish the deeds which he did, in fact, venture to perform. For the nature of the Most High God is wholly invincible, and cannot be subdued by anything that exists; for in Him the power of universal dominion of necessity exists. He accuses of the greater sin----that is, of greater sin against Himself----the traitor that brought Him to Pilate; and with great reason. For he was, as it were, the source from which the impious crime against Him sprang, and also the gate through which it passed; while the judge was but the minister to the crimes of others, and so showed himself, by his ill-timed cowardice, a partaker in the iniquity of the Jews. Who, then, is the traitor, and to whom is the prime authorship of the charges to be referred? Surely, to that most venal disciple, or rather traitor and destroyer of his own soul; and besides him, the crowd of the rulers and the people of the Jews; and though Christ attributes to them the greater part of the blame, He does not acquit Pilate wholly of complicity in guilt.
12 Upon this Pilate sought to release Him: but the Jews cried out, saying, If thou release this Man, thou art not Caesar's friend: everyone that maketh himself a king speaketh against Caesar.
The exclamation of the Jews afflicts Pilate with panic, and sharpens the keenness of his caution, and makes him pause before putting Him to death. For they shouted out, that that very prisoner had made Himself the Son of God, Whom Pilate had been most anxious to release from all danger, and to acquit of every false |618 accusation, having this fear at heart. The Israelites saw this, and returned to their original falsehood, saying, that Jesus had courted the people, and transgressed against Caesar's power, and, so far as His power went, had waged war against the rule of Rome, for He had made Himself a king. See how laborious and passionate was the attempt of His accusers against Him! For, first of all, they cried out with one accord, miserable wretches that they were, and asserted that He had ventured to assail Caesar's power. But when they did not meet with much success, Christ declaring that His Kingdom was not an earthly kingdom, they alleged, even unto Pilate, who sat in a Roman tribunal, His offence against God Himself, saying: He made Himself the Son of God. For the villains thought that they could thereby spur Pilate to heedless wrath, and lend him courage to doom the Saviour to death, making His action a mark of His piety towards God; but when their malicious attempt proved unavailing, they once more recurred to the charge they had presumed to make at first, declaring that He had ventured to assail the rule of Caesar, and violently accusing the judge of taking up arms against Caesar's majesty, if he did not consent to pass the sentence of fitting condemnation upon Him Who, as they alleged, had spoken against Caesar, by daring to take upon Himself, in any shape, the title of King; though Caesar did not claim an empire in the heavens, such as that of which Christ was, indeed, the Lord, but an earthly and inferior empire, which itself had its root in the power of Christ. For through Him kings reign, according to the Scripture, and monarchs rule over the earth. Therefore these most impious men bridled not their tongues, but, in their excessive enmity to God, attacked the glory of the Saviour. Them did the blessed Prophet Isaiah justly rebuke, saying: But draw near hither, ye sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the whore. Against Whom do ye sport |619 yourselves? against Whom make ye a wide mouth, and draw out the tongue? Are ye not children of perdition, a lawless seed? For it was not against any mere man that they made their outcry, and spoke out with unbridled tongues, and practised every sort of calumny; but against their own Lord Himself, Who ruleth over all with the Father. Therefore rightly did they become, and are in truth, children of perdition, and a lawless seed,
13, 14 When Pilate therefore heard this saying, he brought Jesus out, and sat down on the judgment-seat, at a place called the Pavement, but in Hebrew, Gabbatha. Now it was the preparation of the Passover: it was about the sixth hour. And he saith unto the Jews, Behold your King!
The Evangelist, when he thus speaks, throws the whole burden, as it were, of the charge of shedding Christ's blood upon the Jews. For he now clearly says, that Pilate was well-nigh overcome against his will by their opposition, so that he put away the thought of justice, and paid little heed to the consequence; and, therefore, he was dragged down to do the will of Christ's murderers, though he had often expressly told them, that Jesus had been found guilty of no fault at all, and it is this which will make Him subject to the worst of penalties. For, by preferring the pleasure of a mob to honouring the Just, and giving over a guiltless Man to the frenzy of the Jews, he will be convicted out of his own mouth of impiety. He ascends, therefore, to his usual judgment-seat, as about to pronounce sentence of death against Christ. The inspired Evangelist is induced to signify to our profit the day and hour, because of the resurrection itself, and His three days' sojourn among the departed, that the truth of our Lord's saying to the Jews might appear: For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so also shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The Roman ruler on his judgment-seat, pointing to |620 Jesus, says: Behold your King! Either he was jesting with the multitude, and was granting, with a scornful smile, the innocent blood to those who thirsted for it without a cause, or, perhaps, he was casting in the teeth of the savage Jews the reproach that they endured to see in such evil plight Him Whom they themselves named and asserted to be King of Israel.
15 They therefore cried out, Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King?
They reiterate their old cry with the same fury, and desisted not from their lust for blood, and were not softened at all by the insults He had endured, nor inclined to clemency by the outrages inflicted upon Him; but were rather goaded to a greater pitch of fury, and intreat that He Who had raised the dead in their midst, and shown Himself the worker of such marvels, should be crucified; at which Pilate was sore amazed, seeing that they declared with such vehemence, that He, Who had acquired such eminence among them as to be deemed the Son of God, and King, was not merely worthy of death, but that He deserved so cruel a fate, for crucifixion is the worst of deaths. The judge, therefore, makes their outcry a charge and reproach against them, that they should be desirous that He should be crucified, Who had excited so great admiration by deeds which were so pre-eminent as to transcend anything on earth. For what is there that is equal to what does not fall short of the Son of God, and King?
15 The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar.
Hereupon the well-beloved Israel spurned his God, and started aside from his allegiance, and, as Moses said, abandoned the God that was his Father, and remembered not the Lord his helper. For see how he turned his eyes upon an harlot, according to the Scripture, refused to be ashamed, disowned his own glory, and |621 denied his Lord. Of this very charge God accused Israel of old, speaking by the mouth of Jeremiah: For pass over the isles of Chittim, and send unto Kedar, and see whether the nations change their gods, who are yet no gods; but My people have changed their glory. And again: The heavens were astonished thereat, and were horribly afraid, saith the Lord; for My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me the fountain of living waters, and have hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that hold no water. For while other nations throughout the whole world clung fast to the deceitfulness of their idols, and steadfastly adhered to the gods whom they so deemed, and did not readily undergo a change of faith, nor easily alter their form of worship, the Israelites started aside, and joined themselves to the empire of Caesar, and cast off the rule of God. Therefore, very justly, were they given over into Caesar's hands, and, having at first welcomed his rule, afterwards brought themselves to grievous ruin, and underwent expulsion from their country, and the sufferings of war, and those irremediable calamities that befell them.
Observe, too, here the minuteness of the writer. For he does not say that the people started the impious cry, but rather their rulers. For he says: the chief priests cried out, everywhere pointing out, that it was through their submissively following their leaders that the multitude was carried down the precipice, and fell into the abyss of perdition. The chief priests incur the penalty, not merely as losing their own souls, but also as having been leaders and responsible guides of the people subject unto them, in the fatal shedding of blood; just as also the prophet rebuked them, saying: Because ye have been a snare unto the watch-tower, and as a net stretched out upon Tabor, which they who catch the prey have spread. The Prophet here means by the watch-tower the multitude, who were subject unto them, who were arrayed, as it were, to observe the conduct of their rulers, and to conform their own to it. And, therefore, the leading men of the people are |622 called watchmen in Holy Writ. The chief priests themselves, then, were a snare and a net unto the watch-tower; for they both started this denial, and also induced all the rest to cry: We have no king but Caesar. These miserable men presumed so to say, though God the Father, by the mouth of the Prophet, predicted the coming of the Saviour, and cried out: Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: He is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt, the foal of an ass. These men, who had once brought Jesus into Jerusalem riding upon an ass, and honoured Him as a God with blind praises, with one accord, for they cried: Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord! now make an outcry against Him, accusing Him only of attacking the Roman rule, and shaking off, as it were, the yoke of the Kingdom of God from their necks. For this was the plain meaning of the cry: We have no king but Caesar. But we shall find that then, too, it was the people that raised the shout for the Saviour Christ, and that it was the chief priests who presumed in their madness to make this exclamation, just as the others had proceeded from them.
16 Then therefore he delivered Him unto them to be crucified.
Pilate henceforward permits the Jews, in their unbridled resentment, to run to all lengths in lawlessness; and, divesting himself of the power due unto a judge, suffers their uncontrolled passions at length to take their course unreproved, in allowing them to crucify One Who was wholly guiltless, and Who received this monstrous condemnation merely because He said He was the Son of God. One must lay the whole guilt of the impious crime at the door of the Jews; and rightly and justly, I think, accuse them of being the prime movers in the act, for with them originated this impiety against Christ. Yet we cannot acquit Pilate of complicity in their iniquity; for he shared their responsibility, inasmuch as when he might have |623 delivered and rescued Him from the madness of His murderers, he did not merely refrain from releasing Him, but even gave Him up to them for the very purpose, that they might crucify Him.
16, 17, 18 They took Jesus therefore. And He went out, bearing the Gross for Himself, unto the place called the place of a skull, which is called in Hebrew, Golgotha: where they crucified Him, and with Him two others, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst.
They lead away, then, to death the Author of Life; and for our sakes was this done, for by the power and incomprehensible Providence of God, Christ's death resulted in an unexpected reversal of things. For His suffering was prepared as a snare for the power of death, and the death of the Lord was the source of the renewal of mankind in incorruption and newness of life. Bearing the Cross upon His shoulders, on which He was about to be crucified, He went forth; His doom was already fixed, and He had undergone, for our sakes, though innocent, the sentence of death. For, in His own Person, He bore the sentence righteously pronounced against sinners by the Law. For He became a curse for us, according to the Scripture: For cursed is everyone, it is said, that hangeth on a tree. And accursed are we all, for we are not able to fulfil the Law of God: For in many things we all stumble; and very prone to sin is the nature of man. And since, too, the Law of God says: Cursed is he which con-tinueth not in all things that are written in the book of this Law, to do them, the curse, then, belongeth unto us, and not to others. For those against whom the transgression of the Law may be charged, and who are very prone to err from its commandments, surely deserve chastisement. Therefore, He That knew no sin was accursed for our sakes, that He might deliver us from the old curse. For all-sufficient was the God Who is above all, so dying for all; and by the death of |624 His own Body, purchasing the redemption of all mankind.
The Cross, then, that Christ bore, was not for His own deserts, but was the cross that awaited us, and was our due, through our condemnation by the Law. For as He was numbered among the dead, not for Himself, but for our sakes, that we might find in Him, the Author of everlasting life, subduing of Himself the power of death; so also, He took upon Himself the Cross that was our due, passing on Himself the condemnation of the Law, that the mouth of all lawlessness might henceforth be stopped, according to the saying of the Psalmist; the Sinless having suffered condemnation for the sin of all. And of great profit will the deed which Christ performed be to our souls----I mean, as a type of true manliness in God's service. For in no other way can we triumphantly attain to perfection in all virtue, and perfect union with God, save by setting our love toward Him above the earthly life, and zealously waging battle for the truth, if occasion calls us so to do. Moreover, our Lord Jesus Christ says: Every man that doth not take his cross and follow after Me, is not worthy of Me. And taking up the Cross means, I think, nothing else than bidding farewell to the world for God's sake, and preferring, if the opportunity arise, the hope of future glory to life in the body. But our Lord Jesus Christ is not ashamed to bear the Cross that is our due, and to suffer this indignity for love towards us; while we, poor wretches that we are, whose mother is the insensate earth beneath our feet, and who have been called into being out of nothing, sometimes do not even dare to touch the skirt of tribulation in God's service; but, if we have anything to bear in the service of Christ, at once account the shame intolerable, and shrinking from the ridicule of our adversaries, and those who sit in the seat of the scornful, as an accursed thing, and preferring to God's pleasure this paltry and |625 ill-timed craving for reputation, fall sick of the disease of disdainful arrogance, which is the mother, so to say, of all evils, and so make ourselves subject to the charge. For thus is the servant above his lord, and the disciple above his master, and thinks and acts accordingly. Alas, for this grievous infirmity, which always in some strange shape lies athwart our path, and leads us astray from the pursuit of what is meet!
Call to mind, too, how the inspired Peter could not endure Christ's prophecy, when He foretold His sufferings upon the Cross, for He said: Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man is betrayed unto the hands of sinners; and they shall crucify Him, and kill Him. The disciple, not yet understanding the mysterious ways of God's providence, God-loving and teachable as he was, was moved by his scruples to exclaim: Be it far from Thee, Lord; this shall never be unto Thee. What answered Christ? Get thee behind Me, Satan; thou art a stumblingblock unto Me: for thou mindest not the things of God, but the things of men. But we may hence derive no small profit, for we shall know, that when occasion calls us to exhibit courage in God's service, and we are compelled to endure conflicts that ensue for virtue's sake; yea, even if they who honour and love us best strive to hinder us from doing anything that may tend to stablish virtue, alleging, it may be, our consequent dishonour among men, or from some worldly motive, we must not yield. For they, then, are in nowise unlike Satan, who loves and is ever wont to cast stumblingblocks in our path by divers deceits, and sometimes by smooth words, so as to divert from the pursuit of what is meet, the man who is urged thereto by the spirit of piety. And methinks Christ meant something like this, when He said: If, therefore, thy right eye causeth thee to stumble, pluck it out, and cast it from thee. For that which does us injury is no longer our own, even |626 though united to us by the bond of love, and though its connexion with us be but its natural desert.
Two robbers were crucified together with Christ, and this was owing to the malice of the Jews. For, as though to emphasize the dishonour of our Saviour's death, they involved the just Man in the same condemnation as the transgressors of the Law. And we may take the condemned criminals, who hung by Christ's side, as symbolical of the two nations who were shortly about to be brought into close contact with Him, I mean the children of Israel and the Gentiles. And why do we take condemned criminals as the type? Because the Jews were condemned by the Law, for they were guilty of transgressing it; and the Greeks by their idolatry, for they worshipped the creature more than the Creator.
And after another manner those who are united with Christ are also crucified with Him; for enduring, as it were, death to their old conversation in the flesh, they are reformed into a new life, according to the Gospel. Yea, Paul said: And they that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh, with the passions and the lusts thereof; and again, speaking of himself in words applicable to all men: For I, through the Law, died unto the Law, that I might live unto God. I have been crucified with Christ: yet I live; and yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me. And he exhorts also the Colossians: Wherefore, if ye died from the world, why do ye behave yourselves as though living in the world? For, by becoming dead unto worldly conversation, we are brought to the rudiments of conduct and life in Christ. Therefore the crucifixion of the two robbers, side by side with Christ, signifies in a manner to us, through the medium of that event, the juxtaposition of the two nations, dying together, as it were, with the Saviour Christ, by bidding farewell to worldly pleasures, and refusing any longer to live after the flesh, and preferring to live with their Lord, so far as may |627 be, by fashioning their lives according to Him, and consecrating them in His service. And the meaning of the figure is in no way affected by the fact, that the men who hung by His side were malefactors; for we were by nature children of wrath, before we believed in Christ, and were all doomed to death, as we said before.
19 And Pilate wrote a title also, and put it on the Cross. And there was writ/en, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.
This is, in fact, the bond against us which, as the inspired Paul says, the Lord nailed to His Cross, and in it led in triumph the principalities and the powers as vanquished, and as having revolted from His rule. And if it were not Christ Himself that fixed the title on the Cross, but the fellow-worker and minister of the Jews, still, as He suffered it so to be, it is as though He were recorded as having inscribed it with His own Hand. And He triumphed over principalities in it. For it was open to the view of all who chose to learn, pointing to Him Who suffered for our sake, and Who was giving His Life as a ransom for the lives of all. For all men upon the earth, in that they have fallen into the snare of sin (for all have gone aside, and have all together become filthy, according to the Scripture), had made themselves liable to the accusation of the devil, and were living a hateful and miserable life. And the title contained a handwriting against us----the curse that, by the Divine Law, impends over the transgressors, and the sentence that went forth against all who erred against those ancient ordinances of the Law, like unto Adam's curse, which went forth against all mankind, in that all alike broke God's decrees. For God's anger did not cease with Adam's fall, but He was also provoked by those who after him dishonoured the Creator's decree; and the denunciation of the Law against transgressors was extended continuously over all. We were, then, accursed and |628 condemned, by the sentence of God, through Adam's transgression, and through breach of the Law laid down after him; but the Saviour wiped out the handwriting against us, by nailing the title to His Cross, which very clearly pointed to the death upon the Cross which He underwent for the salvation of men, who lay under condemnation. For our sake He paid the penalty for our sins. For though He was One that suffered, yet was He far above any creature, as God, and more precious than the life of all. Therefore, as the Psalmist says, the mouth of all lawlessness was stopped, and the tongue of sin was silenced, unable any more to speak against sinners. For we are justified, now that Christ has paid the penalty for us; for by His stripes we are healed, according to the Scripture. And just as by the Cross the sin of our revolt was perfected, so also by the Cross was achieved our return to our original state, and the acceptable recovery of heavenly blessings; Christ, as it were, gathering up into Himself, for us, the very fount and origin of our infirmity.
20 This title therefore read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, and in Latin, and in Greek.
We may remark that it was very providential, and the fruit of God's inexpressible purpose, that the title that was written embraced three inscriptions ---- one in Hebrew, another in Latin, and another in Greek. For it lay open to the view, proclaiming the Kingdom of our Saviour Christ in three languages, the most widely known of all, and bringing to the crucified One the first-fruits, as it were, of the prophecy that had been spoken concerning Him. For the wise Daniel said that there was given Him glory and a Kingdom, and all nations and languages shall serve Him; and, to like effect, the holy Paul teaches us, crying out that every knee shall bow; of things in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth; and every tongue shall confess that |629 Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Therefore the title proclaiming Jesus King was, as it were, the true firstfruits of the confession of tongues. And, in another sense, it accused the impiety of the Jews, and all but proclaimed expressly, to those who congregated to read it, that they had crucified their King and Lord, purblind wretches that they were, without thought of love toward Him, and sunk in crass insensibility.
21, 22 The chief priests of the Jews therefore said to Pilate, Write not, The King of the Jews, but, that He said, I am King of the Jews. Pilate answered, What I have written, I have written.
The rulers of the Jews took ill the writing on the title, and, full of bitter hatred, once more denied the Kingship of Christ, and said in their great folly that He had never reigned in fact, nor been accepted as King, but had merely used this expression: not knowing that to lie is contrary to the nature of truth, and Christ is Truth. He was, then, King of the Jews, if He was proved to have given Himself this title, as they themselves also confirmed by their own words. And Pilate rejected their request that he should alter the inscription, not consenting in all things to do despite unto the glory of our Saviour, doubtless owing to God's Ineffable Will. For the Kingship of Christ was firmly rooted, and beyond the reach of calumny, though the Jews might not consent thereunto, and might strive to deface the confession of His glory.
23, 24 The soldiers therefore, when they had crucified Jesus, took His garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also the coat. Now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. They said therefore one to another, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that the Scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted My garments among them, and upon My vesture did they cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers did.
The soldiers, then, divided our Saviour's garments |630 among themselves, and this is indicative of their brutal ferocity and inhuman disposition. For it is the custom of executioners to be unmoved by the misery of condemned criminals, and to obey orders sometimes with unnecessary harshness, and to show a masculine indifference to the fate of the sufferers, and to divide their garments among themselves, as though the lot fell upon them by some sufficient and lawful reason. They divided, then, the dissevered garments into four portions, but kept the one coat whole and uncut. For they did not choose to tear it in pieces, and make it altogether useless, and so they decided it by casting lots. For Christ could not lie, Who thus spake by the voice of the Psalmist: They divided My raiment among them, and upon My vesture did they cast lots. All these things were foretold for our profit, that we might know, by comparing the prophecies with the events, what He is of Whom it was foretold that He should come for our sake in our likeness, and of Whom it was expected that He should die for the salvation of all men. For no man of sense can suppose that the Saviour Himself, like the foolish Jews, would strain out the gnat, that is, foretell a trifling detail concerning His sufferings, as in this mention of the partition of His raiment, and, as it were, swallow the camel, that is, think of no account the great lengths to which the impious presumption of the Jews carried them. Rather, when He foretold these details, He foretold also the great event itself; firstly, in order that we might know that, as He was by Nature God, He had perfect knowledge of the future; secondly, also, that we might believe that He was in fact the Messiah of prophecy, being led to the knowledge of the truth by the many and great things fulfilled in Him.
And if it behoves us also to declare another thought which strikes us with regard to the partition of the garments----a thought which can do no harm, and may possibly do good to those who hear it----I will speak as follows: Their division of the Saviour's garments into |631 four parts, and retention of the coat in its undivided state, is perhaps symbolical of the mysterious providence whereby the four quarters of the world were destined to be saved. For the four quarters of the world divided, as it were, among themselves the garment of the Word, that is, His Body which yet remained indivisible. For though the Only-begotten be cut into small pieces, so far as individual needs are concerned, and sanctify the soul of every man, together with his body, by His Flesh; yet is He, being One, altogether subsistent in the whole Church in indivisible entirety; for, as Saint Paul saith, Christ cannot be divided. That such is the meaning of the mystery concerning Him, the Law dimly shadows forth. For the Law represented the taking of a lamb at the fitting time, and the taking, not of one lamb for every man, but of one for every house, according to the number of the household; for every man (if his household were too small) was to join with his neighbour that was next unto his house. And so the command was, that many should have a part in one lamb; but, in order that it might not appear, therefore, to be physically divided, by the flesh being dissevered from the bones, and taken from house to house, the Law laid down the further injunction: In one house shall it be eaten: ye shall not carry forth ought of the flesh abroad out of the house. For observe how, as I said just now, the Law took care that many who might be in one household should have a part in one lamb, but most carefully also took great precautions that it should not appear physically divided, but should be found in its completeness and entirety as one in all who partook of it, being, at the same time, divisible and indivisible. We must entertain some such view with regard to Christ's garments, for they were divided into four portions, but the coat remained undivided.
And it can do no harm also to add, that if any man choose, by way of speculation, to look upon the coat that was woven from the top throughout, and seamless, as an |632 illustration of Christ's holy Body, because It came into being without any connexion or intercourse of man with woman, but woven into its proper shape by the effective working of the Spirit from above, this view is worthy our acceptance. For such speculations as do no damage to the elements of the faith, but are rather fertile of profit, it would surely be ill-advised for us to reject; nay, we ought rather to commend them, as the fruit of an excellent disposition of mind.
25 But there were standing by the Cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.
This also the inspired Evangelist mentions to our profit, showing herein also, that none of the words of Holy Writ fall to the ground. What do I mean by this? I will tell you. He represents, as standing by the Cross, His mother, and with her the rest, clearly weeping. For women are ever prone to tears, and very much inclined to lament, especially when they have abundant occasion for shedding tears. What, then, induced the blessed Evangelist to go so much into detail, as to make mention of the women as staying beside the Cross? His object was to teach us that, as was likely, the unexpected fate of our Lord was an offence unto His mother, and that His exceeding bitter death upon the Cross almost banished from her heart due reflection; and, besides the insults of the Jews, and the soldiers also, who probably stayed by the Cross and derided Him Who hung thereon, and who presumed, in His mother's very sight, to divide His garments among themselves, had this effect. For, doubtless, some such train of thought as this passed through her mind: "I conceived Him That is mocked upon the Cross. He said, indeed, that He was the true Son of Almighty God, but it may be that He was deceived; He may have erred when He said: I am the Life. How did His crucifixion come to pass? and how was He entangled in the snares of His murderers? How |633 was it that He did not prevail over the conspiracy of His persecutors against Him? And why does He not come down from the Cross, though He bade Lazarus return to life, and struck all Judaea with amazement by His miracles?" The woman, as is likely, not exactly understanding the mystery, wandered astray into some such train of thought; for we shall do well to remember, that the character of these events was such as to awe and subdue the most sober mind. And no marvel if a woman fell into such an error, when even Peter himself, the elect of the holy disciples, was once offended, when Christ in plain words instructed him that He would be betrayed unto the hands of sinners, and would undergo crucifixion and death, so that he impetuously exclaimed: Be it far from Thee, Lord; this shall never be unto Thee. What wonder, then, if a woman's frail mind was also plunged into thoughts which betrayed weakness? And when we thus speak, we are not shooting at a venture, as some may suppose, but are led to suspect this by what is written concerning the mother of our Lord. For we remember that the righteous Simeon, when he received the infant Lord into his arms, after having blessed Him, and said: Now lettest Thou Thy servant depart, O Lord, according to Thy Word, in peace; for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, he also said to the holy Virgin herself: Behold, this Child is set for the falling and rising up of many in Israel; and for a sign which is spoken against; yea, and a sword shall pierce through thine own soul, that thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed. By a sword he meant the keen pang of suffering, which would divide the mind of the woman into strange thoughts; for temptations prove the hearts of those who are tempted, and leave them bare of the thoughts that filled them. |634
26, 27 When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple standing by, whom He loved, He saith unto His mother, Woman, behold thy Son! Then saith He to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour the disciple took her unto his own home.
He took thought for His mother, paying no heed to His own bitter agony, for His sufferings affected Him not. He gave her into the charge of the beloved disciple (this was John, the writer of this book), and bade him take her home, and regard her as a mother; and enjoined His own mother to regard him as none other than her true son----by his tenderness, that is, and affection, fulfilling and stepping into the place of Him, Who was her Son by nature.
But as some misguided men have thought that Christ, when He thus spake, gave way to mere fleshly affection ----away with such folly! to fall into so stupid an error is only worthy of a madman----what good purpose, then, did Christ hereby fulfil? First, we reply, that He wished to confirm the command on which the Law lays so much stress. For what saith the Mosaic ordinance? Honour thy father and thy mother, that it may be well with thee. His commandment unto us did not cease with exhorting us to perform this duty, but threatened us with the extreme penalty of the Law, if we chose to disregard it, and has put sin against our parents after the flesh on a par with sin against God. For the Law which ordered that the blasphemer should undergo the sentence of death, saying: Let him that blasphemeth the Name of the Lord be put to death, also subjected to the same penalty the man who employs his licentious and unruly tongue against his parents: He that curseth father or mother shall surely be put to death. As, then, the Lawgiver hath ordained that we should pay such honour to our parents, surely it was right that the commandment thus proclaimed should be confirmed by the approval of the Saviour; and as the perfect form of every excellence and virtue through Him first came into the world, why should not this virtue be put on the same footing as the rest? For, surely, honour to parents is a |635 very precious kind of virtue. And how could we learn that we ought not to lightly regard love toward them, even when we are overwhelmed by a flood of intolerable calamities, save by the example of Christ first of all, and through Him? For best of all, surely, is he who is mindful of the holy commandments, and is not diverted from the pursuit of duty in stormy and troublous times, and not in peace and quietness alone.
Besides, also, was not the Lord, I say, right to take thought for His mother, when she had fallen on a rock of offence, and when her mind was in a turmoil of perplexity? For, as He was truly God, and looked into the motions of the heart, and knew its secrets, how could He fail to know the thoughts about His crucifixion, which were then throwing her into sore distress? Knowing, then, what was passing in her heart, He commended her to the disciple, the best of guides, who was able to explain fully and adequately the profound mystery. For wise and learned in the things of God was he who received and took her away gladly, to fulfil all the Saviour's Will concerning her.
28, 29 After this, Jesus, knowing that all things are now finished, that the Scripture might be accomplished, said, I thirst. There was set there a vessel full of vinegar: so they put a sponge full of the vinegar upon hyssop, and brought it to His mouth.
When the iniquity of the Jews had fully wrought the impious crime against Christ, and when there was nothing left wanting to the perfect satisfaction of their savage cruelty, the flesh, at the last extremity, felt a natural craving, for it was parched by the various acts of outrage, and felt thirst. For pain is very apt to provoke thirst, spending the natural moisture of the body in excessive inward heat, and burning the inward parts with the pangs of inflammation. It would have been easy for the Word, the Almighty God, to have released His Flesh from this torment; but, just as He willingly underwent His other sufferings, so He bore this also |636 of His own Will. Then He sought to drink; but so pitiless and far removed from the love of God were they, that, instead of liquid to quench His thirst, they gave Him something to aggravate it, and, in rendering the very service of love, committed a further act of impiety. For, in acceding at all to His request, were they not assuming the appearance of affection? But it was impossible that the inspired Scripture should ever lie, which put into the mouth of the Saviour these words concerning them: They gave Me gall to eat, and when I was athirst, they gave Me vinegar to drink.
The blessed Evangelist John says that they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it on hyssop, and so brought it. Luke makes no mention of anything of the kind, but merely declares that they brought Him vinegar. Matthew and Mark say that the sponge was put on a reed. Some may perhaps think there is a discrepancy in the accounts of the holy Evangelists; but no one who is right-minded will be so persuaded. We must rather try to search, and see by every means in our power, in what way the act of impiety was effected. The inspired Luke, then, disregarding the way in which the vinegar was brought, says, in brief, that vinegar was brought to Him when He was athirst. And there can be no question, that the Evangelists would not have disagreed with each other in these trifling and unimportant details, when, in all essential matters, they are in such perfect harmony and concord. What, then, is the difference between them? and of what treatment is it susceptible? There is no doubt, that the officers who executed the impious crime against Christ were many in number, I mean the soldiers who brought Him to the Cross; several also of the Jews shared in their cruelty, some putting the sponge on a reed, others on a stick of what is called hyssop----for the hyssop is a kind of shrub----and gave Jesus to drink of it; doing this, purblind wretches that they were, to their own condemnation. For, unawares, they were proving themselves utterly |637 undeserv-ing of compassion, when they thus altogether discarded mercy and humanity, and with unparalleled audacity vied with each other in impiety alone. Therefore, by the mouth of the Prophet Ezekiel, God thus spake unto the mother of the Jews, I mean Jerusalem: As thou hast done, so shall it be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head; and by the mouth of Isaiah, to lawless Israel: Woe unto the wicked! It shall be ill with him: for the reward of his hands shall be given him. This completed the measure of all the crimes that had been committed against Christ; but here, too, we may find a lesson to our profit. For hereby we may know that those who are of a God-loving temper, and who are firmly rooted in the love of Christ, shall wage, as it were, a ceaseless war with those who are of a different spirit; who will not, even to their latest breath, desist from raging against them, preparing for them severe temptations from every quarter, and eagerly devising every sort of thing that may hurt them. But, just as the wicked cease not from troubling them, so also shall their courage be continually sustained; and just as their trials, and the tribulation of temptation, have no abatement, so also the blessedness of the Saints shall have no end, and the joy of their state of glory shall remain for evermore, and world without end.
30 When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, It is finished: and He bowed His Head, and gave up His Spirit.
When this indignity had been added to the rest, the Saviour exclaimed, It is finished; meaning that the measure of the iniquity of the Jews, and of their furious rage against Him, was completed. For what had the Jews left untried, and what extremity of atrocity had they not practised against Him? For what kind of insult was omitted, and what crowning act of outrage do they seem to have left undone? Therefore rightly did He exclaim, It is finished, the hour already summoning Him to preach to the spirits in hell. For He |638 visited them, that He might be Lord both of the living and the dead; and for our sake encountered death itself, and underwent the common lot of all humanity, that is, according to the flesh, though being as God by Nature Life, that He might despoil hell, and render return to life possible to human nature; being thus proved the firstfruits of them that are asleep, and the firstborn from the dead, according to the Scriptures. He bowed His head, therefore; for as this generally befalls the dying, through the slackening of the sinews of the flesh, when the spirit or soul that united and sustained it is fled, the Evangelist made use of this expression. The expression also, He gave up His Spirit, does not differ from language usually employed, for the vulgar use it as equivalent to "his life was extinguished, and he died." But it is probable that it was of set purpose, and advisedly, that the holy Evangelist, instead of saying simply, He died, said, He gave up His Spirit; gave it up, that is, into the hands of God the Father, according to the saying that He spake: Father, into Thy hands I commend My Spirit; and for us, also, the meaning of the expression lays down a beginning and foundation of firm hope. For, I think, we ought to believe, and for this belief there is much ground, that the souls of Saints, when they quit their earthly bodies, are, by the bountiful mercy of God, almost, as it were, consigned into the hands of a most loving Father, and do not, as some infidels have pretended, haunt their sepulchres, waiting for funeral libations; nor yet are they, like the souls of sinful men, conveyed to the place of endless torment, that is, to hell. Rather, do they hasten into the hands of the Father of all, by the new way which our Saviour Christ has prepared for us; for He consigned His Soul into the hands of His Father, that we also, making it our anchor, and being firmly rooted and grounded in this belief, might entertain the bright hope that when we undergo the death of the body, we shall be in God's hands; yea, in a far better condition than when we |639 were in the flesh. Therefore, also, the wise Paul assures us that it is better to depart, and be with Christ.
And when He gave up the ghost, the veil of the temple was rent in twain, from the top to the bottom. The veil of the temple was of fine linen, let down to the floor of the centre of the temple, and shrouding the inner portion thereof, and allowing only the high priest to enter into the innermost shrine. For it was not in the power of any one at will to penetrate into the interior with unwashen feet, and carelessly to gaze upon the Holy of holies. How very necessary it was that this curtain should make this division, Paul shows us by his words in the Epistle to the Hebrews: For there was a tabernacle prepared; the first, which is called the Holy place. And after the second veil, the tabernacle, which is called the Holy of holies, having a golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot holding the manna, and the tables of the covenant, and Aaron's rod that budded. But into the first tabernacle, he says, the priests go in, accomplishing the services; but into the second, the high priest alone, once in the year, not without blood, which he offereth for himself, and for the errors of the people: the Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the Holy place hath not yet been made manifest, while as the first tabernacle is yet standing. For there can be no question, that a veil was let down at the very entrance of the temple. And so there came into his mind the first tabernacle, which he called holy; for no one could affirm that any part of the temple was not holy, or, if he did so, he would lie, for it was all holy. And after the first tabernacle came the veil which was betwixt, which is the second veil, separating the innermost portion, that is, the Holy of holies. But, as the blessed Paul said, the Spirit signified, by figures and types, that the more fitting way in which the Saints should tread had not yet been made manifest; for the people were still kept at a distance, and the |640 first tabernacle was yet standing. For there had not, as yet, in fact, appeared unto men the manner of the life that Christ gave unto those who were called by the Spirit unto sanctification; and not yet had the mystery concerning Him been made manifest, for the written commandment of the Law was still in force. Therefore, also, the Law placed the Jews in the outer court. For the dispensation of the Law was, as it were, a porch and vestibule leading unto the teaching and life of the Gospel. For the one is but a type, the other is the truth itself. The first tabernacle was, indeed, holy, for the Law is holy, and the commandment righteous and good; but the innermost portion of the temple was the Holy of holies, for though the men who partook of the righteousness of the Law were holy, they became yet holier when they accepted the faith that is in Christ, and were anointed with the Holy Spirit of God. The righteousness of faith, therefore, is greater than the righteousness of the Law; and by faith we are far more abundantly sanctified. Therefore, also, the wise Paul says, that he gladly and readily endured the loss of the righteousness that is of the Law, that he might gain Christ, and might be found in Him, not having a righteousness of mine own, even that which is of the Law, but that which is through faith in Jesus Christ. And some fell backwards, and, after running well for a time, were bewitched; and the Galatians were of this class: after pursuing the righteousness which is of faith, turning back to the commandment of the Law, and recurring to the state of life shadowed forth by types and figures; and to these Paul administered the well-merited reproof: If ye receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing. Ye are severed from Christ, ye who would be justified by the Law; ye are fallen away from grace. But (to bring our explanation of the passage to a good and proper conclusion) we will simply repeat, that the veil of the temple was rent in twain, from the top to the |641 bottom; to signify, as it were, that God was in the very act of revealing the Holy of holies, and making the way into the inmost shrine open henceforth to those who believe on Christ. For the knowledge of the Divine mysteries is now laid bare before us; no longer shrouded in the obscurity of the letter of the Law, as it were a curtain, nor hidden by any covering from our quest, nor defended against the intrusion of the eye of the mind by types through which we could see but dimly. Rather are these mysteries now seen in simplicity of faith; yea, but few words suffice to explain them. For the word is nigh thee, says Paul, in thy mouth, and in thy heart; that is, the word of faith, which we preach: because, if thou shalt say with thy mouth, Jesus is Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved: for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Herein is seen in its completeness the mystery of piety towards God. But, while Christ had not as yet waged the conflict for our salvation, nor undergone the death of the flesh, the veil was still spread out, for the power of the commandment of the Law still prevailed. But when the iniquitous Jews, in their presumption, had wreaked to the utmost their malice upon Christ, and He had given up the ghost for our sake, and the sufferings of Emmanuel were accomplished, the time had then come that the broad veil, that had so long been spread out, should from henceforth be rent asunder----that is, the protection of the letter of the Law----and that the fair vision of the truth should lie bare and open before those who had been sanctified in Christ by faith. The veil was torn throughout; for what other meaning can be put upon the words: From the top to the bottom? And why was this? It was because the revelation of the message of salvation was not partial, but our enlightenment concerning the Divine mysteries was |642 perfected thereby. Therefore, also, the Psalmist said unto God, in the person of His new people: The hidden secrets of Thy wisdom hast Thou, revealed unto me; and, furthermore, the inspired Paul thus addresses believers on Christ: I thank my God always concerning you, for the grace which was given you in Christ Jesus; that in every thing ye were enriched in Him, in all utterance, and all wisdom, and all knowledge. The rending of the veil, then, not in part, but entirely throughout, signified then, that the worshippers of the Saviour were about to be enriched in all wisdom, and in all knowledge, and in all utterance, manifestly receiving the knowledge of the mystery concerning Him, undefiled and unclouded by blot or shadow. For this is what is meant by the words: From the top to the bottom. We say, then, that the most appropriate and fitting time for the revelation of the Divine mysteries was the occasion on which the Saviour laid down His life for us, when Israel spurned His grace, and wholly started aside from the love of God, in his frenzy against Him, and headstrong impiety. For any one may see that the measure of their iniquities was complete, when he learns that they persecuted, even unto death, the Giver of Life.
I think, therefore, that we have said enough on this subject, and that our explanation of the Divine purpose does not fall short of the mark. But, as we find the inspired Evangelist is very diligent to say: When He gave up the ghost, the veil of the temple was rent, thereby almost signifying as essential for us to know the occasion of that event, let us supplement our remarks by a further consideration, which savours, I think, of the spirit of pious research. For it is a thought which will be found in no way abhorrent to those fundamental doctrines, which are at once a blessing and a necessity to us. To proceed, then: the following custom was in vogue, both among the people and the rulers of the Jews. When they saw anything being done which they thought would especially offend the |643 Giver of the Law, or when they heard any outrageous or blasphemous utterance, they tore their garments, and put on the appearance of mourners; thereby, in a manner, taking up the defence of God, and by the intolerance they displayed of such offences, passing sentence of condemnation on the madness of the transgressors, and acquitting themselves of complicity therein. Moreover, the disciples of the Saviour, Barnabas and Paul, when certain of those who had not yet received the faith, thinking them to be gods (for they called Barnabas, Jupiter; and Paul, Mercury), brought sacrifices and garlands, in company with the priests, and attempted to make sacrifices in their honour, leapt down from the platform on which they stood, because of the outrage that would be inflicted upon the glory of God, if any sacrifice were offered to men, and rent their garments, as is recorded, and by fitting words prevented the ignorant endeavour of the worshippers of idols. Also, when our Saviour Christ was on His trial before the rulers of the Jews, and was required to say Who He was, and whence He came, and said plainly in reply: Verily, I say unto you, henceforth ye shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of power, and coming on the clouds of heaven, Caiaphas leapt up out of his seat, and rent his garments, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy. The temple of God, then, followed, so to say, the custom that prevailed among the Jews, and rent its veil, as it had been clothes, at the moment when our Saviour gave up the ghost. For it condemned the impiety of the Jews as an insult against itself. And the accomplishment of this was God's work, that He might show unto us the temple itself bewailing Israel's guilt.
31 The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain on the cross upon the Sabbath (for the day of that Sabbath was a high day), asked of Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.
It is not with the motive of testifying to the reverence |644 for holy days felt by men inured to shed blood with brutal ferocity, and found guilty of so monstrous an iniquity, that the blessed Evangelist says this; but rather from the wish to show that, in their gross stupidity, they committed that folly of which Christ spoke. For they strained out the gnat while they swallowed the camel; for they are found to reckon as of no account at all the most outrageous and awful of all crimes against God, while they exercised the greatest diligence with reference to the most paltry and insignificant matters, showing their folly in either case. The proof of this is not far to seek. For, behold, in the very act of putting Christ to death, they put great store on the respect due to the Sabbath; and, while they insulted the Lawgiver by outrages which surpass description, they parade their reverence of the Law; and, as that Sabbath was a high day, they affect to pay honour to it----the very men who destroyed the Lord of the high day; and they ask a favour, which well suited their cruel spirit. For they besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, wishing to embitter, by this last intolerable outrage, the pangs of approaching death, to those who were already in agony.
32-37 The soldiers therefore came, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with Him: but when they came to Jesus, and saw that He was dead already, they brake not His Legs: howbeit, one of the soldiers with a spear pierced His Side, and straightway there came out blood and water. And he that hath seen hath borne witness, and his witness is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye also may believe. For these things came to pass, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, A bone of Him shall not be broken. And again another Scripture saith, They shall look on Him Whom they pierced.
In pursuance of the request of the Jews, men afflicted with a madness akin to their cruelty----I mean the soldiers of Pilate----break the legs of the two robbers, |645 as they were still numbered among the living, intensifying the bitter pang of their last agony, and finally despatching them by the most grievous act of violence. But when they found Jesus with His Head bowed down, and saw that He had already given up the ghost, they thought it lost labour to break His Legs; but, as they still had a faint suspicion that He might not be actually dead, they with a spear pierced His Side, which sent forth Blood, mingled with Water; God presenting us thereby with a type, as it were, and foreshadowing of the mystery of the Eucharist, and Holy Baptism. For Holy Baptism is of Christ, and Christ's institution; and the power of the mystery of the Eucharist grew up for us out of His Holy Flesh.
By his account of what took place, the wise Evangelist confirms his hearers in the belief that He was the Christ long ago foretold by Holy Writ; for the events of His life harmonised with what was written concerning Him. For not a bone of Him was broken, and He was pierced with the spear of the soldier, according to the Scripture. He says himself, that the disciple that bare record of these things was a spectator and eye-witness of what took place, and knew, in fact, that his testimony was true; and the disciple to whom he thus alludes is none other than himself. For he shrank from speaking more openly, putting away from himself the assumption of love of glory, as an unholy thing, and as a grievous infirmity.
Concerning the request for the Body of the Lord.
38 And after these things, Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked of Pilate that he might take away the Body of Jesus: and, Pilate gave him leave. He came, therefore, and took away His Body.
This saying is indeed fraught with a grievous charge against the Jews, as it shows that to become a disciple of Christ was dangerous, and exposed a man to penalties; for he plainly introduces this most excellent young |646 man----I mean Joseph----to our notice, as most especially anxious to escape the notice of the Jews, though he had been induced by Christ's teaching to choose that worship which was the reality itself, and better and more pleasing to the God Who loves virtue than the commandment of the Law, and at the same time gives us a proof necessary to confirm our faith. For it was necessary for us to believe that Christ laid down His Life for us. And is it not an inevitable consequence that, when a man is entombed, we must have a firm conviction that he also died? And we may well condemn, as guilty of gross brutality, the presumption, hard-heartedness, and merciless temper of the Jews, who did not even pay unto Christ the respect due to the dead, nor honour Him with burial rites, when they saw Him lying before them an inanimate corpse; though they knew that He was the Christ, and had often been amazed by the marvellous works that He did, even though their bitter hatred might never have allowed them to profit by His miraculous power. The disciple of Arimathaea, therefore, passes judgment on the inhumanity of the Jews, and condemns the men of Jerusalem, when he goes and tends with fitting care the Body of Him Whom he did not as yet honour by an open confession of faith, but still believed on Him in secret, for fear of the Jews, as says the blessed Evangelist.
39 And there came also Nicodemus, he who at the first came to Him by night, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pound weight.
He says that this disciple was not alone in taking counsel wisely, as well as in fervent zeal, to go to dress the sacred Body for burial, but he makes mention of a second along with the first. This was Nicodemus, who completed the body of testimony to the event that is respected by the Law. For, says the Law: In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established. The men who laid Jesus in the tomb were two in |647 number, Joseph and Nicodemus; men who received the faith inwardly in their hearts, but were still scared by a foolish fear, and did not yet prefer to the honour and glory of the world that which is of God. For then they would have dismissed all fear of the Jews, and, paying slight heed to any danger from that quarter, would have indulged their faith fearlessly and freely, and thus have proved themselves holy, and good keepers of the commandment of our Saviour.
40, 41 So they took the Body of Jesus, and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as the custom of the Jews is to bury. Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new tomb, wherein was never man yet laid.
Christ was numbered among the dead, Who for our sake became dead, according to the Flesh, but Whom we conceive to be, and Who is, in fact, Life, of Himself, and through His Father. And, that He might fulfil all righteousness, that is, all that was appropriate to the form of man, He of His own Will subjected the Temple of His Body not merely to death, but also to what follows after death, that is, burial and being laid in the tomb. The writer of the Gospel says that this sepulchre in the garden was a new one; this fact signifying to us, as it were, by a type and figure, that Christ's death is the harbinger and pioneer of our entry into Paradise. For He entered as a Forerunner for us. What other signification than this can be intended by the carrying over of the Body of Jesus in the garden? And by the newness of the sepulchre is meant the untrodden and strange pathway whereby we return from death unto life, and the renewing of our souls, that Christ has invented for us, whereby we baffle corruption. For henceforth, by the death of Christ, death for us has been transformed, in a manner, into sleep, with like power and functions. For we are alive unto God, and shall live for evermore, |648 to the Scriptures. Therefore, also, the blessed Paul, in a variety of places, calls those asleep who have died in Christ. For in the times of old the dread presence of death held human nature in awe. For death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the likeness of Adam's transgression; and we bore the image of the earthy in his likeness, and underwent the death that was inflicted by the Divine curse. But when the Second Adam appeared among us, the Divine Man from heaven, and, contending for the salvation of the world, purchased by His death the life of all men, and, destroying the power of corruption, rose again to life, we were transformed into His Image, and undergo, as it were, a different kind of death, that does not dissolve us in eternal corruption, but casts upon us a slumber which is laden with fair hope, after the Likeness of Him Who has made this new path for us, that is, Christ.
And if any one choose to give an additional meaning to the saying that the sepulchre was a new one, and that no man had been lain therein, be it so. He says, then, we may suppose, that the sepulchre was new, and that no one had been ever laid therein, that no one might be thought to have arisen from the sleep of death save Jesus only.
42 There, then, because of the Jews' preparation {for the tomb was nigh at hand), they laid Jesus.
He not only says plainly that Christ's Body was dressed for burial, and that there was a garden nigh unto the cross, and that there was a new sepulchre in it, but he also explains that He was laid therein, not leaving the least of the things which were done untold. For most essential truly to any creed or system of the mystery of our faith is the confession and the knowledge that Christ died. Therefore, also, the wise Paul, defining our rule of faith, speaks as follows: The word is nigh thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart; that is, the word of faith, which |649 preach: because, if thou shalt say with thy mouth, Jesus is Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved: for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. And in another passage also: For I delivered unto you first of all that which also I received, how that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried; and that He hath been raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures. Very essential, then, for us is the narrative which the writer of the book gives us on these points. For it was our bounden duty to believe that He died and was buried; after that will easily follow the true belief, that He burst asunder the bonds of death, and returned as God to the life that was His own. For it was not possible that He should be holden of death. For, being by Nature Life, how could He have undergone corruption? And how could He in Whom we live, and move, and have our being, have been subjected to the laws to which our human nature is subject? Could He not rather, as God, have easily quickened that which lacked life?
xx. 1-9 Now on the first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, while it was yet dark, unto the tomb, and seeth the stone taken away from the tomb. She runneth, therefore, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we know not where they have laid Him. Peter therefore went forth, and the other disciple, and they went toward the tomb. And they ran both together: and the other disciple outran Peter, and came first to the tomb; and stooping and looking in, he seeth the linen cloths lying; yet entered he not in. Simon Peter therefore cometh, following him, and entered into the tomb; and he beholdeth the linen cloths lying, and the napkin, that was upon His Head, not lying with the linen cloths, but rolled up in a place by itself. Then entered in therefore the other disciple also, which came first to the tomb, and he saw and believed. For |650 as yet they knew not the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead.
This excellent and pious woman would never have endured to remain at home and leave the sepulchre, had not her fear of the law for the Sabbath, and the penalty which impended upon those who transgressed it, curbed the vehemence of her zeal, and had she not, allowing ancient custom to prevail, thought she ought to withdraw her thoughts from the object of her most earnest longings. But, when the Sabbath was already past, and the dawn of the next day was appearing, she hurried back to the spot, and then, when she saw the stone rolled away from the mouth of the tomb, well-grounded suspicions seized her mind, and, calling to mind the ceaseless hatred of the Jews, she thought that Jesus had been carried away, accusing them of this crime in addition to their other misdeeds. While she was thus engaged, and revolving in her mind the probabilities of the case, the woman returned to the men who loved the Lord, anxious to obtain the co-operation of the most intimate of His disciples in her quest. And so deep-rooted and impregnable was her faith that she was not induced to esteem Christ less highly because of His death upon the cross, but even when He was dead called Him Lord, as she had been wont to do, thereby showing a truly God-loving spirit. When these men (I mean Peter, and John the writer of this book, for he gives himself the name of the other disciple) heard these tidings from the woman's mouth, they ran with all the speed they could, and came to the sepulchre in haste, and saw the marvel with their own eyes, being in themselves competent to testify to the event, for they were two in number, as the Law enjoined. As yet they did not meet Christ risen from the dead, but infer His Resurrection from the bundle of linen clothes, and henceforth believed that He had burst asunder the bonds of death, as Holy Writ had long ago proclaimed that He would do. When, therefore, they looked at the issues of |651 events in the light of the prophecies which turned out true, their faith was henceforth rooted on a firm basis.
Observe that the blessed Evangelist, John, when he tells us the time of the Resurrection, says: On the first day of the week early, while it was yet dark, cometh Mary Magdalene unto the tomb; while Matthew, also, wishing to indicate the time to us, says that the Resurrection took place when the night was far spent. No one, I suppose, will imagine that the inspired writers are at variance, or that they fix the time of the Resurrection differently. For any one that chooses to investigate the meaning of the indications they give of the time, will find that their accounts tally. For early dawn and late night fix the same point of time, that is, the very dead of night, so to say. There is, therefore, no discrepancy between them; for the one, taking as his starting-point the end of night, and the other the beginning, both reach the middle watch, and meet at the same point, that is, as I just now said, the dead of night.
10, 11 So the disciples went away again unto their own home. But Mary was standing without at the tomb weeping.
The wise disciples, after having gathered sufficiently satisfactory evidence of the Resurrection of our Saviour, being in travail, as it were, with their confirmed and unshaken faith, and by comparison of events as they had actually occurred with the prophetic utterances of Holy Scripture, went back home, and hastened, as is likely, to see their fellow-workers, to recount to them the miracle, and afterwards to consider the course to be pursued. And we shall not err if we think that they had another object in so acting. For while the passion of the Jews was at its height, and the rulers were thirsting eagerly for the blood of every man who marvelled at the teaching of the Saviour, and admitted His Divine and ineffable power and glory, but most of all for the blood of the holy disciples themselves, they had good reason |652 for shrinking from encountering them, and left the sepulchre before it was quite light, as they could not have done so without risk, if seen in the daytime, the sun's rays revealing them to all beholders. We are far from saying that unmanly cowardice was the motive of their cautious flight. Rather should we suppose that the knowledge of what was expedient for them was instilled in the minds of the Saints by Christ, Who did not permit these who were destined to be lights and teachers of the world to run untimely risks. For it was necessary that the truth of His saying should be seen, which He spake concerning them to the Father in heaven. Holy Father, keep them, He says, in Thy Name which Thou hast given Me, that they may be one, even as We are One. While I was with them, I kept them in Thy Name which Thou hast given Me: and I guarded them, and not one of them perished, but the son of perdition. The disciples therefore retired, thinking they ought to await the time when they should speak openly. And this they did in obedience to the Saviour's words. For He charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, as it is written, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which they had heard of Him: for John indeed baptised with water, but they shall be baptised with the Holy Ghost not many days hence; an event which we find actually came to pass in the days of the Holy Pentecost, when there appeared unto them tongues parting asunder, like as of fire; and it sat upon each one of them. For then were they invested with a spirit of the greatest courage and endurance, and, high exalted above the frailty of their fellow men, boldly encountered the madness of the Jews, and thought their plotting against them worthy of no account. The wise disciples, then, concealed themselves from the motive of expediency, as I said just now, while Mary, in her love of Christ free from all fear and not much suspecting the wrath of the Jews, sat on the watch persistently, and, affected after the manner of women, wept abundantly, and continually wiped away the tears |653 that kept falling from her eyes, mourning not only because the Lord was dead, but also because she thought He had been taken away from the sepulchre.
11, 12, 13 So, as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb; and she beholdeth two angels in white sitting, one at the head, and one at the feet, where the Body of Jesus had lain. And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou?
Observe that the tears let fall for Christ do not lose their reward, nor is it long before love for Him bears fruit; rather will His grace and rich requital follow closely in the wake of pain. For, behold, as Mary was sitting there, her cheeks bedewed with mourning for her beloved Lord Whom she had lost, the Saviour vouchsafed unto her the knowledge of the mystery concerning Him, by the mouth of holy angels. For she saw angels in bright apparel, the garments wherewith they were clad signifying to her the perfect beauty of angelic purity, who interrupted her lamentations, and said unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? It was not, indeed, that they desired to learn the reason why her tears were falling, for they would have known it even had the woman not told it them, and the very circumstances themselves were sufficient to indicate it. Rather do they bid her cease from weeping, as there was no occasion for tears, and as she had made what was a subject for rejoicing a cause of grief. Why, indeed, say they, when death has been subdued, and corruption lost its power, and our Saviour Christ has therefore risen again, and made a new pathway for the dead back to incorruption and to life, why dost thou, O woman, mistake the time, and why art thou so distraught by bitter pangs of woe, when the issue of events rather calls you to rejoice? For, in truth, thou shouldest be glad, and of good cheer. Why, then, weepest thou, and thus in some sort detractest from the honour due unto a festival?
The angels appeared sitting at the head and at the |654 feet where the Body of Jesus had lain; thereby, as it were, signifying to the woman, who thought that the Lord had been taken away, that no one could have done despite unto the holy Body while angels kept watch and holy powers encompassed the Temple of God, for they knew their Lord. One may raise the question, not unreasonably, how it was that the blessed angels said nothing to the holy disciples, and did not even appear unto them, but were both seen by the woman and also spake unto her. We reply, then, that it was the object of the Saviour Christ to instil into the minds of those who loved Him the perfect knowledge of the mystery concerning Him; but that this perfect knowledge was in different ways given unto them, and adapted to the requirements of those who stood in need of it. The course of events itself, as compared with the expectations raised in Holy Writ, sufficed to give the holy disciples adequate knowledge, and begat in them a confidence that did not admit of doubt. For they went home trusting in the Holy Scriptures, and it would have been superfluous for those, whose faith was thus firmly grounded, to be taught by the mouth of the holy angels; but it was very necessary to the woman, who knew not the Holy and Divine Scripture, and by no other means could apprehend the deep mystery of the Resurrection.
13, 14 She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him. When she had thus said, she turned herself back, and beholdeth Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus.
The woman, or rather all womankind, is slow of understanding. For she does not understand the hidden meaning of what met her gaze, but rather announces it as the cause of her grief. But as she ceased not to call Christ Lord, and thereby signified her love towards Him, she is justly permitted to enjoy the sight of the object of her desire. For she beholds |655 Jesus, though she did not think Him to be at her side; and why? Either her ignorance was caused by our Saviour Christ still concealing Himself by His Divine power, and not allowing Himself very easily to be recognised by the eye of the beholder; or, as it was still early in the morning, she could not readily distinguish what was before her eyes, as night somehow prevented her from so doing, and scarcely revealed the Figure of Him Who was drawing nigh. Therefore, also, our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, in the Song of Songs, makes mention of His walk on this night, and the moisture of the morning dew, in the words: For My Head is filled with dew, and My Locks with the drops of the night.
15 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? She, supposing Him to be the gardener, saith unto Him, Sir, if thou hast borne Him hence, tell me where thou hast laid Him, and I will take Him away.
As it was still dark, and the night had not yet wholly passed away, she sees Jesus, Who stood near her, but dimly, and knows not Who He is, being unable to distinguish the Form of His Body or His Features, but hears Him say, Woman, why weepest thou? The Saviour's words are indeed words of courtesy, still such as to arouse in her the suspicion that they were most like the words of one of the gardeners. It follows, too, that the Lord, when He thus spake, was not in point of fact asking her the reason for her weeping, nor desirous to learn of whom she was in search; but was rather anxious to stop her lamentations, just as, indeed, were the two blessed angels, for it was in their company that He spake. Why, then, weepest thou, O woman? He says; Whom seekest thou? That is to say, wipe away thy tears, as thou hast the object of thy search. I, He says, am He Who is the occasion of thy mourning, as having been dead, and as having suffered a dreadful fate, and as having also been taken away out |656 of the tomb. But, as I am alive and am here, give up thy lamentations, and contrariwise be of good cheer. He asked the question, then, wishing to end her sorrow. For it was meet that the Lord should be our restorer in this way also. For by Adam's transgression, as in the firstfruits of the race, the sentence went forth to the whole world: Dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return; and to the woman in special: In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children. To be rich in sorrow, then, as by way of a penalty, was the fate of woman. It was, therefore, necessary that by the mouth of Him That had passed sentence of condemnation, the burden of that ancient curse should be removed, our Saviour Christ now wiping away the tears from the eyes of the woman, or rather of all womankind, as in Mary the firstfruits. For she, first of women, being offended at the death of the Saviour, and grieving thereat, was thought worthy to hear the voice that cut short her weeping; the power of the word, in fact, extending also to the whole race of women, if indeed they be pained by the outrages against Christ, and honour faith in Him, and almost fall to quoting that saying in the Psalms: Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate Thee? And am I not grieved with those that rise up against Thee? I hate therm with a perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies.
While, however, our Lord Jesus Christ says this to put a stop to her weeping, she, supposing the speaker to be one of the gardeners, undertook very readily to transfer the remains to another place, if only it were shown her where he had laid Him. For, not yet apprehending the great mystery of the Resurrection, she was disturbed by suspicions of this kind. For the feminine mind is slow-witted and ill-prepared to readily comprehend even what is not very difficult, far less miracles which baffle description. |657
16 Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turneth herself, and saith unto Him in Hebrew, Rabboni; which is to say, Master, and ran forward to touch Him.
He invites the recognition of the woman, whose mind had already been enlightened, and, allowing her to gaze upon Him without let or hindrance (for indeed she loved Him ardently), He almost rebukes her for having been so slow to perceive that He was Christ, for there is some such implied meaning in His calling her by name. She understood at once, and at the sight of Him casts aside the suspicions she felt at first, and offers Him the usual tribute of respect, calling Him Rabboni, that is to say, Master; and, with her mind full of a heavenly joy, ran eagerly to touch the holy Body, and to gain blessing therefrom.
17 Jesus saith to her, Touch Me not; for I am not yet ascended unto My Father.
The meaning of this saying is not easily understood by the vulgar, for a mystery underlies it; but we must probe it for our advantage. For the Lord will vouchsafe unto us the knowledge of His own Words. For He repulses the woman as she was running up to Him, and though she longed to embrace His Feet, He suffered her not; and, in explanation of His reason for so doing, said: For I am not yet ascended unto My Father. We must inquire into the meaning of this saying. For what if He were not yet ascended to His Father? How could this reason suffice to render it improper for those that loved Him to touch His holy Body? Would it not be blameworthy for any one to imagine that the Lord shrank from the pollution of the touch, and thus spake that He might be pure when He ascended to the Father in heaven? Would not such a man stand convicted of great folly and madness? For the Nature of God can never be polluted. For just as the light of the sun's ray, when it strikes upon a dunghill or any other |658 earthly impurities, suffers no stain----for it remains as it is, that is, undefiled, and partakes in no degree of the ill odour of the objects that it encounters----even so the all-holy Nature of God can never admit of the blemish of defilement. What, then, is the reason why Mary was prevented from touching Him, when she drew near and yearned so to do? What can the Lord mean when He says: For I am not yet ascended unto My Father? We must investigate this according to the best of our ability. We say, therefore, that the reasons for our Saviour's sojourn amongst us were manifold and diverse, but this one the principal of all, which is indicated in His own words: For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Therefore, before the saving Cross and the Resurrection from the dead, while as yet His providential scheme had not received its appropriate fulfilment, He mingled both with the just and the unjust, and ate with publicans and sinners, and allowed any that so willed to come to Him and touch His holy Body, that He might sanctify all men and call them to a knowledge of the truth, and might bring back to health those who were diseased and enfeebled by the constant practice of sin. Therefore also, in another place, He said unto them: They that are whole have no need of a physician; but they that are sick. Therefore, before His Resurrection from the dead, He had intercourse indiscriminately with the righteous and with sinners, and never frightened away any that came unto Him. Moreover, when He was once reclining at the house of a Pharisee, a woman came in unto Him weeping, who was a sinner in the city, as is written, and let down her wanton locks, scarcely released from the service of her past sins, and wiped His Feet therewith; and we see that He did not stop her. Again, when He was on His way to bring back to life the daughter of the leader of the Synagogue, once more a woman came near unto Him, who had an issue of blood, and touched the border of His garment; and we find that He was in |659 nowise offended, but rather vouchsafed unto her the comforting assurance: Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace. But at that time, by His Providence, men who were still unclean, and who were polluted both in mind and body, were suffered without let or hindrance to touch the holy Flesh Itself of our Saviour Christ, and to gain every blessing thereby; but when, after having completed the scheme of our redemption, He had both suffered the Cross itself, and death thereon, and had risen again to life, and shown that His Nature was superior to death, henceforward, instead of granting them a ready permission, He hinders those who come to Him from touching the very Flesh of His holy Body; thereby giving us a type of the holy Churches, and the mystery concerning Himself, just as also the Law given by the all-wise Moses itself did, when it represented the slaughter of the lamb as a figure of Christ; for no uncircumcised person, said the Law, shall eat thereof, meaning by uncircumcised impure----and humanity may justly be deemed impure in its own nature. For what is the nature of man, as compared with God's inherent purity? We may not, therefore, while we remain uncircumcised, that is, impure, touch the holy Body, but only when we have been made pure by the true circumcision of the Spirit. For circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, as Paul saith. And we cannot be spiritually circumcised if the Holy Spirit hath not taken up His abode in us by faith and Holy Baptism. Surely, therefore, it was meet that Mary should for a while be restrained from touching His sacred Body, as she had not yet received the Spirit. For even though Christ was risen from the dead, still the Spirit had not yet been given to humanity by the Father through Him. For when He ascended to God the Father, He sent the Spirit down to us; wherefore also He said: It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter cannot come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you. As, therefore, the Holy Spirit had not yet been sent down |660 unto us, for He had not yet ascended to the Father, He repulses Mary as not yet having received the Spirit, saying: Touch Me not, for I am not yet ascended unto the Father; that is to say, I have not yet sent down unto you the Holy Spirit. Hence the type is applicable to the Churches. Therefore, also, we drive away from the Holy Table those who are indeed convinced of the Godhead of Christ, and have already made profession of faith, that is, those who are already catechumens, when they have not as yet been enriched with the Holy Spirit. For He does not dwell in those who have not received Baptism. But when they have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, then indeed there is nothing to hinder them from touching Our Saviour Christ. Therefore, also, to those who wish to partake of the blessed Eucharist, the ministers of Divine mysteries say, "Holy things to the holy," teaching that participation in holy things is the due reward of those who are sanctified in the Spirit. |661
CHAPTER I. That the Son is by Nature God, even though we find Him calling the Father His God.
xx. 17. But go unto My brethren, and say to them, I ascend unto My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.
For reasons which we have given, Christ suffers not Mary to touch Him, though, in her love of God, she greatly yearned for this boon; but still rewards her for her watchful care, and doubly requites her for her passionate faith and love for Him, showing that those who are diligent in His service meet with a recompence. And, what was even yet more glorious, she achieved the deliverance of woman from the frailties of old; for in her first----I mean in Mary----all womankind, so to speak, are crowned with a double honour. For though at first she thus lamented, and made Christ an occasion for weeping, she turned her mourning into joy when she was told to forbear from tears by Him, Who, by His own sentence of old, had made woman easy to be overcome by the attacks of sorrow. For God had said to the woman: In sorrow shalt thou bring forth children; but just as He once made her subject unto sorrow in Paradise, when she hearkened to the voice of the serpent, and ministered to the devil's wiles, so now again in a garden He bids her refrain from weeping. Releasing her from that curse which bound her unto sorrow, He bids her be the first messenger of tidings of great joy, and proclaim |662 to the disciples His journey heavenward; that as the first woman, the mother of all mankind, was condemned for listening to the devil's voice, and through her the whole race of women, so also this woman, in that she had hearkened to our Saviour's words, and announced tidings fraught with life eternal, might deliver the entire race of women from the charge of old. The Lord, therefore, grants unto Mary that, besides being delivered from tears, and from a heart ever prone to sorrow, her feet also should be beautiful. For, as the Prophet exclaims: How beautiful are the feet of them that bring glad tidings of good things! while the feet of that woman of old time were not beautiful, for no good tidings did she bring when she enticed our forefather to transgress the Divine command. That Mary is worthy our admiration we may infer, from the fact that she was deemed worthy of mention in prophecy. For what said the Prophet concerning her, and the women with her, who announced unto the holy disciples the Resurrection of the Saviour? Ye women, who come from the sight, come hither; for it is a people that hath not understanding. For this Divine prophecy bids these women, true lovers of Christ, come, as it were, with quickened steps, that they may tell what they themselves have seen, and condemns the insensibility of the Jews in that they laughed to scorn the words of our Saviour Christ Himself concerning the Resurrection.
And though there were also other women there (for this the other Evangelists are pleased to record), and the wise John made mention only of Mary, we shall yet find no discrepancy in the accounts of these holy men. For it is probable that John made mention only of Mary Magdalene, because her love for Christ was more impassioned, and she outran the others, so that she first saw the tomb, and was in the garden, and visited every place that was nigh unto the sepulchre, to search for the Body; for she thought, in fact, that the Lord had been taken away. For results are always ascribed to those |663 who take the lead in counsel and action, though there may be others who co-operate in both.
Therefore, to her honour and glory and perpetual renown, the Saviour vouchsafed unto Mary the duty of proclaiming to the brethren the tidings contained in His words: I ascend unto My Father and your Father, and My God and your God; and do thou for thy part accept this great and profound mystery, not suffering thine heart to vault over the measure of the truth of the Divine doctrines. Observe how the Only-begotten Word of God came among us, that we also might be even as He is, so far as is possible for our nature to attain thereto, and so far as relates unto our new creation by grace. For He humbled Himself that He might exalt that which was by nature lowly to His own high station; and wore the form of a servant, though He was by Nature Lord and Son of God, that He might uplift that which was by nature enslaved to the dignity of Sonship, in conformity with His own Likeness, and in His Image. How, and in what sense, then, He, becoming one of us as Man, in order that we also might be like Him, that is, Gods and Sons, receives our attributes into Himself, and gives back unto us His own, you may well be anxious to inquire. I will explain, then, as far as I am able: In the first place, then, though we are servants by rank and nature (for creatures are subject to their Creator), He calls us His brethren, and designates God the common Father of Himself and us; and, making humanity His own, by taking our likeness upon Him, He calls our God His God, though He is His Son by Nature; that, as we mount up to His exceeding great dignity of station by likeness to Him (for it is not because we are by nature sons of God that we are so called, for He cries in our hearts by His own Spirit, Abba, Father), so also He, since He took our form----for He became Man, according to the Scriptures----might have God for His God, though He was truly God by Nature, and proceeded from Him. Be not, therefore, offended, |664 though you hear Him calling God His God, but rather contemplate His words in a teachable spirit, and attentively consider their true meaning. For He says that God is both His Father and our God; and both sayings are true. For, in very truth, the God of the universe is Christ's Father, but not ours by nature; but rather our God as our Creator and Sovereign Lord. But the Son, as it were, blending Himself with us, vouchsafes to our nature the dignity that is in a special and peculiar sense His own, calling Him That begat Him the common Father of us all; while, on the other hand, He receives into Himself, by taking upon Him our likeness, that which belonged to our nature. For He calls His Father His God, being unwilling, through His inherent love and mercy toward mankind, to dishonour our likeness that He had taken upon Himself. If, then, you choose in ignorance to cavil at this saying, and it seem intolerable to you that the Lord should say that God the Father was His God, you will then, in your perversity, be bringing a charge against the scheme for your own redemption; and when you ought to be offering up thanksgiving you will be dishonouring your Benefactor, and be foolishly objecting to the manner in which He manifested His love towards you. For if He humbled Himself, despising shame, and became a Man for your sake, on your head is the charge of humiliation, and to Him Who chose to undergo this for your sake, exceeding great is the honour due. And I am amazed that you have ears merely for the eclipse of glory (for He humbled Himself for our sake), and consider not its restoration, and, regarding only the degradation, reflect not upon the exaltation. For how was He humiliated, if you do not regard Him as perfect, as being God? And in what sense was He degraded, if you do not take into account the lofty attributes of His ineffable Nature? Therefore, when He was perfect and all-sufficient as God, He humbled Himself for your sake, transforming Himself to your likeness; and though He was high |665 exalted as the Son of God, and of the very Essence of the Father, He degraded Himself, being mulcted of the attributes of Divine glory, so far as His Nature admitted. As therefore, now, He is at the same time God and Man, being high exalted because of His parentage (for He is God of God and truly Begotten of His Father), and also made lowly for our sake (for He became Man for us); be of a tranquil mind when you hear Him saying: I ascend unto My Father and your Father, and My God and your God. For it was very meet and right that, as being by Nature God and Son of God, He should call Him That begat Him His Father; and that, as being Man, even as we are men. He should call God His God.
18 Mary Magdalene cometh and telleth the disciples that she had seen the Lord; and how that He had said these things unto her.
That race which is specially subject to weakness----I mean the race of women----is restored by the loving-kindness of our Saviour, Who, in a manner, rolled up in one the source and origin of our infirmities, and ameliorated them for the future. For Mary announced that she had seen the Lord, Who had escaped from the bonds of death, and had heard His Voice, and brought to the disciples the words of life, and the firstfruits of the Divine Gospel.
19, 20 When therefore it was evening, on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. And when He had said this, He showed unto them His Hands and His Side.
On the selfsame day on which He had appeared unto Mary, and discoursed with her, He also showed Himself to the holy disciples, who dreaded the intolerable attacks of the impious Jews, and were, on that account, collected together in a certain house. For it was not likely that |666 they who had been so instructed, and had often been bidden to make haste to escape from the wrath of their would-be murderers, would be found lacking in proper prudence. Christ miraculously appears unto them. For while the doors were shut, as the Apostle says, Christ unexpectedly stood in the midst, by His ineffable Divine power rising superior to the chain of cause and effect, and showing Himself able to dispense with the design and method appropriate to His action. For let no man say, "How did the Lord, Whose Body was of solid Flesh, enter without let or hindrance, though the doors were shut?" but rather let him reflect that the Evangelist is not here speaking of one of ourselves, but rather of Him Who is enthroned by the side of God the Father, and Who easily doth whatsoever He will. For He that was by Nature the true God, was of necessity not subject unto the sequences of cause and effect, as are the creatures that owe their being to Him; but rather does He exercise Lordship over necessity itself, and due and appropriate methods of performance. For how did He make the sea afford a footing unto His Feet, and walk thereon as upon dry land, though we are not so framed that we can tread upon the paths of the sea? And how did He perform the rest of His marvellous works with God-like power? All these things, you will say, surpass man's understanding. Put this miracle of Christ side by side with the rest, and do not, following the opinion of certain men, who, in the folly of their hearts, have been led astray to judge falsely, imagine on account of this very occurrence that Christ rose again without His human Body, wholly bereft thereof, and severed from the Temple that He had taken on Himself. For if thou canst not understand the working of God's ineffable Nature, why dost thou not rather cry out against the infirmity of man's reason ----for that would be the wiser course----and then silently acquiesce in the limit prescribed to you by the Creator? For in rejecting the conclusion of wisdom, thou doest |667 wrong to the great mystery of the Resurrection, on which all our reliance is fixed. For remember the exclamation of Paul: If the dead are not raised, neither hath Christ been raised: and if Christ hath not been raised, your faith is vain, and ye are yet in your sins. And again: Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we witnessed of God that He raised up Christ: Whom He raised not up, if so be that the dead are not raised. For what can be raised up save that which is fallen? or what restored to life, save that which is bowed down in death? And how shall we expect to rise again, if so be that Christ raised not up His own Temple, making Himself, for us, the Firstfruits of them which are asleep, and the Firstborn from the dead? Or how shall this mortal put on immortality, if, as some think, it be lost in total annihilation? For how shall it escape this fate if it have no hope of a new life? Do not, then, swerve from orthodoxy in the faith, because a miracle was accomplished; but rather be wise, and add this to the other marvellous works that Christ did.
For observe how, by unexpectedly entering when the doors were shut, Christ showed, once more, that He was by Nature God, and no other than He Who had erewhile dwelt among them; and also, by laying bare the wounded Side of His Body, and by showing the print of the nails, He gave us complete satisfaction that He had raised that Temple of His Body which had hung upon the Cross, and had restored to life that Body which He had worn, thereby subduing death, which is due to all flesh, inasmuch as He was by Nature Life and God. What need, then, was there for Him to show them His Hands and Side, if, as some perversely think, He did not rise again with His Body? And, if He wished His disciples not to entertain this idea concerning Him, why did He not rather appear in another form, and, disdaining the likeness of flesh, conjure up other thoughts in their minds'? But, as it is, He thought it of so great importance that they should be convinced of the |668 Resurrection of His Body, that, when the time even seemed to call Him to change His Body into some form of ineffable and surpassing Majesty, He resolved in His Providence to appear once more as He had been of old, that He might not be thought to be wearing any other form than that in which also He had suffered crucifixion. For that our eyes could not have endured the glory of the holy Body, if Christ had chosen to reveal it unto the disciples before He ascended to the Father, is easily to be inferred, when we reflect upon His transfiguration on the Mount before the holy disciples. For the blessed Matthew the Evangelist writes, that Jesus took Peter, and James, and John, and went up into the mountain, and was transfigured before them: and His Face did shine as lightning, and His garments became white as snow, and they could not endure the sight, but fell on their faces. Very appropriately, then, our Lord Jesus Christ, as He had not yet transformed the Temple of His Body into its due and proper majesty, still appeared in His original shape, not wishing the belief in the Resurrection to be transferred to another form or body than that which He had received from the Holy Virgin, in which also He was crucified, and died, according to the Scripture, the power of death extending only over Flesh, from which also it was driven forth. For if His Body, after death, did not rise again, what sort of death was vanquished, and in what way was the power of corruption weakened? For it could not be by the death of a single rational being, or soul, or angel, or even the very Word of God. When, then, the power of death has reference only to that which is doomed by nature to corruption, with this it is that the power of the Resurrection is concerned, and with this alone, in order that the dominion of the lord of this world might be taken away. The entry of our Lord through the closed doors must be classed, by men of wisdom, with the other miracles that He wrought. He then greeted His holy disciples. Peace be unto you, He says; meaning by peace, |669 Himself. For while Christ is present among men it follows that the tranquillity of their minds is assured unto them. Paul also declared that this boon is granted to those who believe on Him, when he says: The peace of Christ, which passeth all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts; meaning by the peace of Christ which passeth all understanding nothing else than His Spirit, of Which if any man partake he shall be filled with everything that is good.
20 The disciples, therefore, were glad when they saw the Lord.
Hereby, also, the blessed Evangelist testifies to the truth of our Saviour's Words, when he says that the disciples were full of peace and joy of heart when they saw Jesus. For we remember the mysterious utterance that He spake unto them concerning His precious Cross and Resurrection from the dead, saying: A little while, and ye behold Me no more; and again a little while, and ye shall see Me; and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no one talceth away from you. The Jews, indeed, whose minds were transported by a frenzy of fury, rejoiced when they saw Jesus nailed to the Cross, while the heart of the holy disciples was heavy laden with an intolerable burthen of sorrow. But as He is by Nature Life, He overcame the power of death, and rose again, and the joy of the Jews was extinguished, while the heaviness of the holy disciples was turned into joy, and nothing could rob or deprive them of their soul's delight. Christ, having died once for all to put away sin, dieth no more, as is written. For He is alive for evermore, and of a surety He will preserve those whose hope is in Him, in joy without ceasing. He once more greets them with the oft-repeated assurance: Peace be unto you; laying down, as it were, this law for the children of the Church. Therefore, also, more especially in the assembling and gathering of ourselves together in holy places, at the very commencement of the blessed mystery of the Eucharist, we repeat this saying to one another. For |670 our being at peace with each other and with God must be accounted a fountain and source of all good. Therefore, also, Paul, when he prays that those who are called may enjoy the highest of all blessings, says: Grace to you and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ; and also, when he invites those who have not yet believed to make their peace with God, he says: We are ambassadors on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us: we beseech you on behalf of Christ, be ye reconciled to God. None the less, also, the Prophet Isaiah exhorts us, crying out: Let us make peace with Him, let us make peace who come. The meaning of the saying well befits the Dispenser of Peace, or rather the Peace of all men; that is, Christ, for He is our peace, according to the Scripture.
21 Then said He to them again, Peace be unto you: as the living Father sent Me, even so send I you.
Hereby our Lord Jesus Christ ordained the disciples to be guides and teachers of the world, and to be ministers of His Divine mysteries, and also bade them, for the time was now come, like lights to illuminate and enlighten, not merely the country of Judaea, according to the limit of the commandment of the Law, which extended from Dan even unto Beersheba, according to the Scripture, but rather also all under the sun, and men scattered throughout all lands, wheresoever they dwelt. The saying of Paul, therefore, is true: No man taketh the honour unto himself, but he that is called of God. For our Lord Jesus Christ called into His most glorious apostleship, before all others, His own disciples, and firmly fixed the whole earth, which was well-nigh tottering and in the act of falling, pointing out, as God, men to be props thereof who were well able to support it. Therefore, also, He thus spake by the mouth of the Psalmist, concerning the earth and the Apostles: I have fixed the pillars of it; for the blessed disciples were as the pillars and ground of the truth, whom also He says |671 that He sent forth, even as the Father had sent Him; showing at the same time the dignity of their apostle-ship, and the incomparable honour of the power vouchsafed unto them, and also in all likelihood suggesting the method of life the Apostles were to follow. For if He thought it meet that He should send forth His own disciples, even as the Father had sent Him, was it not necessary for those who were destined to imitate His mission to ascertain what the Father sent forth the Son for to do? In divers ways, then, expounding unto us the character of His own mission, He said in one place: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance; and again: They that are whole have no need of a physician; but they that are sick: and again, in another place: For I am come down from heaven, not to do Mine own Will, but the Will of Him That sent Me; and yet once more: For God sent not His Son into the world to judge the world; but that the world should be saved through Him. Summing up, therefore, in a few words the character of their mission, He says that He sent them even as the Father had sent Him, that they might know thereby that they were bound to call sinners to repentance, and to minister to those who were in evil plight, whether of body or soul, and in all their dealings upon earth, not in any wise to follow their own will, but the Will of Him That sent them, and to save the world by their teaching, so far as was possible. And in truth we shall find the holy disciples eager to show the utmost zeal in performing all these things; and it is not difficult for any one to satisfy himself of this, who has once turned his attention to the Acts of the Apostles, and the words of the holy Paul.
22, 23 And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whosesoever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven unto them; whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained.
After dignifying the holy Apostles with the glorious |672 distinction of the apostleship, and appointing them ministers and priests of the Divine Altar, as I have just said, He at once sanctifies them by vouchsafing His Spirit unto them, through the outward sign of His Breath, that we might be firmly convinced that the Holy Spirit is not alien to the Son, but Consubstantial with Him, and through Him proceeding from the Father; He shows that the gift of the Spirit necessarily attends those who are ordained by Him to be Apostles of God. And why? Because they could have done nothing pleasing unto God, and could not have triumphed over the snares of sin, if they had not been clothed with power from on high, and been transformed into something other than they were before. Therefore, also, it was said to one of old time: The Spirit of the Lord will come upon thee, and thou shalt be turned into another man; and the Prophet Isaiah also declared that those who waited upon the Lord should renew their strength. The wise Paul, too, when he says that he surpassed some in his labours, that is, in the deeds of an Apostle, adds at once: Yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Besides, we say this, that the disciples would never at all have understood the mystery that is in Christ, nor have been true guides in this knowledge, if they had not advanced in the light of the Spirit to a revelation of things which surpass man's reason and understanding, a revelation which is able to point out to them the heights to which they were bound to ascend; for no man can say Jesus is Lord, as Paul says, but in the Holy Spirit. As, then, they were destined to proclaim that Jesus was the Lord, that is, to preach that He was God and Lord of necessity, therefore they received the grace of the Holy Spirit in immediate connexion with the office of apostleship, Christ granting Him unto them, not ministering to the desires of another, but rather vouchsafing Him of Himself; for the Spirit could only come down unto us from the Father through the Son. The old and written Law, |673 however, which contained shadows and types of the reality, ordained that the appointment of priests should be performed in a more physical way, so to say, and that their appointment should be attended with more outward display. For the blessed Moses, by God's command, bade Aaron and the Levites wash themselves with water: then he slew the ram of consecration and anointed with the blood the tip of Aaron's right ear, as is written, and also put of the blood upon the thumb of the right hand, and upon the big toe of the right foot, giving an outline and type, as in a picture, of the mystery concerning Christ. For in the presence here of water and blood, the instruments of sanctification, how can there be any question that in an obscure type an outline was given of the fair beauty of the reality? Our Lord Jesus Christ, transforming into the power of truth the figure of the Law, consecrates through Himself the ministers of the Divine Altar. For He is the Lamb of consecration, and He consecrates by actual sanctification, making men partakers in His Nature, through participation in the Spirit, and in some sort strengthening the nature of man into a power and glory that is superhuman.
And there can be no doubt that the explanation I have here given can be proved not to err from the truth. But, perhaps, someone will come and say as follows, with a praiseworthy desire for knowledge, it may be, putting to us the question, "Where then, and when, did the Saviour's disciples receive the grace of the Spirit? When the Saviour appeared unto them in the house, immediately after the Resurrection, and breathed upon them, saying: Receive ye the Holy Ghost; or in the days of the holy Pentecost, when, as they were again assembled together in one place, suddenly there came from heaven a sound as of the rushing of a mighty wind. And there appeared unto them tongues parting asunder, like as of fire; and it sat upon each one of them. And they began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave |674 them utterance?" For either, such an one will say, we must suppose that a double grace was given unto them, or we must remain in ignorance of the occasion on which they, in fact, became partakers in the Holy Spirit; if indeed our Saviour's saying, and that which is written in the Acts of the holy Apostles, is found to be true. And, indeed, the question may well excite our perplexity, especially as Christ Himself said: It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away the Comforter cannot come unto you; but when I depart, I will send Him unto you; for the inquirer will perhaps go on to say, "The Truth, that is, Christ, cannot lie. When, then, He said in plain words that the Comforter would not come unto the disciples unless He were taken up unto the Father, but of a surety He would send Him then, when He was in heaven at His side; how, then, can He be supposed to grant the gift of the Spirit, though His journey from hence was not yet accomplished?" Still, though the inquiry is very obscure, and very likely to cause perplexity, it yet allows of an appropriate solution, when we remember our faith that Christ is not as one of ourselves, but rather is God, and of God, and so exercises dominion over His own Words, and moulds them to suit His purposes.
For He proclaimed that He would send down to us from heaven the Comforter, when He was ascended to God the Father; and this, indeed, He did, when He had gone away to the Father, and vouchsafed to shed forth the Spirit abundantly upon all who were willing to receive it. For any man could receive it, through faith, that is, and Holy Baptism; and then was fulfilled that which was spoken by the voice of the Prophet: I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh. But it was necessary that the Son should appear as co-operating with the Father in granting the Spirit; it was necessary that those who believed on Him should understand that He is the Power of the Father, That has created this whole world, and called man out of nothing into being. |675 For God the Father, at the beginning, by His own Word, took of the dust of the ground, as is written, and fashioned the animal, that is man, and endowed him with a soul, according to His Will, and illuminated him with a share of His own Spirit; for He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, as is written. And when it came to pass that through disobedience man fell under the power of death, and lost his ancient honour, God the Father built him up and restored him to newness of life, through the Son, as at the beginning. And how did the Son restore him? By the death of His own Flesh He slew death, and brought the race of man back again into incorruption; for Christ rose again for us. In order, then, that we might learn that He it was Who at the beginning created our nature, and sealed us with the Holy Spirit, our Saviour again grants the Spirit, through the outward sign of His Breath, to the holy disciples, as being the firstfruits of renewed nature. For Moses writes concerning our creation of old, that God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life. As, then, at the beginning, man was formed and came into being, so likewise is he renewed; and as he was then formed in the Image of his Creator, so likewise now, by participation in the Spirit, is he transformed into the Likeness of his Maker. For that the Spirit impresses the Saviour's Image on the hearts of those who receive Him surely does not admit of question; for Paul plainly exhorteth those who had fallen through weakness into observance of the Law, in the words: My little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you. For he says that Christ will not be formed in them save by partaking of the Holy Spirit, and living according to the law of the Gospel. Therefore, as in the firstfruits of creation, which is made regenerate into incorruption and glory and into the Image of God, Christ establishes anew His own Spirit in His disciples. For it was necessary that we should also perceive this truth, namely, that He brings down and grants the Spirit |676 unto us. Therefore, also, He said: All things, whatsoever the Father hath, are Mine. And as the Father hath, of Himself and in Himself, His own Spirit, so also the Son hath the Spirit in Himself, because He is Consubstantial with Him, and essentially proceeded from Him, having by Nature in Himself all the attributes of His Father.
From the following fact we can prove that, many as were the actions that He repeatedly promised us that He would perform in due season, He even in part anticipated the appointed time in the performance of them, for our edification, that we might be fully convinced that whatsoever He has spoken will assuredly come to pass. He declared that He would raise up the dead, and bring back again to life those who are lying in the earth and in tombs. The hour cometh, He says, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done ill, unto the resurrection of judgment. And, desiring to satisfy us that He could readily accomplish this, He taught, saying: I am the Resurrection and the Life. But, inasmuch as the vastness of the miracle made it difficult of belief that the dead could ever be restored to life, He anticipated to our profit the time of the Resurrection, and gave us a sign by raising Lazarus and the widow's son and the daughter of Jairus. And what else besides? As He said that full of glory would be the resurrection of the Saints, for then, He says, shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father, in order that here again He might be believed to speak truth, He granted the sight thereof before the time to the disciples. For He took Peter and James and John, and went up into the mountain, and was transfigured before them: and His Face did shine as lightning, and His garments became white as snow. Just as, then, although He promised to accomplish these things in their season, yet He performed the works in part and with a limited scope even out of due time, as |677 an earnest and foretaste of that which was expected to come to pass and to affect the whole world, so doing in order that faith in Him might not be shaken; even so, likewise, after having said that He would send the Comforter to us when He went away to the Father, and having fixed this occasion for granting this grace universally, He performed in the persons of His disciples the first instalment, as it were, of the promise, for the many just and sufficient reasons we have previously given.
They, therefore, partook of the Holy Spirit when He breathed on them, saying, Receive ye the Holy Ghost; for it were impossible for Christ to lie, and He would never have said "Receive" without giving; but in the days of Holy Pentecost, when God more openly proclaimed His grace, and manifested the stablishment of the Holy Spirit in their hearts, there appeared unto them tongues through flame, not signifying the beginning of the gift of the Spirit in their hearts, but rather having reference to the time when they were first endowed with the gift of languages. It is written, indeed, that they began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. Note, that they began to speak, not to receive sanctification, and that the gift of divers tongues came down upon them; and this was the working of the Spirit that was in them. For just as the Father spake from heaven, and bare witness to His Son, saying, This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased; and did this to satisfy the minds of those who heard, uttering, or causing to be uttered, a sound as of some instrument which fell upon the ear; even so, also, in the case of the holy disciples He made the manifestation of the grace given them more public, sending down upon them tongues as of fire, and causing the descent of the Holy Spirit to resemble the sound of the rushing of a mighty wind. And that this very portent was given unto the Jews by way of a sign, you will readily see, if you listen to God, the Lord of all, saying by the mouth of the |678 Prophet: By men of strange tongues, and by the lips of strangers, will I speak unto this people, and yet will they not believe. And to the intent that we might believe that the blessed disciples did, in fact, partake of the Holy Spirit, and were from henceforth honoured with the grace of Christ from above, and that they were able to expound the truth, and that the glory of their apostleship was worthy all admiration, witness being borne thereto by the gift from on high, therefore it was that fire came down in the form of tongues.
I think, indeed, that I have here said enough to accurately explain the meaning of the passage; but, inasmuch as we are bound to take every precaution in our treatise, that no stumblingblock spring up to offend the brethren through the carping spirit of any amongst us, let us make this addition to what we have said, and refute the vain talk that we may expect will be started. We shall find, then, in the passage that follows, the words: Thomas, called Didymus, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. How, then, someone may not unreasonably inquire, if he were away, was he in fact made partaker in the Holy Spirit when the Saviour appeared unto the disciples and breathed on them, saying: Receive ye the Holy Ghost? We reply that the power of the Spirit pervaded every man who received grace, and fulfilled the aim of the Lord Who gave Him unto them; and Christ gave the Spirit not to some only but to all the disciples. Therefore, if any were absent, they also received Him, the munificence of the Giver not being confined to those only who were present, but extending to the entire company of the holy Apostles. And that this interpretation is not strained, or our idea extravagant, we may convince you from Holy Writ itself, bringing forward as a proof a passage in the Books of Moses. The Lord God commanded the all-wise Moses to select elders, to the number of seventy, from the assembly of the Jews, and plainly declared: I will take of the Spirit which is upon thee and will put it upon them. |679 Moses, as he was bidden, brought them together, and fulfilled the Divine decree. Two only of the men who were included in the number of the seventy elders were left behind, and remained in the assembly, to wit, Eldad and Medad. Then when God put upon them all the Divine Spirit, as He had promised, those whom Moses had collected together immediately received grace, and prophesied; but none the less also the two who were in the assembly prophesied, and, in fact, the grace from above came upon them first. Nay, further, Joshua, that was called the son of Nun, who was the constant attendant of Moses, not understanding at once the meaning of the mystery, but thinking that after the manner of Dathan and Abiram they were rivals in the art of prophecy to those whom Moses had brought together, said unto him: Eldad and Medad do prophesy in the camp; my lord Moses, forbid them. And what answered that truly wise and great man, seeing in his wisdom the working of the grace given unto them, and the power of the Spirit? Enviest thou for my sake? Would God that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them! Observe how he rebukes the saying of Joshua, who knew not what had been done. Would that, he says, the Spirit were given to all the people! Nay, this will indeed come to pass in due season, when the Lord, that is, Christ, will grant unto them His Spirit; breathing upon His holy Apostles as upon the firstfruits of those whose due it is to receive Him, and saying: Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Then, if Thomas were absent, he was not cut off from receiving the Spirit, for the Spirit pervaded all whose due it was to receive Him, and who were included among the number of His honoured disciples.
Christ, when He gave the Spirit unto them, said: Whosesoever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained; though only the living God is able and powerful to grant unto sinners remission of sins; for whom could it befit to pardon the |680 transgressions that sinners have committed against the Divine Law, save the Lawgiver Himself? You may, if you choose, see the meaning of the saying from the analogy of human affairs. Who has authority to meddle with the decrees of earthly monarchs, and who tries to undo that which has been ordained by the will and judgment of rulers, save only someone who is invested with regal honour and dignity? Therefore, wise was the saying, Insolent is he who saith unto the king, Thou breakest the law. In what way, then, and in what sense did the Saviour invest His disciples with the dignity which befits the Nature of God alone? The Word that is in the Father cannot err; and this He did, and whatsoever He doeth, He doeth well. For He thought it meet that they who have once been endued with the Spirit of Him Who is God and Lord, should have power also to remit or retain the sins of whomsoever they would, the Holy Spirit That dwelt in them remitting or retaining them according to His Will, though the deed were done through human instrumentality.
They who have the Spirit of God remit or retain sins in two ways, as I think. For they invite to Baptism those to whom this sacrament is already due from the purity of their lives, and their tried adherence to the faith; and they hinder and exclude others who are not as yet worthy of the Divine grace. And in another sense, also, they remit and retain sins, by. rebuking erring children of the Church, and granting pardon to those who repent; just as, also, Paul gave up him that had committed fornication at Corinth, for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved, and admitted him again into fellowship, that he might not be swallowed up with his overmuch sorrow, as he says in his letter. When, then, the Spirit of Christ dwelling in our hearts doeth things which befit God alone, surely He is the living God, invested with the glorious dignity of the Divine Nature, and having power over sacred laws. |681
24, 25 But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in His Hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His Side, I will not believe.
The greatest marvels are always attended by incredulity, and any action which seems to exceed the measure of probability is ill-received by those who hear of it. But the sight of the eyes succeeds in banishing these doubts, and, as it were, compels a man by force to assent to the evidence before him. This was the state of mind of the wise Thomas, who did not readily accept the true testimony of the other disciples to our Saviour's Resurrection, although, according to the Mosaic Law, in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established. I think, however, that it was not so much that the disciple discredited what was told him, but rather that he was distracted with the utmost grief, because he had not been thought worthy to see our Saviour with his own eyes. For he, perhaps, thought that he would never receive that blessing. He knew that the Lord was by Nature Life, and that He was able to escape death itself, and to destroy the power of corruption; for surely He "Who released others from its trammels could deliver His own Flesh. In his exceeding great joy he affected incredulity, and though he well-nigh leapt in his ecstasy of delight, he longed to see Him before his very sight, and to be perfectly satisfied that He had risen again to life according to His promise. For our Saviour said: Children, a little while and ye behold Me no more; and again a little while, and ye shall see Me, and your heart shall rejoice. I think that the disciple's want of faith was extremely opportune and well-timed, in order that, through the satisfaction of his mind, we also who come after him might be |682 unshaken in our faith that the very Body that hung upon the Cross and suffered death was quickened by the Father through the Son. Therefore, also, Paul saith: Because if thou shalt say with thy mouth, Jesus is Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For since it was not the nature of flesh itself which brought back life, but the deed was rather accomplished by the working of the ineffable Nature of God, in which naturally abides a quickening power, the Father through the Son manifested His power upon the Temple of Christ's Body; not as though the Word was powerless to raise His own Body, but because the Father doeth whatsoever He doeth through the Son, for He is His Power, and whatsoever the Son bringeth to effect proceedeth also of a surety from the Father. We, therefore, are taught, through the slight want of faith shown by the blessed Thomas, that the mystery of the Resurrection is effected upon our earthly bodies, and in Christ as the Firstfruits of the race; and that He was no phantom or ghost, fashioned in human shape, and simulating the features of humanity, nor yet, as others have foolishly surmised, a spiritual body that is compounded of a subtle and ethereal substance different from the flesh. For some attach this meaning to the expression "spiritual body." For since all our expectation and the significance of our irrefutable faith, after the confession of the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity, centres in the mystery concerning the flesh, the blessed Evangelist has very pertinently put this saying of Thomas side by side with the summary of what preceded. For observe that Thomas does not desire simply to see the Lord, but looks for the marks of the nails, that is, the wounds upon His Body. For he affirmed that then, indeed, he would believe and agree with the rest that Christ had indeed risen again, and risen again in the flesh. For that which is dead may rightly be said to return to life, and the Resurrection surely |683 was concerned with that which was subject unto death.
26, 27 And after eight days again His disciples were within, and Thomas with them. Jesus cometh, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you. Then saith He to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and see My Hands; and reach hither thy hand, and put it into My Side: and be not faithless, but believing.
Christ appeared once more unto His disciples miraculously by His Divine power. For He did not, like unto us, bid them open the doors for Him to enter in, but disdaining, as it were, the natural sequence of events, passed within the doors, and unexpectedly appeared in the middle of the room, presenting the same kind of miracle before the sight of the blessed Thomas as He had performed on the former occasion. For he that was most deficient in faith had need of healing medicine. He made use of the greeting so often on His Lips, and solemnly gave them the blessed assurance of peace, as a pattern unto us, as we have said before. One may well be amazed at the minuteness of detail shown in this passage. For such was the extreme accuracy that the compiler of this book took pains to observe, that he is not content with simply saying that Christ manifested Himself to the holy disciples, but explains that it was after eight days, and that they were gathered together. For what else can their being all brought together in one house mean? We say this to point out the diligent care that the Apostle so admirably displays, and because Christ hereby has made clear unto us the occasion of our assembling, and gathering ourselves together on His account. For He visits, and in some sort dwells with, those assembled together for His sake, especially on the eighth day, that is, the Lord's day. Let us reckon it up, if you so please: On the one occasion He appeared unto the other disciples; on the other, He manifested Himself to them, when Thomas was also |684 present. It is written in the preceding passage: When therefore it was evening, on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut, He stood in the midst. Note, that it was on the first day of the week, that is, the Lord's day, when the disciples were gathered together, that He was seen of them, and that likewise also He appeared unto them on the eighth day following. And we must not, because he says eight days after, suppose that he means the ninth day, but that when he says this he includes the eighth day itself, on which He appeared, in the number given.
With good reason, then, are we accustomed to have sacred meetings in churches on the eighth day. And, to adopt the language of allegory, as the idea necessarily demands, we indeed close the doors, but yet Christ visits us and appears unto us all, both invisibly and also visibly; invisibly as God, but also visibly in the Body. He suffers us to touch His holy Flesh, and gives us thereof. For through the grace of God we are admitted to partake of the blessed Eucharist, receiving Christ into our hands, to the intent that we may firmly believe that He did in truth raise up the Temple of His Body. For that the partaking of the blessed Eucharist is a confession of the Resurrection of Christ is clearly proved by His own Words, which He spake when He Himself performed the type of the mystery; for He brake bread, as it is written, and gave it to them, saying: This is My Body, which is given for you unto remission of sins: this do in remembrance of Me. Participation, then, in the Divine mysteries, in addition to filling us with Divine blessedness, is a true confession and memorial of Christ's dying and rising again for us and for our sake. Let us, therefore, after touching Christ's Body, shrink back from unbelief in Him as utter ruin, and rather be found well grounded in the full assurance of faith.
Let the attentive reader call to mind that our Lord repulsed Mary Magdalene from touching Him, saying |685 plainly: Touch Me not, for I am not yet ascended unto the Father. Yet He allows Thomas to touch His Side, and to feel with his fingers the print of the nails. We have already explained why our Lord did this, but none the less will we call back to mind the reason, briefly recapitulating what we said. For not yet had the time arrived for Mary to touch Him, because she had not yet been sanctified by the grace of the Holy Spirit; for while Christ was yet in our midst, and had not yet ascended to the Father in heaven, it was impossible to see the descent of the Comforter fully accomplished among men. It was meet, however, for Thomas to touch Him, as he, as well as the rest, had been enriched with the Spirit. For, as we said before, he was not on account of his absence without his share in the Spirit. For the munificence of the Giver reached unto him also, when the boon was granted to the entire company of the holy disciples.
I think we ought also to investigate the following question. Thomas felt our Saviour's Side, and found the wounds made by the soldier's spear, and saw the print of the nails. Then how was it, someone may inquire, that the marks of corruption were apparent in an incorruptible Body? For the abiding trace of the holes bored through the Hands and Side, and the marks of wounds and punctures made by steel, affords proof of physical corruption, though the true and incontrovertible fact that Christ's Body was transformed into incorrup-tion points to a necessary discarding of all the results of corruption, together with corruption itself. For will any man who is lame, at the Resurrection have a maimed foot or limb? And if any man have lost the sight of his eyes in this life, will he be raised again blind? How then, someone may say, can we have shaken off the yoke of corruption, if its results still remain and rule over our members? It is essential, I think, to inquire into this question; and this we say, with reference to the difficulties raised by the |686 passage. We are as far as possible anxious to assent to the contention that at the time of the resurrection there will be no remnant of adventitious corruption left in us, but, as the wise Paul said concerning this body of ours, that which is sown in weakness is raised in power, and that which is sown in dishonour is raised in glory. And what can we expect the resurrection of this body in power and glory to be, if it does not imply that it will cast off all the weakness and dishonour of corruption and disease, and return to its original purity? For the human body was not made for death and corruption. But, inasmuch as Thomas required this proof for his perfect satisfaction, our Lord Jesus Christ, of necessity, therefore, in order to leave no excuse for our want of faith, appears even as he sought to see Him; for even when He ascended into heaven itself, and made known the meaning of the mystery concerning Himself to the rulers, principalities, and powers above, and to those who commanded the legions of angels, He appeared also unto them in this same guise that they might believe that in very truth the Word That was of the Father, and in the Father, became Man for our sake, and that they might know that such was His care for His creatures that He died for our salvation. And, in order to make the meaning of my explanation clearer to my hearers, I will add the very words spoken by the mouth of Isaiah on this subject. He saith: Who is This That cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bosra? They who raise this shout, I mean the cry: Who is This That cometh from Edom? that is, from the earth, are angels and rational powers, for they are marvelling at the Lord ascending into heaven. And, seeing Him almost, as it were, dyed in His own Blood, they say unto Him, not yet apprehending the mystery: Why is Thy apparel red, and why are Thy garments like him that treadeth in the wine-vats? For they compare the colour of the blood to new wine, lately trodden in the press. And what saith |687 Christ unto them? First, in order that He may be known to be the living God, He saith: I speak righteousness; using the word speak, instead of "teach." And most assuredly. He that teacheth righteousness must be a Lawgiver, and if a Lawgiver, surely also God. Then say the angels unto Him, as Christ showeth them the marks of the nails: What are these wounds in Thy Hands? and the Lord answereth: Those with which I was wounded in the house of My beloved. For Israel was the house that the Lord loved, and Israel smote Him with nails and spear. For the outrages of the soldiers may justly be ascribed unto the Jews, for they brought the Lord to His death. Therefore, when He wished to satisfy the holy angels that He was, in fact, a Man, and that He had undergone the Cross for us, and that He was risen again to life from the dead, Christ was not content with mere words, but showed unto them the marks of His suffering. What is there to astonish us in the fact, that when He desired to rid the blessed Thomas of his unbelief He showed the print of the nails, appearing unto him, contrary to expectation, for the advantage of all men, and to the intent that we might believe without question that the mystery of the Resurrection was actually accomplished, no other body being raised but that which suffered death?
28 Thomas answered Him, and saith unto Him, My Lord and my God.
He that had shortly before been slack in the duty of faith was now eager to profess it. and in a short time his fault was wholly cured. For after an interval of only eight days the hindrances to his faith were removed by Christ, Who showed unto him the print of the nails and His wounded Side. But, perhaps, someone will ask the question: "Tell me why did the minds of the holy disciples carry out so rigid an inquiry, and so careful a scrutiny? For would not the sight of the Lord's Body, the features of His Face, and the measure of His Stature, |688 have sufficed to prove that He had indeed risen from the dead, and to secure His recognition?" What do we reply? The inspired disciples were not free from doubt, although they had seen the Lord. For. they thought that He was not in very truth the same as He Who of old had lived and dwelt among them, and had hung upon the Cross, but rather that He was a Spirit, cunningly fashioned like unto our Saviour's Image, and simulating the features of the form which they knew. For they fell into this delusion not without some apparent excuse, as He miraculously entered when the doors were closed; in spite of the fact that a body of coarse earthy mould requires a hole through which it can pass, and necessitates the aperture of the door to correspond in width with the size of the body. For this cause our Lord Jesus Christ, greatly to our profit, laid bare His Side to Thomas, and exposed the wounds on His Person, through his agency giving adequate proof to all. For though of Thomas alone is recorded the saying: Except I shall put my hands and see the prints of the nails, and put my hand into His Side, I will not believe, yet was the charge of lack of faith common to them all; and we shall find that the minds of the other disciples were not free from perplexity, though they said unto the holy Thomas: We have seen the Lord. And that what we say does not err from the truth we may easily perceive by what the Divine Luke tells us: As they spake these things, He stood in the midst of them, that is, of course, Christ, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they beheld a spirit. And He said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and wherefore do reasonings arise in your hearts? See My Hands and My Feet, that it is I Myself: handle Me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye behold Me having. And when He had said this, He showed them His Hands and His Feet. And while they still disbelieved for joy, and wondered, He said unto them, Have ye here anything to |689 eat? And they gave Him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. And He took it, and did eat before them. You see how the thought of unbelief is found lurking, not in the blessed Thomas alone, but that the minds of the other disciples were afflicted with a kindred disease. For, lo and behold! seeing that their faith wavered even after the sight of the wounds upon the Cross, He thought it right to convince them by another act, in nowise suited to a spirit, but specially appropriate to earthly bodies and the nature of flesh. For He ate the fish that was brought unto Him, or the portion of one. For when no mark at all of corruption any longer remained after the Resurrection of His holy Flesh, because He lived again to incorruption, and when it was incredible that His Body stood in need of food as heretofore, He yet showed unto them the print of the nails, and did not refuse to partake of food, in order that He might establish the great mystery of the Resurrection, and cause faith in it to spring up in the souls of us all. He does acts wholly alien to the nature of spirits. For how, and in what way, could the prints of nails, and the traces of wounds, and participation in bodily food, be found to exist in a naked spirit unconnected with flesh, to which all these things are suitable by the law of its being and the conditions under which it exists? In order, then, that none might think that Christ rose again a mere spirit, or an impalpable body, shadowy and ethereal, to which some give the name of spiritual, but that the selfsame body that was sown in corruption, as Paul saith, might be believed to have risen again, He openly did acts suitable to a palpable human form. What we said at first, however, namely, that the blessed disciple did not so much lack faith owing to infirmity of judgment, but rather was affected in this way by excess of joy, will not be wide of the mark. For we have heard the saying of the blessed Luke concerning all the others: And while they disbelieved for joy and wondered. It |690 was wonder, therefore, that made the disciples slow to be convinced. But as henceforward there was no excuse for unbelief, as they saw with their own eyes, the blessed Thomas accordingly unflinchingly confessed his faith in Him, saying: My Lord and my God. For we must all confess that it follows of a surety that He That is Lord by Nature and Ruler over all is also God, just as also universal dominion and the glory of sovereignty is clearly seen to appertain to the living God.
Observe, too, that when he says My Lord and my God, he uses the article to show that there was One Lord and One God. For he does not say without the qualification of the article, My Lord and my God, to prevent any one from imagining that he called Him Lord or God as he might have done one of ourselves or of the holy angels. For there are gods many and lords many, in this sense, in heaven and on earth, as the wise Paul has taught us; but rather he recognises Him as, in a special sense, the One Lord and God, as begotten of the Father, Who is by Nature Lord and God, when he says, My Lord and my God; and, what is a still greater indication of the truth, the Saviour heard His disciple saying this, and saw that he rested in the firm conviction that He was, in fact, the Lord and God, and thought it not right to rebuke him. Christ, then, approved his faith, and with justice. And you may easily see that what I say is true. For to him that was possessed of this faith He says, at the end of the Gospel, as unto the rest: Go ye and make disciples of all the nations. And if He bids him who was thus minded teach all nations, and appointed him to instruct the world in His mysteries, He wishes us to have a like faith. For He is, in fact, Lord and God by Nature, even when Incarnate Man. For observe that the disciple, when he had touched His Hands, and Feet, and Side, made unto Him this confession of faith, not severing Emmanuel into a duality of Sons, but recognising Him as one and the same in the Flesh, for Jesus Christ is One Lord, according to the Scripture. |691
29 Jesus saith unto him, Because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed: Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed.
This saying of the Saviour is very pertinent and we may derive the greatest profit therefrom. For hereby He showed His great care for our souls; for He is good, and willeth that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth, according to the Scripture. What is here said may not unlikely excite surprise. It was, indeed, necessary for Him to be long-suffering, as was His wont, with Thomas, who uttered that saying, and also with the other disciples with him, who thought that He was a spirit or apparition; and also to exhibit, as He very readily did for universal satisfaction, the print of the nails and His pierced Side; and also, contrary to use and need, to partake of food, that no plea for their unbelief might be left to those who sought to gain the benefits of His death. But it was also essential to have regard to the security of our faith. It was necessary also to have another end in view, namely, that those who should come at the last times should not easily be drawn into unbelief. For it was likely that some should err from the straight path, and from ignorance, practising a spurious kind of caution, refuse to accept the resurrection of the dead, and put themselves forward, and say unto us, like that unbelieving disciple: Except I shall see in His Hands the print of the nails, and put my hand into His Side, I will not believe. What sufficient means of satisfying them would there have been, Christ being no longer on earth but having ascended into heaven? And would they not have been, at times, thought to be justified in thus speaking, when they appeared to be imitating therein the disciple of the Saviour, and, considering it a noble thing not to believe off-hand, but rather to require more for their complete assurance, claimed for themselves the sight that was shown to the holy disciples? Christ, therefore, restrains |692 men from such an inclination, and keeps them from falling. For being truly God, He knew well the malicious designs of the devil and his practice to deceive. And, therefore, He declares that blessed are they who believe without seeing, for they are surely worthy of admiration. And why? Because unquestioning belief is due to what lies before our eyes, for there is nothing at all to raise doubt in us. But if a man accept what he has not seen, and believe that to be true which the words of his instructor in mysteries have brought to his ears, then he honours with praiseworthy faith Him that is preached. Blessed, therefore, shall be the lot of every man that believeth through the voice of the holy Apostles, which were eye-witnesses of Christ's actions, and ministers of the Word, as Luke says. To them must we hearken if we are enamoured of life eternal, and cherish in our hearts the desire to abide in the mansions above.
30, 31 Many other signs therefore did Jesus in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book: but these are written, that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing, ye may have eternal life in His Name.
He sums up the book in a manner, and makes plain to His hearers the object of the preaching of the Gospel. For, he says, this book was composed that ye may believe, and believing might have eternal life. He says that the signs were many, and does not limit the actions and marvellous works of our Saviour to those which were accurately known by him personally, and recorded by him, and leaves the other disciples to publish, if they chose, whatever was vividly impressed on their memory. For all the signs, he says, are not written in this book, but those only have been inserted by me which I thought best able to convince my hearers that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. |693
This is what the inspired Evangelist says; and I think, too, that it may be of use to make the following observation: For if the whole meaning of the record is directed to producing in us this faith, and is well calculated to make us steadfast in the conviction that the Child of the Holy Virgin, Who was called Jesus by the voice of the angel, is the very Christ Whose coming was proclaimed by Holy Writ; and if He be, indeed, very Christ and none other----not merely a son but the Son of God in a unique and special sense; what then, I ask, can they who, through ignorance, are in doubt about the faith, and who, furthermore, strive to teach others to believe that there are two Christs----what can they do or say in their defence, and what will be the sentence passed upon them when the great day shall come? For they divide Christ into two separate Beings, Man and God the Word, even after His union with man, and His ineffable and wholly incomprehensible Incarnation. Therefore are they in error, and have wandered far astray from the truth, and denied the Master that bought them. For if we examine into the definition of the being of Christ, and form a conception of Him, we find that the flesh is different from God the Word, Which is in the Father, and proceedeth from Him; but if we consider the meaning of 'the Incarnation, and strive to fathom so far as we are able this exceeding great mystery, we conceive of the Word as One with His own Flesh, though not converted into flesh. God forbid that we should so say, for the Nature of the Word is inconvertible and unchangeable, and admits of no shadow of turning. Rather do we maintain, according to our Holy and inspired Scriptures, that the Messiah, conceived of as attaining to the perfect definition of manhood through the Temple of flesh that enshrined His Godhead, is One only----Jesus, the Christ and the Son of God. Consider that the selfsame truth is found to have existence in the nature of ourselves who are men. For we are combined into one man composed of soul and |694 body; the body and the soul that it contains being distinct, but nevertheless coinciding to form one perfect animal, and wholly incapable of separation after combination with each other.
xxi.1-6 After these things Jesus manifested Himself again to the disciples at the sea of Tiberias; and He manifested Himself on this wise. There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of His disciples. Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, We also come with thee. They went forth, and entered into the boat; and that night they took nothing. But when day was now breaking, Jesus stood on the beach: howbeit the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye ought to eat? They answered Him, No. And He said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and ye shall find. And they said, We toiled all night and took nothing: but at Thy word we will cast down the net. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes.
Our Lord Jesus Christ once more gladdens His disciples with the enjoyment of the sight of Himself, Whom they so greatly longed to see, and vouchsafes unto them a third visit, in addition to the other two, in order that He might confirm their minds, and render them unchangeably steadfast in faith towards Him. For how after they had seen Him not once, but now for the third time, could they fail to have their minds released from all wavering in the faith, and to become faithful instructors of the rest of mankind in the doctrines of the religion of Christ? Peter then goes forth with the others a fishing. For when he was bound on this errand they hurried with him, and doubtless our Saviour Christ is here seen working for their good. For He once said to them, when He put upon them the yoke of their discipleship, and called them to the dignity of |695 apostleship: Come ye after Me, and I will make you to become fishers of men. In order, then, that He might convince them by a palpable sign that every Word that He had spoken would surely come to pass, and that His promise would result in complete fulfilment, He draws a convincing proof from the trade at which they were at work. For the blessed disciples were practising their art, and were fishing, but yet had they caught nothing, though they had toiled all the night. And when it was already early morning, and the dawn was beginning to break, and the sun's rays to appear, Jesus stood on the beach. And they knew not that it was Jesus. And when He questioned them whether they had any fish fit for the table in their nets, they said they had taken nothing at all. Then He bids them cast down the net on the right side of the boat. And they, although all the night they had spent their toil in vain, replied: "At Thy word we will cast down the net." And when this was done, the weight of the fish that were caught overpowered the strength of the fishermen who were hauling it up.
Such is the narrative of the inspired Evangelist. As we have just observed, the Saviour, by the actual performance of a palpable miracle, satisfied the holy disciples that they were destined to be, as He had said, fishers of men. Come, then, let us convert, so far as in us lies, that which was fulfilled in type into the truth of which it is symbolical; and let us bear witness to the truth of the Saviour's Words, and, according to our ability, unfolding the meaning of everything that took place, let us put before those who may light on these pages what may serve in some measure, I think, to start a spiritual train of thought. For give instruction to a wise man, and, he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning. I think, then, that the fact of the disciples fishing all the night, and taking nothing, but spending their labour in vain, signifies that no one, as we shall find, or very few, would be wholly won over by |696 the teaching of the first instructors of old, and caught into their net to do God's pleasure in all things. We may regard what is very small in amount as equivalent to nothing, especially when it is taken out of a great multitude. And, surely, we must regard the number of mankind scattered throughout the whole world as exceedingly great. What hindrance, then, or obstacle was there in the way which rendered the labour of the pioneers of the faith fruitless? And why did their preaching fail to bear fruit? There was still night and darkness, and a kind of mental mist and devilish deceit brooding over the eyes of the mind, not suffering men to perceive the true light of God. For there was no man that doeth good, as said the Psalmist; yea, not one; but all had gone astray and become abominable. And though the Israelites had been, in a manner, caught in the net by Moses, yet were they as though they had not been caught at all, and were devoted to the worship of types and shadows, and had no instruction in the law that bringeth to perfection. For that we shall find that the worship of types was abominable, and displeasing to God, it is easy to see, from His rejection of bloody sacrifices, and every kind of earthly and physical offering. To what purpose, He says, bring ye to Me incense from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor your sacrifices sweet unto Me.
This we say not wishing to disparage the first commandment given of old, nor with the intent to accuse the Law, but rather desiring to suggest to our hearers that as God the Lord of all hath regard only to the beauty of the Gospel life, even those who were caught in the net by the Law, and brought to the barren worship of shadows and types, were but on a par with those who had not been caught at all until the time of reformation dawned, Christ saying clearly, when He became Man, I am the Truth. And if it be necessary to add any further words, I shall not shrink from doing so, if it be for our profit. |697 They who were called by Moses to learn the Law, spurned the Law given unto them, and, as it were, opened their mouth wide and gaped upon the holy ordinance, and made the precepts of men their code of instruction, and relapsed into such stubbornness and perversity of heart that even the word of the holy prophets lost its power. Therefore, also, they cried: Lord, who hath believed our report? Jeremiah also exclaims: Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth: I have not helped any man, nor hath any man helped me. My strength hath failed me because of them that curse me. Surely, then, one is constrained to admit that the disobedient and unruly Israelites were on a par with those who had not been caught at all, when they trampled under foot even the Law that Moses had laid down. And it needs no demonstration to show that the great multitude of the Gentiles was still uncaptured, and remained altogether outside the net. Darkness, then, and devilish night was in their hearts, driving out the light of true knowledge of God. Therefore they toiled, so to say, during the whole night, and still had their spiritual net barren of fish before Christ's coming; but when early morning came, that is, when the mist of the devil was dispersed, and the true light dawned, that is, Christ, and when Christ inquired of the toilers, Have you anything within your nets which may serve as food for God, Who thirsts, as it were, for the salvation of us all (for the Scripture called the conversion of the Samaritans His food), and when they gave His question the plain answer that they had nothing, then Christ bade them cast down the net again on the right side of the boat. For the blessed Moses also let down the line of instruction, that is, by the letter of the Law; but this was fishing on the left side, the commandment of Christ unto us being on the right. For incomparably greater, then, and far exceeding in honour and glory the commandments of the Law, is the teaching of Christ; for the reality |698 greatly surpasses the type, and the Master the servant, and the grace of the Spirit, which justifies, surpasses the letter, which condemneth. Christ's teaching, therefore, is placed on the right, the right hand signifying to us its superiority over the Law and the prophets.
The inspired disciples, then, without hesitation, obeyed the bidding of our Saviour, and let down the net. And the meaning of this is, that they did not seize fpr themselves the grace of apostleship, but at His bidding went forth to capture the souls of men. Go ye, He said, and make disciples of all the nations. The disciples themselves say, that at the Word of Christ they let down the net. For they fish for men only by the Saviour's Words and commandments in the Gospels. And great was the, multitude of fish within the net, so that the disciples, were no longer able to haul it up. For they who have been caught, and believed, are innumerable, and the marvel thereof seems in truth to surpass, and be out of all proportion to the strength of the holy Apostles. For it is the working of Christ, Who gathereth by His own power the multitude of the saved into the Church on earth, as into the net of the Apostles.
7-14 That disciple therefore, whom Jesus loved, saith unto Peter, It is the Lord. So when Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he girt his coat about him (for he was naked), and cast himself into the sea. But the. other disciples came in the little boat (for they were not far from land, but about two hundred cubits off), dragging the net full of fishes. So when they got out upon the land, they see a fire of coals there, and fish laid thereon, and bread. And Jesus saith unto them, Bring of the fish which ye have now taken. Simon Peter therefore went up, and drew the net to land, full of great fishes, a hundred and fifty and three: and for all there were so many, the net was not rent. Jesus saith unto them, Come and break your fast. And none of the disciples durst inquire of Him, Who art Thou? knowing that it was the Lord. Jesus cometh, and taketh the bread, |699 and giveth them, and the fish likewise. This is now the third time that Jesus was manifested to His disciples, after that He was risen from the dead.
Again, in this passage, the writer of this book calls himself the beloved disciple----and he would seem to have been thus well beloved on account of his great discernment and purity of mind, and the keenness of his mental vision, and a disposition which enabled him readily to grasp the truth. And, in fact, he seized the meaning of the sign before the rest, and perceived Christ's Presence, and told the rest, entertaining not a shadow of doubt, but crying out to them with a very confident voice, It is the Lord. The inspired Peter leapt into the sea, thinking that to go by the ship would cause delay, for he was always fervent in zeal, and easily stirred up to confidence and love of Christ. The rest followed his lead, with the ship, dragging the net. Then they see a fire of coals, for the Saviour had kindled a fire miraculously, and put a fish upon it that He had caught by His ineffable power; and this too He had done of design. For it was not the hand of the holy Apostles, or the preaching of these spiritual fishermen among men, but the power of the Saviour that started the work. For He first caught one as the firstfruits of those who were to come (not that we mean one precisely, for by one is signified a small number), then afterwards the disciples caught the multitude in their nets, being enabled by His Divine bidding to take something of what they sought. Peter then hauls up the net; by which it was to be understood, that the labour of the holy Apostles would not be without its effect. For they put the mass of captured fish before Him Who had commanded them to be caught; and the quantity of the fish is indicated by the number 153. The number 100, to the best of my judgment, signifies the complement of the nations, for the number 100 is a very perfect number, being compounded of 10 times 10; and for this reason our Lord |700 Jesus Christ Himself, in one place, speaks in the parable of having 100 sheep belonging to Him, signifying the complete sum of rational creatures, and in another place declares that the best ground will bring forth a hundredfold, meaning thereby the perfect fertility of the righteous soul. The number 50, on the other hand, betokens the elect remnant of the Israelites, saved by grace; for 50 is half 100, and falls short of the perfect number in amount. And by the three, reference is made to the Holy and Consubstantial Trinity, the number alone showing this; for to the glory and ceaseless praise of the Trinity the life of those who have been taken captive through faith is consecrated, and implies connexion with the Godhead. For God is in all those who believe in Him, and keeps nigh unto Him, by means of sanctification, those who have been won over by the teaching of the Gospel. And when the net had been drawn up, our Lord said again to the holy disciples: Come and break your fast; thereby teaching them, that after their pain and tribulation in gathering in those who were called and saved, they should sit down with Him, as the Saviour Himself said, and their table would be spread with food such as no tongue can name, the spiritual, that is, and Divine, and that passeth man's understanding. Christ also wishes to imply that which is said by the Psalmist: Thou shalt eat the fruit of the labours of thy hands. They did not take food for themselves, and eat thereof, but Christ gave to them of it; that we might learn, as in a type, that on that day Christ will Himself provide us with Divine blessings, and apportion unto us those things which may be profitable unto us as our Lord.
15, 16, 17 So when they had broken their fast, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jona, lovest thou Me more than these? He saith unto Him, Yea, Lord; Thou knowest that I love Thee. He saith unto him, Feed My lambs. He saith unto him again, a second time, Simon, son of Jona, lovest thou |701 Me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; Thou knowest that I love Thee. He saith unto him, Tend My sheep. He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jona, lovest thou Me? Peter was grieved because He said unto him the third time, Lovest thou Me? And he said unto Him, Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love Thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed My sheep.
Peter started to reach Jesus before the rest, disdaining, as it appears, to go by boat, because of the incomparable fervour and admirable zeal of his love towards Christ. Therefore He comes first to land, and draws up the net; for he was always an impressionable man, easily excited to enthusiasm both in speech and action. Therefore, also, he first made confession of faith when the Saviour put to them the inquiry in the parts of Caesarea Philippi, saying: Who do men say that I the Son of Man am? And of the other disciples some said Elijah, and others Jeremiah, or one of the prophets. But when Christ put the further question to them: But Who say ye that I am? Peter took the lead, and becoming spokesman for the rest, hastened to reply: Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Moreover, when the band of soldiers came, together with the officers of the Jews, to take Jesus away to the rulers, the rest all left Him and fled, but Peter struck off Malchus' ear with a sword. For he thought it right by every means in his power to defend his Master, though the attack that he made was in fact altogether displeasing to Him. As, therefore, he came more impetuously than the rest, Christ puts to him the question whether he loved Him more than they, and repeated it three times; and Peter answers in the affirmative, and confesses his love for Him, saying that Christ Himself was a witness to his state of mind. And, after each confession, he heard Christ telling him in different words to take thought of His sheep, as He calls mankind in the parable.
And I think (for I say that we ought to search out |702 the hidden meaning that is here implied) that these words were not written without a purpose, but the saying is pregnant with meaning, and the sense of the passage contains something more than meets the eye. May not someone reasonably ask, Why is it that Christ only asks Simon, though the other disciples were present? And what is the meaning of the words, Feed My lambs, and the like? We reply, that the inspired Peter had indeed already been elected, together with the other disciples, to be an Apostle of God (for our Lord Jesus Christ Himself named them Apostles, according to the Scripture), but, when the events connected with the plot of the Jews against Him came to pass, his fall came betwixt; for the inspired Peter was seized with uncontrollable fear, and thrice denied the Lord. Christ succours His erring disciple, and elicits by divers questions his thrice-repeated confession, counterbalancing, as it were, his error thereby, and making his recovery as signal as his fall. For a transgression which was verbal, and only in mere words supplied ground of accusation against him, could surely be wiped out in the same fashion as it was committed. He requires him to say whether he loved Him more than the rest. For in truth, as he had enjoyed a greater measure of forgiveness, and received from a more bountiful Hand the remission of his transgression, surely he would be likely to feel greater love than the rest, and requite his Benefactor with the extremity of affection. For although all the holy disciples alike betook themselves to flight, the inhumanity of the Jews inspiring them with a terror that they could not overcome, and the ferocity of the soldiers threatening them with cruel death when they came to take Jesus, still Peter's transgression by his thrice-repeated denial was special and peculiar to him.
Therefore, as he had received a greater measure of forgiveness than the rest, he is asked to tell Christ whether he loved Him more; for, as the Saviour Himself |703 said, he to whom most is forgiven will also love much. Herein, also, is a type given to the. Churches, that they ought thrice to ask for a confession of Christ from those who have chosen to love Him by coming to Him in Holy Baptism. And, by dwelling on this passage, instructors in religion may arrive at the knowledge that they cannot please the Chief Shepherd, that is Christ, unless they take thought for the health of the sheep of His fold, and their continuance in well-being. Such was the inspired Paul, who shared the infirmities of his weak brethren, and called those who through him believed, and chose to gain repute by the glory of their deeds, the boast, and joy, and crown of his apostleship. For he knew that this was the visible fruit of love for Christ. And this, if he reason well and justly, any one may perceive. For if He died for us, surely He must esteem the salvation and life of us all as deserving of all care. And if they who sin against the brethren, and wound their conscience when it is weak, in truth sin against Christ; surely it is true to say, that they are doing the Lord Himself service who take, as it were, by the hand the mind of those who have been admitted to the faith, and who are expected to be called to perfection therein, and are eager to stablish them firmly in the faith, by every help that they can offer. Therefore, by his thrice-repeated confession the thrice-repeated denial of the blessed Peter was done away, and by the saying of our Lord, "Feed my lambs," we must understand a renewal as it were of the apostleship, already given unto him, washing away the disgrace of his fall that came betwixt, and obliterating his faint-heartedness, that arose from human infirmity.
18, 19 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and others shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. Now this He spake, signifying by what |704 manner of death He should glorify God. And when he had spoken this, He saith unto him, Follow Me.
With great kindness and tenderness our Lord Jesus Christ testifies to the fervour of the love which His disciple bore unto Him, and the high honour of his piety and endurance, tried to the uttermost. For He tells him clearly what would be the issue of his apostleship, and what would be the end of his life. For He foretold unto him, that one would take him to a place whither he would not go; that is, in which his persecutors, or those who condemned him to the penalty of death, had fixed the cross. He says, that the place of his crucifixion would be a place whither Peter would not go. For no one of the Saints suffers death of his own free choice. But though death be bitter, and though it come upon them sorely against their will, yet do they who yearn for the glory that God gives disdain earthly life. Therefore Christ foretold, that the blessed Peter would be taken to a place to die in, sore displeasing and hateful unto him. But he would never have attained to so glorious a death, nor have been crucified for Christ, had he not followed His injunction to take charge of the sheep of His fold, and, having the power of the love of Christ firmly rooted in his heart, called to obedience those who have been ensnared into error by the wiles of the devil. For they who ventured on this crime, and slew the blessed Peter, had no other accusation to charge him withal, save only his zeal in Christ's service. We may see then hereby, that our Lord Jesus Christ well, and of necessity, foretold Peter's end, that by the doom that he was destined to suffer he might in a manner put the seal of truth upon the words he spake unto Him: Yea, Lord; Thou knowest that I love Thee. For that he met his death at all on account of preaching the Gospel was surely a plain and incontrovertible proof of affection, and showed that he was in no way lacking in perfect love towards Christ. |705 Christ, then, adds to what He had said, the words "Follow Me," which bear the signification they so commonly have of following Him as a disciple, and also hinting darkly, as I think, at something else; or meaning, Tread in the track of the perils through which I have passed, and walk in the same path, by deed and word succouring the souls of those who are called, and hesitate not to encounter death itself upon the cross, which, Christ says, will be your lot when you reach old age; not suffering Peter to be alarmed before the time, but deferring for a long season the approach of the king of terrors.
20-23 Then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following; which also leaned back on His Breast at the supper, and said unto Him, Lord, who is he that betrayeth Thee? Peter therefore seeing him, saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do? Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou Me. This saying therefore went forth among the brethren, that that disciple should not die: yet Jesus said not unto him that he should not die; but, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee?
The inspired Evangelist points to himself obscurely, but still sufficiently to indicate who is meant. For he it was who was the beloved disciple, and who leaned upon Christ's Breast at the last Supper, and asked who it was that should betray Him. Peter, then, observing him, longed for information, and sought to know in what perils he would be involved in the time to come, and in what way his life would end. But the question seemed unseemly, and it appeared to savour rather of a meddlesome and inquisitive spirit, that, after having learnt what was to happen unto himself, he should seek to know the future fate of others. For this cause, then, I think the Lord makes no direct reply to his question or inquiry, but, diverting the aim of the questioner, does not say that John will not die, but, If I will that he |706 tarry till I come, what is that to thee? That is to say, Thou hast heard, O Peter, the things concerning thyself, what need is there for thee to ask questions about others, and to seek to fathom out of season the knowledge of the Divine decrees. For if he never die at all, He says, what consolation will this be to thy heart? The man who is wise and prudent, then, if he is doomed to die, will not trouble himself as to whether another will be saved alive or not; for it will be enough for him to suffer his own doom, and he will receive no comfort at all from the misfortune or good cheer of another. The passage is fraught with some such meaning as this. Peter's speech here seems to imply that the blessed Peter anxiously desired to know what was destined to be John's fate, as he would have considered it a consolation in his own sufferings if John were surely fated to, die by torture, either of the same or of some other kind. And do not be amazed at this, but rather take the following thought into consideration. It is common to us, however profitless it be, to like at times not to be seen to be the only ones who are suffering, or who are destined to undergo some dreadful fate, but to prefer to hear that others have either suffered it already or are expected to suffer it in the future.
24 This is the disciple which also beareth witness of these things, and wrote these things: and we know that his witness is true.
I think no wise man will doubt that the Lord would not have loved John if he had not been specially remarkable for virtue, and apt and perfectly equipped for every good work. For God can never be found to be inclined by any irrational leanings to those unworthy of His love, for such affections are more worthy of men. And He that was wholly proof against every assault and inroad of passion, and trod firmly in the path of every virtue, nay rather, was Virtue itself in all its forms, most |707 assuredly would act in this, too, with judgment, and have His inclination free from all reproach----I mean, the inclination which led Him to deem him to whom this boon was due worthy of His love. After this admirable preface, then, and after having said that he was beloved, he modestly and with great humility says that he testified of these things; well and admirably inviting his hearers, as a necessary consequence, to assent to the things which he had written, and of which he had testified; for the preacher of truth cannot lie. Therefore, also, he says: We know that His witness is true. Dangerous, then, and awful is it assuredly, to lie at all; for man knoweth not how to bridle his tongue, and the Truth cannot love him that sinneth against truth.
25 And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that should be written. Amen.
Very great, then, says the Apostle, will the number of the miracles that God hath wrought, and altogether without number will the list of His deeds be seen to be, and out of many thousands have these that are recorded been taken, as not being inadequate to profit to the uttermost those who read them. And let no one who is of a teachable spirit and loveth instruction, S. John implies, blame him that wrote this book because he has not recorded the rest. For if the things that He did had been written every one, without any omission, then would the immeasurable number of the books have filled the world. We maintain that, even as it is, the power of the Word has been displayed more than abundantly. For it is open to every one to observe, that a thousand miracles were performed by the power of our Saviour. The preachers of the Gospels, however,, have recorded the more remarkable of them, in all probability, and such that their hearers could best be confirmed by them in |708 incorruptible faith, and receive instruction in morality and doctrine; so that, conspicuous for the orthodoxy of their faith, and glorified by manifold works that make for righteousness, they might meet at the very gates of the city above, and being joined unto the Church of the firstborn in the faith, might at length attain unto the Kingdom of Heaven in Christ; through Whom and with Whom be glory to God the Father, with the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.
THE END.
Thanks be to Christ.
Christ's prophecy fulfilled. 591
592 God's glory shown in the frailty of the Saints.
The inconsistency of the Jews. 593
594 The rebukes of the Prophets.
Pilate was less guilty than the Jews. 595
596 Christ justified by the Law of the Gentiles.
Christ's Word fulfilled. 597
598 The crafty malice of the Jews.
Pilate, accusing the Jews, is self-accused. 599
600 Christ dispels Pilate's suspicion.
Christ acknowledges the glory of His Kingdom. 601
602 Pilate endeavours to release Christ
by appeasing the mob. 603
604 The Jews demand Barabbas
and rage against Christ. 605
606 Christ was punished
that we might go free. 607
608 Christ, being guiltless, freed humanity.
The rulers were foremost in the crime. 609
610 Pilate refuses to be responsible.
The law concerning blasphemy. 611
612 Christ declared Himself the Son of God.
His works testified to His Divinity. 613
614 Pilate disposed to believe Christ.
The Scripture again fulfilled. 615
616 Power was given to Pilate,
inasmuch as Christ suffered willingly. 617
618 The Jews return to their first charge.
Pilate overcome, against his better judgment. 619
620 The Jews reproached by Pilate.
Israel's unfaithfulness to God. 621
622 The exceeding great guilt of the rulers.
Christ bore the curse for us. 623
624 We must bear the Cross that is our due.
Man's tendency to fail in the strife. 625
626 The thieves a type of Jews and Gentiles.
The significance of the inscription. 627
628 The three languages typify
the universality of Christ's Kingdom. 629
630 The prophecy and symbolical meaning
of the division of garments. 631
632 The doubts and pangs
in the mind of the Blessed Virgin. 633
634 Christ honoured the Law
by His tenderness towards His Mother. 635
636 A reconciliation of the accounts,
and the lesson to be drawn. 637
638 Christ's Soul consigned to the Father,
The significance of the veil rent. 639
640 The purpose of the Law.
The Divine Mysteries laid bare. 641
642 The veil was rent
to condemn the impiety of the Jews. 643
644 The Law kept----the Lawgiver outraged.
Prophecy fulfilled; the Sacraments typified. 645
646 Joseph puts the Jews to shame.
The signification of the new tomb. 647
648 The minute details of the narrative
confirm belief in Christ's death. 649
650 The loving spirit of Mary.
The time of the Resurrection. 651
652 The disciples act cautiously.
Mary's reward. 653
654 The reason of the revelation to Mary.
Mary's misconception. 655
656 Womankind comforted, as in Mary the firstfruits.
The mystery of Christ's command. 657
658 Christ came to call sinners to repentance,
but Mary was not yet purified by the Spirit. 659
660 The Eucharist denied to the unbaptised.
662 Mary contrasted with Eve.
How Christ says "My" God. 663
664 God was Christ's Father by Nature,
and His God by His Incarnation. 665
666 Christ worked by miraculous power.
Christ raised the Temple of His Body. 667
668 Christ raised His former Body.
The joy of the disciples. 669
670 Christ our Peace.
The nature of the Apostles mission. 671
672 The gift accompanying Ordination.
The Aaronic Ceremonial was a Type. 673
674 Christ co-operates with the Father
in granting the Spirit. 675
676 Christ gave an earnest and foretaste
of what was coming to pass. 677
678 The absent Thomas received the Gift.
Eldad and Medad furnish an illustration. 679
680 Remission of sins is by the Spirit.
Thomas longed to see Christ. 681
682 The Resurrection of the Body.
The minuteness of the Evangelist. 683
684 Christians follow Apostolic customs.
Other doubts investigated. 685
686 Christ retained the marks in His Body
for the satisfaction of men and angels. 687
688 The Apostles might naturally doubt.
But Christ established their faith. 689
690 Jesus Christ the one Lord.
Christ commends the faithful of every age. 691
692 Jesus gave other signs.
Christ----though God and Man----is One. 693
694 Jesus vouchsafes another visit,
to make the disciples fishers of men. 695
696 The Law having caught nothing,
the Gospel net must be let down. 697
698 The Gospel net caught many.
The full signification of the miracle. 699
700 The reward of the Apostles' labour.
The zealous nature of S. Peter. 701
702 S. Peter s threefold denial forgiven,
through his threefold confession of love. 703
704 The issue of S. Peter s Apostleship foretold.
S. Peter inquires concerning S. John. 705
706 It is sufficient to know our own fate.
S. John testified to the Truth. 707
708 The adequacy of what is written.
[There are no footnotes in book 12. The margin contains mainly biblical references and fragments of Greek. These have been omitted]
This text was transcribed by Roger Pearse, 2005. All material on this page is in the public domain - copy freely.
Greek text is rendered using unicode. Note that the chapter numbers and titles are part of the original work, as is the table of them at the start of the book. The numerals on verses of John are added by the translator.
Early Church Fathers - Additional Texts
SOURCE SECTION: cyril_against_julian_00_address.htm
Cyril of Alexandria, Against Julian (2006) Prefatory Address
Cyril of Alexandria, Against Julian (2006) Prefatory Address
Address of the blessed Cyril, Archbishop of Alexandria,
to the very pious emperor Theodosius, devoted to Christ.
The exceptional success of your holy principate, which deserves fame but discourages praise, your incomparable provision for piety, are the heritage from On High which you echo and which you have preserved, unconquered, from the traits of envy, thanks to a skill in public affairs which you got from your father and also your grandfather, as can clearly been seen in this field. Also I propose to apply to your own person the words of our Saviour, who said: "A city on a hill cannot be hidden"; isn't what is on the heights not always, on the same basis, the same thing as that which is seen?
However what could equal Your Serenity? Nothing in the world, since the glory of your sceptre has reached the supreme limits by illuminating the whole universe with the glow of your perfect administration, while your leniency and your piety towards Christ delight Heaven — I mean the rational powers which reign in its heights. So great indeed is the admiration that you receive in these two connections that, having here and there equal and rival virtues, you have placed yourself beyond praise in all its forms. The votive offerings that others devote to you, Emperor Theodosius devoted to Christ, are the trophies of victories, crowns, thanksgivings and all other ways of honouring, not without reason, the imperial power.
2. As for us, that destiny has given to sacred service, we had the duty to offer you a work composed with the greatest care to the glory of God: your inclinations, your practice and the authentic wishes of your heart have indeed always carried you to applaud that glory, to hold execrable those who, like drunken men, insult it in one way or another, to put them in the row of your worst enemies, to gratify on the other hand with every kind of favour those who choose to glorify God in thought and word. I would willingly consider these excellent provisions as a proof of holiness, in perfect suitability to the glorious heights which you occupy. In a psalm to Christ the Saviour of the world, David, the inspired prophet exclaimed: "Didn't I hate those who hate you, Lord, and was I not consumed toward your enemies? I made myself hate them with a perfect hatred, they became my own enemies!" These words are fully justified: indeed one can give as a shining proof of his attachment to your person the combat which he ardently carries out against those who chose, I do not know through what blindness, not to love you; in the same way, one could express all the authenticity of his love for Christ by impetuously attacking those who have discredited Christianity, with on the lips, almost like a cry, these words of the Scripture inspired by God: "I am filled with a jealous zeal for the Lord!"
It is necessary for me to say now what kind of work I am offering you here.
3. Forgive me for having resolved to speak not only against a king, but also for the glory of Christ, the great King, who reigns with his Father over the world; it is with him alone that it is true to say: "Through me kings reign", because he is the "Lord of glory" in heaven and on earth. It necessarily follows that the champions of the divine teachings - us, in fact - given this office by Christ, must oppose to those who intend to defile his glory the arguments able to plead his cause, to appear sound to readers, to be a more useful aid for those whose heart is easily led astray and is inclined to yield to difficulties, and for those on the other hand who are well established in the faith to be a kind of stick able to support them in the strengthening of this faith and to maintain undimmed the tradition of orthodoxy.
However who is it that has entered into war against the glory of Christ? They are legion, those who at various periods have let themselves go at this foolishnes, driven by the perversity of the devil; but none as went far as Julian, who damaged the prestige of the Empire by refusing to recognize Christ, dispenser of royalty and power. Before his accession to the throne, he was counted among the believers: he had even been admitted to Holy Baptism and had studied the Holy Scriptures.
4. But some sinister characters, followers of superstition, entered I do not know how into connections with him and sowed in him the maxims of apostasy; then, allied with Satan in this design, they led him towards the practices of the Greeks and transformed into a servant of impure demons one who had been raised in holy churches and monasteries: "bad company corrupts good upbringing", as the very wise Paul says. However, I affirm that those who wish to preserve a solid thought, and who keep in their spirit, like an invaluable pearl, the tradition of the true faith, do not have to offer to the peddlers of superstition any occasion to insinuate themselves, in any case to speak to them freely. Is it not written: "You will be holy with the holy, irreproachable with the irreproachable, chosen with the chosen, and you will outwit the cheat"? The eloquence with which he was gifted the all-powerful Julian used against our common Saviour Christ; he composed three books against the holy gospels and against the very pure Christian religion, he used them to shake many spirits and to cause them uncommon wrongs. Indeed, the light-minded and easily seduced fall easily into his sights, and constitute a welcome amusement for the demonic powers; but not spirits strengthened in the faith which do not let themselves be disturbed sometimes: they believe that Julian knows the holy and divine Scriptures, since he accumulates in his own works — without otherwise knowing well what it says!... — a number of testimonies that he borrows from them.
5. Very many followers of superstition, when they meet Christians, overpower them with any kind of sarcastic remarks, and rely on the works of Julian to attack us, which they proclaim to be of an incomparable effectiveness, adding that there never was a learned man on our side able to refute them, or even show them at fault; also, at the instigation of more than one person, and full of confidence once again in the word of God: "Get under way, and I will open your mouth!", I put myself to the duty of rebutting this Greek eyebrow raised against the glory of Christ, to help to the extent of my abilities those which have been deceived, in order to convict of error and of ignorance of the Scriptures the man who has accused our common Saviour Christ.
I dedicate my work on this subject to Your Greatness devoted to Christ and very august: may God always keep him, guarantee success against his enemies in an inimitable felicity, place the whole universe at his feet, grant to him to transmit his august power to the sons of his sons, with the approval of Christ, by whom and with whom glory to God the Father and to the Holy Ghost, for all the centuries! Amen.
This text was transcribed by Roger Pearse, 2006. All material on this page is in the public domain - copy freely.
Early Church Fathers - Additional Texts
SOURCE SECTION: cyril_against_julian_02_book .htm
Cyril of Alexandria, Against Julian. Book 2 (beginning)
Cyril of Alexandria, Against Julian. Book 2 (beginning)
Book II
1. We thought that it was by no means unjustified, that it was even useful and necessary to say before all what is the chronological sequence of the characters, and also what idea each has of God: therefore we have carried out with much precision the exposition of these details.
We could be reproached for this by saying: "Why then, having undertaken to defend Christian doctrines and taking in mind to oppose a victorious argumentation to the blasphemies of Julian, did you not decide to engage from the start in that way? Why on the contrary have you diverted the energy which began your exposition into a different goal, to launch into genealogies and to undertake a study of Hebraic and Greek doctrines?"
So let us remove the objections that have been made to us about this choice, by affirming that we intentionally directed our matter towards this digression. Indeed, (Julian), following the example of the Babylonian Rhapsaces, doesn't hesitate to utter in unrestrained language his mocking remarks against the glory of God, and after tossing impious vociferations against our holy religion he quotes the wise ones of Greece unceasingly, crowns their condemnable opinions with all possible praise, desperate to attack the crowned teachings of the Church, to smile at the books of Moses and to put in the dock all these holy people; therefore we were fully justified in accumulating, before passing to the refutation, material which enables us to show in a clear way that the works of the greatest of all, Moses, were prior to those of the wise Greeks, and, moreover, that the Christian faith as it has been transmitted, appears incomparably superior to their dogmatic positions. It was thus, and not differently, that next books could avoid too long digressions and avoid appearing to deviate sometimes very far from the the subject. But enough now on this point.
2. It is now necessary to come to (Julian's) own book. We will reproduce his text word for word, and will oppose our own arguments to his lies in the appropriate order, because we realize that it is necessary to firmly neutralize them. But, as I said, from his open mouth without reserve he spreads every kind of calumny against our common Saviour Christ, and pours against him ill-sounding remarks: I will abstain from responding with similar details, and, advising the wise party to ignore that in his words which risks dirtying the spirit by simple contact, I will endeavour to combat this (method of) 'combat', by denouncing on all occasions his habit of scoffing which speaks wrongly and irrelevantly without ever being able to arrive at saying a true thing.
It also should be known that in his first book he handles a great mass of ideas and does not cease turning and turning over the same arguments in every direction; some developments which are found at the beginning of his work, he also advances in the body of the book and at the end: he thus reveals a kind of disorder in the articulation of his discussion, and, fatally, those who want to argue against what he says seem constantly to be repeating themselves instead of finishing them once for all. We will thus divide his text according to an appropriate classification, we will gather his ideas by categories and will face each of them not on several occasions, but only once, the with appropriate explanations and following the rules of the art (of speaking). Thus, at the beginning of his book against us, he says:
JULIAN
It is, I think, expedient to set forth to all mankind the reasons by which I was convinced that the fabrication of the Galilaeans is a fiction of men composed by wickedness. Though it has in it nothing divine, by making full use of that part of the soul which loves fable and is childish and foolish, it has induced men to believe that the monstrous tale is truth.
CYRIL
3. By 'Galilaeans', he means the Holy Apostles, I think, and by a 'fantastic account' the writings of Moses, the predictions of the holy saints and their declarations inspired by God. However, without his knowledge --- let us say rather: not without intervention of the divinity --- he has made this idea the basis of his own superstition!
In fact there are two Galilees, one in Judaea, the other on the borders of the Phoenician country; and it is written indeed in the Gospels about our common Saviour Christ that it is while walking on the edge of the Sea of Galilee, of Lake Tiberias, that he recruited his disciples. However God said by means of one of the holy prophets: "What are you to me, Tyre and Sidon, and you Galilee, entirely populated with foreigners?" In the same way the divine Isaiah exclaims: "Country of Zabulon, land of Nephtalim, and all you others who live by the edge of the sea, Galilee of the Gentiles! The people sitting in shadow saw a great light..."
So in Judaea, one cannot just imagine the presence of Galilaeans, since there are also all the Gentiles there: 'Galilee of the Gentiles', says Isaiah. It cannot well or clearly be seen which adversaries the book of Julian aims at in all suitability and veracity: is it us, or himself in company with the believers in the stupid superstition that he loves? Because this is also Galilaean! Well indeed, it can't be doubted for one moment that the direction of the expressions employed by Julian agrees with the nonsense of the Greeks.
4. Where indeed to find all such an apparatus of fables, those vain words, this tasteless and irresponsible jumble of fads of every kind, if not among them and them only, who, twisting their subtle inventions, try to give to falsehood the colours of truth? So strong, so widespread among them is the turpitude that the elite of their spirits, the men cracked to philosophize extremely appropriately on the world which surrounded them, have raised loud cries against the undivine transports of their poets, and affirmed openly that they should abandon their charlatanism. In fact, Plato does not approve those poems, i.e. the homeric poems, which display the gods and goddesses convicted of libidinous passions, abused by quite human cupidities, and in addition prone to tears, deploring the death of those of their blood and breaking out like pansies in 'Woe is me!' because they want to save someone from death and are unable to do so, humbling themselves on the contrary before the fates, and yielding to Destiny, apparently more powerful than the Master of the gods, he that they call 'supreme Zeus'!
But I will not delay in saying all that I could still say on this subject; not wanting to appear to allow myself to be diverted from what is suitable, I will return to the point which my subject designates.
5. If there is a plot, it is a plot of the Greeks: it is they who undertook to use the fantastic to guarantee the truth, and not in all simplicity of spirit, but indeed with impious intentions and the satisfaction of wrongdoing! It is they who gathered against the inexpressible glory of all-powerful God this hateful 'fiction', which set up this 'deception', like some trap aimed at simple souls.
They have in effect mislaid the whole earth by pretending that the sky and the elements in general were God. As the very wise Paul writes: "While calling themselves wise, they fell into madness, and altered the glory of imperishable God by giving him the appearance of perishable man, birds, quadrupeds, and animals."
However, to run with his ideas, we will not throw against others the criticisms which he formulated and will indeed let them attack the Holy Apostles, even the very wise Moses himself and the holy prophets; but when he comes to the bar, will he clearly show what is this 'fiction implemented by malice', of what nature is this 'fantastic account' about which he speaks, in what consists the 'fondness for a fable, the puerile side' of the Christian religion! Did Moses write for us tales, when he professed one God by nature and in truth, unbegotten, eternal, imperishable, without quantity, invisible, immutable, imperceptible, God who is life and who gives life, who is science and power, creator, King and Lord of the universe? Did he deviate from the truth, the word of the holy prophets, who stick step by step to the doctrines of Moses? Will we find a teaching different in the holy Apostles? Certainly not!
6. And then, how can he affirm that the beliefs of Galilaeans do not have in them anything divine, that they are in addition hazardous fables, monstrous fictions? Who would refuse to admit that there can nothing better for men than to know clearly and without error the Craftsman and Lord of the world, one in nature and in truth? Our adversaries themselves, I know, would affirm that the most beautiful remarkable part of philosophy is contemplative philosophy: thanks to it, the spirits which their wisdom considers the best even to see go to great pains, and as much as is possible for men to do, to grasp the divine nature. Since he says that he himself is persuaded of this, would he teach us from where and from whom he obtains this certainty? Because finally it is not necessary that he flatters himself to be the only one with knowledge. If he was convinced of it himself, if that is enough for him to show without possible dispute — as at least he thinks and affirms --- that Christianity is not worth anything, I will not hesitate to say that this is pure drivel in him, and that he just amuses himself to attack us alone! We will not submit ourselves to such a hostile judge! If on the other hand he considers that the declarations of the critics against anyone must be founded in truth and without lies, then, that he does not say that this is just his conviction; he argues with facts!
However it is indeed he himself, and not us, who he must hand over to justice for the invention of fables, and he is extremely likely to be convicted! What he said will persuade some of us: let us let him speak:
JULIAN
7. Now since I intend to treat of all their first dogmas, as they call them, I wish to say in the first place that if my readers desire to try to refute me they must proceed as if they were in a court of law and not drag in irrelevant matter, or, as the saying is, bring counter-charges until they have defended their own views. For thus it will be better and clearer if, when they wish to censure any views of mine, they undertake that as a separate task, but when they are defending themselves against my censure, they bring no counter-charges.
CYRIL
So it is necessary for those who you put on trial to be dumb? You require that the defendant be condemned without being able to break silence, and, without saying a word about your arguments, agrees to confirm the charge against himself! However, to refuse us the right to say anything of your theses is the act of a man who fears the controversy and is not unaware of the unpleasant weakness of his position. If our man, in examining the Christian religion, does not approve it on all points and decrees the crown of the supreme honours to the Greek superstition, I admit that he treats both equally; but if he takes pleasure in the speeches which he allows against us and gives the palm to his erroneous designs while opposing to us, as higher than ours, the Greek religion, how can he ask us to keep silence on and not to make any allusion to this religion, when, in our desire to defend the cause of our own beliefs, it is of that subject precisely that we speak?
8. If, renouncing the right to attack what you write, I had adopted the intention to mention only Greek realities, I could affirm: "His book on this subject is acceptable, and remains within the limits of probability"; but when would we defend ourselves, when we make a point of answering each one of its declarations, how does he still have the right to reproach us for our efforts to plead the cause of our religion while exposing the infamous impiety of the Greeks? Colours can be seen more clearly when there is contrast. "The light is seen in darkness", it is written, and in the same way, I believe, the beauty attached to the virtues appears to simple souls only through the ugliness of their opposites. What inclines to me to give to the Good the palm of victory is the hideousness of the Evil: and for this reason (Julian) has indeed reason to fear the arguments of his own camp, and refuses shamefully the right to produce it on the day, going so far as to impose silence on those which he puts on trial in this lawsuit! Here now is how he opposes other objections to us:
JULIAN
9. It is worth while to recall in a few words whence and how we first arrived at a conception of God; next to compare what is said about the divine among the Hellenes and Hebrews; and finally to enquire of those who are neither Hellenes nor Jews, but belong to the sect of the Galilaeans, why they preferred the belief of the Jews to ours; and what, further, can be the reason why they do not even adhere to the Jewish beliefs but have abandoned them also and followed a way of their own. For they have not accepted a single admirable or important doctrine of those that are held either by us Hellenes or by the Hebrews who derived them from Moses; but from both religions they have gathered what has been engrafted like powers of evil, as it were, on these nations----atheism from the Jewish levity, and a sordid and slovenly way of living from our indolence and vulgarity; and they desire that this should be called the noblest worship of the gods.
CYRIL
The same man who poured out his smear against us to the readers, that if they wanted to contradict him, they must "must proceed as if they were in a court of law and not drag in irrelevant matter, or, as the saying is, bring counter-charges" promptly sets himself to compare the views of the Greeks and the Hebrews on the divine! But this technique of comparing and opposing, at what does it aim? What can be Julian's aim, when he brings together the disagreements between the Hebraic or Christian beliefs and the Greek ones?
10. We can't pretend that he is giving up his accusation, and his need to smear, in order to submit himself to the equitable judgement of his readers, so far as to want to take from them the definition of the best and the worst! In his position, it seems, the only way to find partisans for his ideas about the divinity is to abuse the Christian religion by giving it the worst of it in a confrontation with Greek religion. But such a defeat is impossible for those who know the weakness of error and the force of truth. But we must be on our guard: in telling the legislators to impose silence on us, and to prohibit the least remark about his own cause when we speak about ours, he falls victim to his own prohibitions.
Since he cross-examines us, and wants to know what on earth made us give up the Greek religion for that of the Hebrews, well then, let's ask him back the same question! "Why have you yourself given up the Christian religion, and run away from the truth to embrace a lie? Why did you stupidly give preference to the most appalling superstition -- I mean that of idol-worshippers -- over a precise and certain teaching, and then think that you decided well when you have in fact drawn on yourself the final infamy? Does he want to know the real reason which made us give the Greek religion in order to hold in honour that of the Hebrews? We will borrow his own words to reply to him. Here's what he actually writes:
JULIAN
11. Now it is true that the Greeks invented their myths about the gods, incredible and monstrous stories. For they said that Kronos swallowed his children and then vomited them forth; and they even told of lawless unions, how Zeus had intercourse with his mother, and after having a child by her, married his own daughter, or rather did not even marry her, but simply deflowered her and then handed her over in marriage to another. Then too there is the legend that Dionysus was rent asunder and his limbs joined together again.... This is the sort of thing described in the myths of the Greeks!
CYRIL
What a defense to present! So what's the point of making a lot of noise and pretending to correct us when we have almost kicked out of existence the babbling of the Greeks, so ugly and improbable, and accorded preference to the truth? The divine Moses and after him the chorus of the holy prophets, the Apostles and the Evangelists, they sing the glory of God, one by nature and in truth; they invite us to imitate them by ripping away the myths from ourselves --- all the unbelievable forms and sleazy ideas -- and involving us in a way of life which attracts admiration. Nothing of what they say is invented, nothing in their ideas demands an incredible explanation. It is a fact that our beliefs agree with the preaching of Moses and with those of the holy prophets, and that the direction of the evangelical and apostolic teaching coincides with the ideas of our predecessors: at the proper time we will give some plain proofs of this.
12. But since (Julian) asserts -- on what head I don't know!... -- that there is nothing serious or useful in our beliefs, well! let him prove it! Surely he isn't going to leave his assertion bare and without proof? Because anyway, how can there NOT be something serious in our beliefs? Don't we find precision and meticulousness in how Christians talk about God and the creation of the world? Don't the holy scriptures supply us with impeccable and irreproachable morality? Moreover, how can we not be struck by this obvious truth, that no other way, to my knowledge, is able to rightly address the supreme philosophy? Whether it is contemplative or even practical, our philosophical reflection can claim every kind of praise, and the followers of Greek wisdom themselves admire it. It is thus not true that "the Hebraic doctrines taught us atheism" -- that's exactly what he wrote! --- what is true to say, is that the Scripture inspired by God has enabled us to condemn Greek ignorance. Moreover atheism is rather more a description of their beliefs, which do not know the God who is one by nature and in truth: how isn't this evidence on both sides? He also claims that "we took with Greek unconcern to a way of dissolute and nonchalant life", by calling our custom to eat of all without prohibition and to abstain from no food the "careless insouciance" of the Greeks. So these people present as the supreme act of piety, and compare it to the perfection of all virtues, the refusal to consume this or that food!
13. Well! how can they make these things the criterion of purity? Everything comes from God; is perforce good which has its Being from kindness, and he that is most holy and pure could not have created anything that would soil us. And in fact what effect could a food have on those who consume it? What sort of stain could it introduce in them? I believe that what we need to condemn is that which is likely to contaminate someone -- and, very generally, the things that can produce such an effect are the things that we must condemn; adulteries, fornications, scandalmongerings, lies, smears, greed, etc. But the Greeks -- who didn't take any notice of vice of this sort, however -- affect temperance at the table, sometimes renouncing this meat or that, without denying themselves any extravagance! Further, they enjoy honouring sovereign Zeus by voluntarily giving themselves the same appetites as his, and they honour the sovereignty of Aphrodite.
THE CREATION OF THE WORLD
(Julian) reproaches us for innumerable things, but mainly he has a go at the most wise Moses, by attacking his writings without moderation. He affirms that when composing the book about the creation of the world, everything he said was untrue and that he was satisfied just to gather old fairystories, that he paid no attention to things that seemed to deserve full attention, and finally that he just wrote poor centos, while imagining that he was saying things which were wise and good to hear. Yet Julian is paralysed with amazement before the ideas of the learned Greeks in this field, and, more than very other, he crowns with acclamations and applause the doctrines of Plato.
14. He throws about insults immoderately, but still let's pass over that for the moment! On the other hand, I will try to establish, as much as I can, that he is badly wrong to take up such grand airs in connection with Greek chatterings.
It is necessary, I believe, to present afresh, by extracting them from the works of the Greeks, the various doctrines which they have judged good to profess about the creation of the world, and to oppose the cosmogony of Moses to them: the readers will thus see the verbose subtlety and drivel of these thinkers, as well as the pure source of truth which is in the writings of Moses.
Plutarch, who had some fame in his own time, speaks thus about the universe in book 2 of his collection of Theories on Nature: "Pythagoras was the first to name the mass of the universe the 'Cosmos', according to the order which rules in it. Thales and those who hold his doctrines profess that the universe is unique; Democritus, Epicurus and his master Metrodorus say that there is an infinity of worlds within infinity, completely by chance; Empedocles that the circle of the sun defines the limits of the cosmos; Seleucus believes in an unlimited universe, while for Diogenes the Whole is infinite, but the universe is limited. The Stoics set out a difference between the Whole and the universe: the Whole is that which includes the infinite vacuum, while the universe is the cosmos without the vacuum - so that the universe and the cosmos are one and the same thing."
15. Later the same author continues thus about the form of the cosmos: "The Stoics believe that it is spherical, others conical, others still ovoid. Epicurus opines that some worlds are spherical, and others of a different shape." On the question of knowing if the universe has or not a soul, Plutarch expresses himself thus, again by giving the theories of the Greek philosophers: "In general all have claimed that the universe has a soul and is governed by providence; but Democritus, Epicurus and those who hold to ideas about the atoms and the vacuum deny it a soul and assert that it is governed not by providence but by an irrational nature. For Aristotle, it is completely excluded that the universe has a soul, reason or thought, or even that it is governed by providence: in fact there are actually celestial regions with these qualities, because they contain spheres endowed with soul and life, while the regions close to the ground are stripped of it; they take part in an established order, but by accident and not by nature."
Enough on this chapter. But as these thinkers had it in mind to work out at the end of it all whether the cosmos was or was not perishable by nature, they also gave their conclusions on this point: Pythagoras and the stoics held that the universe, created by God, was however corruptible insofar as its own nature went; indeed, perceptible by the senses because likewise corporeal, it was nevertheless to be preserved from destruction thanks to providence and to the safeguard exerted by God. For Epicurus, the universe is perishable because it is also subjected to birth, like an animal or a plant. For Xenophanes, it has no birth but is eternal and imperishable. Aristotle regards the sublunary part of the universe as subjected to external influences: it is in these areas that terrestrial things are perishable.
16. Readers, now you have heard and understood what drivel all this is! Opposing their opinions one to another, vociferating this or that, mixed up anyhow, without nuances, self-reflection, just at their pleasure; how can this avoid the impression that they are just guessing at the truth rather than knowing it? Indeed, some prefer just one universe, others a plurality; some of them believe that this universe is subject to creation, but others are opposed totally to this and opine on the contrary that the universe is imperishable and was not created; some say it is governed by a divine providence, others do without providence and allot the harmonious movements of the elements to automatic mechanisms and accidents; some say that the universe has a soul, others deny that it has a soul or a spirit. In short you could imagine that their theories on each detail are just tossed together, like mixed drinks!
But our man has put Plato apart from the others, and he especially likes to linger over his doctrines. However I will say at once that Plato and Pythagoras offer more reasonable ideas about God and the cosmos than the others, because they collected their teaching or rather their knowledge during their stays in Egypt, where the very wise Moses is held in great regard, and where his doctrines are held in reverence and admiration. It is however claimed that Plato contradicted himself in his opinions, and that Aristotle, who was his disciple, not chose to adhere to the ideas of his Master, but to attack him thoroughly and to contradict him! Porphyry tells us that in expressing his ideas on the sky, Plato professed that the material part of it was composed of the four elements, the bond between them being a soul. "Also," Porphyry continues, "it is still today of a mixed nature, and it has received its name by misuse of terminology".
17. Porphyry speaks here, I believe, as an etymologist, and affirms that the sky is called 'ouranos' because it is visible [in Greek: 'oratos']: i.e. the sky was so-called because it is 'seen'. Aristotle had a different opinion on this subject ---- and how could he not, since he does not regard the sky as a compound, still less containing four elements, but considers it like a fifth type of body, independent of the first four and without anything in common with them? Plato himself, professes that the world has a soul and that it is a living being endowed with intelligence; he subordinates it to providence. But his disciple, to return to him, did not think so. He rejects completely the idea that the universe has a soul, is intelligent, or is governed by providence. Under one scheme, it is defined as created and corruptible by nature at least; the other treats the idea of birth as ignorant, and says on the contrary that it is imperishable and uncreated. Another divergence: the skilful and illustrious Plato defines three principles of Everything: God, matter and Idea; God is a creator, matter is substance, Idea is the model of any thing created. Aristotle, once again, is opposed to him, without any point of agreement. To start with, he refuses to regard Idea as a principle, in his thought and writings, and supposes two principles: God and matter. Still let us say that if Plato supports the theory that there are three principles which make up Everything, God, matter and Idea, he also introduces a fourth which he names the 'universal soul'. Moreover, after having said that the matter is uncreated, he claims that it is thereafter subjected to creation; as for the definition of Idea, after having presented it as a substance itself, he starts to battle against his own theories, since he affirms that it exists in the thought of God, and that it thus does not have a separate existence, i.e. subsistence.
18. So which one do we give our approval to, when we seek the truth, when we seek to start along on the irreproachable way from which every error is banished? Which of the thinkers quoted can we declare innocent of the wrong of telling a lie? Which do we reward as not having stumbled in some detail? Or rather how can we grant a right to teach others, to those who have traveled so far from the truth that they disagree not only with each other but even with themselves?
The very wise Julian approves and admires this state of affairs! He scoffs at the writings of Moses and, throwing reason aside, he dares to oppose those of Plato to them, while speaking as follows:
JULIAN
At this point of our study, if you please, we will compare the utterance of Plato. Observe then what this philosopher says about the creator, and what words he makes him speak at the time of the generation of the universe, in order that we may compare the cosmogony of Plato with that of Moses. Thus we can perceive who was the better and who more worthy of God, Plato the idolater, or he of whom the Scripture says that God spoke with him face to face:
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was invisible and without form, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light; and there was light. And God saw the light that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters. And God called the firmament Heaven. And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear; and it was so. And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass for fodder, and the fruit tree yielding fruit. And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven that they may be for a light upon the earth. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to rule over the day and over the night."
19. In all this, you observe, Moses does not say that the deep was created by God, or the darkness or the waters. And yet, after saying concerning light that God ordered it to be, and it was, surely he ought to have gone on to speak of night also, and the deep and the waters. But of them he says not a word to imply that they were not already existing at all, though he often mentions them. Furthermore, he does not mention the birth or creation of the angels or in what manner they were brought into being, but deals only with the heavenly and earthly bodies. It follows that, according to Moses, God is the creator of nothing that is incorporeal, but is only the disposer of matter that already existed. For the words, "And the earth was invisible and without form" can only mean that he regards the wet and dry substance as the original matter and that he introduces God as the disposer of this matter.
CYRIL
About Moses there might be many things to say and lengthy expositions made to he who wants to safeguard our reverence for him. He heard God say to him without ambiguity, "I know you out of all humanity, and you have found grace in my eyes!" The manifold virtue that was in him, and the power of the miracles that he worked in Egypt, make a shining demonstration. Indeed he was shown submitted to God almighty, and assisted him in the revolt which He brought about in his servants against the blindness of the Egyptians. What kind of man Plato was, even in the absence of direct testimony, is proclaimed enough by his passage from Athens in Sicily. It is claimed that, not appreciating his flatteries, Dionysius sold him, inflicting on him, as if he wasn't a free man, the most suitable punishment for a slave. But let us give up this argument for a moment, to return to the main subject.
20. The divine Moses does not appear before our eyes as one who composed doubtful stories, nor one who launched himself out on this road from simple ambition. He had in mind primarily to contribute to making lives led better. And in fact he did not attempt to discourse subtly on the nature of the things, by speaking about what the first principles are named, or about the elements which proceed from it; these things are, in my opinion, too obscure, and inaccessible to some minds. His goal was to form the spirits of his contemporaries with the doctrines of the truth: because they were being misled and had taken to worshipping each according to his imagination. Their extreme ignorance made them ignore the one God, God by nature, and to worship his creations. Some thought that the sky was god, others the disc of the sun; there were even some wretched enough to allot the glory of the supreme nature to the moon, the stars, the earth, to plants, to the watery element, birds, or to brute animals! They had come to this, and such a terrible sickness had affected all the inhabitants of the earth, when Moses came to their help and revealed himself as the initiator into knowledge of great value for all. He proclaimed clearly that there exists by nature only one Creator of the universe, and radically distinguished Him from all other realities which He had merely brought into being and existence. Considering what was useful, and as clearly as possible, neglecting every excessively subtle point, he restricted himself to deal only with that which was strictly essential.
21. How was it useful to him to say what is the nature of the waters, and how they were present at the beginning, or to probe the deeps and the nature of the heavens, to detour into the mode of existence of the angels? It would be difficult for anyone to cover such subjects, which I think that no one understands anyway! Would anyone even be able to do it (thanks to a knowledge lent by God, who had been there tell him), or been able to understand a so subtle speech - or rather one so inaccessible to the spirit? In fact, we find among men, at the time when the book of the very wise Moses was written, an ignorance which exceeds even that of the Greeks. That which should have made possible for those people to understand fully the glory of God was lost, it is obvious from the account, in the pit of the deepest stupidity. As the Scripture inspired by God says, the men of that time should have had some idea of the Creator and maker of the universe from the beauty of things created. But they reached such a degree of wrong thinking that the things that should have led them to the knowledge of the truth shows that they were disposed instead to follow a lie. The very wise Paul bears a witness worthy of trust to this idea by writing, "Ever since the creation of the world, his invisible nature, namely his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse; for although they knew God, they did not honour him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their linking and their senseless minds were darkened."
22. This declaration could touch those who invented the vulgar superstitions, coarse and completely unreasonable; the men, for example, to which as I said the book of Moses was addressed. They are revealed as filled up full of stupidity, as we will realize easily by studying the body of doctrines of their successors.
Plutarch, an extremely subtle man, wrote on this subject in book I of his collection of Theories on nature:
"See from where they drew their idea of God: unceasingly the sun, the moon and the other stars, following courses which pass under the earth, rise with always the same colors and identical dimensions, at the same places."
And further in the same book:
"The concept of God is defined thus: an intelligent and fiery breath, lacking form but changing at will and making themselves resemble any thing. Men, in the beginning, conceived an idea like this starting from the beauty of the spectacle which they had before their eyes, because no beautiful thing is born randomly and fortuitously; it needs art to create it!"
I will add to this quotation that which Hermes Trismegistes has written To his spirit (that's the title of the book):
"Thus, do you say, God is invisible? What a heap of blasphemies! Who is more visible than Him? If He created, it is so that this is seen in everything. The excellence of God, his virtue, it is to be visible in everything!"
23. We will find agreement on this point from the accuser of our pious religion, Julian! He professes that the knowledge of God is not taught, that man acquires it by himself; here what he writes:
JULIAN
Our first proof that this is not learned, that it is innate to mankind is the devotion to the divine, a general characteristic of mankind, in private life and in public life, in the individual and in the community. In fact we have faith in something divine, however vague. But to give specific details on this something is a difficult thing for anyone, and even those who know it cannot do so fully.
And further:
To this idea, common to all mankind, is added another: we all have a nature so dependent on the heavens and the gods that are seen there that, even if someone imagines a different god to ours, he always assigns him the heavens as his residence: it is not that he banishes him from earth; but he so to speak establishes the King of the All in the heavens as in the most honourable place of all, and conceives of him as overseeing from there the affairs of this world.
CYRIL
So we see how those pagans who can't endure the crasser errors (worthy of charlatans, and if I might say so, of serfs) and who have abandoned the popular way of looking at things, have not been entirely deprived of the true concept of God. They have worked out what must be the superiority of power of Him who can bring so vast and wonderful a creation under the control of harmonious laws.
24. As for the rest under discussion here, they didn't recognise God through his creation. They were lured away, losing all human common sense. Not content just to worship the heavens, the earth, the moon and the others stars, they also installed in sacred enclosures representations (of them) in varied forms. They engraved there the silhouettes, not only of men, but even of unintelligent animals, of birds and other beasts, and they gave these idols the titles of 'gods' and 'saviours'!
How can we not admire the wisdom of Moses? He concealed from the men of that time everything that was complicated, deep, difficult to assimilate, in order to reveal to them instead what would enable them to recover sane ideas, and something which had the virtue to put them on the right road to an irreproachable teaching -- I mean a teaching of an all-powerful God. In the same way we would congratulate for very good reasons the schoolmaster who puts himself at the intellectual level of his pupils, in order to lead them by the hand, step by step, towards discovering sacred truths, without putting to them, at the very beginning, any too elaborate ideas, or any very hard to grasp. At the same time we would refuse to recognise Moses as worthy of praise, who acted in the same way? But Julian, if Moses doesn't seem to you to have said anything worth hearing, do you want us to look at the teaching which is dearest to you? Let's see rely as best we can on the meticulous Theogony of Hesiod!
25. This poet indeed pretends to hear the voice of the gods and makes as if he were possessed by the Muses (as if that were a significant or desirable thing!)
"Tell me (he writes) how at first the gods and the earth were born,
The rivers, the infinite sea which swells and foams,
The sparklings stars, and the immense sky over all."
Further, he tells of the birth of chaos and night, without saying how it occurred:
"First the earth gave birth to the starry sky, its equal,
Able to entirely cover it..."
After revealing that the sky was the son of the earth, he adds that the latter, married to the sky, gave birth to the seas, then
"Koeos, Krios, Hyperion, Japet... "
and also Theia, Rheia, Themis and Mnemosyne. He adds Phoebus to this list, 'golden-crowned', as he calls him, then Tethys. In his opinion, the last of all these children was Kronos. On top of this he piles up a complete hotchpotch of whimsical and incoherent stories.
Perhaps Julian will claim that Hesiod has made up all these fairy-tales as a poet does: in fact maybe he blushes at the fables of Hesiod! But then why did these take some of it from the hierophant Moses, who composed a clear and accurate work, based on real facts? In fact he affirmed that God created the sky and the earth, the sun and the moon, the stars, light, animals which fly and those which swim, various brute beasts, the splendour of vegetation, edible fruit and the grass of the meadows.
26. See how the text of Moses very wisely cuts short the error which the ancients fell into: don't they name the heavens Zeus, the earth Demeter, the sun Apollo, and the moon 'the noisy goddess with the rod of gold', i.e. Artemis? In a word, allotting according to their imagination a share of glory to each creature of God, they adored these creatures as divinities.
However the description made by Moses of the creation of the world was clear, easily comprehensible, without anything lacking in its great exactitude. And that's what we're going to have to show. "In the beginning," he writes, "God created the heavens and the earth." So he denies that matter shared with God the time before the beginning, eternity; or that it was uncreated, as some say. He doesn't present something that didn't exist at one time as coinciding with and coexistant with the eternal; he doesn't confuse the temporary, something which was brought into existence with difficulty, with that which is from time immemorial; something that changes to something which is always itself; nor something which is corruptible with that which is incorruptible! On the contrary, he makes creation happen in a moment, the principle that refers to things brought into existence, because starting from nothing it was brought to be what it is according to the divine will. What he certainly does not say, is that matter existed already, had already been invented, and that God limited himself to being its director and workman, giving form to what was amorphous, and only imposing on matter different qualities, dimensions and volumes. On the contrary he says that, thanks to a secret and unutterable power, in the beginning God brought into being what was not and did not exist in any way whatever!
27. As for the way in which he made creation happen, we do not have the means to say. I affirm that it is beyond any way of expression known to us: how indeed could what exceeds understanding be explained? In my opinion, the approach imagined by the supreme Being and the way that leads to an understanding of his enterprise will be always as inaccessible to our human condition as we are by nature lower than this Being himself. When Moses said, "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth", understand that he condenses and summarizes in some way all the details in a single word, when he describes the genesis of all creation. Then, he attempts to say somehow how this creation was put in order and how all the things created were assigned the role in life which they have.
Moses also states that that God created through the all-powerful Word: in fact his creator-Word of the universe is God himself and proceeds from God by nature. "God said," Moses continues, "Let there be a firmament!" and this firmament instantaneously becomes real by the operation of the Word, and God gives it the name of 'heaven'. "God said: Let the dry land appear!" and the waters gather in a single body. God said moreover: 'Let the sun be!' and it was; and so for the moon, the stars, the day, the terrestrial and aquatic animals, and the birds. But by nature the elements themselves cannot draw from their own resources the possibility of escaping corruption, on the contrary, they need the hand of He that maintains them in good condition: this is the sense of the words of Moses: "the breath of God was moving over the waters." Indeed the breath of God vivifies anything, because He is life also by nature, as He proceeds from the life of the Father; everything needs Him, and there is no other means for anything to obtain existence in order to be what it is.
28. So contemplate, as I have just said, the firmament firmly established by the Word and the firm ground emerging after the gathering of the waters in a single body; contemplate the green earth full of grass and trees, and the vital forces included in them which makes possible for them to conceal their transitory nature with the virtue of eternity, to last and remain; see the luminaries of the firmament, created by God only for the purpose of lighting what is on earth, to mark the moments of time, the days, the years! Moses adds that the earth accepted the order to give rise to the brute animals, the Creator on his side distributing to each its form, size and conditions of existence.
And when everything in the world had finally been created, when nothing for lacking to supply the needs of man, then, and only then, did the Creator begin to think of the way in which He was going to realise man himself. Because the creation of man, unlike the other creative acts, could not be improvised. The supreme being, in the conception of some and actually, is just grandeur and perfection -- some even say that it is the loss of any spirit, any language, any admiration: however He decided to form the animal in His own image, as much as could be made. Also, having every reason to ensure that this, which must be in His image and resemblance, namely man, did not appear weak, contemptible or different enough from the other animals, He chose to create him only after serious reflection.
29. However, it will be said without inaccuracy, that nothing could escape the divine spirit, since He knows everything indeed before it is born; why then did God reflect, even though He knew in advance the nature of man? The incomparable Moses, as I said, affirms that it was in conformity with the divine economy that man was to some extent honoured by the deliberation of the Creator; he shows that his creation was not done quite simply, might one say, not just like any other: everything happens as if God had taken a particular care of this action. The expression is undoubtedly forced --- but I grant that it appears quite sensible; we affirm that the man is most important of the animals, and was made to resemble He that created him.
The irresistible will of God brought into existence the whole of creation: it is not difficult, I think, to convince ourselves of this, even if we only read what Julian's Masters of Superstition wrote. All of them believed that it was right to think and say that everything was somehow created by God, spiritual realities or physical realities, invisible things or visible things. They were unanimous in confessing that everything is in the hands of the King and Lord of the universe; Plato even ascribes these words to him:
"Gods of the gods, works of which I am the Creator and the Father..."
[Extract from the Timaeus; see ch. 33 below].
But we have already quoted the Greeks on this point, and I want to avoid repetition. I will however mention the words of Hermes Trismegistus in his book To Asclepius.
30. This says: "Osiris exclaimed: Then, O very great Good Genius, how did all the earth appear? And the great Good Genius answered: According to a preconceived plan and, as I said, by draining; the body of water received from the Lord the order to draw itself together, the whole earth appeared, muddy and shaken by tremors; the sun then began to shine, spreading its heat without pause, and made the earth dry, which stood within water, surrounded by water." Another passage reads: "the Creator and Lord of the universe shouted: Let the earth be, let a firmament appear! and all at once the earth was, the first element of creation. " So much for the earth; about the sun Hermes speaks as follows: "Osiris said: Thrice great Good Genius, from where did this large sun appear? and the other answered: Osiris, do you wish us to relate the birth of the sun, the way in which it appeared? It appeared by the providence of the supreme Master! The creation of the sun by the supreme Master was done by the operation of his holy and creative Word."
In a similar way, Hermes writes in book I of his Detailed Commentary to Tat: "the Lord of the universe shouted at once by his holy, spiritual and creative Word: Let the sun be! and, at the very moment he said it, the fire which proceeds from an ascended nature --- I understand by this, the unmixed fire, the brightest, most effective and fertile that may be --- was attracted to Nature thanks to the breath which animated it, and was gathered by his care towards the high parts, far from water."
31. Everything was created on the orders of God and by the operation of the creative Word: that, man must think, and it is in conformity with the truth to say it. But how, and by what means it was so, God alone knows!
God distributes to each thing created this or that type of being according to His good pleasure. He determines the mode of existence of each. To be convinced of this, it is only necessary to listen to Moses: "Let there be a firmament! and it was so", and again: "Let the waters gather in one place and let the dry ground appear!" Such formulas determine the exact nature of each thing which is brought into being.
However, once again, Hermes Trismegistus the Greek raises the subject; he puts into his work God saying to the creatures:
"I will impose to you as an obligation, you who are subject to me, this commandment which was given to you by my Word; make it your law!"
Indeed, as I have just said it, the Creator allotted a natural law to each creature, and those appear, at the discretion of God, to have received some arbitrary type of existence, or to have not received it.
This would be the direct and sincere way to present things, but Julian is dazzled beyond reason by the views of Plato and writes:
JULIAN
Now hear what Plato says about the universe: "Now the whole heaven or the universe,----or whatever other name would be most acceptable to it, so let it be named by us,----did it exist eternally, having no beginning, or did it come into being, and had some beginning? It has come into being, because it can be seen and handled and has a body. All such things are things we can touch, and such things can be understood by thought based on using our senses."
And further on
"So, according to reason and probability, we must say that this universe is an animal possessing a soul and intelligence, and in very truth, it owes its beginning to the providence of God."
CYRIL
32. We see then clearly what he -- who, for Julian is the "divine and very wise Plato" -- says: the whole world -- his words -- is submitted to begin sometime, to have a beginning. It can be handled, seen, and has a body, and can be understood by thought based on using our senses, and was created by the providence of God!
Julian depends entirely on Platonic tricks of speech, and he spins crowns of praise unceasingly to Plato. But he was mistaken just like Plato; none of his ideas is beyond criticism, and it could be said that he turns around with any wind. We'll go without delay and highlight an example, thanks to a new quotation of his, here:
JULIAN
Let us compare one thing with another, and no more: what kind of creation does the God of Moses do, what kind that of Plato? "God said: Let us create man in our image and our resemblance; and to have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the animals, and of all the earth, and all the animals which walk on the earth. And God created man, He created him in the image of God; male and female He created them, and God blesses them, saying: Grow and multiply, fill up the ground, bring it under control, rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, over all the beasts and all the earth."
33. Listen now to the speech which Plato gives to the Creator of the universe: "Gods of the gods, the works of which I am the Creator and Father will be indissoluble as long as it be my will; because if all that was made can be unmake, to want to unmake what was well arranged and which is in good condition is the deed of the malicious! Also, since you were created, let you be neither immortal nor very indestructible: however, you will not be destroyed, you will not fall under the blow of a mortal destiny, since your lot is to depend on my will, a bond stronger and more sovereign still than those which bound you to your birth. However learn the instructions that I give you. There remain still three mortal races to be created; as long as they do not exist, the heavens will be imperfect, because it will not contain all the races of living beings. However, if I created them myself and communicated life to them, they would be like gods; so in order that they are just mortals and that this All is truly the All, devote yourselves according to your nature to the creation of living beings, by imitating my power as I showed it at the time of your creation. And, those of them whom it is advisable for them to bear the same name as the immortals, which is called 'divine' and which guides those among them who always agree to obey justice, and to you others, I will give you the seed and the principle. For the remainder, mixing the mortal with the immortal, manufacture and generate living beings, give them food to make them grow, and at their death receive them back again!"
CYRIL
34. So this brave man, full of ardour in his attacks against us, derides the creation of man --- i.e. that which the incomparable Moses has revealed --- and regards as negligible the idea that human nature is created with the image and resemblance of God!
But what sensible person would disagree that this is one of those ideas which best constitute an embellishment? Is there anything better than to say that we are marked with the divine image? And don't we affirm that the divine substance is that which is most elevated, most sublime in the refulgence of its inexpressible glory, that this truly constitutes the whole of the forms and beauties of virtue? Who would not be struck with the obviousness of what I have just said? So why does Julian sneer at such exceptional realities? Why does he deride that right to dominate the universe with which the thinking and reasoning animal, the one most similar to God of all those which populate the earth, i.e. man, was honoured?
Moreover nature itself agrees with the accounts of Moses; but Julian makes no argument from probabilities, and purely and simply denies this view of things, holding only to the words of Plato! He also expresses his admiration, and that in a quite ill-considered way, before the harangue which the philosopher made up, I don't know how, and in which the supreme God is supposed to address himself to created 'divinities' who do not deserve such a name.
35. It is necessary, I think, also to answer him on this point.
If Plato is inventing some fiction and, as is the habit of poets, lends to the character of God the words which he considers appropriate to him, he badly missed the mark, and we could sharply scold him for not knowing how to handle a prosopopy appropriately! If on the other hand he claims to have heard the voice of God, then to hell with his drivel! It is impious to claim that God the master of the universe allowed false divinities to share a glory which is his, and his alone, since He said: "I will not give my glory to another, nor my virtues to graven images!"
Come! in few words
let's oppose the truth to the writings of Plato, as follows.
I wish indeed that we could agree that the spiritual powers On High, born of God, were honoured with the name of 'god', since we say that there are in heaven those who bear the names of 'gods' and 'lords'; and besides we ourselves received the honour of such a title, when God spoke thus to us:
"I said: You are gods, and you are all the sons of the Almighty."
But, in this case, there is an explanation which is essential, and this declaration of God on this subject could be well the most obvious proof of his benevolence.
In fact, when the Creator of the world had made the thinking and reasonable creature, according to His own image and His own semblance, in His great kindness He honoured it with the name of 'god': and there was nothing wrong with this, since we also are accustomed to giving, say for example to a portrait of a man, this same name of 'man'!
36. Therefore the thinking and reasonable creature, because God holds it in greater regard than those lacking reason and thought, seems to have received in part a higher glory since the denomination of 'god' haloed it with gold; in any case, absolutely no other creature was named 'god'. In fact, like the universe, the sky is not a living being in the true sense of the expression, it is not even endowed with a soul.
Even if none of our writers went so far as to guarantee these positions, it would be enough to support them, in the absence of others considered 'sages', to refer to the disciple of Plato in person, Aristotle. This last said, as we have already affirmed, that the universe is in no way endowed with a soul, nor reason, nor thought. In these cirumstances, the force of truth has prevented Julian from claiming that the universe --- or the Whole, as it could be, to employ the proper term of Plato --- is endowed at all with a soul or even thought, since there are in his camp, as I said, a group of those who touch him more closely on this point than his most resolute contradictors!
It is not likely that God gave the mission of creation to gods completely stripped of soul or thought: this arises from the nature of the problem itself, if it is subjected to suitable examination. Who can imagine the Creator of the world entrusting to other divinities the creation of the three races? Would one speak of hesitation on his side, or of total contempt for our destiny? Such attitudes are in my opinion completely foreign to the supreme Essence!
37. Because, if the Creator is good, how could he express hesitation towards some task?
"It was --- Plato also affirms this --- actually a kindness; however a good being does not nourish ill will towards nothing."
As for claiming that God showed scorn, that would amount to allotting vanity and attributing arrogance to Him.
However, how could he allow himself to reign over beings whom he judged as unworthy for him to create? Or how is it that he takes pleasure from our worship if he couldn't be bothered to create us in the first place?
That He demands that we honour Him, that He requires obedience and understands that human nature is like his in every kind of virtue, it would be the easiest thing in the world for me to bring a thousand veracious testimonies drawn from the inspired Scripture. But as Julian grants especially his confidence to those of his own kind, I recall that Porphyry wrote in book II of his work On Abstinence from animal flesh:
"Let us also therefore sacrifice, but let us sacrifice as appropriate, to God who rules the whole universe, as a sage has said. No material offerings, no clouds of incense, no formulas of consecration! Because there is no material body which does not appear from the start impure with respect to the immaterial one. Therefore the word itself, when it passes by words, is inappropriate for God, nor the interior word, when soiled by the evil of the soul: let us adore him through the purity of silence, the purity of thoughts which we form on him! Thus uniting ourselves to God and assimilating ourselves to him, we must offer to him the holy sacrifice of our intellect, which will be at the same time a hymn to his glory and the path of our safety. However it is in the absence of passions and the contemplation of God that achieves this sacrifice."
38. So God wants us to honour him, and that by the holiness of our life, we will conform ourselves to him on the spiritual level, by engraving his beauty in our souls.
But then, tell me Julian, how can he demand this attitude of us, if he has almost abandoned us to other creators, and stripped us of the privilege of being made by him which he gave to all other creatures? What leads him to provide for things here below if they are, as Plato says, given as playthings to other divinities?
Because he exercises his providence, and his care and benevolence extend to the smallest things; to learn this we can listen to one who knew God as his father:
"Are not two sparrows sold for an as? However not one of them will fall to the ground without the consent of our Father."
Perhaps Julian will declare the formula inadmissible because false --- because he contorts himself furiously against God! --- but will this receive a good reception from people of his group, I mean people as deceived as him? Thus Alexander, the disciple of Aristotle, has written in his treatise On Providence:
"To say that God refuses to grant his providence to things here below, is to go resolutely against the concept of God: because one needs a certain ill will and a nature completely perverted not to do good when one can do it; both one and the other ideas are foreign to God, in him is found neither both nor either of them. So it remains that God can and will exercise his providence on the things here below; however it is obvious that he exercises this providence if he can and wishes to do so. Nothing then, among things fortuitious, could in good logic exist without the divine decision and will."
39. Some claim that Plato himself shared this thesis, and it is public knowledge that Zeno of Citium and the Stoics assert it. So from their testimony it results that human things are the object of providence on the part of the Almighty, the single and natural God of the universe. --- "And then, will someone say, what can we conclude from that?" --- well, it is appropriate for a God, exercising of his own wish his providence, not to deprive the human race of his most precious gift, which is to be created by Him, and not to see the job allotted to creators themselves created and which are divine only in name and not by any other measure --- if it is true that it will always be repugnant to the divine glory to allow others the power to create and invite nothing-beings to do it. Because it is impious to claim that the appropriate and privileged character of the divine and unutterable nature can belong naturally to such or such of the creatures which it created. In fact these features are indeed appropriate only to the divine nature and to it alone, and display its glory to a supreme degree. Inaccessible to a creature --- I mentioned this above --- are the exclusive privileges of being single and supreme, and we affirm that one of these privileges is to be able to act as creator and to bring beings from nothing into existence. Under these conditions, how could a nature resulting from birth and creation, destined inevitably for corruption by the same laws which are its being, hold the active role of God?
40. In fact, if to create is regarded as a form of knowledge in God, one cannot present as irrational the gift of the creative capacity made by God to his creature: doesn't it sometimes happen to us that we create things starting from something already made, while using suitable know-how? If on the other hand, as I said, the fact of creating in the way that God does constitutes an ability and capacity pertaining only to an exceptional nature, and exceeds the measure of a creature, why do those people belittle the privilege of the supreme nature, and grant according to their good pleasure to beings created and promised to corruption? After which, persuaded that they have in their heads an idea of genius, they denature instead the words of God, by claiming that the Uncreated has confided to created beings the power to bring into existence what is specific to him only. --- OK, they say, but then it follows that a thing created by God should be stronger than death and corruption! --- Thus, friends, it is from jealousy towards certain beings that the Creator refused to give them the best part, that on the contrary He condemned them to a worse, one could say, by not being willing to create them! Apparently, He has avoided the fate which prohibited Him from creating mortal beings --- perhaps even He was unaware of this fate completely?
If they claim that God was in ignorance, the creature knows more than Him: the creators, they affirm themselves, were perishable beings! If on the other hand, giving up this position, they accept that God knew, how then would a good being refuse to do what he knows to be good? Because in the end it is quite true that the immortal one is preferable to the mortal!
[To be continued]
This text was transcribed by Roger Pearse, 2006, 2007. All material on this page is in the public domain - copy freely.
Early Church Fathers - Additional Texts
SOURCE SECTION: dioscorus_of_alexandria_letter_to_shenoute.htm
Dioscorus of Alexandria, Letter to Shenoute concerning an Origenist monk (1922) pp.367-376
Dioscorus of Alexandria, Letter to Shenoute concerning an Origenist monk (1922) pp.367-376
[Translated by Herbert Thompson]
These are the letters of the Archbishop of Alexandria, which he wrote to our aged Father, and these are their answers which our holy Father wrote to him,
Dioscorus writes to Sinuthius the priest, the father of the monks, my beloved and him whom I desire in the Lord, greeting We have praised the admirable zeal of Psenthaesius the priest and the monks who are with him; for they have put on them the shield of the faith 1 and they have hated those who hate God 2, they have accounted it as nothing to fight with enemies; moreover having done this gladly they have received a stone of victory 3, and they were elect the more (in proportion?) as they were so. And further they will be (elect) as we believe, especially because they have removed the offence from the midst, I mean Helias who was a priest indeed for a time, but who was revealed as a destroyer of souls and on this account we degraded him; on this account we appointed and ordained that he should not be found, nor should he live from this time forth either in the diocese of Shmin [Panopolis] or in any other city of the Eparchy of the Thebais, or in the monasteries, or in the caves in the desert; we being anxious lest he should contaminate others so as to become zealots and partakers of his heresy or his evil teachings. Hence the matter rests on your affection to watch that the regulations which shall be ordained be not broken, those which the most pious bishops will ordain [and which Sabinus 4] with Gennadius and Hermogenes will prescribe for the monasteries of Panopolis. And do thou moreover inquire earnestly also concerning the cities and monasteries of that diocese and convene them, and further do thy best not to let any insolence assail the beloved priest Psenthaesius and the worthy monks who are with him. For we will also care specially for those convents, searching into everything. Meanwhile the presence of your Reverence and the care which you will exercise daily for them will greatly benefit the business. It is on this account that I have written to you. I pray that you may keep well, my loved one and worthy of love. May your Reverence make speed to have the entire Memorandum translated into the Egyptian tongue, so that it may be read in that form and none may be ignorant of the authority of the things that are written therein.
The Memorandum of the Archbishop to the most pious Bishops Sabinus, Gennadius and Hermogenes.
The reasons indeed for which we degraded Helias the ex-priest it is superfluous for me to write to you, especially as the bishop of the church of Shmin was with us here in Rakote [Alexandria], he knowing everything that took place among us, and he having been the first of all to give a decision with regard to him, as he was under his authority at that time. It is necessary however that we should instruct you that first of all it is meet that you should summon the entire congregation in the great church of Shmin and that a service should be held at which all the clergy and the whole body of monks in all that diocese should be present and you should read out to them the memoranda which were drawn up here among us; so that they may all he made acquainted with the degradation of Helias, as to whom we have therefore prescribed that he shall not be seen from henceforth either in Shmin or in the other cities of the entire eparchy of the Thebais, nor in the monasteries, nor in the caves and that neighbourhood. Let this matter then be enforced, and do you execute it, and let your Reverences seek after him and take care that he is not seen from henceforth not only in the diocese of Shmin but also in all the other cities of the Thebais and also their dioceses whether in the south country or the north. For it is no trifling matter that we are in fear of; but they are matters of prime importance; and if any one were [merely] to assert that Helias is a soul-destroying corrupter he would not be able to alter him by what he says; therefore we fear greatly that many may be polluted by him. The matter therefore rests with you, if he be seen anywhere or you hear where he is, to write to the bishop of that diocese and pursue him and expel him as a heretic. But if he persist, or resolve to conceal himself, it is lawful for you to apply to the judges and inform them and hand him over and let them condemn him as an offender, seeing that, having anathematized Origen and his doctrines for a time he turned to him again; and the word of the true proverb applied to him "a dog who has turned again to his vomit" 5; and moreover as to the convent which is called the Parembole he is not to enter its door henceforth nor to remove anything from, it either by himself or by another, nor is he to administer anything nor to remove anything among the things that appertain to the monastery.6 For if any such thing happen, we shall know, and nothing will be hidden from us. For we shall search into everything carefully, and more especially whatever is done in Shmin from henceforth. And let this too be made clear in order that he may not dare to face any monk whatever from this time, especially those of the Parembole, nor is anyone among those who live in it to he allowed to speak to him or to communicate with him, or on the other hand to let him communicate with them, nor shall they associate with him at all to the ruin of the monastery and its property. And whoever shall be found associating with him, let him be expelled from the holy places, the saying being applied to him "You shall be pure with the pure, you shall avoid sin with him that avoids sin and you shall err with him who errs" 7, and further "These evil words corrupt hearts that are good" 8. These then together with all those who wish to be of one mind with us 9 must be strict regarding Helias; and let the memoranda which have been issued regarding him be placed in that church. But since I have heard moreover that there are books and numerous treatises of the pest named Origen and other heretics in that convent and in the former temple of Shmin 10 and elsewhere, let your Reverences inquire after them carefully and collect them and write their κάθεμα (?) 11 and send them to us; for it God has given us power to bind..................................
[Selected footnotes]
1. Ephes., 6:16.
2. Ps., 138:21.
3. Rev., 2:17.
4. These words seem to have dropped out.
5. Prov., 26:11.
6. The language suggests that the writer may have had in his mind the thirty fourth Canon of the Apostles (Lagarde, Aegyptiaca, p. 222).
7. Psalm. 17:28-26.
8. 1 Cor., 15:33.
9. I suspect that... the rendering would be "These (i. e. monks) must be strict with regard to Helias and those who sympathize with him".
10. From this it would seem that the temple of Panopolis — probably that of the god Min — had, doubtless after a partial destruction, been converted to the uses of a monastery, as happened elsewhere, e, g. at Deir-el-bahri. For Shenoute's activities against the heathen temples, see Leipoldt, Schenoute von Atripe, 1903, p. 178 et suiv.
11. I do not know what κάθεμα means here. The word usually means "necklace" and as such is found in Isai., 3:19 (sah. and boh.) It occurs in a list of Church property in the Rylands Papyri (ed. Crum, p. 116) of about the same date as our manuscript. Can it be that the original greek had the phrase καθ̕ ἔνα "write them one by one", and this has been corrupted?...
This text was transcribed and slightly modernised by Roger Pearse, 2011. The original is Herbert Thompson in his article "Dioscorus and Shenoute", in Recueil d'études égyptologiques dédiées à la mémoire de Jean-François Champollion (BEHE 234; Paris: Librairie Ancienne Honoré Champion, 1922), 367-76.
This file and all material on this page is in the public domain - copy freely.
Greek text is rendered using unicode.
Early Church Fathers - Additional Texts
SOURCE SECTION: palladius_lausiac_01_intro.htm
Palladius, The Lausiac History (1918) pp.1-34. Introduction.
Palladius, The Lausiac History (1918) pp.1-34. Introduction.
TRANSLATIONS OF CHRISTIAN LITERATURE. SERIES I
GREEK TEXTS
THE LAUSIAC HISTORY OF PALLADIUS
By W.K.LOWTHER CLARKE B.D.
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE.
London The Macmillan Company.New York
First published 1918
PREFACE
MY interest in monasticism was first awakened in 1904, when I was a theological student at Cambridge, by the publication of the second volume of Abbot Cuthbert Butler's Lausiac History of Palladius. The appearance of a new work of scholarship, however excellent, would have meant little to me at that time, but my imagination was struck by the dinner which the theological teachers at Cambridge combined to give the author in honour of the completion of his arduous task. Somehow I had not associated monks with dinnerparties, and they appeared to me henceforward in a more human and attractive guise. In 1908 I began to study monasticism, taking Abbot Butler's works as my guide, and have never since lost interest in the subject. During the past year I have tried, during the few leisure hours which were alone possible under war conditions, to forget the tragedies of the time by making a translation of the Lausiac History. I do not know whether an ordinary critical text, where an editor merely gives the finishing touches to the labour of his predecessors, is copyright so far as the right of making a translation is concerned. But in this case the text belongs to Abbot Butler in a special way, since before him all was chaos. I am grateful therefore to him, and the Cambridge University Press his publisher, for readily granting |viii permission to make the present version. There is nothing original in my book; if it succeeds in popularising the work of the Abbot of Downside, on whom the mantle of the great Benedictine scholars of old has descended, my purpose is accomplished.
To a lesser extent I am indebted to M. Lucot's excellent edition and translation. Occasionally he seems to me to have missed the meaning, but his French clarity of vision has frequently given me the clue to the right English rendering.
Finally I must express my gratitude to the Society of which I have the honour to be Secretary for undertaking the publication of this work at a time when it might have been tempted to postpone all such projects until a more convenient season.
May 1918.
|ix
CONTENTS
PREFACE vii
INTRODUCTION 15
I. THE AUTHOR AND HIS BOOK 15
II. THE TEXT OF THE HISTORY 17
III. EARLY MONASTICISM 20
IV. HISTORICAL VALUE OF THE BOOK 24
V. ITS SPIRITUAL VALUE 26
VI. THE PRESENT EDITION 32
VII. BIBLIOGRAPHY 33
VIII. LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS 34
TEXT: INTRODUCTORY PIECES 35
PROLOGUE 39
I. ISIDORE. 47
II. DOROTHEUS 48
III. POTAMAENA 50
IV. DIDYMUS 51
V. ALEXANDRA 53
VI. THE RICH VIRGIN 54
VII. THE MONKS OF NITRIA 57
VIII. AMOUN OF NITRIA 59
IX. OR 61 |x
X. PAMBO 62
XI. AMMONIUS 64
XII. BENJAMIN 66
XIII. APOLLONIUS 67
XIV. PAESIUS AND ISAIAS 67
XV. MACARIUS THE YOUNGER 69
XVI. NATHANAEL 70
XVII. MACARIUS OF EGYPT 73
XVIII. MACARIUS OF ALEXANDRIA 77
XIX. MOSES THE ROBBER 86
XX. PAUL 90
XXI. EULOGIUS AND THE CRIPPLE 91
XXII. PAUL THE SIMPLE 96
XXIII. PACHON 101
XXIV. STEPHEN 103
XXV. VALENS 104
XXVI. HERON 106
XXVII. PTOLEMY 107
XXVIII. A VIRGIN WHO FELL 108
XXIX. ELIAS 109
XXX. DOROTHEUS 110
XXXI. PIAMOUN 111
XXXII. PACHOMIUS AND THE TABENNESIOTS 112
XXXIII. THE TABENNESIOT NUNS 116
XXXIV. THE NUN WHO FEIGNED MADNESS 118
XXXV. JOHN OF LYCOPOLIS 120
XXXVI. POSIDONIUS 125
XXXVII. SARAPION THE SINDONITE 127
XXXVIII. EVAGRIUS 132
XXXIX. PIOR 138 |xi
XL. EPHRAIM 139
XLI. HOLY WOMEN 141
XLII JULIAN 142
XLIII. ADOLIUS 143
XLIV. INNOCENT 144
XLV. PHILOROMUS 145
XLVI. MELANIA THE ELDER 147
XLVII. CHRONIUS AND PAPHNUTIUS 149
XLVIII. ELPIDIUS 154
XLIX. SISINNIUS 156
L. GADDANAS 156
LI. ELIAS 157
LII. SABAS 157
LIII. ABRAMIUS 157
LIV. MELANIA THE ELDER 158
LV. SILVANIA (MELANIA continued) 160
LVI. OLYMPIAS 161
LVII. CANDIDA 162
LVIII. THE MONKS OF ANTINOË 163
LIX. AMMA TALIS AND TAOR 165
LX. COLLYTHUS 166
LXI. MELANIA THE YOUNGER 167
LXII. PAMMACHIUS 169
LXIII. THE VIRGIN AND ATHANASIUS 169
LXIV. JULIANA 171
LXV. HIPPOLYTUS 171
LXVI. VERUS THE EX-COUNT 173
LXVII. MAGNA 174
LXVIII. THE COMPASSIONATE MONK 174
LXIX. THE NUN WHO FELL 175 |xii
LXX. A READER UNJUSTLY ACCUSED 176
LXXI. THE BROTHER WHO IS WITH THE WRITER 178
INDICES (i) GENERAL 181
(ii) PERSONS MENTIONED IN THE TEXT 183
(iii) REFERENCES TO ANCIENT WRITERS 185
(iv) MODERN WRITERS 187
MAP OF MONASTIC EGYPT To face title
[Blank page]
HITHER, and with one accord
Sing the servants of the Lord:
Sing each great ascetic sire;
Antony shall lead the choir.
..........
Egypt, hail, thou faithful strand!
Hail, thou holy Libyan land!
Nurturing for the realm on high
Such a glorious company!
..........
By what skill of mortal tongue
Shall your wondrous acts be sung?
All the conflicts of the soul,
All your struggles to the goal;
And your virtue's prize immense,
And your victories over sense,
How perpetual watch ye kept
Over passions, prayed and wept;
Yea, like very angels came,
Visible in earthly frame.
Hymn for the Friday before Quinquagesima. St. Theophanes. Translated by J. M. Neale.
INTRODUCTION
I. THE AUTHOR AND HIS BOOK
IN the fourth and fifth centuries of our era Egypt had come to be regarded with great reverence throughout Christendom as a Holy Land of piety. Pilgrims came from all parts to visit the saints who lived there, and several wrote descriptions of what they saw and heard, which are among the most interesting documents of the early Church. Palestine was so near that it was usually included in their tour; the glamour of its sacred sites, which remains with us still when that of Egypt has faded into oblivion, was already potent. But Palestine was clearly second to Egypt in the affections of the pilgrims.
The prevailing sentiment was expressed by Chrysostom with admirable clearness (Hom. in Matt. viii.). It was eminently appropriate, he explains, that the child Jesus should be taken to Egypt to escape Herod. Palestine persecutes Him, Egypt receives Him. This typifies the position Egypt was to occupy in the development of the Church. The land which had oppressed the children of Israel, had known a Pharaoh, had worshipped cats, was destined to be more fervent than any other, to have its towns and even its deserts peopled by armies of saints living the life of angels, and to boast the greatest, after the apostles, of all saints, the famous Antony.
Palladius, the author of our book, who was destined |16 to be Chrysostom's devoted adherent, made a pilgrimage to this holy land, like so many others, and stayed there many years. The following is an outline of his life, with the dates as established by Butler.
He was born in Galatia in 363 or 364, and dedicated himself to the monastic life in 386 or a little later. In 388 he went to Alexandria; as Paul went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, James, and John, so, he says in the Prologue, did he go to Egypt to see the saints for himself. About 390 he passed on to Nitria, and a year later to a district in the desert known as Cellia from the multitude of its cells, where he spent nine years, first with Macarius and then with Evagrius. At the end of the time, his health having broken down, he went to Palestine in search of a cooler climate. In 400 he was consecrated bishop of Helenopolis in Bithynia, and soon became involved in the controversies which centred round St. John Chrysostom. The year 405 found him in Rome, whither he had gone to plead the cause of Chrysostom, his fidelity to whom resulted in his exile in the following year to Syene and the Thebaid, where he gained first-hand knowledge of another part of Egypt. In 412-413 he was restored, after a sojourn among the monks of the Mount of Olives. His great work was written in 419-420 and was called the Lausiac History, being composed for Lausus, chamberlain at the court of Theodosius II. Palladius was also in all probability the author of the Dialogue on the Life of Chrysostom. He died some time in the decade 420-430.
The character of the man stands out clearly in the History, He was sincere, simple-minded and not a little credulous. His deep religious fervour, of the ascetic type, needless to say, appears throughout the book, and especially in the concluding chapter, which almost attains eloquence. But he had a fund of good |17 sense, so we learn from the Prologue, which predisposes us to a favourable judgment on the rest of the book. What could be saner, for example, than his summing up of the question of teetotalism: "To drink wine with reason is better than to drink water with pride" (Prol. 10)? We need not attach much importance to the accusation of Origenism which has been the slur on his reputation. If he admired Origen, that great and original thinker, it will hardly redound to his discredit to-day. And he was in good company in his own day. Saints such as Basil, the two Gregories and Chrysostom shared his tendencies; if Chrysostom the master is forgiven his Origenism, Palladius the disciple may be forgiven also.
II. THE TEXT OF THE HISTORY
It has been the lot of many a scholar to grapple with the difficulties of an ancient text so successfully that the result of his labours has been accepted as substantially representing the original work of the author: few editors indeed can be credited with an achievement equal to that of Abbot Butler, who brought order out of confusion and rescued for the historian a document which had been regarded with the utmost suspicion. His conclusions were at once recognized as correct, and much that had been written on early monasticism became obsolete, based as it was on an erroneous estimate of the original authorities.1
Butler was confronted by three main documents, each with its own textual history.
A. The document which was accepted till recently as the Lausiac History, called by Butler the Long Recension. It appears in a Latin form in Rosweyd's Vitae |18 Patrum (1615 and 1628), and includes the History of the Monks in Egypt (see C below). In 1624 a Greek text was published by du Duc purporting to be the original of Rosweyd's Latin, though in reality it was patched up from various sources. This is the text which, with some additions, is reprinted in Migne, Patrologia Graeca, xxxiv.
B. Butler's Short Recension, called originally Paradisus Heraclidis, printed by Rosweyd in his appendix.
C. The Historia Monachorum in Aegypto, which was till recently supposed to have been written in Latin by Rufinus, but turns out to be Rufinus' translation of a Greek original compiled by an anonymous writer and describing a visit paid by a party of seven, in which Rufinus was not included, to the Egyptian ascetics in 394-395. The Greek text has been edited by Preuschen, and a text of Rufinus' Latin version forms part of the Long Recension, as stated above.2
Tillemont long ago had seen the lines on which the problem was to be solved, but subsequent investigators dismissed his suggestion as impossible, and it was left for Butler to show with a wealth of argument the true relations of the documents.
His solution is briefly this: A (the Long Recension) = B (the Short Recension) + C (Historia Monachorum). B is not an abridgment of A, nor is A Palladius' second edition of B. In Sozomen, who used the Lausiac History (see Hist. Eccl. I. 13 f., III. 14, VI. 28 ff., etc.), there are clear traces of B, also of C, none whatever of A. The early versions, especially the Latin and Syriac, confirm these results. There is no reason |19 to think that Palladius used Greek documents, or that he translated from the Coptic.
Having established this fact, that the Latin version in Rosweyd's appendix represents substantially the work of Palladius, Butler proceeds to discuss which is the best text of the Greek original of this. He finds that the MSS. are divided as follows:
(i) The B group, giving the Short Recension as hitherto printed.
(ii) A shorter and simpler text, which he calls the G group.
(iii) An A group, which is composite of B and G.
Ruling out the A group according to the rules of textual criticism, as between B and G, he pronounces in favour of the latter, which is supported by Sozomen and the versions, and is superior intrinsically as well. B is a "metaphrastic" text, says Preuschen, and Butler styles it "rhetorical, turgid and overladen."
It remains to discover the best examples of the G text. Butler finds these in a MS. in the National Library at Paris (P) and one at Christ Church, Oxford (W). The latter was not available until more than half of the text, had been printed, and therefore to get Butler's mature judgment on the text of the earlier part a number of readings from W given in the appendix must be substituted for those of the text. The two MSS. are the offspring of a common ancestor. "It is clear that P and W have to serve as the basis of the text, pre-eminently W where it is extant." Other MSS. are used in the main to eliminate the eccentricities of P and W. Occasionally neither are extant, and the printed text is Butler's critical reconstruction from the other sources. |20
III. EARLY MONASTICISM
The story of Egyptian monasticism is inevitably an oft-told tale, and need not be repeated here, since summaries of it are readily accessible.3 All that will be attempted is the emphasising of some points that might be overlooked.
Asceticism was inherent in Christianity from the first;4 it could hardly have been otherwise among the disciples of Him Who had not where to lay His head. In 1 Corinthians St. Paul teaches that in view of the shortness of the time before the end the unmarried state is preferable to the married.5 St. John, convinced that it was the last hour, bade his little children keep themselves from idols, a command which in practice involved renunciation of the world.6 We are therefore not surprised to find asceticism a strong force in the early post-apostolic age. There was as yet no formal separation from the world; devotees of both sexes lived at home and were described as bearing "the whole yoke of the Lord."7 When monasticism underwent its great development in the early part of the fourth century, it was but a making explicit of what had been implicit in the Church from its early days, and even, so it would seem, in the teaching and example of our Saviour.
Two questions may be asked at this point: Why did monasticism begin when it did? Why did Egypt witness its beginning rather than some other land such as Asia |21 Minor, which was perhaps the most Christian part of the empire at that time?
In answering the first question one would be inclined to attach importance to the tradition which connects the origin of monasticism with the Decian persecution (c. 250), when many Christians fled from the settled parts of Egypt to the surrounding deserts and remained there for some time (Dionysius of Alexandria ap. Eus. H.E. VI. 42). Some at least of these must have been living the ascetic life at home, which they would naturally continue in the desert under more rigorous conditions. When a later tradition affirms that certain of these remained in the desert permanently and became the first Christian hermits, it is intrinsically so probable that one is justified in concluding that the Decian persecution was the historic occasion which led to the origin of monasticism.8
Paradoxical as such an argument may seem at first sight, the cessation of persecutions may be adduced as a main cause of the great development of monasticism. The deliverance of the Church from this danger coincided with the adoption of Christianity as the State religion, the swamping of old landmarks by a flood of imperfectly instructed adherents, and the lowering of standards in the direction of worldliness. Monasticism in one of its aspects was the reaction of the sterner spirits against the secularisation of the fourth-century Church. Hitherto there had been an intermittent warfare of the State against the Church which expressed itself in persecution. When persecution ceased, a need was felt on the part of the Church for a "moral equivalent for war"; this the Church found in monasticism, which represented the Church militant against worldliness within.
If we turn to our second question, it is not hard to see |22 why Egypt, rather than some other country, was the motherland of monasticism. The solitudes of Asia Minor with their rigorous winter climate were not suitable places for ascetic experiments. Egypt, however, was ideal for this purpose. The climate was warm and practically rainless, the desert was never far away from the narrow strip of cultivable land, and the neighbouring mountain ranges abounded in natural caves.
Another reason may be suggested. The recent discoveries of papyri have thrown a flood of light upon the conditions of life in ancient Egypt. We can trace the ever-tightening hold of the Government upon the people and the process by which the peasants became ascripti glebae.9 The process was at work in other provinces, but Egypt was in the main docile,10 had been paternally governed since the days of the Ptolemies, and was of great importance as the granary of Italy. Accordingly the pressure of taxes and public burdens was greatest in Egypt, and the temptation to escape from them by running away became very strong. In the second and third centuries whole districts became depopulated by the flight of their inhabitants. Things became worse in the fourth century. In 312 the village of Theadelphia became "utterly deserted"; so did that of Philadelphia in 359. The peasants ran away from their intolerable burdens. The word used for their retreat (a)naxw&rhsij) is the same as that which describes the monks (a)naxw&rhtai/, anchorites). What some did from economic, others could do from religious motives; doubtless in some cases both causes operated.11 |23
Such an explanation seems far more plausible than that which used to be given, according to which the pagan monasticism of Egypt was the model for the Christian institution. There is little to be said for such a theory, which is indeed now generally abandoned. The resemblance of the so-called monks of Sarapis to the later Christian monks is merely superficial.12
The solitary life, begun in the desert as described above, was organised about 305 by St. Antony, who is justly reckoned as the founder of Christian monachism. Through the efforts of him and his disciples great colonies of monks arose, the most famous of which were at Nitria and Scete. The cells were grouped round a central church, where services were held on Saturday and Sunday, devotions otherwise being said in the individual cells. The main feature of this type of monasticism was its voluntary character; each monk lived his own life, and the monastery had a number of solitary lives lived in common rather than a true common life.
The first coenobium, or monastery of the common life, was founded by Pachomius at Tabennisi sometime in the years 315-320. Here Palladius found a federation of monasteries constituting a true Order as understood subsequently in the West, with obedience to the Rule and the Superior as the main principle. There is no need to discuss the two systems here, since the reader will find both modes of life fully described in the text (see especially Chapters VII. and XXXII.).
By the side of the monks there were nuns of various kinds. The purely solitary life was clearly inappropriate to women, though it was attempted, as may be seen |24 from the story of Alexandra, who lived alone in a tomb for ten years (Ch. V.). When women were gathered into a monastery, the presence of men was necessary if only to administer the sacraments. Convents of the Antonian type existed, but the true common life for women was found in the Pachomian nunneries, over the first of which Pachomius' sister was abbess. These were closely associated with the men's houses in a system of double monasteries, which formed an economic whole, the women, for example, making the men's clothes. This institution, carefully safeguarded as it was and providing protection for women in a rough age, fell into suspicion in the East and was forbidden by Justinian.
Little need be said about Palestine. The monastic life was introduced there early in the fourth century by Hilarion, a disciple of Antony; the original impulse continued, and the monasteries were mainly of the Antonian type.
IV. HISTORICAL VALUE OF THE BOOK
No one would deny that Palladius reflects the age in which he lived, the more faithfully because of his simplicity and lack of originality. His casual allusions to Church observances are of great value. Note, for instance, the continued use of the Agape (XVI. 5), the importance attached to frequent communion, a five weeks' abstention being enough to deserve severe punishment (XVII. 9), the offering of the Eucharist for the dead (XXXIII. 4), the use of Holy Oil (XII. 1, XVIII. 11) and Holy Water (XVII. 9) to effect cures, the Invocation of Saints (LX. 2), the beginnings of the Rosary (XX. 1), and generally the great esteem in which the Bible was held, large portions being learned by heart. |25
But a novel may contain such historical data, and it has been claimed that Palladius' History is little better than a romance. We may disregard the earlier criticisms of this kind, since Abbot Butler has answered them satisfactorily, and confine ourselves to the most important of recent books on the subject, Reitzenstein's Hellenistischen Wundererzählungen (1906).13 He pays special attention to the Lausiac History, and tries to prove that some at least of the stories are old literary motives formerly attached to pagan characters. Thus the tale of Sarapion Sindonita was originally told of some Cynic philosopher. It may be so, though the arguments are not cogent, only this scholar is too ready to assume a literary connection where none is needed. If the same stories were told of Egyptian peasants, heathen and Christian, the simplest explanation is that Egyptian peasants behaved in much the same way, whether before or after conversion. The common background of life and thought is sufficient to explain the similarity of the stories.
Palladius then tells what he saw and heard, his reminiscences in fact of what happened in some cases over twenty years previously. Under such conditions the element of exaggeration and distortion cannot be excluded. But there is no reason to doubt his good faith when he describes what he saw for himself. Where he reports hearsay he is naturally at the mercy of his informants. Those who told him that a virgin hid Athanasius in her house for six years (Ch. LXIII.) were giving the exaggerated popular version of what had happened many years ago.
There is one reason why Palladius' evidence has been distrusted which is not very creditable to |26 nineteenth-century scholars, namely, his conviction that he had witnessed miraculous and supernatural events. It is coming to be recognised that a fifth-century Christian writer who did not believe in the miraculous would be a portent which required explanation. There would be little left of the history of the time if all the writers who believed in contemporary miracles were ruled out as unworthy of credence.
V. SPIRITUAL VALUE OF THE BOOK
The modern reader has to contend with certain prejudices which hinder his proper appreciation of the people depicted in the Lausiac History. To begin with, there is the preoccupation with sexual temptations, which will offend some. Not that this is unfamiliar to the reader of modern literature, where there is enough and to spare of such topics. But the Christian to-day, resting upon the accumulated experience of the Church, has learned that solitude is the worst possible condition for a man troubled with such temptations, and is apt to be impatient with the struggles of the solitaries. Doubtless the monks were often morbid in this matter, and it requires an effort of sympathetic imagination to do them justice. The background of their lives must not, however, be forgotten. Their point of view is readily intelligible when it is regarded as a necessary reaction from the incredible corruption of the pagan society of their day, with which even the Church was infected. Thus the women who boasted that they had not had a bath for years are not to be laughed at or reproached for dirtiness. Their conduct appears in a new light when compared with that of those who did take a bath, the Christian ladies of Alexandria who defied all modesty |27 in the public baths.14 They sacrificed physical cleanliness as a protest against moral uncleanness. And the monks who fought with their passions under the hot African sun and described their struggles with painful frankness were doing the right thing under conditions needlessly difficult. We who have a truer insight into the psychology of temptation must not reproach those who had not such knowledge.
Again, the demonology of the Lausiac History is at times grotesque to modern eyes. In his poem "St. Simon Stylites" Tennyson shows a just appreciation of this side of early monachism. His description of the saints is fully borne out by the records.
"Devils pluck'd my sleeve,
Abaddon and Asmodeus caught at me.
I smote them with the cross; they swarmed again.
In bed like monstrous apes they crushed my chest:
They flapped my light out as I read: I saw
Their faces grow between me and my book:
With colt-like whinny and with hoggish whine
They burst my prayer."
But the heroic nature of the warfare is easily missed. The ascetic went into the desert knowing that the demons were awaiting him on their own ground. The evil spirits had a special fondness for waterless places; they took up their abode among the animals which frequented ruins.15 They were also identified with the heathen gods, whose monuments and pictorial representations were to be found in the Egyptian desert. It argued therefore no small degree of moral courage if the monk went out alone to join battle with these potent |28 forces of evil. We forget the squalor and shabbiness of the Middle Ages in our admiration of the chivalry and devotion which dared and accomplished great things, and though we laugh at Don Quixote it is with a pang of regret that the age of chivalry is giving place to the centuries of materialism. Now the monks went into the desert of Egypt to fight their battles in a spirit of chivalry. Maybe they tilted at windmills sometimes, but let us never forget that the battle few won, that their life was a successful protest against corruption in the Church, and that they handed the lamp of spirituality down to posterity through ages which apart from them were truly dark.
Tennyson was right in much of his poem, but surely he was mistaken in making his typical ascetic speak in so uniformly penitential a vein. The great monks must have been very happy on the whole. Cold in winter, scorched in summer, always hungry, tortured by visions, yet they had the deep inward peace of knowing that they had obeyed the call and were doing God's Will. Dom Morin of Maredsous in Belgium, writing shortly before the Great War, pointed out that this is the special and inalienable happiness of the monk. "On pourra m'expulser, comme tant d'autres, des murs paisibles du cloître, on pourra me priver de toutes les consolations de la vie religieuse, on pourra disposer de moi de diverses façons imprévues; il est cependant une chose que jamais on ne pourra me ravir, c'est le bonheur d'obéir: celui-là, il m'accompagnera jusqu'à la mort."16
The monk in an Order obeyed the Rule and its living exponent, the Superior; the solitaries in the desert obeyed an inward monitor. But for both obedience |29 was the master-word, and in consequence beneath all their surface struggles they had a deep peace of the soul. Cardinal Newman's words about the Benedictines express better than anything else the true spirit of monasticism. "To the monk heaven was next door; he formed no plans, he had no cares; the ravens of his father Benedict were ever at his side. He 'went forth' in his youth 'to his work and to his labour' until the evening of life; if he lived a day longer, he did a day's work more; whether he lived many days or few, he laboured on to the end of them. He had no wish to see further in advance of his journey than where he was to make his next stage. He ploughed and sowed, he prayed, he meditated, he studied, he wrote, he taught, and then he died and went to heaven." 17
Some, while recognising the justice of what has been said above, will maintain that they are bound to pass an unfavourable judgment on a movement so anti-social and anti-national as monasticism. It is pitiful, they say, to see the elect spirits of their generation engaged in spiritual self-culture, a selfish endeavour to save their own souls. Why did they not marry and bring up children, throw themselves into the national life, and so strengthen the moral and economic fabric of the State that it might have had a fair chance of resisting the barbarian onslaught that was impending?
"I can never forgive monasticism this wrong to civilisation," said a distinguished Cambridge resident to me once. At the time I felt that the objection was unhistorical, a judging of the men of bygone days by standards which would have been meaningless to them, resembling the criticisms of monasticism which Charles Kingsley puts into the mouths of his characters in Hypatia. But the objection was, after all, raised at the |30 time, for Eusebius deals with this very difficulty in a passage of great interest.18
Why, he asks, did the Old Testament Saints attach such importance to marriage and the begetting of children, while we neglect the duty? His answer is first that what was natural in the early days of the human race is unsuitable now when we are living in the last days----quoting St. Paul's words in 1 Corinthians vii. If the time was short in the apostle's day, how little is left now before the advent of the new order. Then in the Old Testament the bulk of mankind were living a life akin to that of the beasts, and so the few who served God were obliged to have families if the holy seed was to be preserved at all; whereas now there is such a multitude of Christians that some can be spared for the ascetic life. He goes on to speak of spiritual children begotten by these holy men, and points out that after all for the great majority of men the New Testament does enjoin marriage.
Surely we can accept Eusebius' conclusions. There will always be enough to obey the primitive human instincts which lead men and women to marriage; there will certainly be enough children born from these marriages to carry on the race, if the Christian teaching on marriage is honoured. So we can but rejoice, if out of the great number who remain unmarried some do so in order to live a life separated from the world and devoted to unseen things. Let us exercise a little common sense. At this distance of time who can pretend to care whether a few little Egyptians more or less were born in the fourth century, to live dim, undistinguished lives, cultivating the soil in order to fill the grain-ships with bread-stuffs for Rome, or later, Constantinople? But it makes a good deal of difference |31 to us that men and women were ready to forsake all for Christ and that the sweet savour of their example is still fragrant in our midst. Many of the monastic records are exquisitely beautiful. Take, for example, the deaths of two great nuns, Emmelia and Macrina, as described in the Life of the latter.19 Of Emmelia, the mother, it is said that "when she ceased to bless, she ceased to live." Of Macrina, her daughter: "As she approached her end, as if she discerned the beauty of the Bridegroom more clearly, she hastened towards the Beloved with the greater eagerness."
Or we may quote from Palladius the answer given him by Macarius, when he complained that he was making no progress: "Say, for Christ's sake I am guarding the walls."20 He means: Comfort yourselt with the thought that the people of Egypt are living their life in the world, exposed to so many temptations; as a protecting wall between them and the enemy the monasteries are interposed; you with your prayers are helping to guard that wall.
Is not this the real point at issue? If we believe in prayer as the noblest and most fruitful activity of man's nature, we shall probably be led to believe that God separates some to a life of prayer, and that the mass of mankind dwell in greater security, thanks to the protecting wall of the prayers of these separated ones. It is because the monks of Egypt put spiritual things first, albeit sometimes in an exaggerated and strained fashion, and believed in the life of prayer, that their example is of permanent value to Christendom.
Finally, it is a commonplace to say that we live in a materialistic age. Riches are the pathway to power |32 and influence over the lives of others. The Church itself is infected by materialism, in that finance absorbs so much of its energies. Great philanthropists, ecclesiastical statesmen, and missionaries all need money to carry out their schemes of benefiting mankind. Of course there is a good side to this; over against our Lord's praises of poverty must be set His teaching about stewardship. Yet one suspects that English Christians have not so far learned all that is implied in His treatment of riches and poverty. And so it is a salutary experience to read the Lausiac History and live for a while in an age of the Church when renunciation of all possessions was the surest road to fame and widespread influence for good.
VI. THE PRESENT EDITION
I have followed Butler's text throughout, including the readings from W given in the Appendix, which are in some cases to be substituted for those which appear in the body of the book. Where a different text is followed, for example a reading suggested by C. H. Turner, the deviation from Butler is indicated in the notes. The paragraph divisions are those of Butler, the sections into which the chapters are divided are Lucot's.
In places I was confronted with language which could hardly be translated literally; Lucot manages to do so, but the traditions of English are different. To omit the passages would in some cases have spoiled the sense of a whole passage; besides, the book is intended for scholars, who have a right to know what the author said. I met the difficulty by toning down and employing euphemisms; the scholar will have no difficulty in seeing what is meant. I cannot pretend that the compromise is satisfactory. |33
I have aimed at the combination of accuracy, not necessarily identical with literalness, and an easily-read English style. Only those who have tried know how hard it is to combine the two. Palladius, though not a stylist, is a clear and forcible writer, and the task of translating him into English presents no special difficulty. A feature of his style is the incessant use of the particle ou]n.
VII. BIBLIOGRAPHY
(See also list of abbreviations.)
Butler, E. C., Chapter on "Monasticism" in Cambridge Medieval History, Vol. I. Cambridge, 1911.
Cabrol, F., art. on "Monasticism" in Encylopaedia of Religion and Ethics" Vol. VIII, Edinburgh, 1915.
Clarke, W. K. L., St. Basil the Great: A Study in Monasticism. Cambridge, 1913.
Duchesne, L., Chapter on "Les Moines d'Orient" in Histoire Ancienne de l'Église, Vol. II. Paris, 1907.
Krottenthaler, S., Des Palladius von Helenopolis Leben der heiligen Väter (German translation of Butler's text). München, 1912.
Ladeuze, F., Le Cènobitisme Pakhomien. Louvain, 1897.
Leclercq, H., art. "Cènobitisme"in Dictionaire d'Archéologie Chrétienne. Paris, 1910.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, The: Athanasius, Cassian, Socrates, Sozomen. Oxford, various dates.
Zöckler, O., Askese and Monchtum. Frankfurt-a-M., 1897.
ABBREVIATIONS
Budge = E. A. Wallis Budge, The Paradise of the Holy Fathers (Eng. trans, of the Syriac version). London, 1907.
Butler = E. C. Butler, The Lausiac History of Palladius, Vol. I. 1898; Vol. II. 1904. Cambridge.
D.C.B. = Dictionary of Christian Biography. E.R.E. = Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics.
Hist. Mon. ---- Historia Monachorum in Aegypto, Rufinus (?), Greek text in Preuschen, Palladius und Rufinus. Giessen, 1897.
Lucot = Palladius, Histoire Lausiaque (French trans. of Butler's text). Paris, 1912.
Turner ---- C. H. Turner, review of Butler's Lausiac History in Journal of Theological Studies. 1905.
(....)= matter not in the Greek added to complete the sense.
[....] = (generally) translation not of the actual Greek text but of Butler's critically reconstructed text; but see notes.
[Footnotes renumbered and moved to the end]
1. 1 I have thought it unnecessary for the purposes of this edition to discuss what may be termed the Weingarten school of criticism.
2. 1 Butler's arguments have not apparently won universal acceptance on this point, since Scott-Moncrieff, Paganism and Christianity in Egypt (1913), p. 215, maintained that there is no doubt Rufinus wrote the Greek original.
3. 1 See Butler, Lausiac History, I. 218-238, and Cambridge Medieval History, I. 521 f.; art "Monasticism" in Encycl. of Religion and Ethics; Duchesne, Histoire Ancienne de l'Église, II. 485 f.; Clarke, St. Basil the Great: a Study in Monasticism, pp. 26-42; Hannay, The Spirit and Origin of Christian Monasticism.
4. 2 See Clarke, op. cit., pp. 1-15.
5. 3 1 Cor. vii. 29 and the whole chapter.
6. 4 1 Jn. ii. 18, v. 21; see Tert. de Idol, passim.
7. 5 Didache 6; cf. 1 Clem. 38, Ign. ad Polyc. 5.
8. 1 See Eus. Comm. in Ps. lxxxiii. 4; Jerome, Vita Pauli; Soz. I. 12; and Butler, I. 230.
9. 1 The note in Lk. ii. 3, that all went to be enrolled, each to his own city, so far from being unhistorical, is a valuable record of the beginning of this process.
10. 2 In spite of turbulent outbreaks in the third century A.D..
11. 3 See Mitteis- Wilcken, Grundzüge und Chrestomathie der Papyruskunde, I. i. 324 f.
12. 1 For the ka&toxoi of Sarapis see Preuschen, Mönchtum und Sarapiskult (1903); Reitzenstein, Die Hellenistischen Mysterienreligionem (1910), pp. 72-81; Sethe, Sarapis und die sogenannte ka&toxoi des Sarapis (1913). The last book I have not seen.
13. 1 On inquiry in 1914 I learned that the book was out of print, and a revised edition was expected shortly.
14. 1 Clem. Al., Paed. III. 5; Cyprian, de Hab. Virg. 19.
15. 2 Cf. Lev. xvi. 10 f. R.V; Isa. xxxiv. 14, R.V. marg. (Lilith associated with the wild beasts); Mt. xii. 43.
16. 1 L'idéal monastique et la vie chrétienne des premiers jours ( nd éd. 1914), p. 33.
17. 1 Historical Sketches, II. 426.
18. 1 Demon. Evang. I. 9 (P. G. XXII. 77. f.).
19. 1 See my translation of Gregory of Nyssa's Vita S. Macrinae (London, 1916).
20. 2 XVIII. 29.
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Palladius, The Lausiac History (1918) pp. 35-180. English Translation.
Palladius, The Lausiac History (1918) pp. 35-180. English Translation.
PREFACE TO THE LIFE OF THE HOLY FATHERS
COPY OF A LETTER WRITTEN BY PALLADIUS THE BISHOP TO LAUSUS THE CHAMBERLAIN.
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER I -- ISIDORE
CHAPTER II -- DOROTHEUS
CHAPTER III -- POTAMIAENA
CHAPTER IV -- DIDYMUS THE BLIND
CHAPTER V -- ALEXANDRA
CHAPTER VI -- THE RICH VIRGIN
CHAPTER VII -- THE MONKS OF NITRIA
CHAPTER VIII -- AMOUN OF NITRIA
CHAPTER IX -- OR
CHAPTER X -- PAMBO
CHAPTER XI -- AMMONIUS
CHAPTER XII -- BENJAMIN
CHAPTER XIII -- APOLLONIUS
CHAPTER XIV -- PAESIUS AND ISAIAS
CHAPTER XV -- MACARIUS THE YOUNGER
CHAPTER XVI -- NATHANAEL
CHAPTER XVII -- MACARIUS OF EGYPT
CHAPTER XVIII -- MACARIUS OF ALEXANDRIA
CHAPTER XIX -- MOSES THE ROBBER
CHAPTER XX -- PAUL
CHAPTER XXI -- EULOGIUS AND THE CRIPPLE
CHAPTER XXII -- PAUL THE SIMPLE
CHAPTER XXIII -- PACHON
CHAPTER XXIV -- STEPHEN
CHAPTER XXV -- VALENS
CHAPTER XXVI -- HERON
CHAPTER XXVII -- PTOLEMY
CHAPTER XXVIII -- A VIRGIN WHO FELL
CHAPTER XXIX -- ELIAS
CHAPTER XXX -- DOROTHEUS
CHAPTER XXXI -- PIAMOUN
CHAPTER XXXII -- PACHOMIUS AND THE TABENNESIOTS
CHAPTER XXXIII -- THE TABENNESIOT NUNS
CHAPTER XXXIV -- THE NUN WHO FEIGNED MADNESS
CHAPTER XXXV -- JOHN OF LYCOPOLIS
CHAPTER XXXVI -- POSIDONIUS
CHAPTER XXXVII -- SARAPION THE SINDONITE
CHAPTER XXXVIII -- EVAGRIUS PONTICUS
CHAPTER XXXIX -- PIOR
CHAPTER XL. -- EPHRAIM
CHAPTER XLI -- HOLY WOMEN
CHAPTER XLII -- JULIAN
CHAPTER XLIII -- ADOLIUS
CHAPTER XLIV -- INNOCENT
CHAPTER XLV -- PHILOROMUS
CHAPTER XLVI -- MELANIA THE ELDER
CHAPTER XLVII -- CHRONIUS AND PAPHNUTIUS
CHAPTER XLVIII -- ELPIDIUS
CHAPTER XLIX -- SISINNIUS
CHAPTER L -- GADDANAS
CHAPTER LI -- ELIAS
CHAPTER LII -- SABAS
CHAPTER LIII -- ABRAMIUS
CHAPTER LIV -- THE ELDER MELANIA
CHAPTER LV -- SILVANIA (MELANIA continued)
CHAPTER LVI -- OLYMPIAS
CHAPTER LVII -- CANDIDA
CHAPTER LVIII -- THE MONKS OF ANTINOË
CHAPTER LIX -- AMMA TALIS AND TAOR
CHAPTER LX -- COLLYTHUS
CHAPTER LXI -- MELANIA THE YOUNGER
CHAPTER LXII -- PAMMACHIUS
CHAPTER LXIII -- THE VIRGIN AND ATHANASIUS
CHAPTER LXIV -- JULIANA
CHAPTER LXV -- HIPPOLYTUS
CHAPTER LXVI -- VERUS THE EX-COUNT
CHAPTER LXVII -- MAGNA
CHAPTER LXVIII -- THE COMPASSIONATE MONK
CHAPTER LXIX -- THE NUN WHO FELL
CHAPTER LXX -- A READER UNJUSTLY ACCUSED
CHAPTER LXXI -- THE BROTHER WHO IS WITH THE WRITER
THE LAUSIAC HISTORY
INTRODUCTORY PIECES
PREFACE TO THE LIFE OF THE HOLY FATHERS 1
1 THIS book is a record of the virtuous asceticism and marvellous manner of life of those blessed and holy fathers, the monks and anchorites which inhabit the desert, (written) with a view of stirring to rivalry and imitation those who wish to realize the heavenly mode of life and desire to tread the road which leads to the kingdom of heaven. It contains also memoirs of aged women and illustrious God-inspired matrons, who with masculine and perfect mind have successfully accomplished the struggles of virtuous aceticism, (which may serve) as a model and object of desire for those women who long to wear the crown of continence and chastity.
2 This is how the book came to be written.2 A man, admirable in every way, very learned, of peaceable disposition, religiously disposed and devout-minded, liberal towards those who lack the necessaries of life, in respect of high distinctions preferred above many men of rank owing to the excellence of his character, and with all this guarded continually by the power of the Divine Spirit----such is the man who commanded us to write, or rather, if one must tell the truth, aroused our slothful |36 mind to the contemplation of better things, to imitate and attempt to rival the ascetic virtues of our holy and immortal spiritual fathers and all who have lived to please God with much mortification of the body. 3 And so, having described the lives of these invincible athletes, we have sent them to him, proclaiming the conspicuous virtues of each of these great persons. I am referring to Lausus, the best of men, who by the favour of God has been appointed guardian of our godly and religious empire; it is he who is inspired with this divine and spiritual passion.
4 I then, who am clumsy in utterance3 and have but a superficial acquaintance with spiritual knowledge and am unworthy to draw up a list of the holy fathers of the spiritual life, fearing the infinite greatness of the task set me, so much above my capacity, found the command intolerable, requiring as it did so much worldly wisdom and spiritual understanding. Nevertheless, respecting in the first place the eager virtue of the man who urged us to obey the command, and considering the benefit accruing to the readers, and fearing also the danger of a refusal albeit with a reasonable excuse, I first commended the noble task to Providence and then applied myself diligently to it. Sustained, as if on wings, by the intercession of the holy fathers, I attended the contests of the arena. I have described in a kind of summary only the main contests and achievements of the noble athletes and great men----not only illustrious men who have realized the best manner of life, but also blessed and highborn women who have practised the highest life.
5 I have been privileged to see with my own eyes the revered faces of some of these, but in the case of others, who had already been perfected in the arena of |37 piety, I have learned their heavenly mode of life from inspired athletes of Christ. In the course of my journey on foot I visited many cities and very many villages, every cave and all the desert dwellings of monks, with all accuracy as befitted my pious intentions. Some things I wrote down after personal investigation, the rest I have heard from the holy fathers, and I have recorded in this book the combats of great men, and women more like men than nature would seem to allow, thanks to their hope in Christ. I now send the whole to you whose ears love divine oracles, to you, Lausus, who are the pride of excellent and God-beloved men, and the ornament of the most faithful and God-beloved empire, noble and Christ-loving servant of God. I have recorded 4 to the best of my feeble powers the famous name of each of the athletes of Christ, male and female, describing a few short contests out of the many mighty ones engaged in by each, adding in most cases the family and city and place of residence.5
6 We have also told of men and women who have reached the highest stage of virtue, but owing to vainglory, as it is called, the mother of pride, have fallen into the lowest pit and abyss of hell, and the triumphs of asceticism, so earnestly desired and so strenuously fought for, acquired by them after long periods of time and many labours, have been dissipated in an instant by pride and self-conceit. But by the grace of our Saviour and the fore-knowledge of the holy fathers and the sympathy of spiritual affection they have been snatched from the nets of the devil and, helped by the prayers of the saints, have recovered their former life of virtue. |38
COPY OF A LETTER WRITTEN BY PALLADIUS THE BISHOP TO LAUSUS THE CHAMBERLAIN.6
1 I congratulate you on your intention. Indeed I am justified in beginning my letter with congratulation, because, when all men are gaping after vain things and building their edifice with stones from which they got no joy,7 you yourself want to be taught words of edification. For only the God of all is untaught, since He is self-originate and has none other before Him. But all other things are taught, since they are made and created. The first orders (of angels) have the supreme Trinity as teacher, the second learn from the first, the third from the second, and so successively in order until the last. For those who are superior in judgment and virtue teach those who are inferior in knowledge. 2 So then men who think they do not need teachers, or do not obey those who teach them in love, suffer from the disease of ignorance, the mother of arrogance. Their leaders on the road to destruction are those who have fallen from the heavenly life, the demons who fly in the air having fled from their teachers in heaven. For teaching does not consist in words and syllables----sometimes men possess these who are as vile as can be----but |39 in meritorious acts of character, cheerfulness, intrepidity, bravery, good temper; add to these unfailing boldness, which generates words like a flame of fire. 3 For if this had not been so, the great Teacher would not have said to His disciples: "Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart."8 He does not train the apostles with elegant language, but with care for character, distressing none save those who hate the word and hate teachers. For the soul that is being trained according to God's purpose must be either learning faithfully what it does not know, or teaching clearly what it knows. But if it wants to do neither, though able to do them, then it is mad. For to be sated with teaching and unable to bear the word, for which the soul of him who loves God is always hungry, is the beginning of apostasy. Be strong then and of sound mind and play the man, and may God grant you to pursue closely the knowledge of Christ.
PROLOGUE
1 Forasmuch9 as many have left behind for their age many and divers writings concerning different epochs, some of them by an inspiration of heavenly God-given grace (writing) for the edification and safety of those who follow with loyal purpose the teachings of the Saviour, others with sycophantic and corrupt intention having indulged in mad follies in order to encourage such as desire vain-glory, others again, inspired by a certain madness and the influence of the demon who hates good, and in their pride and wrath planning the destruction of light-minded men and the soiling of the immaculate Catholic Church, having attacked the minds of the foolish to make them dislike the saintly life, |40 2 it seemed good to me also,10 your humble servant, reverencing the command of your magnanimity,11 O man most eager to learn, a command issued with a view to spiritual progress, to publish this book in narrative form for your benefit, (telling my story) from the beginning. (When I thus decided),12 it was, I suppose, my thirty-third year in the society of the brethren and the twentieth year of my episcopate, and the fifty-sixth of my whole life.13 You were asking for accounts of the fathers, both male and female (saints), both those whom I had seen and those about whom I had heard and those with whom I lived in the Egyptian desert and Libya, the Thebaid and Syene, near which last are the so-called Tabennesiots,14 and again in Mesopotamia, Palestine and Syria, and the districts of the West----Rome and Campania and thereabouts. 3 (My aim is) that you may have (in my book) for the benefit of your soul a solemn reminder, an unfailing cure for forgetfulness; and that you may drive away by its help all drowsiness proceeding from irrational lust, all indecision and pettiness in business affairs, all backwardness and pusillanimity in the domain of character, all resentment, worry, grief and irrational fear; and moreover the excitements of the world; and may with unfailing desire make progress in the purpose of piety, becoming a guide both to yourself, your companions, your subordinates, and the most religious Emperors. For by means of these meritorious works all lovers of Christ press on to be joined to God. |41 Each day you will be expecting the departure of your soul, as it is written: 4 "It is good to depart and be with Christ,"15 and "Prepare thy works for thy departure and be ready in thy field."16 For he that keeps death always in mind, that it will come of necessity and will not tarry, shall not greatly fall. You will neither take amiss the guidance of my directions, nor will you despise the uncouthness and inelegance of my style; for indeed it is not the work of divine teaching to speak with studied elegance, but to persuade the mind with considerations of truth, as it is written: "Open thy mouth to the word of God,"17 and again: "Miss not the discourse of the aged, for they also learned of their fathers." 18
5 I then, O man of God most eager to learn, following in part this precept, have been in contact with many of the saints. Putting aside considerations of prudence,19 I have made journeys of thirty days, yes and twice as long. (I say it) as before God, traversing on foot in my journeys all the land of the Romans,20 I welcomed all the hardship of the way so long as I might meet some man that loved God, that I might gain what I had not got. 6 For if Paul, who was so far in advance of me, surpassing me in manner of life, knowledge, conscience and faith, undertook the journey from Tarsus to Judaea to meet Peter, James and John; and |42 if he tells of it with a kind of boastfulness, recounting 21 his toils in order to stir to emulation those who live in sloth and laziness, saying: "I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas;" 22 if he was not satisfied with the report of Peter's virtue, but longed for an actual meeting face to face----how much more was I, the debtor who owed ten thousand talents,23 bound to do this, not for any good I might do them, but for my own benefit? 7 For indeed those who wrote the lives of the Fathers, Abraham and his successors, Moses, Elijah and John, told their tale, not to glorify them, but to benefit their readers. Knowing these things then, Lausus, most loyal servant of Christ, and impressing them on yourself, be patient with my folly, (which is designed) to preserve the pious disposition of your mind; for it is naturally exposed to waves of evil, both visible and invisible, and can enjoy calm only with the help of continuous prayer and spiritual self-culture.24 8 For many of the brethren, pluming themselves both on their labours and charities and boasting of their celibacy or virginity and putting their trust in meditation on the divine oracles and acts of zeal, have yet failed to attain impassivity.25 Through lack of discernment, under the pretext of piety, they have fallen victim to a disease (which manifests itself) in acts of idle curiosity, from which spring officious or even evil activities, such as drive away good activities, the mother of spiritual self-culture.26 |43
9 Play the man then, I beseech you, and do not increase your wealth. This policy you have already adopted, since of your own accord you have lessened it by distributing to those- in need owing to the supply of virtue which is thereby gained. Nor have you yielded to impulse and unreasonable premature decision and fettered your free choice with an oath27 to curry favour with men, as some have done who in a spirit of rivalry, that they may boast of not eating or drinking, have enslaved their free will by the constraint of an oath and have succumbed again miserably to the love of this world and accidie28 and pleasure and so have suffered the pangs of perjury. For if you partake reasonably and abstain reasonably you will never sin. 10 For reason, of all the emotions within us, is divine, banishing what is harmful and welcoming what is beneficial. "For the law is not made for a righteous man."29 For to drink wine with reason is better than to drink water with pride. And, please, look on those who drink wine with reason as holy men and those who drink water without reason as profane men, and no longer blame or praise the material, but count happy or wretched the minds of those who use the material well or ill. Joseph drank wine in Egypt long ago, but his mind suffered no harm, for he kept his thoughts under control, 11 But Pythagoras, Diogenes and Plato drank water; 30 |44so did the Manichaeans and the rest of the band of soi-disant philosophers, and yet they reached such a pitch of vain-glory in their intemperance that they failed to know God and worshipped idols. The apostle Peter and his companions used wine to some extent, so that their Master, our Saviour, was himself reproached on account of their participation, by the Jews' saying: "Why do not thy disciples fast as do the disciples of John?"31 Again insulting the disciples with reproaches they said: "Your Master eats and drinks with the publicans and sinners." 32 Clearly they would not have attacked them over bread and water. 12 And again, when they were unreasonably admiring water-drinking and blaming wine-drinking, the Saviour said: "John came in the way of righteousness, neither eating nor drinking"----obviously meat and wine, for apart from the other things he could not have lived----"and they say, He hath a devil. The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a gluttonous man and a wine-bibber, and a friend of publicans and sinners" 33 ----because of his eating and drinking. What are we to do then? Let us follow neither those who blame nor those who praise, but let us either fast with John reasonably even if they say: "They have a devil," or let us drink wine wisely with Jesus, if the body needs it, even if they say: "Behold men gluttonous and wine-bibbers." 13 For in truth neither is eating nor refraining anything, but faith extending itself in love to works. For when faith accompanies every action, he that eateth and drinketh because of faith is uncondemned, "for whatsoever is not of faith is sin."34 But when any one of those who sin says he partakes in faith or is doing anything else with unreasonable self-confidence and |45 corrupted conscience, the Saviour has given express orders, saying: "By their fruits ye shall know them."35 But that the fruit of those who live with reason and understanding, as the divine Apostle says, "is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance,"36----this is granted by all. 14 For Paul himself said: "The fruit of the spirit is" so-and-so. But because he who sets himself to get such fruit will not eat meat or drink wine unreasonably or without definite aim or out of season, nor will he dwell with an uneasy conscience, again the same Paul says: "Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things." 37 When the body is in health he abstains from fattening things, when it is weak or in pain or meets with griefs or misadventures, he will make use of foods or drinks as medicines to heal what grieves him, and he will abstain from all that harms the soul----anger, envy, vain-glory, accidie, detraction, and unreasonable suspicion----giving thanks to the Lord.
15 Having then discussed the matter sufficiently above, I bring another exhortation to your desire of learning. Flee, as far as is in your power, encounters with men whose presence confers no benefit and who beautify their skin in unseemly fashion, even if they be orthodox----not to speak of heretics! They do you harm by their hypocrisy, even when they seem to be dragging out a great age with their grey hair and wrinkles. For, even supposing you come to no harm at their hands by reason of your noble character, you will suffer this lesser evil in becoming insolent and proud, and mocking at them, and this will do you harm. But go near a bright window and seek encounters with holy men and women, in order that by their help you may be able to see |46 clearly also your own heart as it were a closely-written book,38 being able by comparison to discern your own slackness or neglect. 16 For the colour of their faces with the bloom of grey hairs and the arrangement of their clothes and the modesty of their language and the reverence of their conversation and the grace of their thoughts will strengthen you, even if you should happen to be in a mood of accidie. "For a man's attire and his gait and the laugh of his teeth will proclaim what he is like," as Wisdom says.39
So now I begin my tales. I shall leave unnoticed neither those in the cities nor those in the villages or deserts. For the object of our inquiry is not the place where they have settled but the fashion of their plan of life. |47
CHAPTER I. -- ISIDORE 40
1 THE first time that I set foot in the city of the Alexandrians, in the second consulate of the great Emperor Theodosius,41 who now lives with the angels because of his faith in Christ, I met in the city a wonderful man, distinguished in every respect, both as regards character and knowledge, Isidore the priest, hospitaller of the Church of Alexandria. He was said to have fought successfully his first youthful contests in the desert, and I actually saw his cell in the mountain of Nitria. But when I met him, he was an old man seventy years of age, who lived another fifteen years and then died in peace. 2 Up to the very end of his life he wore no linen except a head-band, never had a bath, nor partook of meat. His slender frame was so well-knit by grace that all who did not know his manner of life expected that he lived in luxury. Time would fail me if I were to tell42 in detail the virtues of his soul. He was so benevolent and peaceable that even his enemies the unbelievers themselves reverenced his shadow because of his exceeding kindliness. 3 So great a knowledge had he of the holy scriptures and the divine precepts that even at the very meals of the brethren he would have periods of absent-mindedness and remain silent. And being urged to tell the details |48 of his ecstasy he would say: "I went away in thought on a journey, seized by contemplation." For my part I often knew him weep at table, and when I asked the cause of the tears I heard him say: "I shrink from partaking of irrational food, being myself rational and destined to live in a paradise of delight owing to the power given us by Christ." 4 He became known to all the Senate at Rome and to the wives of the nobles, when he paid his first visit in company with Athanasius the bishop,43 and on a second occasion with Demetrius the bishop; a man of great wealth and extensive property, he wrote no will when he came to die, and left neither money nor goods to his sisters, who were virgins. But he commended them to Christ, saying: "He that created you will provide for your life, as He has done for me." Now there was with his sisters a community of seventy virgins.
When I visited him as a young rnan and besought that I might be trained in the solitary life, since I was in the full vigour of my age and needed, not discourse, but bodily hardships, like a good tamer of colts he led me out from the city to the so-called Solitudes five miles away (and handed me over to Dorotheus).44
CHAPTER II. -- DOROTHEUS 45
1 HANDING me over to Dorotheus, a Theban ascetic who was spending the sixtieth year in his cave, he |49 ordered me to complete three years with him in order to tame my passions----for he knew that the old man lived a life of great austerity----bidding me return to him afterwards for spiritual instruction. But being unable to complete the three years owing to a breakdown in health, I left Dorotheus before the three years were up, for living with him one got parched and all dried-up.46 For all day long in the burning heat he would collect stones in the desert by the sea and build with them continually and make cells, and then he would retire in favour of those who could not build for themselves. Each year he completed one cell. And once when I said to him: "What do you mean, father, at your great age by trying to kill your poor body in these heats?" he answered thus: "It kills me, I kill it." For he used to eat (daily) six ounces of bread and a bunch of herbs, and drink water in proportion. God is my witness, I never knew him stretch his legs and go to sleep on a rush mat, or on a bed. But he would sit up all night long and weave ropes of palm leaves to provide himself with food. 3 Then, supposing that he did this for my benefit, I made careful inquiries also from other disciples of his, who lived by themselves, and ascertained that47 this had been his manner of life from a youth, and that he had never deliberately gone to sleep, only when working or eating he closed his eyes overcome by sleep, so that often the piece of food fell from his mouth at the moment of eating, so great was his drowsiness. Once when I tried to constrain him to rest a little on the mat, he was annoyed and said: "If you can persuade angels to sleep, you will also persuade the zealous man." 4 One day about the ninth hour he sent me to fill the jar at his well in view of a meal at the ninth hour. |50 Well, as it happened, I went and saw an asp at the bottom of the well, and stopped drawing water and went away and said to him: "We are dead men, father, for I saw an asp in the well." But he smiled gravely and looked at me for a time, and then shaking his head said: "If the devil decides to become a serpent or tortoise in every well and to fall into our water-supply, will you refrain from drinking for ever?" And he went out and drew the water himself, and was the first to swallow some of it, fasting, saying: "Where the cross passes, the evil of anything is powerless."48
CHAPTER III. -- POTAMIAENA 49
1 THIS blessed man Isidore, who had met Antony of blessed memory, told me a story which is worth recording, which he had heard from Antony. There lived in the time of Maximianus the persecutor a very beautiful maiden called Potamiaena, a certain man's slave. Her master failed to seduce her, though he besought her eagerly with many promises. 2 At last mad with rage he handed her over to the then prefect of Alexandria, giving her up as a Christian and one who abused the times 50 and the Emperors because of the persecutions, and suggesting this to him with the help of money: "If she falls in with my design, keep her without punishment."' But if she should remain |51 puritanical, he asked that she might be punished, lest continuing to live she should mock at his licentious ways. 3 She was brought before the tribunal and the fortress of her soul was attacked by various instruments of torture. For one of them, the judge had a great cauldron filled with pitch and ordered it to be heated. When the pitch was now bubbling and terribly hot, he gave her the choice: "Either go away and obey the wishes of your master, or know that I shall order you to be plunged into the cauldron." But she answered and said: "God forbid that there should be another such judge, who orders one to submit to licentiousness." 4 So in a fury he ordered her to be stripped and thrown into the cauldron; but she lifted up her voice and said: "By the head of your Emperor whom you fear, if you have decided to punish me thus, order me to be let down gradually into the cauldron that you may know what endurance the Christ, Whom you know not, bestows on me." And being let down gradually during a space of one hour she died when the pitch reached her neck.
CHAPTER IV. -- DIDYMUS THE BLIND 51
1 VERY many indeed of the men and women who reached perfection in the Church of Alexandria were worthy (to inherit) the land of the meek.52 Among these was Didymus the blind author. I met him four times in all, visiting him at intervals during a period of ten years. He was 85 years old when he died. He was blind, |52 having lost his sight at the age of four, so he told me, and he had never learned to read nor gone to school.53 2 (This was not necessary) for he had nature's teacher ----his own conscience----strongly developed. He was adorned with such a gift of knowledge, that, so it was said, the passage of scripture was fulfilled in him: "The Lord maketh the blind wise." 54 For he interpreted the Old and New Testament word by word, and such attention did he pay to doctrine, setting out his exposition of it subtly yet surely, that he surpassed all the ancients in knowledge. 3 Once when he tried to make me say a prayer in his cell and I was unwilling, he told me this story: "Into this cell Antony entered for the third time on a visit to me. I besought him to say a prayer and he instantly knelt down in the cell and did not make me repeat my words, giving me by his action a lesson in obedience. So if you want to follow in the steps of his life, as you seem to, since you are a solitary and living away from home to acquire virtue, lay aside your contentiousness." And he told me this also: "As I was thinking one day about the life of the wretched Emperor Julian, how he was a persecutor, and was feeling dejected ----and by reason of my thoughts I had not tasted bread even up to late evening----it happened that as I sat in my seat I was overcome by sleep and I saw in a trance white horses running with riders and proclaiming: 'Tell Didymus, to-day at the seventh hour Julian died. Rise then and eat,' they said, 'and send to Athanasius the bishop, that he too may know,' And I marked," he said, "the hour and month and week and day, and it was found to be so." 55 |53
CHAPTER V. -- ALEXANDRA
1 HE told me also of a maid-servant named Alexandra, who having left the city and shut herself up in a tomb, received the necessaries of life through an opening, seeing neither women nor men face to face for ten years. And in the tenth year she fell asleep, having arrayed herself (for death): 56 and so the woman who went as usual to see her and got no answer informed us.57 So we broke down the door and entering in found her fallen asleep. 2 Concerning her also the thrice-blessed Melania,58 about whom I shall speak later, used to say: "I never saw her face to face, but standing by the opening I urged her to say the reason why she shut herself up in a tomb. And she called out to me through the opening: 'A man was distressed in mind because of me and, lest I should seem to afflict or disparage him, I chose to betake myself alive into the tomb rather than cause a soul made in the image of God to stumble.' 3 When I said," she continued, "'How then do you endure never meeting any one, but struggling with accidie?' 59 she replied: 'From early morn to the ninth hour I pray hour by hour, spinning flax the while. |54 During the remaining hours I meditate on the holy patriarchs and prophets and apostles and martyrs. And having eaten my bread I remain in patience for the other hours, waiting for my end with cheerful hope.' "
CHAPTER VI. -- THE RICH VIRGIN
1 BUT I must not omit from my story those also whose life has been characterized by pride, that I may praise those who have remained true and ensure the safety of my readers. There was a virgin at Alexandria of humble exterior but haughty inward disposition, exceedingly wealthy, but never giving 60 an obol either to a stranger or a virgin or a church or a poor man. In spite of the frequent exhortations of the fathers she was not weaning herself from material things. 2 Now she had relations living, one of whom, her sister's daughter, she adopted, and night and day she kept promising the girl should have her money, having fallen away from her aspirations after heaven. For this is a form of the deceit of the devil, who afflicts us with pangs of avarice under the pretext of family affection. For it is common knowledge that he cares nothing about family ties, since he teaches men to murder brothers and mothers and fathers. 3 But even if he seems to inspire anxiety for relations, he does not do so from benevolent feelings towards them, but to practise the soul in unrighteousness, knowing the decree: "The unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God." 61 Now it is quite possible for a man without neglecting his own soul to be influenced by a godly consideration and give assistance to his kinsfolk if they are in want. But when a man subordinates his whole soul |55 to the interests of his relations, he comes under this law, reckoning his soul "unto vanity." 62 4 But the sacred psalmist sings thus concerning those who care for their soul with fear: "Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? "----meaning (it is) rarely (any one does) ---- "or who shall stand up in his holy place? He that has clean hands and is pure in heart, who did not lift up his soul unto vanity." 63 For as many as neglect the virtues, these lift up the soul unto vanity, believing that it is dissolved with the body.
5 Wishing to bleed this virgin, so the story goes, and thus relieve her of her avarice, the most holy Macarius,64 the priest and superintendent of the hospital for cripples, devises this expedient. In his youth he had been a worker in precious stones ---- what they call a lapidary. So he goes and says to her: "Some precious stones, emeralds and sapphires,65 have fallen by fate into my hands, and I cannot say whether they are treasure-trove or stolen property. They have not been valued, since they are beyond price, but any one who has the money can buy them for five hundred pounds. 6 If you decide to take them, you can get back your five hundred pounds from one stone and use the rest for the adornment of your niece." Excited (by his words) the virgin is caught by the bait and falls at his feet. "By your feet," she says, "let no one else get them." Then he invites her: "Come to my house and look at them." But she had not the patience (for this), but flings down |56 the five hundred pounds before him, saying: "You want them, take them. For I do not want to see the man who sells them." 7 But he takes the five hundred pounds and gives them for the needs of the hospital. Time sped along and she was shy of reminding him (of the matter), for Macarius clearly had a great reputation in Alexandria, being a lover of God and charitable----he remained vigorous until he was a hundred, and we too passed some time with him. Finally, having found him in the church, she says to him: "I beg you, what decision have you come to about those stones for which I gave the five hundred pounds?" 8 But he answered thus: "The moment you gave me the money, I deposited it for the price of the stones. And if you would like to come and see them in the hospital----for there they are----come and look if they please you. If not, take back your money." So she came, very willingly. Now the hospital had women on the first floor and men on the ground floor. And having taken her there he brings her into the porch and says to her: "Which do you want to see first, the sapphires or the emeralds?" She says to him: "As you please." 9 He takes her to the upper floor and shows her the women disabled in hand or feet with their disfigured faces and says to her: "Behold your sapphires!" Then he takes her down again and says to her, showing her the men: "Behold your emeralds! Do they please you? If not, take back your money." So she turned and went out, and returning home fell ill from excess of grief, because she had not done this thing in a godly fashion. 'Afterwards she thanked the priest, when the maid for whom she was planning died childless after marriage.66 |57
CHAPTER VII. -- THE MONKS OF NITRIA 67
1 So then, after my visit to the monasteries round Alexandria with their 2000 or so most noble and zealous members and my three years sojourn there, I left them and went to the mountain of Nitria. Between this mountain and Alexandria lies the lake called Maria68 seventy miles in extent. Having sailed across this I came to the mountain on its south side in a day and a half. 2 Next to this mountain lies the great desert which stretches as far as Ethiopia and the Mazicae and Mauretania. On the mountain live some 5000 men with different modes of life, each living in accordance with his own powers and wishes, so that it is allowed to live alone, or with another, or with a number of others. There are seven bakeries in the mountain, which serve the needs both of these men and also of the anchorites of the great desert, 600 in all. 3 So, having dwelt on the mountain for a year and having received much benefit from the blessed fathers Arsisius the Great69 and Poutoubastes and Asion and Cronius 70 and Sarapion,71 and having been spurred on by hearing their many tales about the fathers, I penetrated into the innermost desert. In this mountain of Nitria there is a great church, by |58 which72 stand three palm-trees, each with a whip suspended from it. One is intended for the solitaries who transgress, one for robbers if any pass that way, and one for chance comers; so that all who transgress and are judged worthy of blows are tied to the palm-tree and receive on the back the appointed (number of stripes) and are then released. 4 Next to the church is a guest-house, where they receive the stranger who has arrived, until he goes away of his own accord, without limit of time, even if he remains two or three years. Having allowed him to spend one week in idleness, the rest of his stay they occupy with work either in the garden, or bakery, or kitchen. If he should be an important person, they give him a book, not allowing him to talk to any one before the hour.73 In this mountain there also live doctors and confectioners. And they use wine and wine is on sale. 5 All these men work with their hands at linen-manufacture, so that all are self-supporting. And indeed at the ninth hour it is possible to stand and hear how the strains of psalmody rise from each habitation so that one believes that one is high above the world in Paradise.74 They occupy the church only on Saturday 75 and Sunday. There are eight priests who serve the church, in which, so long as the senior priest lives, no one else celebrates, or preaches, or gives decisions,76 but they all just sit quietly by his side. |59
6 This Arsisius and many other old men with him whom we saw were contemporaries of the blessed Antony. Some among them, they told me, had also known Amoun 77 of Nitria, whose soul Antony saw being taken up and conducted to heaven by angels. Arsisius used to say that he also knew Pachomius 78 of Tabennisi, a prophet and archimandrite 79 over 3000 men, of whom I shall speak later.
CHAPTER VIII. -- AMOUN OF NITRIA 80
1 (ARSISIUS) used to say that Amoun lived in this wise. When he was a young man of about twenty-two he was constrained by his uncle to marry a wife----he (himself) was an orphan. Being unable to resist the pressure of his uncle, he thought it best to be crowned 81 and take his seat in the nuptial chamber and undergo all the marriage rites. When all (the guests) were gone |60 out, after settling 82 the pair to sleep on the couch in the bridal chamber, Amoun gets up and locks the door, then he sits down and calls his blessed companion to him and says to her: 2 "Come here, lady, and then I will explain the matter to you. The marriage which we have contracted has no special virtue. Let us then do well by sleeping in future each of us separately, that we may please God by keeping our virginity intact." And drawing from his bosom a little book, he read to the girl, who could not read at all, in the words 83 of the apostle and the Saviour, and to most of what he read he added all that was in his mind and explained the principles of virginity and chastity; so that convinced by the grace of God she said: 3 "I too am convinced, my lord. And what further commands have you now?" "I command," he said, "that each of us lives alone in future." But she could not endure this, saying: "Let us dwell in the same house, but in different beds." So he lived in the same house with her eighteen years. During each day he occupied himself with his garden and balsam-grove----for he prepared balsam. Balsam grows like a vine, requiring cultivation and pruning and much hard work. Then in the evening he would enter the house and offer prayers and eat with his wife; and then having said the night prayers would go out. 4 Such was their practice, and both having attained impassivity, the prayers of Amoun prevailed, and she says to him at last: "I have something to say to you, my lord; that, if you hearken to me, I may be convinced that you love me in a godly way." He says to her: "Say what you wish." She says to him: "It is just that we should live apart----you being a man and practising righteousness, and I also |61 eagerly following the same way as you. For it is absurd that you should live with me in chastity and yet conceal such virtue as this of yours." 5 But he, thanking God, says to her: "Then you keep this house; but I will make myself another house." And he went out and settled in the inner part of the mount of Nitria----for there were no monasteries there yet----and he made himself two round cells.84 And having lived twenty-two years more in the desert he died, or rather fell asleep. He used to see that blessed lady his wife twice each year.
The blessed Athanasius the bishop in his life of Antony told a marvellous story about this man,85 how that he came to the bank of the river Lycus with his disciple Theodoras, and shrinking from removing his clothes lest he should see him naked, he was found on the other side, having been carried across by angels without using the ferry. Such then was the life of the blessed Amoun and such his perfection that the blessed Antony saw his soul carried to heaven by angels. I crossed this river once in a ferry, but with fear; for it is a canal leading from the great Nile.
CHAPTER IX. -- OR
1 IN this mountain of Nitria there was an ascetic named Or, to whose great virtue the whole brotherhood bore witness, and especially Melania, that woman 86 of God, who came to the mountain before me. For my part, I never saw him alive. And they used to say this |62 of him in their stories, that he never lied, nor swore, nor abused any one, nor spoke without necessity.
CHAPTER X. -- PAMBO
1 To this mountain also belonged the blessed Pambo, teacher of Dioscorus the bishop and Ammonius and Eusebius and Euthymius, "the (Tall) Brethren," 87 also of Origen the nephew of Dracontius, a wonderful man. This Pambo possessed heroic virtues and great qualities, one of which was this: he was very suspicious of gold and silver, as Scripture demands. 2 For the blessed Melania told me this story: "In early days, when I came to Alexandria from Rome, I heard of his virtue and----the blessed Isidore 88 having told me of him and having conducted me to him in the desert----I brought him a casket of silver containing silver to the weight of three hundred pounds and besought him to take a part of my goods. But he sitting still and weaving palm-leaves merely blessed me in a sentence and said: 'May God give you your reward.' 3 And he said to his steward Origen: 'Take it and distribute it to all the brethren who live in Libya and the islands, for these monasteries are poorer (than the rest)'; instructing him to give to none of those in Egypt, because their country was more fertile. But I," she said, "remained standing, expecting to be honoured or glorified by him because of my gift, but hearing nothing from him I said to him: 'That you may know, Sir, how much there is, it amounts to three hundred pounds.' 4 But he without even |63 raising his head answered me: 'The One to Whom you brought them, my child, has no need of weights. For He Who weighs the mountains, much more does He know the weight of the silver. If you had given it to me, you would have done well to tell me; but if it was to God, Who did not scorn the two obols,89 then be silent.' So," said she, "did the Lord manifest His power when I came to the mountain. 5 After a little while the man of God fell asleep, not from an attack of fever, nor from any illness, but while he was stitching up a basket, at the age of seventy. He had sent for me and----the last stitch being ready to be completed----he said to me when about to die: 'Receive the basket at my hands to remember me by, for I have nothing else to leave you.'" Having prepared the body for burial and wrapped it in linen cloths she buried him, and then returned from the desert, keeping the basket with her till her death.
6 This Pambo on his death-bed, at the very moment of his passing, is reported to have said this to the bystanders, Origen the priest and steward and Ammonius----famous men, both of them----and the rest of the brethren: "From the day that I came to this place in the desert and built my cell and inhabited it, I cannot remember having eaten 'bread for nought,' 90 not earned by my hands. I have not had to repent of any word that I have spoken up to the present hour. And so I go to God, as one who has not even begun to be pious." 7 Prominent men, Origen and Ammonius, testified further to us, saying: "When he was asked about a word of Scripture or other practical matter never did he answer at once, but would say: 'I have not yet found (the answer).' Often he went three months even and gave no answer, saying he had not put his hand on it. |64 Accordingly men received his answers as come from God, so carefully were they framed, as God would approve them. For this one virtue he was said to possess even above the great Antony and above all others, namely exactness of language."
8 The following incident is told of Pambo. Pior 91 the ascetic came to see him, bringing his own bread, and being accused by Pambo, "Why have you done this?" answered: "Lest I should burden you." Pambo gave him a silent lesson expressly. For after a while he went to see Pior and took with him his bread, having first moistened it, and when asked why he said: "I moistened it as well, lest I should burden you."
CHAPTER XI. -- AMMONIUS
1 THIS Ammonius, Pambo's disciple, with his three brothers 92 and two sisters, having reached the perfection of the love of God, made their home in the desert, the women living separately by themselves, and the men by themselves, so as to have a sufficient distance between them. But since Ammonius was exceedingly learned and a certain city coveted him for its bishop, a deputation waited on the blessed Timothy,93 beseeching him to ordain him as their bishop. 2 And he said to them: "Bring him to me and I will ordain him." When therefore they had gone with a force and he saw that he was caught, he besought them and swore that he would not accept ordination, nor depart from the desert. |65 And they would not give way to him. So before their eyes he took scissors and cut off his left ear to the base, saying to them: "Well, be convinced now that it is impossible for me to be ordained, since the law forbids a man with ear cut off to be raised to the priesthood." 94 3 So then they left him and departed and went and told the bishop. And he said to them: "Let the Jews observe this law. For my part, if you bring a man with his nose cut off worthy in character, I'll ordain him." So they went off again and implored Ammonius. And he swore to them: "If you use force to me, I'll cut off my tongue." So then they left him and went their way.
4 About this Ammonius the following marvellous story was told. When desire arose in him, he never spared his poor body, but heating an iron in the fire he would apply it to his members, so that he became a mass of ulcers. Now his table from youth until death contained raw food only. For he never ate anything that had passed through the fire except bread. Having learned by heart the Old and New Testaments and (passages) in the writings of the famous authors Origen, Didymus, Pierius and Stephen, he could repeat 6,000,000 (lines), as the fathers of the desert testify. 5 He was a comforter to the brethren in the desert beyond all others. To him the blessed Evagrius, an inspired and discerning man, gave testimony, saying: "never have I seen a man of more impassivity than he."
[Having been obliged on one occasion to visit Constantinople... after a little while he fell asleep and was buried in the martyr's chapel called Rufinianae. His tomb is said to cure all sufferers from shivering fever.95] |66
CHAPTER XII. -- BENJAMIN 96
1 IN this mountain of Nitria there was a man called Benjamin who at the age of eighty years having reached the perfection of asceticism was counted worthy of the gift of healing, so that every one on whom he laid his hands or to whom he gave oil after blessing it was cured of every ailment.97 Now this man who was accounted worthy of such a gift, eight months before his death developed dropsy, and his body swelled so greatly that he seemed a second Job. So Dioscorus the Bishop,98 at that time a priest of Mount Nitria, took us----the blessed Evagrius,99 that is, and me----and said to us: 2 "Come, see a new Job, who with so great swelling of body and incurable suffering yet maintains "an unbounded thankfulness." So we went and saw his body so greatly swollen that another man's fingers could not get round one finger of his hand. We turned our eyes away, being unable to look owing to the terrible nature of the affliction. Then that blessed Benjamin said to us: "Pray, children, that my inner man may not become dropsical. For my outer man neither benefited me when it was well, nor harmed me when it was ill." 3 During these eight months a seat was arranged for him, very wide, in which he sat continually, being no longer able to lie down owing to the other requirements of his body. But while he was in this state of affliction he healed others. I have felt bound to describe this affliction, lest we should be surprised when some untoward fate befalls righteous men. When he died, the |67 lintels and door-posts were removed, that his body might be carried out of the house, so great was the swelling.100
CHAPTER XIII. -- APOLLONIUS
1 A MAN named Apollonius, a merchant, who had renounced the world and come to live on Mount Nitria, being unable owing to advanced years either to learn a craft or work as a scribe,101 had this occupation during his twenty years' life on the mountain. From his private money and from (the produce of) his own labours he bought in Alexandria all kinds of drugs and things needed for the cells, and provided all the brotherhood with them in their illnesses. 2 And one might see him from early morn until the ninth hour going the round of the monasteries and entering in at each door in case there should be any one ill in bed, taking with him dried grapes, pomegranates, eggs, and bread made of fine flour, the things which such people need. This plan he had devised for a profitable life in his old age. When he died he left his stores to one like-minded with himself, exhorting him to carry on this ministration. For with 5000 monks inhabiting the mountain there was need of this visiting, since the place was desert.
CHAPTER XIV. -- PAESIUS AND ISAIAS
1 THERE were two brothers called Paesius and Isaias, sons of a Spanish102 merchant. On their father's death they divided the real property which they got, |68 also the personal property consisting of 5000 pieces of money and clothes and slaves. They considered with each other and took counsel together saying: "What mode of life shall we adopt, brother? If we adopt the merchant career which our father followed, then we shall have to die and leave our labours to others. 2 Perhaps we may even succumb to dangers from robbers or on the sea. Come, then, let us embrace the monastic life, that we may make a profitable use of our father's riches and not lose our own souls." So the ideal of the monastic life pleased them. But they found themselves at variance, differing from each other 103 in their views. For having divided the property, they applied themselves each to his purpose of pleasing God, but by different tactics. 3 For the one bestowed everything on the monasteries and churches and prisons, and having learned a trade by which to earn his bread applied himself to asceticism and prayer. But the other parted with nothing, but making himself a monastery and getting together a few brethren welcomed every stranger, every invalid, every old man, every poor man, preparing three or four tables every Sunday and Saturday. In this way he spent his money.
4 When the two were dead, various eulogies were pronounced over them, as if both had reached perfection. And some preferred Paesius, others Isaias. But a contention having arisen in the brotherhood over their praises, they went to the blessed Pambo and referred the decision to him, imploring that they might learn which was the better method. But he said to them: "Both are perfect; for one showed the works of an Abraham, the other those of an Elijah." 104 5 And |69 when one party said: "By your feet (we ask), how can they possibly be equal?" and preferred the ascetic and said: "He performed an Evangelical work 105 selling all and giving to the poor, and every hour both by day and night bearing the cross and following the Saviour and his prayers." But the other side contended with them and said: "Our man showed such great mercy to the needy that he even sat in the roads and collected the afflicted. And not only did he refresh his own soul but the souls of many others, treating their diseases and helping them." 6 Then blessed Pambo said to them: "Once again I tell you, they are both equal. I assure each of you that the one, unless he had been so great an ascetic, was not worthy to be compared with the benevolence of the other, while the second again, refreshing the stranger, was himself refreshed, and though he seemed to carry the burden of toil, yet had the refreshing that follows it. But wait until I receive a revelation from God, and after that come and you shall learn." So they came again a few days after and he said to them: "I saw both standing in Paradise, as it were in the presence of God."
CHAPTER XV. -- MACARIUS THE YOUNGER 106
1 A YOUTH named Macarius, when he was about eighteen years old, as he played with his comrades by the lake called Maria,107 being in charge of animals, unwittingly committed a murder. And saying nothing about it to any one he took to the desert and became so |70 afraid both of God and man that he lost all feeling and remained three years in the desert without a roof to his head. The land in these parts is rainless, and all men know this, some from hearsay, others from personal experience. 2 This man afterwards built himself a cell. And having lived a further twenty-five years in that cell he was counted worthy of the gift of blowing away demons;108 all his pleasure he found in solitude. Having spent a long while with him, I inquired how he felt on the subject of his sin of murder. He declared that so far from grieving he actually gave thanks for the murder, since the murder unwittingly committed proved the occasion of his salvation. 3 And, bringing testimony from the Scriptures, he used to say that Moses would not have been accounted worthy of the divine vision and so great a gift and the writing of the holy words, unless he had fled to Mount Sinai in fear of Pharaoh owing to the murder which he had committed in Egypt. I say this, not to lead any one to commit murder, but to show that there are virtues due to circumstances, when a man does not come to the good of his own accord. For some virtues are chosen voluntarily, others are due to circumstances.
CHAPTER XVI. -- NATHANAEL
1 THERE was another of the old (monks) called Nathanael. I did not visit him during his lifetime, since he had fallen asleep fifteen years before my arrival. But when I met the men who lived with him |71 and shared his life of asceticism, I made a point of inquiring about the virtues of this man. They showed me his cell, wherein no one dwelt any longer because it was too near the world; he had made it when the anchorites were few in number. They told this story about him as specially characteristic, that he stopped in his cell so perseveringly as not to be shaken from his purpose. 2 Among other things, having been mocked at the outset by the demon who mocks all men and deceives them, he seemed to feel a distaste 109 for his first cell and went off and built another nearer a village. So when he had completed the cell and occupied it, three or four months after the demon came by night, holding a whip of ox-hide like the executioners, and having the appearance of a ragged soldier, and began cracking his whip. Then the blessed Nathanael answered and said: "Who are you who do such things in my dwelling?" The demon answered: "I am he who drove you from that cell. I have come to chase you out of this too." 3 Knowing that he was the victim of an illusion, he returned again to the first cell, and in a period of thirty-seven years in all did not cross the threshold, having a quarrel with the demon; who showed him such wonders, trying to force him out, as it is impossible to relate. This is one of them. Having watched for a visit from seven holy bishops----either arranged by God's providence or being one of his own temptations----the demon very nearly turned him from his purpose. For when the bishops went out after prayer, he did not escort them even one step. 4 The deacons said to him: "This is an act of pride, Father, not escorting the bishops." But he said to them: "I am dead both to my lords the bishops and to all the world. For I have a hidden design and God knows my |72 heart. Wherefore I do not escort them." Having failed in this affair, the demon disguised himself nine months before Nathanael's death and became a lad about ten years old, driving an ass laden with loaves in a basket. And having arrived late in the evening near his cell he made it seem that the ass was fallen and the boy crying: 5 "Father Nathanael, pity me and give me a hand." Hearing the voice of the supposed boy and opening the door, he stood within and said to him: "Who are you and what do you want me to do for you?" He said: "I am so-and-so's little servant and I am carrying loaves, for it is this brother's agape, and to-morrow when Saturday 110 dawns offerings will be wanted. I beseech you, do not neglect me, lest perchance I be eaten by hyaenas." For many hyaenas are found in those places. So blessed Nathanael stood in silence with his brain in a whirl and his heart sore troubled and argued thus with himself: "Either I must give up the commandment,111 or my purpose." Afterwards, however, considering that it was better for the confusion of the devil not to disturb the purpose of so many years, he prayed and said to the supposed boy that spoke to him: "Listen, boy! I |73 believe in the God Whom I serve, that if you are in need God will send you help and neither will hyaenas harm you nor any one else. But if you are a temptation, God will reveal the matter now." And he shut the door and went in. But the demon, put to confusion at the defeat, dissolved into a dust-storm and into wild-asses jumping and fleeing and emitting yells. This was the conflict of the blessed Nathanael, this his manner of life, this his end.
CHAPTER XVII. -- MACARIUS OF EGYPT 112
1 I HESITATE either to speak or write the many great and incredible events that happened in connection with those famous men, the two Macarii, lest I should incur the suspicion of being a liar; indeed the Holy Spirit has declared that "the Lord destroys all them that speak falsehood." 113 So do not disbelieve me, most believing one, for I am not lying. Of these Macarii the one was an Egyptian by race, the other an Alexandrian,114 a seller of sweetmeats.
2 First of all I will tell of the Egyptian, who lived a full ninety years. Of these he spent sixty in the desert, having retired there as a young man of thirty. And he was counted worthy to possess such great discernment that he was called the "aged youth." Because of this also he made the quicker progress. For when he was forty years old he received grace to contend against the evil spirits both by healing and forecasting the future. Also he was counted worthy of the priesthood.
3 He had two disciples with him in the inner desert |74 called Scete. There was always one of them at his service near at hand because of those that came to be healed, while the other rested in an adjoining cell. After some time had elapsed, having seen into the future with prophetic eye, he said to the man who waited on him, named John, who afterwards became a priest in the place of Macarius himself: "Listen to me, brother John, and bear with my warning; for you are being tempted and the spirit of covetousness is tempting you. 4 I have seen this, and I know that if you will bear with me you will be perfected in this place and glorified, 'neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling';115 but if you will not listen to me, the end of Gehazi shall come upon you, of whose illness you are even now sick."116 Now it came to pass when fifteen or twenty years had elapsed after the death of Macarius that he disobeyed, and accordingly after robbing the poor fund contracted elephantiasis, so that there was not found on his body a whole part, on which one could put his finger. So this is what the holy Macarius prophesied. 5 Now concerning eating and drinking it is superfluous to relate, seeing that not even among the indolent is it possible to find gluttony or carelessness in these regions, owing both to the scarcity of necessaries and the zeal of the inhabitants. But concerning the rest of his asceticism I do speak, for he was said to be in a continual ecstasy and to spend a far longer time with God than with things sublunary. The following marvels are told of him.
6 A certain Egyptian, enamoured of a lady 117 married to a husband, and being unable to seduce her, consulted a magician, saying: "Lead her to love me, or contrive that her husband reject her." And the magician having |75 received a sufficient sum, used magic spells and arranged for her to take the form of a mare. The husband having come in and seen her was surprised that a mare lay on his bed. He weeps and laments; he talks to the animal, but gets no reply. He calls in the priests 118 of the village. 7 He brings them in, shows her to them, but does not discover what has happened. During three days she neither took fodder as a mare nor bread as a human being, thus deprived of both forms of nourishment. Finally, that God might be glorified and the virtue of the holy Macarius appear, it entered into her husband's heart to take her into the desert. And having put a halter on her as upon a horse, he led her into the desert. When they came near, the brethren stood by the cell of Macarius, struggling with the woman's husband and saying: 8 "Why did you bring this mare here?" He said to them: "That she may receive mercy." They said to him: "What is the matter?" The husband answered them: "She was my wife and was turned into a mare, and to-day is the third day that she has tasted nothing." They referred the matter to the saint, who was praying within. For God had revealed the matter to him and he was praying for her. The holy Macarius therefore answered the brethren and said to them: "You are horses, since you have the eyes of horses. 9 For she is a woman and has not been transformed, except in the eyes of deluded men." And he blessed water,119 and pouring it from the head downwards on to her bare skin he prayed. And |76 immediately he made her appear to all as a woman. Then giving her food he made her eat and sent her away with her husband thanking the Lord. And he advised her thus: "Never give up the church, never stay away from the Communion. For these things happened to you because you did not attend the mysteries for five weeks."
10 Here is another example of his asceticism. He made in the course of time a tunnel running under the ground from his cell for half a stade and finished it off at the end with a cave. And if ever a crowd of people troubled him, he would leave his cell secretly and go away to the cave and no one would find him. Now one of his zealous disciples told us this, and said that he used to say twenty-four prayers on his way to the cave and twenty-four as he returned.
11 A report was prevalent concerning him that he raised a dead man, in order to persuade a heretic who did not acknowledge that there was a bodily resurrection. And this report was current in the desert.
Once a young man possessed with a devil was brought to him by his lamenting mother, bound to two young men. And the devil had this method of working. After eating three bushels of bread and drinking a beaker of water,120 he would belch out the food and dissolve it into vapour, for in this way what had been eaten and drunk was dissolved as it were by fire. 12 For there is a class (of demons) called fiery. Since there are differences among demons, as also among men, not of nature but of character. This young man then, not receiving enough food from his mother, often ate his own dirt and drank his own water. As then his mother wept and implored the saint, he took the lad and prayed over him beseeching God. And after a day or two, the malady |77 having eased a little, the holy Macarius said to her: 13 "How much do you want him to eat?" She replied: "Ten pounds of bread." So having rebuked her, saying this was too much, and having prayed over him with fasting for seven days, he put him on to (a regime) of three pounds, with obligation to work. And so having cured him he restored him to his mother. And this wonder God wrought through Macarius. I never met him, for he had fallen asleep a year before my entry into the desert.
CHAPTER XVIII. -- MACARIUS OF ALEXANDRIA 121
1 BUT I did meet the other Macarius, the Alexandrian, a priest of the place called Cellia. I sojourned in this Cellia nine years.122 He survived for three years of my stay there. And some things I saw (for myself), some I heard from him, and some things again I heard from others. This then was the method of his asceticism. If ever he heard of any feat, he did the same thing, perfectly. For instance, having heard from some that the monks of Tabennisi all through Lent eat (only) food that has not been near the fire, he decided for seven years to eat nothing that had been through the fire, and except for raw vegetables, if any such were found, and moistened pulse he tasted nothing. 2 Having practised this virtue to perfection, he heard about another man, that he ate a pound of bread.123 And having broken up his ration-biscuit 124 and put it into a vessel with a narrow mouth,125 he decided to eat just as much as his |78 hand brought out. And he would tell the story thus in a joking manner: "I seized hold of a number of pieces, but I could not extract them all at once by reason of the narrowness of the opening, for like a tax-gatherer it would not let me." 126 So for three years he kept up this practice of asceticism, eating four or five ounces of bread and drinking as much water, and a pint of oil in the year.
3 Here is another practice of his. He determined to dispense with sleep, and he told us how he did not go under a roof for twenty days, that he might conquer sleep, being burnt up by the sun's heat and shrivelled up with cold by night. And he used to say this: "Unless I had soon gone under a roof and got some sleep, my brain would have so dried up as to drive me into delirium for ever alter. And I conquered so far as depended on me, but I gave way so far as depended on my nature that had need of sleep."
4 As he sat early in the morning in his cell, a mosquito settled on his foot and stung him. And feeling the pain he squashed it with his hand after it was full of blood. So, accusing himself for having taken vengeance, he condemned himself to sit naked for six months in the marsh of Scete, which is in the great desert. The mosquitos there are like wasps, and even pierce the hides of wild boars. So then he was bitten all over and developed so many swellings that some thought he had elephantiasis. Returning to his cell after six months, he was recognized by his voice that it was Macarius himself.
5 Once he desired to enter the garden-tomb of Jannes and Jambres,127 so he told us. But this garden-tomb had once belonged to the magicians who had |79 great power long ago with Pharaoh. Forasmuch then as they had the power for long periods, they built their work with stones faced four-square, and made their tomb there, and stored away much gold. They also planted trees, for the place is rather damp, and they dug a well besides. 6 Since therefore the saint did not know the way, he followed the stars by a kind of guesswork, crossing the desert, as one does at sea. Taking a bundle of reeds he planted them one each mile as landmarks in order to find his way as he returned. So having travelled nearly nine days he approached the place. Then the demon, who always withstands the athletes of Christ, collected all the reeds and put them at his head as he slept about a mile from the garden-tomb. 7 So he arose and found the reeds, God having allowed this perhaps to try him further, that he might not trust in reeds,128 but in the pillar of cloud that led Israel forty years in the desert. He used to say: "Seventy demons came out from the garden-tomb to meet me, shouting and fluttering like crows against my face and saying: 'What do you want, Macarius? What do you want, monk? Why have you come to our place? You can't stay here.' I told them," he said, "'Let me just go in and look round and go away.' 8 So," he said, "I went in and found a little brazen jar suspended and an iron chain against the well, rusted already by time, and some pomegranates with nothing inside because they had been dried up by the sun." So then he turned back and went on his way for twenty days. But when the water which he was carrying failed him and also the loaves, he was in great distress. And when he was nearly collapsing there appeared to him a maiden, so he declared, wearing a pure white |80 robe and holding a cruse dripping with water. 9 He said she was some distance, about a stade, away from him, and he went on for three days, gazing at her as she stood with the vessel and being unable to catch her up, as happens in dreams;129 but he lasted out sustained by the hope of drinking. After her appeared a herd of antelopes, one of which with a calf stopped----there are many in those regions. And he said that her udder was flowing with milk. So, creeping under her and sucking, he was satisfied. And the antelope went as far as his cell, giving him milk, but not allowing her own calf to suck.
10 On another occasion, while digging a well near to some vegetable shoots, he was bitten by an asp. Now this beast is able to cause death. And having taken it with both hands he seized it by the jaws and pulled it in pieces, saying to it: "When God did not send you, how did you dare to come?"
Now he had several cells in the desert: one in Scete, the great interior desert, and one in the Libyan desert, and one at the so-called Cellia, and one on Mount Nitria. Some of these are without windows, and in these he was said to sit during Lent in darkness. Another was too narrow for him to stretch out his feet in it. Another, in which he met his visitors, was more spacious.
11 He healed so great a crowd of demoniacs that they cannot be counted. When we were there a highborn maiden was brought from Thessalonica, paralyzed for many years. He rubbed her for twenty days with holy oil 130 with his own hands, praying the while, and sent her back to her city restored to health. After she had gone she sent him many generous gifts. |81
12 Having heard that the monks of Tabennisi had a splendid rule of life, he changed his clothes and put on the secular garments of a workman, and went a fifteen days' journey to the Thebaid, travelling through the desert. And having come to the monastery of the Tabennesiots he asked for their archimandrite, Pachomius by name, a man of great reputation and possessing the gift of prophecy----though the story of Macarius had not been revealed to him. So meeting him he said: "I pray you, receive me into your monastery that I may become a monk." 13 Pachomius said to him: "You have already reached old age,131 and you cannot be an ascetic. The brethren are ascetics and you cannot endure their labours. You will be offended and will depart, cursing them." And he did not receive him either the first day or the second, till seven days had passed. But he persisted in waiting, fasting (all the time), and at last he said to him: "Receive me, father, and if I do not fast as they do and work, order me to be driven out." He persuaded the brethren to admit him; now the total number (of the occupants) of the first monastery was 1,400 men 132 and remains so up to this day. 14 Well, he entered. When a little time had passed, Lent came on and he saw each man practising different ways of asceticism----one eating in the evening only, another every two days, another every five, another again standing all night but sitting down by day. So having moistened palm-leaves in large numbers, he stood in a corner and until the forty days were completed and Easter had come, ate no bread and drank no water, neither knelt down nor reclined, and apart from a few cabbage leaves |82 took nothing, and them only on Sunday, that he might appear to eat. 15 And if ever he went out in obedience to nature, he quickly came in again and took his stand, speaking to no one and not opening his mouth but standing in silence. And, apart from prayer in his heart and the palm-leaves in his hands, he was doing nothing. All the ascetics therefore, seeing this, raised a revolt against the superior, saying: "Where did you get this fleshless man from, to condemn us? Either drive him out, or know that we are all going." Pachomius, therefore, having heard the details of his observance, prayed to God that the identity of the stranger might be revealed to him. 16 And it was revealed; and he took him by the hand and led him to the house of prayer, where the altar was, and said to him, "Here, good old man, you are Macarius and you hid it from me. For many years I have been longing to see you. I thank you for letting my children feel your fist, lest they should be proud of their ascetic achievements. Now go away to your own place, for you have edified us sufficiently. And pray for us." Then he went away, as asked.
17 On another occasion he told us this story: "Having perfected every kind of life that I desired, then I had another desire. I desired to keep my mind for five days only undistracted from (the contemplation of) God. And, having determined this, I barred the cell and enclosure, so as not to have to answer any man, and I took my stand, beginning at the second hour. So I gave this commandment to my mind: "Do not descend from heaven. There you have angels, archangels, the powers on high, the God of all; do not descend below heaven." 18 And having lasted out two days and two nights, I exasperated the demon so that he became a flame of fire and burned up all the things in the cell, so that even the little mat on which I stood was |83 consumed with fire and I thought I was being all burned up. Finally, stricken with fear, I left off on the third day, being unable to keep my mind free from distraction, but I descended to contemplation of the world, lest vanity should be imputed to me."
19 Once I visited this holy Macarius and found a village priest lying just outside his cell, whose head was all eaten away by the disease called cancer, and the actual bone appeared on the crown of his head. He had come to be healed and Macarius would not grant him an interview. So I besought him: "I pray you, pity him and give him his answer." 20 And he said to me: "He does not deserve to be healed, for it has been sent him as a punishment. But if you want him to be healed, persuade him to give up taking services. For he was taking services, though living in fornication, and for this reason he is being punished and God is healing his soul." 133 So when I said this to the afflicted man he consented, and swore that he would no longer exercise his priesthood. Then he received him and said: "Do you believe that God is?" He said to him: "Yes." 21 "Were you able to mock God?" "No," he answered. He said: "If you recognize your sin and the chastening of God, on account of which you suffered this, reform yourself henceforward." So he confessed his fault 134 and gave a promise that he would sin no more nor take the service, but embrace the position of a layman. Then he laid his hands on him and in a few days he was cured and the hair grew and he went away healed.
22 Before my eyes a young lad was brought to him possessed by an evil spirit. So, putting one hand |84 on his head and the other on his heart, he prayed so much that he made him hang in mid-air. Then the boy swelled like a wine-skin and festered so that he became a mass of erysipelas.135 And having cried out suddenly, he produced water through all his senses, and calming down returned to his original size. So he anointed him with holy oil and handed him to his father, and having poured water upon him ordered that he should touch neither flesh nor wine for forty days. And so he healed him.
23 One day vainglorious thoughts troubled him, driving him out from the cell and suggesting to him as if by a divine dispensation that he should visit the city of the Romans to cure the sick. For grace acted powerfully in him against (evil) spirits. And when for a long while he would not obey, but was being vehemently pressed, falling on the doorstep of his cell, he put his feet outside and said: "Drag me, demons, pull me. For I am not going with my feet. If you can take me, then I will go." He swore to them: "Here I lie until evening. Unless you shake me, I will not listen to you." 24 So, having lain there a long while, he got up, but when night came on they attacked him again, and having filled a two-bushel basket with sand and put it on his shoulders, he tramped about in the desert. Theosebius the Cosmetor,136 an Antiochian by race, met him and said to him: "What are you carrying, father? Give me the burden and don't trouble yourself." But he said to him: "I trouble my troubler. For he is insatiable and tempts me to go out." So having tramped about for a long time he went into his cell, having punished his body. |85
25 This holy Macarius told me the following----for he was a priest. "I noticed at the time of distributing the mysteries that it was never I which gave the oblation to Marcus the ascetic, but an angel used to give it him from the altar. I saw only the knuckle of the donor's hand." Now this Marcus was a young man, who learned by heart the Old and New Testaments, exceedingly meek and continent beyond all others.137
26 One day having leisure----Macarius then being in extreme old age----I went off and sat by his door, thinking him superhuman, seeing that he was so old, and listened to what he said and what he did. He was quite alone inside; being already a hundred years old and having lost his teeth, he was righting with himself and the devil and saying: "What do you want, bad old man? See, you have had oil and have taken some wine. What do you want more, you white-haired glutton?"----scolding himself. Then to the devil: "Do I owe you anything now? You won't find anything. Go away from me." And, as if humming to himself, he was saying: "Here, you white-haired glutton, how long shall I be with you? " 138
27 Paphnutius his disciple told us, that one day a hyaena took her whelp, which was blind, and brought it to Macarius. And having knocked with her head at the door of the enclosure, she entered, Macarius sitting outside (his cell), and threw the young one down at his feet. And he took it and spat on its eyes and prayed, and immediately it recovered its sight.139 And its mother having suckled it took it and went away. 28 And on the next day she brought the saint the fleece of a large sheep.140 And the blessed Melania said this to |86 me: "I got that fleece from Macarius as a gift to a visitor. And what marvel, if He who tamed the lions for Daniel, also made the hyaena intelligent?"
And he said, that from the day he was baptized he never spat on the ground,141 it being then sixty years from his baptism. 29 As to his bodily form, he was rather short, and beardless, having no hairs except on his lips and the tip of his chin. For owing to the excess of his asceticism the hairs of his beard did not even sprout.
One day, when I was suffering from accidie, I went to him and said: "Father, what shall I do? Since my thoughts afflict me saying, 'You are making no progress, go away from here.'" And he said to me: "Tell them, 'For Christ's sake I am guarding the walls' " 142
I have told you these few stories out of many relating to the holy Macarius.
CHAPTER XIX. -- MOSES THE ROBBER 143
1 A CERTAIN Moses----this was his name----an Ethiopian by race and black, was house-servant to a government official. His own master drove him out because of his immorality and brigandage. For he was said to go even the length of murder. I am compelled to tell his wicked acts in order to show the virtue of his repentance. Anyhow they used to say that he was leader |87 of a robber-band, and among his acts of brigandage one stood out specially, that once he plotted vengeance against a shepherd who had one night with his dogs impeded him in a project. 2 Desirous to kill him, he looked about to find the place where the shepherd kept his sheep. And he was informed that it was on the opposite bank of the Nile. And, since the river was in flood and about a mile in extent, he grasped his sword in his mouth and put his shirt on his head and so got over, swimming the river. While he was swimming over, the shepherd was able to escape him by burying himself in the sand. So, having killed the four best rams and tied them together with a cord, he swam back again. 3 And having come to a little homestead he flayed the sheep, and having eaten the best of the flesh and sold the skins in exchange for wine, he drank a quart, that is eighteen Italian pints, and went off fifty miles further to where he had his band.
In the end this abandoned man, conscience-stricken as a result of one of his adventures, gave himself up to a monastery and to such practising of asceticism that he brought publicly to the knowledge of Christ even his accomplice in crime from his youth, the demon who had sinned with him.144 Among other tales this is told of him. One day robbers attacked him as he sat in his cell, not knowing who it was. They were four in number. 4 He tied them all together and, putting them on his back like a truss of straw, brought them to the church of the brethren, saying: "Since I am not allowed to hurt anyone, what do you bid me do with these?" Then these robbers, having confessed their |88 sins and recognized that it was Moses the erstwhile renowned and far-famed robber, themselves also glorified God and renounced the world because of his conversion, saying to themselves: "If he who was so great and powerful in brigandage has feared God, why should we defer our salvation?"
5 This Moses was attacked by demons, who tried to plunge him into his old habit of sexual incontinence. He was tempted so greatly, as he himself testified, that he almost relinquished his purpose. So, having come to the great Isidore,145 the one who lived in Scete, he told him about his conflict. And he said to him: "Do not be grieved. These are the beginnings, and therefore they have attacked you the more vehemently, seeking out your old habit. 6 For just as a dog in a butcher's shop owing to his habits cannot tear himself away, but if the shop is closed and no one gives him anything, he no longer comes near it. So also with you; if you endure, the demon gets discouraged and has to leave you." So he returned and from that hour practised asceticism more vehemently, and especially refrained from food, taking nothing except dry bread to the extent of twelve ounces, accomplishing a great deal of work and completing fifty prayers (a day). Thus he mortified his body, but he still continued to burn146 and be troubled by dreams. 7 Again he went to another one of the saints and said to him: "What am I to do, seeing that the dreams of my soul darken my reason, by reason of my sinful habits?" He said to him: "Because you have not withdrawn your mind from imagining these things, that is why you endure this. Give yourself to watching and pray with fasting and you will quickly |89 be delivered from them." Listening to this advice also he went away to his cell and gave his word that he would not sleep all night nor bend his knees. 8 So he remained in his cell for six years and every night he stood in the middle of the cell praying and not closing his eyes. And he could not master the thing. So he suggested to himself yet another plan, and going out by night he would visit the cells of the older and more ascetic (monks), and taking their water-pots secretly would fill them with water. For they fetch their water from a distance, some from two miles off, some five miles, others half a mile. 9 So one night the demon watched for him, having lost his patience, and as he stooped down at the well gave him a blow with a cudgel across the loins and left him (apparently) dead, with no perception of what he had suffered or from whom. So the next day a man came to draw water and found him lying there, and told the great Isidore, the priest of Scete. He therefore picked him up and brought him to the church, and for a year he was so ill that with difficulty did his body and soul recover strength. 10 So the great Isidore said to him: "Moses, stop struggling with the demons, and do not provoke them." But he said to him: "I will never cease until the appearance of the demons ceases." So he said to him: "In the name of Jesus Christ your dreams have ceased. Come to Communion then with confidence, for, that you should not boast of having overcome passion, this is why you have been oppressed, for your good." 11 And he went away again to his cell. Afterwards when asked by Isidore, some two months later, he said that he no longer suffered anything. Indeed, he was counted worthy of such a gift (of power) over demons that we fear these flies more than he feared demons. This was the manner of life of Moses the Ethiopian; he too was numbered |90 among the great ones of the fathers. So he died in Scete seventy-five years old, having become a priest; and he left seventy disciples.
CHAPTER XX. -- PAUL 147
1 THERE is a mountain in Egypt called Pherme, which borders on the great desert of Scete. On this mountain dwell some 500 men, devotees of asceticism. One of them, a man named Paul, had this manner of life: he touched no work, and no business, nor did he receive anything from any man beyond what he ate. But his work and his asceticism consisted in ceaseless prayer. So he had 300 set prayers, and he collected as many pebbles and kept them in his lap 148 and threw out of his lap one pebble at each prayer.149 2 Having gone for an interview with Macarius, the one known as Citizen,150 he said to him: "Father Macarius, I am afflicted." So he compelled him to say for what reason. But he said to him: "In a certain village there dwells a virgin who has lived the ascetic life for thirty years. They have told me of her that except on Saturday and Sunday 151 she never eats. But all the while dragging out the long weeks and eating at intervals of five days she |91 makes 700 prayers. And when I learned this I despaired of myself because I could not make more than 300." 3 The holy Macarius answered him: "I am now sixty years old; I make 100 set prayers and produce my food by my own work, and give the brethren the interviews that are their due, and my reason does not condemn me as having neglected my duty. But if you say 300 and are condemned by your conscience, you are clearly not praying them with purity, or else you could pray more and do not."
CHAPTER XXI. -- EULOGIUS AND THE CRIPPLE
1 CRONIUS the priest of Nitria told me this: When I was young and because of accidie fled from the monastery of my archimandrite, I came in my wanderings to the mountain 152 of the holy Antony. It lay between Babylon 153 and Heracles 154 in the great desert that leads to the Red Sea, about thirty miles from the River. So having come to Antony's monastery by the River where his two disciples dwelt at the place called Pispir----I mean Macarius and Amatas, who also buried him when he died----I waited five days for an interview with the holy Antony. 2 For he was said to visit this monastery at intervals now of ten days, now of twenty, now of five, as God led him, to do good to those who happened to visit the monastery. So a number of brethren were |92 assembled, one with this need, another with that. Among them was a certain Eulogius, a monk of Alexandria, and another man, a cripple, who had come for the following reason.
3 This Eulogius was a learned man,155 having had a good all-round education,156 who smitten with a love of immortality renounced the clamours (of the world), and disposing of all his goods left himself a little money, since he was unable to work. Well, suffering from accidie and wishing neither to enter a convent nor to reach perfection alone, he found a man lying in the market-place, a cripple, with neither hands nor feet. His tongue was the only part of his body that was undamaged, and was used to appeal to the passer-by.157 4 So Eulogius stood and gazed at him and prayed to God and made a covenant with God (saying): "Lord, in Thy name I take this cripple and comfort him until death, that I also may be saved through him. Grant me patience to serve him!" And approaching the crippled man he said to him: "Would you like me, great one, to take you to my house and comfort you?" He said to him: "Yes, indeed." "Then shall I get an ass and take you?" He agreed. So he fetched an ass and carried him and brought him to his own guest-chamber and took care of him.158 5 Well, the cripple lasted on for fifteen years and was nursed by him, being washed and tended by the hands of Eulogius, and fed in a way suitable to his malady. But after the fifteen years a demon attacked him, and he rebelled against |93 Eulogius. And he began to dress the man down with great abuse and reviling, adding: "Assassin,159 deserter, you stole other folk's property, and you want to be saved through me. Throw me into the market-place. I want meat." He brought him meat. 6 Again he cried out: "I am not satisfied. I want crowds. I want to be in the market-place. Oh the violence! Put me where you found me." If he had had hands he would have quickly strangled him, to such an extent had the demon infuriated him. So Eulogius went off to the neighbouring ascetics and said to them: "What shall I do, because this cripple has brought me to despair? Am I to cast him out? I pledged myself to God and I am afraid. But am I not to cast him out? He gives me bad days and nights, so that I do not know what to do to him." 7 But they said to him: "While the great one is still alive"----for so they called Antony----" put the cripple in a boat and go to him, and take him to the monastery and wait till Antony comes out from the cave and refer the case to him. And whatever he says to you, go by his decision, for God speaks to you by him." And he heard them patiently, and putting the cripple into a rustic boat went out by night from the city and took him to the monastery of the disciples of the holy Antony. 8 Now it happened that the great man came the next day in the late evening, as Cronius had said, wrapped in a cloak of skin. When he reached the monastery, this was his custom, to summon Macarius and ask him: "Brother Macarius, have any brethren come here?" He answered "Yes." "Egyptians or from Jerusalem?" And he had given him a sign: "If you see them inclined to be careless, say Egyptians; but when they are more serious and |94 studious, say from Jerusalem." 9 So he asked him as usual: "Are the brethren Egyptians or from Jerusalem?" Macarius answered and said to him: "A mixture." Now when he said to him "They are Egyptians," the holy Antony would say to him: "Prepare some lentils and give them a meal," and he would utter a prayer for them and say good-bye. But when he said "from Jerusalem," he would sit up all night, talking to them about salvation. 10 So that night he sat down, (Cronius) says, and called them all to him and, though none had told him what name he bore, called out in the dark and said "Eulogius, Eulogius, Eulogius"----three times. He, the learned man I mean, did not answer, thinking that another Eulogius was being called. He said to him again: "I am speaking to you, Eulogius, the man who came from Alexandria." Eulogius said to him: "What are your commands, I pray?" "Why have you come?" Eulogius answered and said to him: "He that revealed to you my name, hath also revealed to you my business." 11 Antony said to him: "I know why you came. But speak before all the brethren, that they also may hear." Eulogius said to him: "I found this cripple in the market-place and I pledged myself to God that I would nurse him and so be saved through him and he through me. So since after all these years he torments me to distraction, and I contemplated casting him out; on this account I came to your holiness, in order that you might counsel me what I ought to do and pray for me, for I am terribly distressed. 12 Antony said to him with angry and stern voice: "Cast him out? But He Who made him does not cast him out. Will you cast him out? God will raise up a man better than you, and he will succour him." Eulogius, who had been calm up till now, trembled. And Antony leaving Eulogius began to castigate the |95 cripple with his tongue and cry: "You crippled and maimed man, deserving neither earth nor heaven, will you not cease fighting against God? Do you not know that it is Christ Who is serving you? How dare you utter such words against Christ? Was it not for Christ's sake that he made himself a slave to minister to you?" So having reprimanded him, he left him alone too. And having conversed with all the rest about their needs he returned to Eulogius and the cripple and said to them: "Do not wander about any more, go away. Do not be separated from one another, except in your cell in which you have dwelt so long. For already God is sending for you. For this temptation has come upon you because you are both near your end and are about to be counted worthy of crowns. Do nothing else therefore, and may the angel when he comes not find you here." So they journeyed in haste and came to their cell, and within forty days Eulogius died, and in three days more the cripple died too.
15 But Cronius, after staying in the regions round the Thebaid, came down to the monasteries of Alexandria. And it happened that the services for the fortieth day 160 of the one and the third day of the other were being celebrated by the brethren. Cronius learned this and was amazed, and having taken a gospel and put it before the brethren took an oath, after telling what had happened, and said: "I was blessed Antony's interpreter in these conversations, since he does not know Greek; for I know both tongues and interpreted to them, speaking to these two in Greek, to Antony in Egyptian.
16 And Cronius told this story also: "In that night blessed Antony told me this: 'For a whole year I |96 prayed that the place of the just and of sinners might be revealed to me. And I saw a tall giant reaching to the clouds, black, with his hands stretched up to heaven, and under him a lake as vast as the sea, and I saw souls flying like birds. 17 And as many as flew over his hands and head were saved. But as many as were struck by his hands fell into the lake. Then came a voice to me saying, These souls of the righteous which thou seest flying are the souls which are saved for Paradise. But the others are those which are drawn down to hell, having followed the desires of the flesh and revenge.' " 161
CHAPTER XXII. -- PAUL THE SIMPLE 162
1 CRONIUS and the holy Hierax and a number of others, about whom I shall presently speak, told me this tale also. A certain Paul, a rustic peasant, exceedingly |97 guileless and simple, was wedded to a most beautiful woman of depraved character, who for a very long while concealed her sins from him. However, Paul came in suddenly from work 163 and found his wife and her lover 164 behaving shamefully, Providence thus guiding Paul to what was best for himself. And laughing discreetly he called to them and said: "Good, good. I don't mind, truly. By Jesus, I'll take her no longer. Go, you have her and her children, for I am going to become a monk." 2 And saying nothing to anyone he hastened along the eight stages 165 and went to the blessed Antony and knocked at the door. He came out and asked him: "What do you want?" He said to him: "I want to become a monk." Antony answered and said to him: "You are an old man, sixty years old; you cannot become a monk here. But rather go back to your village and work and live an active life giving thanks to God, for you cannot endure the tribulations of the desert." The old man answered again and said: "Whatever you teach me, I will do it." 3 Antony said to him: "I have told you that you are an old man and cannot stand it. If you really want to become a monk, go to a cenobium with a number of brethren, who can support your weakness. For I live here alone, eating after a five days' fast, and that without satisfying my hunger." With these and such-like words he tried to frighten Paul away and, since he could not endure him, Antony shut the door and did not go out for three days because of him, not even for necessary purposes. But Paul did not go away. 4 But on the fourth day necessity compelling him he opened the door and went |98 out and said to him again: "Go away from here, old man. Why do you annoy me? You cannot stay here." Paul said to him: "It is impossible for me to die elsewhere than here." So Antony looked about and noticed that he had not with him any form of nourishment, neither bread nor water, and that he was now in the fourth day of his fast, and saying: "Lest perchance you die and stain my soul," he received him. And Antony adopted in those days a regime which he had never tried in his youth. 5 And having moistened some palm-leaves he said to him: "Take these, weave them into mats, as I do." The old man wove until the ninth hour, laboriously completing ninety feet.166 So Antony looked and was displeased and said to him: "You have woven badly, unpick them and weave them over again" ----imposing this nauseous task upon him,167 though he was hungry and aged, in order that he might be disgusted and flee away from Antony. But he both unpicked and wove again the same leaves, though it was more difficult, because they were all shrivelled up.168 And Antony, seeing that he neither murmured nor was discouraged nor angry, felt compunction. 6 And after sunset he said to him: "Would you like us to eat a piece of bread?" Paul said to him: "As you please, father." And this again moved Antony, that he did not rush eagerly at the mention of food, but had thrown the power (of choice) upon him. So he laid the table and brought in bread. And Antony, having put out the biscuits, weighing six ounces each, moistened one for himself----for they were dry----and three for Paul. And Antony struck up a psalm which he knew, and after |99 singing it twelve times he prayed twelve times, to test Paul. 7 But he eagerly joined in the prayer, for he would have preferred being eaten by scorpions, so I think, to living with an adulterous woman. But after the twelve prayers they sat down to eat late in the evening. Now Antony, having eaten the one biscuit, did not touch another. But the old man, eating more slowly, was still at his little biscuit. Antony was waiting for him to finish and says to him: "Eat, father, a second biscuit." Paul says to him: "If you will eat, I will too; if you do not eat, I will not." Antony says: "I have had enough, for I am a monk." 8 Paul says to him: "I too have had enough, for I too want to become a monk." He rises again and prays twelve prayers and chants twelve psalms. Antony sleeps a little of his first sleep and then gets up to sing psalms at midnight until day. So when he saw the old man eagerly following his mode of life he said to him: "If you can do thus every day, stay with me." Paul said to him: "If there is anything more, I do not know; for I can do easily these things which I have seen." Antony said to him the next day: "Behold, you have become a monk."
9 So Antony, convinced after the required number of months that Paul had a perfect soul, being very simple and grace co-operating with him, made him a cell, three or four miles away, and said to him: "Behold, you have become a monk; remain alone in order that you may be tried by demons." So Paul dwelt there one year and was counted worthy of grace over demons and diseases. Among other cases, a demoniac was once brought to Antony, exceedingly terrifying, possessed by a spirit of high rank, who cursed even heaven itself. 10 So Antony, having examined him, said to those who brought him: "This is not my work, for I |100 have not yet been counted worthy of power over this order of high rank, but this is Paul's business." So Antony went off and led them to Paul, and said to him: "Father Paul, cast out this demon from the man that he may go away cured to his home." Said Paul to him: "What are you doing?" Antony said to him: "I have no leisure, I have something else to do." And Antony left him and went again to his own cell. 11 So the old man got up, and having prayed an effective prayer, addressed the demoniac: "Father Antony has said, 'Go out from the man.'" But the demon cried out, saying with blasphemies: "I am not going out, bad old man." So Paul took his sheep-skin coat and struck the man on the back with it saying: "Father Antony has said, 'Go out.' " Again the demon cursed with some violence both Antony and him. Finally he said to him: "You are going out; or else I'll go and tell Christ. By Jesus, if you don't go out I am going this very minute to tell Christ, and He will do you harm." 12 Again the demon cursed yet more, saying: "I am not going out." So Paul got angry with the demon and went outside his dwelling at high noon. But the heat of the Egyptians is akin to the furnace of Babylonia.169 And standing on a rock on the mountain he prayed and said: "O Jesus Christ, Who wast crucified under Pontius Pilate, thou seest that I will not descend from the rock, I will not eat nor drink till I die, unless Thou drive out the spirit from the man and free the man." 13 But before the words were out of his mouth the demon cried out, saying: "Oh violence! I am being driven away. The simplicity of Paul drives me away, and where am I to go?" And immediately the spirit went out and was turned into a great dragon seventy cubits long and was swept away to the Red Sea, |101 that the saying might be fulfilled: "The righteous will declare the faith that is shown." 170 This is the marvellous tale of Paul who was surnamed Simple by all the brotherhood.
CHAPTER XXIII. -- PACHON 171
1 THERE dwelt in Scete a man named Pachon, who had reached his sixtieth year or thereabouts. Now I happened to be dejected, having been tormented by the love of women, both in my (waking) thoughts and my nocturnal visions. And I was nearly leaving the desert, passion driving me, yet I did not refer the matter to my neighbours, nor to my teacher Evagrius. But I journeyed secretly into the great desert and spent fifteen days in meeting the fathers who had grown old in the desert at Scete. 2 Among others I met Pachon. Well, finding him more guileless and better versed in asceticism than the rest, I was bold to refer to him the state of my mind. And he said to me: "Let not the affair disconcert you, for you are not suffering this from negligence. For the place is a witness in your favour, both because of the lack of necessaries and the absence of facilities for meeting women. But rather it comes from your zeal. For the war against impurity is triple. At one time the flesh attacks us because it is vigorous; at another the passions attack us through our thoughts; at another the demon himself in malice. I have found this after much observation. 3 Look how you see me, an old man now. I have spent forty years in this cell caring for my own salvation, and growing to be as old as this I have been tempted all the while." And |102 he said this, confirming it with an oath: "For twelve years after my fiftieth year the demon gave me no respite in his attacks by night and day. Supposing therefore that God had left me and on this account I was under his power, I preferred to die in an irrational manner rather than act improperly through bodily passion. And having gone out and explored the desert I found a hyaena's cave. In which cave I laid myself down naked in the daytime, in order that the beasts when they came out might eat me. 4 So, when evening came, as it is written: 'Thou madest darkness and night came: in it all the beasts of the forest will roam'172 ----the beasts came out, male and female, and smelt me, licking me from head to foot. And when I was expecting to be eaten up, they left me. So having lain down all night, I was not eaten. But reckoning that God had spared me, I returned again to the cell. Well, the demon, having restrained himself a few days, then attacked me again more vehemently than at first, so that I very nearly blasphemed. 5 He changed himself into an Ethiopian maiden, whom I had once seen in my youth in the summer-time picking reeds, and sat on my knee.173 So in a fury I gave her a blow and she disappeared. Well, for two years I could not bear the evil smell of my hand! So I went out into the great desert, wandering up and down discouraged and in despair. And having found a little asp, I picked it up and applied it to my flesh,174 in order that I might die, even though it were by a bite of this kind. And I rubbed the beast's head on my flesh,175 as the cause of my temptation, but I was not bitten. 6 Then I heard a voice saying in my thoughts: 'Go, Pachon, |103 struggle on. For this is why I have left you to be tyrannized over, that you should not be proud, as if you had any strength, but recognizing your weakness should not trust in your manner of life, but run for the help of God.' Thus convinced I returned and dwelt in confidence, and no longer troubling about the war I was in peace the rest of my days. But he, knowing how I despised him, no longer came near me."
CHAPTER XXIV. -- STEPHEN 176
1 ONE Stephen, a Libyan by race, dwelt on the shores of Marmarica 177 and the Mareotis for sixty years. He became an ascetic of great eminence with a gift of discernment, and was counted worthy of such a gift of grace that every afflicted man, whatever his affliction, went away free from affliction after meeting him. Now he was known to the blessed Antony; and he lived on also to our own days. I never met him, because his place was so far away. 2 But the holy Ammonius and Evagrius and their companions, who met him, told me the following: "We found him suffering from an illness like this, having developed an ulcer of the sort called cancerous. We discovered him being treated by a doctor, and working with his hands and weaving palm-leaves and talking to us, while the rest of his body was being operated on. He was behaving just as if another man were being cut. Though the flesh was cut away like hair, he was insensible, thanks to the greatness of his religious preparation. 3 But while we were on the one hand grieving and on the other hand feeling |104 disgusted that such a life had ended in such suffering and such surgical operations, he said to us: 'Children, do not be troubled by this affair. For God does nothing of what He does for malice, but for a good end. For perhaps my flesh deserves chastisement, and it is fitting that it should pay the penalty now rather than when I have quitted the arena.'178 So he edified us with his exhortations and encouragements," But I have told this lest we should be disconcerted when we see saints suffering such afflictions.
CHAPTER XXV. -- VALENS
1 THERE was a man named Valens, a Palestinian by race, but Corinthian in his character----for St. Paul attributed the vice of presumption to the Corinthians. Having taken to the desert he dwelt with us for a number of years. He reached such a pitch of arrogance that he was deceived by demons. For by deceiving him little by little they induced him to be very proud, supposing that angels met him. 2 One day at least, so they told the tale, as he was working in the dark he let drop the needle with which he was stitching the basket. And when he did not find it, the demon made a lamp, and he found the needle. Again, puffed up at this, he waxed proud and in fact was so greatly puffed up that he despised the communion of the mysteries. Now it happened that certain strangers came and brought sweetmeats to the Church for the brethren. 3 So the holy Macarius our priest received them and sent a handful or so to each of us in his cell, among the rest also to Valens. When Valens received the bearer he insulted |105 him and struck him and said to him: "Go and tell Macarius, 'I am not worse than you, that you should send me a blessing.' " 179 So Macarius, knowing that he was the victim of illusion, went the next day to exhort him and said to him: "Valens, you are the victim of illusions. Stop it." And when he would not listen to his exhortations, he retired. 4 So the demon, convinced that he was completely persuaded by his deception, went away and disguised himself as the Saviour, and came by night in a vision of a thousand angels bearing lamps and a fiery wheel, in which it seemed that the Saviour appeared, and one came in front of the others and said: "Christ has loved you because of your conduct and the freedom of your life, and He has come to see you. So go out of the cell, do nothing else but look at his face from afar, stoop down and worship, and then go to your cell." 5 So he went out and saw them in ranks carrying lamps, and antichrist about a stade away, and he fell down and worshipped. Then the next day again he became so mad that he entered into the church and before the assembled brotherhood said: "I have no need of Communion, for I have seen Christ to-day." Then the fathers bound him and put him in irons for a year and so cured him, destroying his pride by their prayers and indifference and calmer mode of life. As it is said, "Diseases are cured by their opposites." 180
6 But it is necessary to insert in this little book the lives of men like this, for the safety of the readers, in the same way as there was the tree of knowledge of good and evil among the holy trees of paradise; in order that, if ever a righteous act should be achieved by them, they |106 may not be proud of their virtue. For often even virtue becomes the cause of a fall, whenever it is not accomplished with upright intention. For it is written: "I saw a just man destroyed in his just act; and this thing is indeed vanity." 181
CHAPTER XXVI. -- HERON 182
1 THERE was a certain Heron, a neighbour of mine, an Alexandrian by race, an excellent young man, of good natural ability and pure in his life. He also after many toils was attacked by pride and flung off all restraints and cherished presumptuous sentiments against the fathers, insulting even the blessed Evagrius by saying: "Those who obey your teaching are dupes; for one should not pay heed to any teachers except Christ." He even abused Scripture to serve the purpose of his folly and would say: "The Saviour Himself said, 'Call no man teacher upon the earth.'" 183 2 His mind became so darkened that he too was afterwards put in irons, since he was unwilling even to attend the mysteries----truth is dear. He was excessively abstemious in his mode of life, so that many who knew him intimately declared that he frequently went three months without eating, being content with the communion of the mysteries and any wild herbs that might be found. And I too had an experience of him when I went to Scete with the blessed Albanius. 3 Scete was forty miles away from us.184 In the course of those forty miles we ate twice and drank water three times, but he without eating anything |107 went on foot and said by heart fifteen psalms, then the long psalm,185 then the Epistle to the Hebrews, then Isaiah and part of Jeremiah, then Luke the Evangelist, then the Proverbs. And things being so, yet we could not keep up with him as he walked. 4 Finally, driven as it were by fire, he could not remain in his cell, but went off to Alexandria, by (divine) dispensation, and, as the saying goes, "knocked out one nail with another." For of his own free will he fell into indifference, but afterwards found salvation involuntarily. For he frequented the theatre and circuses and enjoyed the diversions of the taverns. And thus, eating and drinking immoderately, he fell into a mire of concupiscence. 5 And when he was resolving to sin he met an actress and had converse with her. In consequence a carbuncle developed on his private parts, and for six months he was so ill that the parts rotted away and fell off. Later, restored to health without those parts and returned to a religious frame of mind, he came and confessed all these things to the fathers. A few days after he fell asleep before he had returned to work.
CHAPTER XXVII. -- PTOLEMY
1 AGAIN another monk, Ptolemy by name, lived a life difficult, even impossible, to describe. He dwelt beyond Scete in a place called Climax.186 The place which bears this name is one in which no one can live because the well of the brethren is eighteen miles away. He then, carrying a number of pots 187 brought them there, and collecting the dew with a sponge from the rocks |108 during the months of December and January----for there is a plentiful fall of dew then in those parts----he made this suffice during the fifteen years he lived there. 2 And he became a stranger to the teaching of holy men and intercourse with them, and the benefit derived therefrom, and the constant communion of the mysteries,188 and diverged so greatly from the straight way that he declared these things were nothing; but they say 189 he is wandering about in Egypt up to the present day all puffed up with pride, and has given himself over to gluttony and drunkenness, speaking no (edifying) word to anyone.190 And this disaster fell on Ptolemy from his irrational conceit, as it is written: "They who have no directing influence fall like leaves.''' 191
CHAPTER XXVIII. -- A VIRGIN WHO FELL
AGAIN, I knew a virgin in Jerusalem who wore sackcloth for six years and shut herself up in a cell, taking none of the things that bestow pleasure. In the end she fell, abandoned (by God) because of her excessive arrogance. She opened the window and admitted the man who waited on her and sinned with him, because she had practised asceticism not with a religious motive and for the love of God, but with human ostentation,192 which springs from vain-glory and corrupt intention. For, her thoughts being engrossed in condemning others, the guardian 193 of her chastity was absent. |109
CHAPTER XXIX. -- ELIAS
1 ELIAS, an ascetic, was a great friend of the virgins. For there are some souls like this, whose virtuous aims testify to their goodness. He had compassion on the class of women ascetics, and having property in the city of Athribé 194 built a great monastery and brought into the monastery all the dispersed women, caring for them consistently (with his purpose), and procured them every kind of refreshment, and gardens and utensils and whatever their life required. These ladies, brought from different sorts of lives, had continual fights with one another. 2 Now since he was obliged to listen to them and make peace----for he collected some 300 of them----he found it necessary to remain in their midst for two years. Being still young, for he was some thirty to forty years old, he was tempted by desire. And having left the monastery he wandered fasting in the desert for two days, making this request in his prayer: "Lord, either kill me, that I may not see these women in trouble, or take away my passion that I may care for them in a rational way." 3 When evening had come, he fell asleep in the desert, and three angels came to him----so he told the story----and caught hold of him and said: "Why did you leave the monastery of the women?" He explained the matter to them. "Because I was afraid I might harm both them and myself." They said to him: "Then if we relieve you of the |110 passion, will you go and care for them?" He agreed to this. They made him swear an oath. 4 He said this was the oath: "Swear to us, by Him Who cares for me I will care for them." And he swore to them. Then one of them seized his hands, and another his feet, and a third taking a razor unmanned him, not really but in the vision. So he seemed to himself to have been cured, so to say, in the trance. They asked him: "Do you feel any benefit?" He said to them: "I feel greatly lightened and am persuaded that I am relieved of my passion." 5 They said to him: "Go away, then." And he returned after five days, the monastery mourning for him the while, and went in and remained inside henceforward, in an adjoining cell, from which being near at hand he corrected them continually so far as he could. But he lived forty years more, always assuring the fathers: "Passion comes no more into my mind." Such was the gift of grace of that holy man who thus looked after the monastery.
CHAPTER XXX. -- DOROTHEUS
HE was succeeded by Dorotheus, a well-tried man who had grown old in a good and active life. Not being able to stay in the monastery itself, as Elias had done, he shut himself up in an upper chamber and made a window looking on to the women's monastery, which he used to shut and open. So he would sit continually at the window reminding them to keep the peace. And so he grew old up there in the upper chamber, without either the women going up to him or himself being able to come down to them. For there was no ladder fixed. |111
CHAPTER XXXI. -- PIAMOUN
1 PIAMOUN was a virgin who lived the years of her life with her mother, eating every other day 195 in the evening and spinning flax. She was accounted worthy of the gift of prophecy, of which this is an example. It happened once in Egypt during the overflow (of the Nile) that one village attacked another. For they fight over the distribution of the water,196 so that murders and woundings ensue. Well, a stronger village attacked her village, and men came in a crowd with spears and clubs to destroy her village. 2 But an angel appeared to her, revealing to her their attack. And, sending for the elders197 of the village, she said: "Go out and meet the men who are coming against you from that village, lest you also perish with the village, and urge them to cease from their malice." But the elders were afraid and fell at her feet beseeching her and saying to her: "We dare not meet them; for we know their drunkenness and madness. 3 But if you have pity both on the whole village and your own house, go out yourself and meet them." Not agreeing to this, she went up to her own cottage----it was night at the time----and stood continually in prayer, not kneeling down, and beseeching God thus: "O Lord, Who judgest the earth, to Whom no unjust act is pleasing, when this prayer reaches Thee, let Thy power nail these men to the spot where-ever.it finds them." 4 And about the first hour, |112 when they were about three miles away, they were nailed to the ground and could not move. And it was revealed also to them that this hindrance had come to them through her petitions. And they sent to the village and asked for peace, declaring: "Give thanks to God and the prayers of Piamoun, for they hindered us."
CHAPTER XXXII. -- PACHOMIUS AND THE TABENNESIOTS
1 TABENNISI 198 is a place, so-called, in the Thebaid, in which there lived a certain Pachomius, one of those who have lived in the straight way, so that he was counted worthy both of prophecies and angelic visions. He was exceedingly devoted both to his fellow-men and his brethren. Accordingly, to him as he sat in his cave 199 an angel 200 appeared and said: "You have successfully ordered your own life. So it is superfluous to remain sitting in your cave. Up! go out and collect all the young monks and dwell with them, and according to the model which I now give you, so legislate for them;" and he gave him a brass tablet on which this was inscribed----
2 "Thou shalt allow each man to eat and drink according to his strength; and proportionately to the strength of the eaters appoint to them their labours. |113 And prevent no man either from fasting or eating. However, appoint the tasks that need strength to those who are stronger and eat, and to the weaker and more ascetic such as the weak can manage. Make a number of cells within the enclosure and let three dwell in each cell.201 But let them all go to one building for their food. 3 Let them sleep not lying down full length, but let them make sloping chairs easily constructed and put their rugs on them and thus sleep in a sitting posture.202 And let them wear at night linen lebitons203 and a girdle. Let each of them have a worked goatskin cloak,204 without which they are not to eat. When they go to Communion on Saturday and Sunday, let them loosen their girdles and lay aside the skin cloak and go in with the cowl 205 only." And he prescribed for them napless cowls, as for children, on which he ordered an imprint, the mark of a cross, to be worked in dark red. 4 And he ordered that there should be twenty-four sections,206 and to each order he assigned a letter of the Greek alphabet----alpha, beta, gamma, delta, and so on.207 So when the Superior asked questions, or |114 busied himself with the affairs of the great multitude, he asked the second: "How is the Alpha section?" or, "How is the Zeta?" or again: "Greet the Rho," and they followed a private meaning assigned to the letters. "And to the simpler and more unworldly thou shalt give the Iota, and to the more difficult and perverse thou shalt assign the Xi." 5 And so, in correspondence with the nature of their dispositions and manners and lives, he fitted the letters to each section, only the spiritual knowing what was meant. And it was written on the tablet: "A stranger of another monastery which has a different rule is not to eat with them, nor drink, nor enter into the monastery, unless he happens to be on a (genuine) journey."208 However, the man who has come to remain with them they do not allow to enter into the sanctuary for three years.209 But after a three years' probation and performance of the more toilsome labours, then he enters. 6 "As they eat let them cover their heads with their cowls lest one brother see another chewing. A monk is not allowed to talk at meals nor let his eye wander beyond his plate or the table." And he ordered them during the whole day to make twelve prayers, and twelve at the lamp-lighting, and twelve at the night-vigils, and three at the ninth hour. But when a group was about to eat he ordered a psalm to be sung before each prayer.210 |115
7 When Pachomius objected to the angel that the prayers were few, the angel said to him: "I gave this rule so as to make sure in advance that even the little ones keep the rule and are not afflicted.211 But the perfect have no need of legislation, for by themselves in their cells they have surrendered the whole of their life to the contemplation of God. But I have legislated for as many as have not a discerning mind, in order that they, like house-servants fulfilling the duties of their station, may live a life of freedom."
Now there are a number of these monasteries which have observed this rule, amounting to 7000 men.212 But the first and great monastery is that where Pachomius himself dwelt, which itself also is the parent of the other monasteries; it has 1300 members.213 8 Among them there was also the noble Aphthonius, who became my intimate friend, and is now second in the monastery. Him they send to Alexandria, since nothing can make him stumble, in order to sell their produce and buy necessaries. 9 But there are also other monasteries two hundred or three hundred strong. One of these, with 300 monks, I found when I entered the city of Panopolis. [In the monastery I found fifteen tailors, seven smiths, four carpenters, twelve camel-drivers, and fifteen fullers.] 214 But they work at every kind of craft and with their surplus output they provide for the needs both of the women's convents and the prisons. 10 [They keep pigs too, and when I blamed the practice, |116 they said: "In our tradition we have received this, that they are to be kept because of the chaff, and the refuse of the vegetables and other scraps that one throws away, lest they be wasted.215 And the pigs are to be killed and their meat sold, but the tit-bits are to be devoted to the sick and aged, because the neighbourhood is poor and populous; for the tribe of the Blemmyes live near.] 11 But those who are to serve that day rise early and get to their work, some to the kitchen, others to the tables. They spend their time then until the meal-hour in arranging and preparing the tables, putting loaves on each, and charlock, preserved olives, cheese of cows' milk, [the tit-bits of the meat], and chopped herbs. Some come in at the sixth hour and eat, others at the seventh, others at the eighth, others at the ninth, others at the eleventh, others in the late evening, others every other day, so that each letter knows its own hour.216 12 So also is it with their work. One works on the land as a labourer, another in the garden, another at the forge, another in the bakery, another in the carpenter's" shop, another in the fuller's shop, another weaving the big baskets, another in the tannery, another in the shoemaker's shop, another in the scriptorium, another weaving the young reeds. And they learn all the scriptures by heart.
CHAPTER XXXIII. -- THE TABENNESIOT NUNS 217
1 THEY also had a monastery of women with some 400 members; it had the same constitution and the |117 same manner of life,218 except for the sheep-skin coat. And the women are on the far side of the river,219 the men opposite them. So when a virgin dies, the (other) virgins, having prepared her body for burial, act as bearers and lay it on the river bank. But the brethren, having crossed in a ferry boat, with palm-leaves and olive-branches, take the body across, singing psalms the while, and bury it in their own cemetery. But apart from the priest and the deacon no man goes across to the women's monastery, and they only on Sunday.
2 In this women's monastery the following thing happened. A tailor, living in the world, crossed the river in ignorance and sought work. A young sister came out----the place was deserted 220----and met him involuntarily and gave him the answer: "We have our own tailors." 221 3 Another sister saw the meeting; and when some time had elapsed and a contention arose, actuated by diabolic motives inspired by great wickedness and an outburst of temper, she denounced the other before the sisterhood. A few others also joined her from malice. So that sister, distressed at having endured a calumny of a kind that had never even entered her thoughts, and being unable to bear it, flung herself into the river secretly and lost her life. 4 Likewise the calumniator, recognizing that her calumny was wicked, and that she had committed this abomination, went and hung herself, she too being |118 unable to bear (the shame of) the affair. So when the priest came the rest of the sisters told him the affair. And he ordered first that the sacrifice should not be offered for either of them; and as for those who had not kept the peace, since they had been accomplices of the calumniator and had believed the scandal, he separated them (from the rest) for seven years, depriving them of Communion.222
CHAPTER XXXIV. -- THE NUN WHO FEIGNED MADNESS
1 IN this monastery there was another virgin who feigned madness and possession by a demon. And they detested her so much that they would not even eat with her, she preferring this. She would wander about in the kitchen and do every kind of menial work, and she was, as they say, "the monastery sponge," fulfilling in fact the words of Scripture: "If any one seem to be wise among you in this world, let him become foolish that he may be wise." 223 She fastened some rags on her head----all the rest had the tonsure and wore cowls----and served in this guise. 2 None of the 400 sisters ever saw her chewing during the years of her life. She never sat at table, nor partook of a piece of bread, but wiping up the crumbs from the tables and washing the kitchen pots she was content with what she got in this way. Never did she insult any one nor grumble nor talk either little or much, although she was cuffed and insulted and cursed and execrated.
3 Now an angel appeared to the holy Piteroum, an anchorite of high reputation who dwelt in Porphyrites,224 |119 and said to him: "Why are you proud of yourself for being religious and dwelling in a place like this? Do you want to see a woman who is more religious than you? Go to the monastery of the Tabennesiot women and there you will find a woman wearing a crown on her head. She is better than you. 4 For though she spars with so great a crowd, she has never let her heart go away from God. But you sit here and wander in imagination through the different cities." 225 And he who had never gone out went off to that monastery and besought the masters 226 to let him go to the monastery of the women. They were emboldened to let him in, since he was famous and advanced in years. 5 And having gone in he demanded to see them all. But she did not appear. At last he said to them: "Bring me all, for there is one lacking." They said to him: "We have one within in the kitchen, a sale." 227 For thus they style the mentally afflicted. He said to them: "Bring her also to me. Let me see her." They went off to call her. She did not answer, perhaps perceiving what was the matter, or even having had a revelation. They drag her forcibly and say to her: "The holy Piteroum wants to see you"; for he was famous. 6 When she came, he perceived the rag on her forehead and fell at her feet and said to her: "Bless me." She also fell at his feet in like manner, saying: "Do you bless me, Master." They were all amazed and said to him: "Father, do not let her insult you, she is sale." Said Piteroum to them all: "You are sale. For she is mother 228 both of me |120 and you"----for thus they call the spiritual women----"and I pray to be found worthy of her in the day of judgment." 7 Having heard these words they fell at his feet, all confessing in different ways: one that she had poured the rinsings of the plate over her; another that she had beaten her with her fist; another that she had applied a mustard-plaster to her nose. And, in a word, all confessed outrages of one kind or another. So after praying for them he went away. And after a few days, unable to bear her glory and the honour bestowed by the sisters, and burdened by their apologies, she left the monastery. And where she went, or where she disappeared to, or how she died, no one knows.
CHAPTER XXXV. -- JOHN OF LYCOPOLIS 229
1 THERE was a certain John in Lycopolis, who in his childhood learned the trade of carpentering----he had a brother a dyer. Later, when he was about twenty-five years old, he renounced the world. And having lived in various monasteries for five years he retired by himself to the mountain of Lyco, where he made himself three cells on the actual summit and went in and immured himself. One chamber was for his bodily needs, and another where he worked and ate, and the third where he prayed. 2 Having completed thirty years thus immured, and receiving the necessaries of life through a window from one who ministered to him, he was counted worthy of the gift of predictions. Among other instances he sent various predictions to |121 the blessed emperor Theodosius,230 one concerning Maximus the tyrant, that he would conquer him and return from the Gauls; similarly also he gave him good news about the tyrant Eugenius. His reputation as a virtuous man was widespread.
3 When we were in the desert of Nitria----by we I mean myself and the blessed Evagrius and his companions----we were anxious to find out accurately, in what his virtue consisted. Then said the blessed Evagrius: "Gladly would I be learning what kind of man he is, from some one who knows how to test character and speech. For if I am unable to see him myself, but can hear accurately from another's description the details of his manner of life, then I will not go so far as the mountain." I heard, and saying nothing to anyone kept silence for one day; but the next day, having closed my cell and committed myself and it to God, I hastened away to the Thebaid. 4 And I arrived after eighteen days, having gone partly on foot, and partly by boat on the river. But it was the time of the flood, when many are ill; which was also my experience. Well, I went and found the vestibule of his cell closed; for the brethren built on later a very large vestibule holding about 100 men, and shutting it with a key they opened it on Saturday and Sunday. So, having learned the reason why it was closed, I waited quietly till the Saturday. And having come at the second hour for an interview I found him sitting by the window, through which he seemed to be exhorting231 his visitors. 5 So, |122 after greeting me, he said through an interpreter 232: "Whence are you? and why have you come? For I conjecture that you belong to the convent of Evagrius." I said: "I am a stranger who started out from Galatia." And I confessed that I belonged to Evagrius' society. Meanwhile, as we talked, the ruler 233 of the district came up, Alypius 234 by name. He turned to him and left off talking with me. So I retired a little and gave way to them, standing some way off. As their conversation lasted a long time, I became disgusted, and in my disgust I murmured against the good old man, since he despised me and honoured him. 6 And annoyed in mind at this, I formed the plan of going away, disdaining him. But having called his interpreter, named Theodore, he said to him: "Go, tell that brother, 'Do not be petty-minded. I am just going to dismiss the ruler and talk to you.' " So I resolved to wait patiently, attending to him as a spiritual man. And when the ruler had gone, he called me and said to me: "Why are you vexed with me? What did you find worthy of blame, that you thought those things that neither applied to me nor befitted you? Or do you not know that it is written: 'They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick'? 235 I find you when I want you, and you me. And if I do not console you, there are other brethren to console you and other fathers. But this man is delivered up to the devil through his worldly affairs and, having respite for a brief hour, like a servant run away from his master, he has come to receive benefit. It would have been absurd that we should leave |123 him and attend to you, when you have uninterrupted leisure to attend to your salvation." So I exhorted him to pray for me and was fully convinced that he was a spiritual man. 8 Then, having affectionately slapped my left cheek gently with his right hand, he said to me: "Many afflictions are in store for you, and many times have you been tempted to leave the desert. And you have been timid and have deferred (a decision). But the demon by providing you with pious and specious excuses unsettles you. For he suggested to you both a longing to see your father, and the instruction of your brother and sister with a view to the monastic life. 9 Behold then, I give you good news: both are saved, for both have renounced the world. And as regards your father, at this very moment he still has other years to live. So continue in the desert and do not wish on their account to go home to your native land, for it is written: 'No man having put his hand to the plough and turning back is fit for the kingdom of heaven.'" 236 So, benefited by these words and sufficiently corrected, I thanked God, having learned that the pretexts which were driving me were finished with.
10 Then again he said to me graciously: "Do you want to become a bishop?" I said to him: "I am one." He said to me: Where?" I said: "(I am bishop) over the kitchens, the shops, the tables and the pots. I am their bishop, and if there is any sharp wine I excommunicate it, but I drink the good. Similarly, I am bishop over the pot too; and if salt or any seasoning is lacking, I throw it in and season (the pot) and then I eat it. This is my bishopric, for gluttony ordained me." 11 He said to me with a smile: "Stop your jokes. You have to be ordained bishop, and toil much and be afflicted. If then you would escape afflictions, |124 depart not from the desert. For in the desert no man can ordain you bishop."
So I left him and went into the desert to my accustomed place, and told these things to the blessed fathers, who after two months went by boat and met him. But I forgot his words, for after three years I fell ill with an illness of the spleen and stomach. 12 I was sent by the brethren from the monastery to Alexandria, under treatment for dropsy. The doctors advised me to betake myself from Alexandria to Palestine for the sake of the air. For (Palestine) has light airs, such as befit our constitution. From Palestine I came to Bithynia, and there----I know not how, whether from human zeal or from the good pleasure of Him Who is more powerful, God would know----I was counted worthy of the laying-on of hands, so much above my deserts,237 having become embroiled in the disturbance connected with the blessed John.238 13 And for eleven months hidden in a gloomy cell I remembered that blessed man, that he had foretold these things which I endured. And indeed he told me this, designing by his tale to lead me to endure the desert. "Forty years have I spent in the cell. I have not seen the face of woman nor the appearance of money. I have seen no one chewing, nor has any one seen me eating or drinking."
14 When Poemenia the servant of God came to interview him, he did not meet her, but he had a number of secret matters told to her. And he enjoined her, when she went down from the Thebaid not to turn aside to Alexandria, "for you will fall into temptation." But she, thinking differently, or forgetting, turned aside to Alexandria to see the city. But on the way she moored |125 her boats near Niciopolis 239 to rest. 15 So her servants went on shore and after some disorderly behaviour had a fight with the people of the place, who were desperate characters. They cut off the finger of one eunuch and murdered another, and even threw Dionysius the most holy bishop into the river, not recognizing him, and after wounding all the other servants, loaded the lady herself with insults and threats.
CHAPTER XXXVI. -- POSIDONIUS
1 THE stories about Posidonius the Theban are many and hard to relate, how meek he was and how exceedingly ascetic, and what great innocence of soul he possessed----I do not know if I have met any such. For I lived with him at Bethlehem for one year when he dwelt beyond Poemenion,240 and I beheld his many virtues. 2 Among other things he himself told me this one day: "Living for a year in the Porphyrites district, the whole year I met no man, heard no talk, touched no bread. I merely subsisted on a few dates and any wild herbs I found. This happened one day. My food failing, I went out from the cave to go back to the world. 3 And having walked all the day with difficulty did I get two miles from the cave. Well, looking round I saw a horseman with the appearance of a soldier, having on his head a helmet in the shape of a tiara. And expecting him to be a soldier, I ran to the cave and found (on the way) a basket of grapes and newly-picked figs. I picked it up and went to the cave overjoyed, and had that food as my comfort for two |126 months. 4 And this was the miracle he did in Bethlehem. A certain woman approaching her confinement had an unclean spirit and, when she was actually about to be delivered, she had difficult labour, the spirit tormenting her. The husband, therefore, since his wife was suffering from the demon, came and besought that holy man to come. So he stood up----we were present, having come at the same time to pray----and prayed, and after kneeling down for the second time he drove out the spirit. 5 So he stood up and said to us: "Pray, for at this moment the unclean spirit is going out, and there should be a sign, that we may be convinced." So the demon on his way out of her threw down the whole wall of the precincts, foundations and all. Now the woman had been six years without speech. After the demon had gone out she gave birth to a child and spoke.
6 I knew also the following prophecy spoken by this man. A certain Jerome, a priest, distinguished Latin writer and cultivated scholar as he was, showed qualities of temper so disastrous that they threw into the shade his splendid achievements.241 Well, Posidonius, who had lived with him many days, said in my ear: "The noble Paula, who looks after him, will die first and be freed from his bad temper, so I think. 7 And because of this man no holy man will dwell in these parts, but his envy will include even his own brother." The thing happened as he said. For, in fact, he drove out the blessed Oxyperentius the Italian, and another man Peter, an Egyptian, and Simeon, admirable men, whom I noticed with approval at the time. This Posidonius told me that he had not tried bread for forty years, nor indeed had he borne malice for half a day. |127
CHAPTER XXXVII. -- SARAPION THE SINDONITE 242
1 THERE was another monk, Sarapion, and he was surnamed the Sindonite, for apart from a sindon (loincloth) he never wore clothes. He practised great detachment from possessions and, being well educated, knew all the Scriptures by heart. And through his great detachment and his meditation on the Scriptures he was unable to remain calmly in the cell; not because he was distracted by material things, yet none the less he travelled up and down the world and perfected this type of asceticism. For he was born with this nature; for there are differences of natures, not of substances.
2 The fathers used to relate how, taking an ascetic as his accomplice,243 he sold himself to some Greek actors |128 in a certain city for twenty pieces of money. And having sealed up the money he kept it on his person. Then he stayed a long while and served as slave to the actors who had bought him, until he both made them Christians and induced them to leave the stage. All the time he took nothing except bread and water, nor did his lips rest from expounding the Scriptures. 3 After a long period, first the man was stricken with compunction, then the actress, then the whole house. But it was said that as long as they did not know him he washed the feet of them both. So both were baptized and gave up the stage, and applying themselves to an honourable and pious life they revered the man exceedingly and said to him: "Here, brother, let us free you, since you yourself have freed us from disgraceful slavery." He said to them: "Since God has wrought this, and your soul is saved, let me tell you the mystery of my conduct. 4 I pitied your soul, being myself an ascetic, a free man, an Egyptian by race, and I sold myself for this reason, that I might save you. But since God has done this, and your soul has been saved through my humiliation, take back your money, that I may go away and help others." But they used many entreaties and assured him: "We will have you as father and master, only stay with us." But they could not persuade him. Then they said to him: "Give the money to the poor, for it has been our first payment for salvation; but come and see us, if only once a year."
5 In the course of his incessant wanderings244 he came to Greece, and during a three days' stay at Athens no one thought fit to give him bread; he carried no |129 money, no purse, no sheep-skin coat----nothing of the kind. So when the fourth day came he was very hungry; for hunger unwillingly endured is terrible, if it has an ally 245 in the fact that no one believes you. And standing on an eminence in the city, where the authorities were collecting, he began to lament violently, clapping his hands, and to call out: "Men of Athens, help!" 6 And all ran to him, wearers of the philosopher's cloak and labourer's smock alike,246 and said to him: "What is the matter? Whence are you? What ails you?" Said he to them: "By race I am an Egyptian. After I left my real country I fell in with three usurers. And two left me having got their debt in full, with no accusation to make. But one does not leave me." So, inquiring minutely about the usurers in order that they might satisfy them, they asked him: "Where are they? and who are they? Who is it that troubles you? Show him to us that we may help you." 7 Then he said to them: "From my youth covetousness and gluttony and fornication have troubled me. From two am I freed, covetousness and fornication; they trouble me no longer. But I cannot get free from gluttony. For this is the fourth day that I have not eaten, and my stomach continues troubling me and seeking its habitual debt without which I cannot live." Then certain of the philosophers, supposing it to be acting, gave him money. And having received it he put it down in a baker's shop, and having got one loaf he resumed his journey and left the city at once and never more returned to it. |130
8 Then the philosophers recognized that he was truly virtuous, and giving the baker the price of the bread they took the piece of money.247 But having come to the country where the Spartans live, he heard that one of the first men248 of the city was a Manichaean with all his house, though virtuous in other respects. To him again he sold himself as he had done at first; and within two years he induced him to forsake his heresy, and brought him to the Church and his wife also. Then they loved him no longer as a servant, but treated him as a true brother or father and glorified God.
9 One day he flung himself into a vessel as if he had a right to sail to Rome. The sailors, thinking that either he had paid his fare or had the price of it in cash, received him without trouble, each thinking that another had taken his luggage. But when they had sailed away and got 500 stades from Alexandria the passengers began to eat about sundown, the sailors having eaten first. 10 They saw that he did not eat the first day, and expected it was because of the voyage;249 similarly on the second, third and fourth days. On the fifth day they saw him sitting quietly while all ate and said to him: "Why are you not eating, man?" He said to them: "Because I have nothing." So they inquired one of another: "Who received his luggage or his fare? " 11 And when they found that no one had they began to attack him and say: "How did you come on without paying? From what source can you give us the fare? Or from what source can you get fed?" He said to them: "I have nothing. Pick me up and throw me where you found me." But they would not willingly have relinquished their voyage, even for 100 gold pieces, |131 but they wanted to get to their destination. So he remained in the ship and found that they fed him until (they got to) Rome.
12 So having come to Rome he inquired who was a great ascetic in the city, man or woman. Among others he met also a certain Domninus, a disciple of Origen, whose bed healed sick persons after his death. So he met him and was benefited, for he was a man of refined manners and liberal education, and learning from him what other ascetics there were, male or female, he was told of a certain virgin who cultivated solitude and would meet no one.250 13 And having learned where she lived he went off and said to the old woman who attended her: "Tell the virgin, 'I must meet you, for God has sent me.' " So after waiting two or three days at last he met her, and said to her: "Why do you remain stationary?" She said to him: "I do not remain stationary, I am on a journey." He said to her: "Where are you journeying?" Said she to him: "To God." He said to her: "Are you alive or dead?" She said to him: "I trust in God that I am dead, for no one who lives to the flesh shall make that journey." He said to her: "Then do what I do, that you may convince me that you are dead." She said to him: "Order me possible things, and I will do them." 14 He answered her: "All things are possible to a dead person except impiety." Then he said to her: "Go out and appear in public." She answered him: "This is the twenty-fifth year that has passed without my appearing in public. And why should I appear?" "If you are dead to the world," said he to her, "and the world to you,251 it is all the same to you whether you appear or appear not. So appear in public." She did so, and |132 after she had appeared outside and gone as far as a church, he said to her in the church: "Now then, if you wish to convince me that you are dead and no longer live pleasing men,252 do what I do and I shall know that you are dead. 15 Follow my example and take off all your clothes, put them on your shoulders, go through the middle of the city with me leading the way in this fashion." 253 She said to him: "I should scandalize many by the unseemliness of the thing and they would be able to say, 'She is mad and possessed by a demon.' "He answered her: "What does it concern you if they say, 'She is mad and possessed by a demon?' For you are dead to them." Then she said to him: "If you want anything else I will do it; for I do not profess to have reached this stage." 16 Then he said to her: "See then, no longer be proud of yourself as more pious than all others and dead to the world, for I am more dead than you and show by my act that I am dead to the world; for impassively and without shame I do this thing." Then having left her in humility and broken her pride, he departed.
There are many other marvellous acts which he did in the direction of impassivity. He died in the sixtieth year of his age, and was buried at Rome itself.254
CHAPTER XXXVIII. -- EVAGRIUS PONTICUS 255
1 IT is not right to be silent about the story of the illustrious deacon Evagrius, a man who lived in apostolic |133 wise; rather one ought to put it into writing for the edification of readers and the glory of the goodness of our Saviour. I have thought it worth while to relate (the story) from the beginning, how he came to his ideal, and how having pursued asceticism worthily he died in the desert at the age of fifty-four, according to the words of Scripture: "In a little time he fulfilled many years."256
2 He came of a Pontic family and belonged to the city of Ibora,257 the son of a country-bishop.258 He was ordained reader by the holy Basil, the bishop of the church of Caesarea. After the death of the holy Basil, Gregory Nazianzea259 the bishop, that very wise and most impassive and highly cultured man, ordained him deacon. Then at the great synod of Constantinople260 he left him to the blessed Nectarius the bishop, since he was skilled in argument against all heresies. And he flourished in the great city, speaking with youthful zeal against every heresy. 3 Now it happened that this man, who was held in high honour by the whole city, was congealed by |134 an image of the desire of a woman,261 as he himself told us at a later time, when his soul was freed from such thoughts. The woman loved him in return; now she belonged to the highest rank. So Evagrius, fearing God and respecting his own conscience, and putting before his eyes the greatness of the shame and the malicious joy262 of the heresies, prayed to God in supplication that he would put some obstacle in the way. Now the woman was pressing and madly excited, while he, though desiring to withdraw, had no power to, being constrained by the chains of this servitude. 4 After no long time, when his prayer had succeeded but he had not experienced the benefit of it, there appeared to him an angel vision in the shape of soldiers of the governor, and they seized him and took him apparently to the tribunal and threw him into the so-called custody, the men who had come to him, as it seemed, without giving a reason having first fastened his neck and hands with iron collars and chains. But he knew in his conscience that for the sake of the above fault he was suffering these things, and imagined that her husband had intervened. 5 So now he was extremely anxious. Another trial was going on and others were being put to torture for some accusation, so he continued to be much perturbed. And the angel who brought the vision transformed himself to represent the coming of a genuine friend and said to him, tied up as he was among forty prisoners chained together: "Why are you retained here, my lord deacon?" He said to him: "In truth I do not know, but I have a suspicion that so-and-so the ex-governor has laid a charge against me, impelled by an absurd jealousy. And I fear |135 that the judge corrupted by bribes may inflict punishment on me." 6 He said to him: "If you will listen to your friend, it is not expedient for you to stay in this city." Evagrius said to him: "If God will release me from this misfortune and you see me in Constantinople (any more), know that I shall suffer this punishment justly." He said to him: "Let me bring the gospel, and swear to me by it that you will leave this city and care for your soul, and I will free you from this durance." 7 So he brought the gospel and he swore to him by the gospel: "Except for one day, to give me time to put my clothes on board, I certainly will not remain." So when the oath had been produced,263 he came back out of the trance which had come on him in the night; and he arose and argued with himself: "Even if the oath was in a trance, nevertheless I did take it." So having put all his belongings into the ship he went to Jerusalem. 8 And there he was received by the blessed Melania, the Roman lady. But once again the devil hardened his heart, as he did Pharaoh's, and since he was young and vigorous doubts beset him, and he hesitated, saying nothing to any one, and changing his clothes and his habit of speech back to his old ways,264 vain-glory stupefying him. But God Who wards off destruction from us all involved him in a bout of fever, and after that in a long illness lasting six months, drying up his flesh, the source of his trouble. 9 But when the physicians were at a loss and could find no way of cure, the blessed Melania said to him: "Son, your long illness does not please me. Tell me therefore what are your thoughts. For this illness of yours is not without God." Then he confessed to her the whole matter. |136 But she said to him: "Give me your word before the Lord that you will keep to the mark of the monastic life; and, sinner though I am, I will pray that you may be granted a furlough of life." 265 And he consented. So within a few days he got well, and he arose and received a change of clothes 266 at the hands of the lady herself and went away and exiled himself in the mount of Nitria which is in Egypt.
10 Having lived there two years, in the third year he entered the desert. So he lived fourteen years in the place they call Cellia, and he used to eat a pound of bread, and in three months a pint of oil, though he was a man who had come from a luxurious and refined and voluptuous life. And he made 100 prayers; and he wrote during the year only the value of what he ate----for he wrote the Oxyrhyncus characters 267 excellently. So in the course of fifteen years having purified his mind to the utmost he was counted worthy of the gift of knowledge and wisdom and the discerning of spirits. So he composed three holy books for monks, called Antirrhetica,268 in which he taught the arts to be used against demons. 14 The demon of fornication troubled him grievously, as indeed he told us himself. And all night long he stood naked in the well, though it was winter, so that his flesh was frozen. On another occasion again the spirit of blasphemy troubled him. And for forty days he did not enter under a roof, as he told us himself, so that his |137 body threw out ticks, like the bodies of irrational animals. Three demons attacked him by day disguised as clerics, questioning him on the faith. And one said he was an Arian, the other an Eunomian, the third an Apollinarian; and he vanquished these in his wisdom by means of a few words. 12 Again one day, the key of the church having been lost, having made the sign over the front of the lock and pushed with his hand, he opened it, after first calling upon Christ. So many castigations did he receive from demons and so great trial of them did he have that there is no counting the occasions. And to one of his disciples he told the things that would happen to him after eighteen years, having prophesied all to him in a vision (of the future). And he said: "From the time that I took to the desert, I have not touched lettuce nor any other green vegetable, nor any fruit, nor grapes, nor meat, nor a bath. 13 And later, in the sixteenth year of his life without cooked food, his flesh felt a need, owing to the weakness of the stomach, to partake of (something that had been) on the fire; he did not however take bread even now, but having fed on herbs or gruel or pulse for two years, in this regime he died, after communicating in church at Epiphany. Shortly before his death he told us:269 "For three years I have not been troubled by fleshly desire----after so long a life and toil and labour and ceaseless prayer." He was told of the death of his father, and said to his informant: "Cease blaspheming, for my father is immortal." 270 |138
CHAPTER XXXIX. -- PIOR 271
1 PIOR, a young Egyptian, having renounced the world, left his father's house and in an excess of zeal gave his word to God that he would never see any of his relations again. Fifty years after his sister, now an old woman, having heard that he was alive seemed likely to go out of her mind if she could not see him. But being unable to go to the great desert she besought the bishop of the district to write to the fathers in the desert that they should send him and she might see him. So, considerable pressure having been brought to bear on him, he decided to take one other with him and go. 2 And he announced at his sister's house: "Your brother Pior has come." So standing outside and perceiving from the creaking of the door that the old woman came out to meet him, he closed his eyes and called to her: "Ho! What's-your-name, I am Pior your brother, I am he. Look at me as much as you want." So she was convinced and glorified God, and having failed to persuade him to enter her house she returned to her dwelling. But he having offered a prayer on the doorstep exiled himself again in the desert.
3 Now this miracle is told of him, that he dug in the place where he lived and found some very bitter water. And until he died he remained there, accepting the bitterness of the water in order to show his endurance. Many of the monks therefore after his death tried to rival him by dwelling in his cell, but they could not complete a year; for the place is terrible and inconsolably dreary.
4 Moses the Libyan,272 a man of exceedingly gentle |139 disposition and very affectionate, was counted worthy of the gift of healings. He told me this: "When I was a young man in the monastery we dug a very big pit, twenty feet broad. In this eighty of us excavated for three days and we got a cubit further than the vein where we generally found water and expected it (in this case), but found none. So very much disheartened we were contemplating the abandonment of the work. Then Pior appeared from the great desert at the sixth hour, (the time) of burning heat, an old man clad in a sheep-skin coat, and greeted us and said after the greeting: "Why have you lost heart, men of little faith? For I have seen you since yesterday losing heart." 5 And having descended by a ladder to the cavity of the well he said a prayer with them, and having taken the pick he said after striking the third blow: "O God of the holy patriarchs,273 make not the toil of thy servants useless, but send them the water they need." And immediately water sprang out so that they were wetted all over. So he prayed once more and went off. They tried to make him eat, but he would not suffer them, saying: "That for which I was sent is accomplished; for this I was not sent."
CHAPTER XL. -- EPHRAIM 274
1 You must have heard particulars about Ephraim, the deacon of the Church of Edessa; for he is one of those who deserve to be remembered by religious people. Having completed in worthy fashion the journey of the Spirit, without being diverted from the straight |140 road, he was counted worthy of the grace of natural knowledge, and afterwards of the knowledge of God1and final blessedness. So having always practised the quiet life and for many years continuing to edify his visitors, at last he left his cell, for the following reason. 2 A great famine having come upon the city of Edessa, he felt compassion for the whole country-side, which was being destroyed, and approached those who were rich in material things and said to them: "Why do you not take pity on human nature being destroyed, instead of letting your wealth be corrupted for the condemnation of your souls?" They considered the matter and said to him: "We have no one whom we can trust to minister to the famine-stricken. For all are dishonest in business affairs." He said to them: "What do you think of me?" Now he had a great reputation among all, not falsely but truly. 3 They said to him: "We know you to be a man of God." "Then trust me," he said. "See, on your behalf I appoint myself hospitaller." And he raised money, and partitioned the porticoes and made up some 300 beds, and so nursed the sufferers from the famine, burying those who succumbed and treating those who had hope of life, and in a word out of the funds entrusted to him provided day by day hospitality and assistance for all the inhabitants. 4 So when the year was completed and prosperity returned and all went home, no longer having anything to do he entered his own cell and died after a month, God having provided him this opportunity of gaining a crown just before his end. Also he left some writings, most of which deserve to be studied. |141
CHAPTER XLI. -- HOLY WOMEN
1 IT is necessary also to mention in my book certain women with manly qualities, to whom God apportioned labours equal to those of men, lest any should pretend that women are too feeble to practise virtue perfectly. Now I have seen many such and met many distinguished virgins and widows.275 [ 2 Among them was the Roman lady Paula,276 mother of Toxotius, a woman of great distinction in the spiritual life. She was hindered by a certain Jerome from Dalmatia. For though she was able to surpass all, having great abilities, he hindered her by his jealousy, having induced her to serve his own plan. She has a daughter now living an ascetic life at Bethlehem, Eustochium by name. I have never met her, but she is said to be very chaste, and she has a convent of fifty virgins;
3 I knew also Veneria, wife of Vallovicus the count,277 who gallantly distributed her camel's burden 278 and was delivered from the wounds which property inflicts. And Theodora the wife of the tribune, who reached such a depth of poverty that she became a recipient of alms and finally died in the monastery of Hesychas near the sea. I knew a lady named Hosia, in every respect most venerable; and her sister Adolia, |142 who lived in a way not indeed comparable to her, but proportionately to her own capacity. 4 I knew also Basianilla, the wife of Candidianus the general, who practised virtue ardently and scrupulously, and is still even now strenuously engaged in contests. Also the virgin Photina, venerable in the extreme, daughter of Theoctistus the priest near Laodicea. Again, I met in Antioch a most venerable lady who conversed familiarly with God, the deaconess Sabaniana, aunt of John the bishop of Constantinople. And I saw also in Rome the beautiful Asella, the virgin who had grown old in the monastery, a very gentle lady and a supporter of convents. 5 There also I saw men and women recently instructed. I saw also Avita,279 who was worthy of God, with her husband Apronianus and their daughter Eunomia, all so desirous to please God that they were publicly converted to the life of virtue and continence, and were held worthy on this account to fall asleep in Christ freed from all sin, having become possessed of knowledge and leaving their life in good remembrance.]
CHAPTER XLII. -- JULIAN 280
[I HAVE heard of a certain Julian in the region of Edessa, a very ascetic man, who wore away his flesh till it was so thin that he carried about only skin and bone. At the very end of his life he was counted worthy of the honour of the gift of healing.] |143
CHAPTER XLIII. -- ADOLIUS
1 AGAIN, I knew a man at Jerusalem named Adolius, a Tarsian by origin, who having come to Jerusalem followed eagerly the untrodden road, not that on which most of us walked, but carving out for himself a strange mode of life. For his asceticism was superhuman, so that the very demons, trembling at his austerity, dared not approach him. For by reason of his excessive abstinence and his vigils he was even suspected of being a phantom. 2 For in Lent he would eat at intervals of five days, and the whole rest of the time every other day. But his greatest act of asceticism was this. From evening until the time when the brotherhood began to assemble again in their houses of prayer he would continue on his feet singing psalms and praying, on the Mount of Olives, the hill of the Ascension whence Jesus was taken up; and whether it snowed or rained or there was a white frost he remained undaunted. 3 So having completed his accustomed time he knocked at the cells of all the monks with his little waking-up knocker, collecting them into the houses of prayer and in each house singing one or two psalms with them antiphonally and praying with them. Then he went away to his own cell before daybreak, so that of a truth the brethren often had to undress him and wring out his clothes as if after the wash, and put other clothes on him. So then, after resting until the hour of psalmody,281 he applied himself (to worship) until evening. And so this was the virtue of Adolius the Tarsian, who reached perfection in Jerusalem and died there. |144
CHAPTER XLIV. -- INNOCENT 282
1 You have heard from many the story of the blessed Innocent, the priest of the Mount of Olives, but none the less you will hear it also from us who lived with him for three years. He was simple to an excess. Having been one of the dignitaries of the palace in the early days of the Emperor Constantius, he renounced the world, leaving his marriage, by which he had also a son, Paul by name, of the imperial bodyguard. 2 When the latter had sinned with the daughter of a priest, Innocent cursed his own son, beseeching God and saying: "Lord, give him such a spirit that his flesh may no longer find opportunity to sin"----thinking it better that he should struggle with a demon than with incontinence, which actually happened. At this present moment he is still on the Mount of Olives, wearing irons and chastised by the spirit. 3 How compassionate indeed this Innocent was, so that often he himself stole from the brethren and gave to the needy----I shall seem to be talking nonsense if I tell the truth. And he was exceedingly innocent and simple, and was counted worthy of the gift (of power) over demons. As an example of this: Once a young man was brought to him before our eyes taken by a spirit and by paralysis, so that I, having seen him, wished publicly to repel the mother of the man who had been brought, since I despaired of his cure. 4 Well, it happened in the meantime that the old man having come up saw her standing and weeping and lamenting |145 over the unspeakable misfortune of her son. So the good old man wept and, moved with compassion, took the young man and entered into his oratory, which he had built with his own hands, and in which relics of John the Baptist were laid. And having prayed over him from the third hour to the ninth, he restored the young man to his mother cured that same day, having driven out both his paralysis and the demon. His paralysis was such that the boy, when he spat, spat on his own back, so twisted was he.
5 An old woman having lost a sheep came to him in tears. And having followed her he said: "Show me the place where you lost it." She led him to the neighbourhood of the tomb of Lazarus.283 He stood and prayed. But the young men who had stolen it anticipated him by killing it. So while he prayed, no one confessing and the meat lying hidden in the vineyard, a crow came from somewhere and hovered over the place, took a morsel and flew off again. And the blessed one having marked the place found the slain animal, and so the young men who had killed it fell at his feet and confessed and paid, when asked, the proper price of the sheep.
CHAPTER XLV. -- PHILOROMUS
284 [1 We met in Galatia the priest Philoromus, a most ascetic and enduring man, and stayed with him a long time. His mother was a maidservant, his father a free man. But he showed such nobility in the Christlike mode of life that even those whose family record was unsurpassable revered his life and virtue. He renounced the world |146 in the days of Julian the infamous Emperor, and spoke to him with boldness. Julian ordered him to be shaved and buffeted by boys. He endured the ordeal patiently and expressed his thanks to Julian, as he told us himself. 2 In his early days war against fornication and gluttony was his lot. He drove out these passions by shutting himself up and wearing irons, and by abstinence from corn-bread and all things cooked by fire. After persevering in this course for eighteen years he sang the hymn of triumph to Christ. Attacked in divers ways by the spirits of wickedness, he abode in one monastery for forty years. He told us this: "For thirty-two years I touched no fruit." Once when timidity attacked him, in order to get rid of it, he shut himself up in a tomb for six years. 3 The blessed Basil, the bishop, took great care of him, rejoicing in his austerity and firmness. Even now he has not renounced the pen and the writing sheet,285 though perhaps in his eightieth year. He said: "From the time that I was initiated and born again until to-day, I have never eaten another's bread for nothing, but always as the result of my own labours." (Speaking) as in the presence of God, he convinced us that he had given to the cripples 250 pieces of money earned by the work of his hands, and had never wronged anyone. 4 He went on foot even as far as Rome itself to pray at the martyr-chapel of the blessed Peter. He went also as far as Alexandria, to pray at the martyr-chapel of Mark. Then he came also a second time to Jerusalem, having gone on his own feet and defrayed his own expenses. And he said this: "I do not remember that I was ever absent in mind from my God."] |147
CHAPTER XLVI. -- MELANIA THE ELDER 286
1 THE thrice-blessed Melania was a Spaniard by origin, but afterwards belonged to Rome. She was the daughter 287 of Marcellinus the ex-consul, and wife of a certain man of high official rank, whom I do not quite remember. Having become a widow at twenty-two, she was favoured with the divine love, and having said nothing to any one----for she would have been prevented----in the time when Valens had the rule in the empire, she had a guardian nominated for her son and took all her movable property and put it on a ship; then she sailed with all speed to Alexandria, accompanied by various highborn women and children. 2 After that, having sold her goods and turned them into money, she went to the mountain of Nitria, where she met the following fathers and their companions----Pambo, Arsisius, Sarapion the Great, Paphnutius of Scete, Isidore the Confessor, bishop of Hermopolis, and Dioscorus. And she sojourned with them for half a year, travelling about in the desert and visiting all the saints. 3 But after this, when the prefect 288 of Alexandria banished Isidore, Pisimius, Adelphius, Paphnutius and Pambo, with them also Ammonius Parotes, and twelve bishops and priests, to Palestine in the neighbourhood of Diocaesarea, she followed them and ministered to them from her own money. But, servants being forbidden them, so they told me----for I met the holy Pisimius and Isidore and |148 Paphnutius and Ammonius----wearing the dress 289 of a young slave she brought them in the evenings what they required. But the consular of Palestine got to know of it, and wishing to fill his pocket thought he would terrify 290 her. 4 And having arrested her he threw her into prison, ignorant that she was a lady. But she told him: "For my part, I am So-and-So's daughter and So-and-So's wife, but I am Christ's slave. And do not despise the cheapness of my clothing. For I am able to exalt myself if I like, and you cannot terrify me in this way or take any of my goods. So then I have told you this, lest through ignorance you should incur judicial accusations. For one must in dealing with insensate folk be as audacious as a hawk." 291 Then the judge, recognizing the situation, both made an apology and honoured her, and gave orders that she should succour the saints without hindrance.
5 After they were recalled she founded a monastery in Jerusalem, and spent twenty-seven years there in charge of a convent of fifty virgins. With her lived also the most noble Rufinus, from Italy, of the city of Aquileia, a man similar to her in character and very stedfast, who was afterwards judged worthy of the priesthood. A more learned man or a kinder than he was not to be found among men.292 6 So these two during twenty-seven years receiving at their own charges those who visited Jerusalem in pursuance of a vow, bishops and monks and virgins, edified all who visited them, and they reconciled the schism of Paulinus,293 some 400 monks |149 in all, and winning over every heretic that denied the Holy Spirit they brought him to the Church; and they honoured the clergy of the district with gifts and food, and so continued to the end, without offending anyone.
CHAPTER XLVII. -- CHRONIUS AND PAPHNUTIUS
1 A CERTAIN man named Chronius 294 of the village called Phoenice, having measured off from his own village, which was near the desert, 15000 steps counted with his right foot, dug a well there after prayer; and having found very good water forty-two feet away, built himself there a little dwelling. And from the day that he installed himself in this abode he prayed to God that he might never return to an inhabited place. 2 But when a few years had passed he was counted worthy of the priesthood, a brotherhood of some 200 men having collected round him. Now this meritorious feature of his asceticism is told, that having officiated at the altar for sixty years, exercising his priesthood, he did not leave the desert and never ate bread that came from any source but the work of his own hands.
With him dwelt one Jacob, who belonged to the neighbourhood, surnamed the Lame, an exceedingly learned man. Now both were known to the blessed Antony. 3 Now one day they were joined by Paphnutius,295 surnamed Kephalas, who had the gift of knowledge of the divine Scriptures of the Old and New |150 Testaments, interpreting it all without having read the Scriptures, but he was so modest that his prophetic virtue was concealed. It is told of him that during eighty years he never wore two tunics together. The blessed Evagrius and Albanius and I when we met these men sought to know the causes of brothers falling away or backsliding or stumbling in the proper life. 4 For it happened in those days that Chaeremon the ascetic died in a sitting posture and was found dead on his chair holding his work in his hands. And it happened also that another brother while digging a well was swallowed up by the well; and another on his way down from Scete died from lack of water. Then again there was the story of Stephen, who fell into disgraceful profligacy, and of Eucarpius, and the story of Heron of Alexandria, and the story of Valens of Palestine, and the story of Ptolemy the Egyptian who lived in Scete. 5 We asked therefore what was the reason why the men who lived there in the desert were some of them deceived in their mind and others shattered by lust. So this was the answer that the most enlightened Paphnutius gave us, namely: "All things that happen are divided into two, what God approves and what He allows. As many things then as happen in accordance with virtue for the glory of God, these happen with His approval. But as many, on the contrary, as are fraught with loss and danger and are due to external crises or fallings away, these happen with God's permission. 6 But the permission is given in a rational manner. For it is impossible that a man who thinks rightly and lives rightly should succumb to snares of shame or the deceit of demons. Consequently, all who seem to pursue virtue with a corrupt purpose, the vice of men-pleasing or perverse imagination, these also make false steps, for God deserts them for their benefit, in order that through |151 their desertion they may perceive the difference that results from their change and correct either their intention or their conduct. 7 For at one time the will sins, when it acts with evil intent, at another time also the conduct, when it acts corruptly or in the wrong fashion. And this indeed often happens, that the vicious man with a corrupt purpose gives alms to girls in pursuance of an evil end, though he does an apparently good action by giving help to her who is an orphan, a solitary, or an ascetic. But it happens also that men give alms with a right purpose to the sick or aged or those who have lost money, but sparingly and with a grumble, and the intention is right but the action is unworthy of the intention; for it is necessary that the merciful man show mercy gladly and generously."296 8 They said also this: "There are good qualities in many souls, in some a natural goodness of thought, in others aptitude for asceticism. But whenever some action is not done or natural goodness not manifested for the sake of the actual good, and those who possess good qualities do not ascribe them to God the Giver of all good things, but to their own free will, natural goodness and capacity, then such men are deserted and are involved either in disgraceful conduct or experience and in shame, and by means of the consequent humiliation and shame gradually lose the pride felt in their pretended virtue. 9 For when the man who is puffed up with pride, pluming himself on the natural charm of his discourse, does not ascribe to God the natural charm or even the supply of knowledge, but to his own application or natural gifts, God withdraws from him the angel of foreknowledge. When this angel is removed, then overpowered by the adversary the man who plumes himself on his natural charm falls into licentiousness through his |152 presumption, in order that, the witness of his self-control being withdrawn, the words spoken by such men may be no longer worthy of credit; while religious men shun the teaching which proceeds from such a mouth as if it were a fountain containing leeches, so that the Scripture is fulfilled: 'But to the sinner said God, Why dost thou recount my judgments and takest my covenant in thy mouth?'297 10 For truly the souls of the vicious are like diverse fountains. The gluttonous and wine-lovers are like muddy fountains; the covetous and greedy like fountains with frogs; others, envious and haughty but with an aptitude for knowledge, are like fountains which cherish serpents, in which reason is always floating but no one likes to draw from them because of the bitterness of their character. This is why David demanded three things in his prayer, 'goodness and discipline and knowledge.' 298 For without goodness knowledge is not good. 11 And if such a man corrects himself, putting away the cause of his abandonment, that is, pride, and recovers humility and recognizes his own measure, not exalting himself against anyone, and thanking God, then knowledge attested by proof returns to him. For spiritual words which do not have as an escort a sober and disciplined life are like ears of com blasted by the wind; they have the outward appearance (of corn) but have been robbed of their nutritive value. 12 Therefore every fall, whether by the tongue, or by perception, or by action, or by the whole body, tends to produce abandonment in proportion to the presumption, though God spares those who are abandoned. For if, in the midst of their vice, the Lord will bear witness to their natural grace by providing them with eloquence, arrogance turns them into demons, puffed up with uncleanness."
13 And those men told us this too: "When you |153 see a man irregular in his life but plausible in speech, remember the demon who conversed with Christ using the words of Scripture, and the witness which says: 'Now the serpent was the most subtle of all the beasts on the earth.' 299 In his case intelligence has the rather resulted in harm, since no other virtue accompanied it. For the faithful and good man must think the thoughts which God gives and say what he thinks and do what he says. 14 For if the relationships of a man's life do not accord with the truth of his words, he is, as Job says, like bread without salt which will in no case be eaten, or, if eaten, will make those who eat it ill. 'Shall bread be eaten without salt?' he says. 'And is there any taste in vain words,'300 which are not fulfilled by the witness of the works? Now these are the causes of the abandonings: in one case because of hidden virtue, that it may be revealed, as was Job's, God speaking to him and saying: 'Reject not My judgment, nor think that I have spoken to thee for any other reason than that thou mightest be shown to be righteous.301 15 For thou wast known to Me who see secret things; but when thou wast unknown to men, people supposing that thou wast serving Me because of wealth, I brought on the disaster, I cut off the wealth, that I might show them thy philosophy of gratitude.' In other cases it is to avert pride as with Paul. For Paul was abandoned, being tossed about in misfortunes and buffetings and divers afflictions, and he said: ' There was given me a thorn in the flesh, an angel of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted.'302 16 Lest perhaps in the midst of his marvellous works both the repose and the prosperity and the honour which accrued to him might cast him gaping with vanity into diabolical pride. The paralytic |154 was abandoned because of sins, as Jesus says: 'See, thou are made whole, sin no more.' 303 Judas was abandoned, because he loved money more than the word, wherefore also he hanged himself. Esau also was abandoned and fell into dissolute conduct, preferring the grossness 304 of entrails to his father's blessing. 17 So that considering all these things Paul said concerning some: 'As they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up unto a reprobate mind, to do things which are not fitting.'305 And concerning certain others who seem to have the knowledge of God with a corrupt mind: 'Since knowing God, they glorified Him not as God, neither gave Him thanks, for this cause God gave them up unto vile passions.'306 So that from these instances we know that it is impossible that any should fall into dissolute conduct unless he has first been abandoned by God's Providence."
CHAPTER XLVIII. -- ELPIDIUS
1 IN the caves of the Amorites round about Jericho, which they excavated long ago when they fled from Joshua the son of Nun,307 who was ravaging then the aliens on the mountain of Doukas,308 there lived a certain Elpidius, a Cappadocian, afterwards counted worthy of the priesthood. Having been a member of the monastery of Timothy,309 the Cappadocian |155 country-bishop, a very able man, he came and settled in one of the caves. He showed such self-discipline in his asceticism as to put all others in the shade. 2 For during his twenty-five years' life there he used to take food only on Sunday and Saturday and would spend the nights standing up and singing psalms. With him, (reigning) like a little king in the midst of his bees,310 lived the multitude 311 of the brethren, and I too lived with him, and thus he made the mountain a veritable city. And one could see there different modes of life. Once a scorpion stung this Elpidius as he sang psalms by night and we too were singing with him. Fie trod it underfoot, nor did he even move from his standing position, despising the pain caused by the scorpion. 3 One day, as a brother was holding a vine-cutting, he took it as he sat at the declivity of the mountain and dug a hole for it as if planting it, though it was not the season. It grew big and became a vine large enough to give shade to the church. In his company also a certain Aenesius reached perfection, a worthy man, and so did Eustathius his brother. To such a height of impassivity did he attain in drying up his body that the sun shone through his bones. 4 The story is told by his zealous disciples that he never turned (to gaze) towards the west because the mountain with its height dominated the door of the cave. Nor did he ever see the sun after the sixth hour, having passed overhead and now descending towards the west, or even the stars that rise in the west, for twenty-five years. From the time he entered the cave he did not descend from the mountain until he was buried. |156
CHAPTER XLIX. -- SISINNIUS
[ 1 THIS Elpidius had a disciple, by name Sisinnius, of servile origin, but a free man as regards the faith, a Cappadocian by race. For one must point out these things for the glory of Christ, Who ennobles us and leads us to the true nobility. After dwelling with Elpidius six or seven years finally he shut himself up in a tomb and continued for three years in a tomb, praying constantly, sitting down neither by night nor day, neither lying down nor walking out. He was counted worthy of a gift (of power) over demons. 2 But having returned to his native country he was counted worthy of the priesthood, and collected a community of men and women. By his grave manner of life he drove out whatever masculine lusts there were in himself, and by self-discipline he curbed the feminine element in the women, so that the words of Scripture were fulfilled: " In Christ Jesus there is neither male nor female." 312 Then also he is hospitable, although without possessions, so as to shame the rich men who are not generous.]
CHAPTER L. -- GADDANAS 313
I KNEW an old Palestinian named Gaddanas, who lived in the open air in the region round the Jordan. Some Jews once set about him in a fanatic outburst, in the region round the Dead Sea, and came against him with sword drawn. And this incident occurred. When a man lifted up his sword and wished to use it against Gaddanas, the hand of him who had drawn it was |157 withered up, and the sword fell from the hand of its wielder.
CHAPTER LI. -- ELIAS
THEN again Elias, a monk, dwelt in the same parts in a cave, living a life most grave and disciplined. One day when a number of brethren had come to him, for the place was on the main road, he ran short of bread. And he assured us: "Dismayed at what had happened, I went into the cell and found three loaves. And the visitors having eaten of them to satiety----they were twenty in all----one was left over, which lasted me twenty-five days."
CHAPTER LII. -- SABAS
314 [A MAN named Sabas, a layman,315 a native of Jericho, became so enamoured of the monks that he went the round of the cells and the desert at nights and at each habitation put outside a bushel of dates, and a sufficiency of vegetables, because the ascetics of the Jordan do not eat bread. One day a lion met him and, talcing him by surprise, chased him for a mile and then turned back, took his ass and went off.]
CHAPTER LIII. -- ABRAMIUS
THERE was a certain Abramius, an Egyptian by race, who lived a very rough and savage life in the wilderness. Afflicted in his mind by an untimely fancy, he went to the church and contended with the priests, saying: "I |158 have been ordained a priest by Christ this night, accept me as a celebrant." The fathers removed him from the desert and led him to a less ascetic and calmer life, and cured him of his presumption, bringing this man who had been deluded by the demon to a knowledge of his own weakness.
CHAPTER LIV. -- THE ELDER MELANIA
1 THOUGH I have told above 316 in a superficial way of the wonderful and saintly Melania, nevertheless I will now weave into my narrative at this point what remains to be said. What stores of goods she used up in her divine zeal, as it were burning them in a fire, is not for me to dwell on, but for those who dwell in Persia. For no one escaped her benevolence, neither East nor West nor North nor South. 2 For thirty-seven years she had been giving hospitality, and at her own costs had succoured both churches and monasteries and strangers and prisoners, her family and her son himself and her stewards providing the money. She persevered so long in the practice of hospitality that she possessed not even a span of land. She was not drawn (from her purpose) by desire for her son, nor did yearning after her only son 317 separate her from love towards Christ. 3 But thanks to her prayers the young man attained a high standard of edu-ation and a good character and an illustrious marriage, and participated in the honours of the world; he had also two children. A long while after, hearing how her granddaughter was situated, that she was married and was proposing to renounce the world, afraid lest they should be injured by bad teaching or heresy or evil living, though an |159 old woman of sixty years, she flung herself into a ship and sailing from Caesarea reached Rome in twenty days.318 4 And having met there that most blessed and worthy man Apronianus, a pagan, she instructed him and made him a Christian, persuading him to be continent as regards his wife, Melania's niece named Avita. And having also strengthened the will of her own granddaughter Melania, with her husband Pinianus, and instructed her daughter-in-law Albina, wife of her son, and having induced all these to sell their goods, she led them out from Rome and brought them into the holy and calm harbour of the (religious) life. And in so doing she fought with beasts 319 in the shape of all the senators and their wives who tried to prevent her, in view of (similar) renunciation of the world on the part of the other (senatorial) houses. But she said to them: "Little children, it was written 400 years ago, It is the last hour.320 Why do you love to linger in life's vanities? Perchance the days of antichrist will surprise you, and you will cease to enjoy your wealth and your ancestral property." 6 And having liberated all these she led them to the monastic life. And after instructing the younger son of Publicola she brought him to Sicily, and having sold all her remaining goods and received their value, she came to Jerusalem. Then, having got rid of her possessions, within forty days she fell asleep in a good old age and profound meekness, leaving behind both a monastery in Jerusalem and an endowment for it.
7 But when all these persons had left Rome there fell on Rome a hurricane of barbarians, which was ordained long ago in prophecies, and it did not spare even the bronze statues in the Forum, but sacking them |160 all with barbaric frenzy delivered them to destruction, so that Rome, which had been beautified by loving hands 321 for 1200 years, became a ruin.322 Then those who had been instructed (by Melania) and those who had opposed her instruction glorified God, Who had persuaded the unbelievers by a reversal of fortune, in that, when all the other families had been made prisoners, these ones only were preserved, having been made by Melania's zeal burnt-offerings to the Lord.
CHAPTER LV. -- SILVANIA (MELANIA continued) 323
1 IT so happened that we 324 travelled together from Aelia 325 to Egypt, escorting the blessed Silvania the virgin, sister-in-law of Rufinus the ex-prefect. Among the party there was Jovinus also with us, then a deacon, but now bishop of the church of Ascalon, a devout and learned man. We came into an intense heat and, when we reached Pelusium, it chanced that Jovinus took a basin and gave his hands and feet a thorough 326 wash in ice-cold water, and after washing flung a rug on the |161 ground and lay down to rest. 2 She came to him like a wise mother of a true son and began to scoff at his softness, saying: "How dare you at your age, when your blood is still vigorous, thus coddle your flesh, not perceiving the mischief that is engendered by it? Be sure of this, be sure of it, that I am in the sixtieth year of my life and except for the tips of my fingers neither my feet nor my face nor any one of my limbs have touched water, although I am a victim to various ailments and the doctors try to force me. I have not consented to make the customary concessions to the flesh, never in my travels have I rested on a bed or used a litter."
3 Being very learned and loving literature she turned night into day by perusing every writing of the ancient commentators, including 3,000,000 (lines) of Origen 327 and 2,500,000 (lines) of Gregory, Stephen, Pierius, Basil, and other standard writers. Nor did she read them once only and casually, but she laboriously went through each book seven or eight times. Wherefore also she was enabled to be freed from knowledge falsely so called 328 and to fly on wings, thanks to the grace of these books; elevated by kindly hopes she made herself a spiritual bird and journeyed to Christ.
CHAPTER LVI. -- OLYMPIAS
1 THAT most venerable and devoted lady Olympias followed the counsel of Melania, attending to her precepts and walking in her footsteps. She was the daughter of Seleucus the ex-count, grand-daughter of |162 Ablavius the ex-prefect, and bride for a few days of Nebridius, the ex-prefect of the city, but the wife of no man. For she is said to have died a virgin, but the spouse of the Word of Truth. 2 She dispersed all her goods and gave to the poor. She engaged in no mean combats for truth's sake, instructed many women, addressed priests reverently, and honoured bishops; she was accounted worthy to be a confessor for truth's sake. The inhabitants of Constantinople reckon her life among the confessors, for she died thus and went away to the Lord in the midst of her struggles for God's honour.
CHAPTER LVII. -- CANDIDA
1 ATTENDING to her precepts and imitating her like a mirror, the blessed Candida, daughter of Trajan the general, lived a worthy life and attained to the height of sanctity, paying honours both to churches and bishops. Having instructed her own daughter for the condition of virginity she brought her to Christ as a gift of her own body, afterwards following her own daughter in temperance and chastity and the distribution of her goods. 2 I knew her labour all night long with her hands at the mill to subdue her body; and she used to say: "Fasting is insufficient; I give it an ally in the shape of toilsome watching, that I may destroy the insolence of Esau." 329 She abstained absolutely from anything with blood 330 and life in it, but taking fish and vegetables with oil on feast days, at other times she continued to content herself with a mixture of sour wine and dry bread. |163
3 In emulation of her example the most venerable lady Gelasia, a tribune's daughter, walked in the path of religion, having put on the yoke of virginity. Her virtue is renowned in that the sun never went down 331 on her irritation against man-servant or maid-servant or any one else.
CHAPTER LVIII. -- THE MONKS OF ANTINOË
1 HAVING spent four years332 at Antinoë in the Thebaid, in so long a time I acquired knowledge also of the local monasteries. For some 1200 men are settled round the city, who live by their hands and are extremely ascetic. Reckoned among these there are also anchorites who have shut themselves up in the caves of the rocks. One of these is a certain Solomon, a man of very mild disposition and restrained and possessing the gift of endurance. He used to say that he had been fifty years in the cave. He provided for himself by the work of his hands and had learned by heart all the holy Scriptures.
2 In another cave lived Dorotheus, a priest. He was extraordinarily good, and having himself lived an irreproachable life was counted worthy of the priesthood, and ministered to the brethren in the caves. To him Melania the younger, grand-daughter of the great Melania, concerning whom I shall speak later,333 once sent 500 pieces of money, beseeching him to spend them on the brethren there. But he took three only and sent the rest to Diocles the anchorite, a most-learned man, saying: "Brother Diocles is wiser than I, and can administer them without doing harm, knowing |164 those who should rightly be helped. For myself, I am content with these."
3 This Diocles began in the first instance with the grammar course, but afterwards gave himself to philosophy. However, in course of time grace drew him on, and in the twenty-eighth year of his life he gave up the cycle of studies 334 and gave himself up 335 to Christ; and he had spent thirty-five years in the caves.336 He told us this: "Intelligence which is separated from the thought of God becomes either a demon or a brute beast." But since we were curious to know his manner of speaking he explained thus: "Intelligence separated from the thought of God inevitably falls into concupiscence or anger." And he said concupiscence was beast-like and anger demoniacal. 4 But when I objected: "How can human intelligence be continually with God?" this same man said: "Whenever the soul is engaged in a thought or action that is pious and godly, then it is with God."
There lived near him a certain Capiton, who had been a robber. He had completed fifty years in the caves four miles from the city of Antinoë, and did not come down from his cave, not even as far as the river Nile, saying that he was not yet able to meet crowds because the Adversary at that instant would oppose him.
5 With these we saw also another anchorite, himself also (living) in a cave in similar fashion. Being mocked in dreams by the frenzy of vainglory, he mocked in his turn those that deceived themselves, "feeding the winds."337 And he possessed bodily continence thanks to his age and his long time (in the desert), and perhaps |165 also thanks to his vainglory.338 On the other hand, his judgment was perverted owing to the unrestrained character of his vainglory.
CHAPTER LIX. -- AMMA TALIS AND TAOR
1 IN this city of Antinoe there are twelve convents of women; in one of them I met Amma339 Talis, an old woman who had spent eighty years in asceticism, as she and the neighbours told me. With her dwelt sixty young women who loved her so greatly that no key even was fixed on the outer wall of the monastery, as in other monasteries, but they were kept in by love of her. Such a height of impassivity did the old woman reach that when I entered and sat down she came and sat by me and put her hands on my shoulders in a transport of freedom.
2 In this monastery there was a disciple of hers by name Taor, a virgin who had been thirty years in the monastery; she would never accept a new habit or hood or shoes, saying: "I do not need them, lest I be forced also to go out." For all the others go out on Sunday to church for the Communion; but she remains in the house clothed in rags, ceaselessly sitting at her work. But her looks were naturally so charming that even the |166 most stedfast would almost have been deceived by her beauty, if she had not had her chastity as an exceedingly strong sentinel, and by her modesty had been compelling the unrestrained eye to reverence and fear.
CHAPTER LX. -- COLLYTHUS
1 ANOTHER virgin was a neighbour of mine, but I did not see her face, for she never came out, so they say, from the day she renounced the world. But having completed sixty years of asceticism in company with her own mother (-superior), at last she was about to depart from this life. And the martyr of the place stood over her----Collythus was his name----and said to her: "Today you are going to travel to the Master and see all the saints. Come then and breakfast with us in the chapel."340 So she got up at twilight and dressed and took in her basket bread and olives and shredded herbs, after all those years going out, and she went to the chapel and prayed. 2 And having marked that moment of the whole day when no one was inside, she took her seat and called on the martyr, saying: "Bless my food, holy Collythus, and accompany me with thy prayers on the journey." Then having eaten and prayed again she went home about sunset. And having given her mother (-superior) a writing of Clement, author of the Stromateis, on the prophet Amos,341 she said: "Give it to the exiled bishop342 and say to him, Pray for me, for I am going on a journey." And she died that very night, with no fever nor pain in the head, but having decked herself for the funeral. |167
CHAPTER LXI. -- MELANIA THE YOUNGER 343
1 SINCE I promised above to tell about the (grand-) daughter of Melania, I am constrained to pay the debt, for it is not just that men should disdain her youthfulness in respect of the flesh and leave on one side with no pillar to commemorate it such great virtue, virtue which, frankly, far surpasses that of old and zealous women. Her parents by using compulsion made her marry a man of the highest rank in Rome. Her conscience was always being pricked by the tales she heard about her grandmother, and (at last) she was so goaded that she felt unable to perform her marriage duty. 2 For, two male children having been born to her and both having died, she came to have such great hatred of marriage as to say to her husband Pinianus, son of Severus the ex-prefect: "If you choose to practise asceticism with me according to the fashion of chastity, then I recognise you as master and lord of my life. But if this appears grievous to you, being still a young man, take all my belongings and set my body free, that I may fulfil my desire toward God and become heir of the zeal of my grandmother, whose name I also bear. 3 For if God had wished us to have children, He would not have taken away my children untimely." After they had struggled under the yoke a long while, at last God had pity on the young man and planted in him a zeal for renunciation, so that the word of Scripture was fulfilled in their case: "How knowest thon, O woman, that thou shalt save thy husband?" 344 So having been married at thirteen and having lived with her husband seven years, in the |168 twentieth year she renounced the world. And first she gave her silk dresses to the altars: this the holy Olympias has also done. 4 Then she cut up her other silks and made them into different church ornaments. And having entrusted her silver and gold to a certain Paul, a priest, a monk of Dalmatia, she sent them across the sea to the East, 10,000 pieces of money to Egypt and the Thebaid, 10,000 pieces to Antioch and its neighbourhood, 15,000 to Palestine, 10,000 to the churches in the islands and the places of exile, while she herself distributed to the churches in the West in the same way. 5 All this and four times as much she snatched, if God will allow the expression, "out of the mouth of the lion" 345 Alaric by her faith. And she freed 8000 slaves who wished freedom, for the rest did not wish it, but preferred to be slaves to her brother; and she allowed him to take them all for three pieces of money. But having sold her possessions in the Spains, Aquitania, Tarragonia and the Gauls, she reserved for herself only those in Sicily and Campania and Africa and appropriated their income for the support of monasteries. 6 Such was her wise conduct with regard to the burden of riches. And her asceticism was as follows. She ate every other day----to begin with after a five days' interval----and assigned to herself a part in the daily work of her own slavewomen, whom also she made her fellow-ascetics.
She had with her also her mother Albina, who lived a similar ascetic life and distributed her riches for her part privately. Now these ladies are dwelling on their properties, now in Sicily and now in Campania, with fifteen eunuchs 346 and sixty virgins, both free and slave.347 |169 7 Similarly also Pinianus her husband lives with thirty monks, reading and busying himself with the garden and solemn conferences. But in no small way did they honour us when we, a numerous party, went to Rome because of the blessed bishop John;348 they refreshed us both with hospitality and lavish equipment for the journey, thus winning for themselves with great joy the fruit of eternal life by their God-given works springing from a noble mode of life.
CHAPTER LXII. -- PAMMACHIUS
A KINSMAN of theirs, Pammachius by name, an ex-consul, renounced the world in like manner and lived the perfect life. As for all his wealth, part of it he distributed while still alive and the rest he left to the poor at his death. Similarly also there was a certain Macarius, an ex-vicar,349 and Constantius, who became assessor of the prefects in Italy, distinguished and very learned men, who reached the highest degree of the love of God. I believe that they are still in the flesh after practising the perfect life.
CHAPTER LXIII. -- THE VIRGIN AND ATHANASIUS 350
1 I KNEW a virgin in Alexandria whom I met when she was about seventy years old. Now all the clergy bore her witness that when she was young, some twenty |170 years old, and exceptionally lovely, she was to be shunned because of her beauty, lest she should make any one an object of blame through suspicion. So when it happened that the Arians conspired against the blessed Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, by means of Eusebius the prefect, when Constantius was Emperor, and they were calumniously accusing him of unlawful deeds, he avoided being judged by a corrupt tribunal and trusted no one, neither relation nor friend, nor cleric nor any one. 2 But when the prefect's men entered suddenly into the episcopal residence and sought him, he fled at midnight to this virgin, wearing only his tunic and cloak.351 But she was disconcerted at the affair and frightened. So he said to her: "Since I am sought by the Arians and am unjustly accused, I resolved to flee, lest I should bear a false reputation and involve in sin those who wish to punish me. 3 But God revealed to me to-night: 'With no one canst thou be saved except with this lady.'" So with great joy she cast aside all hesitation and gave herself wholly to the Lord; and she hid that most holy man for six years,352 as long as Constantius lived, both washing his feet herself and ministering to his bodily requirements and arranging for all his needs, borrowing books and bringing them to him, and no man in all Alexandria during the six years knew where the blessed Athanasius was living. 4 Now when the death of Constantius was announced and came to his ears, he dressed himself fittingly and was found once more by night in the church; and all were astonished and looked on him as a dead man come to life. Now his defence to his near friends was as follows: "This is why I did not take refuge with you, that you might the better |171 swear (ignorance of my whereabouts), and also because of the search. But I fled to one whom no one could suspect, because she was beautiful and young, bearing two things in mind, her salvation----for I did help her----and my reputation."
CHAPTER LXIV. -- JULIANA
1 AGAIN there was a certain Juliana, a virgin of Caesarea in Cappadocia, said to be very learned and most faithful. When Origen the writer fled from the uprising of the pagans she received him, and supported him for two years at her own cost and waited on him. I found this written in a very old book of verses, in which had been written by Origen's hand: 2 "I found this book at the house of Juliana the virgin at Caesarea, when I was hidden by her. She used to say that she had received it from Symmachus himself, the Jewish interpreter." 353
I have inserted the virtuous acts of these women as part of my plan, that we may know that it is possible to gain excellence in many ways, if we desire.
CHAPTER LXV. -- HIPPOLYTUS
1 IN another very old book inscribed with the name of Hippolytus, a disciple of the apostles,354 I found this |172 story. There lived in the city of Corinth a high-born and most beautiful virgin who was practising asceticism with a view to (a vow of) virginity. As the time for it approached, they denounced her to the pagan who was the magistrate then, at the time of the persecutors, that is, as one who blasphemed both the times and the emperors and spoke ill of the idols. At the same time also those who traffic in such things were praising her beauty. 2 So the magistrate, being erotic, received the denunciation gladly, like a horse pricking up his ears. And when after setting every device into operation he failed to persuade the woman, then, furious with her, he did not hand her over to punishment or torture, but put her in a brothel and commanded the man who kept the women: "Take her, and pay me three pieces of money a day as her hire." But he, to earn the requisite sum, intended to hand her over to all comers. So when those who hunt women in this way like so many hawks knew of it they visited this perdition-shop, and paying the tariff talked to her the language of seduction. 3 But she besought them with entreaties, saying: "I have a sore which is offensive, and I fear that you will hate me; give me a few days and you will get the chance of having me for nothing." So she besought God with petitions in those days. Wherefore also God beholding her chastity inspired a certain young man in the employ of the magister officiorum,355 fair in character and appearance, with a burning zeal for martyrdom. And having gone off with all outward appearance of lust he came late at night to the keeper of the women and gave him five coins and said to him: "Allow me to spend this night with her." 4 So he went in to the private chamber and said to her: "Get up, save yourself." And he made her take off her clothes and put his own on her, |173 both the vests and cloak and all his masculine apparel, and said to her: "Veil yourself with the ends of the cloak and go out." And so she sealed herself (with the holy sign) and went out and was preserved uncorrupted and undefiled. Next day, therefore, the deed was known. The young official was arrested and thrown to the wild beasts, in order that by him the demon might be put to shame, in that he became a martyr in two senses, both for his own sake and for the sake of that blessed one.
CHAPTER LXVI. -- VERUS THE EX-COUNT
1 IN Ancyra of Galatia, in the actual city, I met a certain Verus, a man of noble rank, and had considerable experience of him and his lady wife, Bosporia----he was an ex-count.356 They attained such a degree of good confidence that they defrauded even their children, considering the future in a practical manner. For they spent the revenues of their estates on the poor, though they have two daughters and four sons, to whom they give no portion, except to the married daughter, saying: "After we are gone all is yours." But receiving the produce of their estates they spend them on the churches of cities and villages. 2 And this, too, is a mark of virtue in them. A famine having arisen, and militating against natural affection, they brought heresies round to orthodoxy, in many places putting their granaries at the disposal of the poor for their feeding. But they have adopted in other ways an exceedingly grave and sparing manner of life; they wear very cheap clothes and live |174 on the most frugal fare, practising a godly sobriety, living for the most part on their farms and avoiding cities, lest haply through the pleasures of the city they should become involved in some of the city life and fall from their purpose.
CHAPTER LXVII. -- MAGNA
1 IN this city of Ancyra many other virgins, some 2000 or more, are eminent as women both of continence and distinction. Among them Magna takes a prominent place in religion, a most venerable woman; I do not know what to call her, virgin or widow. For having been forcibly linked with a husband by her mother, she wheedled him and put him off, so people say, and thus remained inviolate. 2 When he died a little later she gave herself wholly to God, attending in a serious spirit to her own houses, living a most ascetic and continent life, having her conversation such that the very bishops revered her for the excellence of her religion. While she provided for the needs, primary and secondary, of hospitals, the poor and bishops on tour, she ceased not to work in secret with her own hands and by means of her most faithful servants, and at nights she did not leave the church.
CHAPTER LXVIII. -- THE COMPASSIONATE MONK
1 LIKEWISE in the city we found a monk who preferred not to be ordained to the priesthood, but had been led to the life after a short period of military service. He is spending his twentieth year in asceticism, |175 in the following fashion. He lives with the bishop of the city, and is so humane and merciful that he goes his rounds even at nights, and has pity on those who are in need. 2 He neglects neither prison nor hospital, poor nor rich, but succours all, giving some advice about compassion, if without compassion; leading others onward; reconciling some and providing others with their bodily needs and clothing. And what generally happens in all great cities is found also in this one; for in the porch of the church a multitude of sick people laid on couches beg their daily food, some being married, others unmarried. 3 Well, it happened one day that the wife of a certain man was confined in the porch, at midnight in winter-time. So he heard her crying out in her pain, and abandoning his customary prayers went out and beheld her; finding no one he took the place of a midwife himself, not disdaining the unpleasantness of such occasions, compassion having made him not sensitive. 4 His clothes in appearance are not worth an obol, and his food runs a good race with his clothes. He cannot endure to lean over a writing-tablet since compassion drives him from his studies. If any of the brethren gives him a book, he immediately sells it, answering thus to those who scoff at him: "How can I persuade my Master that I have learned His art unless I sell Him Himself 357 in order to practise the art perfectly?"
CHAPTER LXIX. -- THE NUN WHO FELL
1 A CERTAIN virgin ascetic living with two others practised asceticism for nine or ten years. Seduced by a minstrel she fell and conceived and bore a child. |176 Having come to hate her seducer intensely she was conscience-smitten to the depths of her soul, and reached such a degree of repentance that she completely lost heart and tried to starve herself to death. 2 And in her prayers she besought God, saying: "O great God, Who hearest the evils of every creature, and desirest neither the death nor destruction of those who stumble, if Thou wishest me to be saved, show me in this Thy marvels, and take away the fruit of my sin which I have borne, lest I employ a noose or fling myself over a precipice." 358 Praying in these terms she was heard, for her child died not long after. 3 So from that day she never again met the man who had led her captive, but giving herself to the severest fasting for thirty years she served the sick and maimed. She importuned God so, that it was revealed to one of the holy priests: "So-and-so has pleased me more in her penitence than in her virginity." I write this lest we should despise those who genuinely repent.
CHAPTER LXX. -- A READER UNJUSTLY ACCUSED
1 A VIRGIN once fell, the daughter of a certain priest in Caesarea of Palestine, and was taught by her seducer to accuse a certain reader in that city. And when she was now with child, being cross-examined by her father she denounced the reader. The priest confidently referred the matter to the bishop, and the bishop called his clergy together and had the reader summoned. The case was investigated. The reader was questioned by the bishop but would not confess. For how could that be told which had not happened? |177 2 The bishop was angry and said to him sternly: "Do you not confess, you miserable and wretched man, full of uncleanness?" The reader answered: "I said the truth, that it is no concern of mine. For I am guiltless even of a thought about her. But if you wish to hear what is not true, then I have done it." When he said this, the bishop deposed the reader. Then he approached the bishop and besought him and said to him: "Well then, since I have fallen, bid her to be given me as wife. For neither am I a cleric any more nor is she a virgin.359 3 So he gave her over to the reader, expecting that the young man would live with her, and that besides his intercourse with her could not be interrupted. Now the young man having taken her both from the bishop and her father put her in a nunnery and exhorted the deaconness of the sisterhood there to support her until her confinement. So within a little while the days of her confinement were completed. The critical hour came----with groans, pangs, labours, visions of hell----and the babe was not delivered. 4 The first day passed, the second, third, seventh. The woman being in hell with the pain did not eat, drink, or sleep, but cried out, saying: "Woe is me, miserable woman that I am, I am in peril because I accused this reader falsely." The nuns go off and tell the father. The father, fearing to be condemned as a false accuser, keeps silence two more days. The young woman neither died nor was delivered. So when the nuns could no longer endure her cries they ran and told the bishop: "So-and-so has confessed in her cries days ago that she accused the reader falsely." Then he sends deacons to him and tells him: "Pray that she |178 who accused you falsely may be delivered." 5 But he gave them no answer nor opened his door, but from the day he entered his house he had been praying to God. The father went away again to the bishop; prayers were said in the church, and not even then did she bring forth. Then the bishop arose and went to the reader and knocking at the door went in to him and said to him: "Eustathius, arise, loose what you have fastened." And immediately the reader knelt down with the bishop and the woman brought forth.
Now his pleading and the persistency of his prayer were strong enough both to reveal the false accusation and to chastise the false accuser; that we may learn to persevere in prayers and to know their power.
CHAPTER LXXI. -- THE BROTHER WHO IS WITH THE WRITER 360
1 And now, when I have said a few words about the brother who has been with me from youth until this day, I will end my tale. I know that for a long time he has not eaten from desire nor fasted from desire. I consider that he has conquered desire of riches, the greatest part of vainglory. He is satisfied with what he has, he does not deck himself out with clothes, when despised he gives thanks, he runs risks for his close friends, he has engaged in contests with demons a thousand times and more; so that one day a demon tried to make an agreement with him and said: "Agree to sin just once, and whatever woman you mention to me in the world I will bring her to you." 2 And again on another occasion, after buffeting him for fourteen nights, as he told me, and dragging him by the feet |179 in the night he conversed with him audibly: "Cease worshipping Christ and I will not come near you." But he answered and said: "This is why I worship Him and will glorify Him infinitely and adore Him, because you are utterly distasteful to me when I am thus engaged." He has visited 106 cities and stayed in most of them, but by God's mercy he has had nothing to do with a woman, not even in a dream, except for this contest. 3 I know that he received from an angel on three occasions the food he needed. One day, being in the inner desert and having not even a crumb, he found three loaves in his sheepskin still warm. Another time he found wine and loaves. Yet another time I learned that some one said this to him: "You are fainting; go then and receive from these men food and oil." So he went to the man to whom this man had sent him and said: "Are you so-and-so?" And he said: "Yes; some one has ordered you to receive thirty bushels of corn and twelve pints of oil." On behalf "of such a one I will glory," 361 whoever he was. I have known him often weep over men distressed by dire poverty, and he gave them all that he had except his flesh. I have known him also weep over one who had fallen into sin, and by his tears he led the fallen one to repentance. He once assured me on oath: "I prayed God that I might incite no man, especially the rich and wicked, to give me anything for my needs."
5 But for me it is enough to have been counted worthy of mentioning all these things which I have committed to writing. For it was not without God that your thought was stirred up to enjoin the writing of this book and the committal to writing of the lives of these |180 saints. But you at least, most faithful servant of God, reading them with pleasure and accepting their lives and toils and so great endurance as a fitting demonstration of the resurrection, follow them eagerly, nourished with good hope, seeing the days in front of you to be shorter than those behind. 6 Pray for me, keeping yourself such as I knew you from the consulate of Tatian until this day and such as I found you when you had been chosen to be prefect of the most religious bedchamber. For a man whom such honour accompanied by riches and such power have not made incapable of the fear of God, such a one reposes on that Christ Who was told by the devil: "All these things will I give Thee if Thou wilt fall down and worship me."362 |181
[Footnotes renumbered and moved to the end]
1. 1 Butler prints this Preface, but considers it spurious.
2. 2 Butler marks the text here corrupt, but the meaning is clear.
3. 1 This accords with the evidence of the book.
4. 1 Literally, "engraved" (as on a statue).
5. 2 Or, "situation of the monastery" (to_n to&pon th~j monh~j).
6. 1 A genuine letter sent by Palladius with his book. Lausus was praepositus (i.e. sacri cubiculi) at the court of Theodosius II. Cf. J. S. Reid in Cambridge Mediaeval History, Vol. I, ch. 2. (This officer) "grew in importance, as measured by dignity and precedence, until in the time of Theodosius the Great it was one of four high offices which conferred on their holders membership of the Imperial Council.... Some duties fell to him which are hardly suggested by his title. He was in control of the emperor's select and intimate bodyguard, which bore the name of silentiarii, thirty in number, with three decuriones for officers. Curiously, he superintended one division of the vast imperial domains, that considerable portion of them which lay within the province of Cappadocia."
7. 2 Alternative reading, printed by Butler in the text, but rejected in a supplementary note: "from which they will get no benefit."
8. 1 Mt. xi. 29.
9. 2 Modelled on the Prologue of St. Luke's Gospel.
10. 1 Lk. i. 3. The long and involved sentence of the original has been retained in order to make the allusion plain.
11. 2 Honorific titles of this kind were very common in the Eastern Empire, from which they have descended to the Eastern Church of to-day.
12. 3 From this point the long and involved sentence of the original ----39 lines in Butler's text before a full stop occurs----has been broken up.
13. 4 I.e. 419-420.
14. 5 See Ch. XXXII.
15. 1 Phil. i. 23.
16. 2 Prov. xxiv. 27.
17. 3 Prov. xxxi. 8.
18. 4 Ecclus. viii. 9.
19. 5 A paraphrase. The Greek is: ou) perie/rgw| xrhsa&menoj logismw~|, "having not used elaborate calculations " (on the contrary, throwing prudence to the winds and undertaking long and arduous journeys). But perhaps it means: "not out of idle curiosity."
20. 6 The Roman Empire. But to Palladius this would mean the Eastern Empire, so that "Greeks" would represent his meaning. It actually occurs in the Syriac, see Wallis Budge, I. 83. The Turkish Empire to-day, heir of the (Eastern) Roman Empire, is called Rum.
21. 1 Literally "inscribing on a pillar."
22. 2 Gal. i. 18.
23. 3 Mt. xviii. 24.
24. 4 i0diopragmosu&nh|.
25. 5 The Stoic virtue of a)pa&qeia naturally became an ideal for the philosophers of the desert, though Palladius of course interpreted it in a Christian sense. See Butler I. 176. A satisfactory English equivalent is difficult to find. Butler renders by "impassivity"; perhaps "detachment" would be better.
26. 6 The play on words----filopragmosu&naj, polupragmosu&nai, kakopragmosu&nai, kalopragmosu&nhn, i0diopragmosu&nhj ----can hardly be represented in English.
27. 1 St. Basil (c. 365) contemplates permanent vows, but they were evidently not generally accepted when Palladius wrote. See Clarke, St. Basil the Great, pp. 107 f., for a full discussion.
28. 2 Since Bp. Paget's famous essay "On Accidie" in The Spirit of Discipline the word, which is as old as Chaucer, has been rehabilitated in English. It signifies a state of spiritual torpor and gloom. It was a special temptation of the monks and of all who had or still have few outward distractions and are thrown largely on their own mental resources.
29. 3 I Tim. i. 9.
30. 4 See Butler's note ad loc. which incorporates a communication from Dr. Henry Jackson, who concludes that "Pythagoras and Diogenes were total abstainers, but Plato a moderate drinker."
31. 1 Mk. ii. 18.
32. 2 Mt. ix. 11 (Lk. v. 30).
33. 3 Mt. xxi. 32 and xi. 18, 19.
34. 4 Rom. xiv. 23.
35. 1 Mt. vii. 16.
36. 2 Gal. v. 22.
37. 3 1 Cor. ix. 25.
38. 1 The holy men are the window, through which the light shines. As you stand near a window to read a book with small type, so Lausus by frequenting the company of the saints will see clearly into his own life. But the text is doubtful.
39. 2 Ecclus. xix. 30.
40. 1 Palladius mentions three monks named Isidore. Besides this one, there is the priest of Scete (XIX) and the bishop of Hermopolis Parva (XLVI). See Butler's note; and D. C. B. for other persons of the same name. See also note on X. 2. (For this Isidore cf. Socr. VI. 9, Soz. VIII. 2, 12 f.).
41. 2 I. e. 388. But see Duchesne, Histoire ancienne de l'Eglise, II. 610.
42. 3 The phrase is taken from Heb. xi. 32.
43. 1 The visit with Athanasius would be in 340; for the difficulties of the other visit see Butler II. 185.
44. 2 The Dorotheus story is made into a separate chapter for the convenience of readers, but there is no break in the original.
45. 3 See Soz. VI. 29 for the same story. Another Dorotheus is mentioned in chap. XXX
46. 1 h]n ga&r au)tou~ h( di/aita au)xmw&dhj kai\ chrota&th.
47. 2 Omitting le/gontej, as suggested by Turner.
48. 1 He had made the sign of the cross over his food and drink, according to custom.
49. 2 Eusebius describes the death of Potamiaena in the persecution of Severus, 202-3 (H. E. VI. 5). She comes at the end of a list of martyrs of the school of Origen. Evidently both accounts have the same person in view, and Palladius or his authority must have been mistaken as to the date.
50. 3 tou_j kairou&j (i. e. "the state of affairs," "government"). An alternative reading, tou_j Qeou&j, is clearly a later emendation.
51. 1 According to Jerome (de vir. illust. 109) Didymus was an all-round scholar of great ability. Among his books were many commentaries and a treatise on the Holy Spirit which Jerome translated into Latin. Cf. Socr. IV. 25, Soz. III. 15, Theod. H.E. IV. 26.
52. 2 a!cioi th~j gh~j tw~n prae/wn. The reference is to Mt. v. 5, maka&rioi oi( praei=j o#ti au)toi\ klhronomh&sousi th_n gh~n.
53. 1 He learned to read with his fingers from raised type, according to Sozomen.
54. 2 Ps. cxlv. (cxlvi.) 8, LXX version.
55. 3 Soz. VI. 2 also has this story. See Theod. III. 24 for a similar story.
56. 1sxhmati/sasa. Lucot sees here a reference to the monastic habit (sxh~ma). Later there were two habits, the Little and Great or Angelic. It would be appropriate for Alexandra to assume the latter on her deathbed, as is frequently done to-day on Mount Athos. However, the distinction between the two habits is not found before Theodore of Studium ( th century), unless John the Faster's ( th cent.) reference is to the same thing. See Clarke, St. Basil the Great, pp. 135, 138 and N. F. Robinson, Monasticism in the Orthodox Churches, p. 52.
57. 2 Palladius here slips into oratio recta.
58. 3 See XLVI. and LIV. Melania is adopted in this edition as the best-known form, but there is good evidence for the diminutive Melanium (cf. Eustochium); see Butler II. 222 and Turner.
59. 4 Here almost = "boredom."
60. 1 The text is doubtful here.
61. 2 1 Cor. vi. 9.
62. 1 Or, as we might say, "not taking his soul seriously." The rendering given is not English, but is retained in order to keep the reference to the psalm quoted below.
63. 2 Ps. xxiii. (xxiv.), 3, 4.
64. 3 Mentioned also in Cassian, Coll. XIV. 4, as presiding over the guest-house at Alexandria; not to be identified with the other Macarii of his book, see XV., XVII., XVIIL, XXI. and a careful note (no. 26) in Butler.
65. 4 u(a&kinqoi
66. 1 Reitzenstein, Hellenistische Wundererzählungen, p. 77, derives the above story from the second episode of the Acts of Thomas, in which the apostle receives money from the king with which to build him a palace, spends it on the poor, and so builds him a palace in heaven. The motive is similar in the two stories, but it is simpler to suppose that such stories were known to Macarius and prompted his action.
67. 1 The Wady Natron is some sixty miles south of Alexandria. The actual Mount Nitria overlooked the valley. On Nitria see Butler I. 270-275, II. 187-190, and Duchesne, Histoire Ancienne de l'Église, II. 492 f. Cf. Hist. Mon. XXIII.
68. 2 The Mareotic Lake. Palladius exaggerates its size greatly.
69. 3 See XLVI. 2; Soz. III. 14, VI. 30.
70. 4 See XXI. 1, XXII. 1, XLVII. 1.
71. 5 See XLVI. 2, and D.C.B. for the various monks of this name.
72. 1 Lit, "in which." The church may have been built round the trees; instances of this are not unknown.
73. 2 A reading, rejected by Butler, defines this as the sixth hour.
74. 3 The Office was recited separately in each settlement of monks. Palladius has said above that the settlement might consist of one monk, two monks, or a number.
75. 4 For the observance of Saturday see Duchesne, Christian Worship, pp. 230 f.
76. 5 dika&zei, apparently = hear confessions. "Is this a survival of some primitive practice?" (Butler II. 263).
77. 1 See next chapter. For modern parallels to Antony's vision cf. Gurney, Phantasms of the Living.
78. 2 See Ch. XXXII.
79. 3 I. e. superior.
80. 4 Not to be confused with Ammonius, one of the four Tall Brethren, who is mentioned in Ch. XI. For this Amoun cf. Athanasius, Vit. Ant. 60, Hist. Mon. XXIX., Socr. IV. 23, Soz. I. 14.
81. 5 For the crown at weddings see Cant. iii. 11, Isa. lxi. 10, Ezek. xvi. 12. Tertullian objects to it as a heathen practice, de Cor. 13. Crowning forms an important feature of the marriage ceremonial in the Eastern Church to-day. Cf. Bliss, The Religions of Modern Syria and Palestine, p. 148: "The priest then takes a wreath of flowers, called 'the crown,' and touches the man's head, saying the words: 'The servant of God, M., is crowned for the servant of God, N., in the name, etc.' Then touching the woman's head with the same crown, he says the words a second time; finally, the crown is placed on the man's head while the formula is said for the third time. Then follows the crowning of the woman 'for the man' in a precisely similar way. Then the priest, stretching out his crossed arms towards the heads of the pair, announces the blessing of the crowns three times: 'May the Lord our God crown them with glory and honour.' "
82. 1 Reading koimh&santaj. Butler gives this in the text, but iii his supplementary note prefers koimh&santej.
83. 2 e0k prosw&pou, "from the person of."
84. 1 du&o qo&louj kelli/wn. The qo&loj was a rounded and vaulted chamber. Cf. the bee-hive cells of the Celtic monks.
85. 2 Vit. Ant. 60.
86. 3 h( a!nqrwpoj tou~ qeou~, "female man of God." For Melania see Ch. XLVI.
87. 1 See Soz. VIII. 12 for their history.
88. 2 "Doubtless " the bishop of Hermopolis mentioned in XLVI. (Lucot), Butler, II. 185, finds it impossible to decide who this Isidore is.
89. 1 Mk. xii. 42, Lk. xxi. 2.
90. 2 2 Thess. iii. 8.
91. 1 See Ch. XXXIX.
92. 2 "His three brothers and." These words are omitted in some MSS., probably owing to anti-Origenistic feeling.
93. 3 Bishop of Alexandria, 381-5. See Socr. IV. 23 for another version of the story. Cf. Soz. VI. 30.
94. 1 Lev. xxi. 17f.
95. 2 This paragraph is not in the best MSS. The text is reconstructed by Butler.
96. 1 Cf. Soz. VI. 29.
97. 2 For holy oil cf. XVIII. 11, 22.
98. 3 See X. 1.
99. 4 See Ch. XXXVIII.
100. 1 Papias in his fourth book told a similar story of Judas Iscariot. See Lightfoot-Harmer, The Apostolic Fathers, p. 523.
101. 2 a!skhsin grafikh&n. Writing was already recognized as an ascetic exercise.
102. 3 Spanodro&moj, i.e. he took his goods to Spain.
103. 1 Reading kat' a!llou with Turner.
104. 2 The Syriac version (Budge) gives the sense accurately; "One man made manifest the works of Abraham by his hospitality, and the other the self-denial of Elijah."
105. 1 Luke xviii. 22; cf. ix. 23, xiv. 27.
106. 2 Nothing else is known about him, though Soz. VI. 29 seems to confuse him with Macarius of Alexandria: see Ch. XVIII.
107. 3 See Ch. VII.
108. 1 Cf. Sulpitius Severus, Dial. III. 8, where St. Martin blows away a demon that is sitting behind the back of Avitianus. "'Exsufflans," says the author, apologizing for the use of a word which is hardly Latin.
109. 1 a)khdia~n ("to feel accidie").
110. 1 Lit. the sabbath. Cf. Socr. V. 22: "For although almost all churches throughout the world celebrate the sacred mysteries on the sabbath of every week, yet the Christians of Alexandria and at Rome, on account of some ancient tradition, have ceased to do this. The Egyptians in the neighbourhood of Alexandria, and the inhabitants of Thebais, hold their religious assemblies on the sabbath, but do not partake of the mysteries in the manner usual among Christians in general: for having eaten and satisfied themselves with food of all kinds, in the evening making their offerings they partake of the mysteries." Cf. Soz. VII. 19. The evidence of these historians leads us to the conclusion that an agape combined with the Eucharist is intended in the present passage. Fora recent discussion see art. "Agape" in E. R. E., by Bp. Maclean, who quotes the Acts of Pionius († 250 A.D.) for a Saturday agape.
The remarkable phrase in the text, "this brother's agape," seems to point to one brother being responsible for providing the food at the agape.
111. 2 I.e. of mercy; cf. Lk. xiii. 15, xiv. 5.
112. 1 Lived 300-390. The Homilies and Epistles attributed to Macarius are apparently his work. Cf. Hist. Mon. XXVIII., Soz. III. 14.
113. 2 Ps. v. 6 (7).
114. 3 I.e. a Greek.
115. 1 Ps. xc. (xci.) 10.
116. 2 2 Kings v. 27.
117. 3 e0leuqe/raj gunaiko&j, a free woman, or, perhaps better, a woman of good position.
118. 1 presbute/rouj. 'Possibly = elders, in a secular sense, as Budge interprets the Syriac. On much of the land of Egypt the cultivators formed a corporation, separate for each village, which was responsible to the Government. presbut&teroi were at their head, and they had a secretary, grammateu&j. See Mitteis-Wilcken, Grundzüge und Chrestomathie der Papyruskunde, I. 1. 275 f.
119. 2 Holy water; cf. holy oil in XII. 1, XVIII. 11, 22.
120. 1 kiliki/sion u#datoj. Butler marks the word as of uncertain meaning.
121. 1 See Hist. Mon. XXX., Soz. III. 14.
122. 2 Palladius went to Cellia in 390 or 391: Butler, II. 245.
123. 3 "Only one pound of bread each day" (Syriac).
124. 4 boukkella~ton, a hard biscuit used by soldiers.
125. 5 The text is doubtful, but this is clearly the meaning.
126. 1 "The narrow opening of the jar took toll of the handful of bread that had come up so far " (Turner).
127. 2 For the legendary history of these magicians see the commentaries on 2 Tim. iii. 8 and Schürer, History of the Jewish People, II. iii. 150.
128. 1 Possibly an allusion to Mt. xi. 7, "a reed shaken with the wind."
129. 1 Read w(j e0p' o)nei/rwn in place of w(j e)pi\ i(ere/wn of Butler's text.
130. 2 Cf. XII. 1, XVIII. 22.
131. 1 Butler concludes that Macarius was aged 40-45 at the time, so that he could not be termed old.
132. 2 The first or head monastery where Pachomius lived was now Pabau, not Tabennisi. In XXXII. 8, Palladius makes the number 1300.
133. 1 Lit. "him."
134. 2 Note that Macarius, though not a bishop, makes absolution, administered by imposition of hands, and in this case conferring bodily as well as spiritual renewal, conditional on the sinful priest ceasing to exercise his priestly functions.
135. 1 Reading e0rusipe/latoj, as suggested by Butler. The pa~j p(usipe/lantoj of the text is evidently corrupt.
136. 2 The meaning is uncertain. Sophocles in his Lexicon suggests = kosmh&thj, in the sense of a sweeper of a monastery.
137. 1 Cf. Soz. VI. 29.
138. 2 Cf. Mt. xvii. 17.
139. 3 Cf. Lk. xviii. 43.
140. 4 Cf. the story of St. Francis and the wolf of Gubbio.
141. 1 Spitting was probably as common in Mediterranean lands as it is now, and to refrain from it seems to have been a mark of asceticism.
142. 2 The monks guard the walls, the rest of the Church carry on their avocations in the city. Cf. Hist. Mon. prol. 10. "There is no village or city in Egypt and the Thebaid, which is not surrounded by monasteries as if by walls, and the inhabitants are supported by their prayers as if resting on God."
143. 3 Cf. Soz. VI. 29. Butler, II. 197, distinguishes between the various monks of this name. Moses the Robber is the Moses whose sayings are recorded in the Apophthegmata,
144. 1 Butler says: "I am unable to illustrate or explain this curious piece of demonology." But perhaps it is only an unusual way of referring to the rest of the band, in whom the demon was, as it were, incarnate.
145. 1 This Isidore is omitted in D. C. B. See I. 1, X. 2, XLVI. 2, and Butler, II. 185.
146. 2 Cf. 1 Cor. vii. 9.
147. 1 See Butler, II. 177. This Paul is identified in one MS. with Paul the Simple of Ch. XXII. Cf. Soz. VI. 29.
148. 2 The fold in his garment made by the girdle.
149. 3 The earliest example of the practice now known as the Rosary.
150. 4 See Ch. XVIII. He was so called "because he was a citizen and was of Alexandrian origin," Soz. III. 14. That politiko&j = Alexandrian is striking testimony to the position of Alexandria in relation to the rest of Egypt.
151. 5 In his note on this passage (II. 198) Butler collects the evidence for the observance of Saturday and Sunday in Egypt. He concludes that there was "a practical co-ordination of the Saturday and Sunday."
152. 1 Cf. Athanasius, Vit. Ant. 12, where Antony goes to the mountain, 49 and 50, where he withdraws to a high mountain, three days and three nights away, and 91: "but he... having bidden farewell to the monks in the outer mountain, entered the inner mountain, where he was accustomed to abide." The outer mountain, at Pispir near the Nile, is here meant.
153. 2 Just south of Cairo; cf. I Peter v. 13, which conceivably refers to the Egyptian Babylon.
154. 3 I.e. Heracleopolis.
155. 1 sxolastiko&j. The word is also used in the specialized sense of ' advocate."
156. 2 e0k tw~n e0gkukli/wn paideuma&twn, the general education of the Greek before he specialized on professional studies.
157. 3 Reading pro_j sumpa&qeian with one MS. Butler's text, pro_j somfora&n ( tw~n e0ntugxano&ntwn) is difficult.
158. 4 The phrasing is reminiscent of Lk. x. 34.
159. 1 sxa&sta. Butler marks as corrupt or of uncertain meaning; Lucot renders "assassin."
160. 1 Butler prefers this to ''thirtieth," the other reading, since Greek custom, ancient and modern, is to celebrate the departed on the fortieth day. Cf. XXXIII. 4.
161. 1 It looks as if this vision was suggested by some picture with which Antony was familiar. Dr. Wallis Budge writes to me as follows: "The symbolism is certainly Egyptian. The god referred to is probably that which we see in the vignettes of the seventeenth chapter of the Book of the Dead standing with his body raised to heaven by the side of the Lake of Maat, wherein souls were tested. The Copts made it the Lake of damned souls. In that Michael used to dip a wing, and all the souls who could cling to it escaped hell. The hawk is the usual bird symbol for the soul." Cf. 3 Baruch x. 1 f. "And when I had learned all these things from the Archangel, he took and led me into a fourth heaven. And I saw a monotonous plain, and in the middle of it a pool of water. And there were in it multitudes of birds of all kinds, but not like those here on earth.... The plain... is the place where the souls of the righteous come;" also Sanhedrin 92b. "And the soul may say: The body has sinned; for since I am separated from it I fly in the air like a bird."
162. 2 Cf. Hist. Mon. XXXI, Soz. I. 13. Reitzenstein, Hellenistische Wundererzählungen, pp. 59-61, discusses this story. Paul the Simple is to be distinguished from Paul the Hermit, whose life Jerome wrote, and who was, according to Jer., Ep. 22, the originator of the monastic life.
163. 1 e0c a)grou~. Cf. Mk. xv. 21, Simon the Cyrenian coming a)p' a)grou~.
164. 2 Greek, au)tou&j.
165. 3 mona&j. Cf. the meaning sometimes given to monai/ in Jn. xiv. 2, "In My Father's house are many stopping-places (on the road to perfection)."
166. 1 o)rgui/aj dekape/nte.
167. 2 tau&thn e0pagagw_n th_n sh~yin, lit. "having brought this nausea on him." So Butler, who however is not certain of the meaning.
168. 3 Lit. " wrinkled," dia_ to_ e)rrutidw~sqai.
169. 1 Dan. iii.
170. 1 Prov. xii. 17 (LXX).
171. 2 Cf. Soz. VI. 29.
172. 1 Ps. ciii. (civ.) 20.
173. 2 The rest of the sentence is: kai\ e0pi\ tosou~to&n me keki/nhken w(j omi/sai me suggene/sqai au)th~|.
174. 3 toi~j gennhtikoi=j mori/oij.
175. 4 toi~j mori/oij.
176. 1 Cf. Soz. VI. 29.
177. 2 The country between Egypt and Cyrenaica.
178. 1 Stephen assumes purgatorial pains even for the righteous.
179. 1 eu)logi/a is used specially of pain bénit, and in a wider sense of religious gifts, such as a monk gives or receives.
180. 2 This proverb, which goes back to Hippocrates, is quoted by several Fathers,
181. 1 Eccl. vii. 16, 7 (LXX).
182. 2 Cf. Cassian, Coll. II. 5, where a monk called Heron is mentioned. It is not certain that they are to be identified.
183. 3 Mt. xxiii. 9.
184. 4 I. e., probably, from Cellia.
185. 1 Ps. cxviii. (cxix.).
186. 2 "The Ladder."
187. 3 kiliki/sia. See XVII. 11.
188. 1 Cf. XVII. 9, where a five weeks' absence is enough to call down punishment.
189. 2 The translation is approximate only; the text is quite uncertain.
190. 3 mhdeni\ mhde\n o(milou~nta.
191. 4 Prov. xi. 14 (LXX).
192. 5 Kata_ skhnh_n a)nqrwpi/nhn, lit. on a human theatre or stage.
193. 6 I. e. guardian angel.
194. 1 "We cannot be certain whether the Athribé here mentioned was Athribis in the Delta, or Atripé, also called Athribis, near Panopolis. But in all probability it was the latter. Atripé was on the west bank of the Nile nearly opposite to Panopolis (Akhmim), at 26° 30' N. Latitude. Here was Schenoudi's great White Monastery, the ruins of which are still standing. Schenoudi established also a convent of nuns at Atripé, and the story in the text may possibly refer to this convent" (Butler).
195. 1 mi/an para_ mi/an. So Turner, who rejects Butler's rendering "once a day."
196. 2 See Mitteis-Wilcken, Grundzüge und Chrestomathie der Papyruskunde, I. i. 273, for the different categories of land, which was classified according as it got an excessive, normal, or deficient supply of flood water.
197. 3 presbute/rouj. See note on XVII. 6. It can hardly mean priests here, though Lucot so translates.
198. 1 Near Denderah on the Nile. See Introduction, p. 23, and Ladeuze, Etude sur le Cénobitisme pakhomien, passim. The error that Tabennisi was an island goes back to some MSS. of Sozomen, III. 14, which have Tabe/nnh nh~soj.
199. 2 He was with Palaemon at the time.
200. 3 Ladeuze considers the Greek Vita Pachomii the source of the other versions, and the Rule in its various recensions to be inferior in authority to the Lives. The angel here seems to him legendary, since he is not mentioned in the Lives (p. 257). But cf. Gennadius, de vir. illus., 7.
201. 1 It is clear from the Lives that the brethren lived in houses, within which each had a separate cell: Ladeuze, p. 263 f.
202. 2 Pachomius himself observed neither the sleeping nor clothing regulations as given here, Ladeuze, p. 264. See Cassian, Inst. Book I. for the dress of the Egyptian monks.
203. 3 The lebitw&n was a sleeveless garment, akin to or identical with the kol&bion.
204. 4 mhlwth_n ai0gei/an ei0rgasme/nhn.
205. 5 koukou&lion. "Un très court mantelet " (Ladeuze). A hood was attached, for it was used to cover the head at meals: see below.
206. 6 ta&gmata.
207. 7 Ladeuze, pp. 264 ff., throws doubt on this classification. It is derived from the Greek alphabet, of which Pachomius was probably ignorant. There is no trace of it in Jerome's Latin version of the Rules. Jerome indeed tells of a special alphabet used by Pachomius in his correspondence with the superiors of the monasteries; but these signs stood for other things besides the classes of monks. "Peut-être est-ce trompé par une mauvaise interpretation de ces lettres de Pakhôme et des supérieurs de ses couvents, que Pallade, superficiellement renseigné d'ailleurs sur les moines de Tabennisi, a inventé la règle que nous avons examinée."
Butler is not convinced by Ladeuze's depreciation of Palladius' version of the Rules (II. 206), and in the Cambridge Medieval History, I. 524 (1911), speaks of it as "probably the most authentic epitome."
208. 1 To exclude professional wanderers, gyrovagi.
In the Lives Pachomius receives visitors from other forms of monasticism freely, Ladeuze, p. 264.
209. 2 No trace of this in the Lives or Jerome: Ladeuze, p. 281.
210. 3 See Butler, II., p. 207 f., for a discussion of these prayers. Palladius' version conflicts with Cassian's.
211. 1 Cf. the Benedictine Rule, which was intended only to be "a little rule for beginners," minima inchoationis regula.
212. 2 Cassian, Inst., IV. I, says more than 5000; Jerome, in prologue to the Latin version of the Rule, 50,000.
213. 3 Cf. XVIII. 13, where the number is given as 1400. The monastery where Pachomius dwelt was Pabau, not Tabennisi; Palladius is in error.
214. 4 The passages in square brackets are apparently genuine, though omitted in some MSS.
215. 1 George Herbert's Country Parson keeps pigs for the same reason (Priest to the Temple, Ch. X.).
216. 2 In point of fact, says Ladeuze (p. 298 f.), they ate together twice a day at the same time.
217. 3 There were three Tabennesiot nunneries; Butler is inclined to identify this one with Tismenae, where there was a monastery of Pachomian monks, mentioned in the Vita Pachomii.
218. 1 Pachomius wrote out the rules and sent them to his sister in the nunnery. At the head of the nunneries Pachomius, and later Theodore, placed an aged and discreet monk to instruct the women and explain the Scripture to them. He was aided by other monks for the services, etc. Ladeuze, p. 303. Cf. Gennadius, de vir. illus. 7: Pachomius scripsit regulam utrique generi monachorum aptam.
219. 2 See Clarke, St. Basil the Great, pp. 104 f,, for a similar arrangement in Cappadocia and Pontus.
220. 3 So no one else was available.
221. 4 They would make the men's clothes, as in the Basilian double monasteries: see Clarke, op. cit. p. 105.
222. 1 Cf. XXI. 15.
223. 2 I Cor. iii. 18.
224. 3 On the shores of the Red Sea. Piteroum may perhaps be identical with Pityrion the disciple of Antony, mentioned in Hist. Mon. XVII.
225. 1 Reitzenstein, Hell. Wundererz., p. 77, says this story is ascribed to Sarapion in the Syriac Life of Sarapion. See XXXVII. 5, which speaks of the continual wanderings of Sarapion.
226. 2 The senior monks who were responsible for the discipline of the nuns.
227. 3 salo&j. "As a title it was bestowed upon certain holy men who feigned idiocy for Christ's sake, the most distinguished of whom was Simeon the Fool" (Sophocles).
228. 4 a)mma~j, the feminine equivalent of a)bba~j.
229. 1. Otherwise called St. John of Egypt. Cf. Hist. Mon. I.; Cassian, Inst. IV. 23-26; Coll. I. 21, XXIV. 26. Lycopolis is the modern Asyut,
230. 1 Cf. a characteristic passage in Gibbon, Decline and Fall, Ch. XXVII.: "Before he formed any decisive resolution, the pious emperor was anxious to discover the will of heaven; and as the progress of Christianity had silenced the oracles of Delphi and Dodona, he consulted an Egyptian monk, who possessed, in the opinion of the age, the gift of miracles and the knowledge of futurity... The accomplishment of the prediction was forwarded by all the means that human prudence could supply."
231. 2 Or "consoling."
232. 1 Butler suggests that Palladius knew Coptic, but not Sahidic, the dialect of Upper Egypt.
233. 2 The h(ge/mwn of the Thebaid, according to Diocletian's arrangements, was responsible to the e parxoj of Alexandria, the civil head of the country. See Mitteis-Wilcken, I. i. 73.
234. 3 See Butler, I. 296.
235. 4 Lk. v. 31.
236. 1 Lk. ix. 12.
237. 1 th~j u(pe\r e0me\ xeirotoni/aj. Or perhaps only = "laying of hands upon me."
238. 2 Chrysostom.
239. 1 Half-way between Memphis and Alexandria.
240. 2 I. e. the traditional site of the appearance of the angels to the shepherds.
241. 1 Palladius' unfavourable opinion of Jerome was reciprocated: see Butler, I. 173 f., and II. 213.
242. 1 Perhaps the most interesting of all Palladius' tales. See Butler, II. 214 f. Abbé Nau has shown that Sarapion, not Paphnutius, converted the famous courtesan Thais. Now the tombs of Sarapion and Thais have been discovered side by side at Antinoë: see Archaeological Report (1900-1901) of the Egypt Exploration Fund, p. 77. The bodies lie in the Musée Guimet at Paris and are probably those of the famous couple.
Reitzenstein, Hell. Wundererz., pp. 64 f., says that the whole story is impossible in its present connexion. An exaggerated modesty characterizes the Egyptian monks, and this is an old Cynic tale put into a Christian setting. Possibly he is right, but he does not seem to allow sufficiently for the fact that "extremes meet." Butler's words are worth quoting: "I had looked upon Palladius' account of Sarapion's life and travels as extravagant and impossible, until a little time ago I met a Hindu Renunciant, a well-educated high-caste Brahmin, who on a religions mission travelled from India to Europe clad in what may be described as pyjamas and a brown dressing gown, with shoes and skull-cap, carrying no money nor anything besides the clothes he wore and an umbrella: he arrived in London with no money, no luggage, no friends, no introductions; yet he managed to effect the purpose of his journey, and said he had no doubt he would get back to India somehow. What Palladius tells of Sarapion's adventures is hardly more wonderful than this."
243. 2 labw&n tina sumpai/kthn a)skhth&n. Reitzenstein finds this suspicious and a sign that the story has been borrowed from an older collection. This female companion incomprehensibly disappears; she is out of place here, but would be quite in place as a subintroducta of an earlier century. Krottenthaler echoes Reitzenstein. It is sufficient to remark that sumpai/ktria and a)skh&tria are the feminine forms.
244. 1 Cf. XXXIV. 4.
245. 1 Reading su&mmaxon with a number of MSS. sunh&goton of Butler's text is difficult to translate.
246. 2 tribwnofo&roi te kai\ birrofo&roi. Syriac, "the free men and the soldiers." The bi/rroj was a coarse outer garment. Lucot (on LXIII. 2) quotes Herwerden, who translates it sagum, a garment worn by servants, also by soldiers; and the lex vestiaria of the Code of Theodosius (382) which allowed slaves to wear only the birrus and cucullus.
247. 1 To keep as a sacred relic.
248. 2 Reading tina tw~n prw&twn with Turner.
249. 3 I. e. seasickness.
250. 1 For a sketch of a virgin living a similar life at Rome, see Jerome's account of Asella in Ep. 24.
251. 2 Cf. Gal. vi. 14.
252. 1 Cf. Gal. i. 10.
253. 2 So far from this being an incredible demand, it was frequently done by both sexes in the early days of the Quaker movement.
254. 3 There is MS. authority, including the Syriac Vit. Sarap., for "in the desert."
255. 4 For Evagrius see Socr. IV. 23; Soz. VI. 30; Gennadius, de vir. illust. ii; Butler, I. 86 f., 101 f., 131 f., II. 216 f.; Zöckler, Evagrius Ponticus; Bardenhewer, Patrologie (1910), 222 f. Of his voluminous works only fragments remain in Greek and Latin, having been suppressed for their Origenistic tendency. For the same reason the present chapter is omitted in some MSS. of Palladius. There is a considerable amount of material in Syriac and Armenian for the future critical editor of Evagrius.
256. 1 Wisd. iv. 13.
257. 2 Basil's Pontic monastery was in the diocese of Ibora: Greg. Nyss. In XL. Mart. (P. G. XLVI. 784).
258. 3 The normal sphere of a bishop's jurisdiction was a city with its dependent lands. In districts like Cappadocia, which had never been thoroughly Hellenized, cities were rare and xwrepi/skopoi (country-bishops) were accordingly appointed for the sake of practical convenience. See Turner in Cambridge Medieval History, I. 146.
259. 4 Not Gregory of Nyssa, as Palladius seemed to say, in contradiction of Soz. VI. 30, before the true text was established.
260. 5 A.D. 381.
261. 1 ei0dw&lw| peripagh~nai gunaikikh~j e0piqumi/aj. The rendering given hardly makes sense. Can peripagh~nai mean "was beset," "fixed all round"?
262. 2 To_ e0pixairesi/kakon. Exactly the German Schadenfreude,
263. 1 I. e. the gospel on which the oath was made.
264. 2 That is, from the clerical to the lay. But the text is difficult and probably corrupt.
265. 1 komi/atoj zwh~j. So Turner, who quotes Acta S. Perpetuae: an passio sit commeatus.
266. 2 I. e. clerical or monastic clothes.
267. 3 Turner thinks that the MSS. discovered at Oxyrhyncus do not betray any characteristic style; so this must refer to some sort of handwriting reserved for MSS. de luxe.
268. 4 The Antirrhetica, or "Answers," were in eight books. Turner, following the Coptic and later versions, considers the three books referred to in the text to have been (a) the Priest, (b) the Monk, (c) Answers. But see Butler, II. 218.
269. 1 Palladius was present at his death, at Cellia in 399 or 400. There are variants, but h(mi=n is reasonably well attested.
270. 2 This last sentence is quoted by Socrates (IV. 23) from Evagrius' work, The Monk.
271. 1 Cf. X. 8, Soz. VI. 29.
272. 2 See Butler, II. 197.
273. 1 Who are frequently recorded in Genesis as digging wells.
274. 2 See Soz. III. 16, and D.C.B.
275. 1 Passages enclosed in square brackets are translations of Butler's Greek text, which is here a critical reconstruction.
276. 2 Cf. XXXVI. 6.
277. 3 Comes was a word of wide meaning. "Constantine... used it as a honorific designation for officers of many kinds, who were not necessarily in the immediate neighbourhood of an Augustus or Caesar, but were servants of the Augustus or Augusti and Caesars generally, that is to say might occupy any place in the whole imperial administration."----Reid in Camb. Med. Hist. Vol. I. ch. 2.
278. 4 I. e. riches; cf. Mt. xix. 24.
279. 1 Cf. LIV. 4.
280. 2 See Soz. III. 14. Ephraim Syrus' Life of Julian is extant in Greek.
281. 1 I.e., as in the Syriac, "until the third hour."
282. 1 Probably to be identified with Pope Innocent I. He is mentioned in Basil, Epp. 258, 259, and Athanasius' letter to Palladius (P. G. XXVI. 1167). But the Palladius mentioned by Athanasius and Basil is not the author of the Lausiac History. (Butler, II. 219 f.)
283. 1 I. e. Bethany, as in the Pilgrimage of Etheria.
284. 2 See XLI. 2.
285. 1 th~j tetra&doj tou~ gra&fein.
286. 1 See also LIV. Besides Palladius, Paulinus of Nola, Ep, 29, is our chief informant about Melania.
287. 2 But see Rufinus, Apol. II. 26: "She was the granddaughter of the consul Marcellinus." See also Paulinus.
288. 3 au)goustali/ou, the praefectus Augustalis.
289. 1 karaka&llion, Latin caracalla, a long tunic or great-coat made with a hood (Lewis and Short).
290. 2 kapni/zein. (Butler marks this word as corrupt or of uncertain meaning.)
291. 3 kaqa&per i9e/raki tw~| tu&fw| kexrh~sqai.
292. 4 Palladius takes Rufinus' part unhesitatingly in the famous quarrel between him and Jerome.
293. 5 The long-continued Antiochian schism; unless the theory of Tillemont is right, according to which Paulinus should be Paulinianus, Jerome's brother, who was forcibly ordained by Epiphanius in 394 in defiance of the diocesan, John of Jerusalem.
294. 1 It is uncertain whether this Chronius is to be identified with the Chronius of VII. and XXI.
295. 2 See Butler, II. 224 f. for the various monks of this name.
296. 1 Rom. xii. 8.
297. 1 Ps. xlix. (1.) 16.
298. 2 Ps. cxviii. (cxix.) 66 (LXX),
299. 1 Gen. iii. 1.
300. 2 Job vi. 6.
301. 3 Job. xl. 3.
302. 4 2 Cor. xii. 7.
303. 1 Jn. v. 14.
304. 2 ko&pron.
305. 3 Rom. i. 28.
306. 4 Rom. i. 21, 26.
307. 5 Lucot aptly quotes the inscription of the Canaanite refugees in Africa, recorded by Procopius: "We are they who fled before Joshua the robber, the son of Nun."
308. 6 Cf. i Macc. xvi. 15. Simon and his sons go down to Jericho and are received "into the little stronghold that is called Dok."
309. 7 To be identified with the chorepiscopus of Bas., Epp. 24 and 291.
310. 1 Cf. Basil's sermon De Iudicio Dei, 214E, in which he contrasts the Church distracted by its divisions with a swarm of bees he once saw "following their own king in good order." The Greeks generally mistook the sex of the queen bee, though, as Sir W. M. Ramsay points out (Hastings, D. B. V. 116 f.), the bee which symbolizes the goddess of the Ephesian cult is clearly feminine.
311. 2 Reading to_ plh~qoj, which is necessitated by the sense.
312. 1 Gal. iii. 28.
313. 2 Cf. Soz. VI. 34.
314. 1 Cf. XLI.
315. 2 kosmiko&j.
316. 1 Ch. XLVI.
317. 2 In point of fact Melania had two other sons.
318. 1 Butler dates this return to Rome in 398. Melania landed at Naples and went first to see Paulinus at Nola (Paulinus, Ep. 29).
319. 2 I Cor. xv. 32; Ign. Rom. 5.
320. 3 I St. John ii. 18.
321. 1 filokalhqei=san.
322. 2 The sack of Rome by Alaric in 410. Cf. Gibbon, Ch. XXXI. "The edifices of Rome, though the damage has been much exaggerated, received some injury from the violence of the Goths,... Some truth may possibly be concealed in his (i. e. Orosius') devout assertion, that the wrath of Heaven supplied the imperfections of hostile rage, and that the proud Forum of Rome, decorated with the statues of so many gods and heroes, was levelled in the dust by the stroke of lightning." Palladius' evidence is contemporary and deserves respect.
323. 3 Turner points out that this is a continuation of Ch. LIV; Butler agrees.
324. 4 I. e. Palladius and Melania.
325. 5 Jerusalem was called Aelia Capitolina by Hadrian in 136 A.D. after the suppression of the Jewish rebellion.
326. 6 pugmh~|. Cf. Mk. vii. 3. "Probably the only allusion in patristic literature " (Turner).
327. 1 Omitted by leading authorities for the text, as in the other places where he is mentioned by Palladius.
328. 2 I Tim. vi. 20.
329. 1 Cf. Heb. xii. 16.
330. 2 Is this one of the rare traces in the later Church of the influence of the compromise of Acts xv. 20?
331. 1 Eph. iv. 26.
332. 2 From 406 onwards.
333. 3 Ch. LXI.
334. 1 Cf. XXI. 3.
335. 2 a)peta&cato---suneta&cato.
336. 3 From here to the end of section 3 the Greek given in the textual note to Butler's text is translated, in accordance with Butler's later judgment.
337. 4 Prov. ix. 12(LXX).
338. 1 Cf. Cassian, Coll. V. 12. "But in one matter vainglory is found to be a useful thing for beginners. I mean by those who are still troubled by carnal sins, as for instance, if, when they are troubled by the spirit of fornication, they formed an idea of the dignity of the priesthood, or of reputation among all men, by which they may be thought saints and immaculate; and so with these considerations they repel the unclean suggestions of lust, as deeming them base and at least unworthy of their rank and reputation; and so by means of a smaller evil they overcome a greater one."
339. 2 I. e. "Mother."
340. 1 martu&rion.
341. 2 Not mentioned elsewhere.
342. 3 Palladius, the author.
343. 1 See Butler's notes, II. 231-3, on Melania, and his illustrations from the Vita Melaniae Jun.
344. 2 1 Cor. vii. 16.
345. 1 2 Tim. iv. 17.
346. 2 Apparently to be interpreted literally; but perhaps metaphorically in allusion to Mt. xix. 12.
347. 3 They were really at Bethlehem when Palladius wrote.
348. 1 405.
349. 2 "At the head of each Dioecesis was placed an officer who bore the name vicarius, except in the Eastern prefecture" (Reid).
350. 3 Cf. Soz. V. 6.
351. 1 biri/n ( = birro&n). See note on XXXVII. 6.
352. 2 See D.C.B., art. "Athanasius," for the history of the time. Athanasius may have hid for a little while in a virgin's house, but the story as it stands is unhistorical.
353. 1 Eus. H.E. VI. 17 tells the story in similar words. See Swete, Intr. to the O.T. in Greek, pp. 49, 50. Symmachus lived towards the end of the second century. The book probably would be the Bible, arranged in sti/xoi, lines or verses.
354. 2 Nothing is known of this story from other sources. Hippolytus was not, of course, gnwri/mou tw~n a)posto&lwn.
355. 1 neani/skw| magistrianw~|.
356. 1 h} a)po_ komh&twn. Such expressions are common in Palladius. They mean that the man had held the dignity mentioned, or that he came of a family which had held it.
357. 1 I. e. the gospel-book that tells of Christ.
358. 1 h e0mauth_n diskeu&sw. I do not understand this word.
359. 1 It is implied that marriage was impossible even to one in minor orders. Priests' children, born probably before ordination, are mentioned in XXXVIII. 2, XLI. 4, LXX. 1.
360. 1 A transparent device by which Palladius speaks about himself.
361. 1 2 Cor. xii. 5, the passage which has suggested this literary device.
362. 1 Mt. iv. 9.
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The Dialogue of Palladius concerning the Life of St. John Chrysostom (1921). Introduction by Herbert Moore. Pp. vii-xxv.
The Dialogue of Palladius concerning the Life of St. John Chrysostom (1921). Introduction by Herbert Moore. Pp. vii-xxv.
The subject of the Memoir
The teaching of the Dialogue
The author
The treatise
The present edition
INTRODUCTION
[by Herbert MOORE]
I. The Subject of the Memoir
This treatise, obviously written by one who had full information, and was an eye-witness of many of the incidents which he narrates, is our best authority for the life of St. Chrysostom; we have other "lives," of no great value, by Theodore, Bishop of Trimithus (c. 680), George, Bishop of Alexandria (c. 620), " Leo the Emperor" (c. 900), and an anonymous writer; and accounts contained in the fifth-century Church Histories of Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret and Philostorgius, the theologian Photius (c. 850), and the pagan writer Zosimus, besides a few other references in ancient authors. From these various sources we are able to draw not only a record of Chrysostom's life, but also a picture of the man himself; and, incidentally, to gather light upon the life of the Church in his days, and information as to uses and observances, some of which have fallen into desuetude, while others are still practised among us.
The more carefully we study his life, the more lovable the man appears, and the more conscious we are of our debt to him, for the noble standard of devotional, ministerial and intellectual Christian life which he so fearlessly, faithfully and outspokenly maintained,1 and bequeathed to us; and the more admirable seems his life, by contrast with the lives of many of his contemporaries, pagan and, alas! even Christian. But he had the defects of his good qualities. "He was a man who in his enthusiasm for virtue was over-bitter, and given to wrath rather |viii than to modest dealings; from the uprightness of his life he took no thought for the future, and from his simplicity of character acted without deep consideration. He used unmeasured freedom of speech with those whom he encountered, and as a teacher greatly benefited his hearers; but was considered by those who did not know him to be arrogant in his behaviour." 2
The Dialogue shows us the grounds on which these criticisms were based, and the author offers various answers to them. "He had qualities admirable in a man of action; what could be more precious than his generous and sanguine enthusiasm? He lacked the command over himself, the coolness and tact, of a politician; we shall often notice this; but if he had possessed these, would he have been Chrysostom?" (Puech).3
It is impossible here to deal with Chrysostom's literary work, which is more abundant than that of any other Greek Church writer. While at Antioch he preached, chiefly during Lent, series after series of homilies, or expositions of Scripture, in which he dealt with most of the books of the Bible. "I think," writes Isidore of Pelusium, "that if the divine Paul had wished to expound his own writings, he would not have spoken otherwise than this famous master; so remarkable is his exposition for its contents, beauty of form, and propriety of expression." Suidas, in the tenth century, says: "Since the world began, no one has possessed such gifts as an orator: he alone merited the name of Golden-mouthed 4 and divine orator." Most of these homilies were taken down by shorthand writers, and apparently corrected by himself. There are also extant a large number of sermons on special subjects, the most famous of |ix which are the twenty-one "On the Statues," delivered at Antioch in 387, when the city was threatened with destruction by the Emperor, in punishment for a disloyal outbreak; and many treatises on moral and theological subjects, including his splendid work "On the Priesthood." Most of his remains are of the period of his life spent at Antioch; at Constantinople he lacked the time, if not the opportunity, for such highly intellectual work.5 A considerable number of spurious works are also attributed to him, including some which were probably forged, or at least misreported, by his enemies, in order to enrage the Empress against him.
II. The Teaching of the Dialogue
Chrysostom's career is one more exemplification of the perennial conflict between the Church and the world. The Church is to act as the salt of the earth, the city set on an hill, the light of the world, the temple of the Living God; her ideals will always be too high even for the saints to attain, but it is the few who reach forth unto those things which are before that raise the average attainments of mankind. Yet she must not break the bruised reed, or quench the smoking flax, by pitching her requirements too high for the practical use of the ordinary man living in the world, and condemning things which God hath not condemned. She may neither make the heart of the righteous sad, nor strengthen the hands of the wicked, by promising them life.
Thus the problem before the Church at all times is to steer her way between the two extremes of undue severity and compliant subservience. Hence men of different temperaments will form different judgments upon Chrysostom's career. One temperament is all for severity, sometimes with the highest motives, sometimes, unconsciously it may be, |x otherwise; it demands asceticism in life, rigour in doctrine, strictness in the enjoyment of the pleasures of the world. Another, with high or (again perhaps unconsciously) with low motives, thinks that men may best be won by being content with a low standard, with an eye to the possibilities of the multitude, rather than of the few; it seeks to teach that all worldly things are gifts of God, richly given us to enjoy. The first condemns the second as truckling to the world; the second looks upon the first as a dreamer of vain dreams. The first rebukes out of season as well as in season; the second marvels at his want of tact.
There can be no doubt which is the point of view taken in this Dialogue. Records of events which so deeply stirred the hearts of men are naturally coloured by the prejudices of their writers; it is hard to believe that all the denunciations of Chrysostom's enemies contained in the treatise were truly deserved. The strong common sense shown in Chrysostom's writings, though sometimes obscured by extravagance of expression and ignorance of economic laws, in regard to the riches, the pomps and the vanities of the world, generally preserved him from the bitterness with which his disciple denounces them. But those who fall short of our author's ideal have "leaped upon the ministry," dealt deceitfully with the word of God, and perverted the Christian teaching. No language is too strong; the priest who has not the virtues of the monk is worthy only of a company of satyrs, or a priesthood of Dionysus. True, " the sword could not be blunt, or the bold word be left unspoken," and Chrysostom did indeed "lift up his voice more clearly than a trumpet." Yet in spite of Palladius' defence of Chrysostom's zeal, it is difficult to rise from the study of the various records without forming the conclusion that in regard to Eudoxia he spake unadvisedly with his lips; it seems impossible to doubt that the charges of comparing her publicly to Jezebel and Herodias |xi were founded on fact. Because his eloquence had stirred the populace to reform, and he had the support of many warm friends, he thought himself, like Savonarola in later days, strong enough to attack her; and the shining of his light in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation was extinguished for ever. Was he right or wrong? We answer the question according to our respective temperaments. Yet whatever be our judgment, we know that the world does, after all, respect high ideals, and unconsciously is raised by them, though it may seem to go on its own way, and prefer to join in the censure upon the outspoken tongue. Chrysostom's life and death were not in vain.
So far as we can judge, making all allowances for the prejudices of our author, Theophilus' motives were not good, but evil. Chrysostom, like Cranmer, appealed to an oecumenical council, which never was held, and never can be held. "This world is a wrestling-ground," and Palladius sees that there is no such rough-and-ready way to solve our problems. We are come to the general assembly of the firstborn, which are written in heaven; but we are also come to God, the Judge of all.
But the world is not only a spiritual force, seductive and attractive, continually tending to drag the ideal down to its own level. It has also its coercive power; its rulers bear the sword, and can help forward or restrain the work of the Church. Its good-will may be won by "tables" or by "flattery," but always with disastrous results. We find Chrysostom and the monks, no less than Theophilus and Atticus, appealing to the civil power, and using it, not as an impartial judge between conflicting parties, but as a means of forwarding their respective views of the doctrine and discipline of the Church. But Chrysostom found at last that the sword borne by the temporal power is two-edged. Theophilus' party gained the upper hand, by a dexterous use of the selfish passions which animate rulers and subjects |xii alike; and the Church never regained her position as a power for righteousness. No check was left upon the absolutism of the Emperor, henceforth supreme in Church and State. No Ambrose said to him, " Thou hast imitated the guilt of David; imitate him also in thy penance;" no Hildebrand could raise the swan-like cry, "I have loved righteousness and hated iniquity, therefore I die in exile." But as the world advances in its conceptions of the worth of the individual, and of his rights and liberties, absolutism becomes impossible, and the long-pent-up forces at last break out in revolution, the more savage in proportion to the repression of the past. "Though the wheels of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small." Our author, like other early historians, may or may not have been right in attributing various disasters to the Divine wrath at the judicial murder of Chrysostom; we see God's Hand in greater things than these. A meeting of forty discontented bishops in a suburb, fourteen hundred years ago, may seem of small importance to us; but it was one of the first steps to the placing of the Church, like the State, under the heel of the Emperors----the conception which has prevailed through the centuries in the Eastern Church.
A certain nameless bishop is represented as paying a visit to Rome, where he has a conversation, lasting several days (p. 148), with a deacon, Theodorus, who has heard only one side of the story, emanating from Chrysostom's enemies, and wishes to know the truth, both as to the facts, and as to the cavils at Chrysostom's personal character, embodied in the charges brought against him at The Oak. Other persons are present during the discussion (pp. 6, 60, 119, 165), one of whom joins in for a moment; and the final result is that Theodorus rejects the disparaging accounts he has received, and utters an eulogy upon the martyred saint. The supposed date of the Dialogue is shortly after Chrysostom's death, as the news of it which has reached the deacon needs confirmation (p. 33). |xiii
The events referred to in the Dialogue may be arranged in historical order thus:----
A.D. PAGE
344-347. Chrysostom born at Antioch 37
His education 37
370. Baptized 38
373. Enters monastery near Antioch 38
381. Ordained deacon at Antioch 39
386.. Ordained priest at Antioch 40
398 (Feb. 26). Ordained bishop at Constantinople 42
Reforms in the Church and in the city 44 ff.
399. Healing of the schism at Antioch 50
400. Revolt of Gainas 122
Eusebius' accusation of Antoninus
117 ff.
401 (Jan.). Visit to Ephesus 125
Deposition of six bishops 127
Theophilus' condemnation of Origenism 54
402. Arrival of the monks at Constantinople 58
403. The Synod of The Oak 65 ff
First expulsion of Chrysostom 73
Theophilus' intrigues 74 ff
404 (Easter----April 16). Tumult in the Church 81
Chrysostom's letter to Innocent 10 ff.
Attempt upon his life 177
(June 20). Second expulsion 85 ff
Burning of the Church 88
Reception of the news at Rome 21 ff
Deputation of Western Bishops 28 ff.
Cruel treatment of Chrysostom's supporters 174 ff.
(Sept.). Arrival at Cucusus 90
407 (June). Removal to Pityus 94
(Sept. 14). Death 96
Accounts are introduced of Olympias (p. 150), of Porphyrius (p. 133 ff.) and of various monks (p. 145). The charges brought against Chrysostom which are |xiv met are those of eating alone (pp. 98, 112), of deposing sixteen bishops (p. 116), of excessive outspokenness (p. 160), of personal attacks upon individuals (p. 163), and of haughtiness and insolence towards clergy (p. 165). The author also moralizes at great length upon various subjects, which will be found in the General Index.
III. The Author
The treatise as it stands is anonymous, but it is generally attributed to Palladius, Bishop of Helenopolis. Its present title is "An historical dialogue of Palladius, Bishop of Helenopolis, held with Theodorus, Deacon of Rome, concerning the life and conversation of the blessed John, Bishop of Constantinople, the Golden-mouthed." And in the margin the words are added, "In other (copies) it is written, Bishop of Aspona."
Thus the title represents, not that Palladius of Helenopolis, or of Aspona, is the writer of the treatise, but that he is the nameless bishop who takes the chief part in the Dialogue. Yet this is nowhere stated. He is described simply as a member of John's synod (pp. 7, 66), from the east (p. 6), though not of Constantinople (p. 150), who had suffered on his behalf (p. 173). Nor can it be intended to identify the bishop with Palladius; it is asserted that it is the bishop's first visit to Rome (p. 6), yet within a few pages (p. 25) that Palladius of Helenopolis had been one of the first who brought to Rome the news of the troubles. He is represented as an old man (p. 33), while Palladius was not forty-five years old at the time of Chrysostom's death. There is nothing except the title to suggest that the interlocutor is Palladius, who is always spoken of in the third person----a fact which some have supposed to forbid the idea of his being the author. The same argument would show that Boswell was not the author of the Life of Johnson. In fact, it is quite clear that the bishop of the Dialogue is an entirely |xv imaginary person. Yet George tells us that he has made extracts from "the Dialogue of Bishop Palladius with Theodore," without naming his diocese; Theodore of Trimuthus also regards him as the bishop of the Dialogue. Neither of these writers had better information than we possess; they simply accepted the statement of the title as we have it.
Palladius, Bishop of Helenopolis (Drepanum, in Bithynia), is known to us as the author of the Lausiac History, an English translation of which, by W. K. Lowther Clarke, is published in the present Series; this consists of a number of brief biographies or anecdotes of worthies, chiefly monks, whom he had known, or of whom he had heard, during his life as a monk in the desert, or in the course of his travels. The Introduction to this work states that it was compiled for the same purpose of moral instruction which is alleged for the Dialogue. He was evidently a friend of Chrysostom, who writes to him from Cucusus, asking for his prayers, and saying that he ceases not daily to be anxious for his welfare (Ep. 113).6 The History shows that he was consecrated Bishop of Helenopolis after leaving the desert, in the year 400, "having become embroiled in the disturbance connected with the blessed John"; 7 the Dialogue gives us the account of his journey to Ephesus (p. 125 ff.), of his visit to Rome (p. 25), his voyage to Constantinople (p. 29), and his exile to Syene (pp. 174, 178). On his return, he lived for two years in Galatia, and (in 417), as Socrates 8 informs us, he was translated as bishop to Aspona, in Galatia. Two years later he wrote his Lausiac History, and some time between 420 and 430 he died. |xvi
IV. The Treatise
The only manuscript copy of the treatise appears to be one of the eleventh century (Bigot in error says the seventh) in the Medicean Library at Florence; the Life of Chrysostom by George contains copious extracts from the work, by which our text may be checked. It was first edited, with a Latin translation, by Emeritus Bigot, in 1680. It is written in late Greek, many words being used in senses unknown to classical authors, and grammatical mistakes are frequent. The historical order of events is disregarded, as it is the chief object of the author, not so much to write a biography, as to set forth an ideal, to stimulate his readers to follow the good example of the saint, and to warn them against improperly seeking the priesthood (p. 173).
It is cast in the form of a dialogue, a recognized method of presenting a moral treatise. Chrysostom's famous work On the Priesthood is so written; the "liberal education "----of which Palladius both here and in the Lausiac History speaks with admiration-----which he had received certainly included the dialogues of Plato, and it was natural to him to use this vehicle of thought. Palladius' love for his master led him to follow his example; but he had not his knowledge of Plato, or his ability, and at times the Dialogue is somewhat wearisome, and the form unsuitable to the subject. He cannot do two things at once----give a memoir of a good man, and compile a moral treatise; when he introduces long accounts of historical incidents, and, above all, the letter to Innocent (p. 10), he makes a wide departure from the methods followed in the Platonic dialogues which have a similar purpose to his own, such as the Apology of Socrates and Crito. We forget that we are reading a dialogue, and have a sense of annoyance when the deacon interrupts with his jejune questions and remarks.
The titles of ancient writings are frequently |xvii unreliable. I take it as probable that something of this sort occurred; the original heading was simply "An historical dialogue of Palladius"----that is, " by Palladius." Some copyist, noticing that the chief interlocutor was a bishop, and that "Palladius, Bishop of Helenopolis," was mentioned in the treatise, supposed that the indication of authorship was meant to identify the imaginary character in the Dialogue, and took upon himself to add the rest. Then a later scribe, who knew that Palladius, the author of the History, had been translated to Aspona, inserted the correction. The title "Golden-mouthed," at least, is unquestionably an addition; it took the place of "John" in common parlance at a later time----about the middle of the fifth century. This addition casts suspicion upon the rest of the heading. But why should Palladius of Helenopolis have been picked out as the interlocutor from all the Eastern bishops mentioned, unless there was a tradition, or more probably written evidence in the heading as it then stood, specially connecting a Palladius with the treatise, not as interlocutor, but as author? There certainly was such a tradition; in a list of eighteen persons who wrote on the life of Chrysostom, contained in a "very ancient codex" examined by Petavius, "Palladius, Bishop of Helenopolis," is included; Photius says that "Palladius was a bishop, and wrote of Chrysostom's doings in the form of a dialogue."
Palladius was by no means an uncommon name at the time; Dom Butler finds eleven persons who bore it. If the author was named Palladius, the question arises: Was this Palladius the Bishop of Helenopolis, the author also of the Lausiac History, or another man of the same name? Bigot goes so far as to suggest that another Palladius succeeded the Lausiac author at Helenopolis, and wrote the Dialogue.
The learned Benedictine, Dom Cuthbert Butler, Abbot of Downside Abbey, to whom we owe an |xviii edition of the Lausiac History (Cambridge, 1904) which for accurate scholarship and minute research ranks with the finest works of the kind ever issued, forms the conclusion that both writings have the same authorship (in his monograph Authorship of the Dialogus de Vita Chrysostomi, Rome, 1908). Bardenhewer says 1 that " the author of the Lausiac History is easily identified with the biographer of Chrysostom," though, for reasons which he does not give, he adds that "he must not be confounded with the Bishop of Helenopolis." He had not the advantage of reading Dom Butler's work, which shows conclusively that the Lausiac History was written by this bishop.
Abbot Butler first weighs the evidence of style, and admits that there is a wide difference, not only in vocabulary, but also in use of phrases and manner of diction generally. We know that an author is usually rather proud of a telling word or phrase, and is apt to repeat it again and again; and every one has little tricks of expression, which are apt to occur all through his various works. About seventy words in Dom Butler's Index appear in the Dialogue; but many even of these are common in Patristic literature, and a great many curious words, as well as a great many characteristic expressions and phrases, are found in the one, not in the other. Mr. Clarke remarks that a distinguishing feature of Palladius 9 style is his incessant use of the particle οὖν; this is not the case in the Dialogue. The Dialogue abounds in grammatical mistakes; the author continually forgets the construction with which he began one of his long sentences, and changes the subject in its course. Few such errors occur in the simpler narratives of the History.10 The Dialogue has many more quotations from Scripture, even in proportion to its length (219, as against 50). This is partly because |xix in the non-historical portions the author is justifying Chrysostom's actions by scriptural precedent; but while the quotations in the History are brief, in the Dialogue they are sometimes very lengthy. Only eight are common to both treatises, though in two other cases words from the same context are quoted to the same effect.
On the other hand, Butler tells us that Dr. Zöckler speaks of "the essential similarity of style," 11 and that Dr. Preuschen considers the dissimilarity not sufficient to disprove common authorship. The reader of one constantly meets with strange words, or uses of words, or phrases, which recall the other; he feels that the writer who devised, or appropriated, one set of words or expressions was capable of doing so with the other. If we do not find so many "tricks of expression" as we should expect, we certainly find a large number.
Butler prints side by side thirteen such noteworthy phrases, showing a remarkable amount of similarity. I have collected about seventy more, which may be found through the key-words given in my Index I.; many other verbal coincidences might be added. Further, Butler brings out a still more striking point: that both authors (if they be two) use the same expressions about the same persons and things. I think that any reader who takes the trouble to compare, not only the words and usages of words, but the phrases and passages in which they occur, in the respective treatises, will see how unlikely it is that two separate authors should have used so many identical expressions and descriptions. Even one who does not know Greek will agree that so many characteristic phrases occurring alike in Coriolanus and in Cymbeline would be a strong argument for identity of authorship.
Style, however, is largely a matter of taste; Abbot Butler's scholarly instinct leads him to attach more |xx weight to the comparative use of Scripture texts. In both treatises the quotations are made freely, more particularly in the Dialogue, variations being introduced which are not found in any existing MS. It must not be supposed that ancient writers habitually "verified their references." There was no Authorized Version in those days, and the discovery of a number of passages in the cumbrous roll-volumes of manuscript Scriptures, undivided into chapters and verses, without the help of a concordance, would require great time and trouble. We have to compare the use of Scripture by ancient writers with that of a preacher, rather than with that of a writer, of to-day.
But we know that the monks, of whom Palladius was one, devoted much of their time to committing the sacred writings to memory (pp. 131, 149); many knew whole books by heart (Pall., L. H., xi., xxvi., xxxvii.). Quotations may thus be regarded as tolerably well representing MS. texts; at least, it is generally more or less clear when a variation is due to defective memory, when to difference in the original documents. Thus our author gets into trouble over his quotation from Ezek. xxxiv., in which he evidently trusted to his memory; the two long passages from Deut. xxxiii. and Ezek. ix. present but slight variations from the text, and one of these (Deut. xxxiii. 16, 17) is of such a nature as to suggest that it was found in the text the author used.
Dom Butler points out that in both treatises St. Matt. xi. 18 is combined with St. Matt. xxi. 32, and that in each case the quotation is prefaced with "in reproach." Also that St. Mark ii. 16 is combined with St. Matt. ix. 11; both in a manner which has no MS. support or literary parallel. Both quote 1 St. John ii. 18, with the remark that "it was the last hour 400 years ago." It is almost incredible that this should be mere coincidence.
Here again I have carried Dom Butler's argument further. An examination of the O.T. quotations in the two treatises shows that where such variations |xxi occur from the text of the LXX known as "B" (which Dr. Swete considers nearest the original version) as are obviously not due to lapse of memory, but are confirmed by MSS. which we possess, these variations are all found in one, or both, of the MSS. known as "Aleph" or "A." 12 It would certainly be strange that, with the multiplication of copies of the Septuagint which must have taken place by A.D. 400, two different writers should have stumbled upon the same texts.13 It is specially remarkable that in one text (Ecclus. viii. 9) inaccurately quoted from memory in both treatises, exactly the same alteration of words, and exactly the same alteration of order, appears in both. Is not this just what we find in the habitual misquotations in which a preacher of to-day is found to persist?
Again, the author of the Dialogue, like Palladius of Helenopolis, has seen Egyptian temples (p. 36); he has conversed with Hierax (p. 145); he is one of the forty bishops who struggled on Chrysostom's side; he is full of admiration for monks; he knows the same people----Isidore, Ammon, Dioscorus, Chronius, Macarius, Olympias.14 Finally, the knowledge of Palladius' doings shown by the writer is extraordinary, if he was other than Palladius himself. In four passages he gives a vivid and minute account of incidents in which "Palladius of Helenopolis" is stated to have taken part: the deputation to Constantinople (p. 29), the incidents connected with the Synod of The Oak |xxii (p. 66 ff.), the mission to Ephesus (p. 125 ff.), and the journey of the Eastern bishops (p. 178), which continues the narrative of the deputation. Only the account of the death-bed scene approaches these; details of this he would easily obtain. And he not only uses the same literary devices as in the History (such as "a soldier told me," "they say,"----p. 178----"it is said") when recording incidents of which he was an eyewitness; but once (p. 29) he forgets that he is writing anonymously, and passes, like the author of the History, from indirect to direct narration, as St. Luke does in the Acts. We note that in both treatises proverbs and sententious observations are frequent, and that in both an inordinate amount of space is devoted to food and drink----or abstinence from them.
It is, of course, possible that some later writer "edited" the original work. It may be fanciful to suggest that pains seem to be taken to avoid the use of the particle "therefore," as though the author, or his editor, had deliberately substituted other connecting words; the particle appears at times in several sentences together, as if the self-imposed rule had been forgotten. But we may account for the difference of style which has led some to deny to the author of the History the authorship of the Dialogue, by considerations of the difference of subject, the lapse of time, and the likelihood of his employment of an amanuensis.
There is no need to argue the probability that the smaller work preceded the greater, since the design of both is stated to be the same----to edify readers by setting before them high examples of the Christian life. When the author found that the brief records of the History proved of interest and value, he would naturally try to do the same thing on a larger scale with the life of a single man, the most eminent Christian of the day. He could not write a lengthy treatise at Syene, if only for the want of "prime parchment" (p. 173), and is not likely to have done so during his stay in Galatia, with his mind |xxiii distracted by current events, and his uncertainty as to his future. The reference to Theophilus (who died in 412) on p. 190 does not necessarily imply that he was still alive; on the other hand, the mention of a collection of Chrysostom's writings, especially of his letters (p. 100), seems to demand a certain lapse of time.
Palladius wrote his History, as we saw, when he was about fifty-three years old. He had gone about, like Herodotus, with a notebook----mental, if not material----from which he afterwards drew his narratives and tales. Probably he had often rehearsed them in conversation, as men do, to fellow-travellers, and to little knots of friends interested in the monkish life, in the winter evenings, and wrote them down much as he had told them by word of mouth. Hence the "simple and natural air" of which Tillemont speaks. But in the Dialogue he is setting himself a more serious task. He is aiming at the standard set him by his models, Plato and Chrysostom himself; the author of a chatty volume of reminiscences naturally adopts a more grandiose style when making a solid contribution to literature. But he had not the gifts to do this successfully; he falls into the "more affected style of a man who has some taint of naughty rhetoric" 15 (Tillemont). His mind had been widened, and his vocabulary enlarged, by his intercourse with men, since the days when, as a monk, he had conned over the materials of his History; but the expressions which he had used of his friends were still connected with them in his mind.
But more. He had lived a hard life; after thirteen years of ascetic toil as a monk, he had travelled through Palestine, to Constantinople, visited Rome, suffered on Chrysostom's behalf, endured a trying journey to Syene, and there spent six years in exile. What had been the effect of these years of hardship upon his health, and especially upon his eyes, in the sand and glare of Egypt? |xxiv
We have spoken of the kind of grammatical errors which are frequent in the Dialogue; are they not just such as might be expected to occur if a man who was more or less accustomed to writing for himself was dictating to an amanuensis? Not being able to see his sentences as they rolled from his pen, his thoughts wandering while the scribe committed them to paper, he would be very likely to fall into such mistakes. In several places where the text needs correction, the slips seem to be due to mishearing as much as to mis-copying; in one passage especially (p. 108) the words are thrown down almost at random, as if the reciter had gone too fast.
"My conclusion," Dom Butler is good enough to write to me, "has been accepted by the great majority of the critics, though a Dutch professor, Aengenvoort, has contested it." I venture to hope that the additional evidence which I have collected may have the same effect upon the Dutch professor as the arguments of the imaginary bishop in support of the scholarly divine whom he held in honour had upon the deacon. "But if any one can speak more truthfully," by tracing the vocabulary of the author elsewhere in Patristic literature,16 " I will welcome him as a corrector of error and a lover of the brethren."
In any case, the author is so clearly a contemporary, and in many cases a careful eye-witness, of the events which he narrates, that his work may be regarded as a reliable authority for the life of the saint.17
V. The Present Edition
I have followed Bigot's text, as given by Migne (Patr. Gr., vol. xlvii.), though where Migne offers a |xxv good emendation or conjecture, I have not scrupled to avail myself of it, without necessarily calling attention to the matter in the notes.
The notes are somewhat more full than those generally given in this series of translations. It is my hope that the attraction of St. Chrysostom's name, and the simplicity of a biography as compared with a theological treatise, may secure a wider circle of readers from among those who do not make theology and Church antiquities their special study. I have therefore given some information upon points of history and Church life which such readers may not have leisure to investigate for themselves. I have referred to other writers of the time, where their records amplify, or explain, events in the Dialogue, and given a certain number of quotations from Chrysostom's writings, to show how far the author's thoughts were directly influenced by them. Also I have given references to the Lausiac History----not by any means so fully as would be possible, but to keep in the reader's mind the question of authorship, by showing a few of the resemblances which justify the assignment of both treatises to the same author.
The numbers at the top of the page refer to the pages in Migne's text. I have provided headings for the chapters and for divisions within the chapters for the convenience of the English reader.
An excellent Life of Chrysostom was published by Dean Stephens (John Murray, 1880), which supersedes an earlier Life by Neander (1848). St. Jean Chrysostome, by Aimé Puech (Paris: Lecoffre, 1913), a slighter work, combines French insight with French grace of style and phrase, while Dom Chr. Baur has published (Louvain, 1907) a "very complete and conscientious" study of Saint Jean Chrysostome et ses œuvres dans l'histoire littéraire.
[Footnotes renumbered and moved to the end]
1. 1 See especially pp. 154, 113.
2. 1 Socrates, Hist. Eccl., vi. 3. Sozomen has a similar judgment.
3. 2 It is interesting to consider how far he was carried away by the malign influence of Archdeacon Serapion upon his impetuous disposition.
4. 3 "Chrysostomos. "
5. 1 The Homilies on Acts, the Psalms and the Epistles to the Colossians and Thessalonians are of this period.
6. 1 The statement in D.C.B., that John sent his "grateful thanks" to Pinianus, Palladius' host at Rome (L. H., lxi. 5), is incorrect. The thanks are sent (Chrys. Epp. 157-160) to the four bishops of the delegation. The letters and the History both confirm the accounts given in the Dialogue of the visit to Rome and its sequel.
7. 2 Pall., L. H., xxxv. 12.
8. 3 vii. 36.
9. 1 Patrology (Shahan's Transl.), p. 381.
10. 2 But cf. Pall., L. H., Prologue, thirty-eight lines without a full-stop.
11. 1 This is especially noticeable in the passages in the Dialogue which deal with the life of monks, the subject of the History. Dr. Reitzenstein agrees with Dr. Zöckler.
12. 1 Cambridge Companion to the Bible, p. 31; Oxford Helps to the Study of the Bible, p. 25.
13. 2 I do not mean that the writer or writers must have possessed actual copies of either of the MSS. mentioned; there were doubtless many other copies of the original translation, with more or less numerous variations. For instance, two quotations are made----Ps. cxix. 51 and Prov. xi. 4----which are omitted in "B." Both occur in "A"; but the first, at least, must have been in many other copies, as without them the eight verses of the stanza would have been deficient.
14. 3 In both treatises acquaintance is shown with the writings of Evagrius, one of Palladius' companions in the desert.
15. 1 Dom Butler finds some trace of this in the History. The seeds of naughtiness were awaiting development.
16. 1 There are many parallel expressions in Isidore of Pelusium, or whose authorship something more might be said.
17. 2 Since this book was in print, Abbot Butler has again dealt with the question of unity of authorship, with greater fulness and detail, in an article in The Journal of Theological Studies for January 1921, which all Greek scholars interested in the subject should by all means study.
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Early Church Fathers - Additional Texts
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The Dialogue of Palladius concerning the Life of St. John Chrysostom (1921). English translation. Pp. 1-199.
The Dialogue of Palladius concerning the Life of St. John Chrysostom (1921). English translation. Pp. 1-199.
Chapter 1. Introductory
Chapter 2. Chrysostom's Letter to Pope Innocent
Chapter 3. The Emperor of Rome takes action
Chapter 4. The bishop begins his narrative
Chapter 5. The early career of Chrysostom
Chapter 6. The beginning of trouble
Chapter 7. Theophilus, the monks, and Chrysostom
Chapter 8. First expulsion of Chrysostom
Chapter 9. Intrigues and violence at Constantinople
Chapter 10. Chrysostom's departure, and its sequel
Chapter 11. Exile and death of Chrysostom
Chapter 12. A defence of Chrysostom's abstemious habits
Chapter 13. A defence against the charge of tyrannical depositions
Chapter 14. The trial of Antoninus -- Chrysostom's visit to Ephesus
Chapter 15. Six bishops deposed -- Chrysostom's work undone
Chapter 16. Porphyrius
Chapter 17. The virtues of the monks, and of Olympias
Chapter 18. Chrysostom's ideals
Chapter 19. A defence against the charges of pride and insolence
Chapter 20. The sufferings of the saints and the providence of God
THE DIALOGUE OF PALLADIUS
[Translated by Herbert Moore]
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY
The Sin of Self-seeking in Spiritual Things
The gifts of God,1 my excellent brother Theodorus, seem to me to fall into three classes. Some are common to all, and not apportioned to individuals, while others are common to all, yet apportioned. The third class consists of those which are not common to all, nor apportioned to individuals, nor unapportioned, but given as a special privilege to those to whom they have been given.
Deacon. Your opening observation sounds reasonable; please tell us the kind of gifts you assign to each class.
Bishop. The gifts which are essentially noble, without which life would be wretched, are common to all, and not apportioned.
Deac. For example, father?
Bish. First, the God of all, together with His |2 Only-begotten Son, and the Holy Spirit, is common to all, and not apportioned; every one who wishes can by contemplation possess Him in His entirety, without material aids.2 Next to God, there are the divine scriptures, and the supra-mundane powers. Besides these, the sky, the sun, the moon, and all the host of stars, and the air itself, are common, and not apportioned; they are shared in their entirety by all. We need not give further illustrations of the class of unapportioned gifts. The land was at one time common to all, and unapportioned, and so were the streams of water; but since the mad craving for possessions became intensified in the souls of lovers of pleasure, the weightier elements of earth and water came to be apportioned.3
Deac. What you say is very clear; complete your account of the second class, that of apportioned gifts.
Bish. I will; we cannot leave the web of our subject incomplete. Well, gold, and silver, and every sort of metal, and timber, and in short every kind of raw material, are common to all, yet apportioned; for they are not at the unreserved disposal of every one who likes.
Deac. Again a very satisfactory account. I am wondering if you will not be hard put to it to demonstrate your third class, of special gifts. You laid it down, that there are some gifts which are neither common to all, nor apportioned, but are the special privilege of those who are worthy of their bestowal. |3 So make your final flourish,4 and then tell us where you have come from, and the facts in regard to which we desire to learn the truth.
Bish. If it lies in my power, and if I have the requisite knowledge of these matters about which you wish to inquire, I will not hesitate, and will add nothing; but first, I suppose, I will pay off the debt 5 owing from my argument as best I can. Well, you will find that there is no apportionment in virginity, and in the unmarried state generally; these do not belong to the class of gifts common to all, or to that of those which are apportioned. Not every one who desires it is unwedded, but he who is able; for many married people long that they might be in the virgin state, but cannot attain to it, as they are already in wedlock. At the Olympic games, the herald calls him who wishes to run, but crowns only the victor; so it is with chastity, as the gospel says. Peter, you remember, raised the objection to the Saviour's teaching, that "If the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry"; and the Saviour answered, "But it is not for all men to receive this saying, but they to whom it is given." 6 Do you see, that it is not for all, but for those to whom it is given?
Deac. I expected that you would have some difficulty in your demonstration of the special gifts, but it appears that you have won us to your view by your forcible and scriptural language. |4
Illustrations from the Old Testament
Bish. As you have grasped this, I will enrich 7 my argument with other scripture proofs, so that evil-minded people may be persuaded to give up grasping at what they cannot get. We find that in the divine scriptures the priesthood is not common to all, nor apportioned, but is the special privilege of those who are worthy of it. Thus the great-souled Paul declares in his instructions to the Hebrews: "For no man taketh to himself the honour, but he who is called by God; so also Aaron," he says, "did not glorify himself, to be made a high priest." 8 For there were six hundred thousand men, many of them full of zeal; but one, Aaron, was proclaimed high priest, and the miracle of the rod which put forth nuts convinced the mass of the people that the priest was chosen of God. Some, however, in their ignorance of what is good, were bitten with the lust of vain reputation, and supposing that this was one of the common or apportioned gifts, leaped upon the office as self-ordained priests. They received the reward which their madness deserved; they made the very ground upon which their gathering was held bear witness to their wilfulness. It was Dathan and Abiram who were enamoured of the dignity, like men looking upon an harlot; they and their dupes were plunged into destruction beneath the earth, and found their places of assemblage to be their unexpected tomb.
Next, Uzzah, unmindful of the events I have mentioned, was led by the lust of power to fall in love with the office; and one day, as the ark was being carried along the road upon a wagon, it happened that the ox which drew it jolted and shook the ark. Uzzah, who was in attendance, took hold of it with his hand, to prevent the coffer from being |5 overturned. God saw it, and it pleased Him not, as it afforded a precedent to headstrong persons; He prevented this, by smiting Uzzah even unto death, as a warning to posterity to refrain from such folly.
An Illustration from the New Testament
Long afterwards, after the advent of Christ, Simon Magus, of the village of Gethae,9 a cunning professor of the teaching opposed to the truth, really a bad man of wicked life, hit upon a subtle plan 10 to satisfy his lust of power; afraid, apparently, of the punishment which befel these men of old time, he did not wish to reap as they reaped, through sowing as they sowed. So he hid the wolf in the sheepskin, and approached the apostles with flattery, offering them money, so as not to seem to grasp what he was wrongfully anxious to buy, and saying what we should expect of him and his like. "Take this money," he said, "and give me the power of your high office, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive (the gifts of the) 11 Holy Ghost." 12 And he had been baptized into the name of Jesus! The answer of the apostolic band was this: "Begone, man; the grace of God does not allow itself to be sold." And as he continued knocking at the door with his appeals, they said again: "Why buy that which you can get for nothing, if you live worthily of it?" But as he considered the burdens of the life, and his own unwillingness to bear them, and the uncertainty of the matter,13 he again produced the money from his purse, thinking to ensnare the disciples of the Saviour by deceit. He Who takes |6 the wise in their own craftiness 14 expressed His indignation at this by the mouth of Peter. "Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought to purchase the gift of God with money." Yet He offered him the medicine of repentance, applying oil to his ailment, in His long-suffering. "Repent," He said; "it may be that the thought of thine heart shall be forgiven thee. For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity." For God, in His love of souls, wills not the destruction of offenders.
The Characters in the Dialogue Introduced
Now, then, that I have explained my first remarks to the best of my powers, Theodorus of noble name, and deacon of the mysteries of the truth, ask us what you wanted to find out.
Deac. "Where have you come from to give us 15 your company?
Bish. From the east. You may be sure of that, for I have never seen Rome before. 16
Deac. What particular object brought you here?
Bish. My desire for your peace.
Deac. Is our peace different from yours?
Bish. No, it is not different, but. one and the same; the peace which the Saviour has given from heaven, saying to His disciples, "My peace I give unto you." And to confirm His gift of grace He repeated, "My peace I leave to you." 17 The word "give" He applies to His own work, "leave" to the Holy Spirit's; in the Spirit, through Christ, they are to reveal to the Gentiles the knowledge of the Father. But the sad condition of the poor East is like that of a man with his limbs paralyzed, who finds that the vital forces make their way to the |7 healthier parts of his body. Her limbs are paralyzed and unable to perform their proper functions, because concord has fled from her; most of us, her champions and lovers, have become exiles from our country, as we cannot live in our native land safely and quietly, on account of our attachment to the truth. We venture to hope that we may spend among you the few days of life that still remain to us in accordance with the gospel.
Deac. It seems to me that you have been sent, to us, excellent father, by divine providence; for I find that your sorrow is in tune with our troubles. I think that you must be a member of the synod of John the bishop of Constantinople.
Episc. That is so.
Deac. I urge you then, as in the presence of God, to give us a really true account of events there, the details of which we are anxious to hear; remembering, that if you tell us anything contrary to the truth, you will have God as your inquisitor and judge, and will be convicted by us as well, when we learn the discrepancy. For it is not one, or two, or three, or ten persons, but more, who have given us accounts of what has happened at Constantinople; nor were they casual travellers, but some of them bishops, and presbyters, and members of the monastic order. As you may wish to have a short statement of the part the Roman Church has played, I will give you some information on the point.
How the News reached Rome
The first to arrive here was a reader 18 from |8 Alexandria, with letters from Pope 19 Theophilus, notifying us that he had deposed John. Upon reading this letter, the blessed Pope Innocent was somewhat 20 troubled; he condemned the impetuosity and pride of Theophilus, as he had not only written on his own single authority,21 but also had neglected to make it clear why he had deposed him, or who had joined him in the sentence of deposition. He thus found himself in difficulty; he was disinclined to answer the letter, as the case was so obscure. Meanwhile, one Eusebius, a deacon of the Church of Constantinople, who was staying in Rome upon ecclesiastical business, came to Pope Innocent, and presented written memorials,22 adjuring him to wait for a short time, to see the unmasking of the plot. Three days 23 afterwards |9 arrived four bishops of John's party, all devout 24 persons----Pansophius of Pisidia, Pappus of Syria, Demetrius of the Second Galatia, and Eugenius of Phrygia; they delivered two letters, followed by a third, one from Bishop John, one from forty other bishops in communion with John, the last from John's clergy. All three letters agreed in their representation of the disturbance caused by ignorant persons. The substance of John's letter 25 was as follows:---- |10
CHAPTER II. CHRYSOSTOM'S LETTER TO INNOCENT
The Urgent Need for Action
"To my Lord the reverend and most holy Bishop Innocent, John sends greetings in the Lord.
"Your piety 26 has doubtless heard, before the receipt of this letter, of the daring illegalities committed here; for the magnitude of the crime has left no part of the world in ignorance of the cruel tragedy. Rumour has carried the news to the furthest bounds of the earth, and caused everywhere much grief and sorrow. But as the circumstances call not only for lamentation, but for remedial action, and consideration of the steps to be taken to stay this furious tempest raging within the Church, we thought it necessary to instruct my most honoured and devout lords,27 the Bishops Demetrius, Pansophius, Pappus, and Eugenius, to leave their own Churches, and to face the dangers of a long sea voyage, and set out for a lengthy absence from home; to fly to your love, and explain all the facts clearly, so as to arrange for the speediest possible redress. With them we have sent the most honoured and well-beloved deacons 28 Paul and Cyriacus.29 These persons shall take the place of a letter, and quickly inform your love of what has happened. |11
Theophilus reveals his Hostility
"The fact is, that Theophilus, to whose hands has been entrusted the bishopric of the Church of Alexandria, on representations made against him to our most pious king,30 was commanded to appear before him alone; but he arrived with a large company of Egyptians, as if anxious to show, from the very beginning, that he came for war and conflict. Next, on landing at the great and godly city of Constantinople, he did not go to Church, according to the rule which has prevailed from ancient times, or have any dealings with us, or join with us in conversation, in prayer, or in communion, but came off the ship, hurried past the porch of the Church, and went somewhere outside of the city to lodge. We repeatedly invited both him and his companions to make their stay with us (indeed, we had everything ready, including rooms and all proper accommodation); but both they and he refused the offer. We were much perplexed at this conduct, as we could not find any reason for such undeserved enmity; none the less, we did all that could be required of us, and acted correctly, continually inviting him to confer with us, and to say why he, at the very outset, kindled such a conflict, and caused offence to so important a city. But as he still persisted in refusing to state his reason, and his accusers were urgent, the most pious king commanded us to go across to his lodging, and hear his statement of his case; for he was charged with violence and murder, and countless other crimes.
Chrysostom's Correct Attitude
"We, however, had too much respect and honour for the laws laid down by the fathers,31 and for |12 Theophilus himself; and we had in our possession his own letter,32 in which he said that cases ought not to be taken beyond the boundaries [of a province], but the affairs of each province should be dealt with in that province.33 We therefore declined to try the case, and even protested most vigorously.
Theophilus Secures his Expulsion
"But Theophilus seemed to think he was dealing with his old enemies; he summoned my archdeacon 34 |13 in a very high-handed manner, as if the Church was already a widow,35 and had no bishop, and through him brought all the clergy over to his side. Thus the Churches were in a state of disorder; the clergy attached to them were led astray,36 and persuaded to present memorials against us, and egged on to become our accusers. Having succeeded so far, he sent and called us to come before him for judgment, although he had not cleared himself of the charges brought against him; a thing distinctly contrary to the canons and all the laws of the Church. But as we were aware that we were not to come before a judge (we would have appeared ten thousand times before a judge!), but before an enemy and a foe, as his actions before and afterwards showed, we sent |14 to him the Bishops Demetrius of Pisinum, Eulysius of Apameia, and Luppicianus of Appiaria, and the priests Germanus and Serus; we answered with becoming moderation, and said that we raised no objection to a trial, but to trial by an open enemy and foe. Seeing that he had as yet received no charges against us, and had from the first acted as he had, and dissociated himself from Church, and communion, and prayer, and was bribing 37 accusers, winning over our clergy, and leaving Churches without shepherds, how could he with justice mount the judge's throne, which in no sense belonged to him? For it was out of order for an Egyptian bishop to act as judge in Thrace,38 when he himself was under accusation, and an enemy and foe of the accused. Yet he was unabashed by all these considerations, and persevered in his design; when we declared that we were ready to clear ourselves of the charges in the presence of a hundred or of a thousand bishops, and to prove our innocence, shown by the very fact of our offer, he would not allow it. In our absence, in spite of our appeal to a synod, and our request for a trial (it was not a fair hearing, but open hostility, that we wished to avoid), he admitted our accusers, and set free offenders whom I had placed in confinement, and without waiting for them to clear themselves of the charges against them, accepted their memorials, and drew up minutes. All this was contrary to rule, and canon, and order. In fact, to make a long story short, he left no stone unturned, until by |15 sheer force and tyrannical action he drove us from the city and the Church.
Chrysostom's Expulsion and Return
"Late one evening, when I was being escorted through the streets by the whole of the populace, I was arrested by the city governor's agent 39 in the middle of the city, dragged away by force, and put on board a ship, which set sail by night; when I was summoning a synod for a just trial. Who could hear of these doings without shedding tears, though he had a heart of stone? But, as I said before, they call not only for lamentation, but for redress; I therefore appeal to your love, to arise and grieve with me, and do all you can to stay these evils. For there is more yet. Even after my departure, Theophilus did not put a stop to the lawless doings of his party, but girded himself for further action. Our most pious king expelled those who had so shamelessly and unrighteously intruded themselves upon the Church, and many of the bishops, when they observed the lawlessness of my opponents, retired to their own homes, so as to avoid their attacks, as they would an universal conflagration; while we were recalled to the city and to the Church, from which we had been unrighteously expelled, thirty bishops introducing us, and our most reverent king sending a notary for the purpose.40 Then Theophilus, for no rhyme or reason known to us, at once went off like a runaway slave.
The Emperor summons a Synod
"Upon our re-entry into the city, we petitioned the most reverent king to summon a synod to exact |16 retribution for all that had been done. Conscious of his guilt, and afraid of conviction, when the royal letters had been issued throughout the realm and gathered the whole episcopate from every quarter, at dead of night he secretly flung himself into a boat, and so made off, taking all his party with him. Even so, we could not let the matter drop, in the confidence our good conscience gave us, but renewed our request to the most pious king. He did as became his piety, sending a despatch to Theophilus, requiring him to return at once from Egypt, with all his followers, to give an account of what had taken place, and not to think that his unrighteous proceedings, conducted in our absence, with one side only heard, and contrary to so many canons, were sufficient to exculpate him.
Chrysostom's Second Expulsion
"But he paid no attention even to the royal letters, but stayed at home, pleading in excuse a possible uprising of the people and an unfortunate outburst of zeal, on the part, presumably, of some of his supporters; although before the king's letter was issued this same people had loaded him with abuse. But we will not labour this point now; we only mention it to show that his actions proved his guilt.
"However, even after this we did not rest, but persisted in our claim for a trial, with proper inquiry and response; for we were ready to prove our innocence, and their outrageous lawlessness. Now he had left behind some Syrians, who had accompanied him, his fellow-actors in the whole drama. We were ready to face these before a judge, and repeatedly pressed our application, claiming that either minutes of the proceedings should be given us, or the memorials of our accusers, or at least that the nature of the charges, or the accusers themselves, should be made known to us; we were granted none of these requests, but were again expelled from the city. |17
Acts of Sacrilege at Constantinople
"How can I tell you what followed, a tale more harrowing than any tragedy? What words can express it? What ears can hear it without a shudder? While we were pressing the requests I have mentioned, a strong body of soldiers invaded the Church, on the Great Sabbath,41 when evening was fast closing in, forcibly expelled all the clergy who were with us, and surrounded the chancel 42 with arms. Women who were in the houses of prayer,43 unrobed in readiness for baptism on that day,44 fled naked in face of this savage attack, not even allowed to clothe themselves as womanly decency requires. Many of these were even thrown outside injured, and the fonts 45 were filled with blood, and the holy water dyed red from their wounds. |18
"Even this was not the end of the horror; the soldiers then entered the chamber in which the sacred vessels were kept, some of them, we know, being unbaptized,46 and saw all that was within; in the turmoil the most holy blood 47 of Christ was poured out upon the garments of the women of whom I spoke. It was exactly like a barbarian man-hunting raid. The people were driven out into the country, and all the laity fled from the city; high festival though it was, the churches were emptied of their congregations, and more than forty bishops, in communion with us, were driven out, with the laity, for no possible reason. Everywhere, in the marketplaces, the houses, the country districts, were cries, groans, wailings, lamentations, and streams of tears; no part of the city escaped these calamities. Lawlessness reached such a pitch, that not only the actual victims, but even those who had not actually suffered as we did, were distressed in sympathy with us, including not only our fellow-believers, but heretics, Jews, and Greeks,48 as well; everything was in a state of disturbance, and confusion, and lamentation, as if the city had been captured by force of arms. And all this wickedness was done against the wishes of the most pious king, under cover of night, at the instigation of bishops, who were not ashamed to have corporals 49 marching in front of them, instead of deacons.
The Injury to the whole Church
"When day came, the whole city moved outside |19 the walls, and kept the feast under trees and thickets, like sheep scattered abroad. I leave you to imagine all that followed; for, as I said, it is impossible to go into all the details in words. It is especially hard, that even now we have not seen the end of all this long series of crying evils, or even any prospect of it; on the contrary, the evil spreads every day, and we are a laughing-stock to every one----though it would be more true to say that no one, even the most hardened offender against law, laughs----but, as I said, every one laments this new form of lawlessness, the very crown 50 of evils. Who can tell the disorders of the other Churches? For the trouble has not been confined to Constantinople, but has extended into the east. When some evil matter discharges from the head, all the limbs are corrupted; in the same way, now that the evil has begun in this great city, disorder has made its way everywhere, like water from a spring. Everywhere clergy are in revolt against bishops, and as for the lay congregations, some are split up into factions, others arc likely to be so; everywhere we find the throes of evil, and the undoing of the whole world.
An Appeal for Help
"With the whole of the facts before you, my most learned and reverent lords, show, we pray you, the courage and zeal which we expect of you, so as to check this flood of lawlessness which has burst upon the Churches. For if these proceedings become a precedent; if it come to be within the powers of all who wish, to invade other provinces, however distant from their own, and expel whom they will, and to do on their own authority whatever they will; be sure that everything will go by the board, and implacable 51 war will overrun the whole world. |20 Every one will expel his neighbour, and be expelled in turn. To prevent such universal confusion, I beg you to declare in writing, that these lawless proceedings, transacted in our absence, and with only one side heard, while we raised no objections to a fair trial, have no force (as indeed, from their very nature, they cannot), and that those who have been guilty of such lawlessness lie under penalty for breach of ecclesiastical law; while to us, "who have not been arrested, nor convicted, nor shown to be guilty, grant that we may have the benefit of your customary good services,52 and of your love, and your help in every way, as heretofore.
Request for a Trial
"But if these grievous law-breakers, even now, are willing to declare the charges on the strength of which they undeservedly expelled us, let the documents be presented to us, the memorials of our accusers be produced, and an unprejudiced court sit; so let us be tried, and make our defence, and let us show ourselves guiltless, as indeed we are, of the allegations brought against us. For their present proceedings are beyond all order, and all ecclesiastical law and canon. Such outrages have never been known even in heathen courts of justice, or even in a barbarian court. Scythians and Sarmatians would never have decided a case after hearing one side only, in the absence of the accused, when he raised no objections to a trial, but only to personal hatred, and when he asked for judges to any number, declaring himself to be innocent, and was ready in the presence of the whole world to clear himself of the charges, and to show himself to be absolutely guiltless.
"Take all these points, I pray you, into consideration, and make full inquiries of our most reverent brother lord bishops; and take such steps |21 as commend themselves to you. In so doing you will render service not only to us, but to the general welfare of the Churches, and you will receive your due reward from God, Who unceasingly works for the good of the Churches. I address this letter also to Venerius, Bishop of Milan, and to Chromatius, Bishop of Aquileia. Farewell in the Lord."
CHAPTER III. THE EMPEROR OF ROME TAKES ACTION
Innocent calls for a Synod of Inquiry
In answer to this letter, the blessed Pope Innocent sent to each party a formal letter,53 declaring himself to be in communion with them both, at the same time nullifying the judgment supposed to have been given by Theophilus, and stating that another synod, in which full confidence could be placed, of western and eastern bishops, must be summoned,54 first the friends, and then the enemies, of the respective |22 parties to retire from the assemblage, since as a general rule neither of these gives an unprejudiced verdict.
After a few days, Peter, one of Theophilus' priests, arrived, and with him Martyrius,55 a deacon of the Church of Constantinople, who presented letters from Theophilus, and what professed to be certain minutes; in which it appeared that John had been condemned by thirty-six bishops, of whom twenty-nine were from Egypt, seven from other parts. Pope Innocent read these minutes, and finding that the charges were not serious, and also that John had not been present in person at his conviction, renewed his denunciation of the mad fury of Theophilus, in issuing, like an evil discharge, a hasty sentence against an absent man. He dismissed them, therefore, with letters expressing his censure, and besought God with prayer and fasting, that the breach of unity in the Church might be closed, and brotherly love be cemented. The tenor of his letter was as follows:----
"Brother Theophilus, we recognize both you and your brother John to be in communion with us; we expressed our views to this effect in our previous letter. And now, without departing from this our determined policy, we can only write to you again the same message, however many letters you may send us. This is, that unless a proper judgment confirms these childish proceedings, it is impossible for us, without reason given, to separate ourselves from communion with John. If then you are sure of your verdict, meet a synod assembled as Christ ordained,56 and there openly state your accusation under appeal to the canons of Nicaea 57 (for the |23 Church of Rome accepts no other canon); so you will stand on firm ground against all cavil."
Further News Arrives
A little time slipped by,58 and then a priest of Constantinople, Theotecnus by name, arrived, presenting letters from John's synod, of twenty-five bishops or rather more; in which they advised us, that John had been expelled from the city 59 with the help of the military, and sent into exile at Cucusus, and that the church had been burnt. Innocent gave him letters of communion,60 addressed to Bishop John and to those in communion with him, begging them with tears to be patient, as he could not help them owing to the hostile action of certain persons with power to do wrong.
A Foul Charge
A short time afterwards a second messenger arrived, a mannikin, ugly in appearance, difficult to understand; Paternus was his name. He said that he was a priest of the Church of Constantinople; he was in a state of furious excitement, and showed his hostility by his behaviour.61 After loading Bishop John with abuse, he presented letters from a few bishops, Acacius, Paulus, Antiochus, Cyrinus,62 and Severianus, and some others, in which they laid against John the false charge of having set the church on fire. The |24 story seemed to us so palpably false, that John did not even offer any defence in an important synod; 63 Pope Innocent treated it with contempt, and did not think it worthy of an answer.
Chrysostom's Friends denounced by Imperial Edicts
Bish. Be so good as to give me your attention, that I may tell you the exact facts; for most truly, as Elihu says to Job, "The spirit of my belly constrains me" 64 ----meaning by "belly," his mind, filled with words.
Deac. I must first insist upon making complete, as well as accurate, my account of all that has happened among us, most excellent father. Only then can I begin to put my questions to you. Well, after a few days the bishop of the Synadi 65 arrived; he carried no letter, but was qualified to give a harmonious narrative. He said that he had left Constantinople in consequence of the threat conveyed in the royal edict, containing the order that "if any one is not in communion with Theophilus and Arsacius and Porphyrius,66 he is to be restrained from exercise of the episcopal office; and further, if he appears to hold property in money or goods he shall be deprived of it." 67
Later News
Cyriacus was followed by Eulysius, Bishop of Apameia, in Bithynia, who presented letters from fifteen bishops of John's synod and from the venerable Anysius, Bishop of Thessalonica; in which the fifteen |25 bishops described the pillage which had occurred, and was occurring, all over Constantinople, and Anysius declared that he abided by the judgment of the Church of Rome. Eulysius' account agreed with that of Cyriacus.
A month later, Palladius, Bishop of Helenopolis, arrived, without letters, saying that he too had fled from the fury of the civil authorities; he was able to add point to his account by producing a copy of the edict, containing the order, that "the house of any one who conceals, or receives into his house, under any pretext, a bishop or priest in communion with John, is to be confiscated."
After Palladius arrived Germanus, a priest,68 and with him Cassianus,69 a deacon, of John's party, both discreet men, presenting letters from the whole of John's clergy. They wrote that their Church had been subjected to violence and tyranny; their bishop had been expelled with the help of the military, and sent into exile through a plot formed by Acacius of Berea, Theophilus of Alexandria, Antiochus of Ptolemais, and Severianus of Gabala. They also presented a receipt, showing that they had deposited with the magistrates, as witnesses to the deed, namely, Studius the city prefect, Eutychianus, chief of the guard, John the city treasurer, and Eustathius, chief of police, and keeper of the records, valuables in gold, silver, and clothing, by way of clearing Bishop John of the charges laid against him.70 |26
After these came Demetrius, Bishop of Pisinum, for the second time, from a long journey through the east. He announced that the Roman Church was in communion with Bishop John, as shown by letters from Pope Innocent, and brought letters from the bishops of Caria, in which they declared their adherence to the communion of John, and from the bishops of Antioch, appealing to the love of order of the Roman Church, and lamenting the ordination of Porphyrius, as illegally and impiously performed.
Last of all came the priest Domitian, steward 71 of the Church of Constantinople, and one Vallagas, a Nisibian priest, who related the troubles of the monasteries of Mesopotamia, and presented memoranda from one Optatus,72 the prefect, showing that respectable women of the upper classes, deaconesses of the Church of Constantinople, were publicly brought before him, and compelled either to communicate with Arsacius, or to pay two hundred pounds in gold to the treasury. As for the treatment of anchorites and virgins, I dare not speak of that. They could point to ribs scraped upon the rack, and mutilated ears. |27
Honorius Intervenes
Pope Innocent could restrain himself no longer; he sent a letter to the pious King Honorius,73 submitting in detail the main points of the letters. His reverence was deeply moved by this statement, and ordered a synod of the western bishops to be summoned, which should pass an unanimous resolution, to be transmitted to him. The bishops of Italy accordingly met, and petitioned the king to write to his brother and fellow-king Arcadius, that he should command a synod to be held in Thessalonica. This would enable those from both hemispheres, east and west alike, to attend without difficulty, and so secure that a full synod, characterized by good judgment rather than by numbers, should issue an indisputable resolution. His reverence was so much inflamed by this letter, that he wrote to the Bishop of Rome, that he had sent five bishops, two priests, and one deacon, of Rome, to convey his letter to his brother. The import of this letter was as follows:----
Honorius' Letter to Arcadius
"This is the third time that I write to your gentleness, begging you to take measures for redress in regard to the plot against John, Bishop of Constantinople, and so far as it appears, nothing has been done. Once more, then, I address you, by the hands of the bishops and priests, in my anxiety for the peace of the Church, upon which the peace of your kingdom depends, urging you to be so good as to command that the bishops of the cast shall meet at Thessalonica. I may add that our bishops of the west have made careful choice of messengers, beyond the influence of malice or deceit----five bishops, two priests, and a deacon, of the greatest Church, that of Rome. Be so good as to hold them worthy of |28 all honour, so that either they may be convinced that Bishop John was justly expelled, and instruct me to separate from communion with him; or else, if they prove that the bishops of the east were deliberately influenced by malice, they may induce you to break off communion with them. To show you the mind of the westerns in regard to Bishop John, I append two of the various letters they have addressed to me, which are of the same import as the rest; those of the bishops of Rome and of Aquileia. But what I specially press upon your gentleness is, that you require the presence, however unwilling, of Theophilus of Alexandria, who is alleged to be the chief cause of all the trouble; that so the bishops assembled in synod may meet with no hindrance in deciding upon the peaceful settlement which our times require."
CHAPTER IV. THE BISHOP BEGINS HIS NARRATIVE
The Deputation from Rome
So the holy bishops Aemilius of Beneventum and Cythegius, and Gaudentius, with the priests Valentianus and Bonifacius and others, took charge of the letters of Innocent and the Italian bishops, Chromatius of Aquileia and Venerius of Milan and the rest, and of a memorandum from the synod of the whole of the west, and were despatched to Constantinople at public expense,74 accompanied by Bishops Cyriacus, |29 Demetrius, Palladius, and Eulysius. The memorandum was to the effect that John ought not to come up for judgment until his Church and rights of communion were restored to him; so that he might take his place in the synod of his own free will, without any excuse for ignoring the summons.
The Despiteful Treatment of the Delegates
They arrived safely at Constantinople, but returned after four months, reporting proceedings 75 which recalled Babylonian oppression. "We coasted Greece," they said, "and reached Athens; where we were detained by some wretched officer, who at once put us under the guard of a centurion, and forbad us to proceed to Thessalonica," where they 76 proposed to commence their mission by presenting the letters to Bishop Anysius. "So he embarked us," the narrator continued, "in two ships, and sent us off. A violent storm from the south came on, and we were three days without food, crossing the Aegean Sea and the straits, and at the twelfth hour of the third day anchored before the city, near the suburb of Victor. Here we were arrested by the harbour masters, by whose orders we did not know, and taken to the outskirts of the city.77 We were confined in a fortress in Thrace, called Athyra, near the sea, to our absolute torture; 78 the Roman envoys together in one small |30 building, Cyriacus and his companions in others, without even a slave to wait upon us. We were asked for our letters, but refused to surrender them, maintaining that it was impossible for us as delegates to present the letters of the king and the bishops to other than the king himself. As we persisted in our refusal, we were visited first by Patricius, a notary, then by various others, and last of all by a company captain named Valerianus, a Cappadocian, who broke the thumb of Bishop Marianus, and carried off the sealed letter of the king, with the other letters.
"On the following day, messengers were sent to us (whether by members of the royal court, or by Atticus, who was reported to have leaped upon the throne of the Church,79 we do not know), offering us three thousand cash,80 and urging us to accept their offer, and to communicate with Atticus, and say no more about the case of John. We refused the offer, and continued in prayer, that if we could do nothing to bring about peace, we might at least return in safety to our Churches----such was the ferocity we observed in them. That this should be so, God the Saviour made clear to them by various revelations. Paul, the deacon of the holy Emmelius, a very gentle and sensible man, while on the ship, saw a vision of Paul the apostle, saying to him, 'Take heed how ye walk, not as fools, but as wise, knowing that the days are evil.' 81 The dream was a warning against their various unprincipled efforts to persuade us to pervert the truth, by bribes and flattery." |31
Return of the Delegates
"Captain Valerianus came again," our informant said, "and placed us on board a very poor vessel, with a guard of twenty soldiers drawn from different ranks, after bribing the skipper, so it was rumoured, to get rid of his episcopal passengers, and packed us from Athyra at a moment's notice. So we sailed for a long distance, and were like to lose our lives, when we moored off Lampsacus; 82 there we were transhipped, and on the twentieth day brought up at Hydrun 83 in Calabria. As to the whereabouts of the blessed Bishop John, or where were the Bishops Demetrius, Cyriacus, Eulysius, and Palladius, who had accompanied our bishops upon their mission, they could tell us nothing."
The Authors of the Mischief
Bish. Come now, you have had your say, most reverent sir. Now give me your attention, and listen carefully to what I have to tell you; and I will make known to you point by point the public disturbances, worthy of a company of satyrs, which have characterized the whole tragedy, and the sources from which the delirium arose, and the point at which our enemies expected to stop----but they have not stopped yet. Well, the fountain-head and beginning of all the troubles, I suppose one must say, was the devil, the hater of good, who always opposes the reasonable 84 flocks of Christ, pitilessly harassing the experienced shepherds with various kinds of torments, just as the King of Egypt treated the male children |32 of the Jews, and seducing the impostors, the false shepherds, with the deceits of earthly pleasures. The channels conveying the foul effluence, as all the round world knows, are Acacius,85 Antiochus,86 Theophilus, and Severianus,87 who are called what they are not, and really are what they cannot bear to be called; and some of the clerical order, two priests and five deacons, some of them gathered from the unclean, some from the malicious----I do not know if one can safely call such people priests or deacons. Then there are two, or at the most three, from the royal court, who strengthened Theophilus' party, lending them the support of the military; and three women, besides those who are well known, widows, left wealthy, possessed of money made by extortion, to the loss of their own salvation, husband-baiters and disturbers of the peace.88 The three are Marsa, wife of Promotus, Castricia, wife of Saturninus, and |33 Eugraphia,89 an absolute maniac. For very shame, I will say no more. These are the men and the women, sluggard-hearted in the matter of the faith, who have formed themselves into a kind of drunken regiment, united in their hatred of Christian teaching, and have organized a flood of destruction against the peace of the Church.
Theodorus desires the Truth, and Nothing but the Truth
Deac. I understand. Now then, father, I beg you to tell us, as in the presence of God, why they hated Bishop John, and what grounds he had for persistently vexing such highly placed people; and let us know where he began his career, and how he reached the episcopal throne of Constantinople, and how long he held office, and his character, and how he came to his death, if it is true that, as we hear, he has fallen asleep.90 True, the man is universally held in respect and honourable memory; still, I make it a rule not to believe hastily in rumours, until their truth is confirmed by those who have sufficient knowledge to bestow blame or praise.
The Tests of Truth
Bish. I commend your love of accuracy, most truth-loving gentleman and man of God, Theodorus, but I do not accept your distinction. You ought to have been satisfied (excuse a personal remark) by the sight of my white hairs,91 and by the office I hold, that you had the truth laid before you; but as you have not done so, but a second time call God to be my judge, do promise me an unprejudiced hearing, at least from now, and let me not pipe my chants to no purpose. I know what is written in |34 the divine law----" The Lord shall destroy all them that speak leasing," 92 and in the apostle John, "He who speaketh a lie is not of God," 93 and again in David, "For the mouth of them that speak lies is stopped." 94 It is true that a liar does harm to the man who believes him; but it is also true that he who believes him does wrong to the liar, by being ready to trust him. As both are equally guilty, let neither of us do wrong to his neighbour. It is a virtue in a speaker, to speak the truth, and a virtue in a hearer, to test unrighteous statements; for the Scripture says, "Be ye reliable money-changers," 95 rejecting the spurious from among the genuine coins. We are not to receive everything we hear merely because it rings true,96 but to weigh it by the testimony of the facts, whether it be spoken or written, with a good conscience, and in the fear of God. Grave is the danger from ears and tongue; this is why God, the good artificer, has caused the tongue to be guarded by two lips, and fixed the rampart of the teeth within, as a secure defence to moderate its activity (as it is written, "Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth, a door of confinement about my lips, that I offend not with my tongue "),97 while He has bored the channel of the ears in spiral form. The significance of this shape is, that words do not enter too quickly, as the time occupied by their winding course is sufficient to deposit the crass matter of falsehood, and the sludge of malice, which arc left upon the walls of the orifice. Not that these |35 were the only organs upon which He bestowed His care, as though they were the only ones that trip; we find that He has set veils before the eyes, like window curtains, to keep them from admitting the death of licentiousness, to which the prophet bears witness in the words, "Death ascended. through the doors." 98
Grey Hair no Criterion of Truth
Deac. If our inquiry dealt with ordinary matters, most holy father, your appearance would have been enough to guarantee the truth of your account; but as we are in quest of the truth, in a matter which involves no small blame in this world, and condemnation in the next, when rulers and peoples arc gathered before the awful tribunal, pardon me, my dear sir, if I do not accept your white hairs as evidence. Many bad men have reached old age, men who have not whitened their souls with virtue, but wrinkled their bodies with the lapse of time; such as were the false priests at Babylon, and Ephraim, in Jeremiah,99 of whom the Word cries in reproof, "Ephraim is a silly dove, having no heart; grey hairs have blossomed forth upon him, but he himself knoweth it not." 100 And again, more severely, "Ephraim is a cake not turned, and strangers have devoured his strength." 101
And I must add, at the risk of being prolix, who is whiter, or more amiable, than Acacius of Berea, whom you and your friends accuse of being the rebel chief, and the leader of the revolutionaries in misbehaviour? Yet his very nostrils bore a crop of long white hairs, when he visited Rome to bring the formal announcement of the ordination 102 of John. |36
Bish. Now I know for certain, that you are a reliable money-changer; you are not content with the look of the tent-skins, but insist upon full knowledge of the man who lives inside. The temples of the Egyptians,103 we know, are very large, and glory in the magnificence of their stones, but have within them apes, and ibises, and dogs, which pass as gods; while our Lord and God, in making known to Samuel His will as to the appointment of a ruler for Israel, instructs him not to look upon the condition and moulding of the body of clay, with the words, "God seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh upon the countenance, but God upon the heart." 104 Hence those who follow the example of God,105 in everything search out what lies beneath the surface. So I gladly trust myself to you, now that I have found that your scales are free from bias. Those two Babylonians, who were old in body, but perfect infants in their clownish minds, if they had believed in the resurrection of the dead,106 would have been fortified in wisdom against falling in love with Susanna, the wife of another man; and further, if they had possessed the fear of God, they would not have interwoven false accusations with their licentiousness.107 The |37 misuse of youth is a sure proof of dishonour in old age.108
CHAPTER V. THE EARLY CAREER OF CHRYSOSTOM
Chrysostom's Birth and Early Years
This John was (yes, he has fallen asleep) by birth a man of Antioch, the son of honourable parents, his father 109 holding the office of military commander in Syria; an elder sister was the only other child. He was gifted with unusual ability, and was carefully trained in letters,110 for the ministry of the oracles 111 of |38 God. At the age of eighteen, a boy in years, he revolted against the professors of verbosities; and a man in intellect, he delighted in divine learning. At that time the blessed Meletius the Confessor, an Armenian by race, was ruling the Church of Antioch; he noticed the bright lad, and was so much attracted by the beauty of his character, that he allowed him to be continually in his company. His prophetic eye foresaw the boy's future. He was admitted to the mystery 112 of the washing of regeneration, and after three years of attendance 113 on the bishop, advanced to be reader.114
But as his conscience would not allow him to be satisfied with work in the city, for youth was hot within him, though his mind was sound, he turned to the neighbouring mountains; here he fell in with an old man named Syrus,115 living in self-discipline, whose hard life he resolved to share. With him he spent four years, battling with the rocks of pleasure. When |39 he found it more easy to master these, not so much by toil as by reason,116 he retired to a cave by himself, in his eagerness to hide himself from the world, and there spent twenty-four months, for the greater part of which he denied himself sleep, while he studied the covenants 117 of Christ, the better to dispel ignorance. Two years spent without lying down by night or day deadened his gastric organs, and the functions of the kidneys were impaired by the cold.118 As he could not doctor himself, he returned to the haven of the Church.
And here we see the providence of the Saviour, in withdrawing him by his infirmity, for the good of the Church, from ascetic toils, and compelling him by this obstacle of ill-health to leave the caves.119
Chrysostom as Deacon and Priest.
Next, after serving the altar for five years, he was ordained deacon 120 by Meletius. By this time his brilliant abilities as a teacher were famous, and the |40 people found in intercourse with him sweet refreshment from the bitterness of life; Bishop Flavianus 121 therefore ordained him presbyter. For twelve years he was a shining light in the Church of Antioch, lending dignity to the priesthood there by the strictness of his life; some he salted with sobriety, some he illuminated by his teaching, some he refreshed with draughts of the spirit. Thus all was fair sailing under the steersmanship of Christ, when the blessed 122 Nectarius,123 bishop of the Church of Constantinople, fell asleep. Immediately a crowd of people who were not called for rushed forward to secure the supreme position----men who were not men, presbyters by office, yet unworthy of the priesthood; some battering at the doors of officials, others offering bribes, others again going on their knees to the populace. The orthodox laity were much disturbed by all this, and importuned the king with petitions for an experienced priest. |41
Chrysostom, Bishop of Constantinople
The most influential man of affairs was Eutropius 124 the eunuch, chief of the royal chamberlains. It was his wish to have John in charge of the city, as he had gained some experience of his high character when some business of the king took him to the further East; so he advised the king to send instructions to the governor 125 of Antioch, to send John quietly out of the city, without disturbing the Church. The governor, immediately on receipt of the letter, summoned him to present himself at the shrines of the |42 martyrs,126 outside the city, near the gate known as Romanesia; where he put him in a public conveyance, and entrusted him to the care of the eunuch sent by Eutropius, and the magistrate's guard. Thus he reached Constantinople, and was ordained bishop of the Church of that city.127
Theophilus' Hostility
Now Theophilus, Bishop of Alexandria, as he observed his bearing,128 and the irreproachable outspokenness of his language, was from the beginning |43 bitterly opposed 129 to his ordination. For Theophilus is very clever at judging faces; the will and mind of a man are not easy to read.130
Deac. One moment, father. I must raise a slight objection.
Bish. What is your difficulty?
Deac. If Theophilus is so sharp-sighted, how is it that he was unaware that if he expelled John from his see, he would disturb the whole world?
Bish. There is nothing wonderful in this, my dear sir; even the demons recognized the advent of the Saviour, and yet were unaware that they would be made powerless by a single breath from those who believed in Him.
Deac. Where do we find that they recognized the Saviour's presence?
Bish. When they cried, "We know Thee who Thou art, the holy one of God; why hast Thou come to torment us before the time?" 131 You see that they knew, even then, that He is not only holy, but also judge. But apart from demons, unfortunate prostitutes recognize men of self-control from the bearing of their eyes, and avoid them, just as a diseased eye avoids the light of the sun, or the vulture sweet scent. How is it that "Godliness is an abomination to sinners," if they cannot recognize godliness? So it was that Theophilus, not finding anything in John's face corresponding to his own eye, or that which he desired to find, inferred his hostility, as a matter of unsupported conjecture. |44
Deac. You surprise me, father. But why did he oppose his ordination?
Bish. It was always his policy not to ordain good and sensible men, except by inadvertence, as he wished them all to be weak-minded persons, over whom he could dominate; he thought it better to dominate over weak-minded men than to hear the wisdom of the prudent. None the less, willing or unwilling, he had to yield to saving Providence.
Reforms of the Life of the Clergy
Thus John was ordained, and entered upon the care of affairs. At first, he tested his flock by playing to them upon the pipe of reason. But occasionally he exercised the staff of correction 132 as well; he inveighed against the mode of life, white-washed under the name of "brotherly life," which he called by its right name of "evil life," in connection with the women known as "introduced." 133 He showed it to be worse, if a choice of evils had to be made, than that of brothel-keepers; for they live far from the surgery, and keep the disease to themselves, for those who desire it, while the "brothers" live within the workshop of salvation, and invite healthy people to come and catch the disease. This caused great indignation to those among the clergy who were without the love of God, and blazing with passion. |45
Reform of the Life of the Laity
He next took action against injustice, pulling down avarice, that metropolis of evils, to build an habitation of righteousness. This is characteristic of wise master-builders, first to pull down the habitation of falsehood, and then to lay the foundation of truth, as it is said in the prophet, "I have set thee over peoples and kingdoms, to root up and to plant, to dig down and to rebuild." 134 The first expressions refer to his work as husbandman, the second as a builder. Next, he disturbed the numerous purse-worshippers, and then attended to their manner of life, urging them to be content with their own earnings, and not to be always dangling after the savoury odours of the rich. To follow smoke as their torch-bearer meant handing themselves over to the fire of licence; this was the result of following the life of the flatterer and the parasite. Then, most of the gluttons were dug out of their holes, and the sharp people who bring false accusations shared the same fate.
Reform of Church Finance
Then he examined the account books of the Church treasurer, and found expenditure which was of no benefit to the Church; these grants he ordered to be stopped. This brought him to another financial question----the bishop's expenditure. Here he found extraordinary extravagance, and ordered the large sums so spent to be transferred to the hospital. 135 As |46 the need of treatment was very great, he erected other hospitals, over which he appointed two devout priests, as well as doctors and cooks, and kindly workers from among his celibates to assist them; so that strangers coming to the city, and there falling ill, could obtain medical care, as a thing which was not only good in itself, but also for the glory of the Saviour.
Reform of the Order of Widows
Then he summoned the members of the order 136 of widows, and made a searching investigation into cases of misconduct; some, whom he found too fond of carnal pursuits, he admonished either to adopt the practice of fasting, and to abstain from the bath 137 and from over-dressing, or else to proceed without delay to a second marriage, that the law of the Lord might not be brought into disrepute.
Reform of Devotion
Next, he urged the people to join in the intercessions 138 offered during the night,139 as the men had no |47 leisure during the day, while their wives were to stay at home, and say their prayers by day. All this annoyed the less strenuous clergy, who made a practice of sleeping all night.
Then he put his hand to the sword of correction against the rich, lancing the abscesses of their souls, and teaching them humility and courtesy towards others. In this he followed the apostolic precept to Timothy, "Charge them who are rich in this world not to be high-minded, nor to trust in uncertain riches." 140
Results of these Reforms
As the result of these reforms, the Church put forth daily more abundant blossoms; the tone 141 of the whole city was changed to piety, men delighting their souls with soberness and psalmody. But the devil, who hates all that is good, could not tolerate the escape of those whom he held in dominion, now taken from his grasp by the word of the Lord through the teaching of John; so much so, that the horse-racing and theatre-going fraternity left the courts of the devil, and hastened to the fold 142 of the Saviour, in their love for the pipe of the shepherd who loves his sheep. |48
CHAPTER VI. THE BEGINNING OF TROUBLE
The Plot against Chrysostom
In consequence of this, envy took possession of the minds of the hireling shepherds, who were by implication convicted. As they could not get the better of him, because they did not call upon the Saviour, the destroyer of envy, they devised various slanders against John; representing certain homilies of his as jests at the expense of the queen and of the royal court.143
Now it happened that just at this time Acacius, Bishop of Berea, paid him a visit, and according to his own statement, was not given a decent lodging; he was much vexed at this, and swelled with indignation at what he regarded as a slight put upon him by John. Unable to control his feelings, he indulged in a witless witticism, "out of the abundance of his heart," 144 worthy of his great mind.145 He said in the presence of some of John's clergy, "I am seasoning a pot for him." At once he threw in his lot with Severianus and Antiochus, and Isaac Syriscus, the leading spirit of the impostor monks,146 a plausible |49 rascal, who spent all his time in abuse of bishops. These worthies looked themselves out arms, nominally against John, but really against the glory of the Saviour.
First, they sent to Antioch, and tried to discover any youthful offences of his. But as "they that seek failed," 147 and found nothing, they sent messengers to Alexandria, to the unprincipled Theophilus, known as "weather-cock," 148 who was very clever at engineering such things. He at once opened the books of his mind, with all the stealth of a thief, and set himself to find any pretext whatever for taking action.
The Charge of a Breach of Canon Law
Deac. Stay the torrent of your words, father, before I forget what is in my mind, and let me tell you the charge which reached us from Alexandria, and generally gained acceptance. The story is, that John received into communion some clergy who had been deposed by Theophilus. This improper action annoyed Theophilus, who in consequence had a disagreement with John, and proceeded to act against him.
Bish. Granted that the popular account is true; still, is it for a bishop to remedy evil by evil? What then of the gospel saying, "Let not the sun go down upon your wrath"? 149 Or of the apostle's words, "Overcome evil with good"? 150 Or the prophet's, "If I have rewarded evil to them that dealt evil to me"? 151 Surely, then, it would have been more gallant for him, in dealing with devout bishops, to say, Brother John, in inadvertence you have done this or that? And for John to be able to plead in self-defence, that he knew nothing about the matter?
Deac. That is true, provided that his will was |50 good, and that he was not trumping up the charge of befriending these clergy to satisfy his private animosity.
Bish. Then, by the fear of God, Who ruleth over the illimitable fears, I swear that I will speak no word that is not consonant with fact, in regard to these clergy of whom you speak.
Isidore and the Widow's Gift
There was one Isidore,152 one of the priests ordained by the blessed Athanasius the Great, still surviving, in his eightieth year. Most of the people of Rome know him, as he visited the city on ecclesiastical business, as the guest-master153 of the Church of Alexandria; and you know him yourselves, from his coming with Acacius to convey the announcement of the establishment of communion 154 between Flavian us and Theophilus,155 after it had been interrupted for twenty years, on account of the blessed Evagrius,156 who fought many a fight in the course of his labours for the good of the Church. The widow of one of the great men of the city gave this Isidore a thousand |51 gold pieces,157 putting him under oath by the table of the Saviour, for the purchase of clothes for the poor women of Alexandria; he was not to mention the matter to Theophilus, for fear that he would take the money, and spend it on his stones. For Theophilus is obsessed, like Pharaoh, with a craving for stone 158 for buildings, of which the Church stands in no need. Never mind that now; I want to come to the point about Isidore.
Isidore took the money, and spent it for the benefit of the poor women and widows. Theophilus somehow got to know; nothing could escape him, wherever done or spoken, with his gang of spies and eavesdroppers, not to call them anything else. He summoned Isidore, and with apparent civility asked if his information was true. Isidore did not deny it, and gave an account of his dealings in the matter. On hearing this, Theophilus changed his behaviour, and he who a moment before, when he made the inquiry, was gentle and kindly, next moment swelled all over his body with wrath; his very appearance changed, when Isidore's answer reached his ears.
Theophilus' Accusation of Isidore
He kept quiet for a while, like a dog that bites you when you are off your guard, but two months later convened the clergy, before whom he produced a document, and said in the presence of Isidore: "I received this charge against you, Isidore, eighteen years ago; but as I was very busy, I forgot the matter. Just now, as I was looking up some other papers, I found this document, which concerns you. What have you to say in defence?" The paper contained a charge of sodomy. |52
Isidore began his defence by saying to Theophilus: "Granted that it is true, that you received the paper, and also that it slipped your memory, was not the man who presented the memorial available for a second inquiry?" Theophilus answered, "No; the lad did not appear, as he was a sailor." Then Isidore: "He did not appear at the moment, as you say, Pope; did he not appear after his voyage? Did he not appear the year after, or the year after that? It is not too late even now; if he is here, tell the fellow to stand forth."
Theophilus Excommunicates Isidore
Hereupon Theophilus, finding himself likely to be humiliated in face of the actual truth, adjourned the inquiry to another day; and by large promises induced a boy to lay an accusation against Isidore, giving him a bribe, it is said, of twenty-five gold pieces, which he at once handed over to his mother. The mother refused to accept the money, deterred partly by the thought of the unbiassed Eye, partly by fear of the laws of the land; she reflected that Isidore, if falsely accused, might appeal to the magistrate.159 So she came and told Isidore the whole story, and showed him the coins, which she said she had received from Theophilus' sister as "a reward against the innocent." 160 The woman paid the due penalty for her many sins, and for this one in particular; she died under an operation on the breasts. All this time Isidore stayed at home, making supplication to God. The boy, partly in fear of the laws, partly at the thought of Theophilus' rage at his failure, fled to the efficacious protection of the Church, and took refuge at the altar.161
Thus, on a revolting allegation, the rights of which were never heard, Theophilus declared Isidore to be outcast from the Church; a solemn farce to disguise his own wickedness. Isidore now took alarm, lest |53 Theophilus in his increasing fury should take measures against his personal safety (for by all accounts, he actually went as far as this), and made his way with all speed to the community of monks of the mountain of Nitria,162 where he had spent his youth; here he sat in his cell, and addressed himself in prayer to the long-suffering God.163
The Charge of Origenism
Meanwhile Theophilus, conscious of the indecency and doubtfulness of his victory, sent letters to the neighbouring bishops, ordering some of the principal monks, the heads of the monasteries, to be expelled from the mountain and from the further desert, without giving his reasons. These monks went down to Alexandria, with their priests, and begged Theophilus to state the grounds on which they were condemned to expulsion. Theophilus stared at them, like. a dragon, with bloodshot eyes, glaring like a bull; in his uncontrollable temper, he was livid one moment, pale the next, the next again smiling sarcastically. He took the tippet 164 upon the shoulders of the aged Ammonius, and twisted it round his neck with his own hands, punching him in the face, making his nose bleed with his clenched fists, and |54 shouting, "Anathematize Origen,165 you heretic!" when the only point at issue was the petition on behalf of Isidore. This is the way with bad tempers; their actions and words are like puppies, born blind. So they returned, all bloodstained, to their monasteries, without receiving an answer; and continued their usual life of austerity, sharpening their natural powers by the study of the scriptures, through which we win salvation. They thought the less of the man's frenzy, because they were conscious of their own innocence. |55
CHAPTER VII. THEOPHILUS, THE MONKS AND CHRYSOSTOM
Synodical Action against the Monks
Not content with this, Theophilus sent to the neighbouring bishops, and convened a synod to condemn the monks; without calling them to defend themselves, or letting them speak a word, he declared outcast three of the most eminent of them (he was afraid to issue sentence of punishment upon the whole body at once), trumping up a charge of perversion of doctrine. The very men whom he had often honoured above bishops as teachers, for their lives, their gifts of speech, and their length of service, he was not ashamed to call impostors, for their attitude towards Isidore. Following up this declaration, he secured 166 five mannikins from Mount Nitria itself, who never had a place in the chapter-meeting of the elders of the desert, creatures not fit, much as it pains me to say so, to keep the doors; one of them he ordained bishop, and as he had not a city at his disposal, placed him in charge of a little village. He had no scruples about revolutionary acts, as he called himself a second Moses. Another he ordained priest, and the other three deacons. These were not Egyptians, but from different countries----one from Libya, one from Alexandria, one from Pharana, one from Paralus; as they had no hope of making anything out of their native countries, they fell in with his ridiculous measures.
Appeal to the Civil Authority
Next, he persuaded them to present memorials against the three excommunicate bishops, concocting the terms of the accusation himself; their only contribution was the signature. This done, he |56 accepted the memorials from them in the presence of the Church, and proceeded to the governor under the crown,167 with whom he lodged a representation against them in his own name, as archbishop of the diocese of Egypt,168 together with the falsely incriminating memorials, demanding the expulsion of the men, with the help of the military, from every part of Egypt.
Savage Attack upon the Monasteries
Armed with the governor's order, and taking the military with him to cover his doings, he gathered a mob of ruffians, who cared nothing about dignities, and fell upon the monasteries in the dead of night, after priming his young fellows with liquor. First, he ordered their saintly brother Dioscorus, bishop of the mountain, to be expelled from his throne, literally dragged away by Ethiopian slaves, probably unbaptized 169 into the bargain, and took possession of his |57 see,170 which since the coming of Christ had been in the possession of the city of Dioscorus. Next, he raided the mountain, and gave the trifling property of the monks to his youths; when he had stripped the cells, he searched for the three bishops, whom they had let down into a well, putting rushes upon its mouth. As he could not find them, he set their cells on fire with faggots, burning up with them all their copies of the canonical 171 scriptures, and other valuable writings, as well as a boy (so eye-witnesses said), and the sacred elements.172
Flight of the Monks to Palestine
When he had thus relieved his senseless fury, he wcnt down again to Alexandria, giving the saintly men an opportunity of escape; they at once took their sheepskin habits, and fled to Palestine, making their way to Aelia,173 accompanied by 300 of the |58 worthy monks of the mountain, and a body of priests and deacons. The rest were scattered abroad in different places.
Theophilus pursues Them
The serpent who creeps by crooked ways could not tolerate their freedom, and again stirred up Theophilus against them; boiling with rage, he wrote letters to the bishops of Palestine, as follows: "You ought not to have received these men into your cities, contrary to my judgment; but as you did it in ignorance, I grant you pardon. Look to it then in the future, that you admit them neither into ecclesiastical, nor into private premises." In the extravagance of his pride, he not only said, but actually imagined that he was a god.
The Monks arrive at Constantinople
The fugitives, sorely distressed by this continual movement from place to place, arrived at the capital,174 where Bishop John had been enthroned under the good hand of God for the spiritual care of our rulers; they fell at his feet, begging him to help souls slandered and plundered by men better accustomed to this sort of thing than to doing good.
Appeal to Chrysostom
John stood up, and saw fifty first-rate men, their habits worn grey with their holy toils. With his keen sense of brotherly love, he was deeply moved, and bursting, like Joseph, into tears, inquired what wild boar from the forests, or rogue beast, had been doing mischief to this fruitful vine. "Be seated, father," they answered; "give us dressings for our ghastly wounds, inflicted through the frenzy of Pope Theophilus, and see if you can bind up our swelling gashes. If even you give us no attention, through respect to, |59 or fear of, Theophilus, as the other bishops have done, there is nothing left for us to do, but to go to the king, and inform him of this man's ill-doings, to the disrepute of the Church. If then you have any concern for the good name of the Church, receive our petition, and persuade him to allow us our home in Egypt. We have committed no offence, either against the law of the Saviour or against the Pope himself."
Chrysostom' s Dealings with the Monks
John thought that he would have no difficulty in changing the revengeful feelings of Theophilus towards them, and gladly took the matter in hand. He instructed the men, for the love of God, to keep silence, and to tell no one why they were there, until he should send word to his brother Theophilus. He gave them sleeping-quarters in the Church of the Resurrection,175 but did not supply them with any of the necessities of life. Some godly women provided them with food, and they made their own contribution by the labours of their hands.
It happened that at that time there were some of Theophilus' clergy in Constantinople, who had come to purchase promotion from the newly-appointed 176 governors in the province 177 of Egypt, and to secure their favour towards him, in carrying out his plans for the destruction of those who were an annoyance to him. So John called these men, and inquired if they knew the ascetics who were in the city. They frankly gave the men a good character. "We know them," they told John; "it is true that they have been treated with great violence. If it please you, my lord, refuse them communion in the spiritual |60 feast, so as not to annoy the Pope, but deal kindly with them in everything else. This will be expected of you, as bishop."
Chrysostom' s Letter to Theophilus
So John did not receive them into communion,178 but wrote to Theophilus, courteously asking him to do him, as Theophilus' son and brother, the favour of taking the men like little children in his arms. Theophilus refused to do John the favour, and sent to him certain persons well versed in verbal disputes ----the men we have just mentioned----instructing them to present requirements, which as usual he dictated himself, containing statements admittedly false, but dressed out with all sorts of calumnies in regard to the men's spiritual condition,179 as he had nothing to bring against their outward lives. Thus they were to be pointed at as impostors at the palace.
Theophilus Implacable
Seeing that Theophilus, so far from coming to a right mind, was all the more bitter against them, the ascetics sent a numerous deputation to him, declaring that they anathematized all false doctrine; and presented a petition to John, detailing the various forms of oppression from which they suffered, and some specific points of complaint. I am ashamed to speak of them in the presence of these young people, for fear of shaking their confidence in my veracity; perhaps, too, even more experienced Christians might not believe me.
John again, both in person and through other bishops, urged them to drop the charges against Theophilus, in view of the mischief which the suit would cause, and wrote to Theophilus: "They are |61 reduced to such extremities, that they are filing a formal indictment against you. I leave it to you to deal with it as you think best; for I cannot persuade them to leave the capital."
At this, Theophilus blazed with anger, and suspended the brother of the monks, Bishop Dioscorus, a man who had grown old in the service of the Church, from ministering in his own church; while he wrote to John: "I think that you are unaware of the order of the Nicene Canons, in which it is laid down that a bishop shall not exercise jurisdiction beyond his boundaries; 180 if so, now that you know it, leave these charges against me alone, if there was any need for me to be put on my trial, it should be before Egyptian judges, not before you, at the distance of a seventy-five days' journey."
CHAPTER VIII. FIRST EXPULSION OF CHRYSOSTOM
The Monks' Appeal to Eudoxia and its Result
John received the letter, but kept it to himself, and discussed measures for peace with the ascetics of both parties. Both were exasperated at what he said to them; the exiles, because they had been tyrannically treated, the others, because they had no power to make peace without Theophilus, as it was at his orders that they had presented the falsely incriminating petitions. This done, John dismissed the matter from his mind, as he considered them to be answered.
Hereupon the monks of the aggrieved party withdrew, and compiled a lengthy petition, formally charging the other monks with libel, and Theophilus |62 ----well, to tell the truth, with everything that any one of them knew him to have done. They appealed to their majesties, approaching the queen in the shrine of the holy John, with the petition that the case of the disputant monks might be investigated before the prefects, and that Theophilus, however much against his will, might appear to stand his trial before John. The petition was made, and the answer was, that Theophilus should be summoned by the magistrate to appear, whether willing or unwilling, and take his trial before John; and that Theophilus' monks should substantiate the charges preferred against the aged saints or pay the penalty of false accusation.
Theophilus Summoned to Constantinople
So Captain 181 (retired) Elaphius was sent to Alexandria to bring Theophilus, while the justices carried out the rest of the Empress' answer. The investigation was held, and an indecisive result obtained; but as they were still threatened with the glittering sword of the law, the poor wretches took fright at the possible issue, and got the matter adjourned until Theophilus' arrival, on the ground that he had suborned, them, and had dictated the petitions. So the officials put them in prison, until Theophilus should arrive, bail being refused under the circumstances of the case. Some of them lingered in prison until they died, owing to the slow movements of Theophilus; 182 others, subsequently to his arrival, when he |63 hurried forward the matter by means of bribes, were at the final inquiry sentenced to transportation to Proconnesus for malicious accusation.
Theophilus' Arrival
So Theophilus arrived at Constantinople, like a beetle loaded with the dung of the best that Egypt, or India itself, produces,183 emitting sweet scent to cover his stinking jealousy; he entered the city at mid-day on the fifth day of the week, cheered by a mob of sailors.184 Such was the palm of dishonourable glory which he had to bear----the glory of which the apostle said long ago, "Whose glory is in their shame," and added, "who mind earthly things." 185 He took up his quarters in the tents of the unrighteous, and avoided the Church, forgetful of David's verse, "I had rather be cast away in the house of my God, than to dwell in tents of sinners." 186 It was his own conscience that shut him out from the Church. |64
Theophilus' Machinations
In the course of three whole weeks he never held any conversation with John,187 such as is customary among bishops, and never went near the church, but linked his new hostility with the old, and spent night and day in his efforts to expel Bishop John not only from the Church, but even from life itself. He lavished money in purchasing the support of the superstitious 188 spirits among the authorities against the truth, made the greedy ones his slaves by the abundance of his table, and further, by flattery and promises of promotion, won over his fellow-impostors among the clergy. When he had put all these in bonds----of pleasure, not of rope----like some seducing demon, and bewitched the discerning faculties of their souls, he looked about for some demoniacal person to be his understudy in the play, and succeeded in finding what he wanted.
The Memorials of the Renegade Deacons
There were two deacons, who had been expelled from the Church by Bishop John for criminal offences. He availed himself of their frailty, and persuaded them to present memorials against John, promising to restore them to their office. Their offences were murder and fornication respectively.189 He fulfilled his promise; for after the banishment of John he restored them to their places, obviously because they had presented the memorials which Theophilus himself dictated. They contained not a word of truth, except the one point, that he advised every one, after communion, to take a little water, or a pastille, for fear that they might involuntarily spit out a portion of the elements 190 with the saliva or phlegm. He first adopted the practice himself, to teach reverent care to those who would learn. |65
The Conclave at Eugraphia' s House
On receiving the memorials, Theophilus held a meeting at the house of Eugraphia; at which were present Severianus, Antiochus, Acacius, and every one else who had a grudge against John for his seemly exhortations. For the blessed bishop, like St. Paul, made a practice in his teaching, "both publicly and from house to house," 191 of urging dignified behaviour; he was especially severe with women like Eugraphia. "At your age," he would say, "when you are really old women, and widows into the bargain, why do you force your bodies to become young again, wearing curls on your foreheads like the women of the street, bringing every other lady into disrepute, and giving people generally a false impression?"
The Hostile Synod Meets
So they held a gathering,192 and took steps to bring a suit against John. One of them suggested that they should present petitions to the king, and insist upon his appearing before the synod, however unwilling. This was the course adopted; as with the Jews, so with them, money made everything easy.193 |66
Chrysostom' s Forebodings
We were seated,194 a company of forty bishops, in the refectory at the bishop's house, with Bishop John, marvelling that a man who had been put on his trial, and ordered to appear at the capital on disgraceful charges, had arrived with such a numerous following of bishops, and that he had suddenly brought about such a change in the minds of the authorities, and perverted the majority of the clergy. While we could see no answer to the question, John was inspired by the Spirit, and said to us all: "Pray for me, brethren, and, if ye love Christ, let none desert the Church of which he is in charge on my account; for like the writer of the words, 'I am already being offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.' 195 And I shall endure much persecution, and depart from this life, I see. For I know the cunning of Satan; he can no longer bear the annoyance of my invectives against him. The Lord have mercy upon you.196 Remember me in your prayers."
Words of Consolation
So profound was our distress, that some of us began to cry, others left the gathering with tears, and broken hearts. We kissed his eyes, and his sanctified head, and his facile and blessed lips. But he bade |67 us, as we were flying hither and thither, like bees buzzing round a hive, to come back to the gathering, and said: "Be seated, brethren, and do not weep, to give me greater pain. For to me 'to live is Christ, and to die is gain.' 197 It was often said, that I should lose my head for being too outspoken. I think you will remember, if you look into your memories, that I always used to say to you, This present life is a journey, and its joys and sorrows are ever passing away. What is before our eyes is but a fair; we finish our buying and selling, and we move elsewhere. Are we better than the patriarchs, the prophets, the apostles, that this state of life should abide with us for ever? "
Then one of the company sobbed aloud, saying, "Nay, we lament our orphaned condition, the widowhood 198 of the Church, the confounding of ordinances, the ambition of those who do not fear the Lord, and leap upon high offices in the Church, the defenceless state of the poor, the famine of teaching." The Christ-loving bishop tapped the palm of his left hand with the forefinger of his right, a familiar gesture when he was in deep thought, and said to the speaker: "Say no more, brother, only remember what I said; do not desert your Churches. The teaching office did not begin with me, nor did it come to an end in me. Did not Moses die, and was not Joshua found? Did not Samuel end his days, and was not David anointed? Jeremiah departed this life, but was there not Baruch? Elijah was taken up, but did not Elisha take his place as prophet? Paul was beheaded, but did he not leave behind him Timothy, Titus, Apollos, and countless others?"
Eulysius, Bishop of Apameia in Bithynia, was the next to speak. "It is inevitable," he said, "if we keep our Churches, that we shall be forced to communicate with them and to sign (your sentence of condemnation)." Said the holy John, "Communicate with them, lest you rend the Church; but |68 do not sign. For my conscience is clear of any thought deserving my deposition."
The Summons from the Council of The Oak
At this moment, messengers from Theophilus were announced. John ordered that they should be admitted; and on their entry, asked to what order they belonged. "We are bishops," they replied. He requested them to be seated, and to state their business. "We only have a letter," they said, "to be read aloud; cause it to be so read." John directed that it should be read, and they ordered Theophilus' young servant 199 to read the communication, which he did. The substance was as follows: "The holy synod assembled at The Oak" (that was the name of the place where they had met----in the suburb of Rufinus,200 on the other side of the sea), "to John" (they omitted his proper title of bishop; the darkened soul never does see things as they are, but imagines what its evil desires dictate). "We have received certain memorials, containing countless grave charges against you; appear, therefore, bringing with you the priests Serapion and Tigrius; for they are needed." The two bishops who came to John were Dioscorus and Paulus, young men who had recently been consecrated in Libya.
The Answer of Chrysostom's Friends
When the document had been read, John's fellow-bishops replied with a statement drawn up by three bishops, Luppicianus, Demetrius, and Eulysius, and two priests, Germanus and Severus, all of them saintly and honourable men. "Overthrow not the estate of the Church, and rend not the Church, for whose sake God from above entered into flesh. As it appears |69 that by your disorderly action you are overthrowing the canons of the 318 bishops at Nicaea, and are trying a case beyond your boundaries, do you cross over to us, that we may first hear what you have to say, in this city where good laws prevail, and do not be like Cain, when he invited Abel to come into the field.201 For we have memorials against you, under seventy counts, alleging palpably criminous actions. Moreover, we, assembled by the grace of God, not for the overthrow of the Church, but in peace, are more in number than your synod. For you number thirty-six, from one province; 202 while we are forty, from various provinces, and among us are seven metropolitans. It is only reason that the smaller body should be judged according to the canons by the larger and the more honourable. Besides this, we hold your letter, in which you press upon our brother-minister John, that he ought not to accept cases from beyond his boundaries. Wherefore do you, in obedience to the laws of the Church, urge your accusers either to desist from their accusations against you, or from their approaches to John." 203
Chrysostom's own Answer
John was distressed at this answer, and said to his bishops, "Write what seems good to you; I feel bound to make a statement for myself in answer to the allegations." So he sent the following reply to Theophilus and his party: "I hereby declare that if any man has aught to say against me, up to this moment I do not know what it is; but if any one has spoken against me, and you wish me to appear before you, put out of your assemblage my open enemies, who are filled with malice towards me |70 because they think themselves slighted. Further, I raise no question as to the venue of my trial, though the fittest place would be the city. Those to whom I object as judges are Theophilus, whom I call to account for having said both at Alexandria and in Lycia, 'I go to the court 204 to depose John.' I know this to be true, because when he arrived, he did not have any intercourse with me, or communicate with me. If then he behaved as an enemy before the hearing, what would he do after the trial? Similarly, I charge Acacius with saying, 'I am seasoning a pot for him.' As for Severianus and Antiochus, whom the divine sentence will soon overtake, what need to speak of them, when even the secular theatres make songs upon their revolutionary doings? I beg you therefore, if you really desire me to appear, in regard to these four; if they are entered as judges, remove them from the panel; if as accusers, put them into the witness-box, that I may know how to prepare to meet them----whether as opponents or as judges. Then I will appear at all costs, not only before your love, but before any synod in the world. Now, then, I give you notice, that however often you write to me, you will hear no more from me."
The Emperor's Summons to Trial
So the envoys withdrew, and a notary immediately arrived, bearing a letter from the king, enclosing the petition (of Theophilus' synod) that John should come up for judgment whether he would or no, and bade him hasten to the trial. When the notary had received his answer, two of John's priests appeared; one Eugenius, who was given the bishopric of Heracleia 205 in payment for the part he had played in the plot against Bishop John, and Isaac, the monk under rule of silence----not to call him anything else. These said, "The synod sends you this message; |71 come over to us, and defend yourself against the charges.'"
Chrysostom Refuses to Appear
To this John answered, through other bishops, "How can you judge me with any show of order, when you have not put forth from among you my enemies, and when you send my own clergy to summon me?"
They seized the bishops, and beat one, and stripped another of his robes, and put round the neck of a third the chains which they had in readiness for the saint, intending so to put him on shipboard, and carry him off to some unknown place; the devil had made them as savage as lions. The holy bishop, aware of their shameful intention, took no steps to meet it; but these worthy gentlemen compiled some paltry dockets, more frail than spider's web,206 for the sake of form, making representations against the blessed bishop, whose face they had never seen and whose voice they had never heard, and in a single day consummated the villainy which they had long been forging. For the onslaught of the devil none can restrain; it waits not for reflection.
Chrysostom Guilty of Lèse Majesté
So they sent an address to the king setting forth that: "Whereas John is accused of various offences, and in consciousness of his guilt has refused to appear,207 he is by the laws degraded from his bishopric, and this has been done. The memorials include a charge of treason.208 Your piety, therefore, will command, |72 that whether he will or no, he be expelled from his office, and pay the penalty for his treason, as we have no powers to inquire into this charge."
You thrice miserable wretches, what thoughts are these? What deeds? They should fill you with shame, if you have any fear or reverence for men, much more any for God. The treason consisted in offensive language against the queen, whom, as they alleged, he had called Jezebel.209 So this was the allegation of these wonderful people, longing to see John killed with the sword; but God brought to light the malice lurking within them, and softened the hearts of the magistrates, as with Daniel at Babylon. For there, the lions turned gentle, and spared Daniel, while the men turned savage, and did not spare the prophet; but God vanquished the unnatural savagery of man, by the unnatural gentleness of the savage beasts. |73
CHAPTER IX. INTRIGUES AND VIOLENCE AT CONSTANTINOPLE
Chrysostom' s Expulsion and Return
Thus was John ejected from the Church;210 a court official was despatched for the purpose, with a body of soldiers, as if it was an expedition against barbarians. On his expulsion he went first to the country district of Prametum, in Bithynia.211 But only a single day had passed, when a catastrophe 212 occurred in the royal palace, which caused such alarm, that a few days afterwards they recalled John, through a notary of the household, and restored him to his own throne.213 So Theophilus, with the Egyptian |74 bishops, secured his own safety by flight; for the populace wished to drown him.214
But two months later, recovering from their wound, they again uplifted themselves against John; and as they could not find a promising opening, they sent to the clever man who managed such things at Alexandria, to this effect: Do you either come here again to take the lead in the campaign against John, or, if you will not do this for fear of the people, suggest to us some scheme, so that we may make a beginning.
Theophilus' New Ground of Accusation
In answer to this, Theophilus did not go himself, remembering how he had escaped, but sent three miserable bishops, Paul, and Poimen, and another, newly consecrated, and at the same time despatched certain canons,215 which the Arians had framed against the blessed Athanasius, suggesting that by use of these they might manipulate a suit against John for having on his own initiative re-entered his bishopric after deposition. For Theophilus is naturally an impetuous person, headstrong, bold, and extraordinarily fond of quarrelling; whatever it be that presents itself to his vision, he rushes at it in needless haste, without any restraint, giving himself no time for judgment or consideration. So he proceeded with a mad fury which carried him beyond the bounds of order, to secure John's submission, and in sure confidence in the verdict passed upon him, vigorously opposed all who wished to bring a counter-charge; |75 his one aim, as ever, being to show that his own judgment and decision conquered and prevailed.
The Plotters and the Plot
Knowing his character, his agents fell in with his scheme. They summoned metropolitans and bishops from Syria, Cappadocia, and the whole province of Phrygia, and Pontus, to a conference at Constantinople. These on their arrival communicated with John in accordance with the canons, so as not to repeat their first mistake. The authorities were annoyed to hear of their act of communion; Theodorus, the respected Bishop of Tyana, aware of the conspiracy from the information which had reached his ears, refused to join in the hasty action of Theophilus, and deserted the main body without further concern, bidding a long farewell to the capital as he retired to his own Church. He fortified his own province with the rampart of his piety, and continued to the end in the communion of the faithful of Rome, to whom Paul bears witness in the words, "Your faith is spoken of in all the world." 216 On the other hand, Pharetrius, Bishop of Caesarea, near Mount Argaeus, alarmed beyond measure, like a little child frightened by a bogey, without even leaving his own city, conferred by letters with John's enemies, although he had not even been invited to take any part in the matter; in his ignorance of episcopacy, he knew no better. Leontius, Bishop of Ancyra in Galatia, joined with Ammonius, Bishop of Burnt Laodicea,217 in burning the church. These two, yielding to the threats of the authorities, and at the same beguiled by the hope of gifts from the king, at the second session made a vile suggestion |76 to the party of Acacius and Antiochus: namely, that Theophilus' judgment, which was no judgment, should prevail, and that no opportunity should be given to John even to defend himself, appealing to the canons sent by Theophilus, which the forty bishops in communion with Arius 218 had passed, containing the clause, "If any bishop or priest who has been justly or unjustly deposed of his own initiative re-enters his Church, without sanction of a synod; such an one shall thereafter have no opportunity of defence, but shall be absolutely excluded." This canon was rejected, as being illegal and passed by illegal persons, at Sardica,219 by the bishops of Rome, Italy, Illyria, Macedonia, and Greece, as you know better than I, my famous friend Theodorus, when Liberius, or rather Julius,220 in the reign of Constans received into communion Athanasius and Marcellus of Galatia, on whose account the canon was laid down.
The Question of Canon Law
This wonderful pair, Ammonius and Leontius, formed a league with Acacius and Antiochus, and |77 Cyrinus of Chalcedon,221 and Severianus, and came before the king, recommending that ten bishops of John's party, which numbered more than forty, should be summoned, to maintain the authority of the canons; as some asserted that they were the work of orthodox persons, while others maintained that they were of Arian origin. However, Elpidius,222 old in spirit and in the years which had whitened his head, Bishop of Laodicea in Syria, and Tranquilius, with their supporters, came and urged upon the king that John ought not to be unreasonably ejected. "For," they said, "John had not been previously deposed, but was expelled by the civil official; nor did he re-enter it upon his own initiative, but obeyed the order of your piety, conveyed by a notary; moreover, we can prove that the canons to which they appeal are of heretical origin."
John's opponents continued very improperly to press their views, some shouting at the top of their voices, others, wild with excitement, impudently gesticulating, and twitching their chests in the presence of the king. Then Elpidius, a most profound student of Church law, in a moment of silence said meekly to the king: "Your majesty, let us not trouble your gentleness further, but let this be done; let our brothers Acacius and Antiochus subscribe the canons which they put forward as the work of orthodox persons, and declare themselves to be of the same faith as those who issued them.223 Then the whole dispute is at an end."
Failure of the Plot
The king noted the simplicity of the solution proposed, and said to Antiochus, with a smile, "Nothing could be better." The king was throughout entirely free from blame; it was others who |78 altered his excellent decrees. Severianus and his party reeled, and began to swirl against one another like water that has burst its bounds; they were struck dumb at the bishop's thoughtful observation, and at the opinion expressed by the king. Their faces turned livid, but in the king's audience chamber they had to restrain themselves. So they promised, sorely against their will, to subscribe the canons, and departed. But as they were afraid of being worsted, they did not carry out their promise, on the ground that it was given against their will; and began instead to devise means to secure John's expulsion.
In these various manœuvres and counter-manceuvres nine or ten months passed, John foregathering with his forty-two bishops, while the people enjoyed the benefit of his teaching with much gladness. For the unselfish mind always expresses itself with greater grace and power in times of difficulty.224
The Emperor takes the Side of the Enemy
Such was the state of things when the Lord's fast recurred, like the spring which puts forth its blossoms year by year. Again Antiochus and his party approached the king, in private, and informed him that John had been deposed, begging him to order his expulsion at the approaching Paschal season,225 and the king, wearied by their importunity, could not but listen to them, seeing that they were bishops. |79 For the true priest or bishop knows not falsehood; these titles belong to the higher sphere, since there is nothing more priestly or more episcopal than God, for it is God Who is the bishop 226 and beholder of all things. The true bishop, then, or the true priest, inasmuch as he bears these titles in fellowship with God, ought also to be in fellowship with Him in His actions. The king accordingly sent word to John, "Leave the Church." "I have received this Church," John sent word back, "from God our Saviour, for the care of the salvation of the people, and I cannot desert it; if, then, this is your will----for the city is yours----thrust me out by force, that I may plead your authority in defence of my desertion of my post."
Chrysostom Ejected by the Civil Power
So they sent men from the palace, with a certain show of respect, and ejected him; but in apprehension of a possible visitation of the wrath of God, bade him stay in the bishop's house for the time being, so that if any misfortune should occur which affected them, they could at once appease the Divinity by restoring him to the Church, while if nothing happened, they could proceed further against him, as Pharaoh did against Moses.
The Storm Gathers
Meanwhile, the Great Sabbath drew near, in which the Saviour spoiled Hades by His crucifixion. Again they sent word to John, "Leave the Church"; to which he sent a suitable reply. So the king, in consideration of the sanctity of the day, and the disturbed state of the city, summoned Acacius and Antiochus, and said to them, "What is to be done? |80 Take care that you are not acting unadvisedly." Then the worthies, high-spirited to a fault, said to the king, "Your majesty, the deposition of John be on our heads." As a last resource, the bishops on John's side, to the number of the days of the holy fast,227 approached the king and queen in the shrines of the martyrs, and besought them with tears to spare the Church of Christ, remembering especially the Paschal festival, and those already prepared 228 for the sacrament of the new birth to be received on that day, and to restore to her her prelate.229 The request was unheeded; Paul of Crateia 230 went so far as to say, with fearless out-spokenness, "Eudoxia, fear God, and pity your own children; do not dishonour the festival of Christ by the shedding of blood."
The Easier Vigil
So the forty bishops returned to their lodgings, and spent the night without sleep, some weeping, others grieving, others again held inactive by a stupor of pacificism which dulled their minds-according as their individual feelings disposed them. However, those of John's priests who had the fear of God in their hearts, gathered the faithful laity in the public baths, called the baths of Constans, and occupied the night vigil 231 in reading aloud the divine oracles, or in baptizing the catechumens, as usual |81 at the Paschal festival. These proceedings were reported by those corrupters of mind and perverters of sense, Antiochus, Severianus, and Acacius, to their champions, with the demand that the people should be prevented from assembling there. The magistrate on duty objected that it was night, and that the crowds of people were large; some regrettable incident might well occur. Acacius and his party urged against this: "Not a soul has stayed in the churches; we are afraid that if the king goes to church and finds no one there, he may recognize the affection of the people for John, and condemn us as slanderers, especially after our telling him that there is absolutely no one who is kindly disposed towards him, but that he is regarded as an outlaw." So the magistrate, under protest, on the ground of what was likely to result, granted them the services of one Lucius, reported to be a Greek, and his commando of armed men, giving him instructions to go and call the people, gently, to the church. This he did, but as they would not obey, he returned to Acacius and his party, and explained the zeal and dense numbers of the people. Hearing this, they seduced him with golden words,232 and promises of further promotion, urging him to hinder the glory of the Lord; instructing him either to bring the people to church by verbal persuasion, or to excite them, and by drastic action prevent the festival from being celebrated.
The Outrages in the Church
So Lucius at once set out upon his mission, accompanied by the clergy of Acacius' party. This was in the second watch of the night; for in our parts of the world they keep the people at church till the first cock-crow. He took 400 Thracian swordsmen (the same number that Esau had), newly enlisted, and absolutely reckless, and at a moment's notice threw himself, like a savage wolf, with the clergy |82 to guide his movements, upon the crowd of people, hacking a way through with flashing swords. He pressed forwards to the blessed water within, to stop those who were being initiated into (the sacrament of) the Saviour's resurrection, pinioned the deacon, and poured away the sacramental elements;233 he beat the priests, men advanced in years, about the head with bludgeons, until the laver was dyed with blood. Sad it was to see that angelic night, in which even demons fall prostrate in terror, turned into a labyrinth.234 Here were women, stripped for baptism, running by the side of their husbands, glad so to escape in dishonour, in their terror of murder or dishonour; here was a man, with a wounded hand, making off, crying; another fellow dragging after him a maiden whose clothes he had torn off. All of them were carrying away loot which they had pillaged.
The Devotion of the Faithful
So those priests and deacons who were seized were thrown into the gaol; the better-class lay folk were expelled from the capital. Orders were issued one after the other, containing various threats against those who would not renounce communion with John. Yet in spite of all this, the bishops of whom I have told devoted themselves to their duties in the open air all the more earnestly; and the gathering of those who love Christian teaching, or rather, love God, was not brought to an end. As we read in the book of Exodus, the more they killed them, the more numerous they were.
Further Imprisonments
So when the king went out next day, to take exercise in the plain beside the city, he saw the |83 waste ground round Pempton 235 clothed in white; and in astonishment at the sight of the newly baptized, thick as blossoms in spring (there were about 3000 of them), he asked the guard what was the great crowd gathered there. Instead of telling him the truth, they said that they were the mis-believers; 236 so as to bring upon them the wrath of the king. Hearing of this incident, those who were responsible, for the affair, the champions of envy, sent to the suburb 237 the most pitiless of their followers, to scatter the audience and arrest the teachers. So once more some few of the clergy, and a larger number of the laity, were arrested.
Blessed are the Poor in Spirit
Deac. Most blessed father, how was it that, when they were so many that the newly baptized alone numbered 3000, these few soldiers mastered them, and broke up the assemblage?
Bish. There is no indication here of small numbers, nor proof of want of zeal. It only shows their exceeding piety, and proves their attention to their teachers, who continually urged them to cultivate a peaceful habit of mind.
And Theodorus said----
Deac. Excellently spoken; certainly it was not to be expected that men who had learnt prudence and gentleness from the holy John should maintain his cause by folly and turbulence. |84
CHAPTER X. CHRYSOSTOM'S DEPARTURE, AND ITS SEQUEL
Prisons become Churches
Bish. So you are satisfied with this explanation. Do not, then, I beg, interrupt my words; they are begotten of sad events. As a general rule, it is events that beget more words than anything else.238 Well, the wives of some eminent men were arrested, as well us the clergy and laity who were taken prisoners. From some of these they snatched their veils,239 and tore their earrings, with the lobe of the ear, from others; seeing this, a very wealthy lady, the wife of one Eleutherus, threw off her veil of her own accord, and ran into the city, disguised in the dress of a female slave, to shield her modesty. For she was endowed with a beautiful face and comely figure. So the prisons of the magistrates were filled, but they were turned into churches; hymns were sung, and oblations of the mysteries celebrated in the prisons, while in the churches floggings and tortures and terrible oaths were brought to bear, to compel people to anathematize John, who had fought against the malice of the devil even to the death.
Final Appeal to the Emperor
The feast of Pentecost 240 passed, and five days afterwards Acacius, Antiochus, Severianus, and Cyrinus came to the king, and said: "Your majesty, as by God's appointment you are not under our authority, |85 but have authority over all, you can do whatever you will. Be not more mild than a priest, and more holy than a bishop; we said to you publicly, Upon our heads be the deposition of John. Do not then be unmerciful to all of us, in being merciful to one man." They employed the same language, I might say the same actions, as the Jews, to persuade the king.
"Leave the Church"
So the king despatched Patricius the notary, with the following message to John: "Acacius, Antiochus, Severianus, and Cyrinus have taken your condemnation upon their own heads. Commend, therefore, your affairs to God, and leave the Church." So Bishop John came down from the bishop's house, with the bishops, and after giving them clear and definite instructions, said to all, "Come, and let us with prayer take leave of the angel 241 of the Church." He rejoiced at what had happened, but grieved over the misfortune of the people.
Farewell to the Devout Women
At this moment one of the officials who loved God sent word to John: "A savage and brazen-laced man, |86 named Lucius, is waiting with his commando in the public bath, ready to drag you out, and expel you from the city by force, if you refuse to go, or delay; and the people of the city are in a ferment. Do your best to get away unnoticed, to prevent the people from coming into conflict with the military, in trying to help you." Then John with tears kissed some of the bishops (his emotion would not allow him to do so to all), and took his leave of them, saying to the rest, within the vestry,242 "Stay here for the present, and let me go and have a little rest." But he went into the baptistery, and called Olympias, a lady who spent all her time in the church, and Pentadia, and Procle, the deaconesses,243 and Silvina, the widow of the blessed Nevridius,244 who adorned her widowhood by a beautiful life, and said to them, "Come here, my daughters, and listen to me. I see that the things concerning me have an end; 245 I have finished my course 246 and perhaps you will see my face no more.247 What I want to ask you is this: let no one dissever you from the good-will you have always borne to the Church; and whoever succeeds me, if |87 he be brought forward for ordination not by his own wish, and without place-hunting, with the approval of all, bow your heads to him, as you have done to John. The Church cannot exist without a bishop. And so may you find mercy. Remember me in your prayers."
Chrysostom's Departure from the Church
The ladies burst into tears, and threw themselves at his feet. Then he made a sign to one of the reverend priests, and said, "Take them away, for fear of their raising a disturbance." So they were kept under control for a while, and apparently acquiesced. And so he moved away to the eastern part of the church (there was nothing western 248 about him!); but he had given orders for the mule which he generally rode to be waiting at the west end, where was the porch of the church, in front of the main door, so as to mislead the people, who were waiting for him there. With him went forth the angel, unable to bear the desolation of the Church, brought about by wicked principalities and powers, who had produced a sort of theatrical exhibition. Yes, there was a roar, like that one hears in a theatre; the ungodly hissed and booed, Jews and Greeks yelled at the top of their voices. And there were blows and body wounds, inflicted by the soldiers, as if they were dealing with criminals in a prison; while every faculty of the soul was tortured by the withdrawal of the teacher, and by the blasphemy against God. For in the place appointed for the remission of sins, there took place the shedding of blood.
The Church on Fire
Now after this scene of awful and inexplicable |88 darkness, a flame 249 appeared from the middle of the throne in which John usually sat, like a heart set in the midst of a body, to expound to the other organs the oracles of the Lord; and sought for the interpreter of the Word. Not finding him, it devoured the chamber used for the Church vessels. Then it spread like a tree, and crept through the rafters to the roof; and consuming the belly like a viper, it leapt upon the back of the church building. It seemed as though God was paying the reward of iniquity 250 appointed as its penalty, to admonish and warn those who will not be warned, except by the sight of such heaven-sent calamities; and more, leaving to posterity a memorial of the savage synod.251
The Strange Behaviour of the Flames
But what happened to the church was nothing wonderful, in comparison with the destruction of the building, commonly called the Senate, which lies opposite the church, many paces away to the south. The fire seemed to be possessed of reason; it passed over the heads of the people in the street between, like a man crossing a bridge, and first caught, not the part nearest to the church, so that we cannot ascribe the misfortune to the proximity of the two buildings, but the part on the side of the king's palace. This clearly showed that the marvel was heaven-sent; for one could see crowds of people passing without harm upon their ordinary business |89 between the mountains of fire. In the same way the flames, whirling and surging like the sea tossed by a fierce wind, seemed to advance in obedience to signal; they seized the buildings all round without mercy, but showed consideration for one little outhouse, that in which the bulk of the sacred vessels was stored. Not that they reverenced the gold, or the rest of the precious materials; it was to give no ground to his accusers for the false charge 252 against the good bishop, that he had appropriated part of the valuables.
So the fire, after doing all this mischief, gradually withdrew to the back parts of the city, following the track of the malice of the criminals; to expose the madness of Theophilus, who apparently had been scheming to use the treasures of the Church as a plea for John's ejection. There was no loss of life from the fire, of man or beast, among the great crowd; but the filthiness of the men who were behaving so foully was purged by the violence of the flames, which in three hours of a single day, between twelve and three o'clock,253 destroyed the work of years.
CHAPTER XI. EXILE AND DEATH OF CHRYSOSTOM
Chrysostom sent to Cucusus
Deac. And where were John and the rest of the bishops, father, while this was going on?
Bish. The rest of the bishops were put in prison, or haled out of the city, or found means of concealment; John, Cyriacus, and Eulysius were carried off in bonds to Bithynia by the soldiers of the prefect,254 |90 under threats of punishment for setting fire to the church. Later on, Cyriacus and Eulysius, with other clergy, were brought up for trial, but were acquitted, and set at liberty, while the holy John, outspoken as ever, sent them this last message: "You refused to give me the opportunity of defending myself on the other matters; at least let me have a hearing in regard to what happened to the church, as to whether I am guilty, as you allege, of the incendiarism." His request for a hearing on this point was equally unsuccessful, and he was sent in charge of soldiers to a very lonely village in Armenia, called Cucusus,255 in the hope of getting him killed by the Isaurians, who were continually raiding the place, by night and by day.
Arsacius succeeds Chrysostom
The successor appointed in the place of John the inspired teacher was Arsacius, brother of the blessed Nectarius; a man with less power of speech than a fish, and of action than a frog.256 For there are times when action speaks, especially when it is for good. However, Arsacius only held on to life for fourteen months, when he died; for he had broken an oath upon the gospels. He had sworn to his brother Nectarius, that he would never accept consecration as bishop, when Nectarius reproached him for refusing to be Bishop of Tarsus, saying that he was waiting for his own death. What led to his perjury was first of all ambition, for the sake of which he wooed, so to speak, his brother's wife; and after that, shame. His brother's reproof was indeed prophetic. |91
Atticus succeeds Arsacius. Coercive Edicts against the Johnnites
A priest named Atticus,257 who had taken an active part in the schemes against John, was appointed as successor to Arsacius. Observing that none of the eastern bishops, or even of the laity of Constantinople, would communicate with him, because of the lawless and irregular proceedings which had taken place, in his ignorance of the divine scriptures he set to work to coerce those who would not communicate with him by means of rescripts.258 The edict against the bishops contained the following threat: "If any of the bishops does not communicate with Theophilus and Porphyrius 259 and Atticus, let him be expelled from the Church, and deprived of his personal property." Some of them, crushed by the pressure of circumstances, thereupon communicated, against their will; those who were poorer, and less firm in a sound faith, were induced by promises of gifts to communicate, while those who set no store by birth and possessions and fatherland, and perishable glory, and bodily suffering, preserved the nobility of their souls by flight, mindful of the gospel oracle, "If they persecute you in one city, flee unto another," 260 and repeating to themselves the words of the Proverb, "Possessions shall not benefit in the day of wrath." 261 Some of them reached Rome, some the mountains, and others escaped from wickedness like that of the Jews in the retreats of anchorites.
The edict against the lay-people contained the clause, "Those in high position are to be deprived of their official dignities, soldiers are to lose their |92 girdles, the common people are to be heavily fined, and submit to banishment." In spite of all this, the prayers of the devout were offered in the open air,262 amid much suffering; because they were friends 263 of the Saviour, Who said, "I am the way and the truth," and again, "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."
Chrysostom Transferred to Arabissus
Meanwhile, the blessed John resided at Cucusus for a year, feeding great numbers of the poor of Armenia,264 where a great famine occurred at the. time; not with corn, so much as with words. This again roused the malignity of the fratricides, who transferred him to Arabissus,265 exposing him to hardships of all sorts, in the hope of bringing about his death. Here once more the light of his virtues shone brightly (for a city set upon a hill cannot be hid, nor can a clearly burning lamp be hidden under a wooden bushel-measure); 266 he awoke people from all the surrounding districts who were slumbering in the depths of unbelief, from the sleep of ignorance to the rays of the word.267 |93
Renewed Malevolence
Then the flames of malignity blazed yet more fiercely in Severianus and Porphyrius and other bishops of Syria, and they set to work to get him again transferred elsewhere; for he was obnoxious to them not only in his days of what men call prosperity, but also, and much more, in his adversities. They were dunces in knowledge of the nature of temptations,268 and forgot the divine message to the apostle when tribulations befell him, "My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is perfected in weakness." 269 So when they saw the Church of Antioch migrating to the Church of Armenia, and the gracious philosophy 270 of John chanted from there back again to the Church of Antioch, they longed to cut short his life. The accounts they heard tortured them like blows of a whip----such is the power of malice, which hates the good----until their clerical followers saw what was going on, and said in astonishment, Here is a formidable dead man, who frightens living men, and men in authority too, as bogies frighten children. The wonder of it! Men supported by the powers of the world and by the wealth of the Church, men with authority and control of affairs in their hands, turning pale and writhing |94 in fear of a priest, alone, disfranchised, infirm, exiled! 271
The Terrible Journey to Pityus
At last they could hide the serpent in their tent no longer; so they sent to the capital, and again produced a rescript, more severe than the last, prescribing a narrow limit of time, within which, under penalty of a fine, John was to be transferred to Pityus, a desolate spot in Tzane, situated on the shore of the Black Sea.272 The soldiers of the praetorian prefect who formed his escort accordingly hurried him over the ground at forced speed. They said that such were their instructions; if he died by the roadside, the higher the promotion they would earn. One of them, who thought less of service in the present world, showed him by stealth a certain amount of kindness; the other was so savage and ill-tempered, that he took as insults the courteous requests made to him by persons who fell in with them, that he would spare the saint. The only thing he cared about was, that John should die a miserable death. For instance, he started out regardless of a heavy shower of rain which was falling, so that the water ran in streams down his neck and chest. Another time, an unusually hot sun gave him great delight, as he knew that the head of the blessed bishop, which was like Elisha's, ached under it. When they reached a city or village where the refreshment of a bath was available, the wretch would not allow a moment's delay. This most distressing journey took three months; yet the saint among all these annoyances was always the same shining star, his poor body like an apple reddening in the sun at the tip of a branch. |95
Chrysostom' s Last Hours and Death
They approached Comana,273 but passed through the town as men cross a river by a bridge, and lodged outside the wall in the shrine of a martyr, five or six miles from the town. The name of the martyr of the place was Basiliscus, who was Bishop of Comana, martyred under Maximian at Nicomedia,274 at the same time as Lucianus, priest of the Church of Antioch in Bithynia. That night the martyr 275 stood by him and said, "Be of good cheer, brother; to-morrow we shall be together." It is said that he had first called to the priest who shared his abode, "Get ready the place for our brother John; he is coming." John took this as a sure warning, and next day begged them to stay where they were till eleven o'clock. They refused, and pushed on; but when they had covered about thirty furlongs, he had such a sharp attack of illness, that they had to return to the shrine from which they had started. On his arrival, he asked for white clothes 276----clothes befitting his life----and taking off those he was wearing, he put these on, deliberately 277 changing everything down to his shoes. All but these he distributed |96 among those present. Then he partook of the symbols of the Lord's appointment,278 and offered his last prayer, in the presence of those who stood by, using his customary formula, "Glory to God for all things;" 279 and signing himself 280 at the last Amen, he raised his feet, which were so beautiful as they sped for the salvation of those who chose repentance, and the reproof of those who persistently cultivate the fields of sin. If reproof did not benefit the wicked, it was not from the carelessness of him who had spoken out so fearlessly,281 but from the recklessness of those who would not accept them.282
His Burial
Thus was he gathered to his fathers, shaking off |97 the dust from his feet, and passing over to Christ, as it is written, "Thou shalt come to thy grave, as ripe corn gathered in its season; but the souls of the transgressors shall die before their time." 283 Such a concourse of virgins and ascetics and men renowned for their devout lives came together from Syria, and Cilicia, and Pontus, and Armenia, that many supposed that they had been summoned by signal. The rites of internment and the funeral gathering 284 took place; and so his poor body, like a victorious athlete's, was buried in the same shrine as Basiliscus.
CHAPTER XII. A DEFENCE OF CHRYSOSTOM'S ABSTEMIOUS HABITS
Theodorus, amazed at what he had heard, here asked a question, quoting scripture words----
The "Cyclopean Meals"
Deac. As it is written, "Neglect not the recital of elders, for they also have learnt from their fathers," 285 |98I will trouble you to tell us what was the reason for his custom of eating alone, and whether it is true that he used to eat alone, as they say he did.286
Bish. I admit that he used to eat alone; but I am sorry to find such a very careful person as you, Theodorus, asking the questions that greedy children put. A grown man like you ought to inquire about the virtues which belong to men; what was his disposition in regard to courage, wealth, self-control, gentleness and righteousness, almsgiving, practical wisdom, manliness, memory or forgetfulness. For meat does not commend us to God, neither if we eat nor if we do not eat; 287 but knowledge working with activity.
Personal Reasons
Yes, he did eat alone, and I know that in part at least it was for the following reasons: 288 first of all, he drank no wine, because it sent the blood to his head, except that in the heat of summer he took rose-water. Secondly, owing to some ailment, his stomach was disordered, so that often he found the food prepared for him distasteful, and asked for something not on the table. Next, at times he forgot his meals, and put them off until evening; either because he was occupied in ecclesiastical concerns, or because he was absorbed in spiritual meditation.. For he was ever striving to grapple with every difficulty in holy scripture, and such researches require a light diet, or no diet at all. Again, bons vivants, if they have a friend 289 to sit at table with them, or to swill with them, or to cackle with them in unseemly mirth, with the cup of warm wine held in the tips |99 of his fingers, generally turn the good fellowship of the table into malicious gossip.
Delicate Living an Abuse of Stewardship
But in my opinion, the whole secret, and the truer explanation, was this: he was careful to excess in dealing with men of pleasure, counting the expenditure of money on such people as sacrilege.290 At the same time, it was a way of minimizing opportunities for theft on the part of his stewards, preventing them from multiplying by ten the costs of the food, and securing for themselves what the poor needed. Besides this, with the whole population 291 of the city in his mind, he considered that as the steward of Christ he ought to regard every one, of whatever rank, as worthy of the honour of dining with him, or else to grant the privilege to none. And he dwelt upon the bad behaviour which occurred at table, and the many expenses which fell upon the poor, until he detested the whole business, and would put out of his mind the malicious comments you mention, repeating to himself the words of the Acts, "Men and brethren, it is not meet that we should serve tables; but let us appoint devout men over the matter, and let us give ourselves to the word and to prayer." 292
The Snare of the Table
When a racehorse is too old to run a race, he is relegated to the mill, and tramps round and round in an endless circle. In the same way, a teacher, if he lacks the spirit to speak the words of virtue, sets himself to catch men with the net of the table. And well for him, if it be among the hungry and the needy, from whom he may win the blessing promised by the Lord, "I was hungred, and ye gave me meat." 293 |100 Alas, it is often only among the rich that he lays his snare, to earn a good name, or reputation which fades away, or to secure return-invitations of the same kind, or at least to avoid having a bad name. Such a man forgets the curse pronounced by the Lord, "Woe unto you, when all men speak well of you."294 He did not say, "All the poor," but, "All men." "For even so did their fathers unto the false prophets." Let us not, then, Theodorus, seek for the reputation of a false prophet, as the vainglorious do. "For John came neither eating nor drinking, in the way of righteousness, and they say, He hath a devil. The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a wine-bibber, the friend of publicans and sinners." 295
The Need of Discretion in Hospitality
Deac. It was not, O excellent father, to blame, or to run down such austerity, that I put my inquiry to your accuracy; for I knew the mind of the man from common report, and from those writings of his, homilies and letters,296 which have come into our hands. I wished to learn his aim, and so to emulate his actions. Who could be so absolutely stupid, as to be unaware that one loses more than one gains from the table, unless there be need to entertain saints in their necessity?
Bish. Nor did I say what I did, Theodorus, most careful seeker after truth, to belittle the virtue of |101 our fathers, least of all their virtue of hospitality. It is one of the many virtues which make for piety, practised by the lord 297 patriarchs. One caught in the snare of his table the Saviour God,298 another entertained the angels; one was rewarded by a son in his old age, another by deliverance, with his daughters, from Sodom. The apostle himself speaks of them, urging us to follow their example. "Be not forgetful," he says, "of hospitality; for by it some have entertained angels unawares." 299 But an host must have the practical wisdom of the serpent, as well as the harmlessness of the dove; he must give heed to both the oracles, "Give to every man that asketh of thee," 300 and also "Admit not every man into thine house," 301 or else he will entertain a wolf instead of a sheep, or a bear instead of an ox, and barter away his gain for loss.302 And first he ought to investigate the place in which a man has been set----whether it be desolate or populous; and then his own fitness for the position of host----whether he can bear with the manners of other people. Then he must use discrimination in regard to the man who claims his services----whether he be rich or poor, well or ill, in need of food, or of clothes; for it is with these things that operative charity deals.
The Danger to a Priest of Excess in Hospitality
The blessed Abraham did not entertain governors, or generals, or the great men of the world around him, vaunting horses with glittering bits and bridles, or trousers 303 set with metal bells, eructating their conceited tinkling far abroad. He lived in a desolate |102 district, and entertained those who visited it; they came to the patriarch across the desert, either attracted by his virtue or under the stress of penury and poverty. Poverty is a mean between excess and deficiency; the excess of wealth, and the deficiency of penury.304 In the same way, Lot lived in a city which was worse than a desert, and entertained the strangers who visited it, because of the bad manners of its inhabitants. But a priest living in a very well-ordered city, like Constantinople, where everybody entertains,305 may easily come to neglect the ministry of the word, even to excess, and be always busy with food-bills. Such a man unconsciously comes to regard himself as an innkeeper, rather than as a teacher, till pure knowledge vanishes in wishy-washy talk; and he earns the reproach of the prophet, "Thine inn-keepers mingle the wine with water." 306 For teaching is as much superior to hospitality, as wine is to water if one is run down. The one benefits a man's contemporaries, the other posterity; the one does good to those present at the time, the other to those who are not present as well; those present, by word of mouth, those not present, by writing. So it was with the Saviour, in the days of His flesh. He fed five thousand men with the loaves, not in a city, but in a wilderness; but He taught those who were present by word of mouth, while He saved the world through the written gospels. This is true especially of the words of inspired men.
Bodily and Spiritual Food
And do not be impressed, Theodorus, when a man satisfies the hungry with food, but when he delivers a soul from some form of ignorance. For plenty of |103 people can be found to feed the belly, either gratis, or for money, with bread or vegetables, in case of need; while it is rare to, find one who provides the nourishment of the word, and when he is found, he wins acceptance for his message with difficulty, if at all. For the evil spirits always do their best to prevent the salvation of souls. It was this famine of the word of teaching, that the Lord God threatened to bring upon the people by way of punishment, when He said to the prophet, "I will bring upon them a famine, not a famine of bread and water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord." 307 Moreover, in the case of a famine of material food, it is always possible to leave the city or the country where the shortage exists, and find safety in another, as the holy patriarchs did, when they went down to Egypt from Palestine; while in regard to famine of mental food, which befalls the Churches only for want of teachers, the prophet said again, "They will run from the east to the west, seeking the word of God, and shall not find it." 308
Old Testament Warnings against High Living
Why, what good thing is there, that does not spring from teaching? And what trouble, that is not to be. traced to errors of eating and drinking? I mean ailments, quarrels, disorders in the sub-gastric regions, and the sequelae of these. When was it that Eve was expelled from Paradise? Was it not when she ate of the tree at the serpent's suggestion, instead of being satisfied with her appointed food? When did Cain commit the foul crime of fratricide? Was it not when he kept the best for his own greedy self, and ate the first-fruits before offering them to God? When did the children of Job meet with the disaster which at a moment's notice made their table a grave? Was it not when they were eating and drinking? |104 When did Esau lose the blessing? Was it not when he yielded to the lure of the kitchen, a slave to his belly? When did Saul lose his kingdom? Was it not when he ate the best of the sheep, contrary to the law? And when did the people of Israel provoke God? Was it not when they lusted after the table of Egypt, and required of the teacher flesh and cauldrons? Why were Hophni and Phinehas, the sons of Eli, slain in one hour, in the war? Was it not because they used to draw the meat which belonged to the sacrifice out of the cauldrons with their flesh-hooks? And why did Jacob, the blamed,309 kick? Was it not when he was "filled with bread, and anointed, and waxen fat, and enlarged"? 310 When did the people of Sodom ran unnatural riot? Was it not when they had ruined their powers of sound judgment by continual drinking? So they are scornfully referred to by the prophet Ezechiel,311 in the words, "In abundance of wine and fulness of bread they lusted, themselves" 312 (that is, the city) "and her daughters" (that is, the villages, which always follow the example of the city). When was it that the principle of moderation passed away from the people of old? Was it not when they, too, had grown old upon their beds, as the prophet complains, "They that eat the lambs out of the flock, and sucking calves out of the stalls, that drink strained wine, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments, and they were not grieved for the affliction of Joseph." 313 Upon whom did Isaiah pronounce the woe? Was it not upon those who rise up early to drink? Here are his words: "Woe unto them that rise up early, and follow strong drink; who tarry late into the night; for wine shall inflame them; for with the harp and the lute they drink wine, but they regard not the work of the Lord." 314 When were the priests of Bel put to shame by Daniel? Was it not when the |105 dust ensnared them, and proved their guilt by means of food and drink? 315
No need for me to talk of those who have chosen to go by the broad way, and abuse the narrow; the words of the Saviour are to my mind sufficient condemnation of the roast-hunters, in the passage in which he shows the unnamed rich man, who fared sumptuously every day in this life present, longing for the poor man Lazarus to bring him crumbs and drops of water, and not getting them. Let us look, too, at the company of the saints of old, and see what kind of teaching they employed; whether that of a devout life and words of uprightness, or that of drinking parties and high living. Enoch was the first to be translated; was it by faith, or by joining in drinking parties? Then Noah preserved the human race on the face of the earth, by faith, in the ark of wood, when the world around was purified; was this through a course of drinking parties and unclean works, or by fasting and prayers? And when after this tremendous flood he found a little relief in drinking,316 do not the scriptures proclaim his disgrace, and not his honour? When the blessed Abraham overcame the five kings at Sodom, and rescued Lot, was it by faith and righteousness, or by eating and drinking?
A Single Instance no Basis for a Universal Rule
Then Theodorus said----
Deac. If you bring Abraham into the discussion, let me call your attention to this point; some one will tell you, that he won the war by faith, but he ensnared God, as you yourself explained just now, by means of the table.
Bish. What an idea! As Abraham ensnared God by means of the table, had we not all better abandon faith and the rest of the virtues, and cultivate |106 drinking parties? Then we shall be no better than inn-keepers and caterers, who line the streets with buildings for the purpose, for filthy lucre's sake. And then the virgins, who strive to be holy in body and spirit, for the glory of God, had better bear children, because Mary bore Christ; if they do so, they will be no better than prostitutes. If our teachers must furnish the pleasures of the table because Abraham did so, then our virgins should bear children because Mary did so.
No, no, my honoured friend; we must not bring ridicule upon things which have been done, or are being done, with the justification of special circumstances; for each man's conscience tells him his duty, if he will have it so.
Further Old Testament Illustrations
Again, did Jacob the wrestler carry off the goods of Laban by austerity, or by taking the chair at drinking parties? "I was consumed by the heat," he said, "and by the frost at night, and sleep departed from me." 317 And he asked in his prayer for no more than bread and clothes: "If thou wilt give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, of all that thou shalt give me I will give the tenth part unto thee." 318 He did not say, "I will spend it on tables." What sort of table did Moses, the spokesman and faithful minister of God, prepare, when he gathered the people to the assembly upon the mountain? What sort of drinking cups did he have? He melted the rock with his rod, because of the unbelief of the people; he led six hundred thousand men out of Egypt; he carried the tables of the law to guide the people in the right way; was it transparent bowls, and pork haggis, and birds from Phasis,319 and fish from the sea, and Tyrian wine well refined, and snow-white loaves, that he set before those under instruction, or was it words? |107
Deac. But some one will meet your argument by saying, Give me too manna, and the water that Moses produced, and I ask for no more.
Bish. Who is so dull of wit as to prefer material manna, and water from the stream, to spiritual teaching? Let us pass on. Whom did Samuel, the teacher of the people, after his twenty-five years of retirement at Armathem,320 ever turn away from idols by means of the table, and not by words? And the king who was at the same time prophet and psalmist; he who said, "I have eaten ashes as bread, and mingled my drink with weeping";321 when did he set a luxurious table? Elijah the Tishbite, who brought about a fast all the world over, and made the greedy to go short of food against their will for three years and six months-----by what sort of table did he deliver them from their sin? What cooks had he? Did he not receive his daily bread through ravens?
Daniel the wise, the seer of the future----by what sort of table did he instruct the Assyrians? Was it not by prayer and fasting that he destroyed the dragon, and overthrew Bel, and stopped the mouths of the lions, and moved the king to deny his ancestral gods by the confession of the God who essentially is? 322 What tables, and what sort of good cheer, did the rest of the company of prophets, or of apostles, employ? Were they not teachers? Was not the whole world entrusted to them? Are we not their successors? Does not the word wish us to be imitators of them and observant of their ways, as Paul teaches, when he says, "And considering the issue of their manner of life, imitate their faith"? 323
The Teaching of John the Baptist
What sort of honey-cakes had John the Baptist, the herald of repentance, in the wilderness; he who was so far from providing meals for those who came to him, that the bitterness of his reproofs actually |108 offended his visitors' taste? His fierce looks, and even his appearance, shook their defiled consciences like an earthquake; much more did his words cut away the abscesses of their souls like knives. "Ye offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance," 324 and do not rely upon baptism by itself, or upon your descent from Abraham.
The Teaching of the Apostle Paul
What of the teacher of the Gentiles, who abolished 325 circumcision, to establish the circumcision of faith, the chosen vessel, Paul? Do we find him busying himself with a table? He was a debtor;326 but this was the last item of his debt. Does he owe it to the unbelieving Gentiles, first of all, to have table relations with them?
Again, what does he write to Timothy, Bishop of Ephesus? "Take heed unto"----the splendour of thy table? Or "Unto the reading, the exhortation, the doctrine "? 327 These were just the duties in which the blessed John was diligent and strenuous. "Be instant out of season, in season," he continues. "Reprove, rebuke, exhort." 328 No one raises the objection that two of these methods of address are bitter, and one pleasant; or suggests that he brings in the third with a touch of leniency. The exceedingly bitter "Reprove, rebuke," are coupled with "Exhort" (not "flatter").329 Exhortation, given scientifically, is more bitter to lovers of pleasure and degenerates, than reproofs, though they may find these the more vexatious. For under the influence |109 of some passion, the soul may perhaps set itself in opposition to reproof, and remain indifferent to what is said; but by exhortation, gently and gradually administered in kindly and truthful language, it is consciously devoured, so to speak, in a slow fire, and sawn in pieces. Now of what does he remind Timothy? Of drinking parties and festivities, or of the revered stories 330 of his tribulations? "Thou hast fully known," he says, "my manner of life," 331 how in my persecutions I set myself with purpose of heart to do all to the glory of God. Does he anywhere mention a table, when reproving error?
Again, let us see what he writes to Titus, Bishop of Crete. Does he discuss meat and drink, or reproofs and teaching? This is what he says: "For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou mightest set in order the things that are wanting, and persuade them not to teach a different doctrine, nor to give heed to tales and endless genealogies";332 and he adds the kind of reproof needed: "The Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, idle gluttons." 333 We may ask the belly-olaters, and table-giants, and women-preying hawks,334 who find fault with John's asceticism, to look through the Old and the New Testaments, and tell us when they find drinking commended, except perhaps in dealing with aliens, and that only as a pledge of peace, since barbarians, like wild beasts, are softened by table law?
The Mischief wrought by Excess
And when did drinking parties lead to anything but sin? When I say "sin," I ought perhaps rather to say, "more grievous idolatry, and fratricide"; as it is written, "The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play." 335 The play was the issue of |110 drunkenness. "Come, let us make gods, who shall go before us." 336 They were so much shaken by wine, that they looked for gods who could be moved, and departed from the God Who is unshaken, and fills all things without walking a step. And what says the prophet? "The priest's lips should meditate upon drinking parties, for they shall seek from him dinners and lunches"? Or that, "The priest's lips shall guard law, and they shall seek the word from his mouth"? "For he is a messenger of the Lord," 337 and not a cook. Once more, when was it that the, tower was built in Chalane? 338 Before wine, or after wine? Was it not with wine, when Noah had planted the vine-stock, and was the first to gather the fruit of reproach? This shows that it was not the result of drinking, or of planting, but of excess.
When was Joseph sold by his brethren? Was it when they were busy tending the sheep, or when they were killing and eating the best of the flock in idleness, and devising malicious schemes against him over their cups? When did they deliver the head of John the Baptist on a charger to the young harlot? In an assemblage of the wise, or at a drinking party of the lawless? Was it in drinking and eating that the blessed Paul continued his discourse until midnight, or in fasting and teaching, and leading to faith those who knew not God?
As for the Chief of shepherds, the Chief of teachers, the Chief of wise men, Jesus the Christ, the Corrector of human error, where do we find Him eating in a city, except at the Passover?----and this was the fulfilling of mysteries.339 And what do we find Him discussing with His disciples, when they were anxious? Food, or reading? "Labour," He says, "not for the meat which perisheth, but for that which endureth." 340 |111
Chrysostom's Action Justified
So the good John may well say, with the Lord, My drinking-party is the teaching and distribution of the word, for which I was chosen, for the salvation of the people. For meat does not commend us to God, neither if we eat it, nor if we do not eat it.341 It is with the Gentiles that the custom prevails, of winning with tables those whom they seek to ensnare; as they cannot persuade them with words, they say, "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." The apostle launches upon them an unusually severe correction: 342 "Be not deceived; evil communications corrupt good manners." By "evil communications" he means the whirl of talking which goes on over such things.
CHAPTER XIII. A DEFENCE AGAINST THE CHARGE OF TYRANNICAL DEPOSITIONS
No Exception made for Bishops
Deac. You have delivered yourself with sincerity and learning; your contention is sound. "Woe unto him that calleth sweet bitter, and bitter sweet. Woe unto him that setteth darkness as light, and light as darkness." 343 Still, some one will say, We do not assert, any more than you do; that John was given to such tables as these. It is true that extravagant ambition is at the bottom of the love of pleasure; 344 excessive parsimony is equally a proof of slovenliness |112 and pettiness of mind. He might have invited bishops only, especially the more devout bishops; if not bishops, at least his own clergy, after the example of the Lord when He ate with the twelve apostles.
Bish. The objection you raise, most truth-loving of men, would be most valid, if only the clergy would have been content to have their meals with John, and get their food an hour, or a day, late;345 but they expected lavish hospitality, and great style, punctually to the minute. It would have been absurd to waste the food of the sick or the poor on feasting the healthy. Besides, what an idea it is, for the pupils to lay down the law for the teacher, or the patients for the doctor, or the passengers for the pilot.346 It is always the doctor who cures the sick, the teacher who instructs the pupils, the pilot who woos the welfare of the passengers. Moreover, the love of life makes those who take the advice of a doctor or a pilot willing to bear any pain or hardship, though they cannot guarantee success; the teacher of the higher life is entrusted with the duty of eradicating diseases and infirmities, and trained to overcome the fiercest waves of lust. Yet people do their utmost to oppose him with their unbridled tongues, and stir up all the mud with unwashed feet. And if John had surrendered himself, and given himself over to tables, how many of the important people could he have satisfied, living as he did in a great city, where every one wanted to dine with him, either to get a blessing,347 |113 or because he was poor, or because he was greedy? And how could he have found time for religious meditation, the ministrations to his flock, the study of holy scripture, the care of the widows, the en couragement of the virgins, the nursing of the sick, the assistance of those in distress, the conversion of those in error, the anxious thought for the broken in heart, the visiting of the prisoners? How could he have escaped the reproachful curse of God, pronounced in Ezekiel? "Woe unto the shepherds who feed themselves, and feed not the flock! Ye did not bring again that which had wandered, that which was lost ye sought not, the weak ye visited not, that which was broken ye bound not up; the fatlings ye killed and ate." 348 Of whom Paul writes, "Ye bear with a man, if he bringeth you into bondage, if he devoureth you, if he taketh you captive." 349 "And ye clothe yourselves with the wool, but ye feed not the flock." And He says in Jeremiah of the idle shepherds, "Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard." 350
The Good Name of a Priest
Deac. In time, he might have paid his respects to these people, without neglecting ecclesiastical duties, so as not to get himself a bad name, when in everything else he was so eminent.
Bish. This is just what is wanted in a priest----not to get himself a bad name, so as to have full scope for his gifts of speech, his energy, his zeal, and |114 all the other right dispositions of a priest.351 Do you not know, my most honoured Theodorus, that one of the beatitudes laid down by the Lord deals with unreasonable accusations? "Blessed are ye, when men shall reproach you, and say all manner of evil things against you.352 But woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you; for so did their fathers to the prophets." 353 And how could lips trained in divine oracles, and an car accustomed to listen to divine precepts, endure the gossip of the table, when the Lord says, "No man can serve two masters," 354 continuing, "Ye cannot serve God and mammon"? We had better find out what is mammon, or we may find ourselves not even serving the two masters, but mammon only. For in this passage He does not mean by "mammon" "the devil," but the vain industry of this world, from which the word of God bids His disciples to stand aloof.
True Priestly Work not in Earthly, but in Spiritual Things
Deac. I am quite satisfied with the light you have thrown upon this question of the table. Now, most holy father, come back to your narrative of events. And do not be vexed with me for raising objections; it is only because I wanted to learn more that I kept questioning your abundant learning at greater length than you liked.
Bish. Let me make this point still more clear to you, Theodorus, most earnest lover of learning. I was myself once one of those who are bent on pleasing the masses with the table; and I say that a bishop, especially the bishop of a large city, who leaves the ministry of the word, and has not in his hands by night and day the tables of the law, and performs his ministrations to the poor not in person, but by proxy, is quite a different person from those who said, "Lo, we have left all, and followed thee; what |115 shall we have therefore?" 355 He must be ranked with those who said, "Lord, did we not in thy name do this or that?" and like them, he will hear the answer, "Depart from me, ye cursed; I know you not whence ye are." 356
For the Word 357 knows not wordless 358 workers; His eye is too pure to look upon evil things. For many so-called bishops, anxious to get rid of the quite reasonable hatred in which they are held, owing to their own characters, and their indifference to spiritual things, do but exchange one evil affection for another----covetousness for vain-glory. While with one hand they do wrong without stint for the sake of unrighteous gain, with the other they set elaborate tables, and rear pillars for lofty buildings,359 so as to gain a reputation for being good and laborious workers, and win honour instead of dishonour. They forget the Ecclesiast, who built great buildings, and hated them; and clearly forbad such things, when he wrote, "I built me houses and gardens," etc., "and behold, all are vanity; and I hated all my labour, wherein I labour under the sun." 360 He did not say, "Above the sun," or he would have brought spiritual toil into disrepute. In saying this, I do not include in my condemnation those who build reasonably, and of necessity, or beautify Church property; I am thinking of those who waste the money of the poor on hanging corridors, and water-cisterns raised into the air three storeys high, and disreputable baths, hidden from sight, for effeminate men; or spend their gifts of energy upon buildings, either as an excuse for collecting more money, or again, to win the esteem of popular favourites. That is simply to sacrifice everything to give pleasure to sinners. As for me, God forbid, famous Theodorus, that I should ever |116 please bad people, for I shall never please them, except by methods which do not please Christ.
The Alleged Deposition of Sixteen Bishops
The deacon, much impressed by these remarks, here made a request to the bishop:----
Deac. Your observations are perfectly sound, and there is nothing to be said against them. Now, if you have any knowledge of the arrangements 361 made by the holy John in Asia, as it is with him that our discussion is concerned, let me share it.
Bish. Certainly I have such knowledge.
Deac. From being personally present? Or did you gain your information from others?
Bish. No; I did not miss a word of the trial.
Deac. Then tell me in detail what followed, and how it ended, and how it began. I especially wish to know, because Theophilus said in his indictment, in his anxiety to dignify or to hide his own rash conduct, that the blessed John was so much influenced by the love of power, that he deposed sixteen 362 bishops in a single day and ordained creatures of his own in their stead.
Bish. It was just what one would expect from the character of this wonderful person, to write, and to write falsehoods, against John. By the very steps which he took to hide his own shame, he made it the more conspicuous, and involuntarily established the innocence of John; just as it was in the case of Balaam. If he had succeeded in deposing him, there would have been no need of indictment, or of banishment, |117 as the deposition is enough to disgrace a deposed person; but as our bishop stood firm in his virtue, against the attempts to depose him, and won victory in defeat, his opponent's malice is as fierce as ever, bearing the palm of defeat for its senseless victory. He swells like a bubble, chafing against himself, writing tracts and detractions. This is what Isaiah meant, when he cried woe upon him who seizes every opportunity of doing, and telling, and writing, lies; "Woe unto them," he says, "who write; for they write iniquity." 363
The Accusation brought by Eusebius against Antoninus
The number of the bishops whom John deposed in Asia was not sixteen, but six; I make the assertion as at God's judgment throne, not subtracting a single unit from the figures, nor adding a single qualification of his action. My statements are in exact accordance with the facts.
In the thirteenth year of the sixth indiction364 some bishops from Asia came to Constantinople on business and stayed with us. Besides these, there were other bishops, including one from Scythia, Theotimus,365 one from Thrace, Ammon the Egyptian, and one from Galatia, Arabianus----all metropolitans, advanced in years; making a total of twenty-two bishops.366 A certain Eusebius, from the district known |118 as Kilbia, Bishop of Valentinopolis,367 took the opportunity of these being assembled and holding communion together to come forward in the assembled synod,368 on the first day of the week, and lay memorials before it, against Antoninus, Bishop of Ephesus; to these charges, so as to be in order, he of course prefixed the name of John. The charges fell under seven heads; first, that he had melted down Church plate, and placed the proceeds to the account of his son; second, that he had carried away marble from the entrance of the baptistery, and used it for the improvement of his own bathroom; next, that he had set up pillars belonging to the Church, which had been in position for many years, in his own dining-room; fourth, that his servant had committed murder, and that he was still keeping him in his service, without bringing him to trial; fifth, that he had sold some land bequeathed to the Church by Basilina, the mother of King Julian, and kept the money; sixth, that after separating from 369 his married wife, he had taken her again, and had had children born to him by her; seventh, that he regarded it as law, and dogma, to sell consecration to bishopricks at prices in proportion to the emoluments. He added that there were persons present who had paid such money, and been consecrated, as well as the man who had received it; and that he had proofs of his statements. |119
CHAPTER XIV. THE TRIAL OF ANTONINUS----CHRYSOSTOM 'S VISIT TO EPHESUS
John's Moderation
Deac. Pray, father, cut your narrative short; for those who are here with us 370 are grieved to hear of bishops making such assertions, to say nothing of bishops doing such things.
Bish. Woe is me, that I have lived to see these days, in which a sacred office----if under the circumstances it is a sacred office----is being sold for money. "I have become a fool" 371 in giving my account of the doings of John's accusers, who have brought us to this pass. But be patient with me, and you will be surprised at the reasonableness which John showed in this matter, as in others. He restrained his indignation for the time, and said to Eusebius: "Brother Eusebius, as accusations made in a moment of vexation are often not easy to prove, I beg you not to bring a written charge against our brother Antoninus; we will set right the matters which have vexed you."
Eusebius' Persistence
At this Eusebius was very angry, and indulged in harsh language, raging with all his might against Antoninus, and persisting in his accusations. So |120 John requested Paul of Heracleia,372 who seemed to be a warm supporter of Antoninus, to bring about a reconciliation between the two. Then he rose, and went into the church, as it was time for the sacrifice; gave the people the usual salutation,373 and took his seat with the other bishops. But Eusebius, the accuser, came in unobserved, and in the presence of all the people, and the bishops, presented another memorial, containing the same charges; conjuring John by terrible oaths, nothing less than "by the salvation of the king and queen." He made such a disturbance that the people took alarm at his audacity, and supposed that he was urging John to petition the king for reprieve from a death sentence. So John, struck by the man's persistence, and anxious to keep the people quiet, accepted the document, and after the reading of the divine oracles requested Pansophius, Bishop of Pisidia, to offer the gifts, while he himself retired with the rest of the bishops. For he always objected to offering the sacrifice with a disturbed mind, as the gospel requires: "When thou bringest thy gift," etc. 374
The Charges made Public
After the dismissal of the people, he carefully considered the situation, and taking his seat in the baptistery 375 with the other bishops, called the accuser, and said to him in the presence of all, "I repeat what I said before, that people under the influence of |121 vexation or anger, often say and write a great deal, while their proofs are feeble. If, then, you have certain knowledge of the charges which you wish to bring----for if you can maintain them we do not reject them, nor, if you cannot, do we invite them----before the memorial is read, decide what is best to be done; for after the charges are read, and reach the cars of the public, the proceedings will be on record, and you cannot then, as a bishop, ask for an annulment.376 However, Eusebius still persisted; so orders were given for the document to be read, and the seven counts which I detailed were read.
The Charge of Simony to be first Investigated
With the contents of the document thus brought to their ears, the senior 377 bishops said to John, Without doubt, each single point of each single count is impious, and forbidden from every point of view by the sacred laws; but we must not appear to spend all our time upon the less weighty charges. The investigation therefore should begin with the most awful of the points; for if that be found to be true, there is no answer to be made upon the other counts, as that one count contains the root which bears fruit in every kind of evil, as the writer said, "The love of money is the root of all evils." 378 For if a man has accepted bribes against the innocent, and thought fit to barter for money his powers of distributing the Holy Spirit, how is he likely to spare the plate,379 or the stones, or the property, of the Church?
Then John began the investigation, asking Antoninus, "What answer do you make to these charges, brother Antoninus?" He, of course, denied them; |122 for how could he admit his disgrace at the very beginning? Those who had paid the money were questioned, and they, too, denied the charge. These stages of the carefully conducted investigation lasted till two in the afternoon, when the verdict began to take shape on the strength of certain points of evidence.
Absence of the Necessary Witnesses
At last, the result of the inquiry turned upon the question of witnesses, in whose presence the money had been given and accepted. These witnesses were not at hand, and their presence was necessary. In view of the trouble which their attendance would involve, John expressed his readiness to secure the purification of the church, and to save the witnesses inconvenience, by going to Asia in person, and completing the investigation there. Then Antoninus, conscious of his guilt, and observing the resolution and impartiality of John, went secretly to one of the officials, for whom he was looking after some estates in Asia,380 and begged him to arrange that John should be prevented from going to Asia, promising that he would himself see to the attendance of the witnesses. This man at once had a communication sent from the palace to Bishop John, to this effect: "It is out of the question for you, the bishop, the champion of our souls, to leave the city, when there is such grave expectation of disturbance, and commit yourself to a long absence in Asia, when the witnesses can easily be brought over." It was Gainas, the barbarian, who was expected to cause the disturbance.381 |123
The Delegation of Bishops to meet the Witnesses
Well, to make a long story short, he consented to stay in Constantinople, as he had to consider not only the burden placed upon the witnesses, but also the claims of justice. This postponement for the appearance of the witnesses was a godsend for the accused, as it was now possible to get rid of them by bribery or by pressure. This John foresaw; and accordingly deliberated with the assembled synod the question of sending to Asia some of the bishops present, to examine the witnesses.
Chicanery and Delay
Three bishops were at once appointed to go-----Syncletius, metropolitan of Trajanopolis,382 Hesychius, Bishop of Parius,383 and Palladius, Bishop of Helenopolis; a resolution of the synod being entered upon the minutes, that if either of the litigants did not within two months appear, and stand by his pleas, in Hypoepi, a city of Asia (chosen as at a convenient distance both for the accused persons, and for the other bishops who had to take part with Syncletius and his companions in, the trial), he should be |124 excommunicated. Two of the bishops nominated, Syncletms and Palladius, went down to Smyrna; for Hesychius, who was a friend of Antoninus, pretended that he had fallen ill. They at once notified both parties, by letter, of their arrival, bidding them to go together without delay to the city designated in the resolution, and carry out their promises. Instead of this, they came to terms with one another, thanks to bribery 384 on one side, met by an oath on the other, and before the judges arrived, had become friends. Then they made a great show of hastening to the district of Hypoepi, and calculated to fool the judges by putting off the appearance of witnesses again, on the ground that they were away from home for various unavoidable reasons. Upon this, the judges asked the accuser: "Within how many days will you produce the witnesses? We will wait for them for so long." As he expected that they would soon leave the place, owing to the oppressive weather ----it was the hottest period of summer----he promised in writing that within forty days he would either produce the witnesses, or submit to the penalties prescribed by the canons. He was accordingly set free to look for his witnesses; but he did nothing of the sort, but came down to Constantinople, and there remained in hiding.
Death of Antoninus
The judges duly waited for the forty days, and as he did not appear, they sent word to all the bishops of Asia, declaring him to be excommunicate, either as a shirker 385 or as a false accuser. Then they held out for thirty days more, and as he still did not appear, they departed, and came to Constantinople, where they fell in with him, and reproved him for his contemptuous action. He again pleaded the excuse of ill health, and promised to produce the witnesses. |125 Thus matters dragged on, until Antoninus, the defendant in Eusebius' suit, died.
The Invitation from Ephesus
At this juncture John received a resolution forwarded from Asia, on the part of the clergy of the Ephesian Church, on the one hand, and of the bishops on the other, making requirement of him, with an awful adjuration, as follows: "Whereas for years past the laws of the Church, and we ourselves, have been in a sad state of confusion for want of good shepherds, we beg your honour to come and lay down an order 386 issued of God for the Church of Ephesus, so long oppressed, on the one hand, by persons holding the views of Arius, on the other, by those who make a great show of professing the views we hold, to secure advantage and domination for themselves; especially as there are many who are lurking like savage wolves, eager to seize the episcopal throne with the help of money."
Chrysostom' s Visit to Ephesus
Now John was seriously ill, and it was the stormy season of winter; but he dismissed every difficulty from consideration, and thought only of the settlement of the troubles from which the whole province of Asia was suffering through the inexperience, or lack, of shepherds. Strengthened by his zeal, he embarked and left the city. A violent storm from the north came on, and the sailors were afraid of being cast upon the Proconnesus,387 so they set the prow to windward, and ran under Mount Trito, where they |126 cast the anchors, and rode, waiting for the south wind to enable them to reach Apameia. For two whole days they lay without food, the ship rolling heavily, but on the third they arrived at Apameia, where Bishops Paul,388 Cyrinus,389 and Palladius 390 were waiting for them; for John had appointed them to be his companions on his visit.
They accomplished the journey to Ephesus on foot, and on their arrival gathered together the bishops of Lydia, Asia, and Caria, making in all seventy persons. Thus they held the ordination,391 the majority meeting them in the most friendly spirit, especially the Phrygian bishops; so much did they appreciate the wisdom which fell from his mouth, as it is written, "Wisdom is praised in the streets"----that is, in those that speak; "in the broad places she uttereth her voice with outspokenness," 392 that is, in the hearts that have been enlarged through manifold distresses, as the scripture saith, "In distress thou didst enlarge me." 393 For wisdom is straitened in those that cultivate tares, and choke the word. |127
CHAPTER XV. SIX BISHOPS DEPOSED----CHRYSOSTOM'S WORK UNDONE
Eusebius' Request for Immediate Procedure
This was the state of things when the man who caused us all this long story, Eusebius, the accuser of the six other bishops, presented himself to the whole body of bishops, claiming to be admitted to communion with them. Some of the bishops objected, maintaining that as a false accuser he ought not to be admitted. Upon this he played the suppliant, saying, "As the main part of the case has been under investigation for two years, and the adjournment was made to enable the witnesses to be examined, I beseech your love of God, to let me produce the witnesses this very day. For although Bishop Antoninus, who accepted the money, and performed the act of ordination, is dead, there yet remain those who gave the money, and received ordination."
Confession of the Accused Bishops
The assembled synod resolved that the inquiry should be held, and the proceedings began with the reading of the minutes of the previous transactions. Then the witnesses were introduced, and also six of those who had given bribes and received ordination. At first they denied the charge; but the witnesses, some of whom were laymen, others priests, in whom they had evidently trusted, others again women, held to their assertions, and stated the nature of the pledges exchanged, the places, the dates, and the amount. At last, their consciences so much troubled them, that with very little pressure they confessed of their own free will. "We have given bribes," they said; "the thing is admitted, and we have been made bishops, in the expectation that we should be |128 regarded as exempt from civil duties.394 And now we beg to be allowed to continue in the ministry of this Church, if there is no impiety in our doing so; or, if that is impossible, that we may receive back the money we have paid. For some of us have given furniture belonging to our wives."
The Sentence
John in answer promised the synod, that with the help of God he would present a petition to the king, and get them freed from civil duties; and bade them order the accused to recover what they had paid from the heirs of Antoninus. So the synod ordered, that they should recover from the heirs of Antoninus, and should communicate within the sanctuary,395 but not be reckoned as priests, for fear that if their doings were condoned, a custom might arise worthy of Jews or Egyptians, of selling and buying the priesthood. They say that the pestilential patriarch 396 |129 of the Jews, whose acts belied his title, used to change the rulers of the synagogues every year, or every other year, as a means of raising money; and that the Patriarch of Egypt emulated him by doing the same, that the word of prophecy might be fulfilled, "Her priests made answer for gifts, and her prophets divined for money." 397
Re-introduction of the Condemned Bishops
The minutes of all those proceedings, and the names of the judges, are on record. Further, the investigation was not a matter of a single day, as Theophilus falsely asserted, but of two years. Moreover, those who were deposed acquiesced, thankful to be delivered from the judgment to come; indeed, one of them was appointed solicitor for dealing with public affairs.398 In their places six others were instituted, unmarried men, adorned by graces both of life and speech. And the noble and quarrelsome gentlemen, after John had been exiled, got what they did get (for their villainy has no name,399 any more than it has a substantial existence),400 and brought back into the Churches those who had four years before been expelled, while those who had been enthroned with due order they thrust out, scattering the sheep of Christ.
A Vile Person enthroned at Ephesus
Yet the most ridiculous thing of all, though it calls for lamentation rather than laughter, Theodorus, |130 best friend of learning, is yet to follow. As the prophet says, "Both thine ears shall tingle," 401 if you hear it, but as a lover of God you will mourn for the bishops who are behaving as madmen, and with darkened 402 hands outraging the gifts of Christ. The ordinations which Peter and John and their brethren administered with fasting and prayer, and with careful testing by lot, and fear, they administered with revelry and drunkenness, and lamentable bribes, to abortions 403 of men, not worthy to be set with pigs or dogs, creatures without reason; as Job prophesied, impersonating the Saviour, "Whom I thought not worthy of the dogs of my flocks, who lived beneath the nettles." 404
So these companions of actors and Jews are entrusted by our clever friends with the secrets 405 of the priesthood, as if they were friends 406 of the Saviour, and in consequence the orthodox laity avoid the houses of prayer. For this new and most contemptible form of audacity has actually spread from the Church of Ephesus as far as to us; and it is not to be wondered at, as Ephesus stands upon the sea, and exports its news as easily as its cargoes. For in the place of 407----no, I will say, in the place of John, the author of the gospel, the loyal disciple who leaned upon the bosom of wisdom, called in Scripture the disciple whom Jesus loved; who was succeeded by Timothy, the disciple of Paul, to whom are addressed |131 the two epistles of the apostle----there succeeds an abomination of desolation.408 For they consecrated and enthroned the eunuch 409 Victor the tribune, and cast into prison, where he is still languishing, the bishop enthroned by seventy bishops; a man who had lived a solitary life in the desert, trained in every branch of learning,410 possessed of a profound knowledge of Holy Scripture, and with three years of service as deacon to his record. Would that the eunuch who was consecrated had been trained by a holy life, for then the evil would have been halved; but as it is, we have a worm of earth, a slave of the belly, lustful, fierce, drunken, profligate, venal, illiberal, covetous, a jail-bird 411 from his birth, a sexless creature, neither man nor woman, raging mad; a man who (so I have often been told) carried theatre girls upon his shoulders at drinking parties lit for satyrs, his head garlanded with ivy, and a bowl clasped in his hand, playing the rôle of Dionysus 412 in the fable, as master of libations. All this he did, not before his initiation into the mysteries of Christ, but after his baptism;413 from which it is a plain inference, that he does not even believe in the resurrection. For how can a man believe in the resurrection, who has made rotten the foundation 414 of the resurrection? As the apostle says, "How shall they preach, unless they believe?" 415 He is moral, thanks to the knife, as to deeds which bring no reward; but |132 he is mad upon unfruitful works,416 from his natural depravity.
Now I have answered your inquiry as to events in Asia, which arose from the statement in Theophilus' letter that John had deposed sixteen bishops. You may be quite sure that the number is six. We have the records preserved, with the signatures of the twenty-two bishops who heard the case from the beginning, and the seventy who effected the deposition, and brought the trial to a conclusion.
CHAPTER XVI. PORPHYRIUS
The Deacon's Inquiry
Deac. Pardon me, father; such deeds overpass 417 drunkenness, and madness, and youthful folly. Madmen, drunkards, and young men, when they are sober again, or have digested their food, or when they have come to years of discretion, as the case may be, are ashamed of their disgraceful or disorderly doings or sayings, and renounce them; these people, after all they have done in mature age and apparently in a sober frame of mind, so far from repenting of their deeds, hope and pray that their wickedness may be permanent and undisturbed. When men have not shrunk from placing the gospel on a polluted head,418 upon which coarse women have danced; |133 with whom are they fit to be ranked, but with those who put the crown of thorns about the head of the Son of God? However, if you have personal knowledge of the circumstances of the consecration 419 of Porphyrius to the bishopric of Antioch, or of those who performed the act of consecration, or of the previous life of the man, whether it was distinguished or not, and of his teaching, whether it be true or false, tell us what you know; especially as he has sent a letter to the Church of Rome, and was not considered worthy of an answer.
A Protestation of Veracity
Bish. My words shall again be the words of truth, for I will not forget the voice of the Master, which says, "For every idle word shall men give account in the day of judgment." 420 Let me venture to add a clause, and say, "For every idle hearing." Do you then guard yourself; if you find me not speaking the truth, do not let my grey hair weigh with you, but only the veracity of my statements. For what profit shall I have from what I have said to-day, or yesterday, if I have told lies, when I am put to shame for ever before the unerring judgment throne? And how shall I bear the mill-stone 421 of slander cast about the neck of my mind, when I am cast down into the pit of hell for the souls who have been caused to offend by my lies?
Porphyrius' Career Well, this Porphyrius 422 had long been in the Church, |134 and held office both as deacon and as priest in the presbytery; but his character was quite out of keeping with his long tenure of office, and he was never of the slightest spiritual benefit to the Church. He was always in opposition to the devout bishops in his neighbourhood, and used his position as bishop of the most important city, with the magistrates under his jurisdiction, to make ordination a matter of barter; he exerted his ingenuity to prevent seemly ordinations, and by his uncanny abilities wormed himself into friendship with the bishops in office for the moment, as one may call them, even dragging them down with him against their will, to hold ordinations blasted by the wind.423 Flattery, coupled with an evil disposition, is a terrible thing; as the comic poet Menander says, "It is hard, Pamphile, for an honest woman to fight with an harlot." 424
Porphyrius' Character
The more such a man knows the more harm he does. He is ashamed of no one, but the worse a man is, the more he flatters him. As the wise Solomon says, "The words of flatterers are soft; they smite upon the innermost chambers of the belly." 425 He is as much a stranger, or rather an enemy, to self-control in the pleasures of the flesh, as the vulture is to scent; indeed, common report credits him with the unnatural wickedness of Sodom. Nature imposes upon our pleasures laws, and limits, and barriers; if what they say is true, he has trodden down the barrier, burst |135 the limit, and made despite of the law, until he has produced the impression that he takes the chair and joins in the convivial gatherings of jugglers, and jockeys, and actors who represent incidents of ancient times with improper posturings and distortions of the leg.426 He had the hardihood to enter into contests of skill with jugglers, and have friendly intercourse with them; indeed, charges of so doing are entered in the records of several of the magistrates. Pie has not read the gnomic poet's words, "What thou ought-est not to do, do not even think." [Thanks to him the Mediator was slain with blows,427 and "he who found was exiled, and the juggler was put to flight."] 428
They say that besides all this wickedness, he was guilty, after his ordination, of melting down (Church) plate, and lavishing the proceeds upon the magistrates, to produce the appearance of having the authority, not of a spiritual guide, but of a tyrant, over those who unhappily fell into his power.429
Constantius desired as Bishop
Now the death of Flavianus, Bishop of Antioch, coincided with the exile of John to Armenia. Porphyrius observed that the whole population, men and women alike, hung upon the neck of Constantius the priest, longing to have him (as bishop). He had been the servant of the Church from his earliest childhood; an ambidextrous man, to use a term from the book of Judges.430 What is generally considered the left hand, was in him stronger than the right of other men. He had first rendered service by writing letters,431 and been found blameless in regard to unrighteous gain and bribes; next he had been promoted to be reader and |136 deacon, and without an effort had mastered the sexual delights which reign among men. As the author of Proverbs says, "The hand of the elect shall easily prevail." 432 For possibly even the vilest of men can master pleasure; either through fear of consequences, or from shame, they may by great exertion restrain their bodily impulses. But it is only those that love God, who through love of the higher can rise superior to the lower----those whom the scripture calls "elect," in the text, "The hand of the elect shall easily prevail." If ever a man was gentle, it was he; or if ever a man was self-disciplined, penetrating of vision, sharp of comprehension, slow to punish, thoughtful, able to draw inferences by reflection, merciful, generous, just in judgment, long-suffering under insults, of ability to win men, oft continuing fasting until evening, so as to relieve the oppressed, of dignified appearance, stern of look, swift of step, celibate, as a bishop should be, ever wearing upon his face, even in sickness, the blossom of a smile.
Porphyrius' Private Ordination as Bishop
Such a man it was whose banishment Porphyrius set himself to bring about by means of bribery; and his method was this. He sent to the capital a message addressed to the officials in authority over the bishops, and procured his exile to Oasis by royal edict, as a seditious agitator. Constantius, however, at once heard of this, and with the help of his friends escaped to Cyprus. But Porphyrius himself had Cyriacus and Diophantus, priests, and other clergy, put under arrest; and then, keeping by his side in hiding the party of Acacius, Severianus, and Antiochus, he waited for the occasion when the whole city went abroad to the suburbs on one of the great pagan festivals, observed every four years in honour of the labours of Hercules, called Olympia, upon which flocks of women stream out with the crowds to Daphne,433 to |137 see the sports. Bursting into the church, with the bishops I mentioned, and a few clergy, he was privately ordained, with closed doors, and in such haste, through fear of discovery, that they did not give themselves time to finish the prayer. Such is adultery, its offspring and its deeds ever bastard.
Porphyrius' Acts of Violence
Severianus and his friends took their bribe-money, and fled through mountains and pathless wastes; they escaped the terror of man, but were pierced through by the terror of God, which they had ignored. Now when the public theatre emptied, and the crowds re-entered the city, they were told what had been done to Porphyrius, and of the drama that Acacius had played. That evening the people forbore, like men flogged for adultery; but next day they rose, and poured through the streets in a great throng, with fire and faggots, determined to destroy Porphyrius with his house. Porphyrius, however, quite aware of the hatred in which he was held, deserted God, and fled to the officer in command of the camp,434 put money in his hands; and so diverting him from the war with the Isaurians, opened a campaign against the disciples of the Saviour. So the marauding Isaurian savages ravaged Rhosus 435 and Seleucia, while Porphyrius and Valentinus the governor pillaged the Church of the orthodox with an armed force; trampling with their own feet upon the most awful sign of the Cross, which they (the orthodox) bore upon their shoulders 436 to be their teacher, while they offered litanies 437 upon the desolated land. |138
The Indignation of the People
A few days afterwards, Porphyrius sent to the capital in great haste, and urged upon the magistrates, who were such men as himself, that a certain creature of their own, old but active, and of an evil disposition and a twisted mind, should be appointed 438 night-prefect, that he might so make himself master of the city by bringing false charges against the good citizens without fear of consequences. It was a fine imitation of the ways of Nero the fighter against God. It is not in him to win men by reason, but to vex them with unreason and cruelty; since he does not make it his aim to please God by leading to Him wandering souls, but to fill his serpent-like belly 439 that crawls upon its chest. So a certain number of the laity, in fear of rough treatment, unwillingly assembled in the church, for the sake of appearances, but in reality, they vituperated the lives of the men, and awaited succour from God.
Cruelty Preferred to Flattery
At this point Theodorus said, in amazement----Deac. I note something contrary to natural order in these events, father. As a general rule, vainglorious persons are men-pleasers, and prove to be flatterers, and provide sumptuous tables, to get themselves liked and well spoken of. Often they will even let people spit upon them. So I cannot see how Porphyrius, or any one else, can have practised methods of threats, and punishment, and banishment.
Bish. Yes, this is the extraordinary thing, Theodorus, that they reached such a pitch of wickedness, that so far from being anxious to please men, they did not even give a thought to the disgraceful character of their doings; for wickedness outdoes wickedness in wickedness. Wickedness casts the net of vainglory, when it hopes to catch simple folks by means of |139 flattery; but when the quarry proves to be superior to flattery and the pleasures of the table, it brings up threats and torments, to terrify by cruelty and fear those whom it could not seduce by the pleasures of the table or by flattery. We have seen this in the case of the martyrs. Both methods were employed against them; the snare constructed of bribes and honours, which caught those who had their mouths open for worthless reputation, and also the threat of punishment, which provided the roasting iron, the rack, and the wild beasts, and every kind of horrible torture, and revealed the courageous and the lovers of God.440 But to return to my story. The leading clergy of Antioch met in secret, without even going near the walls of the church, and all the leading women, for whose sake more particularly the covetous prelates have gone out of their wits. I need not tell you what happened in Constantinople, or what numbers of people, as I told you before, left the church, and gathered in the open air, so that not even our rulers in ecclesiastical affairs had so many auditors----of their silence, for they never tried to speak.
Olympias and Theophilus
Deac. You have relieved the doubts which were in my mind, father, by your presentation of the facts to my eyes. The consistency of your narrative, and your ingenuous explanation, convinces me that these events really happened; for a fictitious narrative cannot be consistent with itself. If it will not burden you, please tell us about Olympias, if you know anything of her.
Bish. Which Olympias? There are several ladies of that name.
Deac. The deaconess of Constantinople, who was the wife of Nevridius the ex-prefect.441 |140
Bish. I know her very well.
Deac. What sort of a woman is she?
Bish. Do not say woman, but manly creature;442 she is a man in everything but body.
Deac. How so?
Bish. In life, and in work, and in knowledge, and in her patience under afflictions.
Deac. Why then did Theophilus revile her?
Bish. Which Theophilus?
Deac. The Bishop of Alexandria.
Bish. You appear to me, Theodorus, to have buried in oblivion oceans of words.
Deac. How so?
Bish. The man who did not spare the truth, but trod it underfoot, as my narrative has established, and did not respect the Church universal, for whose sake the Only-begotten, as we proclaim, was done to death, that He might make it one, but disgraced it by his behaviour----has he it in him to spare a widow woman, who spends her life in prayer? Look all round, and see if he ever reviled a bad man; he always has hated devoutness. Why do you not gather from his very letters, how contrary they are one to another? He vituperated Epiphanius, the blessed Bishop of Constantia in Cyprus, who for thirty-six years ruled the Church there, as a heretic, or a paltry schismatic, in the time of Damas us or of the blessed Sericius; 443 but afterwards, in his letter to Pope Innocent, in which he reviled the blessed John, we find him calling Epiphanius a most holy saint. How often do you suppose he kissed Olympias' knees, when he |141 hoped to get money from her, the woman whom he now reviles; while she threw herself upon the ground in vexation, and shed tears at such things being done by a bishop. However, what were the grounds on which he reviled her?
Olympias' Reception of the Monks
Deac. He said that she had received into her house the monks whom he had expelled.
Bish. Well, is it right or fitting for a bishop to expel any disciple whatever; to say nothing of a monk?
Deac. Yes, if they have offended him, or slandered him.
Bish. Even if they did, ought he to have satisfied his personal indignation? How then shall Theophilus look for the insults which Christ endured, when he is always thinking of his own reputation? Why did he never imitate the teacher who said, "Being reviled, we bless"? 444
Deac. Then what was he to do, if the monks were unorthodox?
Bish. Whatever they were, he ought to have corrected them and convinced them, not to have expelled them.
Deac. But what if he did this, and they were so contentious, that they refused to be convinced?
Bish. He ought to have carried out the apostle's precept, "The man that is an heretic after one or two admonitions refuse, knowing that such an one is perverted." 445 He does not say, expel him, and rob him, and drive him from his native land, under threat of magistrate's sentence.
Deac. You tell me of rules for a perfect man, a lover of God, enduring of evil.
Bish. And yet it is not a matter for great praise, to bear with an inferior. But if a man is not perfect, so far as is possible, how can he be a bishop? The imperfect will never have consideration for the |142 imperfect. And how can he be called Theophilus, if he does not love God,446 for Whose sake he ought readily to have borne the insults of men? And if he does not love God, clearly he does not love himself either; and how shall he who is his own enemy love others? So it is not at all strange, that he blamed Olympias for receiving the monks.
Deac. I admit that Theophilus was carried away by his temper when he expelled them, whether they were orthodox or heretical; still, the deaconess ought not to have received them.
The Rightfulness of Olympias' Action
Bish. Well, what did you think of it? That she did right or wrong?
Deac. I said, that she did wrong.
Bish. And doing good is sometimes judged?
Deac. Most certainly, when good is done to bad people, and people who ought not to be treated well.
Bish. Then what were the five thousand, whom the Saviour fed with five barley loaves----good or bad?
Deac. As they were fed by the Saviour, clearly they were good.
Bish. If they were good, why did he feed them with loaves of barley?
Deac. Perhaps because wheaten loaves were scarce, and they were hungry.
Bish. Then how is it that they are reproved for want of faith; as good, or as bad men?
Deac. If they are reproved, clearly they were bad.
Bish. Well, can the same man be both good and bad?
Deac. Certainly.
Bish. How?
Deac. They can be good in comparison with the worse, and bad in comparison with the better.
Bish. Splendid. According to this, the monks were both good and bad. And the most faithful |143 deaconess provided hospitality for them, as good men, but our wonderful bishop expelled them, as bad. He ought not to have done so.
Deac. But he will say to you, "You received my enemies, to my hurt."
Bish. I object. It was wrong for him to call them enemies at all. As an imitator of Christ he ought to endure insults.
Deac. One moment; where are the five thousand reproved, as you said they were, by the Saviour? There is no record of reproof of them in scripture.
Bish. When they assembled and came to Jesus the second time, and were told, "Ye seek me, not because ye saw signs and wonders, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled." 447
That is very clear, said Theodorus.
Bish. If a man is blamed, he is so far bad.
Deac. Very true.
Bish. Then were those whom the Saviour fed bad, or good?
Deac. I admit that they were bad; for "they that are whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick." 448
Bish. Well then; did Olympias do wrong in imitating her Lord, who "maketh his own sun to rise, and sendeth rain, upon righteous and unrighteous"? 449 Even though the Pharisees reproach Him, and say to the disciples, "Your master eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners." 450
Deac. It appears that, contrary to the general instincts of mankind, noble actions are being condemned, and disgraceful actions approved.
Bish. What makes you say that, Theodorus, most truth-loving of men?
Deac. I mean that, if you had not made the matter |144 clear to me, by your logical explanation, I should have been led astray to hold the same senseless opinion as other people; the babblings of Theophilus caught my attention more than the ideal of truth.
Bish. Then conversely, if these holy men are proved not only to be not bad men, but men who have turned many from vice to virtue, clearly their persecutor deserves not to be persecuted in his turn, but to be pitied,451 as one who is always oppressing the good, and receiving 452 the bad.
Deac. Just so. Even if they cannot be proved to be wise and holy men, as most people say they are; by the lines of reasoning we have been following, Olympias must be freed from blame, as she put into practice the imitation of the Saviour.
Bish. And which testimony to the value of actions do you regard as strongest; that of the gospels, or that of Theophilus?
Deac. Hush, I beg you; I admit that he expelled the men through ill temper and love of domination, and that he reviled Olympias through superstition 453 and enmity, making the monks his excuse. The fact is, that when he found his servile flatteries fail in getting anything out of her beyond food and hospitality, he turned and reviled her; this is his way with every one. |145
CHAPTER XVII. THE VIRTUES OF THE MONKS, AND OF OLYMPIAS
Hierax and Ammonius
Bish. Listen, then, best of deacons. [You are worth the trouble], for I see that you will do much good in the world; your youthful zeal is a pledge of an honourable old age.454
These men from their earliest childhood, brought up by Christian parents, submitted themselves to God, and when quite young refused to be the slaves of vanity, and to associate with the multitude, but found a desolate spot far out of the world, in the south, where they set up huts, to shield them from the fierce heat of the sun, and the dew from the air. Here they lived, spending their time in prayer and reading, producing by manual labour enough fruit of their toil to provide for their frugal nourishment; thinking it better to herd with deer and sparrows and buffaloes, than to feast with people who knew not God. The eldest of them, who was called Hierax,455 and is still generally known by that name, once an associate of the blessed Antonius,456 had attained the age of ninety years, or thereabouts; another was Ammonius, sixty years old, and there were besides two anchorite brethren, and one bishop, who were put in pillory and banished under Valens, as all Alexandria knows. Such masters of learning were they, that not a single |146 point of difficulty which men generally find in the scriptures escaped them. Two of them fell asleep, ending their days in Constantinople; Ammonius, as Aurelius and Sisinnius 457 related, had prophesied of his decease, that there would first be a great persecution and schism among the Churches, but that the originators of it would come to a most disgraceful end, and that so the Churches should be made one. This shall come to pass, as it has already come to pass in part.
The Divine Punishment of the Persecutors
For presently certain of the bishops, and of the lay people as well, were attacked by disease, which rent them with sufferings of various kinds, burning their vitals with slow fever, and setting up such intolerable itchings, that they excoriated with their nails the whole surface of their bodies, and by continual intestinal pains. One man had livid dropsical swellings in the feet; another found the fingers which had written the unrighteous signature 458 shaking with discharges, now hot, now cold, which ran from his four limbs. The abdomen was inflamed, and putrefaction in one member exhaled a far-reaching stench, and bred worms. Other symptoms were asthma, and difficulty of breathing, and tensions of all the limbs; nightmares of ravening dogs changing to savages brandishing swords and yelling in strange tongues like the roaring of the sea, made their sleep to be no sleep. One had his right leg broken like a cabbage stalk, by a fall from his horse, and died immediately from the shock; another entirely lost the use of his voice, and for eight months suffered torments 459 upon his bed, unable to lift his |147 hand to his mouth. Another's legs were almost eaten away as far as the knees, apparently by aggravated erysipelas; the tongue of another swelled so terribly, they say, with raging fever, that it pressed against his teeth, and blocked the [main channel of] the body. As there was no room for his tongue in the space naturally appointed for it, he wrote a confession of his sins upon a tablet.
One could see the divine wrath carrying out its punitive operations by various forms of vengeance.460 For as they had provoked the Physician who brings relief to souls, and had driven His mouth-piece 461 from the workshop of salvation, they were delivered over for torture to physicians of the body, who administered pains by the drugs usually prescribed as remedies, and wrought no salvation. For who shall heal him who is being punished by God? As the prophet says, "Shall physicians rise, and praise thee?" 462 Thus perished all who work against the peace of Thy Church, O Lord.
More of the Monks
On the other hand, it is said that the tomb of the monk Ammonius expels the shivering fever;463 he was buried in the shrine of the apostles, beyond the sea. Bishop Dioscorus, they say, had made it his special petition, that he might see either the peace of the Church, or his own death; as the world was |148 not worthy of peace, he was granted death, and was buried in the martyr's shrine facing the gate of the city,464 with the result that most of the women gave up taking oaths by the martyr, and now swear by the prayers of Dioscorus. As for the rest of the anchorites, the telling of the tale would take many words; and perhaps you cannot spare the time, famous sir.
Deac. Nay, who is so sorely pressed, that he must refuse a hearing to tales of heroism? Speak, I pray you, and by every fair word at your command draw away my mind from earthly thoughts.
Bish. Well, there is another Hierax; though he bears a Greek name, his life is adorned by the beauty of his character. On first embracing the life of solitary retirement, he withdrew to Mount Porphyrites,465 quite outside the boundaries of Egypt and Thebais, free from the breath of men; where he lived for four years of strict devotion, finding the virtues of the life themselves sufficient for his comfort. Then he spent twenty-five years in Nitria, with the fathers I have mentioned. He was assailed by demons, as he told us himself, who were transformed into angels of light, and tried to shake him from the hope set before him, by promising him a long life. "You have fifty years to live," they said; "how shall you endure, here in the desert?" But he with the intelligence of faith replied, "You distress me when you tell me of a period shorter than my purpose; I had prepared myself for two hundred years in the desert." Hearing this they vanished howling. Such was the man, whom demons could not shake by the invention of a vast space of time to bring him to accidie,466 whom Pope |149 Theophilus drove from his home by an edict, and brought to such distress, that he made his way to the capital; a man who now has again, since the falling asleep of Ammonius, returned to the sheer desert, in fearful remembrance of the parable of the plough.467
Another, a priest called Isaac, a disciple of Macarius 468 the disciple of Antonius, a man who loved the desert to a fault, fifty years of age, who had the whole scripture by heart, and took up horned snakes in his hands unharmed, a virgin from his mother's womb, who at seven years of age had taken to the desert, after forty years was sifted out 469 by Pope Theophilus, with the aforesaid monks.
Another priest Isaac, also the disciple of a disciple of Antonius, the priest Cronius,470 whom he succeeded, extraordinarily learned, like the first Isaac, in the scriptures, hospitable if ever man was----so much so, that in his extraordinary love of his fellow-men, he established a hostel in the sheer desert for the refreshment of sick monks, and of strangers who visited the district to see the blessed fathers----a stranger, they say, to anger, who had lived for thirty years in retirement, was cruelly treated along with the others. The first of these Isaacs had a hundred and fifty ascetics under him; Theophilus, while he was really a Theophilus,471 appointed disciples of his, to the number of seven or eight, as bishops. The other had two hundred and ten, and many of his disciples, too, are on the roll of bishops.
These are the men of whom I told you two days ago; 472 how they were driven by Pope Theophilus |150 from the desert, on account of Isidore the priest. Those are the men, whom priests and Levites passed by, and whom to the shame of men a manly woman received, and to the condemnation of bishops a deaconess hospitably entertained; a woman whose praise dwells in the Churches for many reasons. She followed the example of the famous Samaritan, whoever he was, who found the man maltreated by the robbers half dead in the descent to Jericho, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to the inn, and mingled the oil of love for his fellow-men with the astringent wine, and so healed his swelling wounds.
The Life of Olympias
Now I must leave the monks, to speak of her. What wealth of money or of goods she distributed to the needy it is not for me to say, but for those who benefited by her generosity; 473 as I lived elsewhere, I had no need to be a burden to her.474 But listen while I tell of greater virtue yet. She was an orphan, and married; but she was not allowed by the foreknowing God, Who sees the issues of men's lives before they come to pass, to be the slave of the pleasure of the flesh which claims the obedience of all, even for twenty months; her husband being speedily called to pay the debt of nature. It is reported by common rumour that she is still a virgin; while she might have yielded to the apostolic rule, "I will that the younger widows marry, keep the house," 475 she could not bring herself to do so, although she had all the advantages of noble birth, and wealth, and an expensive education, as well as personal beauty and the grace of blossoming womanhood----but leapt free as a gazelle over the snare of second marriage. "For the law is not laid down for a righteous man, but for lawless persons, profane," 476 insatiate for destruction. |151
Now it happened that through some kind of satanic malice, her premature widowhood was reported to the ears of King Theodosius, who at once set himself to marry her to a kinsman of his own, one Elpidius, a Spaniard. He again and again urged the brave creature 477 to consent, but to his vexation she refused, declaring, "If my King had desired me to live with a husband, he would not have taken away my first; 478 but as He knew me to be unsuitable to the conjugal life, since I am unable to please a husband, He at once set him free from the bond, and delivered me from the burdensome yoke, and from slavery to a husband, while He laid upon my mind His gentle yoke of continence." At this reply, he ordered the prefect, that her property should be held under trust, until she reached her thirtieth year. The officer, instigated by Elpidius, carried out the king's command by causing her all possible annoyance; she was not allowed to have any dealings even with the most eminent of the bishops, or to attend church, in the hope that in utter weariness she might be driven to prefer the proposed marriage. But she rejoiced all the more, and gave thanks to God, and made answer to the king: "You have shown towards my humble self kindness worthy of a king, and suitable to a bishop, in commanding this very heavy burden, which caused me anxiety, to be put in trust for proper administration; you will do better yet, if you order it to be dispersed among the poor, and the Churches. Indeed, it has long been my prayer, to be delivered from the vainglory which might come from distributing it in charity, that I may not be so engrossed in material things as to lose the soul's true wealth." Hearing on his return from the war with Maximus 479 of her enthusiasm for the disciplined |152 life, the king ordered that she should have the control of her property.
Deac. Then John had good reason to hold her in honour, if she was so strict in her self-discipline.
Bish. Yes indeed; she abstains from flesh food, and seldom visits the baths; if her health requires it (she has chronic stomach troubles) she enters the water in her chemise, because, they say, modesty forbids her to look upon herself.
Olympias' Charities
Deac. It is reported that she has entirely maintained the blessed John.
Bish. Even if she has, what kindness did she show to him that was worthy of his virtue? She certainly spared him anxiety for his daily barley bread; and this is no small thing for Christ's workers, whose care, night and day, is for the things of Christ. As Paul says, in saluting Persis, who probably had toiled like Olympias; "Salute," he writes, "Persis the beloved, who laboured much in the Lord," 480 "for all seek their own, and not the things of Christ." 481 I know that she did more to maintain the blessed Nectarius----so much so, that he took her advice even in ecclesiastical affairs----and I need not mention Amphilochius, Optimus, Gregorius, Peter the brother of Basil, and Epiphanius Bishop of Cyprus, those saints to whom she actually made gifts of lands and money. When Optimus was dying in Constantinople, she closed his eyes with her own hands. Besides these, she generously provided everything they required for the wretched Antiochus, Acacius, and Severianus; and to put it briefly, for every priest who visited the city, and a host of ascetics and virgins.482 |153
Chrysostom's Sparing Acceptance
However, as John had decided that he was sent to be a pattern, so to speak, to future bishops of the manner of life required of them, and therefore, that he should preach Christian repentance, as Paul says, at his own charge,483 without touching anything that belonged to the Church, he accepted meat for each day as it came, and avoided anxiety about such things. They say that he was like a man ashamed of himself,484 when he partook of material food. When apples are fully ripe, they cannot endure to stay on the branch, but look for the hand of their master; so it is with the saints. When they rise above nature in their love for the beauty of heavenly things, they long, even before the time appointed for their decease, to attain to the promise. We see the same thing in the children of great houses; when they know that honey-cakes are to follow, they often refuse to touch the food set before them, so as to save their appetites for the sweets with which they look forward to satisfying themselves. I leave my observations to the judgment of those who have set out upon the same track in the spiritual journey; for "if the wise man hear a prudent man, he will commend him, and add unto it." 485 |154
CHAPTER XVIII. CHRYSOSTOM'S IDEALS
The Example of St. Paul
Deac. You have eased my mind, honoured father, by your painstaking and complete explanation; your narrative is quite consistent with the rumours which had reached our ears, but gives them a new flavour of grace. Yet I must say, that the maintenance of the bishop would have been no burden to the Church, if the holy John had taken his share from the Church; as the writer says, "For the labourer is worthy of his food," 486 and again, "Who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? Who planteth a vineyard, and partakes not of its fruit?" 487 Do we not find these words, and many others to the same effect, in scripture?
Bish. Appropriately and intelligently spoken, Theodorus; but add to the texts you have quoted the words that follow. True, the sacred law gives to those employed upon sacred things the right to eat of the sacrifice, but note what Paul, ever covetous of the good, adds: "I did not use the power" 488 in things of the body, "that I may be a partaker of the gospel" 489 in things of the spirit. He would not be "a stumbling-block to the weak"; as he says, "If any one see thee, who hast knowledge, sitting at meat" in weakness, "will not his conscience, as he is weak, be edified" 490 into imitating thy weak doings? If the matter ended with us, and there were none coming after us to receive in their turn maintenance from the laity, it would be possible for an offender to say, Let us live as we will, and enjoy the good things of life. But as those who come after us treat us as teachers, and set our rule and our behaviour before their eyes, we are bound to live |155 not only for ourselves, but for Him Who died and rose for us;491 to constrain the weakness of the laity, and to lead their ranks to a higher standard of temperance and simplicity, admonishing ourselves. As the writer says, "What man is he that feareth the Lord? He will lay down for him a law in the way that he hath chosen." 492
The Sense of Responsibility
For the Master lays down the law for the self-willed and miserable people who sin in thoughtlessness, welcoming the spirit of bondage; as the psalmist David says, "The Lord shall lay down a law for sinners in the way," 493 but will punish transgressors. But the righteous man, breaking the bounds of the law of bondage, for his love of the Master, presses on to his rights of sonship by adoption, and becomes his own law-giver. Such was Job, both in deed and word---- "I made a covenant with my eyes; I will not look upon a maid." 494 Now what was this covenant? That they who rebel against temperance should have their eyes cut out.495 In the same way David says, "I have sworn, and am steadfastly purposed, to keep thy righteous judgments;"496 where his will was hesitating and wavering, he bound it with an oath.
John followed the example of these fathers, as no bastard, but a true son, and in his longing to make the way easy for the common herd of men, enervated through divers lusts, to a sounder standard of life, he made himself his own law-giver;497 steeling himself by an unalterable decision, he withdrew himself from drinking parties and gatherings of triflers, jokers, and gossips, arming the eye of his soul with the panoply of the spirit, lest folly should find an entrance through revelry and improper talk, and make havoc of |156 temperance. As the writer says, "Evil communications corrupt good manners." 498
Chrysostom's Action in Accordance with Scripture
This is why plots were laid against him; for even when his light shone brightly, he was offensive to them, as a lamp is offensive to watering eyes. Such was his fellow-sufferer, Jeremiah, who lamented with tears the faithlessness of the rulers and the priests, crying, "Who will give to my head water, and fountains of tears to my eyes? And I will weep for my people day and night;" and again, "Who will give me a lodging-place, the furthest in the desert? And I will leave my people, and go from them, for all commit adultery." 499 He calls the assembly of the false prophets and priests a gathering of them that disannul the law.500 So in another passage he appeals to God, not because God did not know, but because we have to follow his example: "Lord, if I have sat in the assembly of them that make merry; but I lived in godly fear away from thy face; I sat alone, because I was filled with bitterness." 501 Similarly David sings, "I have not sat with the assembly of vanity, and with the transgressors I will not enter;" and he adds, to make his meaning clear, "I have hated the congregation of the evil-doers, and with the ungodly I will not sit; I will wash my hands"----my active powers----"in innocency, and will go round thine altar, O Lord." 502
But these men cared less than he for the altar, and turned their back upon it, not only in purpose, but in their manner of life; not content with defiling it with unwashed and blood-stained hands, with giving and accepting bribes, and making false statements in writing, they trampled upon it with muddy feet. It is of them that Ezekiel speaks in figure: "And he brought me to the door of the court, and I saw, and behold a hole in the wall. And he said unto me, |157 Dig through, son of man. And I dug through, and behold, a door. And he said unto me, Go in, and see the wicked lawlessness, which they do here. And I went in, and behold, every likeness of creeping thing, and beast, and vain idols, abominations. And he said unto me, Thou hast seen, son of man, what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, in the chamber" (he means, in their minds). "For they said, The Lord seeth us not, the Lord hath forsaken the earth. And he said unto me, Thou shalt see yet greater lawlessness, which these do. And he brought me to another place, and showed me; and behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz." And again, "He brought me into the inner house of the Lord; and behold there, twenty and four men, and their faces turned away, and their backs to the altar. And he said unto me, Are these small things, that the house of Israel doeth?" 503
We could not help calling to mind the passage of the prophet, at the thought of these particularly reckless people, who think that they are somewhat 504 and deceive themselves; who disturb the peace of the Church, because they have given their backs to the Lord's table, "Whose judgment ceaseth not, and their destruction slumbereth not;" 505 "who mind earthly things." 506 Of them Judas the brother of James says, "These are they who are hidden rocks in your love feasts, feasting with you without fear, shepherds that feed themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds, wild waves of the sea foaming out their own shame, wandering stars, for whom the blackness of darkness hath been reserved for ever." 507 In calling them "clouds without water," he suggested the evil hail with which they mar the vine; "wandering stars" more distantly suggests the plot against the ship. Both ship and vine are the Church. What consequences are bound to follow from such things? Hear again the same prophet Ezekiel, telling us: "And he |158 showed me, and behold men came from the way of the upper gate, which looketh toward the north, every man with his slaughter weapon in his hand. And one man in the midst of them, clothed down to the feet, and a girdle of sapphire upon his loins. And they went in, and stood beside the brazen altar, and the glory of the God of Israel which was upon them went up from the cherubim to the threshold of the house. And he called the man who was clothed down to the feet, who had the girdle upon his loins. And the Lord said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, even Jerusalem, and set the sign upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the lawlessness that is done in the midst of them. And to them he said"----clearly, to the six who had the slaughter weapons----"in mine hearing, Go into the city after him"----clearly, after the man who put the signs upon their foreheads----"and smite; let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity; slay utterly the old man, the young man, and maiden, and little children and women. But come not near any man upon whom is the sign, and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the elders which were in the house of the Lord."508
A Piece of Exegesis
If any one should imagine that this prophecy is concerned only with occurrences in Judaea, I should consider him to be in ignorance of the fact of the Lord's sojourn upon earth; for Ezekiel was not a priest prior to the Captivity. Under the dispensation of God, he was carried into captivity while quite a child, with the rest of the tribe of Levi, and only in his thirtieth year, while fulfilling his office as a priest among the exiles, was he found worthy of the vision of things to be; as he tells us himself, "And it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day of the month; and I was in the midst of the captivity by the river Chebar." 509 And again, shortly |159 afterwards: "The word of the Lord came to Ezekiel, the son of Buzi, the priest, in the land of the Chaldaeans by the river Chebar."
If our objector, finding himself in difficulties, should now say to us: It is the Saviour who went first and set the sign of the cross upon the foreheads of the men, and then, when they would not believe the Saviour, the Roman empire followed, in the days of Vespasian, who forty years later destroyed the synagogue which had worked iniquity; we accept 510 [as a Christian] a man who holds these views, but we urge him, as a son of the New Covenant,511 to follow the guidance of Paul our instructor in these mysteries, who says of all the books of this kind, "These things happened to them in figure, and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come." 512
Now I do not say this because I make it my prayer that the sword may come upon the enemies of God. God forbid. The prophet does not indicate a sword of steel, but some other punitive force, of which the same Ezekiel says, "The land upon which I bring a sword" ("I bring" for "I will allow"), "and the people of the land take a man, and set him for their watchman, and the watchman seeth the sword coming, and bloweth with the trumpet, and warneth the people, and he that heareth hear, and keepeth not guard; and the sword come and take any one, his blood will I require of him, because he heard not the sound of of the trumpet." And again: "But if the watchman seeth the sword coming, and blow not the trumpet, and give not warning to the people, and the sword come and take any one, his blood will I require at the watchman's hand, because he saw the sword, yet did not blow." 513
Now the blessed John slept not the sleep of unbelief, |160 nor was he heedless with the heedlessness of pleasure-seeking, but with this peril ever before his eyes, he cried more clearly than a trumpet;514 no uncertain sound he uttered,515 but gave men certain knowledge of the sword of the devil, and urged all men to flee from it. And all who had a clear conscience like a sign upon the forehead of their souls, by the grace of God were saved with you the faithful of Rome,516 while all whose conscience is defiled set people and priests on fire with quarrels among themselves, so as to hide their own in the general wickedness.
The Use of the Opportunity
Deac. Admirably said. But it is admitted that it is impossible for a man to be found blameless and perfect in this earthly life; for the Scripture says repeatedly, "Who shall boast that he hath his heart pure? Or who shall be confident that he is clean from sin?" 517 Be that as may be, the blessed John at any rate did not know how to use the opportunity, for one ought not to interfere with those in power.518
Bish. My good Theodorus, I believe you are a rascal. At first you showed us the sympathy that we expected of you, and a certain amount of compunction;519 but little by little you are proving to have a liking for scurrilities. Why, even his recognized enemies never found such severe fault with his behaviour.
Deac. Why are you angry, father, you who have the reputation for being a lover of truth, because I said that the blessed John did not grasp the opportunity? The scripture says, "Stand not in the place of rulers," 520 and again, "Buying up the opportunity."521 |161 A specially necessary rule in dealing with men who will not accept advice or improvement.
Bish. Blessed are ye, who so interpret the scriptures. The verse in Ecclesiastes,522 "Stand not in the place of rulers," is addressed to those who are unworthy of, and unequal to, the priesthood, to prevent them from seizing upon it. By "rulers," he means the teachers of righteousness; first the apostles, who were rulers, clothed with the spirit of power, and next, those who follow their example. And the phrase "to buy up the opportunity" is used, not to make us hypocrites, but to bid us, when the opportunity of sin arises, to buy the opportunity by means of virtue, and not to sell it to sin. He who little by little thus buys up the opportunity, finds that he has bought up his whole existence; he has passed by the pleasures of life, to find those that are above life.523 This is what the martyrs have done; they gave away their life in the flesh, and inherited immortality. So they bought up the opportunity in the true sense.
Scriptural Illustrations
If my view is unsound, it will appear that Moses, Elias, Michaiah, Daniel, John the Baptist, Esaias, Peter and Paul, not to mention others, were ignorant of their own opportunities. Moses, because he reproved a man, secured his safety by flight, and fed the flocks of a Gentile upon the mountains; Elias, overcome by drowsiness in his grief, fell asleep, but as he could find no shade of wall or rock, it was under a juniper bush, which gave him scanty shelter. Esaias was sawn asunder; Daniel for his piety was let down into a den of lions; Michaiah was kept a prisoner in gaol |162 (by which we must understand some underground chamber), condemned to be fed with the bread of affliction and a bare allowance of water, that after prolonged languishing there his life might be cut short through his bad treatment; all because of his outspoken language to one of the kings. What will you say to me of John, unequalled among them that are born of women? Did he not know how to use the opportunity, because he had his head cut off for his undisguised reproof of the king's adultery; he who showed the same care for Herod as a physician, when he cuts away, or cauterizes, the incurable ailment of a patient?
No Shrinking from Reproof
On the same principle, John reproved his patients, from pity or from affection. If the Baptist did not know the opportunity, how is it that he recognized the Artificer and Maker of the ages, when he said, "Behold the Lamb of God, who beareth the sin of the world "? 524 And how is it that Paul and Peter did not know the opportunity; those pillars of the Church, who even after their deaths shut and open the opportunities of repentance to those who desire it, and knock at the door? I suppose they were specially ignorant, as one was crucified with feet in air, as a sign of his heavenward journey, the other beheaded, because of his bold speaking in Christ; that he might not fall away from the Head Who is Head indeed. Do not then listen to those who criticize and revile the bold speaking of the saints. This is the practice of the Gentiles, and of those who think themselves clever, to whom life, and scurrilous jests at the courage of the saints are dear.
Reproof must not be Personal
No, the sword must not be blunt, and the bold word must not be left unspoken. Kindness and bold speaking are as inseparable as scent and perfume. I |163 will admit that if reproofs were offered personally,525 before a man's own household, or friends, or relatives, in whose presence he would not like even to blush, the bold speaker would be open, possibly, to the charge of ignorance of the right opportunity or place; but if the Church is like a butcher's shop, in which praise is given to those who do well, and blame to those who are careless, why should we be vexed at reproofs given without names being mentioned, and for our good? That means feeding our faults, instead of obeying him who said, "All that is sold in the shambles eat, asking no questions." 526 Otherwise, we shall again 527 find the saints to have been the occasion of stumbling to some cities and countries through their reproofs, and to have ruined others by their praises..
The Universal in the Particular
Job is the first instance in point; he censures the land of Phoenicia,528 for inviting his enemy, Satan; as he says, "The peoples of the Phoenicians part him among themselves." 529 Next, Moses and the prophets censure Egypt, and call it an iron furnace,530 and darkness, while they praise Palestine, and call it a land of promise; yet Egypt proves to be a land of promise to the good, and Palestine, not only an iron furnace, but outer darkness, through unbelief, to the |164 sluggard. It is not the places that are blamed or praised, but the practices of their inhabitants. However, I need not elaborate my argument at length; it will serve for a beginning, briefly to suggest instances. When Paul calls the Cretans liars,531 and the Galatians foolish,532 and the Corinthians puffed up,533 and so on, was he thinking only of the faults of these particular peoples, and reproving them alone, or of those of men in general? Or again, when he calls the Romans faithful,534 and the Ephesians, to whom he writes in a loftier strain, enlightened,535 and the Thessalonians, lovers of the brethren,536 was his commendation intended only for those peoples? Certainly not; guided by the Spirit, he bestowed praise and blame, that the man who is worthy of praise may know it, and be strengthened in his zeal, while he who is otherwise may be distressed as he reads, and purge himself from the.cause of blame. So the Galatians are not the only foolish people, the Cretans the only liars, the Corinthians the only proud; for all these are universal failings, because the human nature which sins and works righteousness is one, and in one and the same matter tends to sinfulness or to righteousness, according to the man's conscious choice.
This was the principle of John's boldness of speech in the Church;537 it would be more true to say, that to the hungry he gave their portion of the meat of virtue, and banished sin with open reproofs, in obedience to him who said, "Him who sins, reprove before all, that the rest also may fear." 538 But if some people are so grievously afflicted with pride or |165 folly, that they wish the pleasures in which they indulge to be commended, the servants of God have no such custom. You see, those who are indignant at reproof given to covetousness, and fornication, and other foul pleasures, virtualfy declare simply that these offences, however poisonous, ought to be accepted (as Christian).
CHAPTER XIX. A DEFENCE AGAINST THE CHARGES OF PRIDE AND INSOLENCE
Pride shown by Self-isolation
Deac. Very many thanks, father, for the visit of your brotherly love; it has been helpful to us, and a remembrance for all our lives.
After these high compliments, Theodorus held his peace; but one of the company burst in with:
Well then, how do you account for his being haughty,539 if he was adorned with all these excellencies?
Bish. Did you know him to be haughty by personal experience, or did some one tell you that he was so?
The speaker answered:
I do not know the man; but I heard the remark made by a certain tanner, that it was rare for him to enter into company, except in the Church, and that he chafed at lengthy interviews with persons who wished for them. It is a proof of conceit and pride,540 to avoid intercourse with those who desire it.
The Example of Our Lord and of the Baptist
Bish. Ah, a tanner; a man who takes the stench of his workshop home to live with him. Quite the right man to find fault with John's philosophy.541 |166 If it is a proof of conceit to avoid crowds, according to your argument, John the Baptist must have been a conceited man, when he retired into the deserts. One step further, and it will be the Saviour Himself; for it is written, "Jesus, seeing the multitudes, went up into a mountain, and when he was set, his disciples came unto him" 542 ----not the multitudes----and again, "Seeing the multitudes, he withdrew apart." 543 It was to follow His example, so far as he could, that good Bishop John too withdrew from the multitudes, while he delighted in the company of those who really wished to learn.
Deac. A good argument from scripture proofs. But what have you to say to the charge that he was insolent,544 when he kept himself in retirement not only from large gatherings, but even from the society of one or two individuals?
A Single Person can be a Crowd
Bish. A single person can be a particularly unprofitable and misleading crowd. Such was the man who said to Jesus, "Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest." 545 Do you not see that the Saviour was escaping from the crowd, when He said, "Foxes have holes," etc.? But you cannot convince me, that after his baptism John ever swore, or made another swear, or slandered, or lied, or cursed, or indulged in frivolities.546
Deac. No, I make no assertion of this sort; only that he was insolent.
Bish. My excellent friend, how was it possible for the man who was guilty of none of these things to be insolent, and lose control over his tongue? A small sin defiles as much as a great one.
Deac. Well then, tell me, what do these popular statements mean? And when will they cease? |167
Christ Himself was Similarly Reviled
Bish. Hear the whole story, and do not pay attention to idle reports; you will never find an excuse for doing that. People whose lives are not upright never have upright thoughts; they are for ever gossiping, and have no time for anything else, especially if no one dares to disagree with them. Why, they made all sorts of monstrous statements about the Saviour----God Himself, Who in life, and speech, and act, was above man, above prophet. They heaped insult upon insult, as thick as a herd of swine or a swarm of flies; such was the manner of the time. Some said, "He deceives the world;" 547 others, "He casts out devils in Beelzebul, chief of the devils;" 548 others, "Behold a gluttonous man and a wine-bibber;" 549 others again, "He is a Samaritan, and has a devil." 550 What would be the good of my gathering all their vapourings together? The Saviour Himself knew what was going on, when He said to His apostles, "Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?" 551 The disciples replied by mentioning the most complimentary of the current ideas about Him: "Some say Elias, some Jeremias, others, John the Baptist;" they do not quote the language of the vilest of men. So He asked them again, distinguishing them from the "men" of whom He had spoken before (and rightly; for in mind they were not men, but the sons of God, for to us the Word "gave power to become children of God"),552 "But whom say ye that I am?" Then Peter, expressing the mind of them all, answered, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." The Saviour accepted the correctness of this answer, and declared, "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock," that is, "the confession," 553 "I will build my Church, and gates of Hades shall not prevail against it." |168
Abuse of the Living turns to Honour of the Dead
You will find the same characteristics in the blame or praise given not only to John, but to all. Just as at that time all the work of Christ and His apostles was being reviled----the Ephesians shouted, "These are they that have turned the world upside down," 554----but all that has ceased now, and they are glorified; so you will find it when this generation has passed. John will be honoured as a martyr,555 when those who are set against his good reputation are brought to dust; people on the level of pigs or dogs will say, "He deceives the world," etc., while disciples will honestly and cautiously inquire into his conduct, and say,556 "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." And if, in the case, of the Saviour Christ, among so many thousands of men only twelve were found at first to recognize Jesus, while the majority even to this day talk nonsense about Him; why need we be so particular as to what is said about John, a man who was not fit to be compared with the spittle of Christ? With the spittle, do I say? Not with the hem of His |169 garment. "All the nations," says Esaias, "shall be counted as a drop from a bottle, and as spittle." 557
Jesting Words taken Seriously
As for what you said about his being insolent, the facts are these. In the first place, it was impossible for him to grant favours, much less to be insolent, to everybody; but in dealing with any of his genuine disciples, or clergy, or bishops, if he noticed them boasting of their abstinence from anything, or of their correctness in the practice of bodily discipline, he playfully rallied them, by giving them nicknames expressing the opposite.558 For instance, he would call the teetotaller a drunkard, the man living in holy poverty covetous, the charitable man a thief. It is a kindly method of instruction for true men, to strengthen qualities which they possess, by speaking of qualities which they do not possess. The truth is, that he used to honour a self-restrained youth more than a licentious senior, a studious senior more than an ignorant junior, a layman who had embraced holy poverty more than a trained scholar who was covetous, a virtuous man living in the world more than an idle monk.
Scriptural Reproofs far more Severe
Perhaps people who are always on the look-out for honours call this insolence; but John says to those who came to put themselves under his instruction, "O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" 559 And Paul, in the Acts, says to the chief priest, "God shall smite thee, thou whited wall;" 560 and the Saviour in one place says to the Jews, "A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign," 561 and in another, to all the apostles, |170 "O fools and slow of heart." 562 In yet another He calls Peter, Satan----" Get thee behind me, Satan; for thou art an offence unto me." 563 Yet there was no grave offence, which called for these severe expressions.
The Purpose of Self-isolation; with Scriptural Examples
Let us then make the love of learning 564 our delight in silence, as we cannot judge spiritual persons.565 They are not insolent to us because they hate us, nor do they love solitude because they are puffed up with pride; their one aim is service springing from love. This again is why we find all those that are described to us in the holy records as good men, declining and turning away from ignorant 566 persons, for fear that they may in time become used to their ways through familiarity, and so adopt a lower standard of virtue, or acquire their failings. Let Sarah be our first instance. She urged her husband Abraham to banish from the domestic hearth the son of the bond-maid, while he was still quite a child; for she objected to his playing with her son Isaac, for fear that if they amused themselves together, he might be demoralized by Ishmael's behaviour and manners. Then Jacob secured his safety by flight, and set out for Mesopotamia, to sojourn there. Next, Lot was warned by the angels to move from among the impious men of Sodom; yes, and Moses, as I said before, when he grew up, and had refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter,567 determined to separate himself from the tyrant and his men-at-arms,568 and warned those who were of the same mind as himself to start off with him, and make the exodus their first care. The prophets, too, shunned the |171 worthless crowd, and generally lived in the deserts; the apostle said of them, "They wandered in deserts, and mountains, and caves, and the holes of the earth." 569 This was to avoid mingling with the lawless, and because they knew that association has power to deceive, and reduce to a common level those who spend their days together, and more, that such intercourse is of itself blameworthy and poisonous, and even disgraceful. It is against nature to put up with a thing one dislikes, or even to 570 tolerate it for a short time; for like always attracts like (as the saying is, "Every beast loveth his like;" 571 but the unlike is hostile and alien). Who in the world can train a grain-eating dove or pigeon to feed with carnivorous martens or ravens? Or the herbivorous goose or crane to herd with vultures that pick bones? For what communion hath light with darkness,572 or virtue with vice, or the bad with the good?
The Meaning of "all Things to all Men"
Deac. How then is it that the apostle says, "I became all things to all men, to the Jews as a Jew, that I might gain Jews; to the weak as weak, that I might gain the weak; to them that are without law as without law, that I might gain them that are without law"? 573
Bish. This quotation, my dear sir, does not support your contention; for Paul did not say, I became careless to the careless, or frivolous to the frivolous, or covetous to the covetous, or anything of the sort, but, "I became as this or that"----not, "I became this." For "I became as this" is not the same as "I became this." The words and deeds of the apostle are "such as" (those of others). His condescension possibly did no great good, but it certainly did no harm; "I became to the Jews as a Jew, that I might gain Jews." And yet he was of the Jews, for he was circumcised; in what sense then does he say, |172 "As a Jew," not, "I became a Jew"? He was often to be found keeping the Sabbath, and fasting, with Jews, without detriment to the teachings of the Saviour, in hopes of leading them on to a more perfect knowledge, through familiarity and companionship with 574 him; just as physicians do not always stay with their patients, or surfer from the same complaints 575 or the same delirious cravings as they. The manner of life which befits a teacher requires that he does not spend much time among crowds, but that he keeps quiet, and investigates the differences between various characters by careful research. This is the method of scientific physicians. They devote themselves mostly to their books, and so can diagnose the causes of complaints, and prescribe the remedies for them; they only come near to the sick so far as is necessary to discover the mischief, and administer the medicine, and do not play, or take meals, with them. Medical skill does not profess to be able to eat or play with patients, but to restore the sick to health.
Have done then, I beg, and do not keep worrying me with the same objections. Virtue is never vanquished by the cavils of chatterers. Instead of that, accept my view, and set a guard at the doors of your cars, to keep them from reporting everything they hear, and receiving it into the store-room, to the disturbance of your mind. And now allow me to tell the rest of my story; for I must hasten on my way.
And Theodorus said----
Deac. Where are the bishops who were sent with our delegates, Eulysius and Palladius, and Cyriacus and Demetrius?576 We have heard a vague rumour that they were banished.
Bish. If my account of the career of the blessed John appears to you clear, and to contain no hidden falsehood, and if you bear in mind what I have said, I will answer any question you wish to ask. |173
CHAPTER XX. THE SUFFERINGS OF THE SAINTS, AND THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD
The Value of Saintly Example
Deac. I am as fully persuaded of the truth as if I had been on the spot myself. The best proof of my acceptance of your narrative is the attention I have paid to it. While I have the recollection of it still ringing in my ears, I shall possibly commit it to writing 577 in ink, upon a prime piece of parchment, as a memorial to our own generation, and for the benefit of those who aspire to the episcopate; so that they may either be such as was the holy John, or such as you, who have emulated the way of the martyrs on behalf of the truth, or else may give up trying to bear a burden beyond their strength, and be content with the unadventurous life of the layman.578
When experienced pilots are available, it is better to pay one's fare, and get safely to port as a passenger, than to take the pilot's place oneself, and lose vessel and cargo together by shipwreck., You have given us an account of the career of the blessed John; of the strict ordering of his life, of his splendid work in the Churches of Antioch and Constantinople, of his advancement, of the plots formed against him, and of all his |174 bitter trials, laboriously brought upon him by ill-disposed persons in carrying out these plots. You have told us, too, about Porphyrius, and the eunuch of Ephesus.579 Now tell us the rest. Who died in prison? Which of those in communion with John were banished? It is but common justice that we should hold such men in memory, to encourage the living. In things which belong to earthly life, servants who for their masters' sake suffer imprisonment, or blows, or torture, are rewarded by them with kindness and emancipation; how much more do those deserve honour and good-will from the Church who suffer for the sake of Christ? The apostle says of them, "As prisoners with the prisoners, evil entreated with those that are evil entreated, as being yourselves in the body." 580 For "right dear in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints." 581
The Sufferings of Chrysostom's Adherents
Bish. Excellently spoken. Listen then. At first, a rumour was circulated that the bishops had been thrown into the sea; but the true account shows that they were sent into banishment beyond the boundaries of their native provinces, into barbarian climes, where they are still kept under the guard of the police. A deacon who had been their fellow-traveller told us on his arrival that Cyriacus 582 was at Palmyra, the frontier fort of Persia, eighty miles further inland from Emesa 583; that Eulysius of Bostra 584 in Arabia was about three days' march away at a fort called Misphas, near the land of the Saracens; Palladius was under guard in the neighbourhood of the Blemmyans, 585 |175 a tribe of Ethiopians, at a place called Syene;586 Demetrius was far inland at Oasis----the one in the neighbourhood of the Mazici (there are other Oases)----and that Serapion, accused of countless unproved charges, sustained personal injuries from his savage judges (who went so far, it is said, as to draw his teeth), and was then banished to his own native country.587
Hilarius,588 a holy man, advanced in years, was transported to the innermost Pontus, after being beaten, not by the judge, but by the clergy; a man who for eighteen years had not tasted bread, but lived on nothing but herbs and boiled wheat. Antonius went into voluntary exile among the caves of Palestine; Timotheus of Maroneia,589 and John of Lydia, are said to be in Macedonia; Rhodon of Asia made his way to Mitylene; Gregory of Lydia is said to be in Phrygia; Brisson, brother of Palladius,590 of his own free will left his Church, and is living on his own little farm, working the land with his own hands. Lampetius, they say, is being maintained in some place in Lydia, by one Eleutherus, and devoting himself to reading; Eugenius is in his own native country; Elpidius, the great Bishop of Laodicea, and Pappus, have spent three whole years without coming down the house-stairs,591 in their devotion to prayer. Heracleides of Ephesus has been confined for these four years in the prison of Nicomedeia.
As to the rest of the bishops in communion with John, some lost heart altogether, and communicated with Atticus, and were transferred to other Churches, in |176 Thrace; others are lost to sight. Anatolius is said to be in Gaul.
To turn now to the priests; some were banished to Arabia and Palestine; Tigrius 592 to Mesopotamia. Philip escaped to Pontus, and died; Theophilus is living in Paphlagonia; John, son of Aethrius, founded a monastery in Csesarea; Stephanus was banished to Arabia, but was taken by the Isaurians out of the hands of the guard, and allowed to go up to the Taurus district. Salustius is said to be in Crete. I understand that Philip the anchorite, priest in charge of the school,593 is lying sick in Campania. Sophronius the deacon is in prison in the Thebaid; Paul the deacon, the assistant steward, is said to be in Africa; another Paul, deacon of the Church of the Resurrection, is in Jerusalem. Helladius, the presbyter of the palace,594 is living on his own little farm in Bithynia. A large number are in hiding in Constantinople, others have gone to their own native countries. Silvanus the holy bishop is in Troas, supporting himself by fishing; Stephanus the ascetic was flogged at Constantinople, and thrown into prison for ten months, simply for |177 having brought the letters from the Church of Rome.595 He was offered his freedom, on condition of communicating [with Atticus], and on his refusal had the skin most cruelly torn from his ribs and breast; I myself have seen the marks. However, in the gracious care of Christ his life was preserved, possibly for struggles yet to come, and after ten months of medical treatment he was banished to Pelusium.
A soldier named Provincialus, of the Imperial guard,596 accused of being a lover of John, was first flogged repeatedly and tortured unmercifully, and then banished to Petrae. A servant of Elpidius the priest accepted a bribe, they say, of fifty pieces of money, to kill the holy John by treachery, but was caught in the attempt with three swords upon his person, and injured seven of his captors one after the other. Four of them were at once buried, and three were under treatment for a long time before they recovered; yet the murderer was acquitted.597 The blessed Eutropius, undefiled of women, a singer,598 was terribly flogged, and the skin torn from his ribs and forehead; his eyebrows were torn off, and finally his ribs were laid bare on both sides, and burning oil-lamps placed |178 against the bones, until he expired upon the rack, and was buried at midnight by the priestly perpetrators of the crime. But God bore witness to his death, by a vision of singers, in token of its likeness to the passion of the Saviour.
The deacon who came back to us from the bishops 599 reported that the prefect's officers in charge of them treated them so badly, in accordance with instructions received from some source or other, that they prayed for death and release from life.
They robbed the bishops of every penny they had for the expenses of the journey, and divided it among themselves; they set them on bare-boned asses, and made a two days' journey into one, going on till late at night, and starting off before it was light in the morning, until their stomachs could not keep down even the meagre food allowed them. They never lost an opportunity of insulting them with foul and disgraceful language. They carried off the servant of Palladius, and compelled him to surrender his ledger. One of those in charge, who had cruelly ill-treated Demetrius, so as to reach Zibyne late in the evening, was racked with pain from head to foot, and died in agony; inspired men recognized this as the punishment for his cruelty. Palladius had told him before, as a fellow-soldier who returned informed us, that "Thou shalt not make another journey, but shalt die in misery." They would not allow them to go near a church, but lodged either in inns, where there were numbers of prostitutes, or in the synagogues of Samaritans or Jews, mostly from Tarsus; where their distress suggested to them a new thought, which had not occurred to them before. Said one of the bishops: 600 "Why should we trouble about our |179 lodgings? Does it lie with us where to stay, so that we can be responsible, as if we misbehaved ourselves of our own choice? Do you not know, that by all this that has happened, and will happen, God is being glorified in all things? 601 How many of these prostitutes, who have forgotten God, or never had the knowledge of Him, have been brought by the sight of us in this condition to the fear and thought of God, and so perhaps been turned to better things, or at least been kept from plunging into worse? It is no small thing, to a reasonable soul, in a time of suffering, to have even a little respite; we must regard it as a stimulus to self-control. Paul the seer, who himself suffered like us, says: 'We are a sweet savour of Christ among them that are being saved and among them that are perishing, because we have been made a spectacle to angels and to men.'" 602
The local bishops in communion with Theophilus all over the East went so far in their savage cruelty, that some of them, so far from showing ordinary humanity, actually bribed the officers to get them out of the cities more speedily. The chief offenders in this respect were the Bishops of Tarsus and Antioch, Eulogius,603 Bishop of Caesarea in Palestine, and especially the Bishop of Ancyra, and Ammonius, Bishop of Pelusium, who made the soldiers in charge of them still more savage against them by bribes or by threats, urging them not even to allow those of the laity who wished to do so to give them hospitality.
History Repeals Itself
On similar grounds the blessed John, writing to Gaius, in his Catholic epistles, condemns a certain bishop, but commends the hospitality of Gaius, and exhorts him not to imitate wicked bishops. The words are these: "Unto Gaius the beloved, whom I |180 love in truth. Beloved, I pray that in all things thou may est prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. For I rejoiced greatly, when some came and declared to me, that thou walkest in truth, and wherein thou didst refresh the saints. I have no greater joy than this." 604 And after this he adds, "I wrote unto the Church; but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the pre-eminence among them, receiveth us not, prating against us with wicked words; and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and them that would he forbiddeth, and casteth them out of the Church." A little later he gives him the advice, "Beloved, imitate not that which is evil; for he that doeth good is of God; he that doeth evil hath not seen God." 605
I have quoted this whole passage, relating to the wickedness of by-gone days, to pourtray the mind of the Diotrephes' of to-day.
But (my friend) praised and admired the bishops of the second Cappadocia, for their deep sympathy, even to tears, with the banished bishops; especially the most gentle Theodorus of Tyana, and Bosphorus of Coloneia, a bishop of forty-eight years' standing,, and Serapion of Ostracine, who has held the episcopal office for forty-five years.
The Problem of the Prosperity of the Wicked
Long was Theodorus speechless with distress, and at last said----
Deac. What shall we say to all this, father? Can it be that it is the last hour, and the falling away of which Paul speaks is being ushered in by these events, "that the son of perdition, who opposeth, may be revealed"? 606 The thought of the wicked prospering, and succeeding in their aims, and going on for so long, and having such power, while the good are |181 being persecuted and pillaged, fills me with dread that this person is near at hand.
The Last Hour
Bish. Very certainly, most intelligent sir, the end is near; as we read, "Little children, it is the last hour;" 607 and "The master of the house went out about the eleventh hour to hire labourers into his vineyard." 608 The last hour is the twelfth; and if the apostle spoke of the last hour four hundred years ago, much more, by all showing, is it the last hour now.609
The Test of Suffering
Again, we have to remember that from the first these things have occurred by the permission of the Lord, for the training of the saints; the devil desires to have them, as the word of the Saviour says, "Simon, Simon, Satan asked to have you, that he might sift you as wheat; but I made supplication for thee, that thy faith fail not." 610 Assuredly the Lord did not pray for Simon alone, but for all who have Peter's faith; the sieve can only mean, the circle of earth filled with pleasures and pains, which form, so to speak, holes through which earthly people fall down to hell, separated as dust from nourishing grain by the perforations.
Some pass through the hole of gluttony----those "whose god is their belly"; 611 some through that of love of pleasure, those of whom the prophet speaks, who were "led astray by the spirit of fornication"; 612 for "neither fornicators, nor adulterers, nor abusers of themselves, shall inherit the kingdom of God." 613 Others pass through the hole of covetousness----those who have espoused the bride of idolatry; others |182 through that of anger and passion----those who loved bestial darkness, of whom John says, "He that hateth his brother is in darkness until now," 614 for "Anger," says the author of Proverbs, "destroys even the prudent;" 615 others through accidie and forgetfulness, because they do not persevere in sleepless remembrance; whose address to God is, "My heart slept through weariness." 616 "Woe unto you," the word warns them, "who have lost patience, and what will ye do when the Lord shall visit you?" 617 Others pass through the hole of senseless ostentation; of whom the Psalmist declares, "For God hath scattered the bones of the men-pleasers;" 618 others, again, through that of false pretension 619 or pride, which is arrogance. It is these whom the prophet rebukes as deserters----" The proud have transgressed exceedingly, yet have I not swerved from thy law." 620 Each of these vices is followed by others, worse than itself; pride by envy, covetousness by hatred, and stinginess 621 and lying, passion by anger or revengefulness, insolence, and envyings; 622 fornication by forgetfulness, deadness of conscience,623 idleness, indifference, unprofitable loss of sleep; vainglory by meddlesomeness, acts of bribery, idle fancies, hypocrisy, respect of persons, deceits; pride by foolish ideas, pitilessness, impiety, folly; and so on. I need not over-weight my argument by giving further illustrations, as what I have said is perfectly clear.
Righteousness Revealed through Trials
To each of these vices God has appointed its contrary virtue; for instance, self-control is opposed to lust, temperance to greediness, justice to |183 covetousness, gentleness to anger, joy to sorrow, mindfulness to forgetfulness, patience to accidie, good sense to folly, courage to cowardice, humility to vainglory, and so on; and to all, holy scripture. Only to pride has He not given its contrary virtue, because of its exceeding viciousness, but has reserved Himself as its contrary, as He said, "God resisteth the proud," 624 So, too, the prophet prays, "Lift up thine hand against their pride, even to the end," 625 and again, "Render to the proud their desert." 626 And just as the tree is known by its fruit (as the Lord says, "By their fruits ye shall know them"),627 so is each man, whether he be a saint in fact, or only in name.
Scriptural Illustrations
This is why the happiness of the wicked is always long-continued; because God bears long with them. This is always His property; He has told us to expect it, in the part played by the afflicted saints in times past, as an encouragement to us who suffer to-day. Look first at Job, the son of patience; what says he, after much suffering? Mark it well. "As for me, is my reproof of men?" he points to his blamelessness. "Why should I not be impatient?. Look unto me, and be astonished, and lay your hand upon your mouth. For if I remember, I am troubled, and pains take hold of my flesh. Wherefore do the wicked live, and become old in riches? Their seed is according to their desire, and their children are before their eyes; their houses prosper, nowhere is fear; the rod of the Lord is not upon them. Their cow casts not her calf; she is preserved from heat; she is with young, and faileth not. They abide as sheep for ever. Their children play, taking the psaltery and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the psalm, they fulfil their life in good things, and they sleep in the rest of Hades. Yet he saith unto God, Depart from me, I desire not to know thy ways." 628 |184
David the forbearing, the singer of the divine judgments, uses similar language: "I will sing to thee of mercy and judgment, O Lord." 629 "How good is God to Israel, even unto them that are pure in heart. But my feet were almost shaken; my steps had well-nigh slipped." 630 Why? "For I was stirred at the lawless, when I saw the peace of sinners." And in another passage he inveighs against their wealth, as follows: "Their oxen are fat, their sheep bring forth abundantly, abounding in their streets; their garners are full, affording store from this unto that; their daughters are beautiful, adorned in the likeness of a temple." And he adds, in astonishment at the harmony and peace which they enjoy, "There is no outcry in their streets, nor falling of a fence in their houses." Then he attacks the corrupted opinions of the common herd of men, saying, "They counted as blessed the people who have these things." And he adds, "Blessed is the people whose helper is the Lord God of Jacob." 631
I must not end my quotations here, or I shall imperil my argument for want of completeness. Hear what Habakkuk says, as he seems to beat his breast in his distress at the same problem: "O Lord, how long shall I cry, suffering wrongfully, and thou wilt not hear?" He calls the wrongs of his neighbour his own; and in his love for his brethren he adds, "I will cry unto thee, and thou wilt not save. Why didst thou show me iniquity, and that I should look upon labours that lead to hardship and impiety? Judgment is against me, and the judge taketh reward. Therefore is the law perverted, and |185 judgment goeth not forth, unto the end; for the wicked doth oppress the righteous." 632
In the same spirit Jeremiah, the most sympathetic of the saints, perplexed beyond all other men, cries, "Righteous art thou, O Lord, when I, shall plead with thee; yet will I speak judgments unto thee, O Lord. Why doth the way of the wicked prosper? All they that set at nought are at ease; thou didst plant them, and they took root" (this is instead of saying, "they spend their days in profligacy"); "and they bore fruit" (certainly not of the spirit). "Thou art near their mouth, and far from their reins." 633 The prophet Sophonias 634 the wise has a passage to exactly the same effect. He is reproaching men for slandering their neighbours, finding fault with the providence of God,635 and calling the saints unhappy. "You," he says in the person of the Lord, "made your words stout against me, saith the Lord. And ye said, Wherein did we speak against thee? Ye said, He is vain who serveth God; and what profit, that we kept his charges, and that we walked as suppliants before the Lord Almighty? And now we call strangers happy, and all that work lawless things are built up, and they resisted God, and are delivered. These things spake they that feared the Lord, each one to his neighbour."
Paul, the preacher of piety, adds his testimony to the same truth: "But evil men and impostors shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived." 636 |186 Then he points out the low esteem in which the saints are held: "For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last of all, as men doomed to death; for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men. For even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and have no certain dwelling-place, and labour, working with our own hands" (a description of his bodily sufferings); "being reviled, we bless, being persecuted, we endure, being defamed, we entreat, we are made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all things even until now." 637 The good and just God spreads the world before us, for certain ineffable reasons, like a racecourse; and has given us free will, that we may deal with circumstances according to our own choice, and pay the just penalty for our deeds. As the law says, "1 have set before thy face, death and life, choose what thou wilt." 638 Why He set it so, it is not for us to say in this present life; the fact remains, that He has so set it. It would not have been wise for us to be created impeccable,639 with no struggles before us, and minds not established in righteousness. Impeccability is the attribute of the eternal Godhead alone.
Deac. You have met our difficulty admirably and wisely, father; you have given eyes to the souls of our friends here, who have found this matter a continual perplexity, arising partly from their lack of acquaintance with scripture, partly from the very fact that the Church is throughout the ages appointed as a training school.640 She points to her victors, |187 men and women alike, as not having eaten of the flesh of Christ in times past without paying a price. Yet the disorders among you, and the break-up of the Church, cause us distress.
The Blessedness of Truth Countervails all Suffering
Bish. You astonish me, most honoured of men. You almost unreservedly admit the beneficial results of suffering, and then turn round and say something to the contrary effect. You call us blessed, as victors, and yet you call us miserable, as banished men, because we have been deprived of our Church buildings.641 You seem to me to be in the same state of mind as the rustic spectators at the Olympic games, who gape with delight at the prizes, but shed tears of pity at the blows exchanged between the combatants. To my mind, it is better to hasten away to ravines, and thickets, and seas, in company with the truth, than to be burdened with falsehood, while enjoying high honour for what is in this life considered prosperity. For if I possess truth, I shall possess all things, for all things are her servants; if I have made falsehood my own, I do not possess even myself, as I am not hers. But if I possess truth, I do not wish to possess her merely as a mistress, or a servant, or a neighbour, but as a sister; nay, if it be possible, as a bride, whose sweetness I may enjoy and presently inherit 642 as my very own wife. For she is the sister of the absolute truth, whose son-in-law the good man is. For he that bears this seal becomes young a second time, grows not old, and |188 fades not away; he has zeal fiercer than fire, words sharper than swords, life freer than an eagle's; he devotes himself untiringly to meditation upon the scriptures, as to a house-mother; he never ceases to blossom with gladness, he is not overcome by fear, he holds up his head undaunted, he dances in his holy enthusiasm, he hates no man, he pities those who misuse life, he calls blessed those who mind their own business in contentment, he sorrows with the sorrow of the spirit at the careless lives of priests, of whom the apostle said, "Grieve not the Holy Spirit, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." 643 He it is that grieves the Spirit, who turns his back upon Him in carelessness.
And at last (there is much that I must pass by) in his out-spokenness he dies; he has given pain to none, save to the demons, and to those who are like them. His time has been more than enough; he did not higgle away his days in evil doings. He doubled the money 644 that was given to him, he forwarded interest, of good works, in a short time he fulfilled long years; he makes no will 645 disposing of his property, for by his life and thought he wrestled with it, and gravelled it. Did Death knock at the door of his frail flesh? Before he sees him outside, he cries, Let us go hence, and sings, "Woe is me, that my sojourn has been so long;" 646 and were it not for the Master Who sent him on his mission, he would have, served him with a summons, and sued him at law, for coming too late. Well content is he, when at last he is set free from the frail flesh, with its manifold ailments, as if he were leaving a ruinous hostel, threatening to fall; he pricked up his ears at the voice of Him Who says, "Well done, good and faithful servant," 647 confident of hearing the rest as well. |189 Take this torrent of words as a proof of my contention; "for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." 648
The Misery of Falsehood
But he who dwells with falsehood has a disturbed life; one moment in boundless delight at an addition to his wealth, or to his poor little reputation, or at the friendship of a wretched harlot, or at the misfortunes of his enemies; the next, sick to death with sorrow, dreaming of changes and uncertainties. He passes restless or sleepless nights, he imagines plots made against him by his closest friends, he has no confidence even in himself, and distrusts all men, as liars. Such is he; cowardly as a hare, bold as a pig, deceitful as a chameleon, unreliable as a partridge, pitiless as a wolf, untameable as a mouse; his own enemy, unceasingly jealous, inevitably punishing himself, though he does not know it; for he who is always planning evil against another, first brings evil upon himself.
Did Death prick his skin? He gives away everything, to gain a little respite, so precious is his life to him; the time given him he higgled away to no profit, so far from doubling his penny 649 he did not even keep it safe. He trembles continually, like a leaf, in his dread of the approach of old age; he is troubled with the silly ideas of old men, he fears death as a god; for to him the visible world is God. And what then? He turns pale, he shivers with fright, he is in an agony of distress; he anticipates the judgment of God, and inflicts punishment upon himself. His conscience torments him without mercy, and reminds him of his evil doings one by one, till his sufferings are more terrible than those of criminals under the lash. He grovels like a slave to those in office for the moment,650 and flatters the world to his disgrace; instead of One Lord he has ten thousand |190 masters, to save himself from being the servant of the truth. He does all he can to get himself feared, yet he himself fears every one.
The Decision of the Church of Rome
I will say no more; I have done all I can. If any one can speak more truthfully or elegantly, and put my nothingness right, I will gladly welcome him as a corrector of error and a lover of the brethren, and give thanks to the Saviour for all things.651 Now do you in return give me an account of the decision of the western synod, and set the seal upon my words, if they commended themselves to you as being of any value. So the narrator ceased, and Theodorus said----Deac. The Lord grant to you who have given us this narrative, to find mercy in that day,652 for your refusal to hold communion with such people, and for the clear account you have given us. And may the Lord remember every sacrifice of John, because he surrendered not his out-spokenness, even unto death. The decision of the Church of Rome was, under no circumstances to communicate with the eastern bishops, especially with Theophilus, until the Lord grants the opportunity for an ecumenical synod,653 to heal the putrefied limbs of the men guilty of these crimes. For though the blessed John has fallen asleep, yet the truth is awake, and for the truth search will be made. |191
Chrysostom's Enemies Interrogated
As for those that have committed these offences in the Church, gladly would I meet them face to face, and ask them, Where is your priesthood? Where is the holiness required of you? Where is the gentleness and unselfishness 654 of the Christian character? Where are the commandments of the Saviour----" If thou art offering thy gift, and remem-berest that thy brother hath aught against thee, go thy way, first be reconciled to thy brother, and so offer thy gift"? 655 Where is that saying, "If any man smite thce on the right cheek, turn to him the other also "? 656 Where is your meditation upon the scriptures? What of the verse, "Behold, what is beautiful, and what is pleasant, but for brethren to dwell together in unity"? 657 Or, "Let brothers be helpful in times of necessity"? 658 Why have you perverted by your actions the words, "A brother helped by a brother, is as a strong city"? 659 A brother falsely accused, or robbed, by a brother, is like a city distressed and defenceless. Why in the world then did you, who are wretched, nay, wretched to the third degree, try to carry through this project of yours, as if no reconciliation were possible? 660 On what principle did you let your murderous rage against John run its course, as if he were your enemy? And how has it come to you, to be so savage towards one another? Why did you let the world see such an extraordinary change in you, from gentleness to ungentleness and savagery? I am amazed, indeed, I am overwhelmed with amazement at your perversion; as I see everything thrown into this hopeless state of confusion.
And why have you so far exalted yourselves in your daring, as to insult this suckling, nursing |192 mother, this teeming womb, the Church of God, and hack her in pieces? In you is fulfilled the prophet's words, "Because they did pursue their brother with the sword, and brought to destruction the womb upon the earth." 661 With this womb the divine and saving Word combined, to sow and to plant you and John alike, for good and profitable works without number. What has happened to you that instead of helping one another to do your duty, you have made up your mind that you will not keep quiet, and live at peace, even in the future? You were created for mutual service; why did you mishandle the grace of God, and instead of lightening other men's burdens, actually thrust them away from you, and cut them off from their own kindred? while the prophet cries to you, "Have we not all one Father? Did not One God create us?" 662
The Real Law-Breakers
But you will tell me that John sinned against the law. What law? The law which you trod underfoot, and shivered into fragments by your wickedness. Where, then, is the law of nature, which bids us to right wrongs with gentleness? Why, pray, do you abuse even the law which holds between enemies, and persecute them, and carry out these schemes which you devise against them, schemes bearing all the marks of hostility? How much better would it have been, to live in harmony with them, and to share their life; to join with one another in counsels for the common good, unto rendering of thanks and well-pleasing of the Father of you all? Harmony in their enjoyment of blessings is one of the virtues of children; and this is specially acceptable to their parents, who look for nothing else from their offspring, save this. And be assured that there is no other bond of friendship and goodwill, but to be in earnest, and to do everything as it is well-pleasing to the |193 Father, to Him Who is the source of our being, of our sustenance, of our preservation.
The Divine Vengeance in Store
But you have despised Him as a fool, and kindled wars within the Church, as the prophet said, "They established madness in the Lord's house;" 663 instead of spurring and urging one another forward. More, you have carried on truceless wars among one another, contrary to 664 the mind and purpose of the Father. I will go further, and say, that the thing sorely maddens, and stirs to wrath, even God Himself, and all who draw nigh to Him----His sons, your brethren----and suffers Him not to hold His peace. For He is not neglectful, or unmindful of the welfare of His children.
Therefore is He wroth at your folly, and at your tyrannical oppression of those whom you wrong; and therefore He judges it not right to pass you over without punishing you, as indeed He has begun to do. For this would not be becoming in Him, nor would it be without peril to you; your complaint is intolerable, and needs more than ordinary treatment. He sees you actually the worse for bruises, and weals without number, the result of your chastisement. Yes, a cloud of senseless and most obdurate wrong rests upon you, your brothers, your kinsfolk, and your households, even your allies, those who share with you bed and board, those who are bound to you by the closest ties of blood----all these relationships you have perverted into the bitterest hatred; insomuch that they are expelled from their own countries and from their family hearths, and wander far away, without a city or a home to dwell in. Further yet, you have made them exiles, so far as it was in your power, and that, not with a limit of time fixed for their exile, but for ever, so far as it lay with you; so savage were you, so desperately thrown off your balance. |194
Chrysostom the Blessed
This is what you have gained by your victory over them, and the blessed John; by fanning your spiteful enmity, and letting your tongue run wild against him, like a sharpened sword. Instead of profitable instruction, you nurse your ill-temper, and pour out upon the Church your false accusations, defiling the cars of those who hear them; accusations against men to whom the Lord in mercy and loving-kindness will give according to their works. But for you, O blessed John, with what words shall I weave you an unfading crown? I need not fear to praise you now, as you have passed from the field of combat, the fiercest waves of struggle breasted. Shall they be the words of the law of Moses, which he used in the blessing of Joseph the strenuous, and Levi the contemplative, the priest? For in you I see both of these. "Blessed of the Lord be his land, and from the mountains of heaven, and dew, and abysses of springs beneath, and in the time of fruits, the turnings of the sun and the comings together of the months, from the heads of the mountains which are from the beginning, and from the heads of the everlasting hills; they shall be on the head of Joseph" (and every man who shall be as Joseph) "and upon the head of the brethren whom he ruled, glorified among his brethren as the first-born.665 The beauty of a bull are his horns, his horns are the horns of an unicorn; with them he shall push the nation, even unto the end of the earth."
And to Levi he said (and to whosoever imitates him), "Give to Levi his signs, and his truth to the holy man, whom they tried in trial, and reviled at the water of contradiction. Who saith to his father and mother, I have not seen thee, neither did he acknowledge his brethren, he observed thine oracles, and kept thy covenant; he showed thy judgments to |195 Jacob, and thy law to Israel. He shall ever place incense upon thine altar upon thy feast day. Bless, Lord, his strength, and accept the works of his hands; smite the eyebrow of the enemies that rise up against him, and let them that hate him rise not up again." 666 And I would weave with these one word more: "Let them that love him, O Jesus Christ, be not ashamed; for Thine is the power for ever. Amen."
Bish. This is the constant effort of your understanding mind, Theodorus, seeker of noble thoughts, to bring forth from the treasure of your mind, as the Saviour said, "Things new and old;" 667 things old, the lessons of human wisdom; things new, the oracles of the Holy Spirit. From these treasures you have given its due to each side of his character. It was worthy of your sound judgment to express yourself in language so well suited to the offences committed, and to weave from the blessing of Moses the crown John deserves; who served as a priest without thought of self, and in his extraordinary righteousness did indeed know not father or mother, or ties of blood, but only those who love, and practise, the word of God. But those who in our time profess to be bishops, have run their muddy breed aground upon money-getting, and military operations, and high position; transgressing the law which says, "The priests shall not give their sons to be rulers, and them that run beside the king," 668 while they waste the things of the spirit upon plots, and vexations, and imprisonments, and banishments, drinking madness undiluted, thinking by these methods to dishonour the friends of virtue.
The Curse of Ambition
Of them the Saviour said, "The days shall come, in which they who kill you will think that they do God service." 669 I take it that He did not speak of |196 Gentiles, for then He would have said "gods," as they profess not one, but many, gods; when He made mention of the One and Only God, He pointed to those who are now despoiling us, under pretence of benefit to the Church. They hide their own depravity and jealousy, representing themselves in words as concerned for the welfare of the Church which they have ruined by their deeds. But however clever they are, the outcome of events will prove them to have been underlings of him who boasted, "I shall never be shaken from generation to generation, without evil." 670 For the serpent, the deviser of lawlessness and cultivator of the vilest covetousness, as he could devise no more novel form of heresy, goaded those in authority in the Church to mutual destruction, to satisfy their craving for high position, and the highest position of all;671 for the sake of these they rent the Church in twain.
The Satanic Work of Chrysostom's Enemies
For if the harmony of God the Spirit had existed among the bishops, and John deserved deprivation from his office, whether for causing wrong-doing, or as being unworthy of the priesthood, or, as Theophilus maintains, as being guilty of pride; the all-powerful wisdom of God 672 was well able to debar him from the exercise of the priesthood by constitutional restraints, or devise means by which he could be expelled without all this confusion and lamentation, whether by death, or by paralysis, or by loss of voice----as we know some of those who have thrown themselves against him have suffered, and others will suffer. But seeing that the steps taken against him were unworthy of the Saviour----he was not deposed, but exiled 673----it is |197 abundantly clear that it was the work of the devil, whose kingdom was being destroyed by John's teaching. I know that John deservedly deposed from their office six persons, of whom I spoke earlier, for buying the dignity of the priesthood. Who wept then? Whose nose bled? What spider's web was broken? Who left his home? Who was fined a farthing? Who in the whole of Asia----vagabond, mob orator, farm-labourer, cobbler, or plebeian----was not glad at what had been done to vindicate the sacred laws? "How," each cried, "are thy works magnified, O Lord? In wisdom didst thou do them all." 674 For where God is at work, all is done in wisdom; where the malevolent demon, everything is correspondently done in unwisdom. And upon unwisdom follow monstrous evils----envyings, murders, strife, emulations, evil tempers, quarrels, discord, noise, conspiracies of ignorant men, hot-headed actions of men in authority, crucifixions, tortures, burnings, streams of blood, intolerable fines, stakes, breaches of the divine ordinances, contempt of law, rejection of self-control, world-wide schism, watch set upon land and sea, engines employed on shipboard, on horseback, on foot, to hinder those who travel for the truth's sake.
God had not Forgotten
How then can they dare to say, John was expelled in the dispensation of God? I ask those who use such words, Was the all-powerful wisdom of God, as I said, without resource to stop John, if he was unworthy, by unseen power? Or to persuade those who disagreed with him, patiently to bear with his action, without all this exercise of force by the magistrates? For if God is the same God Who worked with Moses for the freedom and obedience of Israel, when Pharaoh openly cried, "I know not God, and I will not let the people go," 675 how, in dealing with |198 John, did He need the help of earthly magistrates? He had grown old, I suppose, or weak, or resource-less. And was He Who brought to light the adulteries of some, the unnatural crimes of others, and again the impostures of others, now without resource to convict John? Or again, He Who made the tongue of a man to swell with constriction, until he had to make his confession in writing, and allowed another to meet with his death from a sudden seizure; He Who tormented another with a brood of worms, as he lay speechless upon his bed for nearly a whole year, or laid upon another unspeakable horrors from chronic gout, or burnt the legs of another, because He so willed; or Who prematurely snatched away another, whom every one knows, by a nauseating death; was He too weak, as you assert, in the case of John, if he was a sacrilegious man, to do any of these things, but was in need of so and so, before He could expel John in disgrace, and thereby add to His glory?
God will Recompense
No. They deceive themselves, in their ignorance 676 of the command of the word of God. For he cannot properly be called sacrilegious, who distributed to the poor gold, and silver, and fabrics of silk, the food of moths 677; but he who for money and reputation and the pleasures of the table sells the teachings and ordinances of the Saviour; and after him, he who ruins a holy man, adorned by his life and words, through whom, as by a chalice or a piece of plate, the Saviour oft gave the drink of the word, the diet 678 of their salvation, to those who love the word of God. No, let them be called sacrilegious, who have sacrilegiously robbed the apostolic Church, and |199 deprived her of such teachers, and who sell ordinations for money; whom divine justice will pursue, to correct their wickedness. For if those who corrupted the law of Moses were for their wanton heedlessness driven out of the temple by the Saviour with a scourge, a scourge of cords, because they were selling doves within it; what punishment shall they have, who higgle the priesthood of the New Testament, except to be shattered by the Chief Shepherd with His rod of iron? As the apostle says, "A man that hath set at nought Moses' law dieth without compassion on the word of two or three witnesses. Of how much sorer punishment, think ye, shall he be judged worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite to the spirit of grace? For we know him who saith, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God." 679
May God, Who glorified this holy man, this saintly shepherd, this lamp of righteousness, grant to us to find part and lot with him, in His awful day of righteous judgment; to Whom belongs glory, honour, majesty, and magnificence, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto all ages. Amen.
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The Dialogue of Palladius concerning the Life of St. John Chrysostom (1921). Footnotes
The Dialogue of Palladius concerning the Life of St. John Chrysostom (1921). Footnotes
[All footnotes have been moved here and renumbered.]
1. 1 The exordium is framed on the lines of Plato's Republic, in which some apparently irrevelant remarks lead up to the real subject. Palladius makes clear from the beginning his object in writing (p. 173), not only to tell the story of Chrysostom's life, but to encourage and warn against clerical ambition and greed (pp. 40, 87, 121, etc.), which led his enemies to bring about Chrysostom's downfall.
2. 1 As our text stands, it is God Who is "without experience of things." The meaning is, no doubt, that of Chrysostom, de Bapt., xi., "There is no need to cross the sea, or traverse mountain ranges; sitting at home, with reverence and compunction, you may find Him." Cf. Wisd. vi. 14.
3. 2 "He made some things to be common, as the air, the sun, the sky... distributing all things equally, as to brothers. He made other tilings to be common, as baths, markets, cities... but strife comes in when men use that cold word, 'Thine, mine.'... Necessary things are common, but we do not observe their community even in the least things. How then can the possessor of wealth be a good man?" (Hom. in i Tim. xii.). In his sermon on the very day of his ordination as priest, Chrysostom spoke strongly against riches: " Every rich man is an unjust man, or the heir of an unjust man." Palladius follows his example at the beginning of his treatise.
4. 1 As a writer, making an ornamental flourish at the close of his work. The deacon is impatient of the sententious exordium, as he does not know the circumstances which make it appropriate.
5. 2 " Since I promised above to tell of..., I am constrained to pay the debt." Pall., L. H., lxi. 1.
6. 3 Matt. xix. 10, 11 (freely quoted).
7. 1 Lit. "anoint." Cf. "Almsgiving anoints the soul (Hom. in John lxxxi.).
8. 2 Heb. v. 4 (freely quoted).
9. 1 So Just. M. Fragm. Gethae was a Samaritan village.
10. 2 "Acted as a Sophist"; the word in 2 Pet. i. 16. Cf. Acts vii. 19. So p. 38.
11. 3 As Dr. Westcott shows (on John vii. 39), "Holy Spirit" without the article refers to His gifts, not His Person.
12. 4 Acts viii. 19.
13. 5 As there is no tangible proof of the bestowal of a spiritual gift, he wished to ensure it by a tangible gift on his part.
14. 1 1 Cor. iii. 19, quoting Job v. 13.
15. 2 Others are present, besides Theodore (pp. 60, 165).
16. 3 Palladius of Helenopolis obviously had visited Rome before (p. 25). He is not represented as the "bishop" of the Dialogue, who is a purely imaginary person.
17. 4 John xiv. 27.
18. 1 The order of "readers" is first mentioned in the third century; the custom of allowing laymen to read the Scriptures was probably taken over from the Jewish Church. In the East they read only the Old Testament lections and the Epistles, announcing, "Thus saith the Lord," while the deacon responded, "Let us attend," which Chrysostom (Hom. in Act. xix. 5) complains that many did not do. They read from the pulpit in the nave, not from that in the chancel; Sozomen says that Chrysostom, in order to be the better heard, preached "sitting in the reader's pulpit."
19. 1 "Papa." Until a.d. 230 the Bishop of Alexandria was the only one in Egypt; he was called "Abba," "Father," the title common to all bishops. "But in the time of Heraclius," when other Egyptian bishops were appointed, "the Patriarch of Alexandria was called Baba" (i. e." Ab-abba," "grandfather"). Thus Eutychius (Ann., cxi.). Athanasius (Apol. c. Ar. 69, de Syn. 16) regards the title as belonging to the Bishop of Alexandria only; but Tertullian speaks of any bishop who pronounces absolution as "benedictus Papa," and Jerome gives the title to Athanasius, Epiphanius, Augustine, etc. Later, the linguistic origin of the title was forgotten, and it was supposed that "Papa" was a special title of dignity given to the Bishops of Alexandria because they ruled such an important see; hence it was also given to the Bishops of Rome, and in time claimed by them as their peculiar privilege. Cf. p. 52.
Theophilus, after spending his youth among the recluses of the desert of Nitria, became secretary to Athanasius, was priest at Alexandria, and bishop in 385. Jerome, among others, greatly admired him as a learned and vigorous man; the more so, probably, as sharing his views upon Origenism. He d ied in 412, and was succeeded by his nephew, the famous Cyril.
20. 2 "Not" seems to have dropped out of the text. "Not a little troubled."
21. 3 Without the support of his synod.
22. 4 "Libelli"; frequently in this treatise for "memorials of complaint," "accusatory documents"; here, "of petition," as in Conc. Eph., Can. VIII.
23. 5 These "three days" present a difficulty. Theophilus arrived at Constantinople in June; the last events recorded in the letter occurred at Easter. How, when nine months had elapsed, did the two communications arrive so nearly together? We must not suppose that either party would be in haste to communicate with the Bishop of Rome, There was no love lost between the three sees; the record of Rome was not without taint of heretical leanings, and neither the Bishop of "New Rome," nor the successor of St. Mark, on the throne of the largest province in the world, would welcome interference from "beyond the boundaries," even if the canons did not discountenance it. Moreover, Chrysostom would know that his ejection might be regarded by Innocent as a personal matter, which did not concern the Church as a whole, while Theophilus would have to acknowledge defeat. But when Theophilus saw some prospect of ultimate success, he would be anxious to secure as much support as possible, and would hope by a formal notification to prejudice Innocent's mind (always prepared to be jealous of the rising power of Constantinople) against Chrysostom; while in the sacrilegious occurrences at Constantinople, Chrysostom had a ground for appeal, for the benefit of the whole Church, in offences committed against her Lord, not against himself. Had he wished to bring the matter to Innocent's attention earlier, it would have been easy for him to instruct Eusebius to make the statement officially, which he made on his own account, on hearing of Theophilus' communication.
24. 1 The word means "cautious," "circumspect "; so "careful in religious matters," rendered "devout" in Luke ii. 25; Acts viii. 2, etc. It is approximating to its later use as a title of a clergyman, equivalent to our "Reverend."
25. 2 This letter is given among the "Epistles of Chrysostom," but can hardly be what he actually wrote. The author professes to give only the substance of it; the style is his own, though some of Chrysostom's phrases occur. Possibly Chrysostom wrote in Latin, which Palladius has freely translated, just as Sozomen translates Innocent's answer. The letter ends, in harmony with the chronology, with the Easter services held in the open air; a forgery would have probably betrayed some knowledge of later events. Photius, with some hesitation, thinks it is Chrysostom's own work, especially on account of its rhetorical style.
26. 1 Phrases such as "Your love," "Your gentleness," are constantly used by early Christian writers as complimentary terms of address, some of which we retain, as "Your reverence," "Your holiness," etc.
27. 2 " I am dead to my lords the bishops." Pall., L. H., xvi.
28. 3 Deacons were frequently deputed to represent bishops even at general councils. The diaconate was not regarded as a step to the priesthood, but as a distinct and generally life-long office, with its special duties and privileges.
29. 4 Sozomen (viii. 26) gives a Greek translation of Innocent's letter to Chrysostom, exhorting him to patience, which he is sending by "Cyriacus the deacon."
30. 1Arcadius; "King" = "Emperor." The East had no such objection to the title basileus as the West had for rex. For the reason for the summons, see p. 62.
31. 2 Implied in Canons V. and VI. of Nicaea. Canon II. of the Council of Constantinople (381) explicitly forbids such interferences, using Theophilus' term "beyond the boundaries." "The bishops of the east shall administer the east only."
32. 1 Pp. 61, 69.
33. 2 " Eparchia," the Roman "Province," of which there were thirteen, each with its governor and council, under whom were the governors of the respective districts and cities, with their councils. The Church followed the civil division into provinces, with their metropolitans or patriarchs, and their synods, under whom were the local or suffragan bishops. Another word, "dioecesis," was used sometimes for the whole civil "province," but more often for a smaller "administrative division "; Cicero speaks of "my dioceses" (ad Att. v. 21; vi. 2). The same indeterminateness attaches to its Church use; sometimes it means a "province" (Conc. Const., Can. II.), sometimes a "diocese" (Conc. Nic., Can. XVI.), for which. "parœcia" (our "parish ") was also used (p. 57, n.).
34. 3 The archdeacon in the ancient Church was one of the seven deacons (in the Church of Rome there were forty-six priests, but the number of deacons was kept to the number of Apostolic appointment), chosen either by virtue of seniority, or by election by the other deacons, or appointed by the bishop. He attended upon the bishop at the altar, ordered the other deacons and inferior clergy, acted for the bishop in his absence, or during a vacancy in the bishop's chair, and assisted him in managing the Church revenues, etc.; his position being so important that he was frequently the bishop's successor. Hence if the deposition was actual, it was quite in order for the communication to be addressed to the archdeacon, as in charge of diocesan affairs.
Stephens speaks of "John, Archdeacon of Constantinople." With the most diligent search, I can find no mention of such a person. We read of a deacon John, deposed by Chrysostom either for murder or for fornication, who acted as his accuser at The Oak (p. 64); and Photius tells us that John, a deacon, brought forward twenty-nine charges against him, the first being that he had deposed him from his office for flogging his own servant----evidently alluding to the same person. But I cannot anywhere find him called archdeacon. The archdeacon appointed by Chrysostom was Serapion, or Sarapion (so p. 175), "an Egyptian, swift to wrath, prompt to insolence," whose indiscretion and arrogance added greatly to Chrysostom's unpopularity, and who no doubt acted as his agent in his reforms. In the presence of a number of clergy, he said to Chrysostom, "You will never subdue these mutinous priests until you drive them all before you as with a single rod" (cf. p. 32,11.). Owing to his isolated life, Chrysostom mistook his character, and attributed his intolerant severity to holy zeal and loyalty towards himself. Leo's life of Chrysostom says that Serapion, "through envy and the instigation of a woman, stirred every stone to arouse hatred and stumbling-blocks against the divine shepherd"; but as Chrysostom afterwards made him Bishop of Heracleia (p. 70, 11.), the words here cannot mean that Serapion turned against him, but that the communication gave the discontented clergy, full of hatred towards Serapion, an opportunity of rallying against both him and the bishop. One of the charges brought against Chrysostom at The Oak was, that he had ordained Serapion presbyter.
35. 1 Almost a technical term for a vacancy in a see; so in Can. Chalc. XXV. Eudoxia claimed to have "restored the bridegroom" to Constantinople (Chr., Serm. de red., iv.).
36. 2 The word in 1 Cor. xii. 2. But possibly "arrested" (even with violence as in Acts xii. 19, cf. Gen. xxxix. 22, LXX) is the meaning, as the Churches are said below to be "left shepherdless."
37. 1 Or, "Anointed (as wrestlers) for a campaign of calumniation." But the word is frequent in this treatise for "greasing the palm," especially by bribes, as below, and p. 55.
38. 2 The author is quite correct in speaking of the province of Thrace in conjunction with that of Egypt, not of the see of Constantinople. The province of Thrace contained six dioceses, stretching right up to the Danube; the mother see was that of Heracleia, the old civil capital. The Council of Constantinople (Can. III.) ordered that the Bishop of Constantinople should have honorary pre-eminence, next to the city of Rome, "because it is New Rome," but Constantinople is still a single diocese in the province of Thrace.
39. 1 "Curiosus." The "Curius" was the responsible guardian to whom was entrusted the care of minors and women (cf. our word "curate"): so "Curiosus" is any functionary employed by a superior official, in this case the "comes" (p. 41), for a public duty.
40. 2 Chrysostom anticipates the charge of "re-entry upon his own initiative" (p. 76).
41. 1 The Sabbath in the "Great Week," Easter Eve. So called first in the Epistle of the Smyrnaeans on the martyrdom of Polycarp. "Why do we call it the 'Great week'? Not because its hours are longer, but because in it unspeakable blessings came to us. Even emperors order cessation from business, and prisoners are freed at this time" (Hom. in Gen., xxx.). Eusebius (Vit. Const., iv. 22) speaks of the pomp of the vigil, and the multitude of candles lighted. It was a tradition that Christ would come at midnight, as He did upon the Egyptians; therefore the people were not dismissed before midnight, in expectation of the second Advent.
42. 2 "Bema," "the place to which you go up"; the east end of the churches being raised above the nave floor. Here stood the altar, and the seats or "thrones" of the bishop and clergy, and the lectern, from which the Gospel was read (as distinct from the "ambo" in the nave, from which the lector read less important scriptures, cf. p. 7, n.).
43. 3 The word is in the genitive, "women of the oratories," or, as we should say, "women members of the congregation."
44. 4 Gregory Nazianzen speaks of persons who postpone baptism, saying, "I wait till Epiphany, that I may be baptized with Christ; I choose Easter, that I may rise with Christ; I wait for Whitsuntide, that I may honour the Holy Ghost." Later Councils actually ordered that, except for urgent reasons, all catechumens were to be baptized at Easter; though this probably included the fifty days of Pentecost following Easter Day.
45. 5 The word in John v. 2. So in Socr. vii. 17, and frequently.
46. 1 "Uninitiated" into the "mysteries" of the faith, which included the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Sacraments. Chrysostom (in Matt. xxiii.) speaks of the Eucharist held with closed doors; all the ancient liturgies contain the proclamation of the deacon, "Let none remain who is a catechumen, a hearer, or an unbeliever."
47. 2 The elements were obviously "reserved"; in this case for the midnight mass. Cf. p. 57,11.
48. 3 i.e. pagans.
49. 4 Lit. "camp-officers,"
50. 1 "Colophon," "finishing stroke to a writing." So Chr., Hom. in Ps. cxxiv., "death is the Colophon of ills," and elsewhere.
51. 2 So Chr., de Comp., i. 5.
52. 1 Or, "Your letters" ("grammaton" for "pragmaton").
53. 1 Lit. "The equal things of the communion." It was usual for bishops to send to one another portions of the consecrated elements as a sign of unity and good-will. Irenaeus refers to this custom (Euseb. v. 24); Can. XIV. of Laodicea forbids such sendings, on the feast of Easter, to other dioceses. But "equal things" is commonly used in later Greek for "copies," "documents in prescribed form "----in Latin, "formatae epistolae." The eleventh canon of Chalcedon deals with such "letters of commendation" (cf. 2 Cor. iii. 1, Rom. xvi. 1) carried by travellers; described as "letters of peace," or "letters of communion," guaranteeing that the bearers were members of the Church. This will be the sense here. The letter would be akin to the "letters of peace" sent from the west to Flavian (Soz. viii. 25); see p. 50, and the first words of the letter below.
54. 2 Innocent's letter in Sozomen to the clergy of Constantinople urges the need of a synod, though not with these stipulations.
55. 1 A panegyric of Chrysostom by "Martyrius, Bishop of Antioch" (Migne, xlvii.), seems to be his work.
56. 2 Matt. xviii. 17; cf. 1 Cor. v. 9.
57. 3 " We write, that we must be led by the canons laid down at Nicaea, which alone the Catholic Church ought to follow" (Innocent's letter in Soz. viii. 26). The fifth canon prescribes that persons excommunicated by the bishops of a province ("eparchia," as above, p. 12) may not be admitted to communion by other bishops; but that to prevent undeserved excommunications, two synods shall be held in each province each year, at which inquiry shall be made into doubtful cases. Hence Chrysostom refused communion to the Tall Brothers (p. 60). Innocent's proposed synod would go further, being of the whole Church, not of a single province; here Theophilus, having excommunicated Chrysostom, would have to justify his action.
58. 1 Lit. "rode past" on horseback. So in Pall., L. H., vi. 7.
59. 2 Chrysostom's second expulsion (p. 89).
60. 3 Declaring himself to be still in communion with them (p. 21).
61. 4 Or, "his appearance."
62. 5 See p. 126.
63. 1 This could only be by proxy or by letter, as he went straight into exile (p. 90). A synod was held after the first expulsion (p. 73, n.), which the deacon may have in mind, but the author is not concerned with his accuracy. The lack of logical sequence in the sentence may point to corruption in the text.
64. 2 Job xxxii. 18.
65. 3 Cyriacus; p. 89.
66. 4 Bishop of Antioch (p. 13 ff.). For Arsacius, cf. p. 30.
67. 5 i. e. Chrysostom is a heretic. Theodosius, father of Arcadius, had issued such edicts in regard to the Arians. George tells us that Chrysostom obtained the same from Arcadius. The leaning of the Church upon the civil power has always proved disastrous. Cf. p. 196.
68. 1 Innocent states in his letter (in Sozomen) that he writes in answer to letters brought by these two.
69. 2 Cassian had lived long among the monks of Egypt, and was ordained deacon by Chrysostom, for whom he had a great admiration. His writings are our best authority for the monastic life of the time, and were ordered to be studied in the Benedictine monasteries. He afterwards settled at Marseilles, where he founded a monastery for each sex, and took a leading part in the discussions upon grace and freewill, originated by the Pelagian heresy, evoking two treatises from St. Augustine.
70. 3 The third charge at The Oak: "that he had sold a great quantity of the treasures of the Church."
71. 1 The revenues of the Church were originally entrusted to the bishop, to be by him distributed among the clergy and poor; this he did through the deacons, and especially the archdeacon. But as the Church grew in wealth and extent, "stewards" were appointed, always from among the clergy. Conc. Chalc. Can. XXV., XXVI., prescribe that during a vacancy in a see the revenues of a Church shall be managed by the steward, "that the administration of the Church may not be without witnesses, and the property of the Church be wasted, and the clergy exposed to cavils." Theophilus advanced two monks to be stewards (p. 54); in his canonical epistle he orders that stewards are to be chosen by the clergy.
72. 2 A pagan, and bitter opponent of the Faith, who succeeded Studius as prefect of Constantinople. He tried by torture those accused of the burning of the church; Eutropius, a reader, died under it. Tigrius (p. 176) and Serapion (p. 175) were similarly treated; Olympias was brought before him, and after a lively passage of arms heavily fined, for refusing to communicate with Arsacius.
73. 1 Theodosius, dying in 395, bequeathed the empire of the west to Honorius, his younger, that of the east to Arcadius, his elder, but feebler son.
74. 1 So Chrysostom is brought from Antioch to Constantinople (p. 42); as it was by the order of the Emperor, conveyance was provided for them. The bishops were similarly brought to the Council of Nicaea (Synthema, Lat. "Tessara," a ticket given to soldiers for their rations, to delegates to a friendly city entitling them to hospitality, etc.).
75. 1 Innocent's letter in Sozomen states that he has learnt the facts from Bishops Demetrius, Cyriacus, Eulysius, and Palladius, "who are with us at Rome." Our author is thoroughly conversant with the facts.
76. 2 The Greek alternates between the first and third persons. This can be well understood, if Palladius is describing his own experiences, and occasionally forgets to preserve his anonymity by using the third person. The same feature occurs in Pall., L. H., v. 1. The accuracy of detail in the record (cf. pp. 66, 126, 178), where Palladius is stated to be present, has much bearing on the question of the authorship of the treatise.
77. 3 Lit. "the back parts "; cf. p. 83.
78. 4 The words can hardly bear their literal sense, "there put on the rack."
79. 1 If the report meant that he had succeeded in his aim, it was not true. Arsacius, brother of Nectarius, was appointed, and occupied the throne for a year (p. go), when Atticus succeeded him.
80. 2 "Nomisma," Lat. "nummus." A thousand nummi or sestertii made a sestertium, worth about £8.
81. 3 Eph. v. 15, 16.
82. 1 Lampsacus, on the east coast of the Dardanelles. The journey to Hydrun was much longer, but Palladius was not with the western bishops, and makes no remarks upon it. He would naturally be interested to learn whether they had reached Italy safely, and where. Dramatic propriety forbids the subsequent doings of Palladius and his companions being known as yet in Rome; the story continues on p. 178.
83. 2 Otranto, in South Italy.
84. 3 Or, "rational" (λογικαῖς); cf. Rom. xii. 1, 1 Pet. ii. 2, where it almost = "spiritual."
85. 1 Bishop of Beroea, who had been sent to Rome, on Chrysostom's initiative (Soz. viii. 3), to secure the recognition of Flavian as Bishop of Antioch by the Western Church. He seems to have been about eighty years old, a man of great ability and influence.
86. 2 Bishop of Ptolemais; he had visited Constantinople, and being a learned and eloquent speaker (Sozomen adds the interesting note that he was "called by some Chrysostom "), "departed to his own city, having gathered much money" (Soz. viii. 10).
87. 3 Bishop of Gabala, a friend of Antiochus, who, hearing of Antiochus' success at Constantinople, thought to do the same. He spoke with a rough Syrian accent, but prepared a stock of sermons, and on his arrival was welcomed by Chrysostom, and found favour with the court. When Chrysostom went to Ephesus (p. 125) he entrusted the see to his charge; but he only tried to please the people, and to win them from their affection for their own bishop. Archdeacon Serapion took every opportunity of showing his dislike for him, and reported his doings to Chrysostom, even distorting a remark made by him into a denial of the faith; whereupon Chrysostom expelled him from the city. At Eudoxia's earnest request he was recalled, and each made a public profession of reconciliation, but Serapion never forgave the insult.
88. 4 Two curious words, apparently of the author's own coinage.
89. 1 Friends of the Empress Eudoxia (see p. 65).
90. 2 The words show the supposed date of the Dialogue.
91. 3 In 407, the year of Chrysostom's death, Palladius would be only about forty-three years old. But as he does not represent himself as being the bishop of the Dialogue, the point does not affect the question of authorship.
92. 1 Ps. v. 6.
93. 2 An inference from John viii. 44, 45, 1 John ii. 22, 23.
94. 3 Ps. lxiii. 11.
95. 4 One of the "agrapha," "non-scriptural sayings" attributed to our Lord, frequently quoted by the Fathers; e.g. Clem. Alex., Strom, vii. 90; Euseb., H. E. vii. 7; Cyr. Alex. in Joh. iv. 3; Clement. Homil. ii. 51; Const. Apost. ii. 36.
96. 5 The alteration of one letter in the text gives this meaning; "with boasting" gives no sense. It is not enough for a statement to be plausible, and couched in pleasant language; it must be tested by facts.
97. 6 Ps. xxxix. 1, cxli. 3.
98. 1 Jer. ix. 21.
99. 2 Jer. vii. 15, "I have cast out the whole seed of Ephraim."
100. 3 Hos. vii. 9, 11.
101. 4 Hos. vii. 8, 9.
102. 5 The same words are used in Greek for what we term the "Consecration" of bishops as tor the "Ordination" of other clergy. Two words are generally used by ancient writers:
"laying on of hands," and "stretching forth of hands "----properly expressing "show of hands" in voting, so of appointments generally. Hence it is used on pp. 59,138 of the appointment of civil governors. The Apostolic Constitutions (II. 41) say that "a presbyter lays on hands, but does not stretch forth hands "----" gives a benediction, but does not ordain "----with the implication that the power of appointment, as in the State, has passed from the people to the higher authority. Generally the terms are vised with little distinction; our author uses "stretching forth" only. For another word, "catastasis," properly "appointment," see pp. 42, 153.
103. 1 A small point confirming Palladius' authorship; his residence in Egypt had made him acquainted with these.
104. 2 1 Sam. xvi. 7.
105. 3 Eph. v. 1.
106. 4 "If I see you seizing the property of others, and otherwise transgressing, how shall I believe you when you say that there is a resurrection?" (Hom. in 1 Cor. iii.).
107. 5 "The history of Susanna," in our Apocrypha, is in one MS. of the LXX. chap. xiii. of Daniel.
108. 1 The text is corrupt, "misuse," lit. "higgling" ("handling deceitfully," R.V. "corrupting," 2 Cor. ii. 17). I have followed Bigot's correction of the nom. "dishonour" to a genitive; but as we prove the present by the past, not vice versa, I should prefer to change the nom. "misuse" to a genitive, and render, "Dishonour in old age is a sure proof of the misuse of youth." Cf. p. 145.
109. 2 Secundus, "Magister militum et equitum," who died shortly after his son's birth, leaving his wife Anthusa a widow at the age of twenty.
110. 3 He was taught rhetoric by Libanius, a famous sophist, not only a pagan, but a resolute opponent of the Faith; philosophy by Andragathius. "If I desired the smoothness of Isocrates, the massiveness of Demosthenes, the sublimity of Plato, I must remember St. Paul's words (2 Cor. xi. 6). "All these things I put aside, with all outward adornments" (de Sacerd. IV. vi. 37). But these things were part of himself, and his literary remains show that he could not "put them aside." "What wives these Christians have," Libanius said, in reference to Anthusa. He would have wished Chrysostom to succeed him as head of his school, "had not the Christians stolen him." Symeon and the Vita Anonyma say, with some detail, that he went to Athens to study. This, and the miracles they attribute to him later, may be put aside by Savile's consideration, that it is strange that writers, centuries later, should know things which his contemporaries did not.
111. 4 Rom. iii. 2; 1 Pet. iv. 11.
112. 1 Or, "Sacrament" (p. 57, n.). The postponement of his baptism was probably due, not, as often was the case, to the fear of sinning afterwards, but to the disturbed state of the Church of Antioch, where dissensions between the orthodox and the Arians were almost continuous. Anthusa would hesitate to present her son to one of whose orthodoxy there was any doubt.
113. 2 The word in 1 Cor. ix. 13. Such attendants were later organized into the order of Acolytes, "followers," next to that of sub-deacons in the Latin Church; their duties being to light the candles, and attend with the wine for the Eucharist. Some think that they accompanied the bishop wherever ho went. Theophilus apparently took one such with him to Constantinople (see p. 68), where he is called "young servant," like Elisha's "minister" in 2 Kings vi. 14.
114. 3 Chrysostom's teachers were Carterius and Diodorus, Bishop of Tarsus, who held a kind of "Scripture study school," called by Sozomen "asceterion," for young men. Chrysostom persuaded two other of Libanius' students, Theodorus and Maximus, afterwards Bishops of Mopsuestia and Seleucia respectively, to renounce the world, and in the case of Maximus, to break off his engagement to a lady he dearly loved, and devote themselves to Christian service. For "reader" cf. p. 7.
115. 4 George says, "Hesychius, a Syrian."
116. 1 "I was in the full vigour of my age, and needed, not discourse, but bodily hardships."----Pall., L. H., i. 4. Chr. tells us in his De Sacerdotio, that Anthusa desired, by consideration of her widowhood and her sufferings for his sake, to restrain his enthusiasm for the ascetic life; it was probably after her death that he entered upon it (a.D. 374-5), as George and Vit. Anon. say.
117. 2 The Old and New Testaments----more correctly "Covenants."
118. 3 He never recovered his health; see pp. 98, 125: "I have a cobweb body" (Ep. iv.).
119. 4 He never lost his admiration for the ascetic life. "Monks in monasteries live a life suitable to heaven, and no worse than that of angels, free from quarrels and anxieties." But his sound common sense showed him that there was not one standard for the monk, another for the citizen. "I do not prescribe that a man should take to the mountains or the desert, but that he be good, and sweetly reasonable, and sober, while dwelling in the midst of the city." "All the precepts of the law are common to us and the monks, except in regard to marriage" (in Matt. vii.).
120. 5 In 381, at the age of thirty-six; he wrote his treatises On the Priesthood and On Virginity during his diaconate.
121. 1 Meletius died in 381, during the Council of Constantinople, leaving a rival bishop, Paulinus. It was said that six of the leading clergy of Antioch had agreed, that on the death of either of these, they would recognize the survivor as sole bishop. Yet Flavian, one of the six, was consecrated, and the schism continued. Socr., vi. 3, says that "on the death of Meletius, Chrysostom left his party, nor did he communicate with Paulinus, but lived in retirement for three years; on Paulinus' death he was ordained priest by Evagrius, Paulinus' successor "-----whose episcopate was very brief, Flavian's title being hereafter recognized. Sozomen does not name the bishop who ordained him, but Socrates is in error.
122. 2 i. e. "the late."
123. 3 A man of senatorial rank, chosen as Bishop of Constantinople by the Emperor, being only a catechumen, and consecrated "while still wearing the white vestments of a neophyte" (Soz. vii. 8); though such a departure from Apostolic rule (1 Tim. v. 22) was forbidden by the second Canon of Nicaea. Cyprian, Ambrose, and Eusebius of Caesarea were other exceptions to the rule. Nectarius was more of a courtier than a bishop, and his social relations with the great ones of the city established a precedent which caused Chrysostom's strictness to be severely criticized (p. 99).
124. 1 When Theodosius died (395) he committed Honorius to the charge of the famous general Stilicho, who had married his sister, and Arcadius to Rufinus, a man of low birth who had raised himself by his wits, and urged the Emperor Arcadius in like manner to marry his daughter. Arcadius agreed; but Eutropius, the equally self-made rival of Rufinus, plotted with Stilicho to ruin him, and on the very day appointed for the marriage, the Imperial wedding gifts were taken to the house, not of Rufinus, but of Eudoxia, a lady who hated Eutropius, as he had brought about her guardian's death. Stilicho's soldiers killed Rufinus, and Eutropius seized his property. But he made himself equally unpopular by his pride and ambition, and his sale of State offices; Gainas (p. 122) demanded his death, and Eudoxia supported the request, which was granted. Eutropius had shortly before secured the passing of a law, abolishing the right of asylum in churches; now he fled to the altar of the church, imploring protection. Chrysostom refused to surrender him, even when summoned before the Emperor, and preached two sermons on the vanity of human things, the first while the ex-minister lay prostrate at the altar in abject terror. By these he aroused much ill-will from Eutropius' friends, and from the upper classes generally, through his harsh treatment, as was alleged, of a man in misfortune, his condemnation of riches, and his insistence upon the power of the Church. Eutropius was banished to Cyprus, where he was presently killed; the law forbidding asylum was annulled.
125. 2 "Comes," "companion," our "count "; a companion of or attendant upon a magistrate; later, a person in the suite of an emperor, so an official in charge of a department. "The Emperor had as many comites as he had duties." So there was a "comes" of the Imperial purse, stables, etc.; "comes" of Britain, Egypt, the East, etc.; until the title took the place of "dux" for the military governor of a province or district.
126. 1 "As if to inquire about something" (Sozomen). The governor was Asterius. Churches were very frequently built over a martyr's grave, as the souls of them that were slain were seen "beneath the altar" (Rev. vi. 9). The thought is not limited to any one religion, that the spirits of the dead hover about the resting-place of their bodies. There was such a shrine at Palladius' own city of Helenopolis (Euseb. Vit. Const. iv. 61). Cf. pp. 62, 80, 95.
127. 2 This was upon a resolution of both clergy and laity, who either knew him personally, or had heard of his fame. The people were anxious to have one whom they knew to be ready to denounce wrong doings; not so the rich, and those in power (Soz. viii. 2). Possibly Eutropius proposed him, hoping to secure for the Emperor the support of such a capable man. The day of the ordination was February 26, 398.
128. 3 προσχὼν αὐτοῦ τῇ καταστάσει. The meaning is doubtful. Our author uses the word for "observing" in this sense on p. 77; in the liturgies it is the "Let us attend" before the reading of scripture. Palladius twice uses it so in L. H. But it also means "was foremost" or simply "was present." Again, the word for "bearing," so used just below, is frequent in Church writings for "consecration" (originally "appointment" of civil officers); p. 133. Hence some interpret "was chief consecrator"; though this makes the grammar of the next sentence awkward. It is likely that Theophilus, as bishop of such an important see, should be chief consecrator, but it is doubtful if that is here stated. Socrates says simply, "he ordained him." Theophilus was anxious to secure the consecration of Isidore, whom he had employed on a certain discreditable mission some years before, upon which he wished to buy his silence. But the matter was known to many of the bishops assembled in Constantinople, and Eutropius showed him some documents, giving him his choice between ordaining Chrysostom, and taking his trial on the charges they contained (it must be said that Theophilus' subsequent treatment of Isidore does not support this account, given by Socrates).
129. 1 A variant reading for an unusual word meaning "lost his spirit," "fainted"; this will mean either "he was deeply mortified at his ordination," or "he consented with a bad grace to ordain him," or perhaps, as Socrates says, "he was frightened [by Eutropius] into ordaining him."
130. 2 The text is corrupt. I would suggest "he is very clever at reading the invisible will and mind of a man from his visible countenance."
131. 3 Mark i. 24; Matt. viii. 29.
132. 1 "Being naturally disposed, to correction" (Soz.).
133. 2 i. e. as housekeepers. As the clergy were not allowed to marry after ordination, they had to have women to keep house for them; some of these were young, some even women of the Church under vows of virginity, claiming to live with them as sisters in devotion. The Nicene Council (Can. III.) forbade the introduction of any woman but a mother, a sister, an aunt, or other person, above suspicion; a rule frequently enforced by later councils. Chrysostom issued two treatises against the practice; their date is uncertain, but this narrative suggests that they appeared now. He admits that there has been no great amount of actual wrongdoing, but points out that scandal must inevitably arise, and makes it clear that these women were in many cases leading the lives of smart society ladies.
134. 1 Jer. i. 10. Chrysostom's writings are full of denunciations of wealth, and exhortations to charity. "Of all the fathers of the fourth century, he is the panegyrist par excellence of almsgiving" (Puech).
135. 2 According to Suetonius, it was the custom at Rome to carry sick folks to the temple of Aesculapius, on an island in the Tiber, to die there, so as to save the trouble of attending to them. Jerome tells us that the first hospital was founded by a Christian matron, Fabiola. Chrysostom followed the lead of Basil, who had erected a very large hospital at Caesarea, in charge of a "local bishop."
136. 1 1 Tim. v. 3 shows that from the first there was a "catalogue" of Church widows; probably those needing relief (Acts vi. 1). Presently it became clear that their care needed the work of women, as well as that of the deacons, and some of the elder widows were put in charge of the rest. In some parts of the Church only widows who had borne children, who were of considerable age, and who had been but once married, were admitted as deaconesses. Olympias is a noted exception (p. 150). Thus it appears that the order of deaconesses (p. 86) sprang from the order of widows.
137. 2 The public baths in a. great city were enormous buildings, where much time was wasted in bodily pleasure, gossip nourished, and immorality lurked. It was better for those who had to set a high standard of life, to accept physical rather than moral uncleanness. Cf. p. 115.
138. 3 " Litanies." The Apostolical Constitutions (viii. 6) give us an early form, the deacon "bidding" the prayer, or naming the subjects of intercession, while the people answer, "Lord, have mercy." Cf. p. 137.
139. 4 Pliny mentions the night services of the Christians, when they "sang praises to Christ as God." Chrysostom recommends them in his Hom. in Ps. cxix. (" At midnight I will rise," etc.) and cxxxii. "At night our prayers are more pure, our minds lighter, our leisure more abundant "; hence "the poor abide in Church from midnight until dawn in prayer, and holy vigils are linked together, by day and by night" (Hom. in Is. iv.). The services consisted chiefly of psalms, of which twelve were in time fixed upon as the normal use. At this time the Arians in Constantinople had been organizing street processions, with singing of litanies, by night; Chrysostom arranged for rival processions, for which the Empress supplied silver candlesticks. The two parties naturally came to blows.
140. 1 1 Tim. vi. 17.
141. 2 Lit. "colour."
142. 3 "Some of those present yesterday have since then sat in the theatres, and gazed at the procession of the devil" (Or. xc.). The circus was a fruitful source of iniquity, frequently condemned by Chrysostom (c. Anom. vii. 1; de Laz. vii. 1). During his first year at Constantinople, he preached a sermon "Against the games and the theatres," after a tumultuous race-meeting held on Good Friday, in which many Christians had joined.
143. 1 His condemnations of luxury were said to be specially aimed at the Empress, into whose hands the chief power in the State had fallen since the death of Eutropius; cf. p. 72. From this time forward, as our other authorities show, the good-will she had hitherto borne to him turned to enmity, growing more and more bitter until, with the help of Theophilus and his party, she had accomplished his ruin.
144. 2 Matt. xii. 34.
145. 3 Or, "Of his drunken madness."
146. 4 "Chrysostom continually showed his high esteem for monks, and saw to their necessities; but those who left the monasteries, and appeared in the city, he abused" (Socrates). It is evident that a large number of indigent persons came to the capital to trade upon the Christian generosity of rich ladies (p. 152). For Isaac, see p. 70.
147. 1 Ps. lxiv. 6.
148. 2 "Amphallax," "alternating," used for a tragic actor's high-heeled buskins, which fitted either foot. Bunyan's "Mr. Facing-both-ways."
149. 3 Eph. iv. 26.
150. 4 Rom.. xii. 21.
151. 5 Ps. vii. 5, LXX.
152. 1 Theophilus' candidate for the see of Constantinople. He had spent his youth as a monk at Nitria, and was famous for his piety. Sozomen says that he had embittered Theophilus against himself, by giving evidence in favour of Peter, the "arch-priest" of Alexandria, in regard to a charge brought by Theophilus against him. See p. 42, n.
153. 2 Most large cities and monasteries had a "Xenodochium," or hospice, for the reception of stranger Christians bearing letters of commendation. Can. X. of Chalcedon forbids a stranger to be concerned with the affairs of the shrines, the poor-houses, or the hospices of a Church.
154. 3 Lit. "the communion," cf. p. 21.
155. 4 See p. 40, n. The Churches of Rome and Alexandria at first refused to recognize Flavian as Bishop of Antioch; shortly after Paulinus' death Chrysostom negotiated successfully with Theophilus, and Flavian "left no stone unturned to restore harmony." Acacius and Isidore were sent to Damasus of Rome, and secured his recognition of Flavian.
156. 5 Paulinus' successor, for a brief space, at Antioch. Theophilus evidently wished the arrangement made by the six clergy to be carried out (p. 40).
157. 1 Lat. "aureus," of the value of twenty-five denarii, about 18s. d.
158. 2 "Lithomania." "Isidore said it was better to restore the bodies of the sick, which are more properly the temples of God, than to build walls" (Soz. viii. 12; he does not mention this case of the widow). Isidore of Pelusium calls Theophilus "the gold-maniac and litholater." Cf. p. 115.
159. 1 The "tribune of the people."
160. 2 Ps. xv. 5.
161. 3 See p. 41, n.
162. 1 About sixty miles south of Alexandria, "so called from the neighbouring village, in which they collect nitre" (Sozomen). There were fifty monasteries there, containing 5000 monks (so Pall., L. H.), some living a community, some an isolated life.
163. 2 Theodore Trim. says that seven Egyptian bishops, whom he names, and twenty-two clergy, wrote about this matter to Innocent; who remonstrated in vain with Theophilus.
164. 3 " Omophorion," a long band of white woollen stuff, draped over the shoulders with the ends depending before and behind; originally a piece of civil dress, retained by the Church as in the case of other vestments, and in time acquiring an ecclesiastical and then a symbolical significance. Apparently all bishops wore it in the east; afterwards, as the Roman "pallium," it was conferred first by the Emperors, then by the bishops of Rome, upon great prelates, as by Gregory upon St. Augustine of Canterbury.
165. 1 Ammonius and Dioscorus (p. 147) were two of four "Tall Brothers," famous for their piety in the monastery of Mt. Nitria; so much honoured by Theophilus, that he made Dioscorus Bishop of Hermopolis, and brought two others into Alexandria, making them stewards of the Church revenues. Observing Theophilus' character and architectural extravagances, they pleaded the attraction of the desert, and returned to their seclusion; when Theophilus discovered the true reason for this, he determined to ruin them, by stirring up their fellow-monks against them. Many of the monks were illiterate men, who took literally scripture expressions, such as "The eyes of the Lord," and said that God had a body. Theophilus issued a pastoral, explaining that these were symbolical expressions, which was the principle followed by Origen in his "Mystical" interpretation of Holy Scripture, 200 years before. The monks protested, lamenting that Theophilus had "taken away their God"; Theophilus assured their deputation that he, like them, condemned Origen's views. But Dioscorus and Ammonius set their faces against such "anthropomorphism," and so gave Theophilus the opportunity he wanted of inflaming the illiterate monks against them. He informed them that Dioscorus' party, following Origen, were introducing a "blasphemous dogma," and issued a pastoral condemning the views which he had just before upheld. Chrysostom knew nothing of all this at the time.
166. 1 Lit. "anointed" (p. 14).
167. 1 "The Augustalian"; as in Pall., L. H., xlvi. 3, "the prefect"; app. used only of the governor of Egypt.
168. 2 Lit. "Arch-priest of the diocese of Egypt." "Diocese" and "eparchy" or "province," as we saw, have the same meaning (p. 12); the expression = "Metropolitan of the province." The sixth Canon of Nicaea says, "Let the ancient customs prevail, in Egypt, Libya, and Pentapolis, that the Bishop of Alexandria shall have authority over all of these, since a similar custom holds in regard to the Bishop of Rome; and also in Antioch and the other provinces (eparchiae). No one may be made bishop without the approval of the Metropolitan." The thirtieth of Chalcedon speaks of "the archbishop in the diocese of Egypt, of the capital of the Alexandrians." This province or diocese was the largest in the world, containing six civil provinces, with nearly one hundred bishops, thirty more than those under the Bishop of Rome. The Metropolitan had the unique privilege of ordaining not only these suffragan bishops, but every priest and deacon in the province.
169. 3 "Unenlightened." In Heb. vi. 4 the reference is to baptism. "This washing is called enlightenment, because those who learn these things have their minds enlightened" (Justin Mart. Apol. II. So often from his time forward). "I know many who have sinned in expectation of enlightenment; but God gave us baptism to set free from sins, not to increase them" (Hom. in Heb. xiii.).
170. 1 "Paroecia," our "parish "; St. Peter's word for "sojourning" (1 Pet. i. 17, ii. 11), taken from the LXX (ef. Eph. ii. 19, contrasted with Heb. xi. 13, xiii. 14). So the word came to be used for the Christians "sojourning amid the heathen" in any one place----the "paroecia "----organized under a bishop. In Nic. Can. XVI. wandering clergy are ordered to return to their paroeciae, and no other bishop is to ordain them, without the consent of the bishop whom they have deserted.
171. 2 ἐνδιαθέτους. Cf. Euseb. H. E., vi. 25.
172. 3 " The symbols of the mysteries." Not all monks were in Holy Orders; so Socrates speaks of it as an unusual thing that Theophilus had honoured two of the "Tall Brothers" with the clerical dignity. Palladius similarly speaks of one Macarius (L. H., xvii. 25); but as abstinence from the mysteries for five weeks was a grave offence (ibid. xvii. 9), the elements were reserved. "All they who dwell alone in the deserts, where there is no priest, keep the Communion at home, and receive it at their own hands" (Basil, Ep. xciii.). For the use of the word, cf. Theodoret Ep. cxxx., "The symbols do not lose their natural characteristics.... Christ taking the symbols at the giving of the mysteries said..."; Dionysius the Areopagite, "The sacred symbols are placed upon the altar."
173. 4 i. e. Jerusalem. Sozomen (viii. 13) says they went to Scythopolis, as "there were there many palm trees, the leaves of which they used for the usual work of monks "----basket-making.
174. 1 "Stratopedon," lit. "the camp"; "the place where the Emperor resides" (Balsamon); the theory of the "Imperator" was, that he was commander-in-chief of the forces.
175. 1 The church in which Gregory Nazianzen began his ministry in Constantinople; here Chrysostom preached several courses of homilies. Another church in Constantinople was that of "Holy Peace."
176. 2 The word (" stretching out hands ") commonly used for "ordaining "; cf. p. 36, n. Socrates so uses it.
177. 3 " Dioecesis."
178. 1 It was reported to Theophilus that he had done so (Socrates); this was one of the charges at The Oak. Chrysostom made no claim whatever to act as judge.
179. 2 Charging them with Origenism.
180. 1 P. ii, n.
181. 1 "Princeps" is properly captain of the second line of soldiers in a legion.
182. 2 In the interval Theophilus held a synod, which condemned Origenism; and wrote to Epiphanius, the aged and highly respected Bishop of Salamis in Cyprus, who with Jerome had taken the lead in the antagonism to Origen's views. Theophilus had called him an "anthropomorphist," because he insisted on the literal interpretation of scripture, including the passages which speak of God in terms borrowed from human nature. Now he declared that he saw the error of his ways, and invited Epiphanius to join him in a crusade against Origenism. Epiphanius called a synod which anathematized it as heretical, and sent the resolution to Chrysostom, who in all innocence ignored it. The question did not interest him, and he saw no reason why it should be raised; as his own commentaries show, he had no leanings towards Origen's "mystical" interpretations. Epiphanius proceeded to Constantinople, where Chrysostom treated him with great courtesy, though he broke Church order by ordaining a deacon, but refused his demand to expel the monks, and condemn Origenism, as these matters were awaiting synodical decision. However, he laid the matter before a gathering of bishops in Constantinople, which declined to confirm the resolution. The Empress severely snubbed Epiphanius, and Ammonius compelled him to admit that he had not read any of his (Ammonius') writings; at last he saw that he was simply being used as a catspaw, and departed for Cyprus, saying, "I leave to you the city, the court, and the hypocrisy." Theophilus meanwhile journeyed slowly through Asia Minor, collecting his partisans among the bishops.
183. 1 Gifts brought to win favours.
184. 2 From the Egyptian corn-ships, for whose arrival Theophilus delayed his entry.
185. 3 Phil. iii. 19.
186. 4 Ps. lxxxiv. 10.
187. 1 Cf. p. 11.
188. 2 Warning them of divine punishment due to Origenism.
189. 3 P. 12, 11.
190. 4 "The symbol" (p. 57). See p. 120, n.
191. 1 Acts xx. 20.
192. 2 Palladius passes without explanation from the private and informal discussion at Eugraphia's house, to the so-called "Synod of The Oak," in which, of course, only bishops took part. He declines to call it a synod. Theophilus summoned the Nitrian monks to it, and required them to express their penitence, and "as is customary with monks, even if they are wronged, they said, 'Pardon.'" Socrates thinks this would not have happened, had not Ammonius and Dioscorus now been dead (p. 147; Theophilus shed tears over the news). Henceforth the question of Origenism, having served its purpose, was dropped.
193. 3 Photius gives an account of this assemblage. Paul, Bishop of Heracleia (p. 14, n.) presided as Metropolitan; John the deacon, evidently the man mentioned above, brought forward twenty-nine charges, the first of which was, that Chrysostom had deposed him from the diaconate for flogging his own slave (or son). Others were, that he had sold Church property, including marble from the Church of the Resurrection, that he had plotted against Severianus, entered and left the church without a prayer, ordained four bishops at once, ordained Serapion presbyter, hit a man in the face, eaten immoderately alone, living the life of a Cyclops, occupied the bath by himself, while Serapion kept the door, robed and unrobed in the episcopal throne, and eaten a pastille. Subsequently Isaac the monk (p. 48) brought forward eighteen other charges, such as that he had favoured Origenists, used strange expressions in his sermons, insulted the clergy, ordained slaves as bishops, and imposed fines upon Isaac himself.
194. 1 It is impossible to doubt that we have here the account of an eye-witness. Palladius was in Constantinople at the time, and was in some way involved in one of the charges,
195. 2 2 Tim. iv. 6.
196. 3 i.e. "Good-bye."
197. 1 Phil. i. 21.
198. 2 Cf. p. 13.
199. 1 Cf. p. 38, n. Possibly this attendant was Theophilus' nephew, Cyril, afterwards Bishop of Alexandria.
200. 2 " A suburb of Chalcedon, called after the name of Rufinus the consul, where was a palace, and a church built by Rufinus in honour of Peter and Paul the Apostles" (Socrates).
201. 1 The LXX of Gen. iv. 8, reads, "Cain said to Abel his brother, Let us go forth into the field."
202. 2 This was not strictly the case, as some of them were from Asia.
203. 3 The text is uncertain. George omits "your" and "against you." "Bid the accusers cease from their accusation, and their attack upon John."
204. 1 "Comitatus"; "the place where the Comes is, or the Emperor" (Balsamon).
205. 2 In place of Serapion, who was ejected.
206. 1 In "a sermon before he went into exile" he calls those sent to arrest him "spiders sent by a spider."
207. 2 "When, after being four times summoned, he appealed to an oecumenical council, bringing no further charge against him, but that he had been summoned, and refused to obey, they degraded him" (Soz. viii. 17).
208. 3 Lèse Majesté. Just after Epiphanius' departure, Chrysostom "preached a sermon reproving women in general terms; which was generally interpreted as directed against the Empress" (Sozomen). Our other sources agree in stating that he had rebuked her for following Eutropius' example in seizing property, especially the vineyard of the widow of one Theognostus. George asserts that he gave orders for her to be excluded from the Church for so doing. Hence her sudden change of attitude towards him. Palladius, no doubt, had his reasons for not saying more on the subject of Eudoxia's actions; it would have been too dangerous; cf. p. 78, n.
209. 1 Another sermon "before he went into exile" contains an allusion to Jezebel; it is almost certainly spurious, probably the work of his enemies. But Theodore implies that he had used Naboth's vineyard "as a parable" in pleading for the widow. He tells us, with a certain amount of verisimilitude, that the Emperor, on Acacius' application, appointed Aquilinus the Quaestor to investigate the charges against the monks, and was satisfied with their answers; Chrysostom was also summoned to appear in reference to his alleged insults to the Empress, but refused to make any defence.
210. 1 "On the third day after his deprivation"; the civil authorities, with the sanction of the Emperor, instigated by Eudoxia, carrying out the resolution of the so-called "Synod." "He went out unknown to the people, for fear of causing a disturbance; but immediately the king, the synod, and, above all, Theophilus, were bitterly censured. It was pointed out that Theophilus had immediately communicated with the Tall Brethren, whom he had called heretics, and Severian caused strong indignation by a sermon concerning Chrysostom's pride" (Soz. viii. 18). The Emperor was compelled to order his return by the strong feelings aroused.
211. 2 On the other side of the Bosphorus.
212. 3 Apparently an earthquake. Eudoxia herself wrote, begging him to return: "I am innocent, I knew nothing of what was being done. I cannot forget that you baptized my children."
213. 4 He refused to enter the church, on the ground that the synod which deposed him must also reinstate him; but the vast crowds who had welcomed him insisted on his pronouncing the "Peace be with you," and giving an address, which is still preserved; in it he speaks very favourably of the Empress. He maintained that all this was done under compulsion, and that he cannot therefore be accused of the breach of canon law alleged below (p. 76). But no man can be compelled to speak; his natural impetuosity overcame him at the sight of the sympathetic flock. A synod of sixty bishops met in Constantinople, and annulled the proceedings at The Oak, declaring that Chrysostom still held his bishopric (Soz. viii. 19).
214. 1 Feeling ran so high in regard to the condemnation by the "Synod" of Heracleides (p. 126, n), accused of Origenism in his absence, that sanguinary tumults took place in the streets.
215. 2 By Can. XII. of the Synod of Antioch (a.d. 341), any bishop who after deposition appealed to the civil power was to be ipso facto irrevocably deposed. The number of bishops present at Antioch was ninety-seven, of whom forty belonged to the party of Eusebius, a "semi-Arian" (i. e. one who denied the eternal Godhead of the Son). It seems probable that these had remained after the others had returned home, and passed this and other canons on their own account.
216. 1 Rom. i. 8. So Cyprian, Ep. iv., objecting to an appeal made to Cornelius, Bishop of Rome, against the decisions of an African synod, says that they "forgot that it was the Romans, whose faith is applauded in the preaching of the Apostle."
217. 2 Laodicea in Lycaonia, so called from the furnaces in connection with the mines (W. M. Ramsay).
218. 1 The famous heretic, who maintained that "there was a time when the Son was not"; against whom Athanasius maintained the Catholic Faith.
219. 2 A.n. 343; about a hundred and seventy bishops were present. The eastern bishops objected to the presence of Athanasius as having been deposed, but they were outvoted. Pall., L. H., lxiii. 1 has the same note of time in reference to Athanasius----"in the time of Constantius the king"----of the eastern, Constans being emperor of the western empire.
220. 3 Julius was Bishop of Rome at the time; Liberius succeeded him in 352. At this council it was determined that any bishop who considered himself aggrieved might appeal to Julius, Bishop of Rome, for a re-trial before such neighbouring bishops as he should appoint. The canon applied only to Julius personally, to cover the exigencies of the moment; Athanasius would ordinarily have appealed to the Emperor, but as Constantius, Emperor of the East, was an Arian, Julius was for this turn substituted for him.
221. 1 See p. 147, 11.
222. 2 Six of Chrysostom's letters are addressed to him. He was deposed, but in 414 restored to his see.
223. 3 In that case, they admit themselves to be Arian heretics.
224. 1 Eudoxia once more turned against him at this time. Her statue had been set up in the square before the church, and its inauguration was attended by disorderly and pagan rejoicings, against which Chrysostom protested (January 403). On the feast of the Beheading of John the Baptist, he was alleged to have begun his sermon with the words, "Again doth Herodias rave, again does she ask for the head of John." The Emperor sent him word that he would not communicate at the Christmas festival; but Chrysostom declared himself ready to meet the charge of attacking the Empress, and the question of re-entry was made the issue.
225. 2 They wished to anticipate the signs of popular good-will likely to be shown by the crowds attending the festival.
226. 1 "Episcopus," "overseer" (Acts xx. 28, addressed to the "elders"). Cicero calls Pompey "Episcopus of Campania" (ad Att. vii. 11). So 1 Macc. i. 51, LXX. The verb is used by Pall., L. H., xxxv. 10, where he himself playfully says, "I bishop the kitchens, the tables, and the pots." "God is the true bishop of the heart" (Wisd. i. 6).
227. 1 The name of Lent is "Tessarakoste," "the fortieth (day) "; it is still called so in the Greek Church.
228. 2 " Initiated into the mysteries" of the Creed and the Lord's Prayer. "Those who are initiated will know what is likely to have happened amid such disorder; I must keep silence, lest any uninitiated should read my narrative" (Soz. viii. 21, in relating these proceedings).
229. 3 Lit. "priest"; cf. p. 35.
230. 4 In Bithynia.
231. 5 Jerome (in Matt, xxv.) speaks of the apostolic tradition not to dismiss the congregation before midnight; Tertullian warns against marriage with a heathen, who will not allow his wife to be absent all night for the Paschal solemnities. Cf. p. 17, n.
232. 1 Possibly the first two letters of the word for "gifts" have been dropped out of the text, leaving that for "words."
233. 1 "Symbols" (p. 64).
234. 2 In the labyrinth of Crete, according to Greek folk-lore, lurked the minotaur, a monster to which were given seven Athenian youths and seven maidens every ninth year, until he was slain by Theseus.
235. 1 "The Fifth," because five miles from the Forum.
236. 2 "Heterodoxi."
237. 3 Lit. "the back"; so p. 29.
238. 1 More than the expression of abstract thoughts.
239. 2 "Maphoria "; at first the ordinary veils worn by women, then, with some distinguishing features, by professed virgins and deaconesses; later still, confined to these. Cassian says they were worn by monks. See p. 53, n.
240. 3 The period between Easter and Whitsun. "For two months John did not go forth in public" (Socr. vi. 18).
241. 1 "If the whole air is full of angels, how much more the church? Hear the deacons ever saying in the churches. Call upon the angel of peace" (Serm. in Ascens. i.). "The angels stand round the priest" (de Sac. vi. 4). Chrysostom's sense of angelic presence abides in the "Liturgy of Constantinople ": "Cause that holy angels may enter with our entrance" ("Prayer of the entrance"). In the Book of Daniel (cf. Deut, xxxii. 8, 9, LXX) nations have their guardian angels; Basil calls angels "the rulers of the Church." Eusebius regards Ps. xlviii. 5 as addressed to "the guardian angels of the Church." Matt. xvii. 10, Acts xii. 15 seem to imply guardian angels to individuals; "each of us has a guardian angel by his side" (Hom. in Hab. xiv.). The thought of a guardian angel for each Church is, no doubt, founded on Rev. ii., iii., which Origen (Hom. in Num. xx. 4) explains as "his angel, or the angel of his Church"; Chrysostom (Or. clxix, in. Syn. Arch.) says, "To each man an angel is assigned, in each church Christ has set angel guardians."
242. 1 "Hierateion"; where the priests robed, prepared the sacred vessels, etc. Palladius, both in this treatise and in L. H., uses the word also for "the body of clergy."
243. 2 Sozomen says that Olympias was ordained deaconess by Nectarius, though but a young widow, for her extraordinary devotion. The order, as we saw, sprang from that of widows (p. 46); the Council of Chalcedon made forty the minimum a.ge for their ordination. Their duties were to assist in the instruction of female catechumens, and at their baptism; to visit sick women, guard the doors, and to look after the women members of the congregation in Church. Nicarete, "the best of all the good women Sozomen ever knew," refused to accept the dignity of a deaconess, and "to preside over the Church virgins." The order seems to have come to an end about the eleventh century. But see The Ministry of Women (S.P.C.K., 1919).
244. 3 Nephew of Theodosius the Emperor. Silvina and Olympias were naturally friends, as young widows of husbands bearing the same name (p. 86).
245. 4 Luke xxii.. 37.
246. 5 2 Tim. iv. 7.
247. 6 Acts xx. 25.
248. 1 The east is the symbol of light, the west of darkness and sin. Baptizands faced the west until they had renounced evil, after that the east.
249. 1 " On the same day, some of the Johnnites set the church on fire" (Socrates). The "Johnnites" attributed it to their enemies (Sozomen, who describes it as heaven-sent). Palladius regards it as the result of the angel of the Church going forth with Chrysostom.
250. 2 Acts i. 18; 2 Pet. ii. 13, 15. The expression is strange; possibly the preposition has been changed, and "laying upon them" should be read for "paying." The grammar of the sentence is very bad.
251. 3 The church was that of St. Sophia, built by Constantine, A.D. 360. After this conflagration it was restored, but again burnt down, and finally rebuilt at vast expense by Justinian in 532.
252. 1 One of the charges mentioned by Photius.
253. 2 Sozomen says the fire advanced from late evening until morning.
254. 3 Optatus, the prefect, tried various accused persons by torture, under which Eutropius, a reader, died. Olympias also was put on her trial.
255. 1 A village in the Taurus Mountains, on the edge of Cilicia. Chrysostom's friends did their utmost to get him sent to a less remote and dangerous place, but the Empress had chosen Cucusus herself, and this time was implacable. It took him seventy days to reach it: his letters tell of the hardships of the journey.
256. 2 He was eighty years old. Socrates says that through his extraordinary gentleness he quietly administered the see; Sozomen also speaks highly of him.
257. 1 An Armenian, a monk in his youth; "learned, industrious, an excellent teacher, sympathetic and courteous, in a word, like the apostle, all things to all men" (Socrates).
258. 2 A play upon words: graphe, "scripture," antigraphe, "rescript."
259. 3 Bishop of Antioch (p. 133).
260. 4 Matt. x. 23.
261. 5 Prov. xi. 4 (one MS.).
262. 1 "In the outskirts of the city" (Sozomen). The meetings were suppressed with cruelty and robbery; Nicarete, among others, left the city.
263. 2 From John xv. 15, which is spoken in connection with the two following texts (xiv. 6, xvi. 33).
264. 3 Many friends, including Olympias, supplied him with money, with which he ransomed many prisoners from the Isaurians, and relieved the needy; many went out to him from Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia (Sozomen). He kept up close correspondence with his friends in the city; now telling of an Isaurian attack, now of quiet.
265. 4 A strong fortress not far from Cucusus. The "privations" were inevitable, as the place was crowded with fugitives; three hundred Isaurians once nearly took it in a night attack.
266. 5 Matt. v. 14, 15.
267. 6 By his correspondence he encouraged the missionary projects he had begun as bishop, in Persia, Phoenicia, and among the Goths. They were in charge of Constantius (p. 135), who joined him for a time at Cucusus.
268. 1 "Trials" perhaps better expresses this word, found in plural in the New Testament only in Acts x.x. 19, 1 Pet. i. 6; in singular of Our Lord's Temptation, in the Lord's Prayer, the Garden of Gethsemane, etc.
269. 2 2. Cor. xii. 9.
270. 3 A term frequent in the Fathers for "Christian belief and practice." It is "the knowledge (gnosis) of things divine and human" (Hom. in. Col. ix.); "tribulation is the mother of philosophy" (in Ps.ix.). "To be gentle of speech is the road to philosophy" (in. John xxvi.). One of Chrysostom's shorter treatises compares the life of a king with that of a monk living "according to Christian philosophy." On the other hand, "Are there no heathen who live in philosophy?" (in John xxviii.). "Gracious," as in Prov. xi. 16, LXX, of a wife; or "thankful," as Col. iii. 15. Pall., L. H., xivii. 15, has this identical expression.
271. 1 "Like David, a wanderer, an exile, disfranchised, homeless, I am exiled to a barbarian land" (Ad eos qui, ii.).
272. 2 At its far eastern end.
273. 1 Tokat.
274. 2 A.D. 303. Diocletian, Maximian's fellow-emperor in the East, originated the persecution.
275. 3 " And the martyr of the place----Collythus was his name----stood over her, and said. To-day you are going to travel to the Master, and see all the saints. Come, then, and breakfast with us in the chapel.... And she died that very night... having decked herself for the funeral" (Pall., L. H., lx.). Theodore gives a different version of this vision, which he says was granted to him before reaching Cucusus.
276. 4 "We clothe the dead in new garments, to signify their putting on the new clothing of incorruption" (Hom. cxvi.). So Constantine arrayed himself in royal and shining garments for death (Eusebius). Pall., L. H., v., tells how Alexandra "in the tenth year fell asleep, having arrayed herself (for death)." Theodore says they were "the garments of the holy liturgy."
277. 5 Bigot translates "jejunus," "without breaking his fast." I understand the word to be used as in 1 Thess. v. 8, 2 Tim. iv. 5, etc.
278. 1 "Symbola Despotica." In the Coptic Liturgy the fraction is called "Isbodicon." The Eucharistic elements were often carried on a journey (Ambrose, de Ob. Sat. iii. 19).
279. 2 "He closes the book with thanksgiving, to show us that this must be the beginning and end of all our words and deeds; even as in our prayer. Our Father is the language of men who give thanks for the gifts they have received" (in Ps. cl.). "Let us render thanks when in poverty, sickness, disgrace; not in word or in tongue, but in thought and act. Say nothing prior to this word, i give thee thanks, O Lord" (in Eph. xix. 2). "What shall I say? Blessed be God. This I said when I departed, and I have not ceased to say it. You remember that 1 quoted Job's words, Let the name of the Lord be blessed for ever" (from "the sermon after returning from exile"). The last rubric of the "Liturgy of St. Chrysostom," still used in the Greek Church, is "The priest having adored, and given thanks to God for all things, so departs."
280. 3 "At every journey... at the putting on of our clothes and shoes... at going to bed, at sitting down... we wear our foreheads with the sign (of the Cross)" (Tert., de Cor., iii.).
281. 4 " A man who in his zeal for temperance yielded to anger more than to respect, and for the sake of temperance all through his life allowed his tongue too much out-spokenness. I marvel how a man who practised such zeal for temperance, taught men in his addresses to despise temperance" (Socrates).
282. 5 Socrates says this was on November 24; George says September 24, which the description of the weather makes more likely.
283. 1 Job v. 26.
284. 2 " The clergy honoured Constantine with the mystical liturgy" at his funeral (Eusebius). The third Council of Carthage shows this to be the usual custom, as a token of the communion between the living and the dead. Ambrose speaks of a body removed from the church where the Eucharist was offered to that in which it was to be buried. This concourse cannot have taken place till long after the actual interment, owing to the distance, though the Vit. Anon. says it took place immediately through Divine inspiration. The word I have translated "gathering" is used for a Church Festival, such as Easter. The relatives of a Christian were to meet for psalms, hymns, and prayers on the third, ninth, and fortieth days after death (Apostolical Constitutions, viii. 42). "It happened that the services for the fortieth day of the one and the third day of the other were being celebrated by the brethren" (Pall., L. H., xxi. 15).
285. 3 Ecclus. viii. 9.
286. 1 P. 66, n.
287. 2 1 Cor. viii. 8.
288. 3 "Why he chose to eat alone, no one has been able to state clearly; those who wish to defend him say that it was on account of infirmity" (Socrates).
289. 4 The text reads "no friend"; and "sweat" (as at the baths) for "swill."
290. 1 Acts xix. 37; Rom. ii. 22.
291. 2 Or, perhaps, "moral tone," "character."
292. 3 Acts vi. 2, very freely quoted, with no MS. support.
293. 4 Matt. xxv. 35.
294. 1 Luke vi. 26.
295. 2 Matt. xi. 18, joined with xxi. 32. Pall., L. H. (Prol., p. 13), similarly combines the two verses, with no MS. authority. Cf. p. xx.
296. 3 Nearly all the 246 letters we possess date from his second exile, and are short answers to inquiries, requests for prayer, or devotional considerations of Providence and the use of sufferings; seventeen are addressed to Olympias. The sentence suggests the passage of a certain space of time for their collection. They could not have reached Rome at the supposed date of the Dialogue.
297. 1 As "lord bishops" on p. 10.
298. 2 Gen. xviii. 8, 22. "The angel of great counsel" (Isa. ix. 6), God, and yet an angel, hence identified by Christian writers with the Second Person of the Holy Trinity (cf. Novatian de Trin., xviii., xix.).
299. 3 Heb. xiii. 2.
300. 4 Luke vi. 30.
301. 5 Ecclus. xi. 29.
302. 6 Cf. p. 121.
303. 7 "Sarabara," "Persian trousers "; Dan. iii. 21.
304. 1 This sentence seems to be a gloss. But our author, like many of the fathers, is fond of "the doctrine of the mean" (Aristotle, Eth. Nic., ii. 6, etc.); cf. p. 111.
305. 2 The word used for the "guest-master" of the Church (p. 50)
306. 3 Isa. i. 22.
307. 1 Amos viii. 11.
308. 2 Amos viii. 12.
309. 1 Like "Jacob the wrestler," p. 106.
310. 2 Deut. xxxii. 15.
311. 3 Ezek. xvi. 49.
312. 4 In LXX "she."
313. 5 Amos vi. 4-6.
314. 6 Isa. v. 11, 12.
315. 1 Bel and the Dragon, v. 14, etc. Their footsteps were seen in the ashes sprinkled by Daniel.
316. 2 A slight alteration of the text gives this meaning.
317. 1 Gen.xxxi.40.
318. 2 Gen.xxviii.20.
319. 3 In Pontus; pheasants.
320. 1 Ramah, i Sam. vii. 17.
321. 2 Ps. cii. 9.
322. 3 The phrase recalls Ex. iii. 14.
323. 4 Heb. xiii. 7.
324. 1 Luke iii. 7.
325. 2 Matt. v. 17; Gal. ii. 18.
326. 3 Rom. i. 14.
327. 4 1 Tim. iv. 13.
328. 5 2 Tim. iv. 2.
329. 6 The grammar of the sentence is so strange that it is almost untranslatable. "Flatter" could not be joined with "reprove, rebuke," because flattery never is bitter, while exhortation can be more bitter, as he goes on to show, than either; hence the apostle does not hesitate to couple the apparently pleasant "exhortation" with the bitter "reprove, rebuke."
330. 1 "'Things which appear shameful (the Cross) are the revered stories of our good things" (Hom. in John lxxv. 3). Cf. Pall., L. H., lvi. 2.
331. 2 2 Tim. iii. 10.
332. 3 Tit. i. 5, with 1 Tim. i. 3, 4.
333. 4 Tit. i. 12.
334. 5 This word is only found here, and in Pall., L. H., lxv. 2.
335. 6 Ex. xxxii. 6.
336. 1 Ex. xxxii. 1.
337. 2 Mal. ii. 7.
338. 3 In Gen. x. 10, Calneh is one of the cities of Nimrod, in the plain of Shinar (Gen. xi. 2).
339. 4 Contained in the words, "How shall this man give us his flesh to eat? "
340. 5 John vi. 27.
341. 1 i Cor. viii. 8.
342. 2 i Cor. xv. 32.
343. 3 Isa. v. 20.
344. 4 If the text is correct, it means that a man gives dinner-parties not for the pleasure of eating, but because he wishes to belong to the "smart set," and push himself forward by ostentation of his wealth. Aristotle (Eth. Nic. iv. 3) remarks upon the difficulty of explaining "ambition "----" a desire for honour carried to excess."
345. 1 The contrast with "as quickly as possible" requires this rendering of the preposition, which implies an irregular or unusual action (as in par-akoe, "mis-hearing "). It is so used, again in connection with time of meals, in Pall., L. H., xxxi. i, lxi. 6----" once a day" or "once every other day "; this meaning occurs on p. 129.
346. 2 Both favourite metaphors of Chrysostom. "God's providence is unrecognized, as when the pilot is saving the ship in a storm, but the passengers do not recognize his skill in the general confusion" (adv. Opp., vol. iii., 113e).
347. 3 The word is frequent in N.T. for "spiritual blessing" (1 Cor. x. 16; Gal. iii. 14; Jas. iii. 10). In LXX it is used for any benefit bestowed; as in Judges 1. 15, a piece of land; 1 Sam. xxv. 27, Abigail's gift; 2 Kings v. 15, Naaman's. Hence especially of the bread not consecrated at the Eucharist. Socrates tells of one who "took nothing from the Church, save two loaves of eulogiae each Sunday." Cf. Pall., L. H., xxv. 3, "I am not worse than you, that you should send me a blessing "----of sweetmeats given to a monk. Hence the sense here will be the "getting good" of a worldly, not a spiritual kind; a gift to take home, or the honour of an invitation.
348. 1 Ezek. xxxiv. 2.
349. 2 2 Cor. xi. 20.
350. 3 Jer. xii. 10.
351. 1 He will have a bad name, if he play the host too much.
352. 2 Matt. v. 11.
353. 3 Luke vi. 26.
354. 4 Matt. vi. 24.
355. 1 Matt. xix. 27.
356. 2 Luke xiii. 27.
357. 3 John i. 1.
358. 4 "Logos" in Greek means "reason," as well as "reason expressing itself in words." Cf. p. 31, 11.
359. 5 Cf. Theophilus' "lithomania" (p. 51).
360. 6 Eccl. ii. 5, 11, 18.
361. 1 Lit., "things stamped"; the word in late Greek often for "ordain," "decree," of persons in authority. Cf. pp. 78, 125,11.
362. 2 Socrates says, "Thirteen, in Lycia, Phrygia, and Asia; and also Gerontius, Bishop of Nicomedeia "----on his way home from Ephesus; who being a skilful doctor had much endeared himself to his flock. Chrysostom ordained Pansophius, the late instructor of the Empress, in his place; the action causing great indignation. Apparently the number was six in Asia, seven in Lycia and Phrygia. Isaac's eleventh charge at The Oak was, that he invaded other provinces, and there ordained bishops.
363. 1 Isa. x. 1.
364. 2 The text reads, "the thirteenth indiction," clearly in error. An "indiction" (properly the notice of taxation, revised every fifteen years) was a period of fifteen years, instituted by Constantine in 312, when he became undisputed emperor through his victory over Maxentius; possibly wishing to show his zeal for the Faith by abolishing the pagan mode of reckoning (by the Greek "Olympiads" of four years; May 400 is the time of this event.
365. 3 A Goth, Bishop of Tomis, missionary to the Huns; he refused to sign the resolution of agreement with Epiphanius' condemnation of Origenism.
366. 4 It was natural that at all times many bishops should visit the capital of the Eastern Empire "on ecclesiastical business"; these gradually formed a "synodus endemusa" ----a "home" or "floating synod "----meeting under the presidency of the archbishop. At the Council of Chalcedon the question was raised as to the authority of such a synod, and it was declared to be good. Similar home synods existed at Rome and at Treves, during the residence of the emperors there.
367. 1 In the province of Asia.
368. 2 He apparently was not himself a member.
369. 3 The word is frequent for "saying good-bye to" (Luke ix. 61, etc.), so for "renouncing the world," "retiring to the desert as a monk," etc. According to the "Apostolic Canons," only the lower orders of clergy were allowed to marry after their appointment to office; the Council in Trullo ordered that a bishop's wife should retire to a convent, or become a deaconess; that of Caesarea, that if a priest marries after ordination he must be degraded. For Antoninus to resume relations with his wife was equivalent to marriage after ordination. It was proposed at the Council of Nicaea that married clergy should be compelled to separate from their wives, but the proposal was rejected; though it was generally held that the relations of bishops with their wives should be those of brother and sister. Cf. pp. 129, 136.
370. 1 The Dialogue is supposed to be carried on amid a circle of listeners.
371. 2 2 Cor. xii. 11.
372. 1 He presided as metropolitan (p. 65) at The Oak.
373. 2 "The bishop at his entry into the church says always, Peace be with you, as a proper salutation when he enters his Father's house" (Hom. in 1 Cor. xxxvi.; so in Col. iii., etc.).
374. 3 Matt. v. 23. "Good food upsets the nauseated stomach; so does the spiritual food upset the man not of a pure conscience" (Hom. in Heb. xvii.). "Approach the mystic rite without disturbance, without molesting your neighbour" (Hom. in Nat. Chr. xi.). Conc. Nic. Can. V. orders, "Let one synod be held before Lent, that all ill-feeling may be laid aside, and the gift offered to God in purity." The "gift" is the pure offering of Mal. i. 11.
375. 4 "Photisterion"; "place of illumination," cf. p. 56, n.
376. 1 A strange word, probably "abolitio," not "absolutio "---- "pardon for offences hastily admitted" (Savile).
377. 2 " The elders of the bishops," probably with reference to the name of the Roman Senate, "the council of elders."
378. 3 I Tim. vi. 10.
379. 4 Soz. v. 8 tells of one Theodoret, who held the office of "guardian of the sacred vessels," and was tortured for refusing to surrender them.
380. 1 The rd Canon of Chalcedon (451) gave the confirmation of a General Council to numerous local canons forbidding bishops to be entangled in secular business.
381. 2 Gainas was a Goth, who had been made commander of the army in Constantinople (in which he had enrolled "his whole tribe"), and sent to check the advance of an insurgent brother Goth, Tribigild. Instead of doing so, he joined forces with him, and advanced upon the city, demanding the surrender of three Court favourites. Chrysostom was known to be kindly disposed towards the Goths, as he had organized mission work among them (his befriending of heathen against Christians was one of the charges brought against him at The Oak); he therefore was asked to negotiate (hence "the champion of our souls" or "lives"), and was granted the lives of the three, but could not stop Gainas' entry. For some months nothing was done, the barbarians only waiting for orders to sack the city; meanwhile, Gainas asked for a church within the walls, for himself and his fellow-Arians. Chrysostom discussed the matter with him before the Emperor, and the request was refused. In the winter the Goths attacked the palace, but were repulsed through "a vision of angels" (or through the efforts of the citizens), and half the army, with Gainas, retired through the gates, which were at once shut. The rebel forces were thus divided; Gainas fled to Thrace, where he was killed, in January 401. Theodoret, H. E., v. 32, places his application for a church before, not after, his rebellion.
382. 1 In S. Thrace.
383. 2 On the Propontis.
384. 1 Eusebius is guilty of the very offence he had so violently condemned.
385. 2 Lit. "deserter"; not daring to face the inquiry.
386. 1 The noun of the verb used above (p. 116), our "type," meaning (1) "a blow," (2) "the impress on a coin," (3) in late Greek, "a decree" (e.g. Conc. Nic. Can. xix.). The second may be the meaning here (so Stephens); but the adjective (lit. "sent from God ") does not seem to suit this sense so well. The point to be settled was, the appointment of a successor to Antoninus.
387. 2 A promontory on the south shore of the Sea of Marmora, which is so called from the marble quarries on Proconnesus.
388. 1 Of Crateia (p. 80), not of Heracleia (pp. 23, 65).
389. 2 Of Chalcedon (pp. 23, 77); at this time a friend of Chrysostom, afterwards a bitter enemy.
390. 3 Hence the author's knowledge of the details of the journey.
391. 4 As there was much rivalry for the vacant office, Chrysostom settled the dispute by appointing Heracleides, a Cypriote, one of his deacons, once a monk of Scetis. Hoping to strengthen his case against Chrysostom, Theophilus at The Oak had a charge brought against the new bishop of violence to certain persons, and of "Origenism." As he was not present to answer, a dispute, ending in blows, arose between the bishops of Constantinople and those of Egypt, and Theophilus, finding his plans a failure, "immediately departed for Egypt." Heracleides, however, was subsequently deposed (p. 130).
392. 5 Prov. i. 20.
393. 6 Ps. iv. 2.
394. 1 All citizens possessing twenty-five acres of land were liable to serve on the city council; Constantine exempted the clergy from this duty. "Our pleasure is, that all the clergy be exempted from all public offices whatsoever" (Eus., Vit. Const., x. 7). But as it was found that laymen took inferior offices in the Church to avoid their civil duties, the privilege was afterwards confined to bishops, and to such priests and deacons as were ordained with the consent of the civil court, and otherwise restricted; but still "the Church knows nothing of extraordinary duty or sordid functions." (Theod. Cod. xi. 7). Basil (Ep., 279) asks that the clergy may be exempted from taxes, "according to the ancient law "; Gregory Nazianzen (Ep., 159) complains of a deacon compelled to pay taxes.
395. 2 "Thysiasterion," properly "the altar," the usual word in the Old Testament; here extended to mean "the place of the altar." So four times in the Epp. of Ignatius (about no) and frequently in later writers.
396. 3 "Patriarch" is in LXX (1 Chron. xxvii. 22, etc.) the title of a division of a tribe in Israel (Authorised Version, "Princes"). After the fall of Jerusalem, Jewish "patriarchs" were set up at Tiberias and Babylon. The office is referred to by Church writers as of great dignity, but ceased at the end of the fourth century. The reference here is uncertain. "The Patriarch of Egypt" is Theophilus.
397. 1 Micah iii. 11.
398. 2 "Defensor rerum publicarum." Every large corporation would have such an official, and the Church naturally appointed hers. They were either clergy or laymen, their duties being to maintain the legal rights of the Church, or of individual clergy, against encroachment and oppression, and to expel unlicensed clergy from the capital (Conc. Chalc. Can. xxiii.).
399. 3 We call it simony, after Simon Magus (p. 5). In the fifth century it was called "Christemporismus," "trafficking in Christ."
400. 4 Evil being merely a negation of good.
401. 1 Jer. xix. 3, "both" is in one MS. of LXX, but has probably crept in from 1 Sam. iii. 11.
402. 2 Rom. i. 21; Eph. iv. 18.
403. 3 1 Cor. xv. 8.
404. 4 Job xxx. 1, 7.
405. 5 Chrysostom (Hom. in 2 Cor. xviii) speaks of "ordination, which the initiated know; for all may not be revealed to the uninitiated." So (Hom. in 1 Cor. xl.) he will not speak of baptism, because of the presence of uninitiated persons.
406. 6 John xv. 14 (p. 92).
407. 7 He was going to say "of Heracleides." "I am like-named (homonymus) but not same-named (synonymus) with the Apostle" (Hom. in Acts lii.). The Apostle John was regarded as the first Bishop of Ephesus.
408. 1 Matt. xxiv. 15.
409. 2 The first canon of Nicaïa forbids ordination to an eunuch; it was earlier urged that Origen's ordination was void, owing to his self-mutilation in his youthful enthusiasm to be above reproach as a teacher of both sexes. Page 174 suggests that he bore the name Eunuchus, and that the language here used is an expensive play upon words. Victor perhaps nominated him, as Eutropius nominated Chrysostom.
410. 3 Cf. Pall., L. H., xxi. 3.
411. 4 A word of Palladius' own coinage, lit. "condemned to be put in irons."
412. 5 The Greek god of the vine.
413. 6 "Illumination."
414. 7 i.e. his body.
415. 8 Rom. x. 14.
416. 1 Eph. v. ii.
417. 2 Jer. v. 28, LXX.
418. 3 The earliest account of the ordination of a bishop (Const. Apost., viii. 4, 5) directs that the presiding bishop is to question the priests and laity as to the worthiness of the candidate thrice; then, "silence having been made, one of the first bishops, standing with two others near the altar, the rest silently praying, and the deacons holding the gospels open on the head of him who is being ordained, shall address God." A ninth-century MS. directs that "After the Kyrie Eleison, the archbishop lays the gospel upon his head and neck, while other bishops stand by and touch it, and laying his hand upon him, prays thus..."
419. 1 Here the word is not "stretching forth of hands," as usual in this treatise, but "catastasis" (p. 42, 11.).
420. 2 Matt. xii. 36, freely quoted.
421. 3 Matt. xviii. 6.
422. 4 Socrates and Sozomen say no more of this man than that Flavianus, his predecessor, had dissented from the deposition of Chrysostom, while he approved of it. A schism arose in the Church of Syria between the supporters and the opponents of Chrysostom, and a law was passed through Arsacius' instrumentality, that all who would not communicate with Porphyrius were to be expelled (p. 91). Hence his connection with our narrative, and the great space devoted to him in it.
423. 1 i. e. "Of short endurance" (the word in Gen. xli. 23, St. Jude 12); so used by Pall., L. H., xlvii. 11. Cf. p. 189.
424. 2 Fragment 36. Cf. p. 135. Palladius quotes three popular proverbs in his L. H.
425. 3 Prov. xxvi. 22, LXX.
426. 1 Men played the part of women upon the stage. The Hom. in Thess. v. mentions these same points; the moral tone of the stage was extremely low.
427. 2 Cf. Heb. vi. 6.
428. 3 "These words are found in the manuscript, but omitted by the editor as alien from the context" (Bigot).
429. 4 Theodoret says he left many memorials of his loving character.
430. 5 Judges iii. 15.
431. 6 As secretary of the synod.
432. 1 Prov. xii. 24, LXX.
433. 2 A public park in the suburbs of Antioch.
434. 1 The word in Acts xxviii. 16, where it means "princeps peregrinorum," in charge of the receiving depot for soldiers passing from and to the armies abroad.
435. 2 Cape Amanus, on the gulf of Issus.
436. 3 So Augustine and his forty companions came to Canterbury "bearing a silver cross for their banner, and the image of Our Lord painted on a board; and, singing the litany, they offered up prayers to the Lord" (Bede, Eccl. Hist., i. 25).
437. 4 Cf. p. 46.
438. 1 The word for "ordained" in the Church; cf. p. 59.
439. 2 Or, "the belly of the serpent (Satan) that crawls upon his chest." The Greek is irregular.
440. 1 A very ungrammatical sentence.
441. 2 Pall., L. H., lvi., tells us that she was daughter of Seleucus the ex-count, grand-daughter of Ablavius the ex-prefect, and that she gave her silk dresses to the altars (ch. lxi.). See pp. 86, 151.
442. 1 "Anthropos," "a human being "; below, p. 151, with the feminine article. Pall., L. H., ix., "Melania, the anthropos of God," uses the same most unusual expression; "aner" is generally used for a man, as opposed to a woman. "This book... contains memoirs of women, who with masculine and perfect mind have accomplished the struggles of virtuous asceticism" (Ibid. Intro.).
443. 2 Damasus, Bishop of Rome, 367-384; Sericius, 385-398. The particle "or" seems here, and elsewhere in the treatise, equivalent to "and." For Theophilus' relations with Epiphanius, see p. 63.
444. 1 1 Cor. iv. 12.
445. 2 Titus iii. 10.
446. 1 The name "Theophilus" means "lover of God." Cf. p. 149.
447. 1 John vi. 26, "and wonders" occurs in one MS.
448. 2 Luke v. 31.
449. 3 Matt. v. 45, freely quoted.
450. 4 Matt. ix. 11; Mark ii. 16. The same combination and order of words, and the addition of "reproach," are found in Pall., L. H., Intro. 11; a strong indication of common authorship.
451. 1 "Weep with me, not for yourselves, but for those who rob you, who are more unfortunate than you" (Hom. in 1 Tim. xii.). Plato (Gorg. lxv.) says that to do wrong is a greater, to suffer wrong a smaller evil.
452. 2 Acts xviii. 27, xxi. 17. See pp. 159, 165.
453. 3 The word in Acts xvii. 22, cf. p. 64. Eusebius (V. C. liii.) mentions "superstitious persons" who built an altar at the Oak of Mamre. "A false view of religion" seems to be meant; "an unsuitable term" (Savile).
454. 1 Cf. p. 37.
455. 2 Palladius (L. H., xxii.) heard one of his tales from "the holy Hierax;" so below (p. 148), "as he told us himself "----a frequent formula in the History.
456. 3 St. Antony, who about 305 retired to the Nile, later to the shore of the Red Sea, and was joined by many desiring the ascetic life. These he organized under rule, and is therefore regarded as "the father of monasticism." He died in 365, at the age of one hundred and five. The Lausiac History often refers to him with similar admiration.
457. 1 Novatianist (i.e. Puritan), Bishop of Constantinople, a man greatly commended by Sozomen for his learning, his life, his character, and his humour.
458. 2 To Chrysostom's sentence of condemnation.
459. 3 Lit. "was pickled." So Chrysostom of the Thessalonians (Hom. i. in 2 Thess.; Hom. in Rom. xxi.), and often in the Fathers, of martyrs; Pall., L. H., xxxviii.
460. 1 Socrates tells of Cyrinus, Bishop of Chalcedon, who died after repeated operations as the result of another bishop accidentally treading on his foot; of a terrible storm in Constantinople; and of the death of Eudoxia four days later. All these events were popularly attributed to the Divine wrath at Chrysostom's expulsion. "But whether this be so or not, God knoweth."
461. 2 "Hypophet," like "prophet "; used from Homer downwards of one who utters an oracle. Eusebius uses it so in Triak. x. 4.
462. 3 Ps. lxxxvii. 11, LXX.
463. 4 The same statement in regard to Ammonius is made by Palladius (L. H., xi.). The style of writing here, where the author is dealing with the same subject of monks, is noticeably like that of the History.
464. 1 "At The Oak, where the synod was held" (Socrates). The martyr was Mocius (Sozomen).
465. 2 On the shore of the Red Sea, "seven days' journey from human habitations" (Cassian).
466. 3 "How do you endure, struggling with accidie? "----to a recluse, after ten years spent in a tomb (Pall., L. H., v.; cf. xxi. 1, etc.). See Paget, The Spirit of Discipline. The patristic writings make continual reference to such "spiritual weariness," the natural temptation of men living a life of contemplation, with no human interests to occupy their thoughts, and under the physical strain of asceticism. "My soul melteth away for very heaviness" (Ps. cxix. 28)----in LXX, "for accidie."
467. 1 Luke ix. 62. Pall., L. H., xxxv. 9, quotes the passage in a similar context.
468. 2 Cf. Pall., L. H., xvii.
469. 3 Luke xxii. 31.
470. 4 Also spelt Chronius; cf. Pall., L. H., xxi., etc.
471. 5 Cf. p. 142.
472. 6 The dialogue is represented as spread over several days.
473. 1 So Pall., L. H., liv. 1.
474. 2 Ibid., x. 8.
475. 3 1 Tim. v. 14. Chrysostom off ers a warning against second marriages, though he does not condemn them (de Virg. xxxvii.).
476. 4 1 Tim. i. 9.
477. 1 "Anthropos," cf. p. 140.
478. 2 Cf. Pall., L. H., lxi., where Melania says to her husband, "If God had wished us to have children, He would not have taken away my children untimely."
479. 3 A.D. 388. Maximus was a rebel, who actually secured rule over Britain, Gaul, and Spain.
480. 1 Rom. xvi. i .
481. 2 Phil. ii. i.
482. 3 "Seeing her bestowing her substance on all who asked for it, John said to her, "I commend your purpose; but he who aims at the height of godly virtue must be a careful steward, while you, adding wealth to those who are wealthy, simply cast your goods into the sea. Of your own free will you have dedicated your substance to the needy, and as you have been appointed to manage your money, you will have to render your accounts. Therefore regulate your giving by the need of those who ask it." Soz. viii. 9; cf. p. 140.
483. 1 1 Cor. ix. 18; but in different words.
484. 2 " I am ashamed when I partake of irrational food." Pall.,L. H.,i. 3.
485. 3 Ecclus. xxi. 15.
486. 1 1 Tim. v. 18. "Food" for "reward."
487. 2 1 Cor. ix. 7.
488. 3 1 Cor. ix. 12.
489. 4 1 Cor. ix. 23.
490. 5 1 Cor. viii. 9.
491. 1 2 Cor. v. 15.
492. 2 Ps. xxiv. 12.
493. 3 Ps. xxiv. 8.
494. 4 Job xxxi. 1.
495. 5 So Bigot, explaining by reference to Matt. v. 29. He suggests an emendation----" that those who rebel should be guided into temperance."
496. 6 Ps. cxix. 106.
497. 7 Cf. Pall., L. H., xxxii. 7.
498. 1 1 Cor. xv. 33.
499. 2 Jer. ix. 1, 2.
500. 3 Gal. iii. 15"; cf. Jer. v. 11, LXX.
501. 4 Jer. xv. 17.
502. 5 Ps. xxv. 4-6.
503. 1 Ezek. viii. 7-17.
504. 2 Gal. ii. 6.
505. 3 2 Peter ii. 3.
506. 4 Phil. iii. 19.
507. 5 Jude 12, 13.
508. 1 Ezek. ix. 1-6.
509. 2 Ezek. i. 1-3.
510. 1 Acts xviii. 27.
511. 2 A Jewish boy at the age of thirteen became "a son of the law." "Spiritual persons are the sons of the font" (Basil of Seleucia, Or. xxvii.).
512. 3 1 Cor. x. 11.
513. 4 Ezek. xxxiii. 2-6.
514. 1 " More clearly than a trumpet do I lift my voice" (Or. lxiv. de Jej.).
515. 2 1 Cor. xiv. 8.
516. 3 Rom. i. 8.
517. 4 Prov. xx. 9.
518. 5 The quotations next given by the deacon make this rendering of the passive participle preferable to "the established order of things." Cf. p. 33.
519. 6 Cf. Acts ii. 37.
520. 7 Prov. xxv.6.
521. 8 Col. iv. 5.
522. 1A slip.
523. 2 "The opportunity is not yours; ye are strangers and pilgrims. Seek not honours and powers, but endure all things, and so buy up the opportunity, as a man in a big house, attacked by robbers, surrenders all, in order to buy himself from them," is Chrysostom's comment on the passage.
524. 1 John i. 36.
525. 1 In answer to the charge brought against Chrysostom of speaking of Eudoxia as "Jezebel" and "Herodias' daughter." "Let no one be vexed with me; I shall not speak personally" (Hom. in Eph. iii.).
526. 2 1 Cor. x. 25.
527. 3 Like Moses, Elias, and the others.
528. 4 Though he speaks of Phoenicians, etc., by name, he is not attacking their personal faults, but using them as examples of faults common to all men.
529. 5 Job xl. 25, LXX (xli. 6, R.V.). "Shall they part him" ----behemoth, the hippopotamus----" among the merchants? "----in Hebrew "among the Canaanites," whose name, as famous merchants, is used for "merchants" generally. Palladius is right in regarding "Phoenicians" as a general term for "merchants," but his exegesis of behemoth is unsound.
530. 6 Deut. iv. 20.
531. 1 Titus i. 12.
532. 2 Gal. iii. 1.
533. 3 1 Cor. v. 2.
534. 4 Rom. i. 8.
535. 5 Eph. i. 18, but the word here is "mystics," "initiated ones."
536. 6 1 Thess. v. 11
537. 7 "You will say, Do not lay such a burden upon your hearers; you make us blush. But 1 cannot tolerate such objections. If I was asking for myself, there would be some ground for shame; but I ask it for your good, and therefore I am bold of speech" (Hom. in 1 Cor. xl. 3).
538. 8 1 Tim. v. 20.
539. 1 Rom. i. 30; 2 Tim. iii. 2, R.V.
540. 2 1 Tim. iii. 6, vi. 4.
541. 3 Cf. p. 93, n.
542. 1Matt. v. 1.
543. 2 Matt. viii. 18.
544. 3 Rom. i. 30; 1 Tim. i. 13.
545. 4 Matt. viii. 19.
546. 5 "He never lied, nor swore, nor abused any one, nor spoke without necessity." Pall., L. H., ix.
547. 1 John vii. 12.
548. 2 Luke xi. 15
549. 3 Luke vii. 34.
550. 4 John viii. 48.
551. 5 Matt. xvi. 13.
552. 6 John i. 12
553. 7 So the Fathers generally, and Chrysostom in loc, "That is, on the faith of his confession."
554. 1 Acts xvii. 6. It was the Jews of Thessalonica who said so.
555. 2 He was doubtless so honoured at the time the Dialogue was written. "Bishop Proclus won back to the Church those who were in separation because of the deposition of John, prudently comforting their distress. He brought back to Constantinople the body of John, which had been buried at Comana, and laid it with much public ceremony in the Church of the Apostles, on January 27, 438. And I marvel, that ill-will touched Origen after his death, and spared John. Origen, two hundred years after his decease, was excommunicated by Theophilus, John, thirty years after it, was received into communion by Proclus" (Socr. vii. 45). The Emperor Theodosius II laid his face on the reliquary, and implored forgiveness for the wrongs done to Chrysostom by his father and mother. His remains were placed in the Church of the Apostles at Constantinople, but later removed to Rome, and now lie in "St. Chrysostom's Chapel" in St. Peter's Cathedral. January 27 is still his feast-day in the Roman Church; in the Greek Church Basil the Great and Gregory the Divine are commemorated with him on January 30.
556. 3 i. e. use language corresponding to.
557. 1Isa. xl. 15.
558. 2 At The Oak Chrysostom was accused of using insulting language to clergy.
559. 3 Luke iii. 7.
560. 4 Acts xxiii. 3.
561. 5 Matt. xii. 39.
562. 1 Luke xxiv. 25. "All the apostles" is an error.
563. 2 Matt. xvi. 23.
564. 3 Rather than reputation.
565. 4 1 Cor. ii. 15.
566. 5 2 Tim. ii. 23. Ignorant of Christian instruction or discipline (Eph. vi. 4; 2 Tim. iii. 16).
567. 6 Heb. xi. 24.
568. 7 A word frequently used to express pomp of any sort.
569. 1Heb. xi. 38.
570. 2 Or, by a slight correction, "though one may."
571. 3 Eccles. xiii. 15.
572. 4 2 Cor. vi. 14.
573. 5 1 Cor. ix. 20, 21.
574. 1 Lit. "walking with "; but not a New Testament word.
575. 2 " Skilful physicians should have had all manner of diseases in their own persons." Plato, Republic, p. 408.
576. 3 See p. 178.
577. 1 Pall., L. H., Intro. "This book is written with a view to stirring to rivalry those who wish to realize the heavenly mode of life, and desire to tread the road which leads to the Kingdom of Heaven."
578. 2 " The bishop cannot sin unobserved. Let him be angry, let him laugh, let him dream of a moment's recreation, and many are offended, scoff, call to mind previous bishops, and abuse the present one. Yet if he enter the palace, who is first? If he go to visit ladies, or the houses of the great, none is preferred before him. I speak not wishing to put bishops to shame, but to repress your hankering after the office." Hom. in Acts iii.
579. 1 The Greek may equally well be rendered "Eunuchus of Ephesus." Migne prints the word with a capital, as a proper name. See p. 131, n.
580. 2 Heb. xiii. 3, freely quoted.
581. 3 Ps. cxvi. 15.
582. 4 P. 24.
583. 5 On the east bank of the Orontes.
584. 6 In the oasis of the Syrian desert, south of Damascus.
585. 7 A turbulent tribe inhabiting the Upper Nile. They invaded the Thebaid about a.D. 450, and were driven into the district between the Nile and the Red Sea, where they are still represented by live tribes, speaking a language of their own.
586. 1 Assuan. Pall., L.H., Intro.,"I lived with them in Libya and the Thebaid and Syene."
587. 2 i.e. Egypt. He had fled from Heracleia, and taken refuge among the Goths.
588. 3 Chrysostom considered his presence in Constantinople of such importance that he wrote to tell him not even to visit his own diocese without his written permission.
589. 4 In Thrace.
590. 5 Pall., L. H., lxxi, speaks of "the brother who has been with me from my youth unto this day "; but he is clearly referring to himself. Nothing more is known of Brisson, except that Chrysostom writes two letters to him from Cucusus.
591. 6 Cf. Pall., L. H., xxx.
592. 1He was stripped of his clothes, scourged, tied hand and foot upon the rack, and his limbs disjointed (Sozomen).
593. 2 Basil (Reg. Fus., xv) urges that education is to be part of the work of monks. The Church had to provide her own education, as an antidote to the material and anti-Christian instruction of the pagan schools and teachers of rhetoric, such as those by whom Chrysostom was taught "letters." The training was to be given free, especially to orphans, and to be such as would prepare the young for the monastic or the ministerial life. Hence no mention of ancient Greek literature is made in his curriculum. We do not know where Philip's "school" was, but there would naturally be one at Constantinople, if only for the training of clergy.
594. 3 So D.C.B. Lit "The presbyter, he of the palace." Migne prints the word with a capital----" the son of Palatius." He may have been a kind of Court chaplain, or the words may refer to his early life. Sozomen mentions a Helladius, Bishop of Caesarea, whose son had "obtained a splendid commission at the Court." If he bore his father's name, this may be the man. Chrysostom, Ep. xiv, asks Olympias to send some important letters by him.
595. 1 There is no previous mention of this messenger; but evidently many letters were sent. Sozomen tells of a famous monk Stephanus, a Libyan, who was living in Mareotis some thirty years before these events.
596. 2 Lit. "schools"; a late term given to the royal bodyguard.
597. 3 Sozomen (viii. 21) gives an account of this attempt.
598. 4 The order of singers seems to have arisen early in the fourth century, owing to the decay of congregational singing. The Council of Laodicea forbids others to sing in the church than the canonical singers, "who go up onto the ambo, and sing out of a book"; though this rule seems soon to have fallen into disuse. They were appointed by the priest, not by the bishop, with the words, "See that thou believest in thy heart what thou singest with thy mouth, and that what thou believest in thy heart, thou prove by thy works." Sozomen tells how Sisinnius (p. 146) was led by a dream to search for the one good man in the city, named Eutropius, and found a reader of that name, who was tortured on the charge of setting fire to the church; probably this man.
599. 1 Palladius now takes up again the story of the Eastern bishops who joined the deputation from Rome (p. 31), whom we last saw at Lampsacus. Hence the detailed account here. The introduction of this "deacon," and the "fellow-soldier" below; is quite in accordance with Palladius' methods in L. H.
600. 2 No doubt Palladius himself.
601. 1 Cf. p. 96.
602. 2 1 Cor. iv. 9; 2 Cor. ii. 15.
603. 3 Chrysostom, unaware of this, writes to him (Ep. lxxxvii.) commending his devotion.
604. 1 3 John 1-4; Philem. 7.
605. 2 3 John 9-11.
606. 3 2 Thess. ii. 3.
607. 1 1 John ii. 18.
608. 2 Matt. xx. 6.
609. 3 So Pall., L.H., liv. 6, "Little children, it was written four hundred years ago, it is the last hour. Why do you love to linger in life's vanities? "
610. 4 Luke xxii. 31.
611. 5 Phil. iii. 19.
612. 6 Hos. iv. 12, LXX.
613. 7 1 Cor. vi. 10.
614. 1 1 John ii. 9.
615. 2 Prov. xv. 1.
616. 3 Ps. cxix. 28.
617. 4 Ecclus. ii. 14.
618. 5 Ps. lii. 6, LXX.
619. 6 Jas. iv. 16; 1 John ii. 16.
620. 7 Ps. cxix. 51.
621. 8 In Aristotle (Eth. Nic. iv., 1) one extreme, profligacy being the other, of the series in which liberality is the mean term.
622. 9 Phthonos, probably in error for Phonos, murder.
623. 10 Lit. "want of fear."
624. 1 Jas. iv. 6.
625. 2 Ps. lxxiii. 3, LXX.
626. 3 Ps. xciii. 2.
627. 4 Matt. vii. 16.
628. 5 Job xxi. 4-14.
629. 1 Ps. c. 1.
630. 2 Ps. lxxii. 1.
631. 3 Ps. cxliv. 14 ff. The exegesis of the LXX rendering is correct; these are the words of the "strange children, whose sons are... their daughters are..."etc. R.V. represents the Hebrew by restoring "our" for "their," and translates "who" by "when," with a semicolon only before "Blessed." ----" When our sons shall be... when... no outcry in our streets; Blessed is the people...." Delitzsch considers that some verses have been introduced into the text which do not properly belong to this Psalm.
632. 1 Hab. i. 2-4.
633. 2 Jer. xii. i, 2.
634. 3 "Sophonias" is the LXX name of Zephaniah (2 Esdr. i. 40). The quotation is really from Mal. iii. 13-16. "Sophos" is the Greek for "wise."
635. 4 Chrysostom tells of those who denied that Providence extended to all things beneath the moon (Hom. in Acts xxviii.). "Does a charitable person meet with disaster? A labourer who receives his food gets less wages at the end; so does the charitable man who receives blessings in this world" (In 1 Cor. xliii.). "If you see an evil man prosper, know that he once did some good, and receives his reward here, and loses his claim on that which is to come" (Or. lxv.).
636. 5 2 Tim. iii. 13.
637. 1 1 Cor. iv. 9 ff.
638. 2 Ecclus. xv. 18.
639. 3 It seems as if "or" had here dropped out of the text, or as if "not" had crept in before "established." If we had been created impeccable, we should have needed no trials, because already established in righteousness. This would have made us machines, with no moral virtue. The alternative to this was, for our minds not to be established; then we need trials.
640. 4 "To-day is the time of wrestling; thou art come to learn how to strive manfully, to take part in every contest. No man coming to the training school lives in luxury; nor in the time of conflict does he seek for tables" (Hom. in Mart., ii. 799). "Perhaps my flesh deserves chastisement, and it is fitting that it should pay the penalty now, rather than when I have quitted the arena" (Pall., L. H., xxiv.).
641. 1 Bigot's conj. for "places "; which, however, might refer to "position in the Church," as Acts i. 25, 1 Cor. xiv. 16.
642. 2 Or possibly, "have as my heir "; the text is uncertain. But the contrast is between the sweetness of the betrothed and the bliss of the married life. Cf. Wisd. viii. 2.
643. 1 Eph. iv. 30.
644. 2 Bigot conj. "grace."
645. 3 "A man of great wealth, he wrote no will when he came to die, and left no money to his sisters, but commended them to Christ."----Pall., L. H., i.
646. 4 Ps. cxx. 5.
647. 5 Matt. xxv. 21,
648. 1 Matt. xii. 34.
649. 2 Lit. "denarius," Matt. xx. 2.
650. 3 In contrast with God's eternity. Cf. p. 134.
651. 1 Cf. p. 96.
652. 2 2 Tim. i. 18.
653. 3 Sozomen says only that Innocent in his letter to the clergy of Constantinople urged the need of an inquiry by an ecumenical synod, and that after Chrysostom's exile he sent five bishops and two priests of the Church of Rome, with the deputation of eastern bishops, to Honorius and Arcadius, to ask for a synod, and for place and time to be fixed. There seems to be no record of any decision of a western synod. But it is very possible that the "Home Synod" (p. 117, n.) might pass such a resolution without records having survived. The passage is considered by some to be against the authorship of Palladius, as Theophilus died in 412. But how could the deacon be represented as knowing of it, directly after Chrysostom's death (p. 33)?
654. 1 1 Tim. vi. 18, "ready to communicate."
655. 2 Matt. v. 23.
656. 3 Matt. v. 39.
657. 4 Ps. exxxii. 1.
658. 5 Prov. xvii. 17, LXX.
659. 6 Prov. xviii. 19, LXX.
660. 7 For this use of "unmixed," cf; Euseb., V. C, iii. 23, Soz. viii. 3.
661. 1 Amos i. ii, LXX.
662. 2 Mal. ii. 10.
663. 1 Hos. ix. 8.
664. 2 The text has "according to "; which is clearly wrong.
665. 1 We have no MS. support for this punctuation; which can hardly be due to a slip of the memory.
666. 1 Deut. xxxiii. 13-17, 8-11.
667. 2 Matt. xiii. 52.
668. 3 A reminiscence of Lev. xviii. 21, LXX.
669. 4 John xvi. 2 (freely).
670. 1 Ps. x. 6.
671. 2 "Philocathedria." Formed ("phil----" as in "Theophilus," p. 142) like "Protocathedria" ("protos," "first "), the word in St. Matt, xxiii. 6; "cathedra" being used in Church language for the "seat" or "cathedral chair" of a bishop.
672. 3 Cf. Wisd. xi. 17, xii. 9.
673. 4 i. e. by the civil authorities.
674. 1 Ps. ciii. 24.
675. 2 Ex. v. 2.
676. 1 Bigot supplies this word, which is not in the MSS.
677. 2 Matt. vi. 19. "Do you boast of your silken robes? They are the spinnings of worms, the inventions of barbarians."----Chr., Or., lxxi.
678. 3 A medical term.
679. 1 Heb. x. 28-31.
I am greatly indebted to Mr. P. R. Norton, Rhodes Scholar, of Christ Church, Oxford, for revising my proof-sheets.
This text was transcribed by Roger Pearse, 2006. All material on this page is in the public domain - copy freely.
Greek text is rendered using unicode.
Early Church Fathers - Additional Texts
SOURCE SECTION: rabbula_some_early_rules.htm
Rabbula, Admonitions to Monks. from R.H.Connolly, Some early rules for Syrian monks, Downside Review 25 (NS 6) (1907) pp.152-162.
Rabbula, Admonitions to Monks. from R.H.Connolly, Some early rules for Syrian monks, Downside Review 25 (NS 6) (1907) pp.152-162.
SOME EARLY RULES FOR SYRIAN MONKS.
The ancient city of Urhai, or Edessa, which in Roman times was capital of the Province of Osrhoene in northern Mesopotamia, had for its Bishop during the years 411-435 A.D. a remarkable man, by name Rabbula. Rabbula was the friend of St. Cyril of Alexandria, and, like him, a stout opponent of Nestorius. But he was a man of action rather than a theologian, an organizer and reformer rather than a great teacher; and during his episcopate he set himself sternly to the correction of abuses. He focussed his attention especially upon the clergy of all ranks, and upon the monks, and made them the subject of careful legislation. For each of these classes he drew up a set of "Admonitions," or reformatory canons, aimed at the characteristic abuses of the times. Nor did he confine his reforms to matters of personal conduct: there are good reasons for believing that it was he who finally banished from the Syriac-speaking Church the harmony of the Gospels made by Tatian, and known as the Diatessaron, which for more than two centuries was in constant use amongst the Syrians, and replaced it by a new translation of the four Gospels from the Greek----the same which, from the beginning of the fifth century to the present day, has been universally received by Syrian Christians.
It is not, however, the interesting personality of Rabbula that we are directly concerned with here, but the Syrian monks of whom he affords us a passing glimpse in the "Admonitions to Monks" which he drew |153 up for their better guidance and control. As these rules have not, to my knowledge, been translated into English before, and as they represent one of the earliest extant documents dealing with Mesopotamian Monks, it may interest some readers of the Downside Review to know what is in them.
The coming of the monks to Mesopotamia is an obscure chapter in the history of monasticism. It has been supposed that they were introduced from Egypt, early in the fourth century, by a certain Mar Awgin, or Eugenius. An extant Life of Mar Awgin states that he founded the first monastery in Mesopotamia about the year 325, not very far from the famous city of Nisibis. But it is probable that this statement is less than half true. It is not, indeed, unlikely that the first monks came either from Egypt or from Western Syria,1 but there are reasons for questioning the date assigned. The Life is a comparatively late one, and cannot be trusted very far in matters of detail, since there is traceable in it, as in some kindred documents, a definite "tendency" or purpose. This is to establish the greater antiquity of the Nestorian over the Monophysite monks. The Nestorians claimed direct descent from the monks of what was held to be the most ancient Mesopotamian monastery.2
The earliest Syriac Father, Aphraates, who wrote between the years 337 and 345, makes no mention of dayraye, or cenobite monks, at all; he has, however, a good deal to say about another class of ascetics, who appear to have been of very ancient origin in Mesopotamia and to have grown up quite independently of foreign influences. The members of this body were |154 known as the Sons and Daughters of the Covenant. They were not cenobites. They did not live in a dayra or monastic enclosure, but, subject to certain restrictions, in their own homes and with their own relations. An important part of their work was to go about in the cities and villages visiting the sick and caring for the poor and destitute. Finally, they appear an a distinct and independent body long after the introduction of monasticism proper. They seem always to have been closely associated with the clergy; and so we find that Rabbula, in his "Commands and Admonitions to Priests and Sons of the Covenant," 3 classes them with the clergy and not with the monks. It would appear, then, that there was no historical connection between them and the monks: monasticism in Mesopotamia, was not a development of this earlier form of asceticism----though the two institutions had much in common----but was introduced from without. The date of its introduction is uncertain, but it is probable that it reached the northern districts----those lying within the Roman Empire considerably earlier than the southern, or those which belonged to the Persian King. And so when Aphraates wrote, about the middle of the fourth century, the monks may very well have established themselves in Edessa and other northern cities, although he had not encountered them in the South. 4
With these remarks by way of clearing the ground we come to Rabbula's "Admonitions to Monks." It |155 will be best to set forth first, the text of the document in full. We can then, by comparing very briefly what is known of Egyptian and later Syriac monks, attempt to read between the lines, and trace some of the general characteristics of early Mesopotamian monasticism. Points of minor interest it will be best to confine to foot-notes.
Admonitions concerning Monks, by Mar Rabbula, Bishop of Urhai 5
1. Before all things let the monks see to it that on no account women enter their monasteries.
2. Let not the brethren of the monastery enter the villages, except the Visitor 6 of the monastery only, [and let him] observe the rules of decorum.
3. The Visitor who enters a village or a city shall not go about from house to house; and he shall not lodge with lay folk, but at the church, or at a monastery, if there be one at hand.
4. Let not the monks be drinking wine, lest they fall to blaspheming; rather let them avoid buying [wine] to drink.7
5. Let not the monks grow their hair long; and let them not wear or hang iron [upon their persons],8 except only those who are recluses, and do not go abroad anywhere. |156
6. Visitors who go abroad on the business of the monastery shall not wear garments of hair: nor any of the monks, [when] outside the monastery, lest they bring their venerable [monastic] habit into contempt.
7. Let none of the monks perform the anointing (i.e. of the sick), especially for women. If, however, there is one who is held in general esteem,9 let him give the anointing to men. And if there are any women who are suffering, let it (i.e. the oil) be sent to them through their relations.
8. Let not the commemorations [of the martyrs] be celebrated with large gatherings of people, but by the monks of the monastery only.
9. Let not the monks have possessions of sheep and goats, or of horses and mules or of other cattle,----unless it be an ass, for those who require one, or a single yoke of oxen, for those who sow [the fields].
10. Books, other than [those dealing with] the Faith of the Church shall not be kept in the monasteries.
11. Let there be no traffic of buying and selling in the monasteries; save only what is sufficient for their need, without avarice.
12. Let no one of the brethren who are in the monasteries acquire anything as his private property, apart from what is common to the brotherhood and under the control of the superior.
13. Let not the superiors of the monasteries allow the brethren to have interviews with their relations, or |157 to go out and pay them visits, lest they become demoralised.
14. Let not the brethren, on the plea of sickness, leave their monasteries and wander about in the cities or villages; but let them bear their sufferings inside their monasteries for the love of God.
15. Let not the monks leave their own locality and, under an assumed personality, obtain judgments by bribery. And let them not go into the cities or to the judges.10
16. The monks shall not, on the plea of [other] occupation or work, neglect the seasons fixed for [divine] service by day and night,
17. Let them receive strangers lovingly: and let them not shut the door in the face of any of the brethren.
18. No one of the brethren shall dwell as a solitary except such an one that has given proof of his manners for a considerable time.
19. Let no monk take an oracle out of a book for any one.11 |158
20. Let not any brother who is not a priest or a deacon dare to give the Sacrament (lit.,the Holy Thing).
21. Those who have been made priests and deacons in the monasteries, and have been entrusted with churches in the villages, shall appoint as superiors in the monasteries those who have shewn proof [of their capacity] and are able to rule the brotherhood; and they themselves shall remain in charge of their churches.12
22. Let not any bones of the martyrs be found in the monasteries; but whosoever has any such, let him bring them before us, and if they are genuine they may be venerated in the chapel of the Martyrs;13 otherwise let them be buried.
23. Those of the monks who wish to make for themselves urns for the dead must bury them in the ground so that they cannot in any wise be seen.
24. If a brother, or a superior of one of the monasteries, departs this world, let only the brethren of the same monastery bury him, and that quietly. If they are not enough, let them invite with them the brethren of a neighbouring monastery; but let them not assemble to the funeral lay people from the villages.14
25. If any one is buying corn for the use of the |159 monastery, let him not receive anything over and above; but according to the current charge of the threshing-floor, so shall he buy, and not be acting avariciously in the name of the monastery.
26. Let no one receive a brother who moves about from one monastery to another, without the permission of the superior with whom he was [before].
End of the Admonitions to Monks.
This short, and purely occasional set of rules, terse and to the point, doubtless reflects the mind of the lawgiver; but the rules do not at first sight offer much material for a characterisation of Syrian Monasticism at the beginning of the fifth century. Still they contain one or two notices which may supply us with a basis of comparison with other, better known, embodiments of the monastic ideal. The forms with which it is natural to set out in instituting a comparison are the Antonian and Pachomian Egyptian types.
As Dom Butler has pointed out in his Lausiac History (i. pp. 233 ff.), the Antonian type was not purely cenobitic. Many of the monks, doubtless after a due course of probation, retired to separate cells, out of earshot of one another, and lived a semi-eremitic life. They had, besides, no fixed rule of life, but, in the matter of spiritual exercises, every man did that which was good in his own eyes. The Pachomian monks, on the other hand, were real cenobites, and lived a life of carefully organised discipline. The institute assumed almost from the beginning "the shape of a fully organised congregation or order, with a superior-general and a system of visitation and general chapters." 15 |160
No. 18 of our "Admonitions" clearly contemplates a system which, on broad lines, more closely resembles that of the Antonian monks. For the Syrian monk life in a monastery is not the goal of his aspirations, but only a stepping stone to the more austere life of a recluse. Those who have shewn themselves capable of the hermit's life are to be allowed to embrace it. Again, No. 11, forbidding all sorts of buying and selling in the monastery except what was required for the bare support of the monks, seems to point to a state of things quite different from that which prevailed in the Pachomian monasteries, where every monk was taught to ply some special craft.
The Syrian monks of Rabbula's time further resembled the Antonian monks in that they appear to have had no formal or written rule of life. A century and a half later a modification of the Pachomian rule was introduced among the Nestorian monks of Mesopotamia.16 But even so they continued the semi-eremitic life. In the great monastery of Beth Abhe, founded about the end of the sixth century, the monks retired, after a noviciate of three years spent in the monastery, to separate cells at some distance from the monastic church. A point on which the Syrian monks differed from all their Egyptian brethren was the greater length and frequency of their offices.17 Rabbula in No. 16 implies that there was a considerable number of night and day offices. Among the Egyptians there were only two, evensong and nocturns.
The abuses which Rabbula had to deal with were evidently the outcome of a large amount of individual |161 liberty enjoyed by the monks, and especially by the solitaries; and he strove to cope with the situation by limiting the number of these recluses. Those, again, who were allowed to undertake the solitary life were to confine their more eccentric practices of austerity to the privacy of their cells. Rabbula would not have the gaunt ascetic with matted hair, loaded with chains, and sackcloth about his loins, to become a familiar figure in the streets of the great cities: the role of a Christian fakir was one that lent itself too readily as a mask for trickery and fraud. Isaac of Antioch tells us how, half a century later, these possibilities came to be realised in fact. Writing on the capture of Beth Hor by the Arabs, which took place in 457 A.D., and detailing the crimes of the inhabitants which drew that visitation upon them, he turns with bitter sarcasm to the impostures practised upon the simple under cover of the monastic habit.
"And now," he says, "let us come to the modest conversation of the Nazirs (i.e. ascetics), who are had in honour for their flowing locks, and revered for their monastic garb. And observe how far the genuine members of that class are out-numbered by ruffians and impostors----runaway slaves who have swindled their masters, and sons who have thrown off the obedience due to their fathers. And they cultivate their hair,----contrary to the Gospel rule----and think with their shaggy locks to cover the infamy of their lives. They stroll about the cities collecting alms, and for the, sake of gain put up with insults at the doors of the rich. Ridiculed by citizens and taunted by slaves, they nevertheless put on a bold face and brazen it out in order to till their pockets. And to carry on their ungodly trade they have recourse to every imaginable deceit.... One gives himself out for a beneficent person engaged in the redemption of ill-used slaves; |162 another declares that the brethren of his monastery have been carried off captives. And [these stories] they affirm on oath, the better to deceive the simple..... They are supposed to model themselves upon Elijah and John [the Baptist] and Samuel; but while they copy their dress, they are far from imitating their works. They make not the smallest, advance towards the austerity or John, while the righteousness of Samuel they never even saw in a dream." 18
It would be a mistake to suppose that Isaac bore any ill-will towards the monks; like Rabbula he was a monk himself, and only resented the shame brought upon his venerable calling by charlatans who made it a cloak for deception and avarice. There were giants in those days also among the Syrian monks, even greater than were to be found in Egypt ----but this is only a peep, and it must not be prolonged. The age was one of extremes, of utter self-annihilation on the one hand, and of the wildest licence on the other; and in Mesopotamia of all countries on the earth----for centuries the battlefield of hostile empires, and the hunting ground of wild marauders----we must not took for the types of Christian life which are accustomed to grow amid the blessings of order, prosperity and peace. Monasticism in our days is, we may hope, a highly respectable institution; but we hardly look to find monks living upon pillars, or weighed down with iron chains. The times have changed: now we look outside of Christianity for "all that sort of thing," and are not always edified, when we find it. Yet that was the way of our fathers; and who shall say that the old was not good?
R. CONNOLLY.
[Footnotes moved to the end]
1. 1 i.e., the Greek-speaking Roman province of which Antioch was the capital.
2. 2 The reader may consult on this point M, Labourt, Le Christianisme dans l'Empire Perse, Ch. xi.
3. 3 Most of these have been translated by Prof. Burkitt in Early Eastern Christianity.
4. 4 It is interesting to learn that monasteries for women had already been established in Mesopotamia at the beginning of the fifth century. In the fifteenth of his "Commands and Admonitions to Priests, etc." Rabbula tells the clergy to exhort lay people to contribute to the support of the monks, and adds: "and let not women [be obliged to] go abroad out of their monasteries.''
5. 5 The Syriac text is contained in Overbeck's S. Ephraemi aliorumque Opera selecta.
6. 6 The Visitor corresponded to the cellarer or procurator. The chief part of his duty was buying provisions and soliciting alms for the monastery.
7. 7 Rabbula forbade even the priests and deacons to drink wine, except in case of sickness.
8. 8 This practice seems; to have been common among the Syrian solitaries. It is mentioned by Theodoret (see Dom Butler's Lausiac History of Palladius. I. p. 241).
9. 9 lit., " If there is any that has grace (or, favour) openly." There is something to be said for the rendering: "If there is one who plainly has the grace" (i.e. the grace of healing). Isaac of Antioch, in one of his poems, written about the end of the fifth cent., makes it clear that the power of producing cures by means of anointing with oil was often claimed by quack hermits. Isaac sets down such cures to magic and the power of the devil, and denounces these who have recourse to these solitaries instead of to their own priests.
10. 10 Christians, and particularly clerics and monks, were forbidden to go into the secular courts. Special persons of tried integrity were delegated to hear causes in the diiferent localities. They were appointed by the Periodeutes----who was either a sort of suffragan Bishop or a Vicar General----and had the power to inflict a limited number of stripes. Those who had merited graver punishment were banded over to the civil authorities.
11. 11 In a shorter set of "Canons" for monks, most of which are included in these "Admonitions," this command reads thus: "Let none of the monks take an oracle out of the Holy Scriptures for any one." The allusion is to the sortes sanctorum, or dipping at random into the Bible, and regarding the first passage that met the eye as an omen or oracle. The abuse was derived from paganism. St. Augustine, Ep. 109, ad Januarium. writes: "As for those who take sortes from the Gospel pages: it is better indeed for them to do this than to have recourse to the counsel of devils.; yet this practice displeases me, whereby men would turn to the use of secular business and to the vanities of this life those divine oracles which tell of the life to come" (see Du Cange. s.v, sortes).
12. 12 The reason for this mode of electing superiors was, no doubt, that those chosen for the ministry and entrusted with the cure of souls were usually men of superior learning and judgment. Living outside the monastery, too, they would be free from the temptation to choose an easy-going superior.
13. 13 The beth sahde, or martyrium, was not a separate building, but a shrine within the church where relics of the Saints were kept. Here also ----certainly at a later date----the monks were buried (see Budge, The Book of Governors. Introd. pp. lii. ff)
14. 14 Waking at funerals was a deep-seated abuse among the Syrians. An inheritance from heathendom, it was extremely difficult to eradicate, since paganism lingered on in considerable force for another century or more in many Syrian cities.
15. 15 See the Lausiac History. I. p. 235.
16. 16 See M. Labourt. Le Christianisme dans l'Empire Perse, p. 324.
17. 17 See Dom Butler (I p 241), who quotes to this effect Cassian, Inst. II. 2, III. 1, 4, 8.
18. 18. Translated from Bedjan's ed. p.605-6.
This text was transcribed by Roger Pearse, 2005. All material on this page is in the public domain - copy freely.
Greek text is rendered using unicode.
Early Church Fathers - Additional Texts
SOURCE SECTION: salvian_gov_00_eintro.htm
Salvian, On the Government of God (1930) Preface to the online edition
Salvian, On the Government of God (1930) Preface to the online edition
Salvian of Marseilles wrote a number of works, many now lost. The following survive: De gubernatione dei (On the government of God); Ad ecclesiam (To the church, on greed); and nine letters.
The translation following of On the Government of God was published in 1930. A search of copyright records reveals that the copyright was not renewed after 28 years, and so the translation is in the public domain in the USA.
A public domain translation exists of Ad ecclesiam: "Quis diues saluus. = How a rich man may be saued. Written to the Catholike Church, by Saluianus priest, afterwards Bishop of Massilia in France, about the yeare of Christ 480. With annotations out of the Holy Fathers. Translated into English by N.T" -- translated by Joseph Creswell, printed at the English College Press at Saint-Omer in 1618. A reprint was made in 1973, ISBN 0859671429, in the series "English recusant literature, 1558-1640; vol. 170". However the text is incomplete, as the text to fill various lacunae, including a missing prologue, were only discovered in the 20th century.
No public domain translation of the letters seems to exist.
The most recent English translation, which includes all the works, was made by Jeremiah F. O'Sullivan, The writings of Salvian, the presbyter, in the Fathers of the Church series (vol. 3), and published by the Catholic University of America Press in 1947, reprint 1978 (ISBN 0813200032), and is available from Amazon.com.
Manuscripts of De gubernatione dei
When Salvian wrote, his work was disseminated by hand-written copies; and further copies made from those copies, and so on, down the years. The oldest copies available to us are three medieval copies-of-copies-of-copies.
Siglum
Location
Shelfmark & Notes
Date /
Century
A Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Français BNF lat. 13385. This manuscript comes from the abbey of St. Peter at Corbie, in North France. It is no doubt the copy which is listed in the catalogues of the 11th century. During the wars of the 17th century, it was removed with other Corbie Mss. to the new headquarters of the Benedictine order, the abbey at Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris. At the revolution their property was seized, and the manuscripts passed into the Bibliothèque Nationale. The manuscript contains 69 folios of parchment, each 245 x 225 mm in size. A much later paper leaf precedes these, indicating the author, the supposed title (De Prouidentia), the origin (Corbiensis monasterii), and the shelf mark (Sti Germani a Pratis, n. 776, olim 248). The 69 leaves are in 9 quires of 8 leaves, so 3 folios are lacking -- one at the front and two at the end. The text thus commences in the middle of the preface. There are 23 lines per page. There are two sets of corrections in the manuscript, of the same date as the script, both correcting the text against the original copy.
10th-11th century
B Brussells, Bibliothèque Royale BR 10615-729 (for De gubernatione, code 10628). The codex contains a great many other works, including poetry and works by Paulinus of Nola. It is unclear where the codex was written. L. Traube suggested the scriptorium of St.Eucher of Treves, but did not convince others. It was discovered somewhere by Nicholas of Cues (Cusanus) in the 15th century, and all the renaissance copies were made directly or indirectly from it. On Cusanus' death, his library went to a charitable foundation in his home town, Bernkastel-Kues, where it still is. However B is found some time later in the hands of the Bollandists at Anvers, from whom it passed into the library of the Dukes of Bourgogne. The French revolutionaries conquered Belgium, and B then briefly entered the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris; but it returned to Belgium in 1815, and entered the Royal library in Brussells where it still is.
The parchment leaves are 272 x 185 mm, and contain up to 70 lines. The scribe appears to have tried to cram as much writing on the pages as possible, and for this reason some works in this codex have still not been edited scientifically. The text of De gubernatione is found on ff. 22-35, and is thankfully clearly legible. Two different hands have corrected the manuscript. The incipit reads: In hoc codice continentur sancti Saluiani epi[scopi] libri numero octo dati ad sanctum Salonium episcopum. De gubernatione dei. Incipit liber primus sancto episcopo [salonio added in margin by corrector B ] Saluianus in domino episcopus salutem. Omnes admodum... etc. Then after the preface and before book 1 is a marker inviting us to look at the head of the page where it reads: De iusto dei p[rae]sentique iudicio incipiunt dialogi disputantis. (In Mss. A and C this text is at the end of the preface). 13th century?
C Troyes, Bibliothèque municipale Bib.Mun. 895. This manuscript was written at the abbey at Clairvaux: there are two ex libris (on folio v and 194v) of the 12th century (liber sante Marie Clareuallensis), and of the 14th century (liber sante Marie Clareuallis). There are also some ancient shelfmarks of the abbey: B 43 (f. v, in a hand of the end of the 14th century), E 31 (f. v, 15th century) and E 13 (f. v, f.193v, and inside of the end-board). This last reflects the catalogue of Pierre de Viery, made in 1472. The manuscript contains three independent parts, which were put together in one manuscript in the middle ages, and are of different page sizes. The first (ff. 1-81, 220 x 132 mm, 10 quaternions and fol.81 in quires of 8, 29 lines per page) contains De gubernatione. The second (ff. 82-121, 218x140mm, 27 lines per page) contains Epistula VII of Ferrandus of Carthage, Ad Reginum Comitem (PL 67, col. 928-950), followed by 6 unpublished verses attributed to the same author, and Vigilius of Thapsus, Dialogus contra Arianos (PL 62, col. 155-180), although the name of the author is not given in the manuscript. The third part (ff. 122-194, 220 x 135/140mm, 8 quaternions and 1 quinion, of which the last leaf is missing, 27 lines per page) contains Victorinus of Pettau, Commentarii in Apocalypsim (recensio Hieronymi) (this is MS. 'C' in CSEL 49), and Angelome de Luxeuil, Ennarationes in Cantica Canticorum (PL 115, col. 551-628).
The manuscript of De gubernatione was made by a careful, skilled scribe, who avoided the crass errors of many medieval scribes. Two contemporary corrector hands are visible, who use the original exemplar to make corrections. The Incipit is the same as in B, (In hoc codice...Omnes admodum) except that prefatio replaces the mistaken liber primus in B. 12th century
B became known first; A is a better manuscript; C is of the same family as B, but not descended from it. A common ancestor must have existed in late antiquity, from which two copies descended. The first of these is the ancestor of A; the other of B and C.
A number of more recent manuscripts exist, all derived from B.
Siglum
Location
Shelfmark & Notes
Date /
Century
P Milan, Ambrosian Library Bibl. Ambros. D 35 sup. / R 7883. Written on parchment. Three initial leaves; 126 folios of 223 x 148 mm. Folios 86-93 are blank. Written in long lines, 34 lines per page. Gold illuminated initials on ff. r and 96v. A very recent hand has written the contents of the codex on the folio before the text: B. Saluiani|De uero iuditio et prudentia (sic) Dei | ex ipsius gubernatione Libri octo | Item | Cassiodorus quo ordine diuini libri | in sectionibus adhibendi sint libri duo. Folio 1 contains the notice of Gennadius on Salvian, with the orthography Saluanus. The text commences on the verso. Salvian is on ff. v-85v; 93v-126 contain Cassiodorus, Institutiones, liber I: diuinarum litterarum (PL 70, col. 1105-1150). It belonged to Francesco Pizolpasso, Archbishop of Milan, who had met Cusanus at the Council of Basle in May 1432, and copied it from B. He bequeathed it to the library of the Cathedral chapter. In 1605 it was acquired by Cardinal Frederick Borromeo for the Ambrosian library. 15th
a Milan, Ambrosian Library Bibl. Ambr. P 18 sup. / R 7883. Written on paper. It contains on ff.41r-58v a portion of De gubernatione (preface, books 1-2, start of book 3). It is a very faulty copy of P, with the orthography Saluanus in the incipit. It was unfinished, as time was not taken to copy the rubrics. 15th
M Venice, Biblioteca Marciana Bibl. Marc. Mss. Latini Cl. 2 No 76 (provenienza: Zeno Apostolo 211; collocazione 2080); now Lat. II, 76. Written on paper, on 156 folios. Only contains our text. 15th
K Ferrara, Bibl. communale Ariostea Bibl. Com. Ariost. II 137. 334 folios, with De gubernatione on ff.211-290. 260 x 185 mm. 14-15th. Must be later than 1430.
F Florence, Bibliotheca Mediceo-Laurenziana Bibl. Laur. pluteus XXV, codex VII (Ms. L in Pauly's edition). Parchment. Quarto. 78 folios contain our text. 15th
W Vienna, Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek O.N. 826 Univ. 102. Parchment. 130 folios, quarto size. At the foot of fol. 1 are the arms of Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary. Many annotations and corrections in the hand of the first editor of a printed text, J. Brassicanus, who clearly borrowed it to use for his edition. 15th
U Rome, Vatican, Bibliotheca apostolica Vaticana. Vaticanus Urbin. latinus 524. Older shelfmarks 132 and (at Urbino) 94. Parchment, very attractive copy. Written at Florence, judging by the illuminations, which are like those in W. It comprises 146 folios, 217 x 140 mm. 15th
V Rome, Vatican, Bibliotheca apostolica Vaticana. Vaticanus latinus 554. Another art manuscriptm on parchment, one initial leaf, then 110 folios, 242 x 166 mm. Lots of decoration. On fol. 1 the arms of Cardinal Guillaume d'Estouteville (1439-1483). 15th
V' Rome, Vatican, Bibliotheca apostolica Vaticana. Vaticanus latinus 5034. Parchment. 243 folios. De gubernatione on ff. 1-103. Followed by the sermons of Ephrem Syrus. 15th
T Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Français Bibl. Nat. lat. 2174. Older shelfmarks: Colbert 3791; Reg. 41713.3. The first part of the codex (ff.1-112, 253 x 178 mm) contains our text, with 24 lines to the page. The bottom of f.109v and the remainder to 112v are blank. The manuscript comes from the abbey of Santa Maria Bianca de Casoreto or Caserto, near Milan, according to an ex libris at the foot of fol. 1. It belonged successively to A. de Thou, N. Colbert, and finally the royal library. There follow some folios (113-115) containing the first fragment of Ms. C of the letters of Salvian, and finally a leaf containing a paper note by the editor, G. Halm. 15th
T' Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Français Bibl. Nat. lat. 2786. Older shelfmarks: Colbert 5495; Regius 43336. Siglum t in Pauly's edition. Parchment. 95 folios. 210 x 150 mm. The first two leaves contain bibliographical notes about Salvian, written in the 17th century. Ff.3-95 contain De gubernatione. Pauly considered that the decoration etc may indicate a connection with Matthias Corvinus. Second half of the 15th century.
Lost - was Turin, Biblioteca royale Bib. roy. Athenaei 678 (d. I. 48). Now lost. Listed in Pasini's catalogue of 1749. Humanist correspondence of the 15th century cites the incipits, which permits us to consider it a child of B. 15th
Lost - was Murano, Bibl. S. Michel. Bib. S. Michel 807 (m). Now lost. Listed in Mittarelli's catalogue of 1779. Likewise a child of B, judging from humanist references. 15th
Berne, Bibl. mun. Bibl. mun. 109. On fol. 136r are two short quotations from De gubernatione. The manuscript starts with Priscian, Ars Grammatica; then there are pages full of quotations. The quotes are not useful for the history of the text, being too short. 10th
All the recentiores are descended from P, itself copied from B. M, K, F and V and a are direct copies of P; U and W are copied from F (the Florence group); V' is copied from V, T from V', T' from T.
The first printed edition appeared at Basle from Froben in 1530, edited by J. A. Brassicanus, using W as his source. Unfortunately some of the pasges in books VII and VIII were in a strange order. This was fixed in the 1564 edition by P. Galesini, who otherwise copied Brassicanus. The first edition of all the works of Salvian appeared in Paris in 1580, edited by Pierre Pithou, who used T and T' to correct the text of Brassicanus. Many reprints then occurred, among them that of Conrad Rittershausen (Altdorf, 1611), with an abundant commentary. Etienne Baluze did an edition in Paris in 1663, in which he made use of A, and based his edition on it, comparing it against the text of Pithou. A second edition with further notes appeared in 1669; a definitive third edition, often reprinted, in 1684. The Patrologia Latina text (Migne, t. 53, col. 26-158, Paris, 1865) is a reprint of Baluze's rd edition. G. Halm for the MGH (Berlin 1877) collated A and T, with a collation of B; F. Pauly, in the CSEL 8 edition (Vienna, 1883) recollated A, T, T', W, and made some use of B.
Bibliography
Georges LAGARRIGUE, Salvien de Marseille: Oeuvres. t. 2. Du gouvernement de Dieu. Sources Chrétiennes 220. Paris (1975). t.1 of Salvian is SC 176. This is the source for the manuscript information above.
Roger Pearse
th August, 2005
This text was transcribed by Roger Pearse, 2005. All material on this page is in the public domain - copy freely.
Greek text is rendered using the Scholars Press SPIonic font, free from here.
Early Church Fathers - Additional Texts
SOURCE SECTION: salvian_gov_00_intro.htm
Salvian, On the Government of God (1930) pp.1-34. Translators introduction
Salvian, On the Government of God (1930) pp.1-34. Translators introduction
On the Government of God
A Treatise
wherein are shown by Argument and by
Examples drawn from the Abandoned
Society of the Times the Ways of GOD
toward His Creatures
INDITED BY
SALVIAN
Presbyter of Marseilles and Master of Bishops
as a WARNING and COUNSEL
This Fifth Century Polemic Done into English by
EVA M. SANFORD
Western Reserve University
New York
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS
M.CM.XXX
Copyright 1930
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS
[Note to the online text: copyright not renewed so now in the public domain in the USA]
Published December, 1930
Printed in the United States of America
The Torch Press, Cedar Rapids, Iowa
TO MY FATHER
EDGAR LEWIS SANFORD
AND TO THE LEWISES AND SANFORDS BEFORE HIM
WHO LIKE SALVIAN HAVE PREACHED CONCERNING
THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD AND HIS PRESENT JUDGMENT
[Blank page]
CONTENTS
Introduction
I. A Fifth Century Tract for the Times..... 3
II. The Life of Salvian......... 5
III. Salvian's Literary Work........ 15
IV. On the Government of God........ 18
V. Style and Latinity......... 28
VI. The Editions of Salvian 's Works.......31
VII. Estimates of Salvian 's Work.......32
ON THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD
Preface, to Salonius. ---- That the salutary purpose of the present work should atone for its lack of the vain adornments of rhetoric..37
Book I. ---- The government of God proved by the general conviction of mankind, and by his judgment recounted in the books of Moses. 39
1. On the general belief in God's government. 2. That good Christians cannot be wretched. 3. Of the infirmities of the saints. 4. God's guidance and judgments of the world. 5. On the meaning of prayer. 6. The earliest instances of God's judgment. 7. God's judgment shown in the Flood. 8. The examples of Abraham, of Sodom and Gomorrah. 9. The Exodus. 10. Man's ingratitude for his present blessings. 11. Examples of God's mercy and of his severity. 12. God's judgments of the Hebrews.
Book II. ---- The immediate judgment of God as seen in the history of King David........... 66
1. Of the presence of God. 2. God's watchful care. 3. His vengeance. 4. The punishment of David. 5. David's exile. 6. The immediacy of God's judgment.
Book III. ---- On the obligations of the Christian life....77
1. Divine authority and human reason. 2. Christian belief. 3. The obligations of the Christian life. 4. The apostle's imitation of Christ. 5. The services due to God. 6. How men follow Christ's precepts. 7. The necessity of impartial obedience. 8. The lesser commands of God. 9. The vices of Christians. 10. The guilt of rich men and nobles. 11. Their vain hope of salvation.
Book IV. ---- On the oppressions wrought by the Roman nobles, and the guilt of Christians as compared with pagans.....98
1. The necessity of faith and good works. 2. Faith without works. 3. The sins of slaves compared with those of their masters. 4. The oppression of the nobles. 5. The enormity of their crimes. 6. The rich compared with their slaves; the burdens of taxation. 7. The penalties of conversion. 8. That men's crimes are the cause of their misfortunes. 9. The Father's love for his creatures. 10. The fulness |viii of God's love. 11. The ingratitude of man. 12. The guilt of Christians. 13. Comparison of Christians with barbarians. 14. The peculiar guilt of Christians. 15. Their oaths. 16. Their transgressions of the divine law. 17. Pagan ideas of the Christians. 18. Blasphemy. 19. The guilt of Christians compared with that of heathen.
Book V. ---- On heresy, and on the oppression of the poor by the powerful throughout the Roman Empire....... 133
1. Men's opposition to the law. 2. Heresy among the barbarians. 3. Heresy among the Romans. 4. The oppression of the many by the few. 5. The flight of Romans to the barbarians. 6. The revolt of the Bagaudae. 7. The oppression of the poor by the rich. 8. Means of relief. 9. The seeming injustice of God's merey. 10. The character of true repentance. 11. The true meaning of power.
Book VI. ---- On the ruinous influence of circuses and spectacles.. 157
1. The infection of evil. 2. The evil influence of the public games. 3. The circuses and theaters. 4. God's hatred of the theaters. 5. The contrast between the circus and Christ's precepts. 6. On renunciation of the devil and his pomps. 7. How men desert the churches for the spectacles. 8. On their folly in the midst of ruin. 9. How the disasters of Rome have failed to bring repentance. 10. That no dishonor to God can be trivial. 11. Men's unworthiness of God's gifts. 12. The failure of adversity to amend men's lives. 13. The capture of Treves. 14. The destruction of other cities. 15. Destruction and the circuses. 16. On the corrective of peace. 17. The gratitude due for peace. 18. The captivity of the Romans.
Book VII. ---- Wherein Roman vice is contrasted with Vandal virtue. 189
1. On the wretched gayety of Rome. 2. On the corruption of southern Gaul. 3. On the lusts of its men. 4. The corruption of their households. 5. That their vices are increased by their distress. 6. On the chastity of the Goths. 7. The Vandals in Spain. 8. The punishment due to presumption. 9. Humility and pride. 10. God's judgment in time of battle. 11. The judgment of God shown in the strength of the enemy. 12. On the invasions of the barbarians. 13. The Vandals in Africa. 14. Their devastation of Africa. 15. The wickedness of Africa. 16. Its obscenity. 17. The corruption of the African churches. 18. The continuance of their general guilt. 19. Their prevalent vice of effeminacy. 20. The contrast between the Romans and the Vandals. 21. On the discipline of the Vandals. 22. On the reform of Africa. 23. On the regulation of marriage.
Book VIII. ---- That the sins of the Romans are alone responsible for their ruin............ 224
1. The responsibility for Rome's misfortunes. 2. The blasphemies of Africa. 31. Of their injury to God. 4. On persecution. 5. On the recompense due.
BIBLIOGRAPHY............233
INDEX.............235
INTRODUCTION
Salvus, incolumisque Salvianus,
Magnus Scriptor, Episcopus probatus,
Antiquum reparatus in decorem,
In lucem venit omine auspicato,
Vitae Regula, Episcopon Magister;
Dignus nomine, et hoc honore dignus.
Scriptorum decus elegantiorum;
Dignus, quem studiis, modisque cunctis
Mirentur, celebrent, legant frequentes
Quot sunt, aut aliis erunt in annis.
Hunc, lector, precor, accipe explicata
Fronte, hunc delicias tuas putabis.
Illum plus oculis tuis amabis,
Meras delicias, meros lepores,
Inscriptum simul, et tibi dicatum,
Salvum, incolumemque Salvianum.
----Brassicanus
INTRODUCTION
I. A Fifth Century Tract for the Times
"Be ashamed, ye Roman people everywhere, be ashamed of the lives you lead!... It is neither the strength of their bodies that makes the barbarians conquer, nor the weakness of our nature that makes us subject to defeat. Let no one think or persuade himself otherwise ---- it is our vicious lives alone that have conquered us.'' 1
These are the words which Salvian would have made echo throughout the Roman world, had his human frailty permitted, the words which have earned him the title of the ''Jeremiah of his times." The problem of the decline of the Roman power was not relegated to the historians at that time, but was the chief concern of all thinking men, and many solutions were proposed. Successive invasions and settlements of barbarian tribes had ended Rome's claim to rule the world, while at the same time the fiscal difficulties of the central administration had increased taxation beyond endurance. The world seemed to be dying of old age, and the Empire with it. The natural tendency to glorify the past was intensified by the poignant wretchedness of the present, and grave doubts arose in the minds even of faithful Christians. "The very people who, as pagans, conquered and ruled the world, are being conquered and enslaved now that they have become Christians. Is not this clear evidence of God's neglect of human affairs?" 2 The question did not of itself imply disbelief in God, but its implicit doubt of God's constant government and judgment of mankind endangered the foundations of the Christian faith. Salvian's answer was clear and uncompromising. "These words are harsh and austere," |4 he wrote elsewhere, "but what are we to do? We may not change the nature of things, and the truth cannot be pronounced otherwise than as the very essence of truth demands. Men think my words harsh. I know that well enough. But what are we to do? Except by hardship we do not make our way into the Kingdom." 3 The treatise On the Government of God, which is Salvian's best known work, is essentially an exposition of this thesis: that the decline of the Roman power actually demonstrated God's government and judgment of human actions, since the sins of the Romans were such as had always, since the fall of Adam, been visited with instant punishment. Consequently the first two books of Salvian's discussion are chiefly devoted to demonstrations of God's judgment by examples drawn from the authority of the Old Testament. The third book builds on this foundation a clear exposition of the Christian obligation of an upright life in God's service. On this basis Salvian then proceeded to contrast the disgraceful actions of the Christian Romans of his time with their duty toward God, and with the virtues of the victorious barbarians. Yet the latter, being either heretics or pagans, were under less obligation to a godly life than the orthodox Romans. To the author himself, and to his fellow clergy, the first three books may well have seemed the essential portion of the argument: to us the great interest of the work lies in the picture of the times given in the last five. For here we have detailed accounts of the effects of the burden of taxation on the poor, whom it ruined; on the rich, who managed to shift their burden to weaker shoulders; and on the curials, who were forced into tyranny by their responsibility to the agents of the central government for the sums due. In this case as in others, reference to the imperial decrees collected in the Codices proves the essential truth of Salvian's account. Sidonius Apollinaris has given us in his letters charming descriptions of the life of the |5 wealthy nobles of southern Gaul: Salvian showed the other side of the picture when he described the means by which some of these same nobles had acquired their neighbors' land, and when he inveighed against the corruption of domestic life in their villas. He has shown clearly the development of serfdom under pressure of taxation and patronage, and the other alternatives from which the poor might choose ---- flight to barbarian territory, or armed revolt against the Roman system. And he has described in graphic terms, in part as an eyewitness, the horrors that attended the capture and sack of wealthy Roman cities, even at the hands of barbarians whom he believed to be far less brutal and depraved than many Romans. He has pictured the triumphant progress of the Vandals, reckoned as the weakest of Rome's enemies, through the richest provinces of the West.
He showed, to be sure, only one side of life. The miseries of the time prompted the doubts that he undertook to resolve; with these alone he was directly concerned. He rarely admitted that there were exceptions to the prevailing corruption of his fellow Romans. It was hardly consistent with his thesis that he should do so, for his book was essentially a polemic. It is important, however, to note in this connection that his statements are very rarely in conflict with other contemporary evidence. Passages in the letters of Sidonius, in the sermons and letters of his friends at Lérins, and of other leaders of the church, as well as in the writings of pagans and in the laws of the empire, regularly corroborate his account of the times. And he, in turn, occasionally confirms their accounts of the beauty that still remained in life, by his glimpses of Provence, with its pleasant country life and rich harvests ---- " the one corner where the Roman power still lives."
II. The Life of Salvian
As we have seen, Salvian wrote "as one having authority." That he had earned the right to speak is fully proved by the chief |6 contemporary reference to his life and work. Gennadius wrote of him, in his biographical dictionary of illustrious men:
Salvian, presbyter of Marseilles, learned in human and divine letters, and, if I may apply the title to him, master of bishops, wrote many books in a clear and scholarly style. Of these I have read the following: four books addressed to Marcellus the presbyter, On the Value of Virginity, and four Against Avarice; five books On the Present Judgment, and one book For the Satisfaction of These [Sins], addressed to Salonius the bishop; one book in exposition of the last part of Ecclesiastes, addressed to Claudius, bishop of Vienne; one book of letters; one book composed in verse as a Hexameron after the Greek fashion, from the beginning of Genesis to the creation of man; many homilies written for bishops; and on the sacraments, books whose number I do not recall. He still lives today in a goodly old age.4
Salvian's other names we do not know, due chiefly to the fact that fifth century etiquette forbade the use of more than one name in friendly correspondence,5 but the title "master of bishops" which Gennadius bestowed on him has more than atoned for the loss. The modest office of presbyter at Marseilles would seem sufficient to refute the early editors' claim of a bishop's mitre for him, even, without the negative evidence of the omission of his name from the episcopal lists.6 But the title "master of bishops," magister episcoporum, is his by manifold right, and is inseparably connected with his personality in the minds of all who have studied his work. He lived and worked for some time at the very nursery of bishops, Lérins, where he was chosen to teach the two sons of Eucherius, both of whom were to become bishops later. At Marseilles he continued his teaching, composing many homilies for bishops, as Gennadius said. Although in his books To the Church against Avarice he spoke of himself as "least of the servants of God," he spoke with |7 the voice of authority, and his words were chiefly addressed to the great lords of the church.
Many have called him by another title, which in its present meaning we cannot claim for him, but which he rightfully enjoyed in its fifth century use. Sanctus to him, as to all other Christians, before it seemed necessary to determine fixed categories for the communion of saints, meant a devout Christian. The word was applied to him by contemporaries, and recurs so often in his books that it is small wonder that many of his editors have informally canonized him, others have become involved in learned arguments to deprive him of sainthood,7 and one university, at least, continues the good tradition in his honor.8 Without doubt, as Baluze concludes, after disproving his claims to canonization, "there are many saints in heaven who are not so held by us in our catalogues."
Of his personal life we know little, though he contributes so much to our knowledge of the general circumstances of his time. Gennadius described him in the last decade of the fifth century as still living bona senectute. It is not possible for us to fix the exact date of his birth, but the wide experience and ripe wisdom shown in his treatise On the Government of God indicate at least that he had reached maturity some time before it was written. As this book was evidently composed between A.D. 439 and 450, it is natural to assume that he was born late in the fourth century or early in the fifth.9 What we know of the events of his life belongs entirely to the period before the publication of his chief work. The forty years or more that followed must be filled in by the writing of some of those lost works of which Gennadius spoke, and the many activities of a priest and "master of bishops" in one of the chief centers of the Gallic church. Several years before Salvian settled in |8 Marseilles, a poet beggared by the Gothic raids sought refuge there, and found "many saints my dear friends." 10 Such a haven from the storms that beset the rest of Gaul was sure to provide ample activity for its priests.
The place of Salvian's birth has been much disputed. Some early editors assumed that he was born in Africa ---- an assumption not unnatural in view of his graphic description of the sins and the ruin of that province.11 The account of the capture of Treves in his sixth book, however, makes it clear that his native district was near the Rhine frontier. The claims of both Treves and Cologne have been supported by various authorities. Whether he lived in one of these cities, or on an estate in the countryside near by, his familiarity with the whole district is unmistakable.
Treves was the place of all others in the western world where he could best have studied the fatal magnificence of the higher Roman officials in the face of the barbarian attacks. The praetorian prefect of the Gallic and Spanish provinces kept his official residence there in such state as Constantius the emperor had scarcely equalled when he fixed his capital in that city a century earlier. There Salvian must have watched with growing anxiety the increasing power of the Franks. The author of the twelfth century Gesta Treverorum tells us that they had conceived a special hostility for this most splendid of Gallic cities from the time of their first contact with it. This district also afforded excellent opportunities to observe the increasing ravages of Goths, Vandals and Burgundians. The great amphitheater of Treves was the scene of many of those public spectacles against which Salvian inveighed so bitterly, and |9 when the Vandal Crocus captured the city in A.D. 406, the people were saved only by taking refuge within its strong walls.12 Years later, Salvian wrote from Marseilles to the monks at Lérins, commending to their kindly offices a young kinsman, a refugee from the captured city of Cologne. He wrote to the brothers that the boy was "of a family not obscure, of which I might say something more, were he not related to me." 13 These words confirm the conclusions as to Salvian's family and position that we should naturally draw from his writings. His parents were clearly of the Gallo-Roman aristocracy: Salvian knew intimately the way of life of a man of position and substance, however much he disapproved of it. His examples indicate a considerable knowledge of life on the great estates, the masters' problems with slaves and tenants, the results of patronage, the various forms of cultivation employed, and at the same time a very real appreciation of the natural beauties of the country. For slaves and poor men, and all who suffered oppression, he had great sympathy. This, however, did not blind him to the probability that they would be as bad as their oppressors if the tables were turned. We do not need Gennadius' statement to prove that he had the full rhetorical education of his time. Despite the arguments of some scholars to the contrary, his works seem to indicate that he had continued to read widely in "human and divine letters." Greek he apparently did not read, and the works of philosophers he quoted only at second hand. He was fond of examples drawn from medical practice, but these are all of a sort with which any intelligent man would be familiar.
His knowledge of law was far more detailed, and his writings furnish a valuable commentary on the Roman Codices, which in their turn serve as a check on his statements. Rittershausen concluded that he had had regular legal training; certainly he had a legal mind, and legal phraseology recurs constantly in his |10 discussions. But it seems equally probable, especially if his father held an imperial position, that his juristic knowledge merely represents the attainment of a Roman citizen concerned both in the complex management of a considerable estate and in affairs of government administration. That he belonged to an imperial official family is suggested by his attitude toward lesser officials. For the downtrodden poor his sympathy is great, but for clerks, soldiers and tax collectors, and for the curials who formed the miserable remnant of the local aristocracies, he seems to have felt only scorn and distaste. His aristocratic prejudices were tempered by Christian charity in other cases, but not in his attitude toward these men.14 It seems probable that he himself was brought up in the orthodox faith; at least he shows little of that bitterness toward pagans and heretics that recent converts are wont to feel. For those who called themselves Christians but continued heathen practices, however, his antipathy was very strong. His wife, Palladia, had been brought up in paganism, but her parents, Hypatius and Quieta, seem to have made no objection to the marriage. Later, however, they were alienated by the decision of Salvian and Palladia to follow a course which was being adopted by many other Christian couples. Unable either to endure Roman society as they found it, or to reform it from within, they determined to give their property to the church, and live no longer as man and wife, but as brother and sister in Christian fellowship. Paulinus of Nola, the one contemporary to whose example Salvian clearly alludes,15 is the best known of those who sought that peace in Christian poverty which Roman wealth had failed to give. The anger of Ausonius at his friend's course reflects a situation that must have been many times repeated. In this case, however, it culminated in one of the most poignant expressions of friendship that man has ever written.16 |11
After an estrangement from their parents that lasted nearly seven years, Salvian, Palladia and the little daughter Auspiciola tried once more to effect a reconciliation. Their letter,17 which has fortunately been preserved, seems far too mannered and artificial to be convincing, but this formality was a set convention in the letter-writing of the time. Their pleas are sincere and loving, though yielding not one jot as to the essential rightness of their course. The immediate occasion of the letter seems to have been the news of the parents' conversion to Christianity, which would seem indeed to work in favor of their case. Palladia followed her husband's arguments by memories of the days when they had called her "little starling, little mistress, little mother, birdling:" she pleaded tenderly, too, for little Auspiciola, who deserved her grandparents' love.
Of the issue of their suit we know nothing. They had withdrawn from the vicinity of Treves, probably shortly after that destruction of the city which Salvian saw with his own eyes, and so graphically described.18 About A.D. 418 the praetorian prefect of Gaul seems to have changed his seat from Treves to Aries; perhaps Salvian's was one of the Roman families that withdrew soon after, either for official or private reasons.19 We do not know whether it was before or after this move that their ascetic resolution was taken; in any case, they went soon to the islands of the Lérins, which offered monasteries, separate but not remote from each other, for families in such case as theirs. Nothing is known thereafter of Palladia and Auspiciola; Salvian's life apparently lay apart from theirs.
Lérins was that "earthly paradise" 20 which furnished a haven for many religious of the day, and was so powerful a stimulant to their faith that from it went forth a seemingly endless stream of |12 saintly men. Honoratus and Hilary, Caesarius and Virgilius went from Lérins to the archbishopric of Aries; Maximus and Faustus to the see of Riez; Lupus to Troyes. Eucherius came to Lérins with his wife Galla and his two sons. He himself left to become bishop of Lyons; his sons, Salonius and Veranus, were put under the successive tutelage of Honoratus, Hilary, Salvian. and Vincent,21and became bishops of Geneva and Vence. Three bishops went from Lérins to Avignon, and many others might be named.22
Honoratus was abbot at Lérins in Salvian's time and was called by Eucherius "master of bishops, doctor of the churches," being thus the prototype of Salvian. Shortly after A.D. 429, Hilarius of Aries preached at Marseilles a sermon on the life of Honoratus, in which he quoted from the writings of "a man of not unmerited distinction, and most blessed in Christ, Salvian the presbyter, one of Honoratus' dear associates." 23 Thus he gives us not only a glimpse of the esteem in which Salvian was already held, but a terminus ante quem for his ordination. Just when Salvian moved to Marseilles we do not know, nor why. Certainly it was through no antagonism at Lérins, for his first letter, already mentioned, expresses the utmost affection for the brothers there. The initial paragraph, on the bitter-sweetness of love, which at times compels one to ask of beloved friends a favor that without love would be |13 irksome, bears witness to the depth of his feeling for the monks. Its concluding words testify to his; high esteem for them: "Surely, if there is any good character in this young man, his hope and salvation will not prove to be of great difficulty to you; even if he receives no actual teaching, it is enough for him to be with you."
The years at Lérins must have exerted great influence on the development of Salvian's thought and style. The close fellowship between the monks of the island is constantly demonstrated by likenesses of ideas and phrasing in the writings of the many great men who there received their early training. Parts of the homilies of Caesarius of Aries, of Valerius and Hilarius bear striking resemblances to passages in Salvian's work. Vincent's Commonitorium has been appropriately included in many editions of Salvian, thus continuing their ancient fellowship. The book On the Government of God, as well as a lost work, was dedicated to Salonius, whom Salvian addressed in his ninth letter as "master and most blessed pupil, father, and son, pupil by instruction, son by affection, and father by rank and honor."
The life of Caesarius of Aries throws some light on the statement that Salvian composed many homilies for bishops. We read of Caesarius that:
He composed also appropriate sermons for feast days and other occasions, and sermons against the evils of drunkenness and lust, against discord and hatred, against anger and pride, against sacrilegious men and soothsayers, against pagan rites, against augurs, the worshippers of woods and of springs, and against the vices of divers men. He so prepared these homilies that if any visitors asked, far from refusing to loan them, he offered them for copying at the slightest suggestion of a request, and himself corrected them. He sent copies by priests to men far distant in the Frankish land, in Gaul, Italy and Spain and divers provinces, to be preached in their churches, that, casting aside frivolous and transitory interests, they might, as the apostle preached, become followers of good works.24 |14 Gennadius' emphasis on the homilies of Salvian suggests that their composition may have been one of the major preoccupations of his life in Marseilles, and a chief ground for his title of "master of bishops." That many of his sermons took the form of invectives against the vices of his day may be assumed from the extant books Against Avarice and On the Government of God. Both of these, indeed, have the air of having been compiled from actual sermons. The congregation is clearly visualized, which may account for the frequent use of the second person, and of a vivid colloquial tone.
That his attacks on the weaknesses of his contemporaries caused him serious difficulties is indicated by his constant reiteration that his words are sure to give offence to many, but even so they must be said. Larinus Amatius said in his eulogy of Salvian: "For if wrath engenders hatred among all men, and begets it especially among the wicked, who was ever more hated for the truth than Salvian, since no one ever set forth more truths than he?" 25
From the time of his removal to Marseilles, all that we know of Salvian's life is summed up in Gennadius' account. The few extant letters are chiefly of value for the glimpses they afford of his regard for the deference due to those of higher rank in the church, and their evidence of his continuing association with his former friends and pupils at Lérins. An example is his letter to Eucherius, thanking him for a copy of his Instructions on the More Difficult Questions of the Old and New Testament,26 which the bishop had written for his sons, now themselves " masters of churches." Lacking any further evidence for the closing years of Salvian's life than the goodly old age with which Gennadius credited him, we can only hope that he gained fulfilment of the wish with which his letter to Eucherius ended: "May God in his mercy grant me throughout the days of my life, or at least when they are ended, that those who have been my pupils may daily pray for me." |15
III. Salvian's Literary Work
Gennadius' list shows that, while much of Salvian's work has been lost, the books that remain are probably the most individual and the most interesting to us. The writings of several other early Christians present such titles as On the Value of Virginity, A Book in Exposition of the Last Part of Ecclesiastes, and books On the Sacraments. One title is obscure, the book to Salonius Pro eorum merito satisfactionis, or Pro eorum praemio satisfaciendo. The variants in the text of Gennadius indicate that the obscurity is of long standing in the manuscript tradition. In my translation I have followed Ebert's conjecture of peccatorum for eorum, which at least makes possible a conjectural translation of the title ---- For the Satisfaction of These Sins,27 a book that might conceivably have been a companion volume to that On the Government of God.
Of the homilies written for bishops, and the influence of sermon writing on Salvian's general style, I have already spoken. It is possible, as Peter Allix suggested, that the anonymous poem on Genesis formerly ascribed to Tertullian may be part of the lost Hexameron of Salvian; the poem is, however, of slight importance, and its identification as the work of our author would be chiefly valuable as an indication of his wisdom in not publishing other verses.28 Only nine of the letters are preserved; of these I have already spoken. The ninth, addressed to Salonius, is of special interest, since it explains both Salvian's purpose in writing his four books Against Avarice, and his reasons for publishing them anonymously. Salonius feared that since the work was issued as the |16 Address of Timotheus to the Church against Avarice, it might be mistaken for an apocryphal work of the "Apostle" Timothy.
Like the Government of God, the invective Against Avarice was written because of Salvian's deep conviction of the dangers inherent in the persistent vices of men who called themselves Christians. Avarice was a besetting sin of many Romans, and had infected not only members of the church, but its clergy, even to the bishops themselves. The resultant neglect of the true service of God, and of the spiritual and material welfare of the church, led Salvian to "burst forth into words of lamentation" addressed to the church to which the offenders belonged. His failure to attach his own name to the book he explained not only by his desire to avoid vain glory in a service to God, but also by his conviction that the obscurity of his name might detract from the influence of his words. The pseudonym Timotheus ("Honoring God") was chosen to indicate the motive of the work: " Indeed, the writer thought it fitting that, writing his books for the honor of God, he should consecrate the title to his divine honor." 29
In spite of this letter, and of Gennadius' ascription of the work to Salvian, its anonymity was preserved in modern times, for it was published by Sichardus at Fol near Basel in 1528 as. the work of Bishop Timotheus, in a collection entitled An Antidote against the Heresies of All Ages.
While no one who reads the treatise Against Avarice can doubt the sincerity and depth of feeling with which it was written, the work is a curious document of the times. Avarice was considered one of the deadly sins. But it is hard now to avoid seeing some self-interest on the part of the church in the constant exhortations to the rich to give all their goods to the church in order to win remission of their sins. In its simplest form, this is the admonition of Christ to the rich young man: as it is elaborated to produce a surer conviction in the minds of fifth century Midases it is |17 perilously close to the purchase of absolution. Some modern writers have thought the book more likely to encourage the avarice of the church than to discourage that of churchmen; others have seen in it an anticipation of the later satires against the greed of the clergy.30The irony that is never far from Salvian's writing is even more marked than usual in this indictment, but the unprejudiced reader is not likely to see in it an intention of actual satire. Nor is it sufficient to dismiss it, as Teuffel does, simply as a ballon d'essai.31It was clearly written in all seriousness, albeit in bitterness of heart, with the earnest hope of exerting a salutary influence against a chief evil of the times. The author employed the arguments that experience had taught him were most likely to be effective.
That this work was written before the completion of the treatise On the Government of God is shown by the quotation from it in the latter; it may with some probability be assigned to the years 435-439.32 The words of Timothy to the church must have aroused much anger among ecclesiastical leaders, and apparently this antagonism made Salvian rather sensitive to criticism, though none the less determined to attack the vices of his day. That his later books would not be less fearless because of any hostility thus aroused, he showed in his concluding paragraphs, in which there is not a little of his own spiritual biography:
All human work is unworthy in comparison with the future glory. So nothing ought to seem hard and austere to Christians, because whatever they offer to Christ is in return for eternal blessings; what is given is vile when that which is received is so great. Nothing great is paid to God by men on earth, in comparison with the supreme gift of heaven. It is hard for misers to lavish their wealth. What is strange in this? Everything is hard that is demanded of the unwilling. Almost every divine word arouses animosity ---- there are as many hostile schools as there are teachers. |18
If the Lord orders men to be generous, the miser is angry; if he exacts parsimony, the prodigal curses. The wicked consider the sacred speeches their enemies; robbers shudder at what is written about justice, the proud at precepts of humility; the drunken oppose the request for sobriety and the shameless the command of chastity. So we must either say nothing, or expect that whatever is said will displease one man or another. Any wicked man would rather execrate the law than amend his character; he would rather hate precepts than vices.
Meanwhile, what do those men do who have been given by Christ the duty of speaking? They displease God if they are silent, men if they speak. But, as the apostles said to the Jews, it is better to obey God than man. This is the advice I offer to all to whom the law of God seems heavy and onerous, even if they do not entirely refuse to receive it, in order that those things may please them, which God ordains. All who hate the sacred commandments have the cause of their hatred within themselves. Every man's dislike of the law is due not to its precepts, but to his own life; the law indeed is good, but his habits are bad. So men should change their attitude and their point of view. If they make their habits worthy of approbation, nothing that the good law enjoins will displease them. For when a man has begun to be good, he cannot fail to love the law of God, which has within it that which holy men have in their lives.33
IV. On The Government of God
The work on which for us the real interest of Salvian's life and thought depends, is that which Gennadius cited as five books On the Present Judgment, but which the manuscripts offer us as eight books On the Government of God. In this treatise Salvian discusses the defeat of Litorius in a.d. 439, but fails to mention the Vandal sack of Rome in 455, which must have profoundly impressed him. In view of the description he gives of the Vandal capture of Carthage, he would scarcely have omitted their raid on Rome. So we may reasonably suppose that the book was published between a.d. 439 and 455. We may probably limit the period somewhat more by the assumption that the great battle between the Romans and the Huns would have been mentioned if the treatise had been finished after 451. The argument from silence is less |19 dangerous in this instance, because of the general inclusiveness of Salvian's allusions to contemporary matters germane to his purpose, as these great events certainly would have been. Whatever the date of publication, the book is the mature product of some years of preaching.
It is evident that only the third and fifth books mark distinct developments in the argument. Some claim that elsewhere the division into books is purely arbitrary and does not betray any set intention on the part of the author. Since Gennadius speaks of five, and not eight books it has been assumed that a new division was made, perhaps as a matter of scribal convenience, after Gennadius wrote. Brakman, however, suggested with some plausibility that Gennadius may actually have written VIII, and a scribe mis-copied the letters as IIIII, which would be a natural error, if the V were imperfect. And the length of the individual books varies too much for a purely arbitrary division, whereas some case can be made out for the logic of the present arrangement.34
For the modern reader the chief interest of Salvian's work lies in the description of the life of the times in his later books. The careful building up of the evidence of the sacred authorities for God's judgment of the world seems tedious and repetitious. We are inclined to rebel at the constant reference to authority in the first three books. It is not unnatural to prefer the Old Testament itself to Salvian's reworking of the same themes with abundance of quotation. The cento is no longer a favored literary form, and overabundant quotation, at least when openly acknowledged, is out of favor. Few of us are likely to be in the position of the men of the fifth century who found it difficult to choose among various poor renderings of the Old Testament, since Jerome's version was just beginning to make its way into Gaul, or to procure a complete copy even if the initial obstacle of choice were overcome. The |20 reader who wishes his interest readily aroused, who would read the past in the light of his own experience, had best begin with the fourth book. A generation ago it would have been natural to remark that in Salvian's tract for his own times in these later books there is much that might be applied with little change to our own day. Such a statement would be no less true now, were it the present custom of historians to study past records as a source of moral examples for the current age.
But to avoid the risk of tedium by omitting the first three books is to lose much of the essence of the work, and of the fifth-century manner of thought. Salvian wrote not for us, but for his contemporaries. Historically, therefore, it is of value to note how he built up his demonstration of a fundamental principle ---- God's constant government and immediate judgment of his people. Not only pagans, but men who called themselves Christians, were led by a faulty reading of their times to question this tenet of the Christian faith. The Christians must be made to realize that such doubts were directly contradictory to the testimony of the Bible on which their faith rested. Hence the full evidence of the Scriptures was brought into court before the witness of contemporary life was summoned. It is futile to say that Salvian was merely attempting to prove God's judgment by reiterating his statement that God constantly sees and judges his people, or, as some put it, that he cites the authority of the Scriptures in support of that authority. There is no indication that his opponents had questioned the authority of the Biblical narrative. They had, indeed, questioned a fundamental doctrine of Christianity, having what would appear to be good reason for such doubts in the distress into which they, though a Christian people, had fallen. The validity of their estimate of God's injustice to themselves was a secondary matter to Salvian. The first necessity was to remind them that their doubts as to God's complete and immediate justice in the governance of the world were constantly disproved by the scriptural authority. |21 Since they had shown themselves either ignorant or forgetful of the evidence of the Bible on this subject, it must be recapitulated for them. The foundation thus laid, they would be in a fit frame of mind to consider how the apparent injustice of their present misfortunes might be squared with the unvarying justice of the God they worshipped. We are too apt to forget that his words were addressed not to pagans or heretics but to orthodox Christians, For these the first essential was fulness of understanding of their own faith: its application to their transitory circumstances was secondary. To many of its first readers the latter part of the work may have seemed an irrelevant anticlimax to the real argument, since it depended less closely on scriptural authority for its substance and Lactantius for its structure, and dealt with matters of ephemeral interest.
Like Augustine, Salvian was distressed by the "false opinion held by many" in his time, that the contrast between the poverty and captivity of the Christian Roman Empire and the prosperous domination of pagan Rome proved that God neither cared for the world he had created nor governed and judged it, except by a judgment too far in the future to afford any present satisfaction to the just or fear to the wicked. Such attacks on Christianity Augustine had answered by his contrast, a generation earlier, between the ephemeral city of this world and the eternal City of God. Another portion of his answer had been assigned to Orosius, who undertook in his History against the Pagans to prove that the evils into which the Christian Roman Empire had fallen were less than those of past and pagan generations. He even dared to remind his readers that the most glorious conquests of Rome had afforded far greater misery, disgrace and suffering to her defeated enemies than the Romans themselves now suffered, and to prophesy that those who now seemed barbarous destroyers of a mighty empire would some day be honored as heroes of the nations they were founding. Orosius' minimizing of Rome's dangers was possible, though |22 somewhat fantastic, even after the Gothic sack of the city in A.D. 410. When Salvian wrote such an attitude was no longer reasonable. Orosius had prophesied that new nations would take the place of Rome; Salvian, while he conceived the Empire as still the great cohesive force in the western world, saw the Teutonic nations settled within its former borders. Goths, Vandals, Burgundians and Franks had established their own kingdoms, and if any of them lost ground, it was not because of the superiority of the Romans, but of the other barbarians. Rome had long tried to suppress the peasants' revolt of the Bagaudae, but without lasting success, and this situation was rendered the more serious by the fact that the cause of the rebellion was oppressive taxation for which no workable remedy was found. Britain was cut off from Rome by Saxon raids and by her own dissensions. The Vandals were in possession of the former province of Africa, the granary of Rome and the great center of Christian teaching. Salvian's debt to Tertullian, Cyprian, Lactantius and Augustine was so great that he recalled with difficulty that many of his readers thought the home of these Fathers remote from them, and were little concerned in its ruin.35Salvian's own home in the Rhineland had been several times ravaged by the Franks. The success of Aetius in checking disintegration during the years of his leadership seemed due in no small part to his shrewdness in alliances and his discretion in granting favorable terms to the Goths and Vandals for security against an aggression with which he might not be able to cope directly. His success was more than once endangered by the lack of prudence and cooperation among his subordinates.36
Rome herself opened her gates to fur-clad satellites,
And was captive ere her capture.37
Everywhere the growing disproportion between the expenses and the income of the Empire led to taxation that would have been |23 heavy under the most favorable circumstances. With the opportunities for privilege and graft that the nobles in the imperial hierarchy could always find, against which the more lowly could only struggle impotently, this became unendurable. Salvian's picture of the times does not stand alone: it is gloomy in comparison with that of Sidonius Apollinaris in his letters, and yet Sidonius gives ample evidence to confirm much of Salvian's detail. It is more gloomy than that of Ausonius in his verses, but a man who had resigned all that he had to seek God's peace, could hardly be expected to find the continuance of the elegant pleasures of society in southern Gaul a cause for light-heartedness. It must be remembered also that matters had improved somewhat, though temporarily, in the generation between Salvian's book and the letters of Sidonius.38Salvian's sympathies for the poor and oppressed were very great, the greater because he had himself become poor, though oppression could not touch him personally in any respect for which he now cared. From his new point of view, the good men in the upper orders at Rome were too few to count. The best of those who still lived in the world were very far from following the teachings of Christ. That poor men and slaves might be quite as wicked as the rich, if a sudden access of fortune made it possible, did not alter the reality of the oppression they suffered. That lack of a sturdy middle class, the importance of which during the period of decline of the Roman power Rostovtzeff has so vividly emphasized, is abundantly illustrated in Salvian's curious picture of the society of his time.
He undertook, at a time when the task was as difficult as at any period of the world's history, to justify the ways of God to man, to prove his constant government of the world and his immediate judgment. This involved the proof not only that the orthodox Romans deserved their misfortunes, but that the pagan and heretic |24 barbarians merited their successes. It required also a satisfactory answer to the question why God had treated the Romans better when they were pagans than he did now that they were Christians. The latter question is never actually taken up, though Salvian promised at the beginning of the seventh book to answer it at the end of his work, if God should permit. But the end is missing.
It is inappropriate to judge the proofs that Salvian gives of the just judgment of God in the light of rational argument or historical criticism. He himself carefully denned his audience; his words were addressed to Christian Romans, not to pagans, heretics or barbarians. "For if I am addressing Christians, I do not doubt that I shall prove my case. But if I speak to pagans, I should scorn the attempt, not for any shortage of proofs, but because I despair of any profit in my discourse. Surely it is fruitless and lost labor, when a perverted listener is not open to conviction."39
Christianity and rationalism were to him inconsistent and mutually exclusive terms: "I am a man, I do not understand the secrets of God." 40 If his arguments seem at times to form a vicious circle, it is because he inevitably assumed as his basis the very points he was attempting to demonstrate. The great fact of the world, recognized by pagan philosophers and Christian theologians alike, was that God constantly governed and judged it; Lactantius had worked out philosophical and theological proofs of this in his Divine Institutions. Salvian deliberately adopted the groundwork furnished by his predecessor and made his indebtedness evident after the classical manner by direct though unacknowledged quotations. He was undertaking to reassure the Christian, not to instruct and convert the heathen or heretic; to enable the Christian to adjust his views of himself and of God to the dispensation under which he lived, and to effect such personal reformation as would take away the necessity of future punishment.41 |25
The first two books formed the foundation for the whole, following Lactantius closely in form and drawing most of their non-Biblical citations from him. This preliminary portion of the work is largely homiletic in character, demonstrating the government and judgment of God by examples drawn from the earlier books of the Old Testament, and by "testimonies" from the Bible as a whole. In the third book Salvian definitely undertook to answer the question "why we Christians, who believe in God, are more wretched than all other men." The answer in various forms occupied the rest of his work, which became more and more a study of contemporary society and events as he proceeded. For he saw the calamities and disasters of the world as God's judgments on the gross immorality of the Roman people. Not only were the triumphant barbarians less wicked than the Romans, but, being either pagans or heretics, they deserved indulgence for sins committed in ignorance, not in full knowledge of the Christian law. As Matter ably pointed out, Salvian's indictment of the Christians furnished plentiful material to the pagans for attacks on Christianity,42 but Salvian might have countered that it was not the accusation but the crime that made such attacks possible. His ideal was that of ascetic Christianity, of poverty in this life for the sake of eternal salvation, but he was not one of those who looked for a speedy ending of the world, and the coming of the last judgment. He saw a |26 continuing world, which God's immediate and constant judgment no longer suffered to continue as it had when the Empire was intact, in which a new and potentially better regime was gradually being formed. Among the ancient Romans to whom "everything unknown seemed glorious" it was an old tradition that barbarians were freer of vice than civilized men. If Salvian at times seems to exaggerate this view, he had some support not only in the readiness with which men in conquered territory adapted themselves to a regime less oppressive than the old, but also in the actual flight of many Romans to barbarian protection from the demands of Roman fiscal agents. He was not alone in feeling that there were compensations in the partial breakdown of the old system. Paulinus of Pella had been one of the luxurious, self-centered Aquitanians of the type that Salvian accused; his lapses from virtue were considerable, though not such as to occasion censure among his peers. When his great estates were lost and he was living in comparative poverty and full repentance, he wrote his autobiography in verse as a thanksgiving for God's mercies to him.43 A like attitude is found in the poem of a husband to his wife, and also in a song on the divine providence, both formerly attributed to Prosper of Aquitaine.44 Salvian was trying to bring others to a similar frame of mind.
Augustine had employed the same argument in his Sermo de tempore barbarico, a brief homily very closely akin to Salvian's book, and with the same conclusion: the calamities of the world were due to the wrath of God, warning us that we should not neglect atonement for our sins. The theme is not infrequent elsewhere.
In his books Against Avarice Salvian dwelt constantly on the need of repentance and charity because of the imminent danger |27 of death: in his treatise On the Government of God he was concerned instead with the amendment and reformation necessary for continued life. Of one thing he is sure, that the true Christian cannot be wretched, and therefore a fuller Christianity is the only real solution of the problem. His arguments are by no means free from inconsistencies of detail. On one occasion, for example, slaves are described as generally better than their masters, while on another we learn that the best masters usually have bad slaves. But there is no inconsistency in the fundamental thesis.
The violence of his feeling made him no respecter of persons; in spite of his avowed desire to consider the priests of God as above reproach, he is so bitter in his denunciations of wickedness within the church that Bellarmine said of him: "His exaggeration of the vices of Christians and especially of the clergy of his time would seem excessive, did his words not proceed from true zeal for the glory of God and the salvation of souls." 45 And Guillon found the indictment of the church in the ninth chapter of the third book so violent that he could scarcely bring himself to transcribe it, and finally effected a compromise between loyalty to his church and his scholarly conscience by copying the translation of Père Bonnet, and so gaining his pious sanction for the overbold words.46
Salvian's irony is very marked, especially in the treatise Against Avarice. The abbé de la Rue, in one of his Lenten sermons, followed a quotation from Saivian by the words: "Voilà l'ironie de Salvien, mais discrète et charitable." 47 Salvian's friends, however, probably feared that it lacked discretion, and those against whom it was turned very likely felt it weak in charity; but it was seldom bitter. It is not inappropriate that the last sentence of the treatise On the Government of God that has come down to us displays an irony so |28 pronounced that recent editors have destroyed it by inserting a negative.48
V. Style and Latinity
Salvian's style justifies the praise of Gennadius. While it is not altogether free from the faults of the rhetorical taste of his time, it is never obscure and rarely overburdened. In his preface he stressed the importance of subject matter as compared with style, and declared that his work was meant to be salutary rather than eloquent. This emphasis on content rather than form did not produce crudeness but served in general as a controlling element against the excesses of the rhetorician. He is fond of antithesis, of figures of speech and series of balanced phrases; he has a marked predilection for alliteration, assonance and rhyme, fostered by his love of plays on words.49 His great fault is a wearisome repetition, a failing, however, that arises not so much from carelessness in style as from anxiety to hammer a point home. He runs out of words for his reiteration of a theme, and uses the same one till they are worn threadbare, yet this is a relief from the artificially varied phrases which the letter writers of his time would substitute. Indeed, his own letters are far more artificial than his other works. He was conscious of his wordiness, which may have been partly due to his preaching, and he speaks more than once of his fear that the prolixity of his style may arouse distaste in his readers.50 It is at least, as Gregoire remarked, sufficient to terrify the most intrepid of translators, yet Joseph Scaliger could rightly exclaim of Salvian's work: "Le beau livre que c'est, et une belle simplicity!" 51
Salvian's vocabulary was the source of much discussion among |29 the earlier editors. Having in their introduction lauded him as a second Demosthenes or Cicero, and explored the history of rhetoric for phrases in his honor, they found themselves compelled, when they turned from the general to the particular, to account for his use of words which Cicero had never employed. Eventually they explained the considerable number of late Latin words by the influence of his subject and of his many Biblical quotations. Most of the late Latin and ecclesiastical words in his vocabulary are found also in Tertullian, Lactantius, Hilarius, Cyprian and Sidonius Apollinaris; others reflect the language of the jurists. In common with the other writers of his day, he shows a noticeable but not excessive fluidity of word formation, a fondness for negative adjectives and for diminutives, the latter usually to give a sense of humility or of sympathy and pity. A few of them are rather sesquipedalian formations, as the excusatiuncula and deprecatiuncula of the second chapter of the third book Against Avarice.
A recent thorough study of his use of moods and tenses resulted in the conclusion that, in spite of frequent departures from the pure classical norm, Salvian cannot be accused of negligence or lack of skill; that he followed fixed rules, though not always those of the best classical Latinity.52
A very large proportion of his material is drawn from the Bible or from his own and contemporary experience. Aside from his direct and purposed use of Lactantius in the first two books 53 and from natural reminiscences of both Lactantius and Tertullian when writing of a subject which they had considered from the same point of view as his (e.g., on the games), he seems deliberately to avoid obvious citations and quotations other than those from the Bible. Yet there is ample evidence that his memory was well stocked with pagan and earlier patristic literature. His reticence in quotation from secular authors is distinctly at variance with the |30 habit of his times, and corresponds to his general strictures on the rhetorical ideal of literary composition. He cites Vergil and Cicero as the authors of quotations only when the latter are drawn from Lactantius, although elsewhere there are clear reminiscences of both. His acquaintance with the works of Seneca is indicated by several passages in which the resemblance between the thought and ideas of the two authors is unusually striking. Rittershausen cites parallels from Minucius Felix almost as often as from Seneca, but for most of these equally close parallels may be found in Lactantius, so that no other source need be considered. The obvious extent of Salvian's education makes it an unnecessary strain on one's credulity to believe with some commentators that all the similarities to known passages in the works of pagan authors are due to chance, and none to his personal knowledge of the books concerned.
The result of his method of allusion is very satisfactory; classical reminiscences are readily apparent to the reader with a well stocked mind, but do not intrude themselves on the less informed, to distract his attention from the argument. Nor was there any risk of seeming to set pagan writers on a level with biblical authority. The frequent biblical quotations are drawn most commonly from the old Itala versions, but Salvian also used the translation of Jerome occasionally; indeed, with his friend Eucherius he was among the first of the Christian writers in Gaul to employ the new text.54 His citations are rather loose, and where the same passage is quoted more than once, there are sometimes variations in the wording. The translation of his numerous biblical quotations presents some difficulty. It is, of course, natural and almost inevitable to use the familiar and beautiful text of the King James Version, and in general I have done this, even in some cases where Salvian's wording might suggest a slightly different rendering. In several |31 passages, however, either marked differences between Salvian's text of the Bible and that on which the King James Version is based, or his rather free adaptations of the text to its setting in his argument, have required corresponding changes in the English rendering.
VI. The Editions of Salvian's Works
Schoenemann distinguished three ages in the editions of Salvian;55 the first, from 1528 to 1580, is that in which the two major works were published. The treatise Against Avarice was issued by Sichardus at Fol near Basle in 1528: two years later Brassicanus published in the same city his editio princeps of the books On the Government of God, based apparently on the extant Vienna manuscript of the fifteenth century (MS Vindobonensis 826). The next period, from 1580 to 1663, was dominated by the editions of Pierre Pithou, the first of which, published at Paris in 1580, was so much in demand that it soon came, as Baluze said, to have almost the rarity of a manuscript. This was the more unfortunate, as the several reprints were inferior.56 In 1611 Conrad Rittershausen published an edition at Altdorf, with far more copious notes than those of previous editors. He seems to have been the first to find much space for commentary on other points than the establishment of the text, and included literary and juristic references of considerable interest and value. His edition, however, was little used outside of Germany.
In the third period, as Schoenemann says, solus regnat Baluzius. Stephen Baluze published his first edition of Salvian's works together with the Commonitorium of Vincent of Lérins in 1663, and this rapidly superseded the earlier editions. Using the tenth century manuscript of Corbie (Paris, Bibl. Nat. MS Lat. 13385), by |32 far the best of existing manuscripts, he was able to construct a text superior to any previously published. The commentary of Baluze has formed the basis, often unacknowledged, of many notes on Salvian since, a source of information which one could not afford to overlook. His work is chiefly cited now in the fourth edition, published in 1742 at Stadtamhof.
Here end Schoenemann's three ages; but as far as the text is concerned, Baluze has been dethroned in our present age, first by Halm in 1877 and then by Pauly in 1883.57 Since notes in these modern editions are limited to the apparatus criticus, Baluze still reigns in the field of commentary. Meanwhile, from the sixteenth century to the early nineteenth, there have been numerous lesser editions, frequently pirated from those more famous.58
VII. Estimates of Salvian 's Work
When Brassicanus published his first edition of Salvian's treatise On the Government of God, he found ready applause for his achievement in rescuing so great a work from the dust and spider webs of a thousand years; the occasion was a fitting one for those |33 odes which his contemporaries so loved to write. Perhaps his romantic tale of the manuscripts he had found at Buda in the libraiy of his friend Matthew Corvinus, king of Bohemia, just before its destruction by the Turks, absorbed his friends' interest so far that they forgot the scribes who had made this edition possible by their earlier copies of the book. While we have no other evidence for the reading of Salvian's books between the date of Gennadius' account, which seems to be the source of the scanty later mentions, and Sichardus' publication of Against Avarice in 1528, the manuscripts lend their testimony that copies were made, corrected, and presumably read, in the tenth century, and in the twelfth, thirteenth and fifteenth as well. The scholars of the sixteenth century were not unlike some of our own days in considering those ages dark of which they knew little.
Once printed, however, Salvian's works enjoyed great popularity. Jurists, including Sirmond, Cujas, Godefroi and Rittershausen, whose notes on Salvian are packed with legal references, consulted his books and cited them extensively in their studies of the Roman codes. The French clergy during four centuries found that he furnished material so appropriate to the personal vices and social disorders of their own times that they emulated the earlier bishops of Gaul in preaching Salvian's sermons instead of writing their own.59 When Bossuet called him "le saint et éloquent prêtre de Marseille" his clerical readers must have assented with due gratitude. A German translator also praises his usefulness for the clergy in furnishing them so rich a source of Schönheiten and practical suggestions, that they should never let his works leave their hands.60 Historians found his work of great value, |34 especially when the current interpretation of history was most sympathetic to his constant reiteration: "It is only our vicious lives that have conquered us." So Johannes Jovianus Pontanus pointed out Salvian's special distinction in that, while writing of Christ and Christian topics, he had yet joined with these "very many histories and events of his own age, and commented sagely on them in the course of his account." 61 Zschimmer cites a long list of historians who have made extensive use of him; of these Guizot and Gibbon are the best known to us now, but many not named by Zschimmer would need to be added to bring the list up-to-date.62Indeed of late years Salvian seems to have been cited more than read. It is difficult to find a history of the period that does not refer to him, or a source book of ancient or medieval history that does not quote at least one of half-a-dozen famous passages, but the text itself is little read.
That this neglect has been a distinct loss to students of the later days of the Roman power in the west, will, I trust, be apparent even to those who make their acquaintance with Salvian through the medium of a translation. Since, however, a study of his works inevitably engenders the habit of reference to "authority," I shall not leave our author without this support. Know, then, that Pierre Pithou called Salvian "a most excellent author," Joseph Scaliger named him "the most Christian writer." Rittershausen, one of the most enthusiastic of editors, considered his opinions not only wholesome and holy,63 but fully apostolic, and judged, therefore, that Salvian should be deemed master not only of bishops, but of the whole Christian world as well.
[Footnotes moved to the end]
1. 1 Salvian De gubernatione Dei VII. 23.
2. 2 Ibid., VII. 1.
3. 3 Ad ecclesiam IV. 8.
4. 4 Gennadius, Catalogus virorum illustrium, c.68; written about A.D. 490-495.
5. 5 See Symmachus Ep. II. 35.
6. 6 These unfounded claims have a curious echo in the statement of a recent writer that Salvian was "priest and probably bishop." Holland, "The Crash of Empire," Dublin Review, CLXXVII (1925), 2.
7. 7 See, for example, the notes of Baluze, Salviani opera (1742), p. 356.
8. 8 He regularly appears as "Saint Salvianus" in the catalogue entries in the Harvard College Library.
9. 9 See Zschimmer, Salvianus (Halle, 1875), p. 6.
10. 10 Paulinus of Pella, Eucharisticos, 11.520-521.
11. 11 See Book VII. 12-13 and note 44, infra. His knowledge of Africa and his concern for it may be amply accounted for by its recent tragic history and also by the prominence of the African church. The Christian writers whose work chiefly influenced his were all connected with the African church except those whom he knew at Lerins and Marseilles. He may well have travelled in Africa.
12. 12 Gesta Treverorum, ed. Waitz, MGH, Scriptores, VIII, 157.
13. 13 Ep. 1. 5.
14. 14 See Book III. 10.
15. 15 See Book VII. 3 and note 6.
16. 16 Paulinus of Nola Carmen XI. 11. 49-68, in CSEL, XXX. 2.
17. 17 Ep. IV.
18. 18 Book VI. 13.
19. 19 See Haemmerle, Studia Salviana I (Landshut, 1893), 7.
20. 20 Vita S. Hilarii Arelatensis, 5 (Migne, PL, L, col. 1226).
21. 21 Eucherius, in a letter to his son Salonius prefaced to his Instructiones de quaestionibus difficilioribus veteris ac novi testamenti (CSEL, XXXI. 1, pp. 65-66), recalling his sons' teaching, wrote: "When you had scarcely reached the age of ten, you entered the monastery and were not only given training among that sacred brotherhood, but were reared up under our father Honoratus, first father of the islands and afterwards also master of the churches. There the teachings of the most blessed Hilarius, then a novice of the island, but now a most reverend bishop, formed you in all branches of spiritual study; a work completed by saints Salvian and Vincent, preeminent alike in eloquence and knowledge."
22. 22 Cooper-Marsdin, The History of the Islands of the Lérins (Cambridge, 1913), p. 49.
23. 23 Hilarius, Sermo de vita S. Honorati Arelatensis (Migne, PL, L, col. 1260): the passage which he quotes is not found in Salvian's extant works.
24. 24 Cyprianus Vita S. Caesarii I. 5. 42 (Migne, PL, LXVII, col. 1021).
25. 25 Salviani opera (Venice, 1696), p. 3.
26. 26 Ep. 8; cf. note 21, supra.
27. 27 Brakman suggests reading Pro reorum merito satisfactionis librum unum, which seems textually reasonable. He interprets this title as meaning a "book teaching how praiseworthy are sinners who atone for their sins to the satisfaction of God." Gennadius' account of Cassian 's works contains one De satisfactione paenitentiae, which is a simpler statement of the same subject. Mnemosyne, LII (1924), p. 181.
28. 28 See Peter Allix, "Dissertatio de Tertulliani vita et scriptis," in Oehler, Tertullianus, III (Leipzig, 1853), 76.
29. 29 Ep. IX. 20.
30. 30 Zschimmer, pp. 77-79.
31. 31 Geschichte der römischen Literatur ( th ed., Leipzig, 1913), III, 465.
32. 32 See H. K. Messenger, De temporum et modorum apud Salvianum usu, Preface, p. 1. The quotation occurs in Book IV. 1. Valran, Quare Salvianus magister episcoporum dictus sit (Paris, 1899), p. 5, suggests that the two works may have been composed during the same period.
33. 33 Ad ecclesiam IV. 9.
34. 34 "Appendix de Gennadii capite lxviii," Mnemosyne, LII (1924), 180.
35. 35 See Book VI. 12-13.
36. 36 Book VII. 9-10.
37. 37 Rutilius Namatianus De reditu suo II. 11. 49-50.
38. 38 Heitland; Agricola (Cambridge, 1921), pp. 426-432.
39. 39 Book III. 1.
40. 40 Ibid.
41. 41 Bury, in his appendix to Gibbon (The Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire [London, 1901], III, 490), says: "So far as Salvian's arguments are concerned, there is nothing to add to Gibbon's criticism (ch. xxxv, note 12) that 'Salvian has attempted to explain the moral government of the Deity; a task which may be readily performed by supposing that the calamities of the wicked are judgments, and those of the righteous trials.' " I cannot feel that this is a true summary of the case. Granted that Salvian wrote in complete acceptance of the Christian faith and of scriptural authority, he has accomplished his purpose very definitely; that we may not be convinced by the same means may be our loss or our gain, according to the point of view, but can hardly affect his success; it would seem likely that his discussion had a favorable effect in encouraging those for whom it was written. A full discussion of Salvian's theology will be found in G. Bruni, Un apologista della Provvidenza (Rome, 1925).
42. 42 Histoire universelle de l'Eglise chrétienne, I, 455.
43. 43 Paulinus of Pella, Eucharisticos.
44. 44Poema coniugis ad uxorem (Migne, PL, LI, coll. 611-615); Carmen de providentia divina (Ibid., 617-638).
45. 45 De scriptoribus ecclesiasticis (Brussels, 1719), p. 168.
46. 46 Bibliothèque choisie des Pères (Louvain, 1832), XXIV, 118.
47. 47 Quoted by Guillon, op. cit., p. 203, from de la Rue, Carême, II, 418.
48. 48 See H. K. Messenger, op. cit., sec. 48, and Book VIII. 5.
49. 49 See Wölfflin, " Allitteration und Reim bei Salvian," Archiv für lat. Lexikographie, XIII (1902-4), 41-49.
50. 50 For example, Book VIII. 1.
51. 51 Gregoire et Collombet, Oeuvres de Salvien (Paris, 1833), Introd., p. lix: Scaligerana (Amsterdam, 1740), p. 544.
52. 52 H. K. Messenger, op. cit.
53. 53 Zschimmer, pp. 61 ff.
54. 54 Fr. Kaulen, Geschichte der Vulgata (Mayenee, 1868), p. 197. The paper of Ulrich, De Salviani scripturae sacrae versionibus, Neostadii ad H., 1892, I have not been able to consult.
55. 55 Bibliotheca historico-literaria Patrum, II (Leipzig 1794), 826.
56. 56 Yet such is the infrequency of the present demand for editions of Salvian, that Pithou's original edition could be had recently at a lower price than obscure editions with better bindings.
57. 57 C. Halm, Salviani presbyteri Massiliensis libri qui supersunt, MGH, Auctores Antiquissimi, I, 1, Berlin, 1877: Fr. Pauly, Salviani presbyteri Massiliensis opera quae supersunt, CSEL, VIII, Vienna 1883. I have used Pauly's text throughout, except for occasional emendations proposed by H. K. Messenger, De temporum et modorum apud Salvianum usu.
58. 58 For additions to the editions cited above, see G. Bruni, Un apologista della Provvidenza (Rome, 1925), 68-79, or Schoenemann, op. cit., pp. 825-833, reprinted in Migne, PL, LIII, cols. 13-24. For translations see also Ceillier, Histoire générale des auteurs sacrés, XV (Paris, 1748), p. 81, and Gregoire et Collombet, Introd. pp. lxiii-lxvii. The most useful of the translations are: S. Carlo Borromeo, Libro di Salviano Vescovo di Marsiglia contra gli Spettacoli ed altre Vanità del Mondo, Milan, 1579; Pere Bonnet, Nouvelle Traduction des Oeuvres de Salvien, et du Traite de Vincent de Lérins contre les Heresies, Paris, 1700; P. P. Gregoire et F. Z. Collombet, Oeuvres de Salvien, Paris, 1833; A. Helf, Des Salvianus acht Bücher über die göttliche Regierung, Kempten, 1877. In English, a part of the sixth book appeared in 1580 as "a second blast of retrait from places and theaters"; a translation of the whole work which I have been unable to consult, was published at London in 1700.
59. 59 Guillon, op. cit., cites Bossuet, Le Jeune, Joli, Massillon, Saurin, Cheminais, de la Rue and others as having made extensive use of Salvian. Gregoire and Collombet in their notes cite long passages from the sermons of de la Rue which are taken bodily from Salvian's works. Indeed, Guillon says he "has transported them almost entire into his sermons" (p. 143).
60. 60 A. Helf, Des Salvianus acht Bücher über die Göttliche Regierung (Kempten, 1877), p. 13.
61. 61 Cited among the elogia in Rittershausen's edition.
62. 62 Salvianus, p. 54, note 1.
63. 63 Sanas et sanctas, the alliteration lawfully born of much reading of Salvian.
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Early Church Fathers - Additional Texts
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Salvian, On the Government of God (1930) pp.37-65. Preface and Book 1
Salvian, On the Government of God (1930) pp.37-65. Preface and Book 1
Preface, to Salonius: That the salutary purpose of the present work should atone for its lack of the vain adornments of rhetoric
Book I: The government of God proved by the general conviction of mankind, and by his judgment recounted in the books of Moses
1. On the general belief in God's government.
2. That good Christians cannot be wretched.
3. Of the infirmities of the saints.
4. God's guidance and judgments of the world.
5. On the meaning of prayer.
6. The earliest instances of God's judgment.
7. God's judgment shown in the Flood.
8. The examples of Abraham, of Sodom and Gomorrah.
9. The Exodus.
10. Man's ingratitude for his present blessings.
11. Examples of God's mercy and of his severity.
12. God's judgments of the Hebrews.
[Translated by Eva M. Sanford]
PREFACE
TO THE HOLY BISHOP SALONIUS, SALVIAN SENDS GREETINGS IN THE LORD
Practically all men who have chosen some form of literary composition as a fitting expression of their native genius have taken especial pains, whether they were writing of useful and worthy matters, or of useless and unworthy, to lighten the order of their discourse by the brilliance of their language and to illumine by their style the questions under discussion. It is to style therefore that the majority of writers on secular topics, whether in prose or verse, have paid most attention, not considering sufficiently the necessity of choosing subjects worthy of approbation, provided that whatever they said was either chanted in smooth and elegant verse, or narrated in distinguished prose.1
These authors have sought their own ends, and looking toward their individual praise rather than the benefit of others have not tried to be considered salutary and helpful, but rhetorical and eloquent. Therefore their writings are swollen with vanity, infamous for their falsehood, smeared with filth, or vicious because of their obscene subjects. Trafficking in such unworthy fashion to purchase praise for ingenuity seems to me less a glorification than a condemnation of one's genius. Since we, on the other hand, are lovers of deeds rather than words,2 we seek utility rather than applause. |38
It is not, then, for vain and worldly adornments that we solicit praise, but for salutary prescriptions. Our writings, trifling though they are, shall present no vain lures but actual remedies, calculated not to please idle ears but to benefit the minds of the sick. So do we hope to gain our full reward from heaven.
Now if this healing grace of ours cures the unfavorable opinion of our God held by certain men, it will be no small reward that I have thus aided many. But if no such benefit accrues, the very fact that I have tried to be of service may not be unfruitful. For a mind devoted to a good work and a charitable aim, though it has not achieved full success in its undertaking, is still rewarded for its good intent. At this point then I shall begin. |39
THE FIRST BOOK
1. By certain men God is said to be careless and neglectful of human actions, on the ground that he neither protects good men nor restrains the wicked; and they claim that this is why at the present time the good are generally wretched and the wicked happy. Since we are dealing with Christians the Holy Scriptures alone should be sufficient to refute this charge. The many who are still somewhat infected by pagan unbelief may perhaps be convinced by the testimony of the greatest pagan philosophers. Let us, then, prove that not even these men had any conception of a God careless and neglectful of the world, though they had no means of really knowing God, since they were outside the true faith and were ignorant of the law through which he is apprehended.
Pythagoras the philosopher, whom Philosophy herself regarded as her master, said in his discourse on the nature and beneficent works of God: "The Soul moves to and fro and is diffused through all parts of the world, and from it all living creatures receive their life..." 3
How then can God be said to neglect the world for which he so far shows his love that he extends his own being through its whole mass? Plato and all the Platonic school confess that God is the controller of all things. The Stoics testify that he remains always as steersman within that which he guides. What truer or more religious conception could they have had of the loving care of God than this comparison with a helmsman? For they clearly understood that as the helmsman never takes his hand from the tiller, so God |40 never in the slightest degree withdraws his care from the world; and as the pilot catching the breezes, avoiding rocks, watching the stars, is completely absorbed, body and soul, in his task, so our God never turns his most gracious eyes from the whole extent of the world, nor takes away the guiding power of his providence, nor removes the indulgence of his most kindly love. Whence comes also that ancient mystic saying by which Maro wished to prove himself no less philosopher than poet: "For God makes his way through all lands and the paths of the sea and the high heavens." 4 Tully also says: "Nor indeed can God himself, who is known by us, be known in any other way than as a mind loosed and free and separated from all mortal matter, understanding all things and moving them." 5 Elsewhere he states that nothing is more immediately present than God;6 by him the world is necessarily ruled. God, therefore, is neither subject nor obedient to any natural force; he himself rules all nature. Unless forsooth we are led by our great wisdom to believe that he, by whom we say all things are ruled, at the same time both rules and neglects them! Since even men outside our faith have been compelled by sheer necessity to say that all things are known by God and are moved and ruled by him, how is it that some now think him careless and neglectful of the world? Is it not he who comprehends all creation by the fineness of his perception, moves it by his strength, rules it by his power, and protects it by his kindness?
I have told you what men preeminent alike in philosophy and eloquence have thought of the majesty and government of the most high God. Moreover, I have cited the noblest masters of both these supreme arts expressly to facilitate my proof that all others have either agreed, or, if they have disagreed, have done so without any authority. And, in fact, I can find none who have differed from this |41 judgment, except for the delirious ravings of the Epicureans and certain of their imitators.7 These last have associated God with carelessness and sloth, just as they have linked pleasure with virtue ---- so it appears that those who entertain this idea are likely to follow the vices of the Epicureans along with their opinion and doctrine.
2. I do not think that we need also use the divine word to prove so obvious a case, especially since the sacred writings furnish such abundant and open refutation of all the claims of ungodly men that, in meeting those of their vile charges which follow, we shall be able to refute more fully those already mentioned. They say that God neglects us entirely, since he neither restrains the wicked nor protects the good, and therefore in this world the condition of the better men is substantially the worse. They contrast the poverty of good men with the wealth of the wicked, their weakness with the strength of the wicked, their constant grief with the others' perpetual joy, their misery and mean estate with the honors and prosperity of sinners.
I wish at the outset to ask those who mourn this state of affairs, or base their accusations on it, this one question: is their grief for the saints, that is, the true and faithful Christians, or for the false impostors? If for the false, it is a needless grief that mourns for the unhappiness of the wicked, since, to be sure, all evil men are made worse by success in their undertakings, and rejoice at the lucky turn of their folly. Yet they ought to be most wretched in order that they may cease to be wicked, that they may cease to apply the name of religion to their most evil gains and to bestow the title of sanctity on their sordid traffickings; in such a case, indeed, a comparison of the misfortunes of sinners with their misdeeds |42 shows that they are less unfortunate than they deserve, for the utmost misfortunes they can suffer leave them still less wretched than they are wicked. It is foolish to grieve for their lack of wealth and happiness. Far less should we lament in the case of the saints, for however unhappy they may seem to men who do not understand their condition, it is impossible for them to be otherwise than happy. Moreover, it is superfluous to think them wretched because of sickness or poverty or any like misfortune, in the midst of which they count themselves happy; for no man is wretched because of other men's judgment, but only in his own.8
So those who are truly happy in their own estimation cannot be unhappy through the false conception of any man; for none, I think, are more fortunate than those who live and act according to their own determination and vows. Religious men are lowly ----they wish to be so; poor ---- they delight in poverty; without ambition---- they spurn it; unesteemed ---- they flee from honors; they mourn ---- but they seek out occasion for mourning; they are weak ----nay, they rejoice in weakness. For the apostle said, "When I am weak, then am I strong." 9 Nor was this opinion held undeservedly by the man to whom God himself spoke thus: "My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness." 10
It is useless for us to bemoan this affliction of bodily illness, which we know is the mother of strength. Therefore, whatever their sorrows may have been, any who are truly religious should be called happy, since amid any hardships or difficulties whatsoever none are happier than those who are what they wish to be. Although we all know individuals whose aims are vile and shameful, who think themselves happy in gaining their desires, yet in actual fact such men are not happy, because they ought not to desire what |43 they do. Moreover, the religious are happier than all others in this, that they have what they wish and at the same time cannot possibly wish for anything better than they have.11 So toil, fasting, poverty, humility and weakness are not burdensome to all who suffer them but only to those who are unwilling to bear them. For the mind of the sufferer determines whether his troubles are heavy or light to endure. Just as no task is so light that it is not heavy to the man who performs it unwillingly, none is so heavy that it does not seem light to him who performs it gladly.12
Or are we perhaps to think that it was a burden to those ancient patterns of virtue, the Fabii, Fabricii and Cincinnati, that they, who did not wish riches, were poor? 13 Remember that they directed all their efforts, all their labor, to the common good, and by their individual poverty contributed to the growing wealth of the state. Surely you do not think that it was with groans and sadness that they endured their famous life of rustic economy, when they ate their cheap country fare before the very fire over which they had cooked it, and delayed even this poor meal until evening? Did they take it ill that they were not piling up talents of gold in the pursuit of miserly wealth, when they were passing laws to restrict the circulation even of silver? Could men who judged a patrician unworthy of the senate because he had wished to increase his wealth |44 to the sum of ten pounds of silver possibly think it a penalty for their illicit greed that they had not their purses stuffed with gold? 14
In those days, I think, men did not despise humble ways of life, when they wore only one short and shaggy garment, when they were summoned from the plow to the dictator's fasces, and, on the point of winning fame in the consular robes, very likely wiped off their dusty sweat on those same imperial togas that they were about to don. In their time the magistrates were poor, but the state wealthy, whereas now the wealth of officials makes the state poor. What madness, I ask you, or what blindness, leads men to think that private fortunes can survive in the midst of the need and beggary of the state? Such were the ancient Romans; so they in their day scorned riches, though they knew not God, just as in ours men who follow the Lord still scorn them.
But why do I speak of those men who in their desire to extend the Roman power turned their scorn of private means to the public enrichment, and while individually poor still had abundance in the common wealth of the state? Even Greek philosophers without any interest in public gain, through sheer greed of glory have been known to strip themselves of almost all articles of common use, and, not content with this, have exalted their creed to the lofty pinnacle of contempt of suffering and death, saying that even in chains and punishment a wise man still is happy.15 They would have it that the power of virtue is so great that a good man can never fail to be content. If, then, certain wise men now think that those men were not unhappy, though they received no reward for their efforts but transient praise, how much more must religious and saintly men cease to be thought wretched, who both enjoy at this present time |45 the delights of their faith, and are to attain as well the reward of eternal blessedness?
3. One of those of whom we complain said to a certain holy man who followed the true doctrine, that is, that God rules all things and tempers his governance and guidance according to his knowledge of human necessities: "Why then, I ask, are you yourself infirm?" His line of reasoning, I suppose, was as follows: "if God, as you think, rules everything in this present life, if he dispenses all fortunes, then how is it that a man whom I know to be a sinner is strong and healthy, whereas you, whose sanctity I do not question, are infirm?"
Who does not marvel at the depth of feeling of one who considers the merits and virtues of a godly man worthy of such great recompense that he thinks they should be rewarded in this present life by the fleshly strength of the body? I answer, therefore, not in the name of any one saint but of them all: "Do you ask, then, whoever you are, how it is that holy men come to be weak? My answer is brief: they make themselves infirm for the express reason that if they are strong, they can hardly be holy."16 I think that men gain strength entirely through their food and drink, and are weak through abstinence, thirst and fasting. Therefore it is not strange that those are weak who scorn the use of the means by which others are made strong. And there is good reason for such scorn, according to the words of the apostle Paul, when he said: "I keep under my body and bring it into subjection; lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway." 17 If the apostle himself considered the weakness of the body an end to be sought, who acts wisely in avoiding it? If the apostle feared the strength of the flesh, who rightly presumes to |46 be strong? This, then, is the reason why men who have given themselves over to Christ both are and wish to be weak. Far be it from us to think that holy men are neglected by God for the very reason for which, we trust, they are the more loved by him. We read that the apostle Timothy was most weak in the flesh.18 Was this a sign of God's neglect, or did Timothy through his weakness fail to please Christ, willing as he was to be weak in order to please him? Even so the apostle Paul, though Timothy was suffering from serious infirmities, yet permitted him to take and sip only a very little wine; that is, he wished him to have regard for his weakness but not so far as to attain full vigor.19 And why was this? What other reason could there be but that which he himself has given? "For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary," he says, "the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would." 20
It was not without insight that a certain author 21 said in this connection that if the strength of the body prevents us from doing what we wish, the flesh must be weakened in order that we may achieve our desires. For he says: "The weakness of our flesh sharpens the vigor of the mind, and when our limbs are weakened bodily strength is transformed into spiritual virtue. Then our inmost parts no longer seethe with disgraceful passions, and secret desires no longer kindle a diseased mind; our senses do not roam wantonly over various enticements, but the soul alone exults, rejoicing in the weakness of the body as over a defeated adversary." |47
This, as I said, is the cause to which religious men ascribe their infirmities, and you, I think, can no longer deny its validity.
4. But perhaps they have, you say, other and greater sufferings, that is, they endure many hard and bitter trials in this life; they arc captured, tortured and butchered. That is true, but what are we to make of the fact that the prophets were led away into captivity and that the apostles also suffered torments? Surely we cannot doubt that God had the greatest concern for them, since it was for God that they bore these afflictions. But perhaps you claim this as an additional proof that God neglects everything that happens in this life and reserves his whole care for the judgment to come, since the good have always suffered, as the wicked have performed, all things evil. This idea does not seem to be that of an unbeliever, especially as it admits the future judgment of God. But we say that the human race is to be judged by Christ, while yet maintaining that now also God rules and ordains all things in accordance with his reason. While we declare that he will judge in the future, we also teach that he always has judged us in this life. As God always governs, so too he always judges, for his government is itself judgment.
In how many ways do you wish this proved, by reason, or by examples, or by authorities? If you wish it proved by reason, who is so lacking in ordinary human intelligence and so utterly averse to the truth of which we speak, that he does not recognize and see that the surpassing beauty of the created world, the inestimable grandeur of the heavens above and of the regions below are ruled by the same power that created them? He who devised their elements will himself be their governor. He will guide all things by a providence and reason consistent with the majestic power by which he founded them. And certainly, since even in those matters that are conducted by human activity, absolutely nothing exists without reason, and all things derive their security from providence, even as the body derives its life from the soul; so in this world not only |48 empires and provinces, civil and military affairs, but also the lesser offices and private homes, the very sheep and the smaller sorts of domestic animals are controlled by no other means than human ordinance and wisdom, as by a guiding hand on the tiller. All this beyond a doubt is in accordance with the will and judgment of the most high God, that the whole human race should govern the lesser parts, or limbs of the world, following the example of God's government of the whole body of the universe.
But, you suggest, in the beginning the governance of his creatures was so determined and arranged by God; yet after he had formed and perfected the whole scheme of things, he abdicated, and renounced the administration of earthly matters. I suppose you mean to imply that he fled from the idea of toil and repudiated it, that he sought to avoid the annoyance of constant effort. Or was it that, occupied with other business, he abandoned a part of his affairs, since he could not attend to the whole?
5. God then puts far from himself, you say, all thought of mortal men. In that case what rational ground is there for our belief in his divinity? What reason is there for worshipping Christ, or what hope of winning his favor? For if God in this life neglects the human race, why do we daily stretch out our hands toward heaven? Why do we pray so often for the mercy of God? Why do we hasten to the churches? Why kneel in prayer before the altars? There is no reason for praying if the hope of an answer to prayer is taken from us. You see what vain folly lies in the urging of this idea; truly, if it is accepted, nothing at all remains of our religion. But perhaps you take refuge in the argument that we honor God in the fear of a future judgment, and perform all the ritual of our daily worship to gain absolution on the judgment day hereafter. In that case, what was the meaning of the daily preaching of Paul the apostle in the church, and his command that we offer constantly to God our prayers, our entreaties, our requests and our thanksgivings? |49
What is the purpose of all this? What else than, as he himself says, "that we may live a quiet and peaceable life in all chastity?" 22 For our present needs, as we see, he orders us to pray and beseech the Lord. Surely he would not command this if he were not sure that God hearkens to prayer. How can any one suppose that the ears of God are open for the granting of boons at some future time, but deaf and blocked against immediate petitions? Or what leads us when praying in the church to ask God for present safety, if we think that he does not listen at all to our prayers? In that case we should make no vows for our safety and prosperity.
Perhaps, to the end that the modesty of the request may win favor for the voice of the petitioner, we should rather pray thus: "Lord, we do not seek prosperity in this life, nor beseech you for immediate favors, for we know that your ears are closed to such petitions and that you do not listen to such prayers, but we ask only for those favors that shall be granted us after our death."
Granted that such a petition is not without value, on what rational basis does it rest? For if God is without interest in this life, and closes his ears to the prayers of his suppliants, then doubtless he who does not hear our present pleas is deaf also to our prayers for the future. Are we to believe that Christ listens or denies his attention according to the diverse nature of our prayers, that lie closes his ears when we ask for present boons, and opens them when we ask for blessings to come? But enough of this. The arguments are so stupid and frivolous that one needs to beware lest what is said for the honor of God seem injurious to him. For so great and terrible is the reverence due to his sacred majesty that we should not only shudder at the arguments of our opponents, but should also make our defence of religion with due fear and circumspection.
If, therefore, it is stupid and impious to believe that the divine love despises the care of human affairs, then God does not despise |50 it; moreover, if he does not scorn it, he governs; if he governs, he judges by the very exercise of his government, since there can be no rule without the constant exercise of judgment on the part of the ruler.
6. Perhaps some one may think a proof too insecure that rests on reason alone without the support of authority. Let us see how God has ruled the world from the beginning; for by demonstrating that he has always ruled the universe, we shall prove that he has at the same time exercised judgment.
What is the testimony of the Scriptures? "Therefore God formed man of clay and breathed into him the breath of life." And what followed? " He placed him in a paradise of pleasure." 23 What next? What else than that he gave him law, filled him with his commands, formed him by his instruction? But what happened then? Man transgressed the sacred ordinance, underwent judgment, lost paradise and suffered the penalty of damnation. Who can fail to see God as both governor and judge in this whole account? For he placed Adam in paradise in innocence; he expelled him in guilt. In Adam's establishment we see the divine ordinance; in his expulsion, the divine judgment. For when God set man in a place of delight, he ordained his way of life; but when he expelled him in guilt from that realm, he exercised judgment. This then is the story of the first man, that is, of the father.
What of the second, the son? "In process of time it came to pass," say the Holy Scriptures, "that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering: but unto Cain and his offering he had not respect." 24
Before I speak of the more obvious judgment of God, I think that even in the account just given there is a certain indication of |51 judgment; for in the act of receiving one brother's sacrifice and rejecting the other God gave a most open verdict as to the justice of the one and the injustice of the other. But this was not enough. Thereafter Cain paved the way for his later crimes by leading his brother into the wilderness; in the friendly protection of the desert he committed his murder. He proved himself at once the most wicked and most stupid of men, since he thought he had sufficient secrecy for the most evil and abhorrent act if he avoided the sight of men when about to commit fratricide with God as his witness.
Whence I think he had this same idea that is now so prevalent, that God does not behold things done on earth and does not see any of the acts of wicked men. Nor is there any doubt of this, since, when he was admitted to speech with God after the commission of his crime, he answered that he knew nothing of his brother's death. He was so sure of God's ignorance of his deed, that he thought the most deadly wrong could be hidden by a mere lie.
But the event proved other than he anticipated. For though he thought his fratricide unseen by God, his condemnation taught him that God had seen. I now have one question to ask of those who deny that human affairs are regarded by God or ruled or judged by him: are all the circumstances different in these accounts that we have given? For I think that he is present who is concerned in the sacrifice; he rules who rebukes Cain after his sacrifice; he is anxious who requires the victim of the murderer; he judges who condemns the wicked slayer by a just verdict.
In this incident, indeed, there is yet another point convenient to our argument. Surely we are not to wonder that holy men are now suffering certain hardships, since we see that God even at that time permitted the first of his saints to be most wickedly slain. As to the reason why he permits such actions, it is not within the power of human weakness to discover fully, nor is this a fit occasion for such discussion. For the present it is enough to prove that deeds |52 of this sort do not occur because of the negligence or inattention of God, but are permitted by the dispensation of his wisdom. Moreover, we can by no means call him unjust, for the will of God is the highest justice; nor does a divine action cease to be righteous because man is incapable of grasping the workings of the divine justice. But let us return to the main argument.
7. We have seen in the accounts already given that nothing is done without the care of God, but that some of these actions were so arranged by his divine wisdom, some endured by his forbearance, some punished by his sentence. Certain people, perhaps, think that these few cases do not sufficiently establish our contention; let us see if we can make it completely clear through the experience of all men.
When, therefore, the human race had increased and multiplied alike in numbers and in wickedness, as the Holy Scripture says: "God seeing that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually, repented that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart, and he said: 'I will destroy man whom. I have created, from the face of the earth.' " 25
Let us consider how both the care of God and his severity are equally shown in the whole account. For first we read, "moreover God seeing"; secondly, "it grieved him at his heart"; and thirdly, "he said, 'I will destroy man whom I have created.'" In the first statement, that God sees all things, his care is shown; in the statement that he grieves is shown the terror of his wrath; that he punishes, his severity as a judge. "God therefore repented," says the Holy Scripture, "that he had made man on the earth"; this does not indicate that God is subject to repentance or any other emotion, but rather that the divine word, to further our understanding of the true meaning of the Scriptures, speaks to us in terms of human feeling and shows the force of God's anger under |53 the name of repentance; moreover, the divine wrath is the punishment of the sinner.
What followed then? When God saw that the earth was corrupt he said to Noah: "The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them: and behold, I will destroy them with the earth." 26 What happened next? "All the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the flood-gates of heaven were opened and the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights." 27 And a little later: "All flesh died that moved upon the earth." And again: "And Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark." 28
Now I wish to ask those who say that God neglects human fortunes whether they believe that at this time he cared for earthly matters and judged them? I think he not merely judged but gave a twofold judgment; for in preserving the good he proved himself a generous giver of rewards, and in destroying the wicked, a severe judge.
Perhaps these instances may seem to stupid wits to lack authority, since they happened before the Flood ---- in another age, as it were. As if we could assume that God was different at that time, and afterwards ceased to desire to exercise the same care for the world! Indeed, by the divine grace I could prove my statements by examples from all generations since the Flood, but their great number forbids. However, certain of the more important instances will suffice, for since God is undoubtedly the same in the greater and the lesser cases, the lesser may be inferred from the greater.
8. After the Flood God blessed the generation of men, and when this blessing had brought forth an immeasurable host of men, God spoke to Abraham from heaven, ordering him to leave his own land and go to a strange country. He was called, he followed; he |54 was guided and established; from a poor man he became rich; from an obscure man, powerful. Though reduced by his journeyings to the lowest estate, he came to be most high in honor. Yet in order that the previous gifts of God to him should not seem undeserved generosity, he who rejoiced in prosperity was tested in adversity. Then came toil, danger and fear; he was vexed by travelling, worn out by exile, visited with shame, and deprived of his wife. God ordered him to sacrifice his son; the father offered his child, and so far as the resolution of his heart was concerned, performed the sacrifice. Again came periods of exile, again fear, the hatred of the Philistines, the rapine of Abimelech ---- many evils, yet compensated by equal consolations, for though he was afflicted in many things, yet was he rewarded for them all.
What conclusion are we to draw? In all the events which we have recounted, is not God seen examining Abraham, inviting and leading him, anxious for him, his sponsor, protector, benefactor, testing and exalting him, at once his avenger and his judge? Surely he examined him, for he chose him as the one best man of them all; he invited him, for he called him; he was his guide, leading him through in safety to unknown lands; anxious for him, for he visited him by the oak tree; his sponsor, in promises of things to come; his protector, guarding him among barbarous races; his benefactor, in that he enriched him; his examiner, in that he wished to test him by harsh trials; his exalter, for he made him powerful beyond all men; his avenger, for he avenged him on his adversaries; his judge, for in avenging him he exercised judgment.
Moreover, God at once added another item to this history when he said: "The cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is grown great, and their sin is increased overmuch." 29 The cry of Sodom and Gomorrah, he said, is grown great. He said well that sins cry out, for without doubt the cry of sinners is great, as it ascends from earth to heaven. Why does he speak of men's sins as crying out? |55 Certainly because he means that his ears are smitten by the cries of our sins, that the punishment of sinners may not be delayed. Truly, it is a cry, and a great cry, when the fatherly love of God is overcome by the cries of sin, so that he is compelled to punish the sinners.30
God showed how unwillingly he punishes even the worst of sinners, when he said that the cry of Sodom ascended to him. That is to say: "My mercy indeed persuades me to spare them; nevertheless the cry of their sins compels me to punish." When he had said this, what resulted? Angels were sent to Sodom; they set out, and entered the city; they were treated hospitably by the good and injuriously by the wicked; the wicked were blinded and the good saved. Lot, with his dear ones who honored God, was led out of the city; Sodom itself was burned with its wicked inhabitants.
I ask at this point whether it was in accordance with justice or contrary to it that God burned these wicked men? He who says that the Sodomites were unjustly punished by God accuses him of injustice; if, on the other hand, God justly destroyed those evil men, he judged them.
Surely he judged them, and indeed his judgment clearly foreshadowed that which is to come. For it is well known that in time to come Gehenna will be in flames for the punishment of the wicked, just as flames from heaven then consumed the city of Sodom and its neighbors. Moreover, God wished his immediate action to prefigure that coming judgment, when he sent Gehenna down out of heaven upon an impious people. So the apostle also says that God condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by their overthrow, making them an example to those that hereafter should live ungodly lives,31 although his action on that occasion had in it more |56 of mercy than of severity. For that he so long delayed their punishment was due to his mercy; that he finally punished them, to his justice. So when God sent his angels to Sodom, he wished to prove to us that he is loath to punish even wicked men; to the end that when we should read what insults the angels endured from the people of Sodom, and see plainly the enormity of their crimes, the disgraceful character of their vices and the obscenity of their lusts, he might prove to us that he did not wish to destroy them, but they themselves forced their destruction on him.
9. I might mention countless further examples, but I am afraid that in my effort to give adequate proof I may seem to have composed a whole history. Moses pasturing his sheep in the desert saw a bush burning, heard God from the midst of the bush and received his commands. He was exalted in power and was sent to Pharaoh; he spoke with him, was scorned, but conquered. The Egyptian was struck down, Pharaoh's disobedience was smitten, and not in one way alone, but many, to the end that he should be tortured by a diversity of punishments in consideration of the greatness of his sacrilege. What was the outcome? Ten times he rebelled; ten times he was smitten. What is our conclusion? I think you must recognize that in all these cases God shows equally his care for human affairs and his judgment of them.
In Egypt, indeed, the judgment of God at that time was evidently not single but manifold. For as often as he smote the rebellious Egyptians, so often he judged them. But after the events already told, what happened? Israel was dismissed; after celebrating the Passover they despoiled the Egyptians and departed in wealth. Pharaoh repented, gathered his army, overtook the fugitives, encamped beside them, was separated from them by the darkness; the sea was dried up, Israel crossed over and by the friendly withdrawal of the waves was set free. Pharaoh followed, the sea rolled over him, and he was drowned by the engulfing waves. |57
I think that the judgment of God has been made clear in these events, and indeed not merely his judgment but also his moderation and patience. For it was due to his patience that the Egyptians in their rebellion were often smitten, to his judgment that for their persistent stubbornness they were condemned to death. Therefore, after this series of adventures the race of the Hebrews, victorious without warfare, entered the desert. They followed an uncharted course, pathless wanderers, with God to lead the way, honored by his divine comradeship, powerful through their heavenly leader, following a moving column of cloud by day, of fire by night, which took on shifting changes of color to suit the changing skies, that its dull obscurity might stand out in contrast to the strong light of day and its flaming splendor illumine by its clear glow the mists of night.
Add to this the springs that suddenly gushed forth, add the bitter waters given and changed, keeping their old appearance but changing their character. Add mountain peaks cleft open by streams gushing forth, dusty fields foaming with new torrents. Add flocks of birds sent into the camp of the wanderers, since God in his most indulgent love catered not only to the needs but also to the palates of his people; the food granted throughout forty years by the daily ministry of the stars, the dew of sweet morsels shed from the poles, offering abundance not merely for nourishment but for delight. Add that the men experienced in no part of their bodies the growth or losses natural to human beings, their nails did not grow, nor their teeth decay, their hair stayed always of one length, their feet were not worn by the march, their clothing was not tattered, their shoes not broken, and thus the honor granted to the men themselves was even sufficient to dignify their mean garments.32 Add to all this God descending to earth to instruct his |58 people, lending himself, God the Son,33 to earthly sight, the countless throngs of people admitted to familiar intercourse with him, waxing strong in the power of his sacred intimacy.
Add to this the thunders, the lightnings, the terrifying blasts of celestial trumpets, the fearful crashing over the whole sky, the poles rumbling with a holy sound, the fires, mists and clouds filled with the very presence of God, God speaking to man face to face, the law resounding from his holy lips, the letters inscribed in minutest accuracy on the stone page by the finger of God, the stone become a written scroll, the people learning and God teaching in a school of heaven and earth commingled, almost a union of men and angels.
For it is written that when Moses had taken the words of the people to the Lord, the Lord said to him: "Lo, now I come to thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee." 34 And a little later: "Lo, there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount." 35 Again: "And the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai, on the top of the mount." 36 Again: "And the Lord talked with Moses. And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door: and all the people rose up and worshipped, every man at his tent door. And the Lord spake unto Moses, face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend." 37
In view of all this, does God seem to take any thought for men, giving them such great gifts, helping them so much, sharing his speech with a vile mortal, as if admitting him to converse in his |59 sacred fellowship, opening before him his hands filled with immortal riches, nourishing him with a cup of nectar, feeding him with celestial food? What greater care, I ask, could his guidance afford, what greater love could he show, than possession in the course of this present life of such a mirror of future blessedness?
10. Perhaps at this juncture you may answer that God did once exercise such care for men, but now does not at all. Why should we believe this? Because we do not now eat manna daily as the Israelites did? But we reap fields full of grain at the harvest. Because we do not catch quails that fly into our hands? But we devour all kinds of birds, cattle and beasts. Because we are not granted waters gushing from clefts opened in the rocks? But we pour the fruits of our vines into our wine cellars. I have more to add: we ourselves, who say that the children of Israel at that time were cared for by God but that we are neglected by him, would absolutely reject the choice of their condition if we could receive their past favors in exchange for our present benefits. For we should not be willing to lose what we now have in order to gain what they then enjoyed, not that we are better off than the Israelites were, but that they too, who were then daily fed by the ministry of the stars and of God, preferred the old accustomed fodder for their bellies to the favors they enjoyed. They were actually sad at their vile recollections of carnal foods, pining away with a vulgar yearning for onions and garlic, not because their former diet was more wholesome, but because they acted just as we do now. They loathed what they had and longed for what they lacked. We would rather praise bygone days than the present, not that we should prefer to revive the past if the choice were given us, but because it is a well-known failing of the human mind always to desire what it lacks, and, as the proverb says, "Another's goods please us, and ours please others more." 38 |60
To this may be added a trait shared by almost all, of being forever ungrateful to God, and all in turn are bound by the deep-rooted and inborn vice of belittling the blessings God gives, in order that they may not feel obliged to look on themselves as his debtors.
But enough of this: let us at last return to our original proposition. I think we have made no slight progress toward proving the point; still let me add one instance more, if you please, since it is better to prove a matter more fully than is necessary than to risk falling short of conviction.39
11. Freed from Pharaoh's yoke the people of the Hebrews transgressed near Mount Sinai, and were at once smitten by the Lord for their transgression. For it is written: "And the Lord plagued the people for their delusion concerning the calf which Aaron made." 40 What greater and clearer judgment could God give concerning sinners than that punishment should overtake them forthwith in the midst of their sin? Yet since all the people were guilty, why was not destruction visited on all alike? Surely because the Lord, loving them, smote some with the sword of his sentence, in order to correct the others by their example, and to prove to all at one time his censure in chastising their sin and his affection in pardoning them. For his censure was shown in the punishment, his mercy in the pardon, though disproportionately, for on that occasion he yielded more to mercy than to severity.
Surely then, since our most indulgent Lord shows himself always more prone to mercy than to punishment, even though in punishing a part of the Jewish host by his divine censure he gave some scope to judgment and severity, yet his love claimed the greater portion of the people ---- a special and peculiar act of mercy to countless |61 men that the punishment might not destroy all who were implicated in the guilt. But toward certain individuals and families, as we read, the censure of God was inexorable. Such an instance is that of the man who, when the people rested on the Sabbath day, presumed to gather wood and was killed. For although his action seemed harmless in itself, yet the observance of the day made it sinful. Or the time when two men were contesting with each other, and one, since he had blasphemed, was punished by death. For it is written: "Lo the son of an Israelitish woman, whose father was an Egyptian, went out among the children of Israel; and this son of an Israelitish woman and a man of Israel strove together in the camp; and the Israelitish woman's son blasphemed the name of the Lord, and cursed. And they brought him to Moses." And a little later: "And they put him in ward, that the mind of the Lord might be showed them. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 'Bring forth him that hath cursed without the camp; and let all that heard him lay their hands upon his head, and let all the congregation stone him.' " 41
Was not God's judgment immediate and manifest and his sentence pronounced as if the heavenly decision followed the forms of our legal procedure? First the man who had sinned was arrested, then he was led, so to speak, before the judge's seat, thirdly accused and then put into prison, lastly punished by the authority of the divine judgment; furthermore he was not only punished but punished in accordance with evidence given, so that God's justice and not merely his power was seen to condemn his guilt. This truly was meant as an example working toward the correction of all men, so that none should commit thereafter the deed which all the people had punished in one person. For this reason and by this judgment the Lord does all things now and has always done them, that whatever penalties individuals have to bear should work toward the correction of all. |62
So it was also when Abihu and Nadab, men of priestly blood, were consumed by fire from heaven, in whose case, to be sure, the Lord wished to show not merely judgment but judgment immediately impending. For it is written that when the fire sent by the Lord had consumed the burnt offering: "Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded them not. And there went out fire from the Lord and devoured them and they died before the Lord." 42 What else did he wish than to show his right hand stretched over us, and his sword ever threatening? For he punished the errors of the aforesaid men at once, in their very act, and the crime of the sinners was scarcely committed before punishment was exacted for their misdeeds.
Yet not only this was accomplished in their case, but much else besides, For, as in these men not a wicked intention but only a misguided impulse was punished, the Lord surely made clear what punishment any one would deserve who committed a sin through contempt of the divine power, since even those who had sinned only through thoughtlessness were struck down by God ---- or how guilty they would be who acted contrary to his command, when those who merely acted without his command were thus stricken. God also wished to further our correction by a salutary example, that all laymen should understand how much they ought to fear the wrath of God, since neither did the high priest's merits rescue his sons from instant punishment, nor did the privilege of the sacred ministry redeem them.
But why do I speak of men whose ill-advised action really did in some measure affect God and work injury to his divinity? Mary spoke against Moses and was punished; she was not only punished, but punished in due course of trial. For first she was called to justice, then accused, and thirdly chastised. In the accusation she |63 learned the full force of her sentence, and in her leprosy she paid full atonement for her crime ---- yet this punishment humbled not Mary alone, but Aaron as well. For, though it was unsuitable for the high priest to be deformed by leprosy, yet the correction of the Lord plagued him also. Nor was this all. In the punishment that Mary suffered, Aaron too was involved, as sharer in her guilt; Mary indeed was punished that Aaron might be put to confusion.
Furthermore, that we might recognize in the individual cases that the form of the divine judgment is inexorable, God did not even yield to the intercession of the injured party. For we read that the Lord spoke thus to Aaron and Mary:
"Wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?" And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them, and he departed. And behold, Mary became leprous, and white as snow: and Moses cried unto the Lord, saying: "Heal her now, O God, I beseech thee." And the Lord said unto Moses: "If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be ashamed seven days? Let her be shut out from the camp seven days, and after that let her be received in again." 43
These things that we have told should be sufficient for this division of the argument and for this part of our work; for it is an endless task to discuss all the cases; indeed, it would be overlong merely to enumerate them without any discussion. But let me add one more instance.
12. The people of the Hebrews repented having gone out of Egypt; they were struck down: then they grieved at the weariness and toil of the journey, and were afflicted: they desired flesh-meat, and were smitten. And because, eating manna daily, they desired to satiate the cravings of their bellies with illicit foods, they were sated indeed in their passionate greed, but tortured in that very satiety. "For while their food was still in their mouths," says the Scripture, "the wrath of God came upon them, and slew very many of them and smote down the chosen men of Israel." 44 |64
Og rebelled against Moses: he was blotted out. Korah taunted him: he was overwhelmed. Dathan and Abiram murmured against him: they were swallowed up. "For the earth opened and swallowed Dathan, and covered the company of Abiram." 45 Two hundred and fifty leaders of the people also, as the sacred narrative testifies, who were called upon by name to speak at the time of the council, rose against Moses. "And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron, and said to them: 'Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them; wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord?' " And what happened after this? "There came out a fire from the Lord, and consumed the two hundred and fifty men that offered incense." 46
When such deeds were committed, heavenly mercy was of no avail. Correction was administered again and again, yet improvement did not follow. For just as we are chastised again and again, and do not improve, so they too, though constantly struck down, did not mend their ways. For what is written? "But on the morrow all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron, saying, 'Ye have killed the people of the Lord.' " 47
What happened then? Fourteen thousand seven hundred men were struck down at once and consumed by divine fire. Since all the multitude of the people sinned, why did not the punishment fall on all alike? Especially since, as I said before, no one escaped from Koran's sedition. Why did God on the former occasion wish all the assemblage of sinners to be killed, but at this time a portion only? Surely because the Lord is full of justice and mercy and therefore his indulgence causes many concessions to his love, and his discipline to his severity. And so on the one occasion he gave first place |65 to discipline that the punishment of all the guilty might redound to the general betterment; on the other he yielded precedence to mercy, that the whole people might not perish. Although he acted with such mercy, yet because the punishment so often repeated for a part of the people did not profit them, finally he condemned them all to death. This example should contribute to our fear and our correction alike, that we, failing to be improved by their example, may not come to be punished by a destruction like theirs.
There is no doubt what their end was. Although the whole race of the Hebrews went out of Egypt to enter the promised land, yet not one of them entered it save two holy men alone. For it is written: "The Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying: 'How long shall I bear with this evil congregation, which murmur against me? As truly as I live, saith the Lord, as ye have spoken in mine ears this day, so will I do to you: your carcasses shall fall in this wilderness!'" What followed? "Your little ones," he said, "which you said would be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised. But as for you, your carcasses, they shall fall in this wilderness." And what then? " All died and were struck down in the sight of the Lord." 48
What detail is lacking in this whole account? Would you see a ruler? Behold him, correcting present sins and disposing the future. Would you see a severe judge? Behold, he punishes the guilty. Would you see a just and loving judge? Behold, he spares the innocent. Would you see the judge of the whole world? Behold, his judgment is in all places. For as judge he accuses and as judge he rules; as judge he pronounces sentence; as judge he destroys the guilty, and as judge he rewards the innocent.
[Footnotes moved to the end and renumbered]
1. 1 As is usually the case with writers trained in the later Roman rhetorical schools, Salvian's disclaimer of any interest in rhetorical style leads him to use an elaborate phraseology in his preface, somewhat at variance with his usual simpler and more colloquial style.
2. 2 See Seneca De tranquillitate vitae I. 1, and IV. 1, infra. In these notes, references without title are to Salvian, De gubernatione Dei (On the Government of God): Ad ecclesiam refers to the treatise To the Church against Avarice; Ep. to the Letters.
3. 1 See Cicero De natura deorum I. 11. 27. Salvian, however, cited the passage from Lactantius Institutiones divinae I. 5. 17. The best discussion of Salvian's borrowings from Lactantius will be found in Zschimmer, Salvianus und seine Schriften, p. 62.
4. 2 Quoted by Lactantius op. cit. I. 5. 12 from Vergil Georgics IV. 221-222.
5. 3 Ibid. I. 5. 25, quoted from. Cicero Disputationes Tusculanae I. 27. 66.
6. 4 Cited by Lactantius op. cit. I. 5. 24 as from Cicero Do natura deorum, but the passage is not found there.
7. 5 The early Christian attitude toward the Epicureans was regularly hostile, in striking contrast to their ready recognition of the kinship between the Stoic philosophy and Christianity. The Epicurean denial of any divine government of the world was in itself sufficient to lead Salvian to condemn their doctrines.
8. 6 See Seneca De remediis fortuitorum XVI, end: "The happy man is not he who seems such to others, but to himself."
9. 7 II Corinthians 12. 10.
10. 8 Ibid. 12. 9.
11. 9 A conception of the religious life common throughout the Middle Ages, and mirroring for the saints in this life the future joys of paradise. Compare the familiar line from the hymn of Peter Damiani:
"Avidi et semper pleni, quod habent desiderant."
12. 10 See Salvian Ad ecclesiam IV. 9. 49: "Every command is hard that is given to unwilling men."
13. 11 These were among the best-known examples of early Roman virtue; cf. H. W. Litchfield, "National Exempla Virtutis in Eoman Literature," Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, XXV (1914), 1-71. All these are cited in Valerius Maximus IV. 3-4, as examples of abstinence, continence and poverty, and were used by Christian writers from Augustine and Orosius to modern times to illustrate the same virtues. The contrast between Roman and Greek ambition which follows was also a commonplace before Salvian's time, and has been since.
14. 12 See the story of Cornelius Rufinus in Valerius Maximus II. 9. 4; Tertullian Apologeticum 6.
15. 13 A stock characteristic of the Stoic and the Epicurean sage: cf. Seneca Epistulae morales lxvi. 18; Cicero Disputationes Tusculanae II. 7. 17, De finibus 11. 27.
16. 14 See Salvian Ep. V. 3: "Although I do not think that even this infirmity of your earthly vessel has been harmful to you, for its strength, as you know, is always hostile to the mind; so that I am right in thinking you as much stronger now in spirit, as you have begun to be weaker in the flesh."
17. 15 I Corinthians 9. 27.
18. 16 In common with others of his time, Salvian used the term "apostle" more loosely than we do now.
19. 17 See I Timothy 5.23. An excellent example of Salvian's occasional readiness to distort Scripture for his purpose, perhaps justifiable in this case because of the frequent misuse of the same text by other authors, to support both sides of the same argument.
20. 18 Galatians 5.17.
21. 19 Salvian, in Ep. V. 4, his letter to "sister Cattura," in which he congratulates her not only on recovery from an illness but also on the illness itself, which had strengthened her soul at the expense of her body. See also note 14.
22. 20 I Timothy 2. 2.
23. 21 Genesis 2. 7-8.
24. 22 Ibid. 4. 3-5.
25. 23 Ibid. 6.5-7.
26. 24 Ibid. 6.13.
27. 25 Ibid. 7. 11-12.
28. 26 Ibid. 7. 21, 23.
29. 27 Ibid. 18.20.
30. 28 Rittershausen, Salviani opera (Altdorf 1611), ad loc, cites a verse listing the five sins that were proverbially said to cry for justice to heaven:
"Clamitat in caelum vox sanguinis, et Sodomorum,
vox oppressorum, viduae, pretium famulorum."
31. 29 II Peter 2. 6.
32. 30 Another instance of details added without scriptural authority: in fact the instances of leprosy and death among the Israelites during the march seem directly contradictory to Salvian's statements.
33. 31 Again an addition not justified by the words of the Old Testament. Salvian, in common with other early Christian writers, not infrequently names Christ when we should expect the name of God instead. And the "throngs of people" were expressly excluded from familiar intercourse with God; cf. Exodus 19. 21-24; 24. 1-2.
34. 32 Exodus 19. 9.
35. 33 Ibid. 19. 16.
36. 34 Ibid. 19.20.
37. 35 Ibid. 33. 9-11.
38. 36 Publilius Syrus, verse 28. Salvian's text here is influenced by Seneca De ira 3. 31. 1.
39. 37 Rittershausen, ad loc, cites the proverb: Superflua non nocent. The phrasing suggests a legal connotation, in connection with which he cites Paulus and Ulpian on the value of more than the required number of witnesses to a will, or more written evidence than is actually needed to prove a case.
40. 38 Exodus 32. 35.
41. 39 Leviticus 24.10-14.
42. 40 Ibid. 10.1-2.
43. 41 Numbers 12. 8-15, condensed. Note that Salvian uses the name Mary for the Biblical Miriam.
44. 42 Psalms 78. 30-31.
45. 43 Ibid. 106.17.
46. 44 Numbers 16. 3, 35.
47. 45 Ibid. 16.41.
48. 46 Ibid. 14. 26-29, 31-32, 37.
This text was transcribed by Roger Pearse, 2005. All material on this page is in the public domain - copy freely.
Greek text is rendered using the Scholars Press SPIonic font, free from here.
Early Church Fathers - Additional Texts
SOURCE SECTION: salvian_gov_02_book .htm
Salvian, On the Government of God (1930) pp.66-76. Book 2
Salvian, On the Government of God (1930) pp.66-76. Book 2
Book II.: The immediate judgment of God as seen in the history of King David
1. Of the presence of God.
2. God's watchful care.
3. His vengeance.
4. The punishment of David.
5. David's exile.
6. The immediacy of God's judgment.
[Translated by Eva M. Sanford]
THE SECOND BOOK
1. The examples given above are sufficient proof, therefore, that our God acts constantly as a most anxious watcher, a most tender ruler, and a most just judge. But perhaps one of my less enlightened readers is thinking: "If all things are now conducted by God as they were in those days, why is it that the evil prevail while the good are afflicted; and whereas in the past the evil felt God's wrath, and the good his mercy, now by some strange reversal the good appear to experience his wrath and the evil his favor?" These questions I shall answer presently, but now since I have promised to prove three points, namely, God's presence, his government and his judgment, by three methods, that is, by reason, by examples and by authority and since I have already given sufficient proof of them by reason and examples, it remains for me to verify them by authority. Yet the examples I have given should rank as authority, since that term is rightly applied to the means by which the truth of matters under discussion is established.
Which then of the above-mentioned points should first be proved by sacred authority ---- his presence, his government, or his judgment? His presence, I think, because he who is to rule or judge must surely be present, in order to be able to rule or judge anything whatever.
Speaking through the Sacred Books, the Divine Word says.: "The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good." 1 Here you find God present, looking upon us, his eyes watching us wherever we may be. If the Divine Word assures us that God observes the good and the wicked, it is expressly to prove that nothing escapes his watchful scrutiny. For your fuller comprehension, hear the testimony of the Holy Spirit in another part |67 of the Scriptures, when it says: "Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, to deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine." 2 This is why God is said to watch over the just, that he may preserve and protect them. For the propitious oversight of his divinity is the safeguard, of our mortal life. 3 Elsewhere the Holy Spirit speaks in the same fashion: "The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears, are open unto their cry." 4
See with what gentle kindness the Scripture says the Lord treats his people. For when it says the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, his watchful love is shown; when it says that his ears are always open to their prayers, his readiness to hear is indicated. That his ears are always open to the prayers of the righteous proves not merely God's attention, but one might almost say his obedience. For how are the ears of the Lord open to the prayers of the righteous? How, save that he always hears, always hears clearly, always grants readily the pleas he has heard, bestows on men at once what he has clearly heard them ask? So the ears of our Lord are always ready to listen to the prayers of his saints, always attentive. How happy should we all be if we ourselves were as ready to hearken to God as he is to hear us!
But perhaps you say that the proof of God's guardianship of the just is useless to our argument, since this is not a general watchfulness of the divine power but merely a special favor granted to the righteous. Note, however, that the Sacred Word testified above that the eyes of the Lord watch over both good and evil. If you still wish to argue the point, consider this, for it follows in the text: "Moreover the face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth." 5 |68
You see that you have no ground for complaint that God does not look upon the unjust also, since you know that he watches all men, but with different effect because of the inequality of their merits. The good indeed are watched by him that they may be preserved, the evil that they may be destroyed. You yourself, who deny that God watches men, have your place with these last; know then that you are not only clearly seen by God, but are without doubt in imminent peril. For since the face of the Lord is upon them that do evil, to cut off remembrance of them from the earth, you, who wickedly say that the eyes of the Lord do not see you, must learn by your destruction the wrath of an all-seeing God. These arguments, then, are sufficient to prove the presence and watchfulness of God.
2. Let us now see whether he who watches us also rules us, although, forsooth, his watchfulness in itself implies governance as its motive, unless he looks upon us in order to neglect us thereafter. Surely the fact that he deigns to look upon us is itself an indication of his care for us, especially since the Sacred Word has borne witness, as I have shown above, that the wicked are observed by God to their destruction, the good to their salvation. Certainly this very fact shows the divine guidance, for this is actually ruling by just government and dealing with men individually according to their several merits.
Listen, however, to fuller testimony on this point. The Holy Spirit spoke thus to God the Father in a psalm: "Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel." 6 Israel means "Seeing God," since indeed Christians who believe faithfully see him with faith in their hearts:. Though God is the governor of all things, still his governance is spoken of as being chiefly assigned to those who especially deserve divine guidance. Therefore you also, whoever you are, if you are a Christian, must of necessity believe in God's government. If, however, you refuse utterly to believe that you, together with other |69 Christians, are ruled by God, you must recognize that you belong outside the whole body of Christians.
But if, as we suggested earlier, you are more interested in the case of men in general, than of Christians alone, see how clearly the Holy Book says that all things are daily ruled by the divine will and the whole world incessantly guided by God, for it says: "He himself loves counsel and discipline." 7 "For neither is there any other God beside thee that careth for all, bat being righteous thou rulest all things righteously and with great reverence dost dispose us." 8
Here you have God constantly arranging, constantly governing; yet in the passage cited not only his divine governance but also the high honor of man is declared. For the words, "thou dost dispose us," show the power of his divine government, but the words, "with great reverence," show the culmination of human honor. Elsewhere also we read in the words of the prophet: "Do I not fill heaven and earth!" 9 And he himself tells us why he fills all things: "Because I am with you to save you." 10 Obviously then God shows us not merely his rule and the fulness of his power but also the might and benefits that result from its plenitude. For the fulness of divinity bears within it this fruit, that it saves all things that it fills. Thus in the Acts of the Apostles the most blessed Paul said: "In him we live and move and have our being." 11 Doubtless he is more than the controller of our lives, in whom is the very source of life. For Paul did not say that we are moved by God but in him, teaching us, to be sure, that our real substance is rooted within his sacred attributes, since we truly live in him from whom we receive our being. |70
The Savior himself said also in the Gospel: "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." 12 He not only said that he is with us, but that he is with us all our days. Do you then, most thankless of men, say that he who is constantly with us has no care or thought for us? What then does he do in our company? Can you possibly think that he is with us in order to neglect and overlook us? And how can he consistently grant his presence to our virtue and neglect our vice? "For lo," he says, "I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Truly we have a marvelous comprehension of God's love if we say falsely that he is constantly neglectful of us while he says that he is constantly with us. Through this he wishes to show that his love and protection are constantly with us, since his very presence does not leave us. But we turn the divine charity into contempt; we change the indications of his love into proofs of hatred. For we try to see evidence of hatred rather than of love in his saying that he is with us. If the Lord had said that he would remain apart from us, we might perhaps have less occasion to gossip about his lack of care, in his absence. Constant neglect is a proof of greater contempt and scorn from one who never leaves us. There is the more odium in staying with us always if, while never depriving us of his presence, he continually shuts us out from his loving care.
But far be it from us to believe that our most loving and merciful God would have wished to be always near us for the sake of increasing by his presence the apparent contempt of his neglect: far be it from us even to say such a, wicked thing. For I think there is no one in the whole human race who is so evil that he wishes to be with any man on account of his dislike of him, or wishes to employ his presence solely to achieve greater satisfaction of his hatred by scorning him face to face. Let human nature itself teach and convince us that we wish to be with one man or another because we love the one whose company we desire. And just because we |71 love a man, we wish our presence to be of benefit to him whom we love. So what we cannot deny even to a criminal, we deny to God, and make him seem worse than the worst of men, if we think that he promised to be with us in order to show greater contempt for us by his subsequent neglect. But enough of this.
3. We have already proved by sacred testimony that all things are both watched and ruled by God; it remains now to show that the greater part are also judged by his divine power in this world.
When the blessed David had suffered the insulting scorn of Nabal the Carmelite, since he himself postponed vengeance, he received his revenge at once at the hand of God. So when, shortly after, his enemy had been overwhelmed and killed by the hand of the Lord, he spoke thus: "Blessed be the Lord, that hath pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal." 13 Likewise when his rebellious son had driven him from his kingdom the Lord as his judge in a brief space requited him, and more abundantly than he himself desired.
God wished to show that the affliction of those who suffered injustice was greater in his eyes than in their own. For when a man takes vengeance beyond the wish of the injured person, what else can he mean than that he is acting on his own behalf also? So when, for his attempted parricide, David's son was being hung on a cross not made with hands, the Divine Word tells us that the punishment divinely brought upon him was thus reported: "I bring thee good tidings, my lord king; for the Lord hath avenged thee this day of all them that rose up against thee." 14
4. You see how the sacred books prove through divine witnesses that God judges not only by deeds, as we said above, and by examples, but by the very name and terms of judgment, even in our present age. Perhaps you think that it was as a special favor granted by God to a holy man, that he wrought judgment forthwith on David's enemies. The day will not suffice if I would tell of |72 his immediate sentences and judgments in this world. Yet, that you may clearly understand that it is not so much in consideration of the persons concerned as of their actions that he exercises his sacred censure, hear how God our judge, who constantly gave his unmistakable verdict on behalf of his servant David, many times passed judgment on David himself. And indeed this occurred not in a matter affecting many men, nor ---- which would perhaps naturally have aroused God the more ---- affecting holy men, but in the case of a single individual, a barbarian,15 a case in which it was not the person concerned that demanded vengeance, but the action. For when David had killed Uriah the Hittite, a man belonging to an impious people and a hostile nation, he was at once charged thus by the divine voice: "Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house. Therefore thus saith the Lord, 'Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes and give them unto thy neighbor. For thou didst it secretly; but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun.' " 16
What answer have you to this, you who believe that God not only fails to judge our every action but does not regard us at all? Do you see that the eyes of the Lord were in no wise withdrawn from the single secret sin which David once committed? Wherefore do you also, who ---- as a consolation I suppose for your sins ---- think that our acts are not observed by God, learn from this same instance that you are always seen by Christ, and know that you must receive punishment, perhaps very shortly. For you see that even the blessed David was unable to hide his own misdeed in the secret places of his innermost chambers, and to claim exemption from instant punishment by the undoubted merit of his great deeds. For what did the Lord say to him? "I will take thy wives before |73 thine eyes, and the sword shall never depart from thine house." You see what immediate judgment so great a man suffered at once for one sin. Condemnation followed close on the heels of the fault, a condemnation punishing immediately without reservations and arresting the wrongdoer on the spot, not putting off the charge to a later time.
Therefore he did not say: "Because you have done this, know that the judgment of the Lord shall come and you shall be tortured hereafter by the flames of Gehenna." No; he said: "You shall suffer torture at once, and shall feel the sword of divine justice already at your throat."
And what followed? The guilty man acknowledged his fault, was humbled, stung by remorse, confessed and mourned his sin. He repented and implored pardon, gave up his royal jewels, laid aside his gold-wrought robes, put off the purple, resigned the glory of his crown, changed his whole bodily habit, cast off every aspect of kingship with its trappings, and put on the guise of a penitent fugitive, eagerly assuming a squalor that should plead in his defence; he was wasted by fasting, withered by thirst, exhausted by weeping, self-imprisoned in loneliness. And yet this king of so great repute, greater in holiness than in mere temporal power, surpassing all men in the favors earned by his former merits, although he sought pardon so earnestly, did not escape punishment. The fruit of such great penitence was indeed sufficient to win remission from eternal expiation, but not to earn pardon at the moment. Finally, what did the prophet say to the penitent? "Because thou hast made the enemies of the Lord blaspheme, the son that is born to thee shall die." 17 In addition to the bitter loss of his son, God wished the loving father to suffer also the knowledge of the full extent of his punishment, that he himself had caused the death of the clearly loved son for whom he mourned, when the boy born of his father's crime was slain for the very crime that had begotten him. |74
5. This is the first instance of the divine punishment; the first, to be sure, but not the only one, for a long series of great griefs followed and an almost unending succession of misfortunes haunted his household. Thamar was seduced by the mad act of Amnon, and Amnon slain by Absalom. A great crime indeed was committed by the first brother, but its retribution by the other was worse. In these actions David the father was punished alike by both sons' crimes. Two children sinned, but three were ruined by the sin of two; for Thamar suffered the loss of her virginity, while in Amnon also the destruction of Absalom was mourned. And verily you cannot tell for which of the two sons so loving a father mourned the more grievously, the one slain in this world by his brother's hand, or the other who by his own hand was doomed forever.18 From this time indeed ills were piled up beyond reckoning, according to the word of God. The father long endured the treachery of his son, was driven from his kingdom, and sought in exile an escape from murder. Which was worse, the vice or the bloodthirstiness of his son? By incest he disgraced his father when his attempted parricide failed, and by his diligent heaping up of crime achieved an incest passing the bounds of incest, committing in public, to his father's greater shame, a crime abominable even in secret. It was a mortal sin that he performed against his exiled father, but worse still was the injury wrought by his public incest before the eyes of the whole world.
Must we add to this the spectacle of David's actual flight? Picture this mighty king, so greatly renowned, higher in honor than all others, greater than the world itself, fleeing his whole people with a tiny band of slaves. In comparison with his former state he was needy indeed; in comparison with his wonted train 19 he went |75 alone. He fled in fear, disgrace and sorrow ---- "walking," the Scripture says, "with covered head, and barefoot." 20 He had outlived his former state, exiled from himself, almost, one might say, surviving his own death. He sank so low as to merit the scorn of his own servants, or ---- which is harder yet to bear ---- their pity. So Ziba was fain to feed him, and Shimei did not fear to curse him publicly. God's judgment so changed him from his former self that he endured the open insults of a single enemy ---- he who had made the world to tremble!
6. Who now denies that God watches over human actions? Behold how often the Scriptures have shown in the case of one man that God not only observed, but also judged his acts! And why? Why indeed, except that we should understand that the Lord's verdict and coercion are always to be exercised in this world as they were then? So we read that even holy men were punished aforetime by God's judgment, to teach us that we too must always be judged in our present life by God. For as God always is, so is his justice eternal. As God's omnipotence is never-failing, so is his verdict unchangeable. As long as his law endures, so long also shall his justice remain. Therefore all his saints in their sacred books, amid the imminent fear of martyrdom and the swords of the persecutors, demand that the immediate judgment of God be established. For thus said the just man in a psalm: "Judge me, O God, and plead my cause against an ungodly nation." And that this might not be construed as a reference to some future judgment of God, he added at once: "Deliver me from the deceitful and unjust man." 21 Certainly it is the immediate judgment of God that he demands who begs to be freed from the hands of the persecutor. In his consciousness of a just cause the psalmist did well to pray for God's justice rather than for his favor, for the best verdict is always given to the righteous cause if the case is conducted with justice. |76
Elsewhere also the psalmist spoke most clearly, saying: "Judge, O Lord, them that injure me; fight against them that fight against me; seize arms and shield and stand up for mine help." 22 You see in this case that he does not demand the severity of a future trial, but the verdict of immediate justice.
For what are his words? "Take up the shield and seize the sword" ---- the shield, of course, for protection and the sword for vengeance ---- not that God's judgment needs such weapons, but because in this world the names of dreaded arms are the instruments of dread judgments. Speaking to human intelligence in figures drawn from human life, since he was praying for judgment and for vengeance on his adversaries, he expressed the power of God's punishment in terms of the instruments of earthly vengeance.
Lastly, the same prophet showed elsewhere the great difference between the present and the future judgments of God. For what did he say to the Lord about his verdict in the present trial? "Thou sittest on the throne and judgest." And what about the future and everlasting judgment of God? "He shall judge the world in righteousness;" and again: "He shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness." 23 By these words surely he made a clear distinction in time between the present and the future judgments of God. For to indicate the present he wrote, "thou judgest," and to distinguish the future from the present he added, "he shall judge."
Sufficient proof of God's care for us and of his government and judgment has now been given by reason, by examples and by authority,24 especially since the books to follow are all to be concerned with the same proof. Now if we receive from God, whose work we are performing, strength to complete our task, we shall attempt to bring to light and to refute the customary arguments opposed by our adversaries to these essential doctrines.
[Footnotes moved to the end]
1. 1 Proverbs 15. 3.
2. 2 Psalms 33. 18-19.
3. 3 Note the converse of this statement already given in 1.7 supra: "The divine wrath is the punishment of the sinner."
4. 4 Ibid. 34. 15.
5. 5 Ibid. 34. 16.
6. 6 Ibid. 80. 1.
7. 7 Ecclesiasticus 39.10; Salvian has diligit for the diriget of the Vulgate, though the latter reading would express his idea better than the verb he uses.
8. 8 Wisdom 12. 13, 15, 18.
9. 9 Jeremiah 23. 24.
10. 10 Ibid. 42. 11.
11. 11 Acts 17. 28.
12. 12 Matthew 28. 20.
13. 13 I Samuel 25. 39.
14. 14 II Samuel 18.31.
15. 15 That is, not a Hebrew.
16. 16 II Samuel 12. 9-12.
17. 17 Ibid. 12. 14.
18. 18 Here Salvian seems to overlook II Samuel 13.39: "And the soul of King David longed to go forth unto Absalom: for he was comforted concerning Amnon, seeing he was dead."
19. 19 I have followed here Pauly's conjecture: in comparatione comitatus sui soliti solus.
20. 20 II Samuel 15. 30.
21. 21 Psalms 43.1.
22. 22 Ibid. 35.1-2.
23. 23 Ibid. 9. 4, 8.
24. 24 See II. 1 supra.
This text was transcribed by Roger Pearse, 2005. All material on this page is in the public domain - copy freely.
Greek text is rendered using the Scholars Press SPIonic font, free from here.
Early Church Fathers - Additional Texts
SOURCE SECTION: salvian_gov_03_book .htm
Salvian, On the Government of God (1930) pp.77-97. Book 3
Salvian, On the Government of God (1930) pp.77-97. Book 3
Book III.: On the obligations of the Christian life
1. Divine authority and human reason.
2. Christian belief.
3. The obligations of the Christian life.
4. The apostle's imitation of Christ.
5. The services due to God.
6. How men follow Christ's precepts.
7. The necessity of impartial obedience.
8. The lesser commands of God.
9. The vices of Christians.
10. The guilt of rich men and nobles.
11. Their vain hope of salvation.
[Translated by Eva M. Sanford]
THE THIRD BOOK
1. It is well: the foundations have been laid 1 for a work undertaken from pious motives and from love of a sacred duty; they have not been laid in marshy ground or built of perishable stone, but are strengthened by the sacred treasures used in their building and by the skill of their divine architect. These foundations, as God himself says in his Gospel, cannot be shaken by raging winds, undermined by river floods, or washed away by the rains.2 Since the divine writings in some fashion lent their aid to the erection of this structure, and the Holy Scriptures performed the joiner's task, the work itself must, through the help of the Lord Jesus Christ, be as strong as its makers. So this edifice receives its character from its parent stock and cannot be shaken while the builders remain sound.
As no one can tear down the walls of earthly houses without tearing apart their stones and mortar, so none can destroy this structure of ours unless he first destroys the materials of which it is composed. Since these certainly can in no way be weakened, we may safely assume the permanence of a building whose strength is insured by immortal aid.
The question is raised why, if everything in this world is controlled by the care and governance and judgment of God, the condition of the barbarians is so much better than ours, why among us the fortune of good men is harder than that of the wicked. Why should upright men fall ill and reprobates recover? Why does the whole world fall prey to powers for the most part unjust? Perhaps a rational and fairly consistent answer would be: "I do not know." For I do not know the secrets of God. The oracle of |78 his heavenly word is sufficient proof for me in this case. God says, as I have already proved in my earlier books, that all things are subject to his oversight, his rule and his judgment. If you wish to know what doctrines you must accept, you have the sacred writings: the perfect course is to hold fast what you have read in them.
Moreover, I would not have you ask me to account for God's actions in the cases of which I speak. I am a man; I do not understand the secrets of God,3 I do not dare search them out, I am afraid to pry into them, for to seek to know more than is permitted is in itself a kind of rash sacrilege.4 God says that he moves and ordains all things: let that suffice. Do you ask me why one man is greater and another less, one wretched and another happy, one strong and another weak? Why indeed God does such things. I do not know, but the proof that he is the source of all actions should convince you fully. As God is greater than the sum total of human reason, our knowledge that everything is done by him ought to have more weight with us than reason alone. You do not need, therefore, to hear any new argument on this point; let God's authority be set over against all reason from any source whatever.
We are not at liberty to say that of the actions of the divine will one is just and another unjust, because whatever you see is done by God, whatever you are sure is done by him, you must confess is more than just. So much can be said of God's government and justice without further discussion and without uncertainty. I need not prove by arguments what is proved by his very words. When we read that God says he constantly sees all the earth, we have proof that he sees it, since he says so. When we read that he |79 rules all creation, we have proof that he rules it, because he so affirms. When we read that he orders all things by his immediate judgment, his judgment is clearly proved by his own testimony. All other statements, made in human terms, need proofs and witnesses, whereas God's speech is its own witness, since the words of perfect truth must be perfect testimony to the truth. Yet since our God willed that we should through the Sacred Scriptures know certain things, as if from the archives of his spirit and mind ----since the pronouncements of the Holy Scriptures are themselves in a way the mind of God ---- I shall not conceal anything that God has wished his people to know and preach.
One thing, however, I should like to know before 1 begin ----whether I am to address my words to Christians or to pagans. If to Christians, I do not doubt that I shall prove my case. But if I speak to pagans, I should scorn the attempt, not for any lack of proofs, but because I despair of profit from my discourse. Surely it is fruitless and lost labor when a perverse listener is not open to conviction. Yet because I think there is no one belonging to the Christian name who does not at least wish to seem a Christian, I shall address my words to Christians, However many pagans still adhere to their impious unbelief, it is enough for me to prove my contentions to a Christian audience.
2. So you keep airing the question why we Christians who believe in God are more wretched than all other men. The words of the apostle to the churches might have furnished me with a sufficient answer to this: "That no man should be moved by these afflictions; for you yourself know that we are appointed thereunto." 5 Since the apostle says we are meant to endure hardships, miseries and sorrows, why is it strange that we suffer every evil, who are fighting for the sake of enduring all adversities? Since, however, many do not appreciate this, but think that Christians should receive from God, as the wages due to their faith, greater |80 strength than all other races, because they are more religious than all others, let us agree to their opinion and argument.
Let us see what it means to believe firmly in God. We who wish our reward for belief and faith in this life to be so great must consider what sort of belief and faith we should have. What is belief and what is faith? I think it is that a man believe in Christ faithfully, that he be faithful to God, that is, that he faithfully keep God's commandments.6 For as the slaves of rich men or of government officials, to whom expensive furnishings and valuable stores are entrusted, cannot be called faithful if they have swallowed up the goods entrusted to them; so Christians also are proved unfaithful if they have corrupted the good things granted them by God.
Perhaps you ask what the good is that God grants to Christian men? What else but all the substance of our faith, all those things through which we are Christians? First the law, then the prophets, thirdly the Gospels, fourthly the reading of the apostles, finally the gift of fresh regeneration, the grace of holy baptism, the unction of the divine chrism. You remember that of old among the Hebrews, the people especially chosen of God, when the office of the judges had passed over into the power of kings, God called the most approved and excellent men to reign through the royal unction. So every Christian, having performed all God's commands after receiving the chrism of the church, shall be called to heaven to receive the reward of his labors. Since these are the elements of our faith, let us see who keeps these great sacraments in such a way as to be judged faithful, for, as I said, the unfaithful must be those who do not keep their trust. And indeed I do not ask that a man perform all the commands of the Old and New Testaments: I exempt him from the censorial power of the old law, the threats of the prophets, even from the strictest interpretation of the apostolic books or the full doctrine of the Gospels in their complete perfection, though these last admit no exception. I only ask who lives in |81 accordance with the least number of God's commands. I do not mean those which so many avoid that they are almost accursed. God's honor and reverence have advanced so far among us that those things which our lack of devotion leads us to neglect, we consider worthy even of hatred.
For instance, who would deign even to listen to our Savior's bidding not to take thought for the morrow? Who obeys his order to be content with a single tunic? Who thinks the command to walk unshod possible or even tolerable to follow? These precepts then I pass over. For here our faith, in which we trust, falls short, so that we judge superfluous the precepts the Lord intended for our benefit. "Love your enemies," said the Savior, "do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you." 7 Who could keep all these commandments'? Who would deign to follow God's commands in respect to his enemies, I do not say in wishes, but even in words? Even if a man compels himself to do so, still it is his lips alone that act, and not his mind; he lends the service of his voice to the action without changing the feeling of his heart. Therefore, even if he forces himself to say a prayer for his adversary, his lips move, but he does not really pray.
To discuss all such cases would take too long; but one point I add, that we may know that not only do we fail to accede to all God's commands, but we actually obey almost none of them. This is why the apostle cried: "For if a man think himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself." 8 We add this to our sins, that although we are guilty in every respect, we still believe ourselves to be pure and holy. Thus the offences of our iniquity are piled high by a false assumption of righteousness. "Whosoever hateth his brother," says the apostle, "is a murderer." 9 We may know from this that there are many murderers who |82 think themselves innocent, because, as we see, murder is committed not only by the hand of him that kills, but also by the heart of him that hates. For this reason the Savior added to this precept a still harsher decree, saying: "Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment." 10 Anger is the mother of hatred. Hence the Savior wished to shut out wrath, that hatred might not spring from it. If then not only hatred but even wrath makes us guilty in God's judgment, we clearly see that as no one in the world is free from anger, so no one can be free from conviction of sin. Moreover, God seems to trace every fiber of that precept to its end, and cut off all its fruits and branches, when he says: "But whosoever shall say, 'Thou fool,' shall be in danger of hell fire; whosoever shall say to his brother, 'Racha,' shall be in danger of the council." Many do not know what kind of danger is involved in racha, but they know very well with what slanderous intent men are charged with folly.11 So, using their knowledge rather than their ignorance, they prefer to expiate in the divine fires the guilt incurred by a form of abuse they understand, rather than to atone before human councils for one that they do not know.
3. Since this is true, and since these commands of the Lord not only fail of being carried out by us, but are practically all reversed, when shall we come to obey his greater precepts'? The Savior said: "Whosoever forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.... And he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me, is not worthy of me." 12 He who calls himself a Christian ought to walk as Christ walked. Certainly not only those who follow the delights and pomps of the world, but even those who abandon worldly interests fail to meet these requirements. Those who |83 make a show of renouncing their wealth do not appear to make their renunciation complete, and those who are thought to be carrying their cross so carry it that they gain more honor in the name of the cross than suffering in its passion. Even though all those men should in good faith accomplish these precepts in some measure, still it is certain that none of them could succeed in walking along the paths of this life as the Savior walked. For the apostle says: "He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked." 13
4. Perhaps certain men think the commands of the apostle are hard. Clearly they must be considered difficult, if the apostles exacted from others the performance of duties they did not lay upon themselves. But if, on the other hand, they enjoined upon others much lighter duties than on themselves, instead of being considered harsh teachers, they must be thought most indulgent parents, who, through their religious zeal, themselves in loving indulgence take the burdens their sons should bear.
What was it that one of them said to the people of the church? "My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you." And again: "Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ." 14 This is his command, that we imitate him who gave himself over to the imitation of Christ. Indeed, none can doubt that he himself imitated Christ. As Christ for our sake subjected himself to the world, so did Paul for Christ's sake. As Christ for us endured the heaviest pains and labors, so did Paul for Christ. As Christ for us suffered scorn and mockery, so did Paul for Christ. As Christ for us endured his passion and death, so did Paul for Christ. Therefore not without cause, conscious of his own merits, he said: "I have fought a good fight, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness." 15 |84
Since he so followed Christ, let us consider which of us seems to be a true follower of the apostle. He writes of himself first of all that he never gave offence to any, but in all things showed himself the minister of God, in much patience, in affliction, in necessities, in blows, in imprisonments, in stripes.16 Elsewhere, comparing himself with others, he says: "Howbeit, whereinsoever any is bold (I speak foolishly) I am bold also: I speak as a fool, I am more; in labors more abundant, in prisons more frequent, in stripes above measure, in deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck." 17
Surely, even if we leave out of account the other apostolic virtues that he lists, when the apostle says that he has suffered shipwreck three times, in this at least we can outdo him. We have not merely been wrecked three times, but our whole life is one continuous shipwreck; indeed all men are living such vicious lives that there seems to be no Christian who is not wrecked constantly. 18
5. Some one may object that it does not befit our present time to endure for Christ such sufferings as did the apostles of old. It is true that there are no longer heathen princes, nor tyrannous persecutors; the blood of the saints is not shed now nor their faith tried by tortures. Our God is content with the service of our peace, that we please him simply by the purity of our spotless acts and the holiness of an unstained life. Our faith and devotion are the more due him because he demands lesser services from us and has foregone the greater exactions. Since even our princes are Christians, there is no persecution and religion is not disturbed, we who are not forced to test our faith by harsher trials ought certainly to |85 seek the more to please God in small ways. For he by whom trifles are duly performed proves that if occasion arises he will be capable of greater things.
6. Let us then pass over the trials of the most blessed Paul, let us even omit the accounts we read in the books later written about our faith, of the sufferings endured by almost all Christians, who, mounting to the doors of the heavenly palaces by their tortures, contrived steps for their ascent from the very racks and scaffolds. Let us see whether in those lesser and ordinary observances of religious devotion which we all as Christians can perform in utter peace at all times, we are really trying to accede to the Lord's commands.
Christ orders us not to quarrel. Who obeys this order? He not only gives the command, but insists on it so far that he bids us renounce those things about which a dispute has arisen, provided we may thus end the suit. "For," he says, "if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also." 19 I ask who there are who yield to the attempts of their adversaries to despoil them; further, who there are who do not try to rob their opponents in turn? For we are so far from leaving them other property in addition to our coats, that if we can find any way to do it we take away coats and cloaks as well from our enemies. Indeed, so eagerly do we obey the Lord's commands that it does not satisfy us to refuse our adversaries even the least part of our garments, unless we rob them of everything we possibly can, as far as the circumstances permit.
Moreover, there is a second similar commandment joined with this one, in which the Lord says: "Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also." 20 How many men do we think there are who would listen politely to such words, or agree to them in their hearts, even if they pretended to listen? How |86 often do you find a man who does not return many blows for the one that he has received? He is so far from turning his other cheek to the man who strikes him that he thinks that he is winning when he has outdone his adversary, not in being struck, but in striking. The Savior said: "What you wish that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them." 21 A part of this saying we know so well that we never overlook it ---- a part we omit so constantly that we do not know it at all. For we know very well what we wish others to do for us, but we do not know what we ourselves ought to do for them. Would that we really did not know! For our guilt would be less if due to ignorance, according to the saying: "He who does not know his lord's will shall be beaten with few stripes; but he who knows and does not do according to his lord's will, shall be beaten with many stripes." 22 But now our offence is the greater because we cherish a part of this sacred command on account of its usefulness to our convenience, and pass over a part of it in injury to God. Paul the apostle also adds to this word of the Lord in his preaching, saying: "Let no man seek his own, but every man another's wealth." And again: "Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others." 23
You see then how faithfully he performed the precepts of Christ when, as the Savior bade us take thought for others just as we do for ourselves, he ordered us to consult the welfare of others more than our own, proving himself, to be sure, a good servant of a good master, and a glorious disciple of an exemplary teacher. He so followed in the steps of the Lord, that his own footprints somehow made those of his Master more evident and more clearly formed.
Which of these do we Christians obey, the command of Christ or that of his apostle? I think we obey neither one. For we are so far from doing anything that inconveniences ourselves, that we choose |87 instead to provide first of all for our own convenience, whatever discomfort this involves for others.
7. Perhaps you may think we are choosing only the greater commandments, which no one follows, and which, as Christians themselves think, cannot be followed in any case, and are passing over others which can be and indeed are followed by all. But this point must be considered first, that no slave is allowed to choose according to his own wishes which of his master's commands he will carry out and which he will not, nor by a most insolent abuse to assume the task that pleases him and reject the rest. Certainly human masters think it impossible to tolerate calmly slaves who hear part of their orders and despise the rest, who, according to their own desires, carry out the commands they think should be performed and trample under foot those they think deserve such treatment. If slaves obey their masters according to their own free will alone, they are not rendering true obedience even when they seem to obey. When a slave obeys only such of his master's orders as he pleases, he is no longer doing his master's will but his own. If then we, who are but weak little men, are still utterly unwilling that our slaves, who are equal to us in their common humanity, though our inferiors in their condition of servitude, should despise us, how unjustly, forsooth, do we scorn our heavenly Master, since we, being ourselves men, yet think we ought not to be despised by men of our own condition! 24 Unless perhaps we have such great wisdom and deep intelligence that we who are unwilling to hear any insults from our slaves wish God to be subject to insults from us, |88 and believe that he deserves to endure from us such treatment as we consider unfit for human endurance.
For this reason, to return to our former topic, any who think that I am talking of the greater commands of God and omitting the lesser, must recognize the unreasonableness of their complaint. There is no just reason for preferring some commands, when all must be performed. As I have already said, just as the servants of carnal masters are by no means permitted to choose which of their master's precepts they are to perform and which they are not, so we, who are the servants of our Lord, ought not to think it in any way permissible to humor ourselves by choosing those commands that please us, or by an abusive indulgence of our pride to trample under foot those that displease us.
8. Let us, however, come to an agreement with those who do not wish us to tell of the greater commands of the Lord, for the reason perhaps that they think they are fulfilling his lesser precepts, though it is not sufficient for salvation to perform the lesser commandments while scorning the greater. It is written: "For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." 25 Although for this reason it is not sufficient for us to obey all God's small and least commands, yet I agree to speak only of these, in order to show that most Christians have not performed even the least and slightest of their duties.
Our Savior ordered that Christian men should not swear. The men who perjure themselves daily are more numerous than those who do not swear at all. He commanded that no one should curse. Whose speech is not cursing? For curses are always the first instrument of wrath; whatever in our weakness we cannot perform we ardently desire in our anger, and thus in every impulse of our wrathful hearts we use evil wishes as our weapons.26 Hence every |89 man shows plainly that whatever he wishes may happen to his adversaries he would do to them if he could. Since we ail put our tongues to this wicked use on the slightest provocation, our disregard of the Lord's will shows that we think it will be held of small account by God, who gave these commands. But the Holy Scripture says: "Revilers shall not inherit the kingdom of God." 27 From this we may judge how serious and deadly a crime evil-speaking is, which by itself shuts a man out of heaven, even though the rest of his life may have been good.
Christ ordered that envy be far from us, but we, contrary to his teaching, envy not merely outsiders but even our friends. This is the ruling vice in the hearts of almost all: our greed for eating has its limits, but our greed for slandering others has no end; our appetite for food becomes sated, but our appetite for spite does not. Perchance the punishment for this fault is a slight one? "The slanderous man," says the Holy Scripture, "shall be rooted out." 28 Surely that is a serious and fearful punishment, yet it does not serve to reform us. Every one of us thinks it worth while to endanger himself as long as he may continue to injure others. The retribution for this vice is clearly a suitable one, as it attacks, the doer only; it does no injury at all to the person slandered, but only punishes the man from whose lips the libel comes.
I suppose I seem to be out of my mind in repeating these words, and I can easily bear the appearance of madness in such a case. For the Lord was not speaking senselessly when he enjoined us through his apostle: "Let all clamor be put away from you, with all malice." 29 Both of these evils indeed are ever present with us, but malice more than clamor. Clamor indeed is not always on our lips, but malice is always in our hearts. So I think that if clamor should cease among us, yet malice would remain to the end. |90
Our God orders us also to live without murmuring and without complaints.30 When in the history of the human race have these been unknown? In hot weather we complain of drought, in rainy weather of floods; if it is a bad season for the crops we complain of scarcity, in a good season, of low prices. We long for plenty, and when we get it we object to it. What could be more wicked or more disgraceful than this? We complain of God's mercy even in this, that he gives us what we ask.
God bade his servants keep all scandal from their sight altogether, and so he said: "Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart," 31 From this we can fully understand how chaste our Savior wished us to be, who even shut out licentiousness from our eyes. Knowing that our eyes are in a way the windows of our souls,32 and that all evil desires make their way into the heart through the eyes as their natural passageways, he wished us to destroy such desires utterly while they were still outside that they might not spring up within us and put forth their deadly shoots within the soul, if they once germinated in our eyesight.33 Therefore the Lord said that the wanton glances of lustful men are adulterous, meaning that a man who truly wishes to shun adultery must keep a watch on his eyes. The Savior, indeed, wishing to cultivate a most genuine and perfect sanctity in his worshippers, ordered them to avoid scrupulously even the least offences, on the ground that according to the cleanness of his eyesight, so also is the purity of a Christian's life. Just as a man's eye could not receive a mote of dust without impairing his sight, so our life should not permit any stain of dishonor |91 to find a place in it. Whence come the following words of the Lord: "If thine eye offend thee, pluck it out, and if thy hand offend thee, cut it off; it is better for thee, that one of thy members perish, than that thy whole body be cast into hell." 34 If, therefore, according to the word of God, we are dragged down into hell by scandalous actions, surely it is right to sacrifice our eyes and hands in order to escape this punishment. No man should deprive himself of his members, but in the ease of certain domestic relationships so necessary to us that we have come to consider them as eyes or hands, it is right to deprive ourselves of their present service in order to escape the torture of eternal fire. When the choice lies between comfort and life, it is certainly better for the Christian to forfeit his convenience and gain life.
9. In all the points of which we have spoken our Lord has ordered us to obey him, but where are those who obey all his ordinances or even a very few of them? Where are those who love their enemies or do good to those that persecute them, or overcome evil by doing good, who turn their cheeks to those that strike them, who yield their property without a lawsuit to those that rob them? Who is there that permits himself no slander whatever, that injures no man by evil speaking, that keeps his lips silent that they may not break out in bitter curses? Who is there that keeps these least commandments, not to speak of those greater ones which I mentioned a short time ago?
Since this is the case and since we keep none of the Lord's commands, why do we complain of God, who has far more right to complain of us? Why should we grieve that he does not hear us, when we ourselves do not hear him? What right have we to whisper that God does not look upon the earth, when we ourselves do not look up to the heavens? What reason have we to be vexed that our prayers are despised by the Lord, whose commands we despise? |92
Suppose that we were equal to our Lord; what chance is there for just complaint when each side receives the same treatment it gives? And this entirely overlooks a point easily proved, that we are very far from receiving what we give, since God really treats us much more kindly than we do him. For the moment, however, let us act on the assumption that I proposed. The Lord himself spoke thus: "I cried unto you and ye did not hear me: you too shall cry unto me and I shall not hear you." 35 What is more fair and just than this? We have not hearkened, therefore he does not hear us. We have not been mindful of him, therefore he does not consider us. What mortal master, I ask, is content to treat his underlings according to this rule, that he will scorn them only in proportion to their contempt of him? And yet we do not stop with such injurious scorn of God as mortal masters receive from their slaves, since the greatest contempt a slave can show is in not doing what he has been ordered. We, however, bend all our efforts and energy not only to neglecting our orders, but even to acting directly contrary to them. For God commands us all to love one another, but we rend each other in mutual hatred. God enjoins us all to give our goods to the poor, but we plunder other men's goods instead. God orders every Christian to keep his eyes pure; how many men are there who do not wallow in the filth of fornication?
What more can I say? It is a heavy and sorrowful charge that I must bring: the church itself, which should strive to appease God in all things ---- what else does it do but arouse him to anger? Except a very few individuals who shun evil, what else is the whole congregation of Christians but the very dregs of vice? How often will you find a man in the church who is not a drunkard or glutton or adulterer or fornicator or robber or wastrel or brigand or homicide? And what is worst of all, they commit these crimes endlessly. I appeal to the conscience of all Christians; of these crimes and |93 misdeeds that I have just named, who is not guilty of some part, who is not guilty of the whole? You would more easily find a man guilty of them all than of none. And because what I have said; may perhaps seem too severe an accusation I shall go much farther and say that you could more easily find men guilty of ail evils than of a few, more easily find men guilty of the greater faults than of the less. That is, it is easier to find men who have committed the greater sins along with the less than the less without the greater. For almost the whole body of the church has been reduced to such moral depravity that among all Christian people the standard of holiness is merely to be less sinful than others. Some hold the churches, which are the temples and altars of God, in less reverence than the houses of the least important municipal magistrates. The common run of men indeed do not presume to enter the doors, I shall not say of illustrious potentates, but even of governors or presiding officials, unless the official has called them or contracted business with them, or unless the honor due their individual position permits their entrance. If anyone enters without due occasion he is flogged or roughly put out or punished by some humiliation or personal indignity.36 But to the temples, or rather the altars and sacred shrines of God, all mean and evil men resort violently, entirely without reverence for his sacred honor. I do not mean to deny that all should hasten thither to pray to God, but he who enters to win God's favor should not go out to arouse his anger. The same action should not demand his indulgence and provoke his wrath. It is a monstrous thing for men to keep committing the same sins which they lament having committed, and for those who enter the church to weep for their old misdeeds to go out [to commit new ones].37 |94
Go out, did I say? They are usually planning fresh crimes in the very midst of their prayers and supplications. While men's voices do one thing, their hearts do another; while their words lament their past misdeeds their minds plan further wrongs, and thus their prayers increase their guilt instead of winning pardon for it. So the scriptural curse is truly fulfilled upon them, that from their very prayers they go out condemned and their petition is turned into sin.38
Finally, if any one wishes to know what men of this sort are thinking in church, let him consider this. When their religious duties are accomplished they all hurry off at once to their accustomed pursuits ---- some, for instance, to steal, others to get drunk, others to commit fornication, others to commit highway robbery ----so that it is perfectly clear that they have spent their time inside the temple in planning what they will do after leaving it.
10. Undoubtedly some men think that all these evils and all the infamous vice of which I have spoken above may be properly ascribed to slaves or to the lowest of men, whereas the freeman's reputation is not spotted by the stain of such disgraceful deeds. Yet what else is the life of all business men but fraud and perjury, of the curials but injustice,39 of petty officials but slander, of all soldiers but rapine?
Perhaps you think that one need not object to such a charge against characters of this sort. For, you say, their actions fit their professions, so it is no wonder that they act according to their |95 business in life; as if, indeed, God wishes any man to do or profess evil. Or is it no offence whatever to His Divine Majesty that the lower classes are known to commit the greatest crimes, especially when by far the greater part of the human race belongs to this group? Without doubt, the insult that his divinity suffers is proportionate to the number of sinners.
Do you say that the nobles are free from these crimes? At best that is but a small gain, for all the nobles in the world would seem no more than one man in a great crowd of people. Is even this small group free from guilt? First let us consider what the Divine Word says of men of this sort. You remember that the apostle, addressing the people of God, spoke thus: "Hearken, my beloved brethren. Hath God not chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him? But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you by their power? Do they not blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called?" 40
The testimony of the apostle is potent, unless perhaps the nobles think that they are exempt from his accusation because he named only the rich. The nobles, however, are either identical with the rich, or, if there are rich men who are not counted in their number, they are practically in the same category, for so great is the misery of our times that no one is considered of higher rank than he who has the greatest riches. It makes little difference which of these the apostle meant, or if he was talking of both; since his words certainly apply to both the rich and the noble, it does not signify which of the two he had in mind. What noble or what rich man ever had any horror of crime? Yet my query was mistaken ---- many indeed do fear it, but few avoid it. They fear in others the crimes they themselves constantly commit, being in a strange manner both the accusers and doers of the same evils. They denounce in public what |96 they do in secret, and for that reason, when they think they are passing judgment on others they condemn themselves even more by their censure.
Let us overlook those men who have the greater guilt, and ask what single rich man or noble there is who preserves his innocence and keeps his hands clean of every sort of crime? It was foolish for me to say of every sort ---- would God they were clean of the greatest! Great men seem to consider it their personal prerogative to commit the lesser crimes as a matter of course. So I shall say nothing of their more ordinary misdoings. Let us see if any one of them is free from the two which we consider capital offences, that is, homicide and sexual vice. Which of them is not either reeking with human blood or smeared with the filth of an impure life? Either one of these is enough to render him liable to eternal punishment, but there is hardly a wealthy man who has not committed both.
11. Perhaps one of this number is thinking to himself: "I am not doing such things now." I commend you if you are not, yet probably you did in the past, and to have stopped is not equivalent to never having done them at all. But if it were, what value would there be in one man's desisting from wickedness when so many persist in their crime? The conversion of one man does not atone for the sins of the many, nor is it enough to appease God that one man should leave off sinning, while the whole human race offends him. Consider too that he who is converted for the sake of escaping eternal death certainly gains a great reward for his conversion in this escape. By no means could he succeed in turning away the punishment of damnation from others. It is a mark of intolerable presumption, and an enormous wickedness, for a man to think himself so holy that he even supposes wicked men can find salvation through him. God spoke thus of a certain land and a sinful people: "Though these three men, Noah, Daniel and Job, were in |97 it, they shall deliver neither sons nor daughters, they only shall be delivered." 41
No one, I think, will be so shameless as to dare compare himself with such men as these. However much a man may now try to please God, yet to assert one's own morality is an example of the greatest unrighteousness. Thus is destroyed our confidence in the false notion that an innumerable host of sinners can be saved from the evils that threaten them by the intercession of a few good men. For since no one is equal to the three men named above, what hope can any have that countless wicked, men unrelated to them can be saved by a very few good men, when those saints, who were close to God, did not deserve of the Lord that their very members, in the persons of their children," should be saved? It is right that this should be so. Though all sons seem to be members of their parents, yet they must not be considered members of those whose love they have begun to cast aside, inasmuch as the wickedness of their degenerate lives has degraded their natural endowments. So it happens that even we who are said to be Christians lose the virtue of so great a name by our evil vices. It is of no possible benefit to have a holy name without morality, for a life that denies our Christian profession cancels the honor of a glorious rank by the baseness of unworthy actions.
Since then we see practically no group among all the Christians, no corner in all the churches, that is not full of all manner of offence and stained with every deadly sin, why should we beguile ourselves with the name of Christian? Assuredly our guilt is made the greater by this most sacred name, if we belie it by our conduct. The name of Christian aggravates our offences against God, since we continue our sins in the very bosom of the church.
[Footnotes moved to end]
1. 1 See Lactantius op. cit. VII. 1.1: Bene habet, iacta sunt fundamenta, ut ait eximius orator...; where Lactantius is quoting Cicero Pro Murena 6. 14.
2. 2 Matthew 7. 25.
3. 3 The much quoted words of Terence (Heauton. Timoroumenos 77) here take on a new significance, from the Christian connotation. "I am a man, nothing human is alien to me"----Salvian's wide sympathies echo the spirit of these words many times, but the secrets of God, he says, pass man's understanding. Salvian's acquaintance with Terence is indicated by his use of a line from the Andria in Ad ecclesiam III. 12.
4. 4 See Lactantius op. cit. II. 5. 2-3; 8. 69, 71.
5. 5 I Thessalonians 3. 3.
6. 6 The definition is repeated in IV. 1 infra.
7. 7 Matthew 5. 44.
8. 8 Galatians 6. 3.
9. 9 I John 3. 15.
10. 10 Matthew 5. 22.
11. 11 Ibid. 5. 22. See also Gregory Moralia 21. 5: "Racha indeed in the Hebrew tongue is the exclamation of the angry man, which shows his intention without fully expressing his wrath in words." For other contemporary discussions cf. Baluze ad loc.
12. 12 Luke 14. 33; Matthew 10. 38.
13. 13 I John 2. 6.
14. 14 Galatians 4.19; I Corinthians 11.1.
15. 15 II Timothy 4. 7-8.
16. 16 II Corinthians 6. 4-5.
17. 17 Ibid 11. 21, 23-25.
18. 18 Here Salvian makes use of his fundamental thesis, that the disasters of the Romans are due to their sins. The first part of this sentence would suggest to his readers the losses due to the barbarian invasions; in the conclusion he reminds them of the real danger they face.
19. 19 Matthew 5. 40.
20. 20 Ibid. 5.39.
21. 21 Ibid. 7. 12.
22. 22 See Luke 2. 47-48.
23. 23 I Corinthians 10.24; Philippians 2.4.
24. 24 See Cyprian Ad Demetrianum 8: "You yourself exact servitude from your slave and, yourself a man, compel a man to obey you, though you share in the same lot of birth, the same condition of death, like bodily substance, the same mental frame, and by equal right and the same rule come into this world and later leave it. Yet unless he serves you according to your will, unless he is subservient to your whim, you act the imperious and over-exacting master, afflicting and torturing him often with stripes, lashes, hunger, thirst, nakedness and the sword, with chains and imprisonment. And do you not recognize your God and master, who yourself exercise mastery in this fashion?"
25. 25 James 2.10.
26. 26 Rittershausen, commenting on the "elegant phrasing" of this sentence, cites Petronius Carmen de bello civili 228: Absentem votis interficit hostem.
27. 27 I Corinthians 6.10.
28. 28 See Romans 1. 30-32; Psalms 140.11; Proverbs 21. 28.
29. 29 Ephesians 4. 31.
30. 30 Philippians 2.14-15.
31. 31 Matthew 5. 28.
32. 32 See Lactantius De opificio Dei 8.11: "The mind is that which sees through the eyes, placed in front of it, as if through windows covered with translucent glass or mica."
33. 33 Among the parallels quoted by Rittershausen ad loc, note especially Seneca De remediis fortuitorum 12.
34. 34 See Mark 9.43-47; Matthew 18.8-9.
35. 35 See Proverbs 1. 24; Micah 3. 4; Psalms 18. 41; Jeremiah 11. 11; Zechariah 7.13.
36. 36 Rittershausen cites this as a passage used by Cujas and other jurists in their commentaries on the Corpus Juris. Cf. Cod. Just. XII. 19 on those who have the right of access to the officials of the highest grade.
37. 37 The slight lacuna in the MSS is here supplied according to Pauly 's conjecture.
38. 38 See Psalms 109. 7.
39. 39 On the curials cf. V. 4 infra. The curials, once honored as the local aristocracy, making up the chief governing body of the municipalities of the Empire, the curia, had now, through the financial stringencies of the administration, become a class as much oppressed by the imperial financial agents as they were hated by those from whom they themselves exacted payments. The requirement that the curials of a district must make up from their own fortunes any deficit in the payments due had made it increasingly difficult to keep up the required number, and the injustice of which Salvian spoke worked in more than one direction. The burdens and difficulties of the office are best illustrated by the 192 sections of Cod. Theod. XII. 1.
40. 40 James 2.5-7.
41. 41 Ezekiel 14.14, 16.
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Early Church Fathers - Additional Texts
SOURCE SECTION: salvian_gov_04_book .htm
Salvian, On the Government of God (1930) pp.98-132. Book 4
Salvian, On the Government of God (1930) pp.98-132. Book 4
Book IV.: On the oppressions wrought by the Roman nobles, and the guilt of Christians as compared with pagans
1. The necessity of faith and good works.
2. Faith without works.
3. The sins of slaves compared with those of their masters.
4. The oppression of the nobles.
5. The enormity of their crimes.
6. The rich compared with their slaves; the burdens of taxation.
7. The penalties of conversion.
8. That men's crimes are the cause of their misfortunes.
9. The Father's love for his creatures.
10. The fulness of God's love.
11. The ingratitude of man.
12. The guilt of Christians.
13. Comparison of Christians with barbarians.
14. The peculiar guilt of Christians.
15. Their oaths.
16. Their transgressions of the divine law.
17. Pagan ideas of the Christians.
18. Blasphemy.
19. The guilt of Christians compared with that of heathen.
[Translated by Eva M. Sanford]
THE FOURTH BOOK
1. Let us then give up that prerogative of the Christian name, of which I spoke above, by which we consider that because we are more religious than other people, we ought also to be stronger. For since, as I have said, the faith of a Christian is to believe faithfully in Christ,1 to keep Christ's commandments, it surely follows that the man who is unfaithful has no faith, that he who crushes under foot Christ's commandments does not believe in Christ. The whole question centers on this point, that he who does not perform the work of a Christian does not appear to be one, for the name without its proper acts and function is nothing. A certain man 2 says in his writings: "What else is high office without lofty merits but an honorable title without the man honored, or what is lofty rank without worth but an ornament in the midst of filth,?"
So, to use the same phrase ourselves, what else is a sacred name without merit but an ornament in the midst of filth? The sacred word bore witness to this in the divine writings, saying: "As a jewel of gold in a swine's snout, so is a fair woman which is without discretion." 3 Thus among us also the name of Christian is like a golden ornament; if we use it unworthily, we make ourselves seem like swine wearing jewels.
Finally, whoever wishes fuller proof that mere words are nothing without actions should consider how countless peoples, by failing in |99 good works, have lost the names given them. The twelve tribes of the Hebrews, when they were of old chosen by God, received two holy names, for they were called the people of God, and Israel. We read: "Hear, O my people, and I will speak; O Israel, and I will testify against thee." 4 Once the Jews bore both these titles, now they have neither. They who long since left off the worship of God cannot be called God's people, nor can they who denied his Son be given a name that means "Seeing God." So it is written: "But Israel does not know, my people doth not consider." 5
For this reason on another occasion our God spoke of the people of the Hebrews to the prophet, saying: "Call his name, Not Beloved." And speaking to the Jews themselves: "You are not my people and I am not your God." 6 Moreover, he himself showed clearly why he spoke thus about them, for he said: "They have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters." 7 And again: "They have rejected the word of the Lord and there is no wisdom in them." 8
But indeed I am afraid that this is true of us now no less than it was of them, since we do not obey the words of the Lord, and our disobedience certainly shows that there is no wisdom in us. Unless perhaps we believe that we act wisely in scorning God, and consider it as a sign of the greatest prudence that we despise Christ's commandments. There is some reason why we should be thought to hold this opinion, for we all sin with as much accord as if we were doing it in pursuit of an elaborately planned policy.
Since this is the case, what logical reason have we for deluding ourselves by a false notion into the belief that the good name of Christian can be of any possible help to us in the evils we commit? The Holy Spirit says that not even faith, without good works, can |100 benefit Christian men. Yet surely to have faith requires much more than the name alone, for the name is the mere instrument by which a man is addressed, whereas faith is the fruit of the spirit. That this same fruit of faith is profitless without good works, the apostle testifies when he says: "Faith without good works is dead." And again he says: "For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." 9 He adds also certain harder sayings for the confusion of those who delude themselves by their false claims to the Christian faith.
2. "Yea, a man may say: 'Thou hast faith and I have works; show me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works.' " 10 By this, indeed, he shows that good acts serve also as witnesses of the Christian faith, because unless a Christian has performed good works, he cannot prove his faith at all, and since he cannot prove that it exists, it must be considered as altogether non-existent.11 For he shows at once that it must be considered as nothing, in his additional words to the Christian: "Thou belie vest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble." 12 Consider what the apostle meant by this. Let us not be angry at the divine testimony but assent to it; let us not speak against it but profit by it. "Thou believest," says the Divine Word to the Christian, "that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble." Was not the apostle in error when he compared the faith of a Christian to that of a devil? Surely not, but wishing to demonstrate what was said above, that without good works a man should claim no merit through pride in his faith, for this reason he says that the devils also believe in God. The intent is, of course, that as the devils, though they believe in |101 God, still persist in their wickedness, the sort of faith that they hold is like that of certain men who, while they assert their belief in God, still do not cease to do evil. Moreover, the apostle adds, for the confusion and condemnation of sinful men, that the devils not only believe in the name of God, but fear and tremble before it. Which is as much as to say: " Why do you flatter yourself, O man, whoever you are, for your belief, which without fear and obedience to God is as nothing? The devils have some advantage over you in this. For you have but one thing alone, and they have two: you have your belief, but not fear; they have belief and fear alike." Why do you wonder that we are chastised, that we are given over into the hands of the enemy, that we are weaker than all other men? Our miseries, our infirmities, our overthrow, our captivities and the punishments of our evil slavery are the proof that we are bad servants of a good master. How are we bad servants? Because, to be sure, our sufferings are only in proportion to our deserts. How are we the servants of a good master? Because he shows what we deserve, even though he does not inflict on us the punishment due, for he would rather correct us by the most kind and merciful chastisement than permit us to perish. As far as our misdoings are concerned, we deserve the penalty of death, but he, attaching more importance to mercy than to severity, prefers to better us by mercifully tempering his censure, than to slay us by the infliction of a just chastisement.
I know only too well that we are ungrateful for the blows we receive. But why do we wonder that God strikes us for our sins, when we ourselves strike our slaves for theirs? Like unjust judges we petty men are unwilling to be scourged by God, though we scourge men of our own condition. I am not surprised that we are so unjust in this case, for our very nature and wickedness are of a servile sort. We wish to do wrong and not be beaten for it. In this we have the same characteristics as our poor slaves. We all wish to sin without punishment. I call all men to witness whether I lie: I |102 declare that there is no one, however great his guilt, who admits that he deserves torture. From this we may observe how unjust and how exceedingly wicked a thing it is that we are most severe to others, but most indulgent to ourselves; harsh to others, but lax with ourselves. For the same crimes we punish others and let ourselves go free; truly a mark of intolerable indulgence 13 and presumption. We do not wish to recognize any guilt in ourselves, but we dare to claim the right to judge others. What can be more unjust or more perverse than we show ourselves in this? We think that very crime justifiable in our own case that we condemn most severely in others. So it is not without cause that the apostle cries out to us: "Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whoever thou art, that judgest; for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things." 14
3. But some rich man may say: "We do not do the same things, not at all the same things, that slaves do; for slaves turn into thieves and runaways; slaves live only for their greedy appetites." It is true that these are vices characteristic of slaves, but their masters, though not all of them, have more and greater faults. Certain of them must indeed be excepted, though very few, whom I do not name for fear that in so doing I may appear less to praise them than to libel those whom I do not name.
First then, slaves, if they are thieves, are usually forced into robbery by need, since even though the customary allowances are furnished them, these conform better to custom than to sufficiency and so fulfill the canon 15 without satisfying the needs of those who receive them. Their necessity makes the fault itself less blameworthy, since a convicted thief who seems compelled to robbery |103 against his will deserves pardon. The Scripture itself seems to palliate the wrongdoing of needy men when it says: "Men do not despise a thief, if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry." 16 He steals to satisfy his soul; it is for this reason that we think we cannot accuse strongly enough those who are pardoned by the Divine Word. Regarding the running away of slaves we speak in the same way as about their thefts; but with even more justification, forsooth, in this case, since not only their wretched condition but also their punishments drive them to try to escape. They fear their overseers, they fear those set to keep silence among them, they fear their masters' agents. Among all these there are scarcely any to whom they seem to belong less than to their owners; they are beaten and broken down by them all. What more can be said? Many slaves take refuge with their masters from fear of their fellow-slaves. We ought not to hold responsible the slaves who try to escape, but those who force them to make the attempt. Our slaves labor under a most unhappy compulsion; longing to serve, they have no choice but to flee. They have no desire whatever to leave their masters' service, but the cruelty of their fellows does not allow them to continue in it.
They are called liars also. None the less, they are driven to falsehood by the brutality of the impending punishment ---- they lie in the hope of escaping torture. Why is it strange that a terrified slave would rather lie than be flogged? They are charged with having greedy mouths and stomachs, but this is nothing new; the man who has often endured hunger has the greater desire for satiety. Even supposing that he does not lack dry bread, he still hungers for delicacies, and so must be pardoned if he seeks more greedily that which is constantly lacking.
But you who are noble, you who are rich, who have an abundance of all good things, who ought to honor God the more because you enjoy his benefits endlessly, let us see whether your actions are, I |104 shall not say holy, but even harmless. What rich man, to repeat my former question, save only a few, is not stained by every sort of evil deed? And when I except a few, would that I might include many more in the exception! for then the innocence of the majority might be the salvation of all. I am speaking about none now save the man who recognizes that my words apply to him. If what I say lies outside his conscience my charge will do him no discredit. If, on the other hand, his heart admits the truth of my words, he should realize that it is not my tongue that is accusing him but his own conscience.
To recount first the vices characteristic of slaves: if a slave is a runaway, so are you also, rich and noble though you are; for all men who abandon the law of the Lord are running away from their master. What fault can you rightly find in the slave? You are doing as he does. He flees from his master, and you from yours; but in this you incur more blame than he, for in all likelihood he is running away from a bad master, while you flee from a good one. In the slave you criticize incontinent greed. This is a rare fault in him, for want of means to satisfy it, but a daily one in you because of your abundance. Hence you see that the words of the apostle censure you more than him; nay, they censure you alone, for "wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things"; 17 nay, not the same, but far greater and more wicked. In the slave you punish an infrequent overindulgence of the appetite, while you constantly distend your own belly with undigested food. You think theft a servile fault, but you too, O rich man, commit robbery when you encroach on things forbidden by God. Indeed every man who performs illicit actions is guilty of theft.
4. Why do I dwell on these petty details and speak in a sort of allegorical fashion, when absolutely unconcealed crimes make it clear that the wealthy commit not mere thefts but highway robbery |105 on a grand scale? How often do you find a rich man's neighbor who is not himself poor, who is really secure in his acts and position? Indeed by the encroachments of overpowerful men,18 weaklings lose their property or even their freedom along with their goods, so that it was not without reason that the Sacred Word alluded to them both, saying: "Wild asses are the prey of lions in the wilderness; so poor men are a pasture for the rich." 19 And yet not only the poor but almost the whole human race is suffering this tyranny. "What else is the official career of eminent men but the confiscation of all the property of their states? What else is the prefecture of certain men, whose names I suppress, but plundering? 20 Nothing causes greater devastation in the poorer states than the high officials. Honor is bought by a few to be paid for by the oppression of the many; what could be more disgraceful or more unjust than this? Wretched men pay the purchase price for honors which they do not buy for themselves,; they have nothing to do with |106 the bargain, but know only too well the payments made;21 the world is turned upside down that a few men may be glorified; the honor of one man is the ruin of the human race.22
To conclude, the Spanish provinces know whereof I speak, for they have nothing left them but their name;23 the provinces of Africa know it, whose very existence is at an end;24 the lands of Gaul know it, for they are devastated, yet not by all their officials, and so they still draw the scanty breath of life in a few far corners, since the integrity of a few has supported for a time those whom the rapine of the many has impoverished.25
5. But my sorrow has led me to wander too far afield. To return to my former topic: is there any respect in which even the nobles are not contaminated by servile vices, or have they, forsooth, a right to commit sins they punish in their slaves? A slave may not even dream of such ravages as these nobles perform. This, however, is not quite true, for certain of the slaves, gaining noble rank, commit like sins, or even worse. Still the remaining slaves can hardly be held responsible for the fact that some few have so blessedly lost the condition of servitude.
Homicide is rare among slaves because of their dread and fear of |107 capital punishment, whereas among the rich it is constantly committed because of their confident hope of immunity. Perhaps I am doing an injustice in reckoning the actions of the rich as sins, for when they kill their poor slaves they consider it an act of justice, not a crime.26 Nor is this all; they also abuse their privilege in their vile breaches of chastity. What rich man keeps his marriage vows, who among them does not plunge headlong into passionate lust, who does not use his household slaves as harlots and pursue his madness against any one on whom the heat of his evil desires may light? They illustrate well the words of the Holy Scriptures about such men as they: "They are become as horses rushing madly on the mares." 27 Is it not a proof of what I just said, that the average man washes to make his own by physical union whatever his eyes have beheld with desire? To use the term concubine may perhaps seem unfair, since in comparison with the vices mentioned above it seems almost a form of chastity to be content with a few mates and restrain one's lusts to a fixed number of wives. 28 I say "wives" advisedly because we have come to such a pass that many consider their maidservants as actual wives. Would that they were content to have only those whom they do so consider! But the truth is more foul and loathsome by far ---- for certain men who have contracted honorable marriages take additional wives of servile rank, deforming the sanctity of holy matrimony by low and mean |108 unions, not blushing to become the consorts of their slave women, toppling over the lofty structure of marriage for the vile beds of slaves, proving themselves fully worthy of the rank of those whom they judge worthy of their embrace.
6. Doubtless many of those who either are or wish to be nobles listened with lofty scorn to my statement that some slaves are less reprehensible than their masters. But since I made this remark not about all of them but only those whom it fits, no one has any cause for anger if he thinks himself a very different sort of man, for his anger would be enough to betray his membership in the group of which I spoke.29 On the other hand, any nobles who abominate this wickedness should be angry at such men as these, who defame the very name of nobility by the extreme baseness of their misdeeds. For although, men of that stripe are a heavy burden to all Christian people, still by their vileness they pollute especially the members of their own class. Therefore I have said that certain nobles are worse than slaves, and I have thus opened the way for contradiction, unless I can adduce proof for my words.
Take for example this crime, a very great one indeed, of which almost the whole mass of slaves is guiltless. Has any slave throngs of concubines, is any one of them denied by the stain of polygamy or do they think they can live like dogs or swine with as many wives as they have been able to subject to their lust? The answer, I suppose, is obvious, that slaves have no such opportunities, for they surely would take them if they had. I believe this, but I cannot consider actions I do not see performed as having taken place. However dishonorable his intentions are, however evil his desires may be, no one is punishable for the crimes that he does not commit. It is generally agreed that slaves are wicked and worthy of our |109 contempt. But, be that as it may, free-born men of noble rank are the more to be reproached if in their more honorable condition they are worse than slaves. Hence the inevitable conclusion is not that bondmen ought to be absolved from responsibility for their wrongdoings:, but that the majority of the rich are more to be condemned in comparison with slaves.
Who can find words to describe the enormity of our present situation? Now when the Roman commonwealth, already extinct or at least drawing its last breath in that one corner where it still seems to retain some life, is dying,30 strangled by the cords of taxation as if by the hands of brigands, still a great number of wealthy men are found the burden of whose taxes is borne by the poor; that is, very many rich men are found whose taxes are murdering the poor.31 Very many, I said: I am afraid I might more truly say all; for so few, if any, are free from this evil, that we may find practically all the rich in the category to which I have just assigned many of them.
Think a minute: the remedies recently given to some cities. ----what have they done but make all the rich immune and heap up |110 the taxes of the wretched? 32 To free the rich from their old dues they have added new burdens to those of the poor; they have enriched the wealthy by taking away their slightest obligations and afflicted the poor by multiplying their very heavy payments. The rich have thus become wealthier by the decrease of the burdens that they bore easily, while the poor are dying of the increase in taxes that they already found too great for endurance. So the vaunted remedy most unjustly exalted the one group and most unjustly killed the other; to one class it was a most accursed reward and to the other a most accursed poison. Hence I say that nothing can be more wicked than the rich who are murdering the poor by their so-called remedies, and nothing more unlucky than the poor, to whom even the general panacea brings death.
7. Then what a state of things it is, what a holy condition of affairs, that, if a noble begins to be converted to God, he at once loses his noble rank! What honor is paid to Christ among a Christian people in whose eyes religion makes a man ignoble? For as soon as a man has made an attempt to improve himself, he meets the abusive scorn of worse men, and thus all are compelled to some degree of evil living that they may not be considered contemptible. Not without cause did the apostle cry out: "The whole world lieth in wickedness." 33 He spoke truly, for it is right to say that the whole world is lying in wickedness when the good cannot hold their place in it. Indeed, everything is so full of iniquity that either all who live are evil, or the few who are good are tortured by the persecution of the many. Therefore, as I said, if any man of honorable rank devotes himself to religion, he at once ceases to be honored. For when a man has changed his garments,34 forthwith |111 he changes his rank; if he has been of high degree, he becomes contemptible; if he has been most glorious, he becomes the vilest of the vile; if he has been altogether full of honor, he becomes altogether wretched in aspect.
Yet certain worldly men and unbelievers wonder why they endure the wrath of God and his hatred, when they persecute him in the persons of all his saints; for all things are perverse and at variance with the ways of the past. If there is any good man, he is scorned as though he were evil: if a man is evil, he is honored as though he were good. Is it then strange that we who daily grow worse, endure worse tortures daily? 35 For men daily invent new evils and do not forsake the old; fresh crimes spring up, but the old are not abandoned.
8. Is there any room for further discussion? However hard and bitter our lot, we still suffer less than we deserve. Why should we complain that God deals harshly with us? We treat him much more rudely. We anger him by our impure acts and force him, unwilling though he is, to punish us. And although the spirit and majesty of God are such that he is not moved by any passion or anger, yet such is the aggravation of our sins that they drive him to wrath. |112 If I may say so, we subject his loving kindness to force, and seem to lay violent hands on his mercy. For although he is so gentle that ho would like to spare us constantly, our perversity compels him to punish our sins. As those who blockade well-fortified cities or attempt to capture and undermine their mighty strongholds, customarily lay siege to them with all sorts of machines and weapons, so we attack the mercy of God with every kind of frightful sin as if we, too, were using siege engines. Then we think God injures us, though we are acting most injuriously toward him. Indeed every fault of all Christians is an insult to his divinity. "When we perform those acts that are forbidden by God we trample underfoot the orders of him who forbade us. It is impious to blame God's severity for our misfortunes: we should instead accuse ourselves. For when we commit the sins that cause our torture, we are ourselves the authors of our torments. Why then do we complain of the bitterness of our punishments? Each one of us punishes himself.
This is why the prophet said to us: "Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that have added fuel to the flame; walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks that ye have kindled." 36 For the whole human race is rushing headlong into eternal punishment by the very course that the Scriptures describe. First we kindle the fire, then add fuel to the flames, and lastly enter the flames that we have prepared. When does man first kindle eternal fire for himself? Surely when he first begins to sin. But when does he add fuel to the flames? When he heaps up sins upon sins. When shall he enter the everlasting fire? When he has already completed the irrevocable account of wickedness by the increase of his sins, as our Savior said to the leaders of the Jews: "Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers, ye serpents, ye generation of vipers," 37 The men whom the Lord himself told to fill up the measure were not far from completing the full number of their sins. Because they were |113 no longer worthy of salvation, they filled up the number of iniquities by which they were to perish. Whence also, when the ancient Law recalled that the sins of the Amorreans 38 were fulfilled, it is said that the angels spoke to the blessed Lot, saying: "Whomsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out of this place, because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the Lord, and the Lord hath sent us to destroy them." 39 For a long time, truly, that most sinful people had been kindling the fires by which they perished, and so when the tale of their iniquities was completed they burned in the flames of their own crimes. For they deserved so ill of God that they suffered in this world the Gehenna that is to come in the later judgment.
9. But, you say, none now deserve the end of those men, for none are to be compared with them, in evil doing. Perhaps that is true, still what do we make of the fact that the Savior himself said that all who have spurned his Gospel are worse than they? And at Capernaum he said: "If the mighty works which have been done in thee had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee." 40 If he said the people of Sodom are less to be condemned than all who neglect the Gospels, then we who in most of our actions show our neglect of the Gospel teachings are in graver danger, especially since we are not willing to be content with crimes long familiar, that seem a part of our daily life. Many are not satisfied with the customary vices, with litigation, slander and rapine, with drunkenness and gorging at feasts, with forgeries and perjury, with adultery and homicide. Finally, however inhuman the atrocities involved, all the crimes involving injury to their fellow men are not enough for them, but they must needs turn the blasphemous violence of their |114 mad minds against the Lord also. For it is written of the wicked: "They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth.... And they say, 'How doth God know, and is there knowledge in the Most High?' " And again: "The Lord shall not see, neither shall the God of Jacob regard it." 41
To such men this prophetic saying may well be applied: "The fool hath said in his heart, 'There is no God.' " 42 For they who declare that nothing is seen by God are very near to denying his actual substance, as they deny his sight, and when they say that he sees nothing they deny his very existence.
Although no evil deed has any rational foundation,43 since there is no bond between reason and wickedness, yet no blasphemy, in my opinion at least, is more irrational than this or more insane. What is so mad as for a man, who does not deny that God created the whole world, to deny that he governs it? How can one admit that God is its maker, and deny that he takes any care of what be made? As if his intention in creating the universe was to neglect it when completed! I say that he cares so much for his creatures that I can prove that he cared for them even before their creation; indeed, the very act of creation makes this clear. He would not have created the world, if his care had not preceded the act, especially since we know that in our human kind there is scarcely a man so stupid that he would carry an undertaking through to completion without the intention of taking care of it when finished. For a man who tills a field does so in order to keep it for his own use after it is cultivated; he who plants a vineyard means to take care of it when he has planted it; he who gathers the nucleus of a herd means to exercise his skill in increasing it. He who builds a house or lays its foundations, even though he has as yet no finished |115 dwelling-place, still embodies in the building he is trying to erect the hopes of a future home.
Yet why should I speak of man alone, when even the smallest sorts of animals do all things with a view to future use? 44 Ants, hiding various sorts of grain from [the fields] 45 in underground storerooms, drag away and store their hoards because they cherish them in their desire to live. Why do the bees, when they lay foundations for the honeycomb or pluck their young from flowers,46 search out thyme except from their eager desire for honey, or certain other flowerets but from love of the young they are to find there?
Has God then instilled this love of their own functions into even the least of living things, and deprived himself alone of the love of his works? Have you considered that all our love of good things has come down to us from his good love? He himself is the fount and source of all our benefits, and since, as it is written: "In him we live and move and have our being," 47 from him surely we have received all the affection we give our offspring; for the whole world and the whole human race are the offspring of their creator.
Therefore by that very love he has caused us to feel for our sons he wished us to know how greatly he loved his own. For we read, just as "the invisible things of him are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made," 48 even so he wished his love for us to be known by the love that he gave us toward our own kindred. As it is written that he wished all fatherhood in heaven and in earth to be named after him,49 so he wished us to recognize |116 his fatherly love. Yet why do I say fatherly? for his love is far more than a father's. This is proved by the words of the Savior in the Gospel, when he said: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son for the life of the world." 50 But the apostle also says: "God spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all. How hath he not with him also freely given us all things?" 51
10. This confirms my former statement, that God loves us more than a father loves his son. It is clear that his love surpasses a man's love for his sons, since for our sake he did not spare his own child. Nay, I add more, he did not spare his righteous Son, his only begotten Son, his Son who is himself God. What more can be said? And this was done for us, that is for wicked, unjust and most irreverent men. Who can justify this love of God toward us, save that his justice is so great that no shadow of injustice can fall on him? As far as human reason is concerned, any man would have acted most unjustly if he had had his good son put to death for his worst slaves. But for this very reason the love of God is the more surpassing and his goodness the more marvellous, that, as far as human weakness is concerned, the greatness of his justice almost bears the appearance of injustice. Therefore the apostle, to indicate as far as he might the boundless mercy of God, said: " For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die." 52 Certainly in this one sentence he showed us the love of God. For if scarcely any one undertakes to die for the greatest righteousness, Christ dying for our iniquity proved what love he bore us. Why God should have done this, the apostle tells us at once in the words that follow, saying: "God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now |117 justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him." 53 He commends his love to us, in that he died for sinners; for a benefit is of greater worth that is given to men unworthy of it.
So he says: "God commends his love toward us." How does he commend it? Surely in that he bestows it on the undeserving. If he had given it to holy men who deserved well of him, he would not seem to have given what was not due, but what he owed them.
What then have we given in return for this great boon, or what return ought we to make for it? First of all, what the most blessed prophet testifies that he owes and will give, saying: "What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord." 54 This is the first repayment, that we return death for death, and all die for him who died for us, even though our death is of much less account than his. Whence it comes that even if we take death upon us, we cannot by this means repay our debt. But since we cannot requite him more fully, we seem to be paying the whole, if we return him all that we can. This, therefore, as I said, is our first payment.
The second is, if we do not pay our debt by death, to pay it by love. The Savior himself, as the apostle says, by his death wished to commend his love to us all, to lead us by the example of his loving care to make a fitting return for such great affection. And just as certain marvellous natural gems, when one brings them into contact with iron, though it be of the hardest kind, hold it in suspense by an attraction that seems actually possessed of life, so also he, the greatest and most glorious gem of the heavenly kingdom, wished to come down from heaven to approach more closely to us, to draw us, in spite of our hardness, to his care as if by the hands of his love, that recognizing his gifts and benefits we might come to know what it befitted us to do for so good a master when he had |118 done so much for his wicked servants. Then should be fulfilled the words of the apostle, that we should be killed all the day long for his love, and neither tribulation nor distress nor persecution nor famine nor nakedness nor the sword should be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus the Lord. 55
11. Since our indebtedness to God is clearly established, let us see what return we make him for all that we owe. What return, indeed, but all the actions of which I have spoken before, namely, whatever is indecent, whatever is unworthy, whatever leads to injury of God, wicked deeds, disgraceful habits, drunken feasts, bloodstained hands, vile lusts, mad passions and whatever else can better be reckoned up by the conscience than in words! "For," said the apostle, "it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret." 56 Nor is this all, for it is an old charge, and belongs no more to the present time than to the past. More serious and lamentable is the fact that we are adding new sins to the old, sins not only new but of a monstrous and heathen sort, such as have not before been seen in the churches of God. We blasphemously revile the Lord, saying that he is a God who does not care for us, a God who pays us no attention, a God who neglects us, who does not govern us, and hence he is pitiless and obdurate, inhuman, harsh and cruel. For, since he is described as not regarding us, as careless and neglectful, what remains but to call him harsh and cruel and inhuman? What blind impudence! what sacrilegious boldness! It is not enough for us, that, bound in our countless sins, we are in all things guilty before God, unless we are also his accusers. Yet what hope, I ask, shall a man have, who, while facing judgment himself, brings accusation against his judge?
12. If God does regard human affairs, some one may say, if he cares for us, loves and guides us, why does he allow us to be weaker and more miserable than all nations? Why does he suffer us to be |119 conquered by the barbarians? Why does he permit us to be subject to the rule of our enemies? 57 To answer very briefly, as I have already said, he suffers us to endure these trials because we deserve to endure them. Let us consider the disgraceful habits, the vices and crimes of the Roman people, as we have described them above, and we shall then understand whether we can have any claim on his protection when we live in such impurity. If we examine in this light our customary argument that our misery and weakness show God's neglect of human affairs, what do we really deserve? If he permitted us, living in such vice and wickedness, to be exceedingly strong, prosperous and completely happy, then perhaps there might be some ground for suspicion that God did not see the evil-doing of the Romans, if he allowed such wicked and abandoned men to be happy. Since instead he bids such vicious and evil men to be most abject and wretched, it is perfectly evident that we are seen and judged by God, for our sufferings are fully deserved.
We, of course, do not think we deserve them, and consequently are the more guilty and blameworthy for failing to recognize our deserts. The chief accusation of wrongdoers is their proud assertion of innocence. Among a number of men charged with the selfsame crime none is more guilty than he who does not acknowledge his guilt even in his own thoughts. We have, therefore, this single addition to make to our wrongdoings, that we consider ourselves guiltless.
But, you may object, grant that we are sinners and wicked men, certainly you cannot deny that we are better than the barbarians, and this alone makes it clear that God does not watch over human affairs, because we, who are better, are subject to men worse than ourselves. Whether we are better than the barbarians, we shall now consider; certainly there can be no doubt that we ought to be better. And for this very reason, we are worse than they, unless we |120 are actually better, for the more honorable position makes any fault doubly blameworthy. The greater the personal dignity of the sinner, the greater is the odium of his sin.58 Theft for example is a serious crime in any man, but a thieving senator is doubtless far more to be condemned than one of the lower classes. Fornication is. forbidden to all, but it is a much more serious vice in one of the clergy than in one of the people. So also we, who are said to be Christians and catholic, if we are guilty of vices like those of the barbarians, sin more seriously than they, for sins committed by men who claim a holy name are the more abominable. The more lofty our claim to honor, the greater is our fault; the very religion we profess accuses our faults, A pledge of chastity increases the sin of lewdness; drunkenness is more loathsome in one who makes an outward show of sobriety. Nothing is more vile than a philosopher who pursues a vicious and obscene life, since in addition to the natural baseness of his vices, he is further branded by his reputation for wisdom. We therefore, who out of the whole human race have professed the Christian philosophy, for this reason, must be believed and considered worse than all other nations, since, living under so great a profession of faith, in the very bosom of religion, we still sin.
13. I know it seems to most men intolerable that we should be called worse than barbarians. What possible good does it do us to have this seem intolerable? Our condition is made so much the more serious if we are worse than they and yet insist on believing ourselves better. "For if a man think himself to be something," the apostle said, "when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. But let every man prove his own work." 59 We ought to put our trust in our works, not in our opinion; in reason, not lust; in truth, not in our will alone.
Since, then, some men think it unsupportable that we should |121 be adjudged to be worse, or even not much better than the barbarians, let us consider in what way we are better, and in relation to which of the barbarians. For there are two kinds of barbarians in the world, that is, heretics and pagans. 60 To all of these, as far as the divine law is concerned, I declare that we are incomparably superior; as far as our life and actions are concerned, I say with grief and lamentation that we are worse. However, as I said before, let us not make this statement of the whole body of Romans without exception. For I except first of all those men who have devoted themselves to a religious life, and then some laymen who are equal to them; or, if that is too much to say, at least very like them in their upright and honorable actions. As for the rest, all or practically all are more guilty than the barbarians. And to be more guilty is to be worse.
Therefore, since some men think it irrational and absurd that we should be judged as worse, or even not much better than the barbarians, let us see, as I said, how we are worse, and in relation to which barbarians. Now I say that except for those Romans alone, whom I mentioned just now, the others are all or almost all more guilty than the barbarians, and more criminal in their lives. You who read these words are perhaps vexed and condemn what you read. I do not shrink from your censure; condemn me if I do not succeed in proving my words; condemn me if I do not show that the Sacred Scriptures also have said what 1 now claim. I myself who say that we Romans, who judge ourselves far superior to all other nations on earth, are worse in many respects, do not deny that in certain ways we are superior. For while we are, as I have said, worse in our way of life and in our sins, yet in living under the catholic law we are incomparably superior. But we must consider this, that while it is not our merit that the law is good, it is our fault that we live badly. Surely it profits us nothing that |122 our law is good, if our life and conversation are not; for the good law is the gift of Christ, whereas the faulty life is our own responsibility. On the contrary, we are more blameworthy if the law we worship is good and we who worship it are evil. Nay, we do not worship it, if we are evil, for an evil worshipper cannot be properly said to worship at all. He who does not worship sacredly that which is holy does not worship at all, and hereby the very law we hold accuses us.
14. Disregarding, therefore, the privilege of the law, which either does not help us or even brings just condemnation upon us, let us compare the lives, the aims, the customs and the vices of the barbarians with our own. The barbarians are unjust and we are also; they are avaricious and so are we; they are faithless and so are we; to sum up, the barbarians and ourselves are alike guilty of all evils and impurities.
Perhaps the answer may be made: if we are equal to them in viciousness, why are we not also equal to them in strength? Inasmuch as their wickedness is like ours and their guilt identical, either we should be as strong as they, or they as weak as we. That is true, and the natural conclusion is that we who are weaker are the more guilty. What proof have we? The proof is, of course, inherent in my demonstration that God does everything in accordance with judgment. For if, as it is written: "The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good:" 61 and in the words of the apostle: "The judgment of God is according to truth against all wicked men," 62 we, who do not cease to do evil, see that it is by the judgment of a just God that we endure the penalties for our evil-doing. But, you object, the barbarians commit the same sins, and yet are not as wretched as we. There is this difference between us, that even if the barbarians do the same things that we do, our sins are still more grievous than theirs. For our vices and |123 theirs can be equal without their guilt being as great as ours. All of them, as I said before, are either pagans or heretics. I shall discuss the pagans first, since theirs is the older delusion: among these, the nation of the Saxons is savage, the Franks treacherous, the Gepids ruthless, the Huns lewd ---- so we see that the life of all the barbarians is full of vice. Can you say that their vices imply the same guilt as ours, that the lewdness of the Huns is as sinful as ours, the treachery of the Franks as worthy of accusation, the drunkenness of the Alemanni as reprehensible as that of Christians, the greed of an Alan as much to be condemned as that of a believer?
If a Hun or Gepid is deceitful what wonder is it in one who is utterly ignorant of the guilt involved in falsehood? If a Frank swears falsely, what is strange in his action, since he thinks perjury a figure of speech, and not a crime? And why is it strange that the barbarians have this degree of vice, since they know not the law and God, when a majority of the Romans, who know that they are sinning, take the same attitude?
Not to speak of any other type of man, let us consider only the throngs of Syrian merchants who have seized the greater part of all our towns---- is their life anything else than plotting, trickery and wearing falsehood threadbare? 63 They think words practically wasted that do not bring some profit to their speaker. Among these men God's prohibition of an oath is held in such high esteem that they consider every sort of perjury actually profitable to them. What wonder is it, then, that the barbarians, who do not know that falsehood is a sin, practice deception? None of their actions are due to contempt of the divine ordinances, for they do not know the precepts of God. A man ignorant of the law cannot act in defiance of it. This is our peculiar guilt, who read the divine law and constantly violate its terms, who say that we know God and yet |124 walk roughshod over his commands and precepts; and therefore, since we despise him whom we believe and boast that we worship, the very appearance of worship is an injury to him.
15. Lastly, to say nothing of our other sins, who is there among laymen, except a very few, that does not constantly have the name of Christ on his lips to swear by it? Hence this is the oath most commonly used by nobles and baseborn men alike: "By Christ I do this...; by Christ I act thus...; by Christ I am not going to say anything else...; by Christ I am not going to do anything else." And what results? The abuse has been carried so far that, as we said before about heathen barbarians, Christ's name seems now to be not a binding oath but a mere expletive. For among the great majority this name is held to be so trivial that men never have less intention of doing a thing than when they swear by Christ to do it. Although it is written: "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain," 64 reverence for Christ has fallen so low that among all the vain words of this age scarcely any seems more vainly used than the name of Christ.
Then many swear by the name of Christ to do things not merely trivial and foolish but even criminal. For this is their usual manner of speaking: "By Christ I'll steal that...; by Christ I'll wound that man...; by Christ I'll murder him." It has come to such a pass that they feel themselves bound by religion to commit the crimes they have sworn in Christ's name.
Finally, let me tell an experience of my own. A short time ago, won over by the pleas of a certain poor man, I besought a man of considerable influence not to take from the poor wretch his property and substance, not to remove the sole prop and help that supported his poverty. Then he, who had swallowed the poor man's goods in ravenous haste, and had already devoured his prey with most ardent ambition and greed, glared at me with eyes blazing as if he thought I might take from him something he had not succeeded in |125 filching from the other, and said he could not possibly do as I asked, since he was acting in accordance with a sacred command or decree that he absolutely could not overlook. When I asked the reason, he said most emphatically, brooking no contradiction: "I have made a vow to seize that man's property. Consider then whether I could or should fail to accomplish what I have sworn by the name of Christ." Then I left him, having heard the reason for his most pious crime, for what else was I to do, when his action was shown to be so just and sacred!
16. At this point I ask all who are of sound mind: who would ever believe that human covetousness would reach such a pitch of audacity, would ever scorn God so openly that men should say it is for Christ's sake they intend to do a deed the very performance of which is an insult to Christ? "What an unthinkable and monstrous crime! Of what daring are the wicked minds of men not capable? They arm themselves for robbery in God's name; they make him somehow responsible for their crimes, and although Christ forbids and punishes all sin they claim that they perform their wicked deeds for his sake.
Yet we, complaining of the injustice of the enemy, say that the heathen barbarians are guilty of perjury. How much less guilty are they who swear falsely by demons, than we who swear by Christ! How much less serious a crime it is to take the name of Jove in vain than that of Christ! In the one case it is a dead man by whom they swear,65 in the other the living God by whose name they swear falsely. In the former instance there is no longer even a man; in the latter, the most high God; here, since the oath was taken in the most binding name, the greatest guilt and perjury must be involved; there, since that by which they swear scarcely exists, clearly there is no perjury, for since the God by whom they swear does not exist, there is no perjury when the oath is broken. Finally, let him who wishes to know the truth of this matter |126 listen to the blessed apostle Paul uttering the very arguments I am giving. These are his words: "Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law." And again: "Where no law is, there is no transgression." 66 In these two statements, did he not make clear that there are two divisions of the human race, those placed without the law, and those living under it? What men are there who now live under the law? Who indeed but the Christians? Such was the apostle himself, who said of himself: " I am not without law to God, but under the law to Christ." 67
Who then are outside the law of Christ? Who but pagans ignorant of the Lord's law? Therefore it is of these that he says: "Where no law is, there is no transgression." By this one word he shows that only Christians transgress the law when they sin, but the pagans who do not know the law sin without transgression, since no one can transgress in a matter of which he is ignorant. We alone therefore are transgressors of the divine law, we who, as it is written, read the law and do not follow it. Hence our knowledge brings us nothing but guilt, since its result is only that we give the more offence by our sins, for what we know from our reading and in our hearts, we spurn in our wantonness and scorn.
So the words of the apostle to every Christian man were most justly spoken: "Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonorest thou God? For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you." 68
Of what crimes the Christians are guilty may be learned from this one fact, that they defame the name of God. And although we have been charged to "do all things for the glory of God" 69 we, on the contrary, do all things for his injury. Although the Savior daily calls to us: "Let your light so shine before men, that the |127 sons of men may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven," 70 we, on the other hand, so live that the sons of men may see our evil deeds and blaspheme our Father which is in heaven.
17. This being the case, we may indeed beguile ourselves with the great prerogatives of the name of Christian, we who so act and live that by the very fact that we are said to be a Christian people we seem to be a reproach to Christ. On the other hand, what do we find of this sort among the pagans? Can it be said of the Huns: "See what sort of men these are who are called Christians?" Can it be said of the Saxons or the Franks: "See what these men do who claim to worship Christ?" Can the sacred law be blamed for the savage customs of the Moors? Do the most inhuman rites of Scythians or Gepids bring curses and blasphemy on the name of the Lord our Savior? Can it be said of any of these: "Where is the catholic law that they believe? Where are the commandments of piety and chastity that they learn? They read the Gospel, and are unchaste; they listen to the apostles, and get drunk; they follow Christ, and plunder; they lead dishonorable lives, and say that they follow an honorable law." Can such things be said of any of these nations? Certainly not, but they are all truly said of us: in us Christ suffers reproach; in us the Christian law is accursed. Of us are said the words quoted above: "See what sort of men these are who worship Christ. They are plainly lying when they say that they learn good things, and boast that they keep the commandments of the sacred law. For if they learned good things they would be good. Their religion must be like its followers: doubtless they are what they are taught to be. Thus it appears that the prophets they have teach impurity; and the apostles they read have sanctioned wickedness; and the Gospel which they have learned preaches the actions that they perform; in fine, the lives of the Christians would be holy, if Christ had taught holiness. So the object of their |128 worship must be judged from his worshippers. How can the teacher be good whose pupils we see are so evil? In him they are Christians ---- they hear Christ himself and read his words. It is easy for us all to learn the teachings of Christ. See what the Christians do, and you will clearly discern the teachings of Christ."
Finally, what distorted and wicked notions the pagans have always had about the sacraments of the Lord is shown by the bloody inquisitions of brutal persecutors, who believed that at Christian services only vile and abominable rites were performed. Even the origins of our religion were thought to spring from two great crimes, the first being murder and the second incest, which is worse than murder. Nor were these mere murder and incest, but a more wicked thing than the bare commission of either of these crimes, the incest of holy mothers, and the murder of innocent infants, whom, they thought, the Christians not only murdered, but ---- which is more abominable ---- devoured.
All this was supposed to be done to appease God, as if any evil would cause him greater offence! as an offering to atone for sin, as if any sin could be greater! to make him look with favor on sacrifices, as if any act could better arouse his aversion and horror! to win the right to eternal life, as if indeed, even supposing it could be won by such actions, it were worth while to attain it by such atrocious crimes!
18. We may understand from this what the pagans have come to believe about the character of Christians, who worship God in such sacrifices, and what sort of God they think could have taught such things as sacred rites. Yet how did this belief arise? How else but through those who are called Christians, but are not; who by their shameful and disgraceful lives sully the name of their religion; who, as it is written, "profess that they know God, but in works deny him, being abominable and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate";71 by whom, as we read, "the way of |129 truth is evil spoken of" 72 and the sacred name of God violated by the profanity of sacrilegious men.
How very difficult it is to atone for subjecting the name of divinity to the evil-speaking of the heathen, we are taught by the example of the most blessed David. By the suffrage of his former acts of justice he deserved to win release by a single act of confession, from eternal punishment for his offences. Yet even the penitence that pleaded for him did not avail to win pardon for, this grievous sin. For when Nathan the prophet had heard him confess his fault, and said to him: "The Lord hath put away thy sin, thou shalt not die," he added at once: "Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born of thee shall surely die." 73
What followed? He laid aside his diadem, cast off his jewels, doffed the purple, gave up all the splendor of his royal state, and instead shut himself up alone in mourning, foully clad in sackcloth, drenched with his tears and besmirched with ashes. Yet though he sought the life of his little child with such lamentations and entreaties, and strove to move the tender heart of God with such fervent prayers, all his pleas and protests could not obtain his pardon, even though he had firmly believed that he should gain what he sought from God ---- which is the greatest aid to those who pray. From this we learn that there is absolutely no sin for which it is harder to atone than that of giving the heathen occasion to blaspheme. For whoever has gravely sinned without causing others to blaspheme brings condemnation only on himself, but he who has made others blaspheme drags many men down to death with him, and must be held answerable for all whom he has implicated in his guilt. Nor is this all; whenever a man sins; in such a way that his action does not give others occasion for blasphemy, his sin injures only him who has committed it, but does not insult the holy name of |130 God by the sacrilegious curses of blasphemy. But if his wrongdoing has caused others to blaspheme, his sin must be immeasurably great, beyond the bounds of human guilt, for by the revilings of many he has caused incalculable insult to God.
19. Moreover, as I have said, this evil is peculiar to us Christians, because God is blasphemed only through the agency of those who know the good and do evil; who, as it is written: " Profess that they know God, but in works deny him"; 74 who, as the same apostle says: "Rest in the law and know his will, and approve the things that are more excellent; who have the form of knowledge and of truth in the law; who preach a man should not steal, and themselves steal; who say a man should not commit adultery and themselves commit it; who make their boast in the law and through breaking the law dishonor God." 75
The Christians are worse than other men for the very reason that they ought to be better. They do not justify their profession of faith, but light against it by their evil lives. For evil doing is the more damnable in contrast with an honorable title; and a holy name becomes a crime in an impious man. Therefore our Savior also says in the Apocalypse to a lukewarm Christian: "I would thou wert hot or cold; so then because thou art lukewarm, I will spue thee out of my mouth." 76
The Lord commanded every Christian to be fervent in faith and spirit. For it is written: "That we may be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord." 77 In this fervor of spirit the ardor of religious faith is made known; he who has the largest share of such ardor is recognized as fervent and faithful, while he who has none at all is known to be cold and an unbeliever. But he who is betwixt and between is a lukewarm Christian and hateful to the Lord, who therefore says to him: " Would that thou wert hot or cold, now therefore |131 since thou art lukewarm I will spue thee out of my mouth." That is to say: "Would that you had either the heat and faith of good Christians or the ignorance of pagans. For then either your warm faith would make you pleasing to God, or at least for the time being your ignorance of the law would give you some measure of excuse. But as it is, since you know Christ, and neglect him whom you know, you who have, so to speak, been received into the very presence of God by the recognition of the faith, are cast out because of lukewarmness."
The blessed apostle Peter also made this plain when he said of the lukewarm and vicious Christians, that is, those who live wicked lives: "For it had been better for them not to have known the truth, than after they had known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, 'The dog is turned to his own vomit again, and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.' " 78
To make clear that this was said of those who live under the name of Christian in the vileness and filth of the world, hear what he says of such men in the same passage: "For if, after they had escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning." 79 This, indeed, the blessed Paul repeats in like manner: "For circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law; but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision." 80 He himself shows very clearly that by circumcision Christianity is to be understood when he says: "For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit and have no confidence in the flesh." 81 By this we see that he is comparing the |132 wicked Christians with pagans, and not merely comparing them but almost ranking them as of less account, when he says: "However, if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision? And shall not uncircumcision, which is by nature, if it fulfil the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost transgress the law?" 82
From this we learn, as I said before, that we are much more blameworthy, who have the law and reject it, than those who neither have it at all nor know it, for no one despises what he does not know. "I had not known lust," the apostle says, "except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet," 83 Nor do men transgress the law which they do not know, for, as it is written: "Where no law is, there is no transgression." 84 If men do not transgress the law which they have not, neither do they despise the terms of the law which they have not, for no one, as I said, can despise what he does not know.
We, therefore, are alike scorners and transgressors of the law, and thus we are worse than the pagans, because they do not know the ordinances of God, but we know them; they do not possess them, but we do; they do not perform precepts they have not heard, but we read and trample them under our feet. Hence what with them is ignorance is in us transgression, since there is less guilt in ignorance of the law than in contempt of it.
[Footnotes moved to the end]
1. 1 See III. 2, supra.
2. 2 Salvian Ad ecclesiam II. 37; a work issued anonymously as the address of Timothy to the church on avarice, but accepted by Salvian as his in Ep. IX, to Salonius. The anonymous publication explains the manner of his reference in this case. On this passage cf. also Ep. IX. 9: "The names of things are of no avail without the substance, and the words for virtues are nothing without their active strength."
3. 3 Proverbs 11. 22.
4. 4 Psalms 50. 7; cf. Psalms 81. 8.
5. 5 Isaiah 1. 3.
6. 6 Hosea 1.9; Romans 9.25.
7. 7 Jeremiah 17.13.
8. 8 Ibid. 8. 9.
9. 9 James 2.20, 26.
10. 10 Ibid. 2.18.
11. 11 Rittershausen suggests that Salvian here alluded to the saying of the jurisconsults: "Not to be, and not to appear, or not to be susceptible of proof, are one and the same thing."
12. 12 James 2.19.
13. 13 The MS reading incontumaciae, the single occurrence of this word, was formerly questioned, but Pauly now accepts it, following Hartel, as equivalent to obsequium.
14. 14 Romans 2.1.
15. 15 That is, the usual slave allowance. The language seems to be borrowed from Cod. Just. XII. 23: De canone frumentario urbis Romae. Cf. Gregoire et Collombet ad. loc.
16. 16 Proverbs 6. 30.
17. 17 Romans 2.1.
18. 18 Even the imperial estates suffered from such encroachments; cf. the decree of Arcadius and Honorius, a.d. 399, providing for restitution of property unjustly seized on the imperial estates, and for a double penalty if restitution was delayed beyond a period of three months, applying also to those who had fled, unless they returned to restore the property stolen. The penalty applied to judges also if they did not give evidence against the exactores and conpulsores who were guilty. It is noteworthy that the decree claimed that but for the imperial clemency a fourfold penalty should have been exacted; one suspects impotence rather than clemency as the reason for the lighter fine (Cod. Theod. X. 1.10). On the general situation, cf. V. 8. infra.
19. 19 Ecclesiasticus 13.19.
20. 20 Compare the description of Arvandus, praetorian prefect of Gaul, given by Sidonius Apollinaris Ep. I. 7.3, "He governed his first prefecture with great distinction, and his second with great destruction." Again, in Ep. V. 13 Sidonius described the "monster" Seronatus, "exhausting the individuals scattered outside the towns by unheard of forms of inflictions, and ensnaring them by the sinuous deceits of his calumnies." The same Seronatus (Ep. II. 1) "levies taxes as a master, exacts payments like a judge, slanders like a barbarian.., fills the woods daily with fugitives, the villas with enemies, the altars with accused men, the prisons with clergy." We learn, however, from Ep. VII. 7. 2 that he was at last brought to justice and put to death, though the government hesitated to act against him.
21. 21 So Sidonius, Ep. V. 13, said of Seronatus: "Some are freed by his venality, others by his vanity, none by his mercy."
22. 22 On this whole passage cf. Haemmerle, Studia Salviana, I. 4, pp. 29-33.
23. 23 Since Gaul was overrun by the barbarians earlier than Spain, the latter province suffered heavier taxation at the hands of the imperial prefects, who tried to make up the Gallic deficit in the imperial taxation from this source. Cf. Orosius VII. 41. 7: "There are certain Romans among them who prefer to sustain poverty in freedom among the barbarians than the constant oppression of taxation among the Romans."
24. 24 Africa, being under the praetorian prefect of Italy, as Spain was under that of Gaul, also suffered from the increase of taxation to make up for losses in Italy.
25. 25 See Sidonius Ep. III. 6. 3: "Certainly the provinces are much discussed; a good year depends less on the crops than the officials." Again, in Ep. IV. 24.5, Sidonius illustrated the "integrity of a few" by persuading an official friend to grant a year's immunity from taxes, and cancellation of the interest due, to a more straitened taxpayer, to free him "from the barbarous demands of the collectors yapping around him."
26. 26 This attitude, however, was in defiance of a decree of Constantine of A.D. 319 (Cod. Just. IX. 14.1), which made a master who intentionally killed a slave guilty of homicide, whatever was the method used.
27. 27 Jeremiah 5. 8.
28. 28 The increase of concubinage in the fourth century led to progressive legalization of the institution. Constantino in A.D. 326 forbade it unconditionally (Cod. Just. V. 26); Arcadius and Honorius in 405 strictly limited the inheritance of concubines and their children (Ibid. 27. 2); Theodosius and Valentinian in 443 (Ibid. 27. 3) provided that natural sons might have full inheritance rights if they entered the curial class, and natural daughters if they married curials. The last decree illustrates also how fiscal necessities led to increasing leniency on the part of the government toward the frailties of the propertied class, especially when direct benefit to the treasury would result.
29. 29See Jerome Adv. Rufinum I. 11: "When vice is attacked anonymously, the man who is angry at the attack accuses himself. It were the part of a prudent man, therefore, though annoyed, to hide his guilt and cover his clouded heart by a bright front."
30. 30 This mention of the notion, prevalent in the fifth century, of the old age of the Roman power, is somewhat at variance with Salviun's usual point of view. Sidonius used "the old age of the world" as a commonplace (cf. Ep. VIII. 6.3); Cyprian (Ad Demetrianum 4) made it the chief answer to the usual charges against the Christians: "You blame the Christians because as the world grows old its parts are weakened." Salvian, on the other hand, saw the old regime as continuing with new vigor, gained from the barbarians, to take the place of the old vices.
31. 31 The efforts of the central government to do away with such inequalities are illustrated by the decree of Gratian, Theodosius and Valentinian, a.d. 383 (Cod. Theod. XI. 13. 1): "Let all the privileges granted to a few individuals to the destruction of the many be annulled, and all who have received immunities of this sort by any means be reduced to an equal lot with the other provincials... "; by the decree of the same emperors in 385 (Ibid. I. 20) providing that all be bound "by the same equal form of levy"; and by that of Arcadius and Honorius in 399 (Ibid. 1. 26) removing all privilege, making all men equally subject to taxation, especially in "those provinces from which the complaint arises." The repetition of such provisions illustrates clearly enough the futility of enacting them, which increased in the fifth century.
32. 32 See V. 8 infra. We are reminded, however, how much the rich also had to complain of the burdens of taxation, by the description (Sidonius Ep. V. 17. 5) of a church festival of which the crowning pleasure was the conversation of Sidonius and his wealthy friends with "no mention of the imperial officers or of the taxes, not a word to be betrayed, and no one to betray it."
33. 33 I John 5.19.
34. 34 See V. 10, infra: "Thinking the service of God depends more on costume than on actions, they have changed their garments but not their hearts." Caesarius of Arles, who is said by Cyprian (Vita 1.1. 11) never to have given up in the slightest degree the customs of the brothers at Lerins, said in the first chapter of his Regula ad monachos (Migne, PL, LXVII, col. 1099): "In the first place if any man come to conversion... let his lay garments not be changed, unless he have first made bills of sale for his possessions." Elsewhere he said (Epistola ad germanos, ibid. col. 1155): "To lay aside secular garments and put on religious ones is the work of a moment.... Let him not be wont to wear a style of clothing either too mean, or displaying pride by frequent change, or of a ruinous elegance." Evidently, then, his idea of a religious habit was not a set uniform, but one distinguished from secular clothing chiefly by its simplicity. The emphasis laid by this prominent alumnus of the monastery at Lerins on the change in clothing as an indication of the adoption of a religious life seems adequate to settle the question much mooted among editors of Salvian, whether the change of garments in the present passage is to be taken literally or figuratively.
35. 35 See Cyprian Ad Demetrianum 10: "And do you wonder that the wrath of God increasingly punishes the human race, when the sins to be punished increase daily?"
36. 36 Isaiah 50. 11.
37. 37 Matthew 23. 32-33.
38. 38 That is, the people of Sodom and Gomorrah; cf. I.8, supra.
39. 39 Genesis 19. 12-13.
40. 40 Matthew 11.23-24; cf. Luke 10.12-15.
41. 41 Psalms 73.9, 11; 94.7.
42. 42 Ibid. 53.1.
43. 43 In the classical period this was already a popular proverb: Scelera non habent consilium; cf. Quintilian Institutio oratoria VII. 2. 44.
44. 44 Cf. Lactantius De ira Dei 10.44: "Nor is it probable that the smaller and humbler creatures should have a rule of life, while the larger and chief ones lack it."
45. 45 There appears to be a slight lacuna in the text, unless, as Hartel conjectures (cf. Pauly's note ad loc), the preposition ex, for which an object is here supplied, has crept into the MS text from a marginal notation, ex standing for exempla.
46. 46 See Vergil Georgics IV. 200.
47. 47 Acts 17. 28.
48. 48 Romans 1. 20.
49. 49 Ephesians 3.15.
50. 50 John 3. 16.
51. 51 Romans 8.32. Note that the Vulgate reading is the future, donabit, while Salvian had donavit.
52. 52 Romans 5. 6-7.
53. 53 Ibid. 5. 8-9.
54. 54 Psalms 116.12-13.
55. 55 Romans 8. 35-36, 39.
56. 56 Ephesians 5. 12.
57. 57 This question is answered in a similar way in Augustine's homily, De tempore barbarico.
58. 58See Juvenal Sat. 8. 141-142.
59. 59 Galatians 6. 3-4.
60. 60 The Goths and Vandals had been converted to Arianism; cf. Book IV. 14, 17 infra, for Salvian's account of the pagans among the barbarians.
61. 61 Proverbs 15. 3.
62. 62 Romans 2. 2.
63. 63 Salvian's estimate of their numbers seems justified by the numerous inscriptions of Syrian and other orientals, found in Gaul; cf. Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum XII, XIII.
64. 64 Exodus 20. 7.
65. 65 A characteristic example of Christian euhemerism.
66. 66 Romans 3. 19; 4. 15.
67. 67 I Corinthians 9. 21.
68. 68 Romans 2. 23-24.
69. 69 I Corinthians 10. 31.
70. 70 Matthew 5.16.
71. 71 Titus 1. 16.
72. 72 II Peter 2. 2.
73. 73 II Samuel 12.13-14.
74. 74 Titus 1.16.
75. 75 Romans 2.17-23, selections.
76. 76 Revelations 3. 15-16.
77. 77 Romans 12. 11.
78. 78 II Peter 2. 21-22.
79. 79 Ibid. 2. 20.
80. 80 Romans 2. 25.
81. 81 Philippians 3. 3.
82. 82 Romans 2. 26-27.
83. 83 Ibid. 7. 7.
84. 84 Ibid. 4. 15.
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Early Church Fathers - Additional Texts
SOURCE SECTION: salvian_gov_05_book .htm
Salvian, On the Government of God (1930) pp.133-156. Book 5
Salvian, On the Government of God (1930) pp.133-156. Book 5
Book V.: On heresy, and on the oppression of the poor by the powerful throughout the Roman Empire
1. Men's opposition to the law.
2. Heresy among the barbarians.
3. Heresy among the Romans.
4. The oppression of the many by the few.
5. The flight of Romans to the barbarians.
6. The revolt of the Bagaudae.
7. The oppression of the poor by the rich.
8. Means of relief.
9. The seeming injustice of God's mercy.
10. The character of true repentance.
11. The true meaning of power.
[Translated by Eva M. Sanford]
THE FIFTH BOOK
1. I know that there are men, utterly lacking in faith and void of the divine truth, who think they have an easy answer to my arguments. They say that if the guilt of unfaithful Christians is so great that they sin more in disregarding the commands of the Lord which they know, than do the heathen tribes in their ignorance, then ignorance has proved of more benefit to the pagans than knowledge, and knowledge of the truth is only an obstacle to the Christians.
My answer must be this: it is not the truth that stands in our way, but our own vices; not the law that does us injury, but our evil ways. In brief, give us good ways of living and the decrees of the law are in our favor; take away our vices and the law helps us. "For we know," the apostle said, "that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully; knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man." Therefore, begin to be just, and you shall be free from the law, because the law cannot act against the holy life, in which it consists. "For we know," he said, "that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully; knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the unholy, for the ungodly and for sinners, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine." 1 So the law is not so much fighting against you, my friend, as you against the law, nor does it by its good precepts take action against you, but you against it by your evil life. In fact, it is on your side, but you are against it. It gives you good counsel with holy words, while you fight against it with evil deeds, and yet not so much against it as against yourself. To oppose it is to oppose yourself, since in it lie your life and |134 safety. When you desert the divine law, you abandon your own salvation. Thus our complaints of the Lord's law are like those of an impatient invalid against an excellent doctor. When his own fault has increased his illness, he accuses his physician of incompetence. As if, indeed, prescriptions could cure any illness if the patient did not obey them, or the regimen ordered by the physician work a cure if the patient did not follow it. What good can bitter draughts do the stomach if sweet ones are taken immediately after? What good can the silence of those about him do the delirious patient whose own ravings are killing him? Of what avail will the antidote be if the poison is poured over it?
Now in our case the law is the antidote, the poison our wickedness. The antidote of the law cannot cure us who are being killed by the poison of our own vice. But of these matters I have said enough before, and if occasion arises shall speak again later with God's help.
2. Meanwhile, since I mentioned above that there are two classes or sects of barbarians, namely, pagans and heretics, and I have already, I think, said enough of the pagans, let me now add what is necessary about the heretics. For my opponent may say: "Even if the divine law does not exact of the pagans that they keep commandments they do not know, it certainly does exact this of the heretics who know them; for they read the same books we do; they have the same prophets, the same apostles, the same evangelists, and therefore they are no less guilty than we are of neglect of the law. Eeally their neglect is much worse than ours, for although their Scriptures are the same, their actions are much worse.''
Let us consider both points. You say that they read the same books we do. How can their books be the same, being badly interpolated and falsified by unscrupulous men? They are not the same at all, for they cannot be said to keep their identity unchanged if they are corrupted in any part. Having lost their full |135 completeness they are not unharmed, and being robbed of the power of the sacraments they do not keep their true value. We alone, therefore, have the Sacred Scriptures in full, unviolated and complete, who either drink them at their fount, or at least drawn from the purest source by the agency of an incorrupt translation; we alone read them well. I wish we might fulfil them as well as we read them! But I fear that we who fail to keep them do not read them correctly either. For there is less guilt in not reading the holy words than in reading and violating them. The other nations either do not possess the law of God or have it in a changed and weakened form, and, as I said, to have it in such a condition is the same thing as not to have it at all.
If there are any among the barbarians who seem in their books to possess the Sacred Scriptures less interpolated and torn to pieces than the rest, still the corruptions in their texts are due to the tradition of their first teachers, whose disciples hold rather to their tradition than to the Scripture itself. For they do not abide by the instructions of the true law, but by the interpolations of an evil and distorted interpretation.
The barbarians, indeed, lacking the Roman training or any other sort of civilized education, knowing nothing whatever unless they have heard it from their teachers, follow blindly what they hear. Such men, completely ignorant of literature and wisdom, are sure to learn the mysteries of the divine law through instruction rather than reading, and to retain their masters' doctrines rather than the law itself. Thus the interpretation and doctrine of their teachers have usurped the authority of the law among them, since they know only what they are taught. So they are heretics, but unwittingly. 2 Indeed it is only among us that they are heretics, |136 and not among themselves, for they are so sure of their own orthodoxy that they libel us in turn by the accusation of heresy. As they are to us, so are we to them. We are convinced that they injure the holy incarnation in calling the Son inferior to the Father: they think that we do injury to the Father in believing the two equal. The truth is on our side, but they claim it for theirs. We truly honor God but they think their belief honors his divinity the more. They fall short in their Christian duty, but through what they think its fullest performance; their lack of reverence seems to them true piety. So they err, but with the best intentions, not through hatred, but through love of God, believing that they honor and love him. Although they have not the true faith, yet they think they possess the perfect love of God. How they shall be punished for the error of their false opinion on the day of judgment, none can know but the Judge. In the meantime, God bears with them patiently, I think, for he sees that though they have not the true faith, yet their error is due to the love of what appears to be the truth, especially since he knows that their wrongdoing is due to ignorance, while among us men neglect what they believe. So their sin is the fault of their teachers, while ours is our own; theirs is committed in ignorance, ours in full knowledge; they do what they think right, but we what we know to be perverse. Therefore with just judgment the patience of God bears with them but punishes us, because ignorance may be pardoned for a time, but contempt deserves no lenience. For it is written: ''The servant who knows not his lord's will and does it not, shall be beaten with few stripes, but he who knows it and does it not, shall be beaten with many.'' 3
3. Let us not wonder that we are beaten with many stripes, since we err not through ignorance but through rebellion. For knowing |137 the good we do not perform it, and knowing the distinction between right and wrong we pursue the wrong. We read the law and trample underfoot what is lawful; we learn the decrees of the sacred ordinances only to increase the gravity of our sins after their prohibition; we say that we worship God, but give our service to the devil. After all this, we wish to receive good gifts from God, while we heap wrong upon wrong continually; we wish to have God do our will, though we are unwilling to do his. We treat with him as his superiors; we wish him to accede to our wishes constantly, though we constantly fight against his.
But he is just, however unjust we may be; for he punishes those he thinks deserve punishment, and bears with those he thinks deserve his patience. In each case his end is the same, that his chastisement of the orthodox may restrain their lust for sinning, and his forbearance at length bring the heretics to recognize the full truth of the faith, especially since he knows that those men are not apt to be unworthy of the catholic faith whom he sees superior to the orthodox in their way of living. All those of whom I speak are either Vandals or Goths,4 for I say nothing of the multitude of Roman heretics, and shall not compare them with either Romans or barbarians, since their lack of faith makes them worse than the Romans, and their disgraceful lives than the barbarians. That the men of whom I speak are Romans, far from helping us, |138 makes our case even worse. It is easy to estimate what the whole Roman state deserves, when part of the Romans offend God by their way of life, part by their lack of faith and their way of living also. Add that the very heresies of the barbarians spring originally from the false teaching they received from the Romans, and the inception of heresy among them becomes another heavy charge against us. 5
4. But as for the way of life among the Goths and Vandals, in what single respect can we consider ourselves superior to them, or even worthy of comparison? Let me speak first of their affection and charity, which the Lord teaches us are the chief of virtues, and which he commends not only through the Sacred Scriptures but also in his own words, when he says: "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye love one another." 6 Now almost all barbarians, at least those who belong to one tribe, under one king's rule, love one another, whereas almost all the Romans are at strife with one another. What citizen is there who does not envy his fellows? Who shows complete charity to his neighbors? All are indeed far from their neighbors in affection, however near in place; though living side by side, they are far apart in spirit. While this is a most grievous wrong, I wish it were true only of citizens and neighbors. But the situation is still more serious, for not even relations preserve the bonds of kinship. Who renders a brotherly service for his next of kin? Who pays to family affection the debt he knows is due to the name he bears? Who is as closely related by his affections as by blood? Who is not fired with a dark passion of ill will? Whose emotions are not the prey of envy? Who does not look on another's good fortune as his own punishment? Who does not reckon another's good as his own evil? Who finds his own good |139 fortune so ample that he is willing that another should be fortunate also? Most men are now suffering a strange and incalculable evil, in that it is not enough for any man to be happy himself unless another is thereby made wretched. What a situation is this, how savage, how rooted in the same impiety we deplore, how alien to barbarians and familiar to Romans, that they proscribe one another by mutual exactions. My last words, perhaps, give a wrong impression, for it would be much more tolerable if each man endured what he himself had inflicted on others. The present situation is harder to bear, for the many are proscribed by the few, who use the public levies for their individual gain, and convert the bills of indebtedness to the public treasury to their private profit. 7 Nor is it only the highest officials who do this, but the least too in almost equal measure; not only the judges, but their obedient underlings as well. 8
For what cities are there, or even what municipalities and villages, in which there are not as many tyrants as curials? 9 Still perhaps they preen themselves on their title, since it seems to be one of power and honor. Brigands usually rejoice and exult at being considered somewhat more ruthless than they really are. What place is there, as I said before, where the very lifeblood of widows and orphans is not drained by the leading men of their states, and with them that of all godly men? For these last are classed with widows and orphans, since they are either unwilling to |140 protect themselves, out of devotion to their vows, or unable because of their simplicity and humility. Therefore not one of them is safe, indeed scarcely any are safe, except the very greatest, from the plunder and ruin of this universal brigandage, other than those who are a match for the brigands themselves. Matters have come to such an evil pass, to such a criminal condition, that only the wicked man may count himself secure. 10
5. But certainly, you object, even though there are so many who persecute good men, there must be some who come to the rescue of those in distress, and, as it is written, "deliver the poor and needy out of the hand of the wicked." 11 "There is none that doeth good, no, not one:" 12 as the prophet showed by these words, good men are so rare that scarcely one seems to remain among us. Who offers help to those who are distressed and suffering, when even the priests of the Lord make no resistance to the violence of the unscrupulous? The majority of the clergy either say nothing, or, if they do speak, their words are no more effective than silence. "With |141 many of them it is not lack of resolution, but what they consider a prudent discretion that commends this course.13 They are not willing to declare the truth openly, for this the sensitive ears of the wicked cannot bear. Not content with shunning the truth, our oppressors hate and curse it, they fail to evince any reverence or respect when they do hear the truth, and show utter scorn for it, in their stubborn and rebellious conceit. Therefore, even those who have occasion to speak remain silent and refrain from immediate attacks on those whom they know to be guilty. They dare not publish the whole truth openly for fear of increasing oppression by a too emphatic insistence.
Meanwhile the poor are being robbed, widows groan, orphans are trodden down, so that many, even persons of good birth, who have enjoyed a liberal education, seek refuge with the enemy 14 to escape death under the trials of the general persecution. They seek among the barbarians the Roman mercy, since they cannot endure the barbarous mercilessness they find among the Romans.15 |142
Although these men differ in customs and language from those with whom they have taken refuge, and are unaccustomed too, if I may say so, to the nauseous odor of the bodies and clothing of the barbarians,16 yet they prefer the strange life they find there to the injustice rife among the Romans. So you find men passing over everywhere, now to the Goths, now to the Bagaudae, or whatever other barbarians have established their power anywhere,17 and they do not repent of their expatriation, for they would rather live as free men, though in seeming captivity, than as captives in seeming liberty. Hence the name of Roman citizen, once not only much valued but dearly bought,18 is now voluntarily repudiated and shunned, and is thought not merely valueless, but even almost abhorrent. What can be a greater proof of Roman injustice than that many worthy noblemen to whom their Roman status should have been the greatest source of fame and honor, have nevertheless been driven so far by the cruelty of Roman injustice that they no longer wish to be Romans?
The result is that even those who do not take refuge with the barbarians are yet compelled to be barbarians themselves; for this is the case with the greater part of the Spaniards, no small proportion of the Gauls, and, in fine, all those throughout the Roman world whose Roman citizenship has been brought to nothing by Roman extortion.
6. I must now speak of the Bagaudae,19 who, despoiled, afflicted, |143 and murdered by wicked and bloodthirsty magistrates, after they had lost the rights of Roman, citizens, forfeited also the honor of the Roman name. We transform their misfortunes into crime, we brand them with a name that recalls their losses, with a name that we ourselves have contrived for their shame! We call those men rebels and utterly abandoned, whom we ourselves have forced into crime.20 For by what other causes were they made Bagaudae 21 save by our unjust acts, the wicked decisions of the magistrates, the proscription and extortion of those who have turned the public exactions to the increase of their private fortunes and made the tax indictions their opportunity for plunder? 22
Like wild beasts, instead of governing those put under their power, the officials have devoured them, feeding not only on their |144 belongings as ordinary brigands would do, but even on their torn flesh and their blood. Thus it has come to pass that men who were strangled and half killed by brutal exactions began to be really barbarians, since they were not permitted to be Romans. They were satisfied to become what they were not, since they were no longer allowed to be what they had been; and they were compelled to defend their lives as best they could, since they saw that they had already completely lost their liberty.
How does our present situation differ from theirs? Those who have not before joined the Bagaudae are now being compelled to join them. The overwhelming injuries poor men suffer compel them to wish to become Bagaudae, but their weakness prevents them. So they are like captives oppressed by the yoke of an enemy, enduring their torture of necessity, not of their own choice; in their hearts they long for freedom, while they suffer the extremes of slavery.
7. Such is the case among almost all the lower classes, for the same circumstances force them to two very different alternatives. They are most strongly compelled to wish for freedom, but the compulsion they suffer deprives them of power to carry out their wish. Perhaps it may be asserted that the very men who have these desires would wish for nothing better than to be free of any occasion to feel them, for what they wish is the greatest misfortune. They would be much better off if they had no need for such ambitions. But what other wish can these poor wretches have? They must endure the frequent, even continuous, ruin of state requisitions, always menaced by severe and unremitting proscription; they desert their homes to avoid being tortured in them, and go into voluntary exile to escape heavy punishment. To such men the enemy are kinder than the tax collectors. This is proved by their actions, for they flee to the enemy to avoid the oppression of the levies.23 |145 Such taxation in itself, however harsh and brutal, would still be less severe and painful if all shared equally in the common lot. But the situation is made more shameful and disastrous by the fact that all do not bear the burden together; the tributes due from the rich are extorted from the poor, and the weaker bear the burdens of the stronger. The only reason why they do not bear the whole burden is that the exactions are greater than their resources. They are suffering the most diverse and dissimilar misfortunes, envy and need. For envy is involved in the payment, and need in the means by which it is made. If you consider the amount they pay, you will think them wealthy; but if you consider what they have, you will find them in dire need. Who can square the accounts of such injustice? They make the payments due from the rich while they suffer the poverty of beggars.
My next point is still more serious. The rich themselves from time to time make additions to the amount of taxation demanded from the poor. You may ask how it is, when their assessment has already reached a maximum figure, and the payments due from them are very large, that the rich can possibly wish to increase the total. But I did not say that they increase their own payments, for they permit the increase simply because it does not cost them anything additional.
Let me explain. Frequently there come from the highest imperial officials new envoys, new bearers of dispatches, sent under recommendation to a few men of note, for the ruin of the many. In their honor new contributions and tax levies are decreed. The mighty determine what sums the poor shall pay; the favor of the rich decrees what the masses of the lowly shall lose; for they themselves are not at all involved in these exactions.24 Do you say that |146 it is impossible not to give due honor and entertainment to the envoys sent by our superiors? Then be the first to contribute, you men of wealth, who are first to pass such decrees; be first to lavish your property who are first in largess of mere words. You who give, give of mine and thine alike; though absolute justice would require that any one who wishes sole claim on the resulting favor should also bear the expense alone. However, we poor men accede to the wish of the rich. What you few order let us all pay. What is so just and humane as this? Your decree burdens us with new debts; at least let this indebtedness be shared between us. What can be more unjust or unworthy than that you alone should be free from debt, who are making us all debtors?
The poor, indeed, in the extremes of their misery, pay all the exactions of which I have spoken, in utter ignorance of the object or reason of the payments. For who is allowed to discuss the payments, or inquire into the reasons for the amounts due? The sum is openly published only when the rich fall out with one another, and some of them feel slighted because they learn that assessments have been passed without their advice and management. Then you will hear some among them say: "What an unconscionable crime! Two or three decide the ruin of the many; a few powerful men determine what is to be paid for by many poor wretches!" For each individual rich man thinks it due to his honor to object to any decree passed in his absence, but he does not consider it due to justice to object to any wrong being enacted in his presence.
Finally, what they have criticized in others they themselves afterward establish in law, either in requital for the earlier contempt, or as proof of their power. As a result the most unhappy poor are like men far out at sea, buffeted by conflicting winds; they are overwhelmed by the billows that break over them now from one side, now from the other.
8. But surely, you say, those who are unjust in this respect are known to be moderate and just in another, and atone for their |147 wickedness in the one matter by their generosity in the other. For in proportion as they burden the poor with the weight of new indictions they sustain them by proffering new alleviations; in proportion as the lesser men are weighed down by new tributes, they are relieved by new remedies.
But this is not the case, for the injustice is alike in both the exactions and the remedies. As the poor are the first to receive the burden, they are the last to obtain relief. For whenever, as happened lately,25 the ruling powers have thought best to take measures to help the bankrupt cities to lessen their taxes in some measure, at once we see the rich alone dividing with one another the remedy granted to all alike. Who then remembers the poor? Who summons the needy and humble to share in the common benefit? Who allows the man who is always first in bearing the burden to have even the last place in receiving relief? What more can I say? Only that the poor are not reckoned as taxpayers at all, except when the weight of taxation is being imposed on them; they are outside the number when remedies are being distributed.
Under such circumstances can we think ourselves undeserving of God's severe punishment when we ourselves continually so punish the poor? Can we believe that God ought not to exercise his judgment against us all, when we are constantly unjust? For where, or among what people, do these evils exist save only among the Romans? Who commit such grave acts of injustice as ours? Take the Franks, they are ignorant of this wrong; the Huns are immune to it; there is nothing of the sort among the Vandals, nothing among the Goths. For in the Gothic country the barbarians are so far from tolerating this sort of oppression that not even |148 Romans who live among them have to bear it. Hence all the Romans in that region have but one desire, that they may never have to return to the Roman jurisdiction. It is the unanimous prayer of the Roman people in that district that they may be permitted to continue to lead their present life among the barbarians.
Yet we are surprised that the Goths are not conquered by our resistance, when the Romans would rather live among them than at home. Not only have our kinsmen no desire at all to escape from them to us, but they even leave us to take refuge with them. I could find occasion to wonder why all the poor and needy taxpayers 26 do not follow their example, except for the one factor that hinders them, namely, that they cannot transfer their poor possessions and homes and their households. For, since many of them leave their tiny fields and shops to escape the enforced payment of taxes, how could they help wishing to take off with them, if it were at all possible, the property they are compelled to abandon? They are not capable of doing what they would probably prefer, hence they do the one thing they can. They put themselves under the care and protection of the powerful, make themselves the surrendered captives of the rich and so pass under their jurisdiction.27 Still I should not consider this a serious or unfitting procedure; on the contrary, I should laud the public spirit of the powerful to whom the poor entrust themselves, if they did not sell their patronage, if the defence they claim to give the poor were |149 due to their humanity and not to their greed. It is a serious and grievous situation, that the rich make a show of protecting the poor only in order to rob them, that they defend the wretched only on condition of making them more wretched still by this defence. For all those who seem to be enjoying protection assign to their patrons the bulk of their property before they receive any help, and thus the sons' inheritance is destroyed that the fathers may be secure.28 Protection for the parents is assured by the beggary of the children. See then the aid and patronage afforded by the great: they do nothing for the benefit of those who come under their care, but only for their own. Some aid is granted the parents for the time being, but only on condition that in the future the children shall lose everything. It is a mere process of sale, and certain of the great are sure to demand a very dear price for everything they offer. I said it was a process of sale ---- I wish they would sell in the ordinary sense of the term, for in that case perhaps they would leave something to the purchaser! But this is a new sort of buying and selling; the seller gives nothing and receives everything, while the buyer receives nothing and loses all that he had. Now practically every sales agreement has this characteristic, that the element of desire is on the side of the buyer, and that of need on that of the seller, inasmuch as the buyer wishes to increase his substance and the seller to diminish his. This, however, is an unheard-of sort of trading, in which the property of the sellers increases while nothing remains to the buyers but sheer beggary.
What an intolerable and monstrous thing it is, one that human hearts can hardly endure, that one can hardly bear to hear spoken of, that many of the wretched poor, despoiled of their tiny holdings, after they have completely lost their property, must still pay taxes for what they have lost! Though possession has been forfeited, the |150 assessment is not cancelled: 29 they are without property but are overwhelmed with taxes. Who can fairly estimate this evil? The poor wretches pay taxes for the invaders who have swooped down on their estates. After the father's death, the sons have no claim on the little farms that should rightly be theirs, but are forced to pay ruinous taxes for them. As a result, what else is accomplished by this great wrongdoing except that men stripped naked by private robbery, die under the public exactions, and taxation ends the lives of those whose property has been carried off by plunderers? 30
Therefore some of those of whom I speak, who are either shrewder than the rest or have been sharpened by necessity, have lost their homes and farms by such encroachments, or have fled before the taxgatherers, because they cannot hold their property, and seek out the farms of the rich and great, to become their coloni. 31
Those who are driven by the terror of the enemy flee to the forts,32 and those who have lost their immunity as free men take refuge in some asylum 33 out of sheer desperation. So also these men, who are no longer able to guard the home and condition of their birth, subject themselves to the lowly yoke of serfdom. They have been reduced to such a necessitous state that they are cut off not only from their former possessions, but also from their rank. They are exiled not alone from their property but from their very selves; losing all that was theirs along with their freedom, they |151 lack any title to their holdings and forfeit the very rights of liberty. 34
9. Even this might through sheer necessity seem somehow tolerable, if there were not further misfortune to follow. Their lot is made more bitter by a worse injustice still. For they are received as strangers; they become natives only on the terms of their present condition. Recalling the example of that evil sorceress of old who is said to have changed men into beasts, we might say that all who are received on the farms of the rich are transformed as if by Circe's potions. For the owners begin to count those whom they have received as outsiders and aliens, as their own property; they turn into slaves men known to be free-born. Do we wonder that the barbarians are able to capture us, when we take our brothers captive? It is not at all strange that our states are being devastated and destroyed. We have long been providing by the oppression of the multitude for our own eventual capture, falling into captivity by our enslavement of others. Much later than we deserve, do we now at length suffer the treatment that we have meted out to others, and in the words of the Holy Scripture, eat the labor of our own hands.35 Under the judgment of a just God we are paying what we owe. We showed no mercy to exiles; behold, we ourselves are in exile: we deceived wanderers; behold, we ourselves, now wanderers, are deceived in turn: we took advantage of circumstances to ruin free-born men; behold, we ourselves are beginning to live on alien soil, and fear the same ruin.
How great is the deceptive blindness of sinful minds! We are suffering from the condemnation of God's judgment and still do not acknowledge that we are being judged. Some of the saints wonder that the others who have thus far not endured any such |152 fate are not reformed by our example! Not even those of us who are already smitten by God are being corrected by the torments justly due to our wickedness. What intolerable pride is ours! However many are enduring the punishment that their sins require, no one deigns to acknowledge the cause of his trouble. The reasons for our pride are perfectly obvious: even though we are at last suffering a little, we do not yet suffer as we deserve. So great is the mercy of God that he does not wish us to endure the full penalties for our misdeeds, but only a part of what is due; he chastens the wicked, but not to the full measure of their sin. He wishes us to acknowledge our misdoings rather than to endure their penalties, to the end that by his loving and salutary correction he may show us what we deserve to suffer, but not inflict on us the stripes we deserve. In this he follows the words of the blessed apostle, who said: "Dost thou not know that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But after thy hardness and impenitent heart thou treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath." 36
In truth our actions suit the words of the apostle, for God calls us to repentance, but we treasure up wrath; he invites us to receive pardon, but we daily heap up our offences. We bring force to bear on him by our iniquities; we ourselves arm the divine wrath against us. We compel God against his will to take vengeance on our monstrous crimes; we give him scarcely any opportunity to spare us. For although no token of injustice can ever light on him or appear in him, our actions are such that if he did not take vengeance on our sins he would seem to be unjust.
10. Surely, you say, a man who has once been a sinner may have ceased to do wrong. Is there any end to wrongdoing? Do not men give up life sooner than iniquity? What man does not die in his evil pursuits, to be buried with his sins and crimes? Truly, one might apply to such men the words of the prophet: "Their |153 graves are their homes forever, and they are compared to foolish cattle, and are become like them." 37 If only they were like cattle! It would at least have been something gained, to have gone astray through mere brute folly. To have sinned, not through ignorance, but in despite of God, is worse and deserves a heavier penalty. Do you claim that this is the case with the laity only, and not with even a few among the clergy? With worldly men only, and not with many of the religious also, or rather men given over to worldly vices under the empty show of religion? These, to be sure, after the shameful guilt of their past misdeeds, have gained themselves the honorary name of sanctity. They have altered in their profession but not in their actual way of life, and, thinking that the service of God depends on costume more than on action, have changed their garments but not their hearts. Why should men think their guilt less hateful, who, though they are said to have performed a sort of penance, do not put off their old habits when they lay aside their former style of dress? Their actions as a whole are such that there is less reason to suppose that they have already done penance for their misdeeds than that they afterwards repented of their penitence. There is less ground to think that they have repented their evil life than that they have since regretted their promise of a good one.
Many men know that I am speaking the truth, and can even bear witness to my words in their own conscience. Chief among these are the religious who have gained some reputation by a general repentance and now seek after new honors, and buy powers they formerly lacked. They are so anxious to be not merely men of the world, but more than worldly, that what they were before their repentance does not now suffice them unless they may become greater than they were in the past. Do they not repent of their conversion?
So also do those men repent of their conversion and their brief |154 thought of God, who, abstaining from intercourse with their wives, do not refrain from invasion of other men's property; who, professing physical continence, run riot in incontinence of spirit. A strange sort of conversion, truly! They do not do what is permissible, but commit forbidden sins. They refrain from lawful wedded life but not from rapine.
What vain delusion is this? Sins were forbidden us by God, not marriage. Your deeds do not suit your convictions; you who call yourselves adherents of virtue should not consort with crime. What you are doing is utterly absurd; this is not conversion to God but aversion from him. If, as is rumored, you have left off long since the functions even of lawful wedlock, now at last give up your sin. It is indeed just that you should refrain from crime of all sorts, but if you think this impossibly difficult, at least give up your greatest and most monstrous sins. Grant, whoever you are, that the neighbors whose land adjoins yours cannot remain prosperous; grant that the poor cannot support life near you; grant that you persecute the indigent and plunder the wretched; grant that you cause affliction to all men, provided that they are outside your own circle: still, I beg, at least spare your own family. And if you think it too hard and burdensome to spare all who are yours, then spare those who have preferred you not only to their other relatives and kinsmen, but even to those most closely bound to them and their dearly loved children. Yet why should I speak of their loved ones and their children, when they have preferred you almost to their very life and hope? There is nothing praiseworthy in this, as everyone who has committed the error now recognizes. But what has that to do with you, whom even their mistakes have advantaged? Your debt to such men is the greater because they have erred from too great trust in you. They were indeed blinded by devotion, and consequently are branded and censured by all; but even so you are under greater obligations to them because they have incurred the blame of all for love of you. |155
11. What is there to compare with this among the barbarous Goths? Who among them injures those who love him, attacks his friends, and cuts the throats of his dear ones with his own dagger? You attack those who love you, you cut off the hands of those who offer gifts, you kill your closest friends, and do you not fear and tremble? What would you do if you had not felt the present judgment of God in the scourging you have just received? You increase the count and constantly add new crimes to your former misdeeds. Think what punishment awaits your worse deeds, when even lesser faults are regularly punished by demons. Be content now, I pray, with robbing your friends and companions. Let it be enough that the poor have been harried and beggars despoiled by you, that hardly any one can keep from trembling in your presence, no one can feel secure. Torrents rushing down from Alpine crags, or flames driven by the wind, are more easily borne. No such death as this ---- to use a well known figure ---- do sailors die, devoured by the engulfing whirlpool or by Scylla's proverbial dogs. You evict your neighbors from their little farms, those nearest you from their houses and property. Would you "be placed alone in the midst of the earth," 38 as it is written? This is the one end you cannot gain. Seize all that you can, occupy by force all that you can, still you shall always find a neighbor. Consider, please, other men, whom even you, willingly or not, regard with honor; consider others, whom even you, willingly or not, admire. They are above others in honor, but on a level with them in their own estimation; they are greater in their power and less in their humility. You yourself, to whom I am now speaking, surely know whom I mean, and you of whom I now complain ought to recognize whom I honor by this praise. I only wish that there were many who deserve such praise; the nobility of a great number might work healing for all.
But suppose that you do not wish to win praise; tell me, why do you wish to be worthy of condemnation? Why is nothing dearer |156 to you than injustice, nothing more delightful than avarice, nothing more cherished than the seizure of other men's goods? Why do you judge nothing more precious than wickedness, nothing more excellent than rapine? Learn the true good from a pagan, who says: "One should be fenced about by charity and goodwill, not by arms." 39
So your delusions lead you astray; the wickedness of your blind and evil heart deceives you. If you wish to be upright, to be powerful, to be great, you ought to surpass other men not in ill will but in honor. I once read somewhere: "No one is wicked but a fool; for if he were wise, he would prefer to be good." Do you, therefore, if you can at last return to sanity, put off your wickedness, if you wish wisdom. For if you hope to be at all wise or sane, you must discard all that you have been and change completely. Deny yourself that you may not be denied by Christ; cast yourself off that you may be received by him; lose yourself, that you may not perish. For the Savior says: " Whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it." 40 Wherefore love this profitable loss, that you may gain true safety. For God will never set you free, unless you have first condemned yourself.
[Footnotes moved to the end]
1. 1 1 Timothy 1. 8-10.
2. 2 The rest of this chapter is quoted in an abridged translation by Voltaire in his Dictionnaire philosophique, s.v. "Hérésie," with the prefatory remark that it is the most sensible attack on the spirit of intolerance that can be found. Voltaire had apparently forgotten or not read Augustine's treatise Contra epistolam Manichaei (Migne, PL, XLII, col. 173), in which (c. 1) he prays for "a mind calm and tranquil, thinking rather of your correction than your subversion. For although the Lord through his servants overturns the realms of error, yet he bids the men themselves, in so far as they are men, be amended rather than destroyed."
3. 3 See Luke 12. 47-48.
4. 4 Orosius' account of the conversion of the Goths, while agreeing with Salvian's on the responsibility of the Romans for the heresy of the Goths, illuminates by contrast the comprehension and sympathy with which Salvian states the absence of moral responsibility on the part of the barbarians for a heresy that appeared to them orthodox. Salvian's attitude is the more remarkable in one whose devotion to Christ is so strong that at times he has Christ overshadow the other Persons of the Trinity. Orosius says (VII. 33. 19): "Before this the Goths sent ambassadors to ask that bishops be sent from whom they might learn the precepts of the Christian faith. Valens the emperor, with damnable perversity, sent teachers of the Arian creed. The Goths have held to the instructions of the first faith that they received. So by a just judgment of God they burned alive the man through whose fault they, when they die, are doomed to burn for their vicious error."
5. 5 See IV. 2 supra. As Zschimmer (op. cit., 58 n.l.) points out, this is a very notable statement. Salvian clearly understands the historical connection of Roman Arianism with that of the Germans; either he actually knew that Ulfilas in his translation of the Bible made alterations to suit the Arian doctrines, or he is merely repeating some of the usual charges brought against Ulfilas and other Arian missionaries by contemporaries of the orthodox faith.
6. 6 John 13. 35.
7. 7 For the efforts of the state to prevent such injustice, cf. especially Cod. Theod. XI. 1. 20, 26.
8. 8 See Cod. Theod. XI. 7. 16, 20; 11.1, for the penalties for undue aggression by minor officials.
9. 9 See III. 5 supra. For the reverse of the picture, note the text of the contemporary decree of Theodosius and Valentinian issued a.d. 443 (Cod. Just. V. 27. 2) beginning: "If any man whether free or bound in the toils of the curia..." In his own eyes the curial had become a slave rather than a tyrant, and in those of the government as well, but the necessity of tyranny toward the taxpayers was thereby increased. For the obligations of the office and the difficulty of filling it at this time, see Cod. Theod. XII. 1, De decurionibus.
10. 10 That similar conditions prevailed also in the eastern portion of the empire at this time is shown by the account of the Roman regime given by the Greek whom Priscus found at Attila's court (Priscus, "Historia Gothica," in De Boor, Excerpta Constantiniana I, 135-138; see also Bury, History of the Later Roman Empire, I, 213-223): "Their oppressions in time of peace are much more bitter than the calamities due to war, both on account of the harsh tributes and on account of the oppression of the wicked, since the laws are not enforced for all alike. If a rich or powerful man transgresses them, he does not pay the penalty for his misdeed; but if a needy man, who does not know how to conduct his affairs, transgresses, he must expect the penalty ordained by law; unless perhaps, before the sentence is decided, when much time has been spent in continual litigation and great amounts of money expended beside, his life ends. But the worst injustice of all is that law and justice are to be obtained only by bargaining and bribery. For no one will open the courts to any injured man before he turns over his money to the use of the judge and his assistants." Priseus countered with a description of the general justice of the Roman law and government, to which the exile replied that the laws of the Roman state were indeed good and the empire gloriously constituted, but the magistrates, less public-spirited than of old, were weakening and perverting it.
11. 11 Psalms 82. 4.
12. 12 Ibid. 14. 3.
13. 13 Elsewhere Salvian speaks in the same vein (Ad ecclesiam IV. 8): "In such a situation what do those men do whom Christ has appointed to speak? They displease God, if they are silent; men, if they speak. But, as the apostle said in answer to the Jews, it is more expedient to obey God than men."
14. 14 An important bit of contemporary evidence for a fundamental step in the transition from the Roman regime in the country districts to feudalism.
15. 15Orosius' similar statement in the case of Spain has already been cited; cf. IV. 4 supra. Sidonius (Ep. V. 7) speaks of the officials whose oppression of Gaul stands out in marked contrast to the clemency of the surrounding barbarians. The account given by Paulinus of Pella of Roman life among the Gothic invaders corroborates Salvian's statements, in a situation in which the victory of the Goths and the plundering before their departure made, his favorable account the more remarkable. He lamented (Eucharisticos 285-290) the disadvantage of having had no Goths quartered in his house to protect him from the ravages when their tribe withdrew: "for we know that certain of the Goths worked with the greatest humanity to benefit their hosts by their protection." Later his prayer (Ibid. 424-425) that "some share of my ancestral fortune might remain from the barbarian plundering by right of war, and from the Roman crime, which has at various seasons fattened freely on my losses, against all justice" was answered by a Goth's payment to him for a part of his old estate, which had fallen to the honest barbarian as part of his booty.
16. 16 A similar distaste is expressed by Sidonius (Carmen XII) in his description of the difficulties of composing six-foot verses when seven-foot barbarians breathe onions and garlic into your face at daybreak.
17. 17 Strictly speaking the Bagaudae were not barbarians, but revolted peasants from among the Roman citizenry, whose long-continued revolts had invested them in Roman eyes with a quasi-barbarian character; for the other barbarians note that in VII. 15 the Franks are described as especially hospitable.
18. 18 So the tribune of the soldiers at Jerusalem said to Paul: "With a great price obtained I this freedom," i.e., Roman citizenship. (Acts 22.28.)
19. 19 The revolt of the Bagaudae, analogous in many respects to that of the Jacquerie in the 14th century, broke out in Gaul in A.D. 283-4 because of oppression in that province, due especially to overheavy taxation. The empire was engaged in war against usurpers, and the revolt spread rapidly. Maximian won great praise for suppressing it, but the Bagaudae continued to plunder the country districts and towns, and spread through Gaul and Spain, adding seriously to the difficulty of guarding the frontiers. In the th century their revolt again assumed serious proportions; their troops were now regular armies and their local units closely equivalent to the individual German states in menace to the unity of the empire, breeding increasing discontent with the official oppression. The last mention of the Bagaudae in the Chronicle of Idatius is in the year A.D. 449, and the movement seems to have come to an end not long after this. For the contemporary references, of which Salvian's account is the most detailed, cf. Seeck, s.v. "Bagaudae," in Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encyclopädie.
20. 20 That a man should not be held responsible for a crime committed under compulsion is recognized by a decree of Honorius and Theodosius in a.d. 416 (Cod. Theod. XV. 14. 14) prohibiting suits for crimes committed during the barbarian raids, "either through flight or through the herding together of refugees... for an act done to escape death is not considered a crime."
21. 21 Salvian uses the term Bagaudae, apparently a word of Celtic origin, for which Seeck suggests the meaning "warlike," as equivalent to "outlawed rebels."
22. 22 The ten chief men of each town were responsible for handing over to the agents of the central government all that was due from their district in payment of the indiction, the term used from the time of Diocletian for the general provincial taxation on the basis of the amount of arable land, cattle and laborers in each locality. The periodical revisions of the taxable property also depended largely on the town officers, and usually caused much oppression of the poorer taxpayers, as Salvian here says. In this case, also, as in so many others, the rich could more easily gain substantial relief by bribery than the poor could do.
23. 23 See Cod. Theod. XI. 1. 7 for the decree of Constantius and Constans in A.D. 361 relieving of payments pro his qui aufugerint any senators who could prove that they possessed none of the property of fugitive holders; and XI. 1. 31 for the similar decree of Honorius and Theodosius in a.d. 412. Salvian's description is closely paralleled by the passage from Priscus quoted in note 10.
24. 24 The contrast between these practices and the imperial theory is shown by the five decrees in Cod. Theod. VIII. 11: "That the heralds of public good fortune are to receive no gifts from public levies or from forced payments."
25. 25 See IV. 6 supra. No writer gives further details on these measures, and they are not mentioned in the Codex. Salvian's description of the profit made by the rich out of attempts at relief is confirmed by phrases in Cod. Theod. XII. 1.173, of A.D. 410: "For relieving the fortunes of the poorer curials and restraining the oppression of the powerful.... Let them fear the knowledge of your power and dare make no attempt at relieving the rich and destroying the needy."
26. 26 That is, free farmers, not coloni, for the latter would not be liable to direct taxation. The constant use of diminutives in reference to their property ---- agelli, resculae, habitatiunculae ---- shows the type of small farmer meant. The passage is an important one as an indication of the existence of independent small landholders in Gaul in Salvian's time.
27. 27 See Cod. Theod. XII. 1. 146 of a.d. 395: "We have noted that many hide under the shadow of the powerful to defraud their country of the payments due"; and, in general, Cod. Theod. XI. 24; De patrociniis vicorum. A decree of a.d. 319 (ibid. XI. 3. 1) recognized as the cause of many arrears in the taxes that "some men, taking advantage of the temporary needs of others, get possession of the best farms on condition of holding them tax free without making up their arrears to the fiscus."
28. 28 In Cod. Just. XI. 54. 1, a.d. 468, an attempt is made to prevent patronage by making testaments in such eases invalid; in Cod. Theod. XI. 24. 4 such patronage is made subject to very heavy fines.
29. 29 Salvian uses the word capitatio, winch, as Haemmerle (op. cit. II. 11) points out, must be here equivalent to iugatio, not to the poll tax.
30. 30 For attempts to remedy this wrong, ef. Cod. Theod. XI. 3. 1-5, providing for proper registration and payment of arrears on land acquired " in any way whatsoever."
31. 31 That is, they give up their full citizen status, and become bound to the soil, being no longer subject to direct taxation. This would seem a harsher alternative than the preceding, yet actual conditions lead Salvian to reckon it as the wiser course.
32. 32 Castella had already become frequent sanctuaries in exposed territories.
33. 33 Churches had taken the right of sanctuary formerly held by pagan temples; cf. Cod. Theod. IX. 45.
34. 34 Compare the commentary on their status in Haemmerle, op. cit. II. 19-25, where Salvian's use of the terms coloni and inquilini as interchangeable is discussed.
35. 35 Psalms 128. 2.
36. 36 Romans 2. 4-5.
37. 37 Psalms 49.11-12.
38. 38 Isaiah 5. 8.
39. 39 Pliny Panegyric 49: "In vain has he girded himself with terror, who was not fenced about with charity; for arms are stirred up by arms."
40. 40 Luke 9. 24.
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Early Church Fathers - Additional Texts
SOURCE SECTION: salvian_gov_06_book .htm
Salvian, On the Government of God (1930) pp.157-188. Book 6
Salvian, On the Government of God (1930) pp.157-188. Book 6
Book VI.: On the ruinous influence of circuses and spectacles
1. The infection of evil.
2. The evil influence of the public games.
3. The circuses and theaters.
4. God's hatred of the theaters.
5. The contrast between the circus and Christ's precepts.
6. On renunciation of the devil and his pomps.
7. How men desert the churches for the spectacles.
8. On their folly in the midst of ruin.
9. How the disasters of Rome have failed to bring repentance.
10. That no dishonor to God can be trivial.
11. Men's unworthiness of God's gifts.
12. The failure of adversity to amend men's lives.
13. The capture of Treves.
14. The destruction of other cities.
15. Destruction and the circuses.
16. On the corrective of peace.
17. The gratitude due for peace.
18. The captivity of the Romans.
[Translated by Eva M. Sanford]
THE SIXTH BOOK
1. I have been dealing with personalities for a long time now, and seem to have exceeded the rules of argument. For undoubtedly the reader (if anyone for Christ's sake does read these words written from love of Christ) is thinking or saying of me: "Since the subject he is pursuing is a general one, of what use is it to heap up so many accusations against a single person? Suppose ---- for it is credible ---- that the man of whom he speaks is as he describes him; still how can one man's goodness be blocked by another's guilt, or ---- a point of much greater importance ---- how is the general cause injured by one individual's crime?"
The injury indeed I can prove by clear examples. For instance, Achar 1 once stole a part of an accursed thing, and the trespass of one man was the ruin of all. David ordered the children of Israel to be numbered, and the Lord punished his fault by the destruction of the whole people.2 Rapsaces spoke scornfully of God, and God smote a hundred and eighty-five thousand men because the froward tongue of one profane man spoke evil of him.3 Hence it was not without justice that the blessed apostle Paul ordered a noxious sinner cast out of the church and showed why he gave this order, saying: "A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump." 4 From this we clearly see that even one evil man very often works the destruction of many. Nor is this without justice. The reader should recognize that what I said above concerning one wicked man is not beside the point, since we read in the Scriptures that the wrath of the Divine Majesty has very frequently been kindled on account of |158 one man's guilt. But my argument is not limited by this consideration, for we do not need to assume that one man blocks the way of all, since all are blocking each other; it is not fitting to consider that all are imperilled by one, since they are all imperilled by their own actions. For all men are rushing headlong into destruction, or at least, to put it somewhat more mildly, almost all. Where can the Christian people find such good fortune that the number of evildoers may be less than the number of the good, or failing that, be merely equivalent to it? How lamentable and grievous is our present wretchedness! How changed is the Christian people now from its former character! Of old, Peter, the chief of the apostles, punished with death the falsehood of Ananias and Sapphira.5 The most blessed Paul also expelled one wicked man from the church, that he might not infect a great number by his presence.6 But we are content to have an equal number of good and evil men. Why should I say we are content? We ought rather to exult and dance for joy, if we could achieve such an equal balance. See to what depths we have fallen, to what state we have been reduced after that glorious purity of the Christian people which kept them all unspotted, for now we think that the church would be happy if it contained even as much good as evil. How could we fail to consider it blessed if half its members were guiltless, since now we lament that they are almost all guilty?
Since this is the case, it was useless, useless indeed, to speak so long of one evil man, useless to weep for one man's crimes, since all or almost all require our tears and lamentations. There are many who are of this sort or who wish to be so, which is no less incriminating, and who strive by their zeal for evil to seem guilty of the charge. On this account, even if their lesser capacity accomplishes less evil, they are themselves as wicked as the rest, for it is |159 their lack of ability and not their will that prevents them. Their hopes alone are within their own control, and in these they are criminals; they yield to none in their desire for wrongdoing, and in this, as far as their means permit, they strive to excel. Different though the two cases are, their rivalry is like that of good men, for as the good desire to outdo all others in honorable aims, so the evil yearn to surpass in depravity. As the glory of good men is to grow daily better, even so the glory of the wicked is to become worse; and as the best wish to reach the height of all virtues, so the worst hope to claim the palm in all vices. To our misfortune this is particularly characteristic of us, the Christians, since, as I have already said, we think wickedness is wisdom. Of these God spoke particularly: "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent." 7 When the apostle cried, "if any man seemeth to be wise, let him become a fool, that he may be wise," 8 he meant that if a man wishes to be wise, he should be good, for no one is truly wise unless he is truly good. We, on the contrary, through the viciousness of our perverse spirits and our "reprobate minds" ---- to use the scriptural phrase 9 ----reject goodness in favor of folly. Loving corruption more than wisdom, we think we become daily wiser in proportion as our depravity increases.
2. Yet what hope of betterment is there in us, I ask, who are not led into evil by mistaken opinion, but strive with all the eagerness of our perverted natures to appear constantly worse and worse? This is the reason why I have long lamented that we are much worse than the barbarians, for ignorance of the law excuses them, whereas our knowledge of it accuses us. They prefer the evil to the good through inexperience of the truth, because they do not know what things are good; we, by our knowledge of the truth, know very |160 well what things are good, [but consider them inferior to the evil in many] 10 ways.
In the first place, there is almost no crime or vice that does not accompany the games.11 In these the greatest pleasure is to have men die, or, what is worse and more cruel than death, to have them torn in pieces, to have the bellies of wild beasts gorged with human flesh; to have men eaten, to the great joy of the bystanders and the delight of onlookers, so that the victims seem devoured almost as much by the eyes of the audience as by the teeth of beasts.12 That such things may take place the whole world is ransacked; great is the care with which the search is carried on and perfected. Hidden retreats are entered, pathless ravines are searched, impenetrable forests traversed, the cloud-bearing Alps are climbed, the depths of valleys plumbed, and in order that the flesh of men may be devoured by wild beasts, the last secrets of the world of nature are revealed.
My opponents object that this is not done all the time. True, |161 and a glorious excuse it is for wrongdoing, that it is not constantly carried on ---- as if any time were appropriate for actions that injure God! Are evil deeds well done because they are not done incessantly? Even murderers are not always employed in murder, but they are still murderers when they are not actually killing, for their hands are at all times stained with bloodshed. Bobbers do not steal all the time, but they do not cease to be robbers, for when they are not engaged in theft, their minds are occupied with it. Certainly men who take pleasure in the animal fights of the arena are by no means free from the guilt involved in such spectacles, even when they are not actually looking at them. Would they not enjoy watching them always if they could?
Nor is this the only possible example of our sins, but there are still greater ones. For instance, do not the consuls even now have hens fed after the custom of the sacrilegious pagans? Are not auguries still sought from the flight of birds, and almost all those superstitions kept up which even pagan writers of old thought laughable? 13 Now when the very men who give their names to the years and with whose office the years themselves begin do such things, are we to believe that years begun under these auspices can continue their course propitiously? 14 I wish that these actions might pollute only the consuls who are responsible for them. But the situation is the more desperate because while such things are done with the public consent, the honor of a very limited number becomes the guilt of all, and so, although only two men are inaugurated in any given year, scarcely any one in the whole world escapes infection. |162
3. Let this much suffice about the games, seeing that they are, as you say, not performed all the time. We shall speak, instead, of everyday obscenities. These the hosts of demons have contrived of such a sort and so innumerable that even honest and upright hearts, though they can scorn and tread down some among them, yet can scarcely find a way to overcome them all completely. Armies about to engage in battle are said either to intersect with pitfalls the places through which they expect the troops of the enemy to march, or plant them with stakes, or fill them with caltrops, so that even if some of their snares fail to entrap a victim, none of the enemy can fail to be caught. In like manner the demons have prepared so many treacherous lures in this life for the human race that even though one escapes many of them, he is finally caught by one or another.
And since indeed it would take too long to tell of all these snares, that is, the amphitheaters, the concert halls, games, parades, athletes, rope dancers, pantomimes and other monstrosities of which one is ashamed to speak, since it is shameful even to know of such wickedness, I shall describe only the vices of the circuses and theaters. For the evils that are performed in these are such that no one can mention them, or even think of them without being polluted.15 Other vices as a rule claim only some one portion of our being; for instance, base thoughts affect the mind only, immodest glances the eyes, shameful sounds the ears, so that when any one of these has gone astray, the rest can still be free from wrongdoing. But in the theaters no part of our bodies is free from guilt, for our minds are polluted by evil desires, our ears by hearing and our eyes by what they see, and all these are so disgraceful that a man cannot even describe them without loss of decency.
Who without injuring his modesty can tell of those representations of base acts, those obscenities of words and voice, those |163 disgraceful motions and foul gestures? The very fact that they forbid description shows what great sin there is in all these. Some of the very greatest crimes can be named and discussed without injury to the character of the speaker, as homicide, robbery, adultery, sacrilege and so forth; it is only the vice of the theaters that cannot even be attacked without loss of modesty. So in arraigning these vile and disgraceful abuses the prosecutor has a strange experience, in that, although the honesty of the would-be accuser is unquestioned, he cannot without prejudice to his honor relate or attack them. All other evils pollute those who perform them, not those who merely see or hear them. You may, for instance, hear a man blaspheme, but since your mind disapproves of his sacrilege you are not polluted by it. Or if you happen to be present during a robbery, you are not denied by the act, inasmuch as it is abhorrent to your principles. The indecencies of the spectacles alone involve actors and audience in substantially the same guilt. For all those who approve such performances and take pleasure in seeing them perform them through the medium of their sight and approval. To such men the words of the apostle apply with a peculiar force, since not only "they which commit such things are worthy of death" but also "those who have pleasure in them that do them." 16
Therefore in these pictures of vice the whole people commits fornication mentally, and any who happen to come to the spectacle chaste go home from it adulterers. They are guilty of this fornication not only when they go home, but also when they come to the theater, for the very desire of the obscene makes a man unchaste who is hurrying toward an impure spectacle.
4. You see then in what actions all or the majority of Romans participate. None the less, we who do such things say we are forsaken by God, though we ourselves are forsaking him. Let us suppose that our Lord would like to watch us even though we do not deserve it: can he do so? See countless thousands of Christians daily |164 spending their time at shows representing shameful acts. Can God look at them at such a time? Can God watch over men who are revelling in the circuses and wantoning in the theaters? Or do we perhaps think it fitting and desirable that when God sees us in the circuses and theaters, he should see with us what we ourselves see there, and look with us at the disgraceful sights at which we gaze? One of two things must happen; either, if he deigns to look on us, he must also see our surroundings, or if he averts his eyes from them, which he surely does, then he must avert them equally from us, who are among them.
In spite of this, without interruption we continue to do those thing's of which I speak. Do we perhaps suppose that, like the ancient pagans, we have a god of theaters and circuses? For they built the theaters and circuses long ago because they believed that such vanities were a delight to their idols. 17 How can we imitate them in this, who surely know that our God hates such things? Of course, if we know that these vile shows please God, there can be no objection to our performing them incessantly. But if in our hearts we know that God abhors and abominates them, that as they are the devil's food so are they also a cause of offence to God, then how can we say that we worship God in the church, we who always serve the devil in the obscene games with full knowledge and understanding and with deliberate intention? What hope, I ask, shall we have before God, who injure him not by chance or by ignorance, but after the manner of those old giants of whom we read that they attempted to scale the heavens in their mad ambition and climbed, as it were, into the clouds? So we, by the injuries that we constantly inflict on God throughout the world, as if by common consent, are making war on heaven.
Therefore we offer up to Christ ---- O monstrous folly! ---- to Christ we offer up circuses and mimes, and we do this chiefly when we receive some benefit from him, when some mark of prosperity is |165 granted us by him, or a victory over the enemy is bestowed on us by his divine favor! How do we seem in this to differ from a man who injures a generous benefactor, or responds to endearments with cutting abuse, or pierces with his dagger the lips that seek to kiss him? I ask all the rich and powerful men of this world, what punishment they think fitting for a slave who plots evil against a good and loving master, who quarrels with a master who deserves only good of him, and returns only foul words for the liberty that he has received. Undoubtedly he is guilty of the greatest wrongdoing who returns evil for good, when he should not even feel free to return evil for evil. But this is what we do who are called Christians: we arouse a merciful God against us by our licentious acts, we insult him by our filthy deeds when he is propitious, we lash him with abusive words when he speaks gently to us.
5. To Christ then ---- O monstrous folly! ---- we offer circuses and mimes, to Christ in return for his benefits, we offer the obscenities of the theaters, to Christ we dedicate the vilest shows as sacrificial offerings. Was this the teaching given us by the Savior, incarnate for our sake? Was this his preaching, or that of his apostles? For this did he endure the humiliation of human nativity and take upon himself a shameful origin in his mortal birth? For this he lay in a manger, whom angels served as he lay there. For this he willed to be wrapped in swaddling clothes, and wearing them ruled heaven; for this he hung upon the cross, whom the world feared as he hung there. "Who though he was rich," the apostle said, "yet for your sakes became poor, that ye through his poverty might become rich." 18 "And being in the form of God," I quote farther, "he humbled himself unto death, even the death of the cross." 19 These then are the precepts that Christ gave us at the time of his passion. A glorious return we are making for his suffering, who, having received redemption by his death, offer him in return |166 most disgraceful lives! The blessed Paul said: "For the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ hath appeared, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world; looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a people worthy of acceptance, zealous of good works. 20
Where are men who do those things for which the apostle says Christ came? Where are those who flee from worldly lusts? Where are those who live righteous and godly lives, who show in their good works that they hold the blessed hope, and by living immaculate lives prove that they await the kingdom of God, since they deserve to receive it? "The Lord Jesus Christ," Paul said, "came to purify unto himself a people worthy of acceptance, zealous of good works." Where is that pure people, that acceptable people, that people of good works, that people of righteousness? "Christ," the Scripture says, "suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow his steps." 21 So we follow the Savior's steps in the circuses; we follow the Savior's steps in the theaters. Is this the example Christ left for us? We read that he wept, not that he laughed. In both he gave us an example, for weeping is the remorse of the heart, laughter the corruption of uprightness. For this reason he said: "Woe unto you that laugh now; for ye shall weep;" and again: "Blessed are ye that weep now, for ye shall laugh." 22 But we do not think it enough to laugh and rejoice, unless we rejoice in sin and madness, unless our laughter is mixed with impure and disgraceful actions.
6. Who can describe this delusion of ours, this folly? Are we really unable to enjoy ourselves day by day, and to laugh, without turning our laughter and joy into crime? or do we perhaps |167 consider wholesome enjoyment profitless and find no pleasure in innocent laughter? What wickedness is this, I ask, and what insanity? Let us laugh indeed, let us rejoice unstintedly, and as constantly as you please, if only we do so innocently. What folly and madness it is for us to think laughter and joy worthless unless they involve injury to God! Injury indeed, and a very great one. The spectacles involve a sort of apostasy from the faith, a fatal violation of the creed itself and of the divine sacraments. For what is the first confession of faith made by Christians in baptism for their salvation? What else than their vow to renounce the devil and his pomps and spectacles and his works? So in the very words of our profession of faith spectacles and pomps are the works of the devil.23 How then, O Christian, shall you after baptism seek the spectacles, which you confess are the work of the devil? You have once renounced the devil and his spectacles, and therefore as a rational and intelligent being must recognize that in resorting again to them, you are returning to the devil. For you have renounced them both at the same time and declared them to be one and the same. If you return to one, you return to them both. For your words were: "I renounce the devil, his pomps and spectacles and his works."24 What follows in your baptismal vows? "I believe in |168 God the Father Almighty and in Jesus Christ his Son." First then, you renounced the devil that you might believe in God, for he who does not renounce the devil does not believe in God and therefore he who returns to the devil forsakes God.
Furthermore, the devil is present in his spectacles and pomps, and therefore when we return to the devil's spectacles, we abandon our Christian faith. Thus all the sacraments of our belief are broken, and all that follows in the creed is shaken and totters; for nothing that follows remains intact if the chief clause has fallen. Tell me then, you who are a Christian, how you think you are keeping the latter portions of the creed, whose first clauses you have abandoned? The limbs without the head are worth nothing, and everything depends on its own first principles; these surely, if they perish, will drag all the rest down with them to destruction. If the main stock is removed, the other parts either cease to exist or if they continue are useless, for without its head nothing can subsist.
If any one thinks the wickedness of the spectacles a trivial matter, let him consider well all that I have said, and he will see that in them is not pleasure but death. For what else is it but death, to have lost the source of life? When the foundations of our creed are overthrown, life itself is strangled.
7. I must return again to my oft-repeated contention, what have the barbarians like this? Where in their lands are circuses, where are theaters, where those other wicked vices that are the ruin of our hope and salvation? Even if they had such things, being pagans, their error would involve less offence to what is sacred, and less guilt, for though such sights as these are impure, still they would not involve violation of a sacrament.
But as for us, how can we answer in our own behalf? We hold the creed and overthrow it. We are equally ready to confess the |169 gift of salvation and to deny it. Where then is our Christianity, when we only receive the sacrament of salvation 25 to the end that falling from grace we may thereafter sin more grievously than before? We prefer vain shows to God's churches, we scorn his altars and honor the theaters. To conclude, we love and honor everything else; only God, in contrast with worldly pleasures, is vile in our sight.
One case in itself proves the truth of my contention, disregarding all the rest. Whenever it happens, as it does only too often, that on the same day we are celebrating a feast of the church and the public games,26 I ask it of everyone's conscience, which is it that collects greater crowds of Christians, the rows of seats at the public games or the court of God? Do all men throng to the temple in preference to the theater, love the words of the Gospel more than those of the stage ---- the words of life or of death, the words of Christ or of a mime? Without doubt; we love more that which we place first. For on every day when the fatal games are given, whatever festival of the church it may be, not only do men who claim to be Christians fail to come to the services, but any who do happen to have come unwittingly, if they chance to hear, while in the church, that games are being given, leave the building at once. The temple of God is scorned for a rush to the theater; the church is emptied and the circus filled; we leave Christ alone on the altar and feast our adulterous eyes on the foulest sights of the vile games. So it is with the greatest justice that the Lord God says to us: |170
"For your filthiness you have been driven out in banishment." And again he says: "The altars of this laughter shall be brought to nothing." 27
8. At least, you say, this answer can be made, that such things are not done in all the cities of the Romans. True, and I shall even go so far as to say that they are not now being done in all places where they have been hitherto. For instance, no shows are given now in Mayence, but this is because the city has been destroyed and blotted out;28 nor at Cologne, for it is overrun by the enemy. They are not being performed in the most noble city of Treves, which has been laid low by a destruction four times repeated,29 nor finally in many other cities of Gaul and Spain. Then woe to us and our iniquities, woe to us and our impurities! What hope have Christian congregations in the sight of God when these evils cease to exist in the Roman cities only from the time when the cities themselves |171 have come into subjection to barbarian jurisdiction? This mark of vice and impurity seems to be a native characteristic of the Romans, an inborn trait, for wherever there are Romans, these evils prevail. Do you think that this is a serious and unjust accusation? Serious indeed, if it is without foundation. But how can it fail to be false, since the activities of which I spoke are now carried on in only a few Roman cities? Most of our cities, you claim, are not now polluted by the taint of these vices; even though they are the same places which were the homes of our old wickedness, still their former indulgences have ceased.
So we must now consider the question, why those cities still seem to be the haunts of the games, whereas the games have ceased. They are still the homes and abiding places of disgraceful vice because all sorts of vile deeds have hitherto been enacted in them. Moreover, the only reason for the cessation of the games themselves is that they cannot be given at the present time because of the misery and poverty in which we live. That they were presented before was due to our depravity; that they are not given now, to our necessity. For the collapse of the imperial fiscus and the beggary of the Roman treasury do not permit money to be lavished on trifling matters that make no return. Let men squander as much as they please, casting their money into the mire; they cannot lose as much as they could formerly, for they have not as much to lose. In respect of our lustful desires and our base pleasures we should certainly like to have more abundance, if only that we might be able to transmute our wealth into disgraceful filth. The amounts squandered in our beggary are an indication of what we should like to spend if we were rich and magnificent. The bane and ruin of our present depraved condition is that though our poverty has nothing left to lose, our sinful souls yearn for more wealth to cast away.
We cannot therefore console ourselves at all on these grounds, that is, by saying that the former extravagances are not now being |172 committed in all our cities. For the only reason for their abandonment is that cities where they were carried on in the past are no longer in existence, or that in the places where such things used to be
done, [means are lacking] 30 to perform them. Thus the spectacles are no longer possible in the cities where they were formerly performed; as God himself said to sinners through his prophet: "The Lord remembered these things and it came into his mind, and the Lord could no longer bear, because of the evil of your doings and because of the abominations which ye have committed; therefore is your land a desolation, and an astonishment and a curse." 31 So it has come to pass that the greater part of the Roman world is become a desolation and an astonishment and a curse.
9. Would that these abominations had only been committed of old and that Roman depravity would at length cease such performances! Then perhaps, as it is written, God would be merciful to our sins. But we do not so act as to propitiate him. We constantly add evils to evils and pile sins upon sins, and though many of us have already perished we seek to complete our own destruction. Who, tell me, seeing another man killed beside him is not in terror for himself? Who can see his neighbor's house burn and not try by every means in his power to keep his own from being set on fire? But we not only see our neighbors burning 32 but know that the flames have already spread over the greater part of our own bodies. What unspeakable evil is this that we are suffering? We are on fire, on fire, I say, and yet we do not fear the flames that burn us. That the evils committed formerly are at last diminishing is the result of our miseries, not the fruit of a true repentance.
This is easily proved; only give back our former prosperity and |173 you shall see at once the old interests everywhere restored. Note this also: as far as men's wishes are concerned, even if the games are no longer actually being given in many places, yet they still exist as of old, for the Roman people everywhere wish them given. When nothing but sheer necessity hinders a man from an evil deed, the mere desire for a base act is as much to be condemned as the action. For if, as I said, according to the words of our Lord: "Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her is guilty of the adultery conceived in his heart," 33 we can understand that while of necessity we do not commit disgraceful acts worthy of condemnation, we are nevertheless guilty if we only desire forbidden things.
Why should I mention desire? Most men actually do these things whenever they can. When the inhabitants of other cities come to Ravenna or Rome they join the Roman plebs in the circus, and the people of Ravenna in the theater. Therefore let no one consider himself acquitted on the ground of his distance from the spectacles. All are united in the turpitude of their actions who join one another in their desire for disgraceful deeds.
Yet we flatter ourselves on the uprightness of our ways, the rarity of our vices. So I shall carry my charges farther: not only do men still yield as of old to the pollution of those infamous games but their guilt in this is much greater than before. For in the past the various members of the Roman world flourished unimpaired; the public wealth had made the storehouses inadequate; the citizens of all the towns had abundance of riches and delights, and amid such overflowing prosperity the authority of religion could hardly exercise due censorship of conduct. Then indeed those who exploited base desires found rich grazing on all sides, but there was no lack of wealth to satisfy their greed; no one worried about the public disbursements and expenses, for the cost was not felt. The state indeed seemed in a way to seek an opportunity to squander |174 what it could scarcely continue to hold. Thus the heaped-up wealth that had already begun to exceed just bounds furnished abundance for lavishness even in trivial matters.
But of the present situation what can we say? Our old abundance has deserted us; the resources of former times are gone, and we are in a wretched state, but do not cease our frivolities. Although even orphan wastrels are usually benefited by poverty, leaving off the error of their ways as soon as they have squandered their wealth, we seem to be a new class of profligates, in whom opulence has ceased to dwell, but dissipation persists. The causes of our corruption lie not as with other men in outside enticements, but in our hearts, and our minds are the source of our depravity, so that [we] are not [moved] to amend our ways by the loss of our wealth, but [go on] 34 sinning through love of wickedness.
10. Although I may have shown sufficiently what serious vices the Romans have, from which the barbarian tribes are free, still 1 shall add many points that I have omitted. But before I continue, let me remind you that a fault of any sort which dishonors God should in no sense seem a trivial matter to anyone. It is never permissible to dishonor an illustrious and powerful man, and anyone who dishonors such a one is held guilty in the eyes of the law and is condemned in due course as responsible for the injurious action. How much more difficult of atonement is the accusation of injury to God! The fault of the wrongdoer always increases in proportion to the position of the person injured, since necesssarily the greater the person of the man who suffers abusive action, the greater is the guilt of the man who commits such action. Wherefore we read in the law that even those who seem to have committed only slight offence against the sacred ordinances have nevertheless been most severely punished; to the end that we might know that nothing pertaining to God should be considered unimportant. Even |175 what seemed to be a petty fault became a grave one, inasmuch as it was an injury to the divine power.
What did Oza, the Levite of God, do against the divine commandment, when he tried to steady the ark of the Lord? There was no law laid down regarding this. Yet immediately he took hold of it, he was struck down, apparently not because he did anything in an impudent fashion or with an undutiful intention, but his very service was undutiful because he exceeded his orders.35
When a man of the Israelites had gathered wood on the Sabbath, he was struck down and killed by the judgment and command of God, who is truly a most gentle and merciful judge, who would doubtless have preferred to spare rather than to kill, if the consideration of severity had not outweighed consideration of mercy. For one incautious man perished to save many from perishing thereafter through lack of caution.36
But why do I speak of single individuals? The children of Israel in their journey through the desert, because they longed for their accustomed meat, lost a part of their number. The desire for meat had not yet been forbidden them, but God, I think, wished to further the observance of the law by the suppression of rebellious desires. He intended the whole people to learn the more easily how earnestly one should avoid what God forbade in his divine writings, since even those acts injured him which he had not yet forbidden by law.37
The same people also murmured at the hardships they underwent, and for this reason were punished by the Lord's rods, not because it is forbidden a man to groan at hardships, but because their murmurs were displeasing to God, inasmuch as they seemed to accuse him of causing them too much labor. From this we should learn how much a man enjoying the blessings of good fortune ought |176 to seek to please God, since it is not even permitted to complain of those ills that seem painful.
11. What is the purpose of these examples? What else than that nothing should seem trivial that causes injury to God? For we were talking of the public games, which are truly mockeries of our hopes, mockeries of our life. While we sport in the theaters and circuses, we perish, according to the Sacred Word which says: "It is as sport to a fool to do mischief." 38 So we too, when we laugh amidst disgraceful and shameful sights, are committing crimes, and crimes of no slight extent. Our wrongdoing is the more worthy of punishment for this very reason, that though it seems to be of a most trivial nature, it is really pestilential and deadly in its outcome. There are two chief evils, for a man to destroy himself and for him to injure God; both of these are committed in the public games, where through criminal and shameful sights the eternal salvation of the Christian people is utterly destroyed, and through a sacrilegious superstition the divine majesty is violated. There can be no doubt that the games injure God, consecrated as they are to idols. For Minerva is worshipped and honored in the gymnasia, Venus in the theaters, Neptune in the circuses, Mars in the arena, Mercury in the palaestra, and thus the superstitious worship varies according to the character of its sponsors.39 Impure actions of all sorts are performed in the theaters; there is wanton luxury in the palaestras, immoderate vice in the circuses, madness in the arenas. In one of these is wantonness, in another lasciviousness, in another intemperance, in another insanity, in them all the devil; nay, in each individual place where shows are held, not merely one devil, but devils of all varieties, for they preside over the places dedicated to their worship. Therefore in spectacles of this sort neither allurements nor vices are found alone. It is sacrilege for a Christian to mingle with this superstition, sharing in the worship of those in |177 whose festivals he takes delight. While such a thing is always serious enough, it becomes more intolerable when either our adversity or our prosperity, exceeding the ordinary measure of our life, makes our acts more blameworthy. In adversity there is double need to appease God, and in prosperity to avoid grieving him. Surely he must be appeased when he is angry, and must not be alienated when he is propitious; for our adversities come to us through his wrath, our prosperity through his favor. But we do everything by contraries.
How, do you ask? Listen. First, if won over by his own mercy ----for we never so live that we deserve his favor ---- if, as I say, at any time won over by his own mercy God gives us peaceful seasons, plentiful crops, tranquillity rich in all good things and abundance increasing beyond our hopes, we let ourselves be so corrupted by great prosperity and fortune, we let ourselves be so depraved by insolent manners that we altogether forget God and ourselves. Although the apostle says that every benefit of the peace given by God depends on this: "That we lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty," 40 the only use we make of the quiet he gives is to live in drunkenness and luxury, in wantonness and rapine, in all manner of crime and wickedness. We look on his goodly gift of peace as an opportunity for licentiousness, and take the quiet given by his truce as a chance to sin more freely and safely.
Therefore we are unworthy of heavenly gifts, who make no good use of God's kindness, and see in the means of good works only material for vice. Hence it comes that the peace which we so abuse itself works against us, and is actually harmful to us, since we use it to our detriment. Is this worthy of belief? We change nature itself by our wickedness, and the good things that God has made as his loving gift to us are turned to evil by our wanton lives.
12. We who are corrupted by prosperity, you say, are corrected |178 through adversity. Long peace had made us unruly, but we are brought back by strife to moderation. In what cases have the dwellers in our cities, who were licentious in prosperity, begun to be chaste in adversity? When has drunkenness, which increased in the time of our peace and prosperity, ceased under the ravages of the enemy?
Italy has already been devastated by many disasters: have the vices of the Italians therefore ended? The city of Rome has been besieged and taken by storm:41 have the Romans therefore ceased their mad blasphemy? Barbarous nations have overrun the states of Gaul: have the crimes of the Gauls therefore changed in character, as far as their evil habits are concerned? Tribes of Vandals have crossed over into the Spanish countryside: the fortune of the Spaniards has indeed changed, but not their corruption. Lastly, that no part of the world might be immune from fatal destruction, wars have begun to cross the seas, they have devastated and overthrown cities shut off by the waves, in Sardinia and Sicily, the imperial granaries. Having, as it were, cut off the vital channels of the empire, they captured Africa, which may be called its heart. What then? As barbarians entered that land, did its vices cease, even through fear? Or, as even the most worthless slaves are usually reformed for the time being, did terror drive them to modesty and self-restraint? Who can rightly estimate this evil? The barbarians' arms clashed about the walls of Cirta and Carthage 42 while the Christian congregation of the city raved in the circuses and wantoned in the theaters. Some had their throats cut |179 without the walls, while others still committed fornication within; part of the people were captive to the enemy without, while part within the city were captive to their own vices. It is hard to decide which suffered the worse misfortune. The former indeed were captive externally in the flesh, the latter inwardly in the soul. Of the two deadly evils, it is less, I think, for a Christian to endure captivity of the body than of the soul, according to the teachings of the Savior himself in the Gospel, that the death of the soul is much more fatal than that of the body.43
Or do we perhaps believe that those men were not captive in soul, who then rejoiced in the time of their people's captivity? Was he not captive in mind and heart, who laughed amid the punishments of his people, who did not know that his throat was being cut along with theirs, that in their deaths he also died? Outside the walls, as I have said, and inside them too, was heard the din of battle and of the games; the voices of dying men mingled with the voices of revellers; the outcry of the people slain in the war could scarcely be distinguished from the clamor of those who shouted in the circus. What was accomplished by this but the hastening of the destruction of the people who chose such a course, though God perhaps did not yet wish to destroy them?
13. These places, however, are far away, almost removed to another world, and seem irrelevant to the discussion when I consider that even in my own country,44 in the Gallic states, almost all men of high degree have been made worse by their misfortunes. I myself have seen men of lofty birth and honor, though already despoiled and plundered,45 still less ruined in fortunes than in morality; for, ravaged and stripped though they were, something still remained to them of their property, but nothing of their character. They were so much more hostile to themselves than to alien |180 enemies that, though they had already been ruined by the barbarians, they now completed their own destruction. It is sad to tell what we saw there; honored old men, feeble Christians, when the ruin of their state was already imminent, making themselves slaves to appetite and lust. What are the first grounds of accusation? That they were honored, old, Christians, or in danger? Who would deem it possible that such things should be done by old men even in utter security, or by boys in a crisis, or at any time whatever by Christians? They reclined at feasts, forgetful of their honor, forgetting justice, forgetting their faith and the name they bore. There were the leaders of the state, gorged with food, dissolute from winebibbing, wild with shouting, giddy with revelry, completely out of their senses, or rather, since this was their usual condition, precisely in their senses. In spite of all this, what I have next to say is still worse: not even the destruction of their towns put an end to their excesses. The wealthiest city of Gaul was taken by storm no less than four times.46 It is easy to recognize the city of which I speak. The first captivity should surely have sufficed to mend the ways of the citizens, so that the renewal of their sins would not have renewed the destruction. But what followed? The tale is incredible. The constant repetition of misfortunes in that city increased its crimes. Like that fabulous monster whose heads multiplied as they were cut off,47 so also in the most excellent city of |181 Gaul, wickedness gathered strength from the very blows that punished it. You would have thought that the punishment intended to end the crimes of its people acted instead as the begetter of vice. What then? By the daily multiplication of swarming evils it has come to such a pass that the city could more easily exist without inhabitants than any of its citizens could do without crime.
So much then for this city. What of another not far distant but of almost equal magnificence? 48 Has it not suffered the same ruin of fortunes and of morals? For aside from all else, when it was utterly demoralized by the two chief evils common to all, avarice and drunkenness, it finally reached such a state of rabid greed for wine that the very rulers of the city did not rise from their feasts when the enemy were actually entering the gates. God wished to make clear to them why they perished, since at the moment of their final disaster they were leading the very life through which they had come to ruin. I myself saw lamentable sights there, with no distinction between boys and old men. The scurrility and levity of all were alike; all vices reigned at once ---- extravagance, drinking bouts, wantonness ---- all the people revelled together. They drank, gamed, committed adultery. Old and honored men waxed wanton at their feasts; men already almost too feeble to live proved mighty in their cups; men too weak to walk were strong in drinking; those whose steps tottered were nimble dancers. What more can be said? Through all that I have recounted they became so degraded that the words of the Sacred Scripture were fulfilled in them: "Wine and women make men of understanding to fall away from God." 49 For while they drink, dice, rape and play the |182 madman, men begin to deny Christ. After all this do we wonder that men who have long since undergone moral ruin suffer the ruin of their fortunes? Let no one think that such a city perished only at the time of its physical destruction, for the deeds of its people had brought its ruin long before their death.
14. I have told the fate of the most famous cities. What of the many others in various parts of Gaul? Have they not fallen, too, because of like vices on the part of their citizens? All were so completely possessed by their crimes that they did not fear any danger they had foreknowledge of captivity and did not dread it. Fear indeed was taken away from these sinful men to prevent them from the exercise of caution. Therefore, though the barbarians were settled almost within their sight, men felt no fear, the cities remained unguarded. Such was the blindness of their hearts, or rather of their sins, that although doubtless no one wished to die, no one did anything to ward off death. Everything was in the grip of carelessness and sloth, negligence and gluttony, drunkenness and sleep, as has been written of such men: "Because a deep sleep from the Lord was fallen upon them." 50 A deep sleep indeed fell upon them that destruction might follow closely. For when, as it is written, a sinner's iniquity is full 51 and he is due to perish, foreknowledge is taken from him, that he may not escape his doom. But enough of this. I have made my point sufficiently clear, I think, that not even in the time of the greatest danger did the vices of the people come to an end before the actual overthrow of their cities.
15. Perhaps such things have occurred in the past, but have now come to an end, or will do so at some future time. Yes, forsooth, if today any city or province that has been smitten by God's scourge or devastated by the enemy appears humbled, converted and amended, if practically all who bear the Roman name do not |183 prefer death to reformation, the end of their life to the end of their vices! This can be quickly tested by the example of the greatest city of Gaul, three times destroyed by successive captures,52yet when the whole city had been burned to the ground, its wickedness increased even after its destruction. Those whom the enemy had not killed when they pillaged the city were overwhelmed by disaster after the sack; those who had escaped death in the capture did not survive the ruin that followed. Some died lingering deaths from deep wounds, others were burned by the enemy's fires and suffered tortures even after the flames were extinguished. Some perished of hunger, others of nakedness, some wasting away, others paralyzed with cold, and so all alike by diverse deaths hastened to the common goal.
Worse than all this, other cities suffered from the destruction of this single town. There lay all about the torn and naked bodies of both sexes, a sight that I myself endured. These were a pollution to the eyes of the city, as they lay there lacerated by birds and dogs. The stench of the dead brought pestilence on the living: death breathed out death. Thus even those who had escaped the destruction of the city suffered the evils that sprang from the fate of the rest.
What followed these calamities? Who can assay such utter folly? The few men of rank who had survived destruction demanded of the emperors 53 circuses as the sovereign remedy for a ruined city. O that I might here and now be gifted with eloquence adequate to cope with this shocking event, that there might be at least as much |184 virtue in my complaint as there is sorrow at its cause! Who can even decide what chiefly merits accusation in the tale, irreverence or stupidity, extravagance or insanity? In these terms the whole is comprised. What is more irreverent than a petition that works injury to God? What is more stupid than not to consider your petition carefully? What so clear a proof of hopeless extravagance as to desire luxuries in a time of general mourning? Or more insane than to be in the midst of evils without any understanding of them?
Among these, however, insanity is the least culpable, for the will is not at fault when sin is committed through sheer madness. Therefore those of whom I speak deserved the greater blame, because, though sane, they acted senselessly. Do you, O citizens of Treves, long for circuses when you have been plundered and captured, after slaughter and bloodshed, after stripes and captivity, and the repeated destruction of your ruined city? What is more lamentable than this stupidity, more grievous than this folly? I confess I thought you most miserable when you were suffering destruction, but I see that you are now more miserable when you demand public shows. At first I thought you had lost only your material property in the capture of your city; I did not know that you had lost also your intelligence and control of your senses. Do you then ask for theaters, and demand a circus from our emperors? For what condition, I ask, what people and what city? A city burned and destroyed, a people captive and killed, who have perished, or mourn their dead; a city of which nothing survives but sheer calamity, whose people are altogether anxious in their grief, worn out by tears, prostrate in bereavement, so that it is hard to say whether the lot of the living or the dead is worse to bear. So great are the miseries of the survivors that they surpass the ill fortune of the dead.
Do you then seek public shows, O citizen of Treves? Where, pray, are they to be given? Over the pyres and ashes, the bodies and blood of the dead? For what part of your city is free from these? Where |185 has blood not been shed, where are bodies and mangled limbs not strewn? Everywhere the city's appearance betrays its capture, everywhere are the horror of captivity and the image of death.54 The remains of a most unhappy people lie on the graves of their dead, yet you ask for circuses; the city is blackened by fire, yet you put on a festive countenance; all things mourn, but you rejoice! Yea more, by your infamous pleasure you provoke God, and by your vile superstitions arouse his divine wrath. Can there be any wonder that such a fate has befallen you, when threefold destruction has not corrected you, so that you richly deserved to perish by the fourth?
16. I have given the above account in somewhat full detail to prove that we have borne all our sufferings not through the failure of God's providence or through his neglect, but because of his justice and judgment ---- a most just dispensation and worthy retribution ---- and that no portion whatever of the Roman world and Roman name, however greatly chastised by afflictions sent from heaven, has ever been corrected. Thus we prove that we do not deserve to enjoy prosperity, since we are not corrected by adversity.
Good gifts are given us from time to time, however, unworthy though we are. The good God, like a most indulgent father, sometimes lets us be humbled for our sins, but does not suffer us to be afflicted long. So at one time he chastises his children by adversity, in accordance with his discipline, and again favors them with peace, according to his mercy. As the best and most skilful doctors give different cures for various diseases and succor some by sweet, others by bitter drugs; cure certain ills by cautery, others by soothing poultices; employ ruthless surgery for some, but pour healing oil on others; seeking the same good health by utterly different cures: so also our God, when he restrains us by harsher blows, is seeking to cure us by cautery and surgery; when he favors us with good fortune he is offering us soothing oil and poultices ---- for by means |186 of different treatments he wishes to restore us all to the same good health.
Gentle treatment usually corrects even the most incorrigible slaves whom punishment has failed to reform, and kindness subdues those whom the lash failed to make submissive to their masters. Babies, too, and almost all stubborn children, whom threats and blows do not make amenable, are often led to obedience by goodies and endearments. Hence we should realize that we are more worthless than the worst slaves, and more stupid than foolish children, since torments do not correct us as they do bad slaves, nor coaxings win us over as they do naughty children.
17. I think I have now proved adequately that punishment has not corrected any part of the Roman people; it remains to prove that neither the gifts nor the gentle words of God correct us. What then are the gifts and gentle words of God? What indeed but our peace and quiet, the calmness of prosperity that attends on our hopes and wishes? Let me give you a particular instance, since the case demands it.
Whenever we are in fear, distress and danger, when cities are besieged by the enemy or provinces devastated, or the members of the state wounded by any other adversities, and we offer prayers and vows to the heavenly hosts for help, then if by the aid of the divine mercy our cities are saved, the devastation ended, the hostile armies routed and all fear removed by God's grace, what do we immediately do? Do we endeavor to recompense our Lord God by our worship, honor and reverence for the benefits we have received at his hands? For this is the fitting action and in accordance with human custom, that those who give us gifts may receive due return for them. This then perhaps we do, giving God recompense in human fashion, and making a good return for the good we have received of him.
So we run at once to the Lord's house, and prostrate ourselves on the ground, we supplicate him, our joy mixed with tears, and |187 bedeck his doorway with, votive garlands, we adorn his altars with gifts, and since we ourselves are making a festival of gifts to him, transfer the joy of our countenance to his temples also. Or at least, an act no less pleasing to him, we renounce the vices of our former lives, we give good works as a sacrifice to him, and offer up a new conversion in return for our new joys. Lastly we declare a holy war on all uncleanliness, shun the madness of the circus, curse the vileness of the shows in the theater, vow a new life to the Lord and, to obtain his protection forever, dedicate ourselves to God.
18. Although all that I have described should be given to God for his recent benefits, let us consider what we actually do. Men run at once to the games, fly off to their old insanity, the folk pour into the theaters, the whole people riot madly at the circuses. God gives us good gifts to assure our merit, but we, as often as we receive his benefits, multiply our crimes. He by his mercies calls us to righteousness, but we rush headlong into wickedness; he by his
mercies calls us to repentance, but we rush to destruction; he calls us to chastity, but we rush into impurity. A noble response we make to his holy favors, nobly do we recognize and honor his gifts, who repay the kindness we have received from him by an equal measure of injustice! Is this not injury to our God, or can any injury be less deserved, [when] great and frequent [gratitude] is needed instead? 55
But since by the taint of wickedness ingrained in our nature we cannot fail to be prey to vice except by ceasing to live at all, what hope of good is there in us? Those who sin through ignorance correct themselves when they learn their error; those who do not know the true religion begin to change their way of life when they change their faith. Lastly, those who are spoiled by excessive abundance and security, as I said, cease their depravity when they are no longer secure. "We do not err through ignorance, nor are we |188 outside the true religion, nor corrupted by prosperity and security: quite the reverse. We know the true religion, so ignorance cannot serve as our excuse; we lack the peace and wealth of our former days; all that we had has been taken from us or changed ---- only our vices have been increased. Nothing remains of our former peace and plenty but our crimes, which have made our prosperity cease. Where are now the old resources and honors of Rome? The Romans were of old the mightiest of men, now they are without strength; of old they were feared, but now they live in fear; barbarous nations paid tribute to them, but to these same nations they are now tributary.56 The enemy sell us the very daylight; almost our whole safety is purchased for a price. Alas for our misfortunes! to what a pass have we come! For this we give thanks to the barbarians, that we are allowed to ransom ourselves from them at a price. What could be more abjectly wretched than to live on such terms? Yet after all this we think that we are living, we whose lives depend on tribute! We even make ourselves additionally ridiculous by pretending that the gold we pay is merely a gift. We call it a gift, yet it is really a ransom ---- but a ransom paid on unusually hard and wretched terms. When captives have been redeemed, they gain their liberty, whereas we pay ransom constantly and are never free. The barbarians deal with us like those masters who hire out for wages slaves not needed for their own service. In like fashion, we are never free of the payments due: we pay ransom constantly in order to have the privilege of continuing endlessly to pay.
[Footnotes moved to the end]
1. 1 See Joshua 7, where the name is given as Achan.
2. 2 II Samuel 24.
3. 3 Isaiah 36-37.
4. 4 I Corinthians 5.6.
5. 5 Acts 5.
6. 6 I Corinthians 5.
7. 7 ibid. 1.19.
8. 8 Ibid. 3.18.
9. 9 Romans 1. 28.
10. 10 Here there is a lacuna in the MSS. I have followed Pauly's conjecture to fill out the sense, but am inclined to agree with Zschimmer, op. cit., p. 35, that the abrupt introduction of the subject of the games indicates a more substantial loss in the text.
11. 11 Salvian's diatribe against the games has been one of the most quoted portions of his work as Gregoire and Collombet note (Oeuvres de Salvien, II, 476), it was much used by the French clergy in the 18 th century, especially as a source for Lenten sermons. The Italian translation by S. Carlo Borromeo (Milan, 1579) is actually entitled Libro di Salviano Vescovo di Marsiglia contra, gli spettacoli ed altre vanità del mondo. The subject was one on which the majority of the Fathers wrote with vehemence, and there is naturally a considerable degree of similarity in their attacks. Salvian's chapters on the spectacles are perhaps closest to Tertullian, De spectaculis, and to what Lactantius has to say on the subject in various sections of his Institutiones divinae.
12. 12 This sentence shows that in spite of all attempts to check the custom, men were still being "thrown to the lions" in the middle of the th century. Constantine in a.d. 325 decreed (Cod. Just. XI. 44): "Bloody spectacles in a time of civil peace and domestic quiet do not meet with our favor, wherefore we absolutely prohibit the existence of gladiators." Rittershausen aptly queries whether the spectacle of men torn and devoured by wild beasts was more suited to civil peace and quiet than were gladiatorial combats.
13. 13 See Minucius Felix Octavius 26.
14. 14 Already in the fourth century the chief functions of the consuls at Rome had come to be the giving of their names to the official year, and giving games to the people; this example therefore has an added pertinence in the discussion of the games. See Seneca De ira III. 31, in the importance of the consul ordinarius as compared with the consuls later in the year, who were deprived of that immortality for their names, which until the general adoption of the Christian era was really considerable.
15. 15 See Seneca Ep. VII. 2: "Nothing is so ruinous to good character as to spend time at any spectacle."
16. 16 Romans 1. 32.
17. 17 See Lactantius Inst. div. VI. 20.
18. 18 II Corinthians 8. 9.
19. 19 Philippians 2. 6, 8.
20. 20 Titus 2. 11-14.
21. 21 I Peter 2. 21.
22. 22 Luke 6. 25, 21.
23. 23 Tertullian makes a similar connection between spectacula and pompa diaboli in De spectaculis 4. On his other uses of the phrase, and its generally symbolic meaning at this time, cf. P. de Labriolle's article, "Pompa Diaboli," Bulletin du Cange, II (1926), 170-181. The actual word spectacula was not included in the baptismal vow, but in Salvian's interpretation was inherent in the pomp and works of the devil. So Tertullian, in the passage cited above, says: "If then the whole apparatus of the spectacles is proven to consist of idolatry, there is no doubt that our vow of renunciation at the font refers also to the spectacles, which are by their idolatry in the service of the devil and his pomp and angels."
24. 24 See Isidore, Etymologiae XVIII. 59: "These spectacles of cruelty and vanity were instituted not only by the vices of men but by the orders of demons also. Therefore a Christian should have nothing to do with the insanity of the circus, with the indecency of the theater, with the cruelty of the amphitheater, with the atrocities of the arena, with the voluptuousness of the games. For he who prefers such sights denies God, being made a traitor to the Christian faith, who seeks again what he once renounced at the font; that is, the devil, his pomps and works."
25. 25 That is, baptism.
26. 26 Another instance of popular disregard for imperial edicts. Cod. Theod. II. 8. 20, in a.d. 392, forbade circuses on Sunday except when the emperor's birthday fell on that day. Another decree, ibid. II. 8. 23, of a.d. 399, forbade theaters and races and all sorts of public shows, with the same exception. In a.d. 409 (ibid. II. 8. 25), the prohibition hold even for the emperor's birthday and the anniversaries of his rule. A few years after Salvian's book was published, the emperors Leo and Anthemius in the East (Cod. Just. III. 12. 9, a.d. 469) inflicted heavy penalties for presence at the spectacles on Sunday, and on any officials who should authorize such performances "on the pretext of public business."
27. 27 Sources? Compare Isaiah 16.4 and 10.
28. 28 Haemmerle, op. cit., I. 27-28, puts the destruction of Mayence in A.D. 405-406 (see Jerome, Ep. 123; Migne, PL, XXII, col. 1057), and that of Cologne between 438 and 440, as it is here connected with the fourth sack of Treves. Salvian, Ep. I, agrees with this in his account of the effect on his relatives of the recent sack of the city.
29. 29 The dates of the four destructions of Treves here mentioned have been much discussed with widely differing conclusions. The 12th century Gesta Treverorum described four captures of the city, but, ranging as they do from that of the "Greeks" under the Arian Constans in a.D. 380 to that of the Franks in 463, they do not suit the conditions required by Salvian's text. The recent tendency has been to ascribe all four captures of the city to the Franks, and to set them fairly close together, emphasizing the phrase ter continuatis vicibus in VI. 15 infra. Rudolph and Kenterich (Quellen zur Rechts- und Wirtschaftsgebiete der rheinischen Stadte: kurtrierische Stadte: I. Trier, Bonn 1915, 5-6) incline to date the first capture in A.D. 411-412, the second and third in the period from 412 to 416, and the fourth in 427-428, dates that connect well with Salvian's account and with local conditions. The earlier and later dates assigned by some commentators, while suitable as far as the history of Treves is concerned, are less consistent with the conditions required by Salvian's account. For summaries of various opinions on this point, see Haemmerle, Studia Salviana I, 19-26. Haemmerle himself suggests the date 406 as that of a sack by the Vandals, and 411-413, 418, 438-439 or earlier, as Frankish destructions of the city. This conjecture is not far from that of Rudolph and Kenterich.
30. 30 The text is badly corrupted, and no satisfactory emendation has been proposed. The bracketed words are supplied on the basis of the preceding sentence.
31. 31 Jeremiah 44. 21-22.
32. 32 Baluze, referring this phrase to the burning of Treves, somewhat gratuitously concluded that Salvian could not have been a native of that city.
33. 33 Matthew 5. 28.
34. 34 The corrupt text is here emended according to Pauly's conjectures.
35. 35 II Samuel 6. 6-7.
36. 36 Numbers 15. 32-36.
37. 37 Ibid. 11.
38. 38 Proverbs 10. 23.
39. 39 See Tertullian De spectaculis 10-11.
40. 40 I Timothy 2. 2.
41. 41 That the reference here is to the sack of Rome by Alaric in A.D. 410 is clearly shown by the order of events cited; if it had been intended, as those who use this passage to prove that Salvian's book was written after A.D. 455 assume, to refer to the Vandal sack, it would hardly have been made the first of a series of events ending with the Vandal destruction of Carthage some years before their sack of Rome.
42. 42 Gaiseric captured Carthage in A.D. 439, after ten years of general Vandal control in Africa. The orthodox clergy were given their choice of slavery or exile, as were the nobles. Church property was given over to the Arians.
43. 43 Luke 9. 24-25.
44. 44 This phrase was overlooked by those commentators who held that Salvian was born in the province of Africa.
45. 45 That is, in the first sack of the city of Treves.
46. 46 The reference to Treves is obvious. This estimate of the city is supported by the general testimony of the writers of the early empire. Ausonius puts Treves in the fourth place in his Ordo urbium clarissimarum, the first being assigned to Rome, the second to Constantinople and Carthage, and third to Antioch, so that Treves is second only to Rome in western Europe. The choice of the city as the seat of the praetorian prefect of Gaul is a significant indication of its preeminence. See also Cod. Theod. XIII. 3. 11, De medicis et professoribus (a.D. 376): "For the most glorious city of Treves we have thought best to make a somewhat more ample allowance, that thirty annonae be paid to a teacher of rhetoric, twenty to a teacher of Latin grammar, and twelve to one of Greek, if a worthy one can be found."
47. 47 That is, the Lernaean hydra. The labors of Heracles were a popular subject for light verse; cf. Ausonius Monosticha de XII aerumnis Herculis.
48. 48 Brouwer, Antiquitatum et Annalium Treverensium libri XXV (1671), V. 14, p. 275, identified this city as Mayence, which seems to fit better than Metz or Cologne, the description of utter ruin. In VI. 8 supra, Salvian mentioned Mayence especially as having been destroyed, while Cologne was only spoken of as being full of the enemy. Haemmerle, op. cit., I. 18, follows Baluze in identifying the city here mentioned with Cologne instead.
49. 49 Ecclesiasticus 19. 2.
50. 50 I Samuel 26. 12.
51. 51 Genesis 15. 16.
52. 52 This phrase offers some support for the adoption of dates for the first three captures of the city close to each other in point of time: c.f. note 29 supra.
53. 53 Haemmerle, op. cit., I. 22-23, pointed out the importance of this plural for dating the third sack of Treves, since the joint rule of Honorius and Constantius, a.d. 420-421, was the only possible date before Salvian's withdrawal to Lerins, when there could have been two imperatores in the West to whom such an appeal could have been made. Hence the third sack of the city must have taken place at about 420. He suggests further that the people of Treves hoped by the circuses to attract more residents for the rebuilding of the city.
54. 54 The Vergilian phrase, imago mortis (Aeneid II.360).
55. 5 5 The lacuna indicated by Halm is supplied according to Pauly's conjecture.
56. 56 Tribute had been paid to barbarians in return for guarantees of the integrity of the frontier since the early empire: beginning with the fourth century such tributes came to be due more and more to weakness, rather than to policy, till the condition was reached which Salvian here describes.
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Early Church Fathers - Additional Texts